#he has some other AUs too that I'm workin on

[sinestrosmind]

soooooo @tinyghostotus and I are workin on some AUs for Chief together aaaaaaand this is one of them

Chief's mainverse has him being held captive as an experiment by Draxum for two years and he escapes on his own. Big Bro!Chief escapes when Lou blows the lab up, and then later is found by Lou in an alleyway crying bc just like mainverse, he went back to his old house. But UNLIKE mainverse, he actually was able to see his parents and tried to talk to them, but they freaked out and rejected him

SO Lou takes Chief in and raises him alongside the tortls, also gives him a mask for identification even though??? Chief is NOT green so it'd be easy to tell them apart??? Splints c'mon man.

Anyway, so Chief never becomes an assassin or a thief in the Big Bro AU, he's a lot more open with his emotions, a lot more trusting, a lot happier, and absolutely gets into trouble a lot.

also yes causing trouble with the disaster twins is his favorite passtime and all his lil bros' chaos replaces his need for coffee bc their energy is contagious for him. If he is eepy and one of them walks in excited about something, Chief's set to stay awake another like.... Five hours.

[neocrias]

Two worlds apart

synopsis: After having some strange dreams about other dimensions, you take off on a journey to explore the nearby forest. What you hadn't expected was falling asleep next to a fairy circle and waking up to a very peculiar - and handsome - nymph close to you.

pairings: jun x reader

wc: 6k

aus: sweet as possible; star-crossed lovers

warnings: cursing; reader is referred to as a girl

Light...There's so much light. And a breeze, too. So soft, passing through your hair. Everything is so calm and apparentely good, but there's something missing and a strange feeling in your chest rises as you take a deep breath. Finally, a heat covers the light from where you laid, and all you can see is the pair of rosy cheeks, plump lips and a glowing skin hovering on top of you. That's when your heart fills up entirely: there's nothing to miss now. He's here.

You stand up in a hurry, feeling your heart pounding as a droplet of sweat runs down your temple. Your hand runs to your chest, sensing it rising and falling rapidly as you scan the dark room around you, getting each second more familiar with the well-known bedroom.

– Not this again… – You run your hands over your face, trying to recover from the fright that the dream so realistically gave you. An emptiness spreads through your body as quickly as the cold night and the small cottage seems smaller than it ever was. You look around, your eyes getting used to the darkness as the silhouettes of the furniture become clearer. – I need water.

You get up, looking for the simple kitchen beyond the walls of the small room. The ancient wood creaking under your feet as you tried vehemently to ignore the involuntary pain in your heart. Why do I always feel so bad after these dreams?

Why do I miss so much something that I don't know what is?

The water you were pouring into your glass almost overflows in the midst of your drowsiness and agitated state of mind, causing you to take a few steps back. Your head lifts again to the kitchen sink, looking beyond it and through the window that surrounded it. The impression of seeing a bright light amidst the darkness of the forest startles you for a few seconds, but the vision soon dissipates, leaving only a darkness too frightening to stare at for long. "Enough, this has to stop."

–And how's life as a reclusive hermit? – Ahrin, your best friend, asks over the phone, her voice slightly shaken by the audio.

– I don't know… I guess normal. – You answer, monotonously, popping another snack into your mouth as you absent-mindedly watch the TV on some uninteresting channel. – To tell you the truth, I've been having some strange dreams. I don't know if they're memories of when I used to come here as a child, but they always make me feel a bit sentimental.

– Girl… what if you're being haunted by your dead grandmother? What if she doesn't want you there? – Ahrin's voice is laced with humor and you let out a muffled laugh.

– I guess if my grandmother didn't want me here she wouldn't have left me this cottage in her will, would she? – You scoff, rolling your eyes.

– Yeah, so I think you're going crazy with the solitude and all the bush and forest around you. – She concludes. – “The Shining” ass type of thing. Please don't kill your wife and child.

– It's always so comforting to talk to you, Ahrin. – You ironize with a scoff. – I don't know… these dreams have been disturbing me too much, I always wake up with the feeling that something is missing. It's like I'm suffering. Ahrin, do you believe in…

But a loud noise suddenly interrupts you, making you look straight at the bookcase behind the television.

– Y/n…? Are you still there?

– I'll call you back, Ahrin. – You answer, hanging up. Getting up, you notice that a book from the last shelf has fallen onto the cottage's shag carpet, and you roll your eyes at yet another of the strange occurrences this house has provided you with.

Your life in the city used to be very stressful. The exhausting routine of working for a large company took all your time. And that's why, when your distant and reclusive grandmother passed away, leaving you the cottage where she had lived for most of her life as her only inheritance, you thought it was a great idea to take a few months off for yourself, quitting your job and living off small savings while taking some time to rebuild your life bit by bit.

However, life in isolation in the small cottage on the edge of the forest also had some stresses on a psychological level. At first, everything seemed perfect, but over time, constant signs began to terrify you: things falling, doors and windows opening and the repeated dreams - every night, they revealed themselves to you as something new, comforting you among the lights and breezes, until you spotted that mysterious figure with an undefined face and woke up, panting and with a feeling of enormous emptiness. Of course you tried to rationalize these events, but you couldn't help letting your superstitious mind take you to darker places, and at times you could swear you were being haunted by some kind of ghost or otherworldly creature.

Life without people was also a challenge: although you hated the crowded spaces of the city, and always refused to go out to big parties or restaurants full of people, being absolutely sure that you would love being able to be alone for a few months in the chalet, now this reality was turning against you, and the loneliness was starting to show. Talking to yourself was good, and a very common habit of yours, but sometimes you felt like you really needed someone by your side to listen to you, if only for a few moments. The loneliness was so widespread that last week you found an injured bird in your yard and didn't think twice about naming it, caring for it for days and crying tears when you had to return it to the wild. "I could have kept it a little longer."

Putting away your daydreams, you stood to pick up the book and return it to its original place, but something about the title startles you, giving you a very strange feeling: Fairies and Other Magical Beings, the letters say in spaced golden graphs across the thick green velvet cover.

As you looked at the book, a scene flashed through your mind.

– Grandma, what are fairies? – You asked as you looked curiously at the book on the top of the shelf. Your feet stretched as far as they could towards the curious artifact, but you still couldn't reach it.

– Ah, dear, fairies are very interesting creatures. They live in the forest and are very tiny. – Your grandmother's rough hand ran through your hair, messing it up a little. – But don't confuse them with the nymphs: they also live in the forest, but they are responsible for the elements of nature. There are the water nymphs, like the ondines, the air nymphs, like the sylphs…

– And the sylphs live in the forest behind your house! – You asked, excited by the subject.

– Of course they do. – Your grandmother's smile gradually grew, forming wrinkles around her eyes.

A shiver ran down your spine as you remembered this moment that had been stored in the back of your mind for so long. Your grandmother's smile, always a symbol of sweetness and affection for you, took on a sinister air of mystery as you remembered that day - as if she knew something you didn't, and was proud of it.

You shake the thoughts away, staring at the book in your hands for a while before opening it and scanning the chapters fiercely. Fairies. Sylphs. Elves. Elementals. Forests. Potions. Circles. Magic.

– Shit, am I being haunted by a… fairy?

– Okay, recap this for me, please… Do you think you have a fairy living with you? – Ahrin's voice resounded with laughter through the cell phone line.

– Yeah… A nymph, to be precise. – You answer, focused on carefully removing the fragrant apple pie from the oven. – They live in places like this, isolated forests. It's quite common, in fact, for people to see these apparitions in rural towns, really. Just google it.

– Yeah, yeah, it's all the same. Girl, are you okay? Do you want me to come and visit you? – Ahrin asks, starting to sound a little more worried and cautious. You roll your eyes at your friend's tone, knowing that you really were sounding a bit crazy with all that talk of magical creatures. For a few moments, you regret having told anyone about these daydreams: maybe you really were going mad because of the solitude in the cottage. Maybe that warm pie in your hands was another sign that you were crazy.

Thinking to yourself, you roll your eyes, frustrated at having let yourself go so far.

– Actually, there is a slight difference, but I won't bother you with that. – You finally reply. – I have to go, I'm busy in the kitchen.

With an “okay, bye” rather suspicious, Ahrin hangs up the call, and all that's left is the tortuous silence and the incredible smell of your baking. Tempted to eat the pie, you control yourself, leaving it cautiously on the small kitchen table.

– Now let's see if I'm right or going completely mad. – You whisper to yourself, staring at the pie with your arms crossed and a sudden, strange feeling that you're being watched.

Shrugging, you walk to the bedroom, ready to sort out some things on your laptop.

– No. fucking. way. – The words come slowly out of your mouth. – So it's true.

The half-empty pie tin stares at you with overwhelming irony. The leftover pieces of pie, cut in an imprecise and rounded way, no longer looked as tasty and lively as they did when they were first taken out of the oven: now, they looked almost stale. And absolutely devoured, in your own home, by someone who hadn't been you. But that was the least of it, of course.

You run to the bookshelf in the living room, placing your hands on the famous greenish book, endlessly searching through its pages without any kind of calm or order, almost making a few tears in the process.

“Fairies and nymphs usually accept gifts from humans, as long as they have been left willingly. Some of their favorites are baskets of fresh fruit, freshly-baked pies, pretty flowers or nectar juices. Be careful, though, because once a food or drink is touched by a magical creature, its fruitful and vital energy is taken away, and the food will no longer do anyone any good. Never consume the remains of a fairy or nymph.”

Your eyes go from the book to the rotten-looking pie, making you frown a little. You decide that the best thing you can do now is throw the pie away, being careful not to touch it any more than necessary.

Okay. Now you know what's been plaguing you for the last few months, but how do you stop it? How do you stop the dreams and get that crazy nymph out of your cottage?

“A good way to communicate with the fairies is to go to the places where they live: forests, fields and flowerbeds are good examples. Leaving offerings such as those mentioned above can arouse gratitude in these little creatures, thus guaranteeing you friends and companions who can help you when needed.”

– Good. – You sighed, dropping the book on the nearest table as you prepared in the kitchen to fill a basket with all the fruit, flowers and baked goods you could find in the little cottage. – Now I have to go into the middle of the forest to feed these creatures in exchange for a little peace. It's the height of it.

You looked up unconsciously, as if asking some greater force to help you. With the cloudy, cold weather outside, the urge to stay at home was great: but you had to do it. If it was going to guarantee you at least one peaceful night's sleep, without those strange dreams and the feeling of loss, then it was worth it.

A shiver ran down your spine as you surveyed the empty cottage one last time before closing the front door behind you.

The book, still open on the table, illustrated a very important last paragraph, which your haste had prevented you from reading:

“Be very careful with fairy circles. In dense woods or forests, it is common to find mushrooms planted in a circular shape, almost on purpose. These are actually powerful portals to the world of fairies and nymphs: and as tempting as it may seem to travel to another dimension, the ethereal world of nymphs holds far more magic than a human heart can bear. Never enter a fairy circle.”

You don't know exactly how many minutes have passed since you entered the dense forest, but the thin mist doesn't leave you much sunlight to guide you. It's the first time since you moved into the cottage that you've risked walking alone through the forest which, despite being isolated, still seemed full of dangers. You vaguely remembered walking among these same trees in early childhood, but you understood that a child's mind finds these natural mysteries much more enchanting than the troubled mind of a lonely young adult.

The cold wasn't tearing, but it was a little uncomfortable. The warmth permeated your skin without burning, but left an ominous reminder that it was all around you, and the air you inhaled went deep into your lungs.

You didn't have to go that far to deliver a basket to a bunch of hypothetical nymphs, but you wanted to make sure you wouldn't be bothered by any more strange beings - whatever they might be. So, when you reach a clearing after a long walk, you decide that's where you're going to stop and sit down to rest for a while.

– Okay, here are the fruits. – You grumble, holding out the basket to the empty space in front of you. – They're not very fresh, because it's not the season, but…

You shrug, feeling a sudden tiredness take over your body.

– Now, please, please, – you plead, putting your hands together in prayer. – Take these strange dreams away from me. I can't stand it any longer. There's something, here, – and your index finger travels to your chest, pressing lightly – that hurts every time I wake up.

But before you could complain any more about how uncomfortable it was, your eyes began to get heavier and heavier, along with your limbs. Of course, your rational side wouldn't let you sleep in the middle of the forest, but it didn't seem to be working, as if there was some kind of trance moving you towards it. Yes, leaning a little and lying down on the damp grass seemed the right thing to do. Naturally, that forest was calling you, and you could swear you heard a soft voice moaning some kind of deep incantation, guiding you as your eyes closed softly. And just like that, you fell asleep.

Without even realizing how many mushrooms surrounded you.

Light… lots of light. And sparkles through the light green trees, as if everything was shimmering. The slight rustle of leaves above you calmed you down. Everything seemed perfect, even the slight warmth of the sunlight above. It's when your eyes open a little wider that this light is dimmed, and all you can see are rosy cheeks and plump lips, hovering above you as your heartbeat increases.

"It's happening again, another one of those dreams that messes with me,” you think.

But as soon as you blink your eyes hard, hoping to wake up, you are faced with a new sight as soon as you open them wide: a pair of eyes. Brown. Dark. Deep under the light flutter of curious eyelashes.

You let out an exclamation of surprise and the air around you seems to speed up. The breeze, once calm, becomes desperate along with the pair of eyes above. The leaves around the clearing begin to fly around you and you finally sit down on the ground where you were lying before.

Your eyes search for the person you had never seen before, even though he appeared in all your dreams with his mysterious and unrevealed face. Your heart beats harder than ever and you bring one of your hands to your chest to try to stop the feeling that closes your throat.

But there was no one in the clearing apart from you - and, of course, the leaves flying wildly around you.

– I think she can see me. – A sweet, unsure voice practically whispers next to you, but there's no owner for that familiar yet distinctive sound.

– Stop being a coward, Jun. – A second voice joins the conversation, a little harsher. Your eyes scan the clearing, but there's no one there. A sense of dread runs through your body, chills running up your spine as you feel your head getting more and more airborne and your blood freezing.

– Who's there? – You take the initiative to ask, your voice shaking in the process. The flying of the leaves slows down for a few seconds, limiting itself to a few smoother glides.

– I don't think she can see us now. – The same second voice comments, and you quickly turn in the direction you felt the sound come from. To your surprise, the sudden movement of your torso brings you face to face with a new sight: a man.

You almost scream with shock, but something inside you stops you, and you find yourself completely dazzled by the sight: a young man with fine features, platinum hair and flowing white clothes was watching you carefully, leaning over your figure as you sat on the ground. Your eyes met and you finally understood. It was him. The boy who appeared in your dreams.

The rosy cheeks, the lips. It was all recognizable to you. His face was centimeters apart, but you couldn't feel his breath on you, and for a few seconds it seemed too unreal. Almost as if it was just that - a dream. Translucent and bright.

His eyes flickered in your direction a few times, but you just watched him in silence. For some reason, the apparition didn't disconcert you: on the contrary, you felt calmer than you had in months. Your heart still beats heavily, and something like nervousness didn't leave your chest. Something inside you told you that this was an important moment, but you didn't understand why.

– Who are you?

– You shouldn't be here.

You say in unison. The boy hesitates a little, unsure, and it's almost as if he's afraid to address you.

You look around. The leaves in the clearing have stopped fluttering and the wind no longer blows hard. Now, only a light breeze hung around, caressing your cheeks and hair.

– Where am I? – You asked emphatically, looking out at the unusually bright and ethereal clearing.

– In the realm of the fairies. A place highly unsuitable for humans. – The same harsh voice you heard earlier utters, and a dark figure beside you catches your eye, making you turn to face the new person in the clearing.

Another young man materialized in front of you. This one, also with delicate and beautiful features, but dressed entirely in black, with sharper eyes and a wry smile on his face. You feel like you know him, but you've never seen him before.

– We need to take you back. – The one in front of you says again, in a disappointed tone.

– So you're the ones living in my house? – You ask acquisitively and the two young men exchange guilty glances. The one in white arches his eyebrows, but the one in black just shrugs, unconcerned.

– You're the one who took me there, so… – The black one says, nonchalantly. – And Jun is just plain stupid.

– Sicheng… – The one in white warns, reproaching him.

– Jun… – The other imitates his tone, mocking his friend.

– Jun? – The name escapes your lips before you can think, and it sounds like a question. For a second, the name seemed strangely familiar, but now you couldn't understand where the knowledge came from.

– That'd be me. – He replies, gently, giving you a cautious smile. The young man extends his hand towards you and you accept it. As soon as your hands touch, a warmth spreads through your body and a shiver runs down your spine. There is no roughness in Jun's hand, and his touch is so soft that you hardly feel it.

You finally stand up, coming face to face with the boy. It's only then that you notice a subtle movement behind Jun's back, and you lean a little to see what it is.

Wings. Yes, he's a fairy.

– Air nymph. – Sicheng interrupts your thoughts, waving one of his hands in front of you to snap you out of your trance. – There is a difference.

You're startled - especially at the possibility of that strange being reading your thoughts.

– Sorry, it's involuntary. – He explains himself, again interfering in your thinking. – And also hella funny. – Jun arches his eyebrows at him, incredulous and impatient.

– Let's get you out of here. – Jun gently changes the subject. – Don't worry about him.

– Why do you appear in my dreams? – You pluck up the courage to ask. You didn't want to leave without answers.

Jun's eyes widen and an expression of surprise takes over his face. Sicheng follows him, looking extremely curious about the situation.

– For God's sake, Jun… What have you done? – Sicheng asked, turning to his alleged friend. Your eyes turn to the two boys alternately, trying to get some clue as to what was going on - and what they didn't want to tell you.

– What are you talking about? You were the first to interact directly with her! A human. – And Jun's tone was a mixture of accusation and forced contempt, trying to reproach Sicheng, who was unfazed.

– In my defense, it was her who interacted directly with me.

– I didn't do any of that! – You defend yourself, seeing the two pairs of dark eyes turn in your direction. Sicheng grinned mischievously arching one eyebrow in your direction.

– Are you sure about that, cutie? – He asks, crossing his arms over his chest. You don't lose confidence, but you begin to wonder if you haven't actually interacted with a fairy in recent months, even indirectly.

And only then, paying attention to Sicheng's smug posture, do you realize that he doesn't have a pair of translucent wings floating behind him.

So he's not a nymph…?

– Touché. – He jokes before you can vocalize your feelings. The boy then uncrosses his arms, tilting his head a little before surrounding himself in a black smoke that gradually grew around him. From head to toe, feathers appear on his body as his form shrinks in size.

The transformation before your eyes makes you open your mouth in shock, but it all starts to make a little more sense when the man in front of you takes the form of a bird. And not just any bird: the crow you helped recover from an injury weeks ago.

Sicheng, in his bird form, displays some of his feathers ironically, and you finally understand the familiarity you felt towards him before. A feeling of naivety passes through you, unsettling you a little.

The little crow bends down towards you and, as his last act of cockiness, he takes off into the forest, without waiting for your reaction to his big revelation.

– Show-off. – Jun complains, watching the bird fly away.

– So, what do I do to stop you from haunting my house? – You ask, now alone with the nymph Jun. He turns, giving you a slightly affected look.

– That won't happen again. – He mutters and you can see a slight blush rising to his cheeks. – Now I'm going to get you out of here, come on. I'll explain on the way.

You shrug, and although it didn't seem like the safest thing in the world to walk behind a nymph through a strange, shimmering version of the forest you knew, there didn't seem to be many other options either.

– How did I end up here? – You begin, after a few seconds of silence. Your incessant questions didn't seem to affect Jun, who remained patient and focused on the trail in front of him.

– The fairy circle. – He replied, unapproachable. – The wheel-shaped mushrooms, basically.

– Ah… – You start to remember some of the blurs and how a sudden sleepiness came over you when you entered that part of the forest. – And can't we go back and get out?

– The entrance door is not the same as the exit in the fairy world. –Jun turns and smiles sideways.

Your heart squeezes at the nymph's smile, but you don't understand why. It was the same feeling as always with all those dreams, and you feel the urge to keep asking him questions until you finally understand what strange connection you had with him, or what kind of spell he was putting on you.

You are stopped, however, when you notice the familiarity of the place around you. A small stone path, a garden neatly planted under the blue sky and not interrupted by the green of the dense forest that surrounded it: this was it! Your house! The cottage!

As much as the idea of getting out of that world excited you, something dark flashed across your face in a matter of seconds: if you got home now, you would never have the answer to your questions, and you would never be able to confront Jun about his constant appearances in your dreams.

– We're here. – You exclaim dejectedly. Squinting your eyes slightly, the cottage seems strange. The colors are more vibrant, the paint chips that had faded at the edges of the wooden walls were now impeccably painted, the vines that used to climb up around the house were no longer there, and a soft yellow light was coming from inside the cottage, which emitted a thin smoke from the chimney that you were sure you hadn't left on.

– The fairy world is a parallel dimension to the human world. – Jun begins to explain as he notices your strangeness. – Many things are very similar, even the same, but they are just deformed projections of what you have. They are irreconcilable. – He lowers his head slightly, hiding his face so that you don't see him, but you notice his sad countenance.

– It's strange… Why do I feel like we've already met? – You have the urge to touch him, and the words are out of your mouth before you know it. Jun arches an eyebrow in your direction, waiting for some explanation of what you've just said, but nothing comes. Even you don't understand what's going through your head, and maybe that's just the effect of the shimmering translucence of this perfect, complicated world.

– I've been to your cottage a few times. – He begins, looking embarrassed. Jun takes the lead, walking to go around the house and continue on your way. – It's subtle, but sometimes what we do here in our world can affect yours a little, and vice versa.

– So you were the one who knocked things over! – You exclaim excitedly, picking up your pace to walk alongside Jun. Strangely enough, even the nymph's gait was light, and he often moved and you could barely notice much effort on his part, as if he barely weighted anything.

A shy smile grows on his lips, and he tries yet once again to hide his face from you in a shy manner. Jun scratches the back of his neck, clearly uncomfortable at having been caught, but you're willing to find out more. You lean in his direction, trying to get a glance of his eyes, but Jun just suddenly stops in his tracks, almost bumping into you at the sudden proximity. Looking right into his eyes, and standing so close to the nymph, a strange sensation passes through you, and it's as if you've overlapped the image of a much younger Jun in front of you.

You blink, trying to dispel the strange image, and all that remains are the familiar features of the boy in front of you. A shiver runs down your spine, and suddenly you feel an absolute but unfounded certainty that this was not your first time in the fairy world.

Jun lets out a mirthless laugh, having no idea what had been going on in your mind for the last second, and turns away from you, keeping walking smoothly and determinedly through the bright forest.

– Speaking of which, that pie was great. – The boy murmurs, almost inaudibly, but you hear perfectly. His lips move into a smile, which precedes a laugh.

–I knew I wasn't going crazy! – Jun follows your laughter, seemingly amused by your reaction. – How can you touch things from the human world?

You're curious again, and this time Jun seems a little more willing to answer you.

– As I said, the things here are copies of your world. – He shrugs his shoulders. – If you have a pie there, the pie appears here, especially if you make it with the intention of giving it to a nymph. It takes a bit of energy on our part, but we can access your world a little more easily than the other way around.

You make a sound of confirmation, understanding a little about the boy's explanation.

– Can you… watch us? – You ask, curious. Jun blushes at the implication of your speech, and nods slightly. His confirmation also makes you a little shy, and you begin to wonder how much Jun has seen of you in your daily affairs.

– I didn't mean to scare you. – Jun begins, sounding apologetic. – With the things falling and all. I guess I just ended up being a bit too curious, and clumsy too. I'm sorry.

He lets out a shy laugh and you follow him.

– No problem. – You raise your arm and lightly touch the boy's hand in a gesture of consolation. The touch sends shivers through your body when you come into contact with Jun's soft, delicate skin. Again, an image flashes through your head, along with a very strong sense of longing and tenderness.

All of a sudden, you realize that you can't leave the fairies' world. At least not without the answers you seek.

Jun seems to feel something similar, and slowly walks away, watching your facial expression with his eyes, searching for anything different. He tries to act normal, but it's clear that the spark between the two of you has reached him too, in ways you can't understand.

– Why do I dream about you, Jun? – You ask almost in a whisper. The trees around you have become denser along the way without you noticing, and now the world around you seems darker than it has ever been. The pronunciation of his name on your lips affected him, and you can tell by his wide eyes. The nymph stops in front of you and seems to question whether or not he should answer your question. He hesitates a few times, opening his mouth to speak and then closing it.

A soft breeze circulates, and you feel a little calmer. However, this doesn't stop your heart from beating uncontrollably fast. A dark shadow passes across the sky, startling you and Jun, who swallows dryly.

– I don't know much about human dreams. – He replies at last, focused on looking at the sky.

You realize he's lying, and are ready to question him once again when the same dark shadow passes over you, stopping behind Jun at an impressive speed, transforming into the human version of Sicheng you had met earlier and interrupting the conversation.

– I see you've finally arrived. – Sicheng explains, stopping beside Jun with his calculated gait, but not at all as light and subtle as the nymph's. – The portal to go back.

You squint your eyes, trying to understand what is so special about that dark part of the forest. Sicheng notices your gaze, and moves a little away from the two of you to show you with a wave of his arm something behind the dark trees in a clearing that had gone unnoticed by you.

Tombstones. Rocks. Stone angels. A cemetery.

The image wouldn't terrify you so much in the world you come from, but something about seeing that place right there, hidden in the middle of the forest, surrounded by such a sparkling and beautiful reality was unsettling on an inexplicable level. The pounding in your heart became a strong squeeze and a pain that you couldn't tell where it was coming from.

– A source of life as a gateway. – Sicheng explains. - And a den of death as the exit door. – He clicks his tongue, seemingly displeased by the morbidity of the place.

But you weren't ready to leave yet. You needed to understand what it was you had been feeling for so many months. You needed more time with Jun. You needed to see him and feel again that strange sensation that had been troubling you. You couldn't leave without understanding him.

Why was his presence so familiar? Why did his smile hurt you? Why did your heart beat so fast when he approached? What were you feeling?

– When a nymph loves a human, that person is condemned to a deep connection with them. – Sicheng said, without looking anywhere in particular. – Come on, it's time she knew.

– Sicheng, don't… – Jun warns, and for the first time his voice sounds less soft and more serious.

But the shapeshifter doesn't listen to his colleague and comes dangerously close to you.

– Thoughts, strange physical responses, dreams… – He lists, searching your eyes for every reaction. – That tightness in your chest, you know? All courtesy of our loverboy here. – He points at Jun, who knits his eyebrows together, disturbed.

Your gaze alternates between the two boys, and now they seem a little taller than before. Without you noticing his approach, Sicheng appears at your side and pushes you. He doesn't use enough force to knock you down, but only to make you unbalanced, tumbling to the side and finally into the gloomy clearing of the cemetery.

Just as you stabilize yourself, you're invaded by a sharp headache. The last thing you see around you is the despair in Jun's eyes before the memories flood back.

– My grandmother told me about you… You're a fairy! Look at your wings!

– I'm a nymph, to be precise.

– Ah, it's all the same!

– Actually, there is a slight difference, but I won't bother you with that…

Jun's smile lit up the clearing, and the cemetery no longer seemed as sinister as when you had accidentally wandered into it.

It turns out that childhood comes with a gift: curiosity. And spending the vacations at your grandmother's cottage on the edge of the forest after hearing thousands of stories about magical creatures definitely helped to feed it. When you got lost, you cried desperately, but you didn't expect another boy to appear: a boy with wings and a kind smile.

– Can we be friends? – You asked, raising your pinky finger towards Jun. He didn't seem to understand exactly what you meant, so you gently brought his hand up to yours, showing him how to cross fingers together. – There, now we'll be friends forever!

The memory causes a tear to involuntarily run down his cheek, and Jun seems to understand exactly what was going through your head, because his gaze goes exactly to the gravestone where you first met, more than ten years ago.

But that wasn't the only memory that flashed before his eyes.

– And then he broke up with me! – You finished explaining the story to Jun, who nodded calmly. You hid your head a little more between Jun's outstretched legs in the forest grass, feeling him stroke your hair with the greatest delicacy in the world while you tried to hide the tears forming in your eyes from him.

Jun placed his hand lightly on your cheek, turning your face so that you were facing him. Lying there on the grass, watching Jun above you and the blue sky that hung imposingly above him, none of your problems in the human world seemed to matter. Only he mattered, and now you understood why, at sixteen, every boyfriend you'd ever had had dumped you: you only had eyes for one.

The nymph leans over you, and the warm touch of the sun is overshadowed by Jun's equally warm closeness. You felt a refreshing breeze around you both, and some fallen leaves circled you in a slow dance in the wind before Jun's lips finally touched yours, transforming the whole world you had known until then into something new and far more beautiful.

The crying was now more aggressive, and you were sobbing. Your hands went to your lips, unable to bear the weight of the memory. In the midst of your confusion, Jun had approached you unbeknownst to you, and rested both hands on your cheeks, wrapping them around it tenderly.

– How could I have forgotten you after so many years? – The thought tortured you. There were so many memories with Jun, at so many different stages of your life, that now it finally made sense to feel the absolute emptiness you had felt over the last few months.

A large part of your life had been erased, but not your love for him.

Jun brought your bodies closer, sticking your foreheads together while he breathed irregularly, his eyes closed. You enjoyed the closeness for a few moments, trying to force your mind never to forget that moment, even though it already seemed to slip through your fingers like sand.

Finally, the nymph sighed deeply and brought your lips together with a ferocity that was unlike his usual delicacy. It was a desperate, thirsty, longing kiss. If you hadn't remembered Jun for all those years, and had still suffered his absence, you couldn't even bear to think how much Jun had had to be alone with the memories of both of you. His hands wrapped around your waist, gluing your bodies together in sync. Your hands squeezed the back of Jun's neck tightly, as if he was going to disappear in that instant and you needed to prevent him from doing it so.

The kiss was something new for you, but at the same time it was painfully familiar, and you could taste his tears between the two of you. Jun finally separated them, still holding you close, squeezing you for fear that you would leave.

– I missed you so much.

– So why did you let me go? Why did you make me forget you?

– I didn't… I…

– Humans and nymphs can't be together, Y/n… – Sicheng interrupted, also entering the cemetery. His words didn't say anything absurd, but you felt them like a knife in your chest.

It didn't matter. It would be different with you two. You and Jun could work together: you were born for each other.

A rebellious feeling overwhelmed you, and you knew that now that you finally had your love back, you wouldn't give it up.

But Jun's taciturn gaze, which never left his face, was affected by his friend's harsh words. You felt that he didn't think the same way as you, and that killed you inside.

– I had to do it. – He whispered so that only you could hear. – I couldn't take you out of your world, and I didn't want you to suffer… The distance helped, but when I realized that you'd gone back to the cottage, and were now living there… I couldn't keep my distance any longer. I was wrong and selfish. I never imagined that you would dream of me.

– No, I don't mind. – You exclaim, full of fervor. Deep down, there's a small part of you that understands that this was the best thing to do for both of you, but you didn't want to let him go for anything, especially not after spending so many years without Jun. – I'm not going back. I want to stay with you.

But Jun just held your trembling hand into his, gently bringing it to his lips and placing a chaste kiss there, without taking his eyes off yours.

– I'll leave you two alone. You know what you have to do. – You heard Sicheng's voice behind Jun, and the young man suddenly turned into a crow, flying away.

– Please. – You beg, letting the tears run free down your cheeks. Jun's grip on your hand tightens and his eyebrows draw together in an expression of deep pain. The nymph nods quietly, very subtly, and you feel your heart grow lighter.

– I love you. – Jun says in an incisive whisper, meeting your eyes in reaffirmation. He moves closer again, planting a kiss on your lips that is much calmer and more restrained than the last one, lingering for a few seconds next to you. – And I need you to live.

A push on your shoulder shoves you away, and you feel yourself fall. Your eyes widen as you take one last look at Jun, noticing the bright tears falling from his eyes, a mixture of guilt and pain

And then, darkness.

Light… there's a lot of light. An uncomfortable, painful, cold light.

– Oh my God! – A voice exclaims as you open your eyes with difficulty, feeling your whole body ache. – She's here!

Sounds of leaves rustling on the ground and flying through the air in a spiral around you wake you up, and the pain of the recent farewell attacks you again.

Two hands find you, gently holding your shoulders. For a few seconds, your heart stops beating in futile hope. When you look ahead, however, it is Ahrin's face that stares back at you in shock.

Your friend begins to cry, hugging you tightly. She drops the lantern she was holding to the ground, leaving the forest around you dark again, but not dark enough for you not to notice the circle of mushrooms surrounding you. The darkness, however, doesn't last long, and many other lantern lights appear, with hooded people approaching the two of you in the midst of the storm that was wetting everything around you.

– What are you doing here? How did you get here so quickly? Who are these people? – You ask, still holding your best friend who is bursting into tears.

– Quickly? Y/n, I haven't been able to talk to you for over two months. You've disappeared.

Your alleged disappearance into the human world had caused quite a stir. Although you had spent little less than a day in the fairy world, time had flown by much faster in your world, and it was only then that you understood why Jun had made such a point of keeping you away, even if it hurt both of you.

Living with him would mean giving up everything you've known so far - which you would do, for him - but God only knows what long-term effects the fairy world would have on a human. At least those were the thoughts that comforted you when you remembered Jun.

Since then, you've never dreamt of him again. Even if you wanted to, and even if you tried. You were afraid of forgetting him again, so you tried to communicate in every way.

– Fine, we'll try again tomorrow… – You huffed, letting your shoulders slump in disappointment as you looked at the dining room table. The apple pie seemed to stare back at you, completely untouched.

[asherashedwings]

FNF CONNECTED UNIVERSE LINE UP Part 1: The Boyfriends

Chat. I spent 34 hours in this canvas. I am so tired.

Anyways, when I began working on Connected Universe AU, I already knew I'd be making line ups. Cuz I love making line ups and I also love suffering.

Close-ups and lots of yapping under the cut

THIS IS ABOUT TO BE A LOT OF READING IM SO SORRY-

Alternate Universe Boyfriends

So all these guys, unlike the other BFs present on this line up, are actually BF but from different universes. They're the same dude.

I thought it'd be neat to display the fact that they're from different universes by drawing them all in different art styles. It was also a fun exercise to test my art style range.

So starting from the left, we got Base Game BF. The main universe one. He's drawn in my usual art style. Not much special about him. Boyfriend.XML my beloved. I will note here though that I did take some of the elements form my own BF design and threw them onto the AU BFs. So that's why they all have some sort of jacket/hoodie etc.

Then we got Yourself. I reverted to old tactics and used my sketch for his line art, which results in him having thicker line art in general. I also further distinguished him by giving him harsh black shading. He always has that. He already had it on his face, so I just gave it to the rest of his body too. Cuz silly. You. You could even say. Silly Billy- 💥💥💥

Then we have Funkadelix. Him and a few other BFs make use of the Blackburn brush for their line art, cuz idk I like that brush. I referenced the Mutant Mayhem style when making him, since in the Connected Universe, he's in the same universe as those turtles. His colors are mostly yoinked from the actual Funkadelix sprite. I think. I may have tweaked them a bit/eyeballed them idk. I prolly eyeballed them.

Then we got Monday Dusk Monolith (MDM). I really went with the mentality of "NO ROUND SHAPES" with this fucker. Just wanted him to look super sharp and scratchy, since that AU is literally dealing with an apocalypse. So sharp shapes just made sense in my brain.

I had a lot of issues settling on a style for Mix, so I just chose to take inspiration from the FNF loading screens, cuz it just fit in my brain, idk. His design also features present in my Pico design, like the stupid cleat shoes and stray hair lines. Yknow, since he's literally a mix of BF and Pico. He also uses Blackburn

Finally, HD. I decided to try and go for a semi realistic style for him, proportion wise at least. Cuz. Yknow. HD. He also uses the blackburn brush, but I also pulled an old tactic for him and made his sketch visible over his coloring. Cuz idk, I think it lends towards the vibe.

"Side" BFs

Okay, now we're REALLY getting into AU territory.

So from here on out, all the BFs are separate people from THE BF, and have their own names and shit.

So staring off, we got Blake. I was reading through his wiki trivia and saw them say his style was more "radical and funky" than base BF's. I saw the word funky and ran with it dawg. So that explains this clothes. I also tried my darndest to get rid of a lot of the BFs caps, cuz dude, I can't have that many fuckers having cubic backwards caps. So I gave Blake a pair of star shaped sunglasses cuz funky, chat, FUNKY. We decided that his stage name is Love Bird, and he chose that cuz that's a pet name his GF has for him, and if he had a band it'd be called The Birds of Paradise.

Then we got .XML. I immediately knew I wanted to give him a mullet. Look at this man and tell me he wouldn't have a mullet. Besides that, not much changed. Since he kept the name of .XML, I imagine he is actually related to BF in some way, and he just goes by his last name. They might be cousins or brothers or something idk. There's also more dumbass info on him here:

Then there's River, or G-Sides BF. I took a lot of inspiration from his teaser designs, cuz they were silly. Literally named his river after the dumbass river design on his sweater. I don't got much info on him besides that. I can't talk about River without including this image so here:

The New Yorkers

This group is literally named after the fact that they all live in NY in my AU. Technically, the Minus BFs should also be here, but they're their own group.

Starting with Bartholomew, or B3, I just took the shape of his glasses and ran with it. Chat I needed to get that shape language from somewhere. I actually drew him twice, since the first time around I really was not digging how I drew him. He's fine now tho. His ass only got brim, cuz he had to be different somehow. Other than that. not much changed for him.

Now Evan.. Evan gave me so many issues. Like, dawg I drew him three times. I kept on trying to make the orange in his upcoming design WORK but I just COULDNT chat i COULDNT

So, per @braveboiart 's request, I ended up getting rid of it entirely and replacing it with his blues and grays. They also gave me the advice of brightening the colors a bit, which was very easy for me to do, I love bright ass colors. I also touched up his design shape wise, since that was also lacking the first time around. So boom, zippers on the pants and baggy ass sleeves. I'm content with how he came out. Chat I did all his design touch ups while I was exhausted out of my mind. Sometimes you gotta be delirious with sleep deprivation in order to cook, kids, trust me (please do not be like me-)

Benjamin was pretty simple. Kept him soft, kept him round, kept him pastel. Got rid of the caution sign on his hoodie since .XML already had that, and just replaced it with paint splatters. Not much more to say.

With X's design, I got a lot of help from my good good friend @minxtheeenby , mainly when figuring out his hair style. Those braids are not actually his hair, and are fuckass cords that connect to his headphones and can move independently. Don't ask about the logic, I will not be thinking about it. He was born in Philly cuz of his fuckass white eyes. White eyes means Philly, I don't make the rules here.

Minus BFs

The colorful critters, these guys are.

So. Beta. I had actually drawn him before this point, and he didn't change much from then

He has arrow shaped top surgery scars cuz I love giving constantly shirtless characters top scars and I just. HAD TO once I had the idea to make them arrow shaped. Main things to change since that drawing are some details on his pants and some of his colors; notedly the fact that his hat is a darker color compared to his skin to further distinguish it. Also Brave kept trying to get me to make parts of his design the same color as his nipples. So that happened /lh

Chat. I let my furry show with Blue. BUT CHAT HEAR ME OUT. On the wiki it's stated that he's a "Dog??". You think I could look at that and not go all the way? So yeah. Dog. He's silly and he got his weird ear ring things from his sister (Minus Miku).

Not much to say on Mean, he barely changed. I just drew him in my style and added a few details. He might also be an alien, idk.

Now, I posted about Golden a bit, but for those who didn't see that insanity: I made him an Alien Hominid. Cuz small yellow alien=Alien Hominid in my brain. Flawless logic. (Don't worry chat, I sat down and extensively researched the AH series to the best of my ability to check if it made sense. And I didn't see anything that would make it not make sense?) But yeah, silly. Him and Otis might be buddies, cuz goofy.

Who Fuckin Knows

These guys are just all the guys I had nowhere else to put. Miscellaneous group.

So first we have Bonnie, or Saturday Night Swappin' BF. He's another one that I had to go back and touch up. I actually touched him up the same night/morning as Evan. He ended up turning purple. The name we assigned him was an omen /j Chat I swear he was originally blue, I don't know what happened

HC that he just got really into FNaF when he was younger and has just been cosplaying a humanized Bonnie the Bunny ever since /hj

BIDU GAVE ME SO MANY ISSUES AND IDK WHY. It's prolly cuz by the time I got to him I was getting SUPER burnt. But I prospered and was able to finish him. And I don't hate how he came out, so bonus points there. Main change was replacing the prohibition sign on his shirt with a lightning bolt, cuz no one but BF is allowed to have that symbol, and Bidu already had lightning bolt imagery, so eh why not. His eyebrows being green, at least in my style, implies his hair is naturally green, and he just added the blue and pink, and I find that slightly humorous, idk.

Keith (StarCatcher) was another one I had to go back and touch up, but that's due to the fact that I was informed that him and his GF got a redesign before the creator deleted their FNF stuff. So I had to go back and fix my design according to that. I also leaned into the scape suit direction cuz SHAPE.

Now, you might be wondering, why is Flippin BF here and not with the other alternates? He was grouped with him in a previous post? Well, that's because after more assessment, I decided that Friday Night Flippin' is in fact, in the same universe as Base FNF and not an alternate universe like I had previously decided. So I changed his design a bit (mainly just getting rid of his hat and changing the color of his shoes) and boom. Different guy. He is staying pixel art tho. I do still need to come up with a different name for him tho.

Now this next one, Heath, is not from a currently existing mod, but from an FNF AU my friend Minx is making.

I decided to include him cuz he's silly and I love him. Their AU is canon to the Connected Universe.

Okay, so Cam (Hellbeats BF) changed A LOT. I let my furry slip out again. BUT I HAVE ANOTHER REASON FOR IT. See, in this connected universe, it's not just Newgrounds stuff that is canon. I also made other fandoms I'm in canon. So that means the Hellaverse is canon (specifically my rewritten version of it), and Hellbeats has to fit in with that. So I had to assign the characters species from that universe as well. So I made Cam a cherub, cuz I wanted him to stay short as fuck. He's also a raccoon cuz he's a lil shit and I thought it'd fit If ur curious, this is what everyone else is:

Okay I'm done yapping now. Gonna be doing the GFs next.

[ananxiousgenz]

TPP HADESTOWN AU PART 4

ANOTHA ONE. i am so sorry guys, but the muse has possessed me and i literally cannot stop writing. this is no longer a flash fic. i am now a slave to the au. this time will be a direct continuation of part 3 because honestly i wanted to keep writing that but i also just wanted to post it so consider this a kind of part 2 to part 3 if that makes sense

tpp mutuals come get your juice!!! @smidgen-of-hotboy @ceaseless-watchers-special-girl @urjover @one-joe-spoopy @waters-and-the-wilde

when he said his name, juno heard it.

ringing in the background like the hum of a crystal wine glass.

the song.

when peter nureyev said his name, the song echoed with it.

"your name has the same melody," juno breathed, eye wide and searching for some kind of answers on the face of this strange, beautiful man. how could his name have the song of spring laced through it?

nureyev shot him a sideways look and took a sip of his drink. "so. what do you do for a living, lady who's going to marry me?" he questioned, leaning back in his chair and looking juno over with a gaze he could only describe as skeptical.

"oh! well, I work here at the bar with rita. she's over there. but you've met her already so I don't know why I'm introducing her."

rita gave a friendly wave from her perch behind the bar.

"I also, um. I, uh. I sing. sometimes. not all the time. i'm not bad at it. typically when I do sing, someone will give me a couple bucks. it's nice. oh, and uh, I can play guitar too, but I haven't done it in years, and to be honest, I don't really want to-"

nureyev cut juno off, looking away disinterestedly and downing the rest of his drink. "that's nice. so you're like all the other bar workers in existence. that doesn't exactly sound like something I'd want to marry."

suddenly, the butterflies that had been gradually building in juno's stomach began to unexpectedly drop dead.

"heyyyyyyy, that's not very nice, mista nureyev. mista steel isn't like all the otha ladies you eva met! he's a very supa awesome lady who I love workin' with and-oh oh oh! mista steel! you GOTTA tell him about that song you're workin' on! it's so pretty! and important! I'm sure mista nureyev would LOVE to hear about that!" rita cried, bounding off the bar and hustling over to deliver another drink to the table.

"oh, uh, yeah! I'm working on this song to bring spring back again," juno said, feeling mildly embarrassed that rita brought it up with this man who was still basically a total stranger. "it's not done, honestly, it needs a lot of work. but, when i'm finished with it, it will hopefully fix.....everything."

"wait just a moment." nureyev's brow furrowed and juno's stomach twisted at the sight. even when he was skeptical and defensive and bone-tired, he was still so damn attractive. gods, what juno wouldn't give to just kiss him right now- focus, steel, he's trying to talk to you-

"so you say this song will bring spring back again?"

"yup! at least it should."

"that's...." nureyev placed a finger over his lips in thought. "I haven't seen a proper spring in at least a decade, maybe more. the world has been so wrong in recent years... I shudder to think where it would all end up without the return of warmer weather."

"well, that's the idea with the song. I want to fix it. all of it. when the song is done it should put the world back on track. more sunshine, springs, falls, rain and flowers. you know. all the stuff that's just sort of been missing. maybe you could help me out with it!" juno grinned a bit sheepishly.

"and why would I want to help?" his eyes were cold, almost as cold as the biting wind and frost outside, but juno thought he saw the beginning of a thaw at the edges of his facade.

"because, mista nureyev. he's real good at makin' people feel like life is worth livin' again with that music of his. also, he makes the BEST chocolate cake i've eva had! and frannie agrees with me!" rita chimed in, cleaning the bar top as best she could with her short stature.

juno snorted involuntarily, marveling at rita's ability to constantly be focused on food. "it's true, I won a local competition a few years back for that cake."

nureyev's face had half a smile on it now, and the butterflies in juno's stomach turned into a hurricane.

"so you can make people feel alive again? that's quite a gift, juno. but what else can you offer me?"

"huh?"

"say, for example, if we were to get married. who would pay for the wedding rings? times have been hard, and gold is scarce. how would you do it?"

juno thought for a moment. "the rivers. they've got plenty of gold in them, and if my song works, they'll give it all to us for wedding rings."

nureyev's eyes glinted with something juno suspected was either curiosity or suspicion.

"what about a wedding feast? or a bed? good food and better beds are hard to come by these days. what would you do about that, juno?"

"the trees would take care of the wedding feast, and the birds would take care of the bed."

"with your song." nureyev cocked an eyebrow as though it was a question.

"well, yeah, of course."

"you talk a lot about that song. why don't you sing it for me?"

a wave of panic stuttered through juno's mind. "I can't. I told you it's not finished."

"you said you wanted to take me home and marry me, is that true?

a sly smile crossed nureyev's face, and goddammit it only made juno want him even more. "yes," he breathed.

"then sing the song for me, juno."

juno hesitated, then nodded in spite of himself. he shouldn't be doing this, he knew he shouldn't be doing this, but he couldn't help it.

he was in love.

and lovers need the spring like a flower needs sunshine. so he'd sing the sunshine back for peter nureyev.

he stepped back, breathed in, and let the notes flow from him like water from a faucet. the song flooded the room, hitting the walls and rushing back to his ears in perfect harmonies, and for a moment, he was back in that wheat field with benten, strumming guitar as he danced like a pheonix rising from the ashes, spinning around and around and around like he was the center of the universe.

and then the song ended. and juno was back in a shitty roadside bar, holding a perfect dahlia in his left hand, with peter nureyev staring at him now, eyes wide and sparkling.

"that's...... you...... how did you do that?" nureyev asked quietly, standing from the table on unsteady legs and taking the dahlia to examine it with shaking hands.

"i didn't do that, the song did," juno muttered as nureyev gently touched the immaculate petals of the dahlia, still damp with dew. rita beamed at juno from the bar and gave an overenthusiastic thumbs-up. juno just rolled his eyes again.

peter nureyev looked at him then, all of the previous frostiness gone from his eyes and something like amazement and love and hope spilling through them.

juno decided that he liked it when he looked like that. it made him feel like he really could fix the whole damn world with that song of his.

nureyev seemed to come to some sort of conclusion and slipped the dahlia into the buttonhole of his traveling coat. "so, what time does your shift end, my dear juno?"

juno thought for a minute. "uhhhh, the bar closes around 10. why?"

his eyes gleamed like a pair of stars as a smile twinkled on his lips. "didn't you say you were going to marry me?"

[sonikkublue]

Do you have a master post of all the mafia au info? I've been scrolling through the tags and I fear I'm missing info

Tysm for lookin thru my au i rly appreciate that, but also plz excuse my secretive behavior, as I trouble myself with sharing barely any info on my projects🧎 specifically AND especially this AU of mine

I’ve been thinking of making one whole archive of it alone for the art, as well as a page that just explains the characters and a little of the story, just so ppl know a bit of what’s goin on, and who they are. Since I know illustrating this whole story as a comic/manga will take a while, especially just getting one vol out with only 2 ppl workin on it together- I want to keep my audience busy, informed and happy with, until the first vol comes out

To make up for not havin a proper explanation of ANYTHING yet, I will list some characters in brief for u. Mostly the ones u need to know. Others will show up over time:

Mr. H (he is the Sonic in this au. 30 yrs old and has been running his Uncle Chuck’s company, as well as the family mafia. He’s greedy and only cares for what’s in it for him, and money. He has no interest in relationships or love, but would make u pay to date/marry him)

Miles (he is the Tails in this au. Plays the role of Mr. H’s son, being adopted since day 1. He also hates Shadow. He looks up to his dad and wants to be just like him someday. He just doesn’t know abt the mafia���yet)

Shadow (he’s Mr. H’s right hand man, his consigliere, his lackey. Him and Mr. H have a little romantic connection, even tho H is not the romantic type)

Amy (she is one out of a krillion of Mr. H’s exes. They had a married life together at one point, but that only last abt a year. She has been there for all his troubles n struggles. They’re friends now, but when they bump into each other, they’re bumping heads. Amy does it out of fun, as she still cares for H somewhat. Mr. H always means it, bein a bit oblivious to Amy’s care for him nowadays)

Knuckles (he’s a detective in this au, currently on a secret case that has Mr. H involved as a suspect of a crime. Someone could be framing him, but honestly who knows. Knuckles has a bit of dumb in him, but when he finally puts the pieces together, he can close that case faster than H makin easy money in his free time. H n Knux have a little tension between em, w/ H flirting with Knux most of the time when he walks into his office. H doesn’t even know he’s flirting with Knux, he just thinks he’s messing with him)

Robotnik (he’s like a toy maker in my au, but also a tech genius. Mr. H and Robotnik still have that ‘Sonic vs Eggman’ relationship, but also like a ‘Mr Krabs vs Plankton’ one too. They’ve been at each other since childhood. Mr. H always bein better and succeeding, than Robotnik LMAO)

Oh ya Metal H is also exist HSKDKFKF

[an-unraveling-unknown]

It's been a bit, and I think I've forgotten some. Can you give me a brief rundown of your little guys?

Hiya Bones, I WOULD LOVE TO GIVE YOU A BRIEF RUNDOWN ON MY LITTLE GUYS!!! (thank you thank you thank you!!) (its not as brief as it should be I'm so sorry)

I still have yet to name this project: My first original project! I have no ideas for the plot LMAO /crying a little

Locke: Ancient android cursed to carry the physical fear of an entire very dead race of beings that they have identified as 'human,' the same thing they classify the people they see today. Travels a lot, he generally likes to keep moving - has taken up the mantel of unofficial psychopomp. Likes people (from a distance,) dressing up, engaging in human activism in whatever way they can, and Deimos. Dislikes having a lack of bodily autonomy. Was called 'Rue' once (Agender, but he has a fondness for He/They)

Deimos: Your local embodiment of human fear, and human fear specifically. Laughs in the face of gender on a daily basis, mostly due to the fact that he's a shapeshifter (generally shifting into the specifically held fear of whatever society he happens to be around) Drama queen, constantly makes either slightly too old or slightly too new pop culture references that Locke could never hope to understand, but he found a good audience with The Children. Deeply just wants social connection, a bit of a hard feat when you're immortal, and unfortunately something he couldn't find in Locke due to their own circumstances. For a while, at least. (Genderfluid, but currently favors he/him)

The Children: Collective term for all the people and non-people Deimos has unofficially adopted - still workin on them, but I CAN tell you that Charlotte (third youngest) has ties to 'Charlotte's Web' and the 1829 poem 'The Spider and the Fly' and also happens to be an anthropomorphic spider, while Marley is (probably) from Boston (youngest). Not all technically children by human standards, but pretty much everyone is a kid when you're Deimos's age

(other little guys below. forgive me for the massive text blocks)

Undertale AU: Some context, this revolves around two of my ocs in an au that is basically be adding non-canon context with plot; Sunny and Z!* Sunny ran away from home after extenuating circumstances and an argument with her parents, kind of as a 'last hurrah' of sorts, and Z tagged along because of his own reasons. Both of them found themselves in the underground and are now constantly wondering if they went and died about it because Undertale is actually a thing that exists in their universe

Sunny: He is a trainwreck, and is also probably the closest I'll ever get to a self-insert (but it's moreso me when I was 12-ish inserted into a 17 y/o's body). Compassionate at heart, she likes the sciences and being outdoors and philosophical things; math is latin to her (dead,) and she knows a fair amount of sign language. Utterly thrilled to be in the underground for the most part, something he and Z have conflict about - doesn't like talking about his childhood. Yellow coded as in warning (She/Him, Aroace)

Z: Also a huge freakin clusterfuck and Sunny's best friend, but Z is more contained than not. The funny one of the two, Super tech efficient, the fella loves cryptography and all things coding, made a rick-roll virus once on the family computer and now that very same computer exists half-alive in the garage - he'd like to be a game dev someday. Used to get hurt and sick a lot when he was younger. Z refuses to be alone with his thoughts, so he practically throws himself at anything declared constructive at a contstant rate, very much unlike his friend. Knows Sunny has a lot going on with the imminent move to Europe and all, but they shouldn't, cannot stay here damnit (He/Him, Straight)

*not their actual names, but they can't really say their actual names due to extenuating plot reasons and 'Sunny' n 'Z' is what Flowey called them upon first encounter.

BG3: The Baldur's Gate 3 duders!! neither Aeonian nor Monad really fit into forgotten realms lore, considering I picked them up from a separate Stardew Valley AU project and threw them at my current hyperfixation without a lick of research cos I figured it would be no problem. I was sadly mistaken, but we're making it work (even amidst the greek myth n gaelic folklore parallels which are now just outside-of-story meta)

Aeonian: My Tav!! Best put (in your words exactly) as a sad little tissue paper man. Unofficial bard and humanoid-shaped creature (Physical Embodiment of Death at Sea, to be precise) who is not normally humanoid-shaped, but is doing it anyway because their sister is missing and they have a guard dog complex to uphold. Looks like a very tall and very blue twig that could snap in the wind, but what they lack in intimidation they receive in cleverness and wit with a little bit of added bardic charmisa. They did not at all wish to claw themselves out of the sea with gritted teeth and sheer drive alone, and while they aren't necessarily cold, they also aren't here to make friends. This is currently being conflicted by the fact that they give a shit. Character development follows the rock cycle (They/Them, Demirose)

Monad: Aeonian's older sister and Embodiment of Life at Sea - the braver of the two, having ventured up to the surface first and kept going despite being kidnapped by pirates more times than ve can count on both hands - ve is here to have a good time and a good time only. Lively and charismatic, he loves the pleasures of life, people, life in general, and Aeonian. Took up the druid class, as she told her sibling, and was in the midst of learning how to wild shape before she went up on a surface outing one day and didn't come back. Ve's more secretive than Aeon knows (Ve/Her/Himself and very much a lesbian)

[player1064]

ok i genuinely can’t stop thinking about this now it’s half 12 what have you done to me 😂 expanding off that last drabble gary introducing jamie to the class of 92 and making like a big thing of coming out to them and then being like yeah duh we’ve known this forever and just jamie laughing his ass off in the background

I LOVE WRITING CLASS OF 92 FRIENDSHIP!!!!! Even though Ryan and Nicky both SUCK in real life and I HATE them so I guess in a way every fic I write that features them is an au where they DONT suck 💔

Also yes this is 1.4k words long I uh. yeah I'm having too much fun w all these drabbles dkafgshfsjdgf

---

“Jamie?” Gary asks one morning while they’re sat in bed, quietly scrolling on their phone.

“Mmm?”

“You workin’ this Saturday?”

“Uhh, lemme check,” Jamie says, squinting even with his glasses on as he taps at his phone. “Doesn’t look like it, no, guess I’m all yours. Unless Salford’s playing at home, ‘cause then I am much too busy to go watch a football game.”

Gary reaches out to smack him on the arm. “Don’t act like y’don’t love it, I’ve seen you cheer just as loud as the rest of us when we win.”

“Well, I love somethin’,” Jamie says with a fond smile, and Gary smacks him in the arm again because he’s already finished his coffee and is much too alert for all that ‘just woken up’ sappy nonsense.

“Ungrateful prick,” grumbles Jamie, still much too fondly for Gary’s liking. “So, we’re goin’ to a game?”

“If tha’s alright. I mean, y’don’t have to come, obviously, but I like it when you do.”

“You like it when I’m – what’s wrong w’you, then?”

“Christ, nothing, see if I say somethin’ nice to you again,” Gary says. “I just. Erm. I’ve been thinkin’, lately, that I’m maybe ready to tell the boys. And I thought probably this weekend’s a good time, with Phillip home and that. So. Would be nice if you were there, for moral support like.”

“You sneaky bitch, you’ll resort to anything t’get me to come watch your shitty little team play, won’t ya?”

Gary has to bite back a smile, because there’s been quite enough sappy nonsense for one morning already.

“Thanks, James.”

“’Course, love,” Jamie says before he reaches across and pokes him in the side. He picks up his phone again, and Gary notes with some pride that he's not doing nearly as good a job at hiding his smile.

*

“So I s’pose you’re all wonderin’ why I’ve gathered you here today.”

Gary watches his friends exchange glances with each other, before Nicky frowns and says “I mean, we were all here already to be fair. Same as every week.”

“Well actually some of us ‘ave jobs, Butty, and we can’t be faffing about watching Salford every weekend.”

“Salford is my job, you –” he purses his lips and turns to Phil and Scholesy. “Not worth it, is it?”

They both shake their heads.

“Yeah, alright. So why’re we gathered here today then, Nev?”

It all of a sudden feels much too real, what Gary’s trying to do. He considers backing out, not like they’ll know any different, but –

But Jamie’s sitting in the corner, pretending to quietly look at his phone so that Gary could talk with his friends alone. Gary glances over to him and gets a private little smile in response. He smiles back, maybe a bit wobbly, and clears his throat.

“Right, yeah. You lot are like brothers to me, y’know that right? I mean, obviously only Phillip is my actual  brother, but you get what I’m sayin’. An’ I know we’ve got each other’s backs, so I’ve just been thinkin’, like. It feels weird that I’ve had this like, I mean it’s been more’n thirty years, hasn’t it, and it seems wrong that I’m still keepin’ secrets from you all after all this time. I didn’t want anything t’change, y’know? But, erm. I dunno. I’m gay, I guess is what I’m tryin’ to say.”

He takes a deep breath when he stops talking, stares at a spot in the top corner of the room so that he doesn’t have to watch them all react.

It’s silent for a moment, then Phil hums and says “So, erm. What’s this secret of yours, then?”

Gary blinks.

He knows that at times he can talk too fast, that he has a tendency to ramble, but surely he’d given enough gravity to it that it wouldn’t just get lost in the mix.

“That – that I’m gay,” he croaks, as hard as it is to force himself to say it again. “I like men, like.”

He manages to get himself to look at his friends again in the silence that follows, watches them all having a seemingly heated conversation through facial expressions alone before Scholesy huffs in frustration and turns away from them, steps forwards to pat Gary on the shoulder.

“Thanks for tellin’ us, Gaz,” he says gently. “Means a lot, that y’trust us with it.”

Behind him, Phil nods earnestly, while Nicky and Ryan both tilt their heads back and groan.

“Oh my god, you can’t be serious,” Ryan says. “Paul, he doesn’t need coddling, he’s a grown man.”

Gary feels his stomach drop.

He knows, he knows that they’re all footballers, that they’re of a certain generation, he wasn’t expecting to be welcomed with open arms, but he’d thought – thirty years, surely that must count for something.

He looks desperately back at Jamie, sees him slip his phone in his pocket and stand up, ready to step in, or to drive Gary home, or just do anything other than this, but then Nicky shoves Ryan and says “Jesus, Giggsy, d’you have to be such a cunt about it though? Nev, don’t look so forlorn, like, none of us care that you’re gay. It’s just – well, we’ve been not carin’ about your being gay since we were fifteen.”

“You what?”

Scholesy and Phillip at least have the decency to look embarrassed, shuffling their feet awkwardly and staring down at the ground.

Gary shakes his head a few times, tries to rattle out the ringing in his ears, then starts pacing back and forth when that doesn’t work.

“Y’re talkin’ nonsense, wha’d’you mean since w’were fifteen,” he says, his words all rushing together in his attempt to get them out past the rising panic he feels. “I weren’t even gay then, I had girlfriend at school an’ all, there weren’t any me bein’ gay fer you to not care about! Only became gay a few years ago, anyway. After I retired, like.”

“Oh my god,” he hears Jamie mutter behind him, so he turns to shoot him a glare.

Scholesy’s now joined Ryan and Nicky in staring at him wide-eyed like he’s lost his mind, but at least he’s still got Phil on side.

Except, then Phil puts on a high-pitched voice and says “Oh, Phillip, d’you think I should ask Becks where he gets his hair cut, doesn’t he have the most amazing hair. Phillip, d’you think he ‘ad braces when he were younger, how’d’you think ‘is smile got so nice? Phillip, d’you mind if we don’t room together anymore, I think I’m going t’ask Becks if he wants to instead, Phillip –”

“—Alright, alright,” Gary says to cut him off, already feeling his cheeks flush. “We get the picture, ta very much.”

He gets the picture a little too well, because suddenly an entire lifetime’s worth of memories have been thrown off kilter, have been tainted by the implication that – but he hadn’t. He hadn’t been gay! And he’d had a perfectly normal appreciation for his best friend’s hair and smile!

Ryan grins at Phil, then puts on his own ‘Gary voice’ and adds “Ooh, Ruud’s very tall, in’t he Giggsy? An’ he’s strong, too, d’you see him lift me up on pitch earlier, ‘s like I weighed nothin’.”

Well, Ruud is very tall, Gary doesn’t see what’s wrong with pointing that out.

He turns back to Jamie, hoping his supposedly loving and supportive boyfriend is going to come defend his honour, to agree with him that it’s perfectly normal to admire your teammates and also that his voice was never that squeaky, thank you very much. Unfortunately for Gary, though, the idiot is looking on with glee in his eyes, the hand over his mouth not doing much to disguise the laughter that’s shaking his whole body.

“Oh, not you an’ all!” he complains, scowling when Jamie responds by stepping closer and throwing an arm over his shoulders.

“Aw, Gaz,” he says with a chuckle, “what’re we gonna do w’you, eh?”

*

It’s only later, when he’s about to fall asleep, that something finally clicks into place in his brain.

“Jamie?”

“Shut up, ‘m sleepin’.”

“Jamie, did I ‘ave a crush on Becks?”

“Oh my god,” Jamie groans, then pulls a pillow over his head and rolls over, turning his back to Gary.

[nymphacae]

Yes hello I found the train wreck au you have and now I'm salivating cause it looks amazing and sounds amazing and I wanna know more please 👀👀👀 I am very worried for my heart XD

!! hello! this is so sweet, i will forever be happy that people are interested in my stories : ] esp @ this AU in particular! it's definitely been my most favorite one to work with - i've been yelling about it with friends in dms for like, a little under a year now?? it's a big story! lots of backstory and worldbuilding to do! lots of inside jokes to make!

sadly i can't reveal TOO much - not as much as i want to anyway. i mean it took this long for me to even reveal the NAME! but i can offer a little rundown for some newcomers and…oldcomers idfk

this is an AU where rymin are born in modern era: the train crashed in 1986, but the story takes place in 2021

min boarded the train in september 2016 and has been on the train for approx. 5 years - he is 23 by the time the events of the fic start

rymin haven't seen each other since ryan left powell lake, and min presumes ryan went off to pursue their dreams in NYC without him and is probably living it up Rockstar Style and he's very normal about that

ryan is transmasc in this AU, and it'll play a very, Very crucial role in the story + rymin's early dynamic (just comphet things: your parents ship you together and you don't like it!)

min joined the apex, which has disbanded by this time in the story. he didn't Do Crimes though - in fact, his number hasn't changed at all since he woke up in the iceberg car with kez! weird

min traveled to the left of the train

there's a lot of stupid denizens i made just to make min have a mental whiplash every chapter

there's about four (4) different monsters to watch out for. humans not included - kinda

it's a survival/psychological horror (duh) with a focus on codependency, generational/secondhand trauma, perspective, and forgiveness.

(and body horror.)

you could guess some of these from my playlist, but huge inspirations for the story are silent hill 2, layers of fear, observer (2017), jj macfield and the island of memories, the last of us, and on a semi-lighter note cowboy bebop and that one time a league of legends song came up on my playlist and i couldn't figure out if it was a hero or a villain's song

anyway. chapters 1-2 are all finished (just workin on illustrations w buds rn) and 3 is currently on its second draft! i'll release it probably a week after the final paper trails chapter, which will be HOPEFULLY soon! i've just got some Secret Stuff for it…

so uh yea! keep your eyes peeled! fingers crossed it'll be out either by the end of this month of the beginning of february !

[howlingday]

Mama Harley Arc AU: Now that Roman and Harley are kinda buddies has she used some of her psychological skills on him to figure him out? Maybe she'll be his therapist, everyone knows the man has some issues.

If Roman Torchwick lived in Gotham, he'd either get eaten alive by Falcone or Cobblepot, or he'd survive and thrive as another supervillain for Bats to beat down.

The man was the ambitious sort. He even had doomsday weapon plans like Lex Luthor, if Lex Luthor wrote all his plans down on bar napkins. She could respect an up-and-comer in the criminal underworld.

"So, listen," Harley started, "I'm not askin ya ta give what ya doin, but you should definitely drop the lapdog routine. I've seen way too many crime lords get in too deep with legit supavillains."

Roman scoffed. "Please, Cinder isn't a supervillain!" Roman rolled his good eye. "She's just somebody looking for a little muscle and skill to get the job done."

"An how's that doin for ya?" Harley asked.

"Just fine, until Little Red showed up with her friends." Roman groused.

"Well, lemme ask you dis den," Harley leaned close, "what's stoppin' Miss Fiyaboll from roastin' Ruby?"

"She's trying to keep her cover as a student." Roman shook his head, then placed the glass to his swollen eye. "Don't know why when a teacher is better for a hag like her."

"I mean, would you think she's a student?" Harley asked.

"Maybe one about to graduate." Roman shrugged. "Still, I may not know what her plan is, but the pay is good. And if beating up students keeps me on her good side, then so be it."

"Oh, I get it now!" Roman took a drink. "Yer scaired of er, aintcha?" Roman spat his drink. "She must be really tough if ya still workin for er!"

"What?!" Roman wiped himself down. "I am not afraid of Cinder! I'm the greatest criminal mastermind in Remnant! I've never been afraid of anyone!"

And just like that, Roman upgraded from crime lord to Bat Rogue. She'd congratulate him if he cared about it. Still low ranking, though. If she were to put him on a scale of villains, she'd put him above Penguin, but just under Riddler.

"I'm Roman Torchwick, dammit!" He stood up, shouting. The alcohol was getting to him. "I'll lie, cheat, steal, and do what ever it takes to survive!"

"Even roll ova like a little doggie?" Roman snapped a look at her. "Aw, does Romie have a leash for him to go for walkies?" His face was flush with anger. "Does Cinda give her Romie-Womie kissy-wissies?"

"I GOT YER KISSY-WISSY RIGHT HE-!" Harley gut-punched Roman, and he threw up before he could swing his punch.

The bartender grimaced as he watched his counter get covered in bile and half-digested chunks. Other patrons started moving away from the oozing filth. Harley patted Roman's back.

"Send the bill ta Cinda Foll." Harley said with a smile, and helped Roman out back to his hideout.

[cartoonsaint]

Species swap frenrey? ✨

i'm workin on an AI Gordon AU elsewhere so here's like 5k about how it'd be if in my Not a Game fic Invasive Species Gordon were The Creature instead :D found it a very interesting and fun challenge! rated T and features swearing, major identity issues, major character sort-of-de.ath, some extremely embarrassing interpersonal interactions, ~paranoid person is RIGHT but not believed, and some good old narrative-breaking. unfortunately it is barely Frenrey bc i had so much fun w the rest of it, but thanks for prompting this :)

For every possibility, a universe— and for every universe, a near-infinite number of stories. This one, however, may be somewhat familiar to you, for it begins with a strange, super-adaptive but unintelligent creature falling through a plot hole into a dimension much like your own. It has evolved to consume the DNA of other living beings, which it then incorporates into its own body plan, and its limited but powerful psychic abilities ("sweet voice," as you may know them) ensure that its success and efficiency in this task. In the small forest outside of Seattle in which this creature finds itself, it takes very little time for it to consume plant matter, birds, reptiles, mammals, and more, adding and subtracting traits to its own amorphous form, becoming something new and unique that if left unchecked could eat the whole of this world—

Until the G-Man, tasked as always with the protection of his particular universe and dimension, destroys it. What he fails to notice, though, is that this being created another of its kind, a single cell that it left behind with that same instinctual drive to consume and grow…

But this time, things are different.

The tiny invading creature eats, adapts, becomes multicellular, and then tries its nonexistent hand at being the seed of a plant— specifically, the migratory seed of the dandelion. It is lifted up into the air, where an easterly wind catches it and carries it away from the little woods wherein plays the seven-year-old who will become Gordon Freeman (and whom, eventually, the creature will become as well). It is deposited in a different environment with new things to eat and become, a greater variety of prey and potential adaptations.

Like this, it learns that to travel is beneficial. It keeps up this habit as it grows and develops, heading further east each time it gets bored (which happens often, with the personality it begins to evolve), taking its time enjoying what life has to offer it and coming to love the little planet it calls home, until a year or two down the line it finds itself in the shape of a particularly small, scruffy terrier-mix somewhere along the border between Michigan and Ontario.

In this particular universe, the birth certificate of one Henry LeVrai was scribbled a little too quickly and the "H" was incorrectly notated as a "B." His family found this amusing and accepted that their child had been officially christened "Benry." And one warm spring morning our young Benry, roundabout seven years old now, is out playing in the sandy mud when he and our little creature stumble upon one another.

Benry is a calm, patient little kid who's not so good with people yet but quite fond of animals, with their simple and straightforward feelings and desires. The creature is quite anxious about being killed (it hurts!!) and thus tends to avoid humans, but it's also filled with dog instincts right now. Benry's quiet patience, total disregard for human social rules, and willingness to play fetch draws our creature in, and they end up sticking together and goofing off for the rest of the day. When the time comes for Benry to go home, our little creature acts as though it doesn't care… but it follows after him all the same.

The creature acts as a semi-stray dog for nearly a year. It and Benry goof off together, two children in the sand and the mud, trusting one another completely despite the fact that one of them is human and the other a hyper-carnivorous shapeshifting monster pretending to be a dog. Though gentleness does not come naturally to the creature, it does its best not to hurt Benry, sheathing away its teeth and claws when they wrestle so that its friend is never injured even when it gets to be quite a bit larger and more rambunctious than him. It never gets a taste of Benry's blood, never realizes that in doing so it could have kept track of its best friend when they are inevitably separated.

For indeed, separated they will be. The G-Man is notified of the creature's existence and is made responsible for its destruction. When one day, mid-play, the world around the creature goes teal-still and all time freezes except for itself, the creature's old instincts for survival meet with its building intelligence. It hides. And when the G-Man, the only other moving thing under this time-stop, shows no interest in its human companion, it understands that what the G-Man hunts is itself.

It flees. From Benry’s perspective, he turns away from his friend for just a second— and when he turns back, it’s completely and utterly gone.

And for many years that’s how it goes. The creature hides its nature as best it can, doing its damnedest to look and be normal, but in this universe there are no time travel shenanigans caused by the creature's friendship with young Tommy and thus the G-Man is never introduced to the boy who in other dimensions would be his son. With fewer distractions and less light in his life, the G-Man is ruthless. He tracks down memories, uses Wikipedias Secret, More Secret, and Even More Secret to locate the creature, which in turn realizes that closeness to humans often means being found more quickly. The creature can eke out only a year or two at a time of freedom before it is once more tracked down and once more must flee, further and further away from mankind.

(An aside: in this particular universe Tommy remains in foster care until he ages out. Without the G-Man’s intervention he never receives the support he needs— he’s still brilliant, but his school grades don’t necessarily reflect that. To make his way into the field of biology as he has always wanted, he must look for outside assistance— which the U.S. military is happy to provide, in return for his work, his time, and his promise of acting as liaison to a company they occasionally work with called Black Mesa…)

Which brings us to just a few weeks before the Resonance Cascade.

Gordon Freeman, grown man and single father, shoves his shoulder into one of the many blocked-off side-doors out of Black Mesa, bursting out into the cool February air of the New Mexico desert. He's not supposed to use this door, he knows— security reasons or something, he can't remember, whatever— but he had to stay late today because he accidentally spilled coffee all over the tunnel diode resonator and he got caught and had to disinfect the whole thing even though it wasn’t his fucking fault, okay!! Like, he’s under a lot of stress anyways and then he realized way too late today that he’d failed to properly zip up his pants this morning and so had been just, fucking, packer out for several hours and no one had bothered to fucking tell him because no one fucking likes him and he's supposed to pick Joshie up from daycare in ten minutes but because he had to disinfect all the stupid fiddly bits of the resonator he missed the tram at his normal spot so he's gonna have to leg it over to the next pickup, which is outside and like halfway across the fucking campus that he still doesn't have a good mental map of—

The creature, who had been dozing in the shape of a rust-furred coyote in a cozy little outside corner made by the building's weird architecture, wakes up with a jerk and finds itself suddenly cornered by the open door and the human who has just spotted it.

"Oh shit, a dog!!” Gordon says, delight overriding all sense. He takes an unthinking step closer as the creature, backed into a corner and not yet awake enough to think properly, raises its hackles and opens its mouth wide, wider, wider than should be possible— Gordon has just enough time to say, "Oh, shit, not a dog, what the fuck—"

And then the world goes teal-still.

The creature has no way of knowing that the G-Man is not here to hunt the creature but is instead doing reconnaissance on a new job. It cannot know that his time-stop will be up only long enough for him to exit his train and banish it. Though many years ago it did play with the young human Benry, it never had anyone like Tommy to lovingly teach it intelligence and morality; it has no compunction against killing and consuming a human being. It is simply a wild creature, something alien, and it reacts as best it can with the information it knows.

And what it knows is that its instincts to FLEE-HIDE-DEFENDSELF are triggered all at once and that the frozen, defenseless Gordon is both a threat and in the way. Is it any wonder, then, that this is how Gordon Freeman dies?

Except: this creature has not been gradually fed a diet of the eggs of intelligent animals, allowing it to smarten up while maintaining its own personality, and is instead accustomed to hiding by exactly mimicking the behavior of that which it eats. Except: the creature only has about three seconds between when it consumes Gordon Freeman entirely and when the time-stop drops and Gordon Freeman's brain, perfectly preserved, will kick back into gear. Except: this isn't a very smart alien creature that is attempting to subsume a prey that is bored with his life and has few attachments. This is an alien creature that has spent most of its life running, hiding, and pretending not to be alien, meeting the force of a very strong personality, an admittedly powerhouse brain, and several deep, deep attachments that this particular human will do anything to hang onto.

The time-stop drops. The not-coyote creature is gone; what is left is something human-shaped who was, just moments ago, Gordon Freeman. Whatever it is is also, immediately, having an extremely confusing panic attack.

FIGHT, it instincts demand but there’s nothing to fight, the threat of coyote and human both neutralized. HIDE, its instincts counter, but he’s a big guy, it’s not like he can fit into the tiny corner the creature was in, and anyways what good would that do against the freaky time-stopping human (?) that has been hunting it for nearly twenty years? FLEE, the instincts beg, but what the fuck, he’s not gonna just run out into the fucking desert without provisions like a fucking idiot, especially when he’s supposed to be picking up—

“Josh,” says what remains of Gordon Freeman, and dashes off in the direction of the next tram.

Against all odds, the being not only makes it in time but he’s barely breathing that hard. On the train full of other tired human scientists he holds onto the central pole, telling off the part of his brain that is panicking a bit more strongly than usual about being so close to so many other people, and tries to put together what the fuck just happened.

“There was a coyote,” it mutters under its breath, remembering this time to put a hand over his mouth to block the fact that he’s talking to himself. “Except it wasn’t actually a coyote, it was some kinda… Thing-thing, like from that one movie? And it was scared of the human— of me, and kinda thought he was that spooky g-man-type guy that can stop time which, uh, which… Which Gordon doesn’t know about. Uh, I don’t know about, I mean, so how the fuck do I…?” The train rocks to a stop and the creature gets out, mind racing and overfull with memories from two sides. “Did. Did I try to kill me?”

It remembers standing there, alarmed at the movements of the not-dog-not-coyote, about to back away. But he also remembers the sudden wash of turquoise that meant he was being hunted, his age-old desperation not to be found, how he stretched his form into something like a carnivorous plant and closed it around the human in his way, how he tasted blood and flesh and bone and the precious DNA that he could use to hide himself—

“DADDY,” someone shrieks, and wraps their arms around its legs. Gordon yelps (sounding decidedly more coyote-like than usual) as its instincts shriek DEFEND SELF and then WAIT and then !!!JOSHIE!!! FAMILY KIN KID PUP BABY JOSH JOSH JOSH! and the creature scoops his son up into a tight hug because it hasn’t gotten to be close to anyone or anything in many years and this is Joshie, its kid! Its favorite horrible little person!!! Whose father the creature, like, just killed!

Oh fuck, its instincts whimper as the creature— as Gordon— as whatever the fuck they are apologizes on auto-pilot to the daycare workers for being late (again) and hikes Joshua up onto its hip and brings him home to their shitty little two-person apartment on the edge of Black Mesa’s living quarters, simultaneously trying to stay calm and being just so psyched about what Joshie’s got to say.

It makes dinner for Gordon's kid. It hangs out with him for the rest of the evening, fetching him whatever he asks for (and maybe enjoying doing so a little more than usual), and helps him take a bath to rinse off all the sand he got into today. It cuddles with him on his bed as it reads him a bedtime story and brushes back his hair after he’s fallen asleep in his arms, snoring away like a miniature foghorn.

With utmost care the creature untangles itself from Gordon’s son and sneaks out of the room. It makes sure to close the door behind it very quietly.

Then it spends most of the rest of the night pacing, trying to get a handle on the fact that it isn’t Gordon Freeman, not really, because it’s actually some kind of super-adaptive unknown species that can completely transform its body on a cellular level and literally become other living things and it did so to Gordon by fucking eating him, and also it’s being hunted down by some dude who can stop time?? And it has all of Gordon’s memories and feelings and shit and it really feels like it’s Gordon but logically it also remembers eating him, which means that Gordon Freeman is fucking dead.

“I don’t feel dead, though,” Gordon says aloud, pacing his familiar pattern into the carpet. “And— and the voice just called me Gordon, so— so that means I am him— me— whatever, right?”

The creature tilts its head at the ceiling, dog-like, then scowls. “I— no, not dog-like,” it says loudly to no one. “Not— are, are you saying you’re no one? Cuz I can, I can hear you, I could hear you this whole time, even while I was a dog, I just didn’t underst— NOT that I was those dogs, or, that, they’re— those aren’t, aren’t my memories, Gordon’s, I just—”

It collapses in a chair, groaning and rubbing at the bridge of its nose. “This is so— look, can you, can you not call me ‘it,’ please? I, I already went through the whole gender thing in grad school— uh, or Gordon did, I guess? …Just— I don’t know if you can even hear me, but could we just… can we stick with ‘he’? Please?”

He waits hopefully, then sighs in relief. “Okay! Great. Thank you. And also I— I get that I, uh, I’m not. Really the, the human being that got, uh. Eaten. By me. But can we just— like, I’m not leaving Joshie. Or my job. Or my fucking life, man, so can we just— like, I’m, I’m, I, I’m sort of. I mean, I sort of am him, so can we— could you maybe just call me Gordon?” He bites his lip with dull teeth that look perfectly human. “Please?”

At the confirmation, Gordon’s shoulders loosen. “Okay,” he says, tired and stressed and still pretty darn miserable. “Thank you, mysterious narrating voice that has been following and telling the stories of all the dogs and shit I’ve ever been, that… like, I’m still a fucked up monster thing that ate myself, but. Being called 'he' is… something, at least.”

He leans back in his chair, considering for the first time the scope of the abilities he’s both intimately familiar with and pretty freaked out by. HIDE, his instincts warn, but there’s no humans around who could somehow share the secret with his hunter, and when faced with new scientific discovery Gordon Freeman’s always been… well, like a dog with a bone.

“That’s not funny,” Gordon says to his ceiling, even though it kind of is. “God, you know what, I don’t fucking need this—”

He tests the creature’s— tests his abilities out, little by little. It takes him the better part of several weeks to get re-used to everything as himself, but he has to admit that being able to smooth down the chest he’s been meaning for years to get top surgery on is a pretty cool ability. As is growing just tall enough to actually be a full six foot instead of something like five foot eleven and three quarters. And the mild psychic abilities are neat, too, especially once he figures out that he can tone down the “blue to subdue” to something that merely calms instead of flat-out hypnotizes prey.

“‘Blue to subdue’?” Gordon snorts to himself. “Why does it rhyme?”

Don’t worry about it. Besides that he finds that the instincts and personality of the creature he had been barely clash at all with those of Gordon Freeman. Sure, he feels just about everything more intensely and a bit more simply than Gordon used to, and his ability to packbond with things has kind of gone a little crazy, and if anyone throws anything there’s a 15% chance he’ll embarrass himself, but overall he’s still someone who really wants to be liked and isn’t sure how to make it happen, someone who’s very scared but too stubborn to give up, and someone who is remarkably intelligent in some regions and absolutely idiotic in others.

“Hey,” Gordon mutters, stung. He’s all dressed up for this stupid experiment Black Mesa's having him do and he's a little nervous about it, if only because he's encased in an airtight HEV suit and his instincts from years of needing to be ready to run at any moment are howling TRAPPED TRAPPED TRAPPED. He's trying to calm them down by thinking about literally anything else— like, for instance, the fact that this experiment is going to change the course of his life forever. "...What? Uh, hey, what? Did youuu? Just say?"

"Said you can just go through, don't need your passport," says the guard, and Gordon jumps. He hadn’t even noticed there was another person on this end of the hallway.

"O-oh, right, sorry," he says, and strides past his oldest and best friend. Then he reels to a stop and whips around, staring.

The guard blinks up at him. He looks to be around Gordon's age, his face not quite freshly shaven, with slate gray eyes ringed by long lashes. Gordon's never been very good with faces and it's made worse by the fact that the guy's in the bland security guard uniform but now that he looks there is something familiar about him, even if Gordon's sure he wouldn't have forgotten someone who could be called his "oldest and best friend."

The guard shifts on his feet, his eyes sliding off of the glass of Gordon's helmet until he's frowning at his shoulder. "...you good, man?"

"Yyyeah," Gordon says slowly. FRIEND? say his old instincts with obvious tail-wagging hope, and admittedly Gordon's pretty curious himself. He's late for the test, but… well, late is late, right? "Uh, sorry, you said— did you say I, I don't need my… passport?"

"Yeah," says the guard, nodding at Gordon's chest. "S’new policy. But you’re in the company suit so s’fine. Not like you got pockets."

"Right, yeah. Thanks," Gordon says, brow furrowed, scrutinizing the other man. He’s looked away back down the hallway towards the guard at the other end like he expects that’s that, but Gordon’s not ready to let go of the narrator’s claim just yet. Could he have somehow missed some of the original Gordon Freeman’s memories? “Hey, are you… Do we, like. Know each other, or something?”

“Huh?” says the guard, eyes flitting to Gordon’s glass faceplate and away. “Uh, dunno… like, I work here?”

“Yeah, man, me too,” Gordon says, rolling his eyes. “But— look, I’m Gordon Freeman. I, I’ve got a test I’m supposed to be getting to, but— just, like, could you maybe tell me your name? …Please?”

The man looks at him, gray eyes wary, and something about that has the instincts in Gordon’s head saying :(! FRIEND CONFUSED BAD! MAKE FRIEND HAPPY HOW? Gordon barely resists the urge to growl at them, he’s fucking busy right now, can they not—

“Uh…… m’Benry,” the guard says, and the sound of the name brings back sudden, forceful memories of the creature’s too-short year as a semi-stray dog chasing after its quiet human child, back before the G-Man started hunting it, before it killed Gordon, back when all the creature ever wanted to do was play in the sand and the mud with its best friend.

Gordon has spent the past few weeks of his semi-new life as something inhuman doing his best to be human. But when faced with such strong, fond memories of a time before all that, old instincts shove themselves to the front.

“Oh holy fuckin— BENRY!!!” Gordon cries, nearly bowling the guy over as he pulls his old best friend to him as close as he can, putting his hands all over his face, chest, back, arms, anything he can reach. “Holy shit, man, it’s been forever!! How are you? What the hell are you doing here?? How did— like, what are the fucking odds, seriously, I never thought I’d see you again—” Gordon sets him back on his feet but holds on, petting his gloves in the short hair under the guy’s helmet, trying to sniff at Benry’s neck, see what he’s been up to, how he’s changed, all that, but the stupid HEV helmet is in the way. He whines, over-excited and frustrated and delighted. “Hi, dude, shit, hi! Hi! Fuck, it’s good to see you, hi—”

"Uh," Benry says. Hesitantly, he pats Gordon's back. "...Sup?"

"Hi!!" Gordon agrees. "Benry! Hi! Shit, man! Hey!"

"Yeah," Benrey says. "So, uhhh… You know me?"

"Yea, 'course, you're— oh, holy shit," Gordon says, feeling stupid. "The HEV helmet, right, sorry, hold on—"

He separates from Benry long enough to scrabble at the stupid release function and pull off his glass and metal prison with the shwoomph of released air. He shoves his hair out of his face, hoping it doesn't look too much like he forgot to brush it today, and grins widely at his old friend, expecting to be recognized at any second—

Only to be struck with the sudden realization that all Gordon's memories of bonding with that fun, goofy, patient little kid were from the perspective of an alien creature in the shape of a dog, from the life he had before he ate and killed and chose to replace the real Gordon Freeman. From Benry’s perspective, Gordon is a total stranger.

Which means that for all intents and purposes, Gordon has been acting like a complete and utter nutjob this entire goddamn time.

"Oh fuck I. Uh," Gordon starts, horrified, but against all odds Benry's eyes are widening. They dart between the features of Gordon's face, flickering with recognition, and the dog-creature Gordon had been for so long tenses in excitement. It wants Gordon to play-bow, to bark, to spin in circles, to lick Benry's face, PLEASE FRIEND PLEASE PLAY FRIEND PLEASE?

"Oh yeahhh," Benry says at last, and drops his gaze to Gordon's crotch. "Hot guy with the dick-slip."

"...what?" Gordon says. He looks down, but besides the helmet under his arm the HEV Suit is as sealed off as always. "Hot— dick— what?"

Benry’s shoulders have gone rigid. He's looking at the floor now very, very hard. “...hm?”

“Did you just say—”

“Huh? No,” Benry says, but Gordon’s earlier head-petting put his helmet askew and Gordon can see his ears turning red. “Wha? No, man, dunno what you’re even—”

"You did," Gordon says. "You did, you said— dick-slip? What the fuck are you—"

"No," Benry says, focusing very hard down the hallway now, towards the other guard. "Nuh-uh, you're. Hearing things, I dunno, don't you have uhhh. Test? Youuu, you should go—"

"No, wait, hang on," Gordon says as a memory from the last day of the old Gordon Freeman's life vaguely manifests. "Hang on, you— that day, with m— the guard— you?"

"No, bro, I— I'm on my shift here, this…" Benry fixes his helmet, obscuring his red face, but Gordon's caught scent of a memory and is tracking it down. "I'm jus— just tryna do my job, you got your thing, we don’t hafta—"

"You are! That was you! That day, my pac— my dick was out all day, no one told me, I spilled my fucking coffee everywhere when I realized, I had to stay late and then— but you!! You, you stopped me, that morning, and—" Gordon blinks. Something in his brain shifts. He stares down at Benry, who refuses eye contact. "You… you didn't even tell me."

"Man, I tried," Benry groans. "But you were all, all, ugh— and I was—"

"You let me walk around all day with my dick out," Gordon says, stepping further into Benry’s space. Benry leans back, lifting his head to keep Gordon in his sight, which gives Gordon a clear look at Benrey’s pale throat and wide eyes. Something old and hungry in Gordon’s brain lifts its lips. “Which then made me spill my coffee, which made me late, so I had to take the back way to catch the train on time, and then I fuckin'— then…” A growl rumbles in his throat.

“Woah, you, uh…” Benry’s back hits the wall. He swallows. “Nice— nice teeth, bro.”

“What?” Gordon says, then stiffens. He whips a hand up to cover his mouth, running his tongue along his teeth— and finds that they’re way bigger and sharper than human teeth, than Gordon’s teeth, are supposed to be. “Oh, shit. Uh.”

"Yeah," Benry breathes. His eyes are wide and dark, focused on the hand Gordon's using to cover his mouth.

HIDE! BE HUMAN, Gordon's instincts. Mentally swearing, he wills his stupid teeth back to their normal shape and size,. How the fuck is he gonna explain this? He double-checks his teeth are normal before lowering his hand to speak. “Uh, so—"

"Oh," Benry says, disappointed, and looks away.

Gordon blinks. He glances at the ceiling in astonishment, mind caught on one word. "Disappointed?" he repeats.

"Mh, a little," Benry replies, shrugging. "Kinda a bummer. S'fine."

Gordon blinks again, looking back at his childhood best friend. "Wh. What? Wait, what are you—”

"Hey, we all good over here?"

Gordon strangles a yelp and glances over his shoulder to see the other guard from the far end of the hallway, his expression blandly pleasant, his hands down and unthreatening even as one hovers conveniently over his firearm. What the fuck? Gordon’s trying to have a conversation with his old packmate here— no, he reminds himself, Benry doesn't actually know him, so this… He shakes his full head. "Yeah," he says impatiently. "Yeah, we're—"

"Aren’t you the one in the barrel today, doc?" The random guard tilts his head towards the route Gordon's supposed to be taking to the testing chamber where within the hour the fabric between this world and the alien borderworld Xen will be rent in two.

“Yeah, I—” Gordon jerks his gaze to the ceiling. "Where the— what?"

"The barrel? The test chamber, I mean," says the guard, glancing up at the plain ceiling too, frowning. "You alright, doc?"

"No, it’s— I mean—” Gordon looks between the guard and the ceiling (as if that will help), trying not to be too obvious. “Sorry, yeah, I’m fine, I was just— just, uhhh. Was just saying… saying hey, to my friend here." He gestures at Benry, who hasn't moved at all— maybe because Gordon's still crowding him up against the wall. "Oh, my bad, I—" Gordon takes a step back, unaware that if he continues like this he'll never get this close to Benry again.

D:?! whine Gordon's instincts, and aloud Gordon says, "Wait, what?"

“I didn’t say anything,” Benry says, eyeing Gordon, completely unaware that without Gordon's help he doesn't stand a chance of surviving the coming disaster.

Gordon makes a noise that is mostly whimper, part groan.

“You sure you’re alright, doc? LeVrai, maybe you oughta go call someone—”

“No!” Gordon barks out, putting himself in between Benry and the other guard. "No, no, I mean, he, I, I, I—" Inspiration strikes. "I!! Don't have my passport! He, I, he should, should come with me, shouldn't he? Right? I mean, it's the rules, isn't it?" Gordon looks to Benry for confirmation.

Benry merely blinks at him. "Uh…"

"I think in this case we can make an exception," the other guard says firmly. "Now let's all be calm, rational people about this, alright? We can figure out—"

"I— I'm not fucking— Don't talk to me like I'm crazy," Gordon snaps. "You, you don't understand, there's—" Think things through for a second, Gordon.

He cuts himself off. Then he thinks a carefully worded question very loudly, which does nothing. He huffs.

Benry pokes him in the back of his head, which is unfortunately close enough to being pet that Gordon's stupid instincts want him to lean into it. He wrestles down the urge as Benry speaks.

"Hey. Are you…?"

"No! Yes. Look, I don't want to—" He pinches the bridge of his nose. Gordon Freeman has always been an excellent mathematician, provided there aren't any distractions. Right now he's got himself, a narrator portending doom, old instincts from a life before he was himself, an old friend who doesn't know him, some random meddling guard, what sounds like a potentially apocalyptic disaster on the horizon (and it is. an apocalyptic disaster, I mean), and a social situation he'd be ill-equipped for even if he had never been a reality-breaking mildly psychic shapeshifting mega-predator that has spent most of its time in the family Canidae.

The point is: there’s no way to solve this equation where Gordon won’t end up short. And if he makes even one error, his old best friend is as good as dead.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, fine,” Gordon says, and turns to the guard that isn't his and sings an intensely blue psychic suggestion at him to CALM DOWN.

The creature was never particularly delicate with that ability and Gordon’s under enough stress as it is— he pours it on strong. The second the balls of light hit the guard’s startled face, the man’s eyes shutter close and he drops to the ground, breathing deep and even in sleep.

“Woah,” Benry says quietly. “...Think I used to have a dog who could do sumn like that."

“Yeah, well, I’m human,” Gordon snaps, instincts uneasy in his gut. “Okay? I’m human. Totally, completely, one hundred percent human being. Now let's fucking go."

bc there's no time travel shenanigans w tommy and g-man in this AU, tommy'd actually only be 26 :-) a baby! ANYWAYS a chapter of Invasive Species is next up on my to-write list, which i've been pretty good (if slow) about following for the last couple months, so we'll see! i'm really hopeful <3?

in the meantime if you're interested in a story about gordon being inhuman in the same way as benrey, might i suggest crowned-ladybug's sorrow in idle minds (solace in being heard)?