#he literally already had started putting the plans into motion for the prequel when they filmed the finale

[angelsdean]

jensen as dean in 15x20 grinning to himself smugly on that fucking bridge bc he knows he just retconned that entire stupid-ass 40 yr drive and saved the damn multiverse while sam was just chillin' in the 'burbs in a bad wig w/ his blurrywife and kid.

[perksofhs]

‘I think that might be the sexiest thing you have ever said to me’

This was requested literally a year ago, I hope I did the prompt justice! Also it sort of goes along with ‘Please forgive me, I need you baby’, kind of like a prequel! xx

(Warnings: smut and mature content but also some fluff too, minors DNI) 

You hated going to parties, Harry thrived in those kinds of setting, you however did not. You’d spent most parties by Harry’s side, admiring his ability to talk to anyone like they’re old friends, never shy or embarrassed not matter the topic of discussion. You admired that about him, his outgoing personality balanced your somewhat introverted one. 

You’d been at the party for an hour or so, and if you were honest, you weren’t really sure whose party it actually was, but either way you were there, milling about with a few acquaintances, Harry carrying the conversation as usual. You take another sip of the quite large glass of red in your hand, scanning the room as it filled with more and more people, trying to pick out anyone familiar when your eyes landed on the last person you wanted to see, Mel. Mel was a ‘friend’ of Harry’s, but it was abundantly clear to anyone who watched them interact that she wanted Harry and Harry was oblivious. 

Whenever they hung out she was always touching him in any way she could, an exaggerated laugh that ended in her hand playfully swatting at his chest, or her touching his bicep as she spoke to him. It was obvious that she was flirting, and it pissed you off every time you were witness to her behaviour. After all, Harry was yours. You trusted him fully, but Harry’s biggest flaw was undoubtedly his ability to see the best in everyone whilst completely missing large red flags. 

Mel caught you staring, faking a smile before sauntering over to the two of you. “Harry!” she chirped, completely ignoring you, Harry turning and greeting her with a big smile. “Hey Mel! I didn’t know you were coming!” “You know I never turn down a good party” she says, giving Harry a hug that lasted longer than you would like. Mel turns to you, another fake smile thrown your way “Oh hey I didn’t even see you there! How are you?” she says, her voice sickly sweet. You attempt to force a somewhat believable smile before responding with a “Yeah good thank you”, Mel already focussing her attention back on Harry before you could finish your sentence. For the next 45 minutes she dominated the conversation, the acquaintances involved people slowly but surely wandering away until it was just the three of you left, and by then you had downed two more large glasses of red and were well and truly tipsy. 

On top of being borderline drunk you were more than a little angry, you were filthy, seething even. Mel had gotten on every last one of your nerves and then some. Your heart was racing as Mel continued to carry on about something stupid probablym you really couldn’t focus on anything but how much you couldn’t stand her. “So Harry, I’m planning on heading to Malibu next weekend, do you want to tag along?” Mel says completely ignoring you in these plans of course. “I mean we’re no-” “Sorry Mel we’ve got plans, remember baby?” You say confidently, taking Harry by surprise as you cut him off. “Come on Harry I was planning on hitting up that vintage shop you love” Mel says boldly. “Sorry Mel did you not hear me? We have plans and they don’t include you” you spit back, Harry remaining quiet not daring to show how much he was loving this side of you. You could tell Mel was pissed but trying to cover it up, “Alrighty then, I’m gonna go get another drink” she says, walking away in a huff. “Baby you ok?” Harry says, turning to face you. “No Harry she’s ridiculous! She just tried to invite you on a weekend away with her! Who the fuck does she think she is?” You were pissed and Harry was turned on. “Don’t worry about it, I’d never go, although I do like that vintage shop” he joked, leaning to kiss your forehead.

Your mind was spinning, which may have been the alcohol, but you needed to show Mel that you weren’t intimidated by her. Suddenly you grab Harry’s hand, pulling him up the stairs of whoever’s house this was and into the first bedroom you find, closing the door behind you before pushing him up against the wall. Harry looked at you slightly shocked as to what was happening “what are yo-” you cut him off with a kiss, the anger and alcohol surging through your veins. You fisted his hair, deepening the kiss before dragging your hands over his chest, down his torso and eagerly fiddling with the buttons on his pants as he pulled your shirt over your head, tossing it somewhere else in the room along with his pants. Harry wrapped his arms around your waist lifting you up as you instinctively wrapped your legs around his torso, your lips remained on his as he carried you to the bed, throwing you down before hastily pulling your pants down your legs. “I don’t know what has gotten into you but I fucking love it” Harry says, tearing his shirt off and taking you in for a moment before leaning down trail kisses down your collar bone, his hand finding your inner thigh. You writhe at his touch, knowing exactly what he was about to do. He takes his time gently tugging your underwear down before positioning himself over you, placing his lips back on yours. This was all too slow for you; you were hot and needy, and you couldn’t wait any longer. You reached down, hastily tugging his briefs down, before grazing your fingers along him, feeling him grow harder and harder as you reach the tip. You knew it sent him wild. “Stop” he moans, firmly grabbing both of your hands and putting them above your head, holding them in place with one hand, the other trailing along your belly and down to where you so desperately needed him. His fingertips finally reach the sensitive skin, rubbing achingly slow circles with his thumb and forefinger, a moan leaving your lips as the motions quicken. “Harry please” you beg, bucking your hips up, needing him. Harry obliged releasing your hands, lining up, giving himself two pumps before crashing his lips back on yours as he pushed himself in. You feel yourself stretch around him; the first movement slow to allow you to adjust before he quickened his pace. You take a sharp breath as you feel him go deeper and deeper with every thrust. Your legs wrap around his back, needing him to go even deeper. Your breath quickens along with his, a string of uncontrollable moans leaving your mouth. The anger from the night was slowly dissipating as the two of you got lost in each other. 

Your fingers gripped his shoulders tighter as the two of you began to hit your peaks. Just as you were nearly there, the tingle in your toes already building, the door creaks open followed by the sounds of heels and an unbearably whiny voice called out ‘Harry? Harry hun are you in here?’. You knew who it was before she even opened her mouth, but you didn’t let it stop you. Harry’s head snapped up, disconnecting his lips from your neck ‘For fucks sake Mel don’t you knock? Fuck off!’ a smirk growing on your lips the second the words left his mouth. Mel looked like a deer in headlights, you swear you see her knees almost buckle at the site of you as her cheeks grew more red by the second ‘I fuck- uh I’m sorry, shit I’ll j-, I’ll just leave’ she said in an absolute panic as she tried to avert her eyes but you weren’t trying to avoid her gaze, instead something spurred you on, wanting to really make crystal fucking clear that he was your, not hers. You ground your hips harder against Harry’s, he hadn’t dared to stop throughout this whole ordeal as he was desperately close to hitting his climax. You moaned his name loud enough for Mel to hear as she scrambled her way out of the room. The door slammed shut and you bit your lip, allowing yourself a small moment of victory before turning your full attention back to the man between your legs. ‘She’s gone baby, now finish me’ you whispered in Harry’s ear, eliciting an almost pornographic moan from his lips as he quickened his pace, reaching down to rub your sensitive bud, wanting to push the both of you over the edge so badly. The second his ring-clad fingers touch you you’re gone, the tingle starting in your toes as the coil tightened in your belly, ‘baby, I’m near- fffuck, nearly ther-oh god’ you moaned as the coil snapped and you lose it, hitting your peak. Your toes curled, fingers digging into Harrys broad shoulders as you rode out your intense orgasm. Harry continued to thrust deep into you, becoming just slightly sloppier, relishing in the moment as he’s finally pushed over the edge as well ‘shit you’re so fucking good baby, so fucking good’ he panted as he came, taking you in as he started to come down off his high. Allowing his body to collapse atop of yours, Harrys lips found your jaw once more, placing wet kisses on your jawbone. “God love you so fucking much” he says taking a moment to rest his head on your chest, a giddy smile on his face, “I love you too baby” you said, placing a kiss on the top of his just slightly sweaty forehead. 

“I was going to suggest that we go back out to the party but If I’m being totally honest, all I want to do is go home and do this all over again, what do you say?” Harry says, shifting from his position up onto his feet, reaching a hand out to pull you with him. “I think that might be the sexiest thing you have ever said to me” you teased, stealing one last kiss before the two of you got dressed and made your way back out to the bustling party hand-in hand. It was obvious to anyone who saw you what had just transpired, but you couldn’t care less what any of these strangers thought. You walked back into the main living area, to collect your things, immediately spotting Mel standing rather awkwardly with a group of people, trying to ignore your smug look. Harry led you through the room, waving a few quick goodbyes as you made your way out of the house and into the waiting Uber. You knew that Harry, being the kind person he is, would eventually apologise to Mel for everything but that didn’t put a damper on your victory because all that mattered was she finally knew that Harry was yours, and only yours. You’d won and god did it feel fucking good. 

Hi lovelies, this was requested pretty much a year ago but my goodness I’ve been through so much in this last year that I haven’t had much time to write. I hope you enjoy reading this little piece, I surely enjoyed writing it! If you have any requests just let me know. All the love, E xxx

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Higurashi Sotsu Ep10

I’m kinda out of it due to a mix of toothache and painkillers, so bare with me on this one, lmao.

Anyway, thoughts under the cut. Also lots of Umineko spoilers, probably.

I’m genuinely kinda shocked that this arc STILL isn’t over, but at least it makes a lot more sense now why it ended up being longer than I expected, lol. I still think it probably could have been condensed by an episode or two, but still. It turns out that way more was going on with Satoko behind the scenes in this arc than I thought.

There’s also the whole possibility that Ryukishi might have intentionally laid out the script of Gou/Sotsu so that this whole sequence of Satoko definitively accepting that she’s a witch and killing her humanity happened on the cumulative 34th episode [24 from Gou and now 10 from Sotsu]. I’ve been wondering if anything could actually justify the extremely slow pacing this has had up to this point, but this might actually be dumb enough to make me think it was all worth it, lol.

Also, I’ve been trying to avoid saying it, but I looked at the whole batch of leaks from this arc when they got posted about a month ago, and it looks like we’ve officially covered everything that was in those leaks. I kinda regret looking at them, since it spoiled that Satoko would have an internal conflict that gets expressed literally in usual WTC fashion, but in a funny way I guess I ended up getting a misguided idea of what was going to happen just from looking at the leaks.

For one thing, I completely forgot about the leak of Satoko shooting Teppei until I double checked it a few days ago, so I was mostly just focused on the stuff about her two sides fighting against each other, and I guess I thought it would have made her seem a lot more redeemable than how it ended up actually working out, lol. I thought that it would basically go in the opposite direction and this would signal the start of her spiraling into regret and despair over the course of Nekodamashi, but basically the opposite happened.

I guess this probably answers the question I’ve had of what could stop Satoko from just immediately shooting Rika after the cliffhanger from Nekodamashi, since this raises the possibility of her ‘human side’ literally stopping her from doing it.

Though at this point I’m starting to seriously wonder if there’ll be some big meta twist about how Sotsu has actually been a separate set of loops to what we saw in Gou, and maybe Nekodamashi really did just end in tragedy and then everything got reset. I’ve been toying with that idea in my head for a while, mainly just as a way to try and make Sotsu feel like more than just a literal retread of Gou, but this is giving it a bit more validity as a theory.

For one thing, Eua already implied during Satokowashi that she had a history with Satoko, and going by something Ryukishi said in an interview, there’s already been a time where Satoko called her Eua, so it’s possible that Satokowashi onward is an entirely new loop where both Satoko and Rika have had their memories reset, but Eua still remembers it. Presumably the ‘Gou loop’ would have just ended with failure some way or another, and Eua decided to do it again. She’s given Satoko a pretty definitive failure state in Sotsu, but it’s possible that wasn’t always the case, and up until now she’s been willing to just do it over and over again until she gets the right outcome.

There’s also the theory some people have suggested that maybe the conflict between Satoko’s two halves represented a literal split in the timeline of some kind, with Tataridamashi maybe being a version of events where her human side won out, if only temporarily, and Teppei stayed alive to attack Keiichi at the end of the arc. That’d at least be one way to explain the weirdness of Satoko killing Teppei in this episode after we saw him attack Keiichi at the end of this arc in Gou. I’m not entirely sure I support this exact interpretation, though, even if I like the idea of these maybe being different arcs.

I think that for now my theory about the Teppei situation is that either 1: it was some kind of hallucination from Keiichi, 2: it was a fictionalized account of events that she fed to Ooishi to help trigger his L5 state, or 3: it’s the same sort of thing as the ‘Illusion of Witches’ in Umineko, and we as the audience were directly being shown a fantasy version of events by Satoko. Which is basically the same thing as the second option, but still. Considering how this seems to be barreling it’s way towards being some kind of Umineko prequel, I’ve been wondering if maybe they’d go that far with introducing narrative concepts here that get expanded upon more in Umineko. This would at least be a pretty straightforward example to use to illustrate the idea of how fantasy is used as a device in Umineko. And since there were infamously major issues with people not understanding what Ryukishi was trying to do with those scenes in Umineko ep2 which lead to him having to rewrite ep3 to explain it more clearly, I can see why he might go as far as to include an introduction to this idea in this series.

It’s possible that it’s just a hallucination, but I kinda doubt it at this point. For one thing, it’d feel kinda weird if THIS was a hallucination but not the whole fight scene between Keiichi and Rena, but it’d also just feel kinda weird since Keiichi didn’t really seem to be going L5 in this arc, so it’s kinda hard to imagine him jumping straight to that level of insanity on such short notice.

At least if we assume that this leads into the ending we saw in Tataridamashi, and not something entirely different, I think the real version of events is probably that after leading Keiichi to her house, Satoko attacks him with the bat [or she rigged some kind of trap to knock him out], and then when he wakes up he sees the aftermath of Satoko killing Teppei and he assumes he did it. Though tbh even at the end of Tataridamashi I’m not even sure if Keiichi acknowledged any memory of what happened with Teppei, so I’m not even sure if we need to explain how he’d end up convinced that that version of events happen. For all we know it might just be something that the audience alone was being shown, and from Keiichi’s POV he just gets knocked out and then wakes up in the hospital.

It’s possible that Ooishi ends up attacking him, but I kinda doubt it, at least after how this episode went. Even in the midst of HS, he seemed aware of the fact that Keiichi was at worst just being unwittingly manipulated by the villagers, and that he genuinely thought he was helping her, so I doubt that Satoko would be able to convince him to attack him. And at this point it just seems more likely that Satoko would attack Keiichi herself instead of pointlessly relying on someone else to do it for her.

We do know that he shows up at the festival with the bloody bat, but he could have just entered the house after hearing the commotion of Keiichi getting attacked, and then Satoko told her version of events to him, and he just picked up the bat from the crime scene and took it to the festival.

It’s also worth noting that apparently in the manga version of Tataridamashi, Satoko never even leads Keiichi to her house in the first place, and he just gets shot by Ooishi at the festival, which makes it seem more likely that Keiichi himself isn’t super relevant to how this arc ends. At least in the manga version of the arc, it seems like Ooishi probably just walked in on Teppei’s dead body and then picked up the bat and went on to do his killing spree.

Now I’m also wondering what’ll happen in the next episode, since it seems like they literally only have the festival left to cover before this arc ends. I guess there might just be a lot of content related to what happens with Satoko in the fragment space between this arc and Nekodamashi, but either way it feels like it shouldn’t take long at all to reach the big climax of this arc, especially since Satoko has already steeled her resolve. I mean, I doubt that human-Satoko is gone for good, but the rest of this arc is probably just gonna be witch-Satoko putting her final plans into motion, so there shouldn’t be much to cover there.

There’s a possibility that they’ll also speedrun through all of Nekodamashi from her POV in the next episode, but I kinda doubt it’d go by that fast. In spite of it mostly being a montage from Rika’s POV, and there presumably not being much worth showing about the mechanics and reasoning behind how Satoko set up the different mini-loops there, I think there’s still a fair bit to be shown from her perspective in that arc. For one thing, we’ll probably get a reveal of what was really going on behind the scenes with how Hanyuu suddenly gave Rika a new set of powers, and the whole deal with the sword. And even after the loop montage, I think that stuff will go on behind the scenes with Satoko and Takano to lead into the scene where Takano apologizes to Rika.

At this point my main question is how long it might take to get through all of that, since we only have five episodes left. At least as far as we know. There might be some kind of continuation yet to be announced, but I don’t want to bet on it.

It just feels like there’s a whole lot of stuff left to do before we end this. Like the stuff I’ve mentioned before with the OP having scenes of the club members as teenagers wearing outfits different to their ones from Satokowashi, and the scene of teenage Rika and Satoko fighting in the fragment space.

I’m also wondering at this point if we’ll get some Bernkastel origin story stuff to go with the apparent Lambda origin story. At the very least, they never really explained why she ended up being Featherine’s miko in Umineko, aside from the vague ‘Featherine is probably some version of Hanyuu’ thing. Which has been especially weird since Eua has been using Satoko as her pawn against Rika in this series. But this episode also makes it seem even more likely that Eua doesn’t even like Satoko, and is just using her as a pawn towards a greater goal of entertainment, while probably also playing both sides, so I could see this leading to a situation where she ends up working with Bernkastel instead.

There’s still the question about if this is even a Lambda origin story in the first place, but at this point I think that it’d just be a straight up waste of time if it’s not. That basically feels like the entire purpose of Gou/Sotsu’s existence right now, so if it’s all some sort of elaborate troll, then that just feels like it’d make EVERYONE pissed off. It’d obviously annoy the Umineko fans who like the idea of this being a genuine prequel or tie-in of some kind, but for the people on the opposite end who hate that idea, I don’t think they’d appreciate being told ‘I was just spending nearly 50 episodes tricking you into thinking this was something you’d hate, lol’. It just seems like the worst of both worlds.

Also, I’m pretty open to different variants of how they could pull off the specifics of this being a ‘Lambda origin story’. Like, I still think it’d count if this ends up being set after Umineko and is some kind of elaborate reenactment of how Lambda came to be, or whatever. There’s a lot of specific ways it could be executed, but it’d basically just be the same thing at the end of the day.

I know that witch Satoko right now doesn’t have the same sort of personality that Lambda had, but like with how Beatrice went through multiple design iterations that changed her personality, Satoko might just end up going through more development that makes her closer to the Lambda we know in Umineko. There’s also the fact that the end of Umineko already implied that Bernkastel was just ‘playing the villain’ for fun, so Lambda’s whole personality there might have been somewhat manufactured.

I guess at this point I just have to wonder if we’ll see Satoko come up with the name Lambdadelta for herself, lol. Even back in Higurashi we saw how Rika came up with the name Bernkastel, so if they’re really going in this direction, it’d make sense. I know Satoko is still calling herself Satoko by this point, but just a few episodes ago she denied that she was becoming a witch, and now she’s calling herself one, so these things can change, lol.

Anyway, this whole episode ended up being more Umineko-y than I expected. Even aside from the obvious stuff with them using the term witch, the whole fight between the two Satokos in the fragment space was exactly the sort of thing you’d see in Umineko, down to the fact that it was a gun fight like the love trial was. The imagery of the red cracks on the black background, and the entire screen shattering like glass, also felt like it was lifted straight out of Umineko.

Even if it might be kinda cheesy and forced, the monkey brain part of me really likes this stuff, lol.

Come to think of it, I guess this also makes it a lot more likely in hindsight that her classroom panic attack in this arc really was [at least in part] a representation of her two sides clashing. I think she always planned to do it as a recreation of that scene from Tatarigoroshi, but when it actually started her human side bled through and her genuine regret came through as well. I also assume that all the shots in this arc of her looking uncomfortable or depressed, especially around Teppei, were probably also setting up for this. Which I think is fine, but they probably should have been a little more clear about it, since it came across as her just faking everything, and this ended up feeling more sudden than it should have. I get why people would still see it as being sudden and unearned, but I don’t really think so. They probably should have included more stuff like that during the first two arcs of Sotsu, though.

I’m curious to see if I’ll end up being right about my theory that the sword will end up being used as a plot device to completely separate Satoko’s witch self, and maybe Rika’s as well, into their own beings separate from Rika and Satoko in the ‘real world’. It still feels like the only way to have this actually set up for Umineko without having things end in total tragedy for Rika and Satoko in general.

There’s probably a lot more I could say about this episode, but I think this has gone on long enough as it is, lol.

[mwolf0epsilon]

First off, before everyone comes after my butt with their "No Fun Allowed" and "Cringe" signs, this is in no way something to be taken as gospel or insightful. It's not a prophetic enforcement of canon. It's literally a theory done for fun, and to try to piece the Bendy Crack up Comics into the general and messy lore of the BatIM franchise. 

Most of you get this and don't need a big wordy warning about fanon interpretation, but a lot of peculiar people tend to show up in my ask box hoping to start a fuss over my headcanons and AU ideas, so I thought to be nice and leave a polite and diplomatic "Kindly Fuck Off" sign at the door for them.

With that said, there will be mild spoilers, carry on of your own volition, down below under the cut that will definitely show up because Tumblr mobile is a functional app that's never given me trouble!!!

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[[MORE]]

The Bendy Franchise has an established issue with cohesion in its lore. We all know what I'm talking about, we all have reservations about canonical character discrepancies (game vs novel vs guidebook) and we all have been racking our brains with a few holes in the timeline, as well as how BatDR (which is neither prequel nor sequel) will fit into this, since it's connected to BatDS and that's an established prequel to BatIM.

Granted I myself am missing a lot of pieces, having to scrounge around for info since I can't really get any of the reading material myself and rely heavily on @british-hero (who owns the novel plus got her copy of the comics yesterday), a very incomplete wikie, and analysis and theories from SuperHorrorBro's Bendy videos.

Heck, I also rely on a lot of gameplay footage, because BatIM has a bit of subtle storytelling through visual design of its levels, and hints of how certain characters work through a few game mechanics.

Through this mishmash of collecting puzzle pieces for the greater picture I even have a few notes on my phone to piece together certain events in established dates, something which comes very in handy for this theory since it talks about two particular characters, the Projectionist and Brute Boris (and I guess Twisted Alice to some extent but it's more of a note on some interesting thoughts I have of her).

Without further ado, here's what this theory is all about: Why did Norman become the Projectionist, and why did Twisted Alice turn Buddy Boris into Brute Boris?

If you think about it, there's only two creatures in the studio that really seem out of place in the world of BatIM, and that's Prophet Sammy and the Projectionist. Neither are inherently similar to any of the cartoon characters, nor are they considered to be Lost Ones. They're certainly not Searchers, but while we know Sammy is unique because his method of transformation was different, we never got an explanation for Norman's. It could be that it's a process similar to BatDR's new enemy type that's larger and seems to have bits and bobs stuck to it, but then those big guys seem like the equivalent to Swollen Searchers for the Lost Ones. The Projectionist doesn't really fit the puzzle.

Or at least he didn't.

With the introduction of the Crack up Comics collection, we get three new characters that were definitely designed in the same manner that the Butcher Gang was. Beginning with a corrupt monster forms and then giving way to perfect and pristine rubberhose toon forms.

I'm talking about Miss Twisted, the Brute, and Cameraman.

The villainous trio from the Souper Boris comic strip.

To us it's obvious the artists created them in parallel to Twisted Alice, Brute Boris and the Projectionist, but to the actual canon this actually has a bit of an impact on the Projectionist's existence.

Why, you ask? Because those characters were introduced between 1936 and 1940.

Bendy Crack up Comics table of contents, showcasing the publishing dates of the strips.

For anyone who doesn't know (either from not paying attention to the Joey Drew Studios channel audio logs, or from not owning the books) the Ink Machine wasn't conceptualized or installed until 1942/1943. Putting that into perspective, the only other thing that happened in Joey Drew Studios in 1940, was the conceptualization of Bendyland (which is likely the origin of the idea for the Ink Machine itself).

This means that Cameraman existed well before the Projectionist ever came to be, and that made me think about another thing: The Ink's apparent sentience.

I'll be frank, the Ink is very hard nut to crack. I consider it a form of alchemized entity, others consider it pure black magic, and I'm pretty sure Joey Drew himself had no idea what he was dealing with when he began using it. The fact of the matter is that the Ink is alive and that it has its own agenda. One that coincides with Joey's, out of mutual interest.

In the novels it seems to want to be free, but it can't exactly do that as a formless liquid, so it tries to body-snatch people (ex: Sammy and Buddy's grandpa).

When Joey tries to use it to give life to Bendy through nothing more than using the Ink and a template (likely a character model sheet) the Ink tries to follow the model but immediately becomes a distorted humanoid version of it (which honestly rings so many fucking alarm bells on its own). Things… Escalate there on out, with Joey trying to perfect the method and only managing to succeed through Daniel Lewek (and many other nameless Boris Clones), Allison Pendle and Thomas Connor.

An important thing to take from this, however, is that by trying to perfect this method Joey not only taught the Ink to reshape things into viable referenced material, but that he had to have lost control of just how many souls were being pumped through the Ink Machine for him to monitor and keep up.

Sammy started killing people when he completely turned, and it didn't seem to take long for him to cut down people in likely both the music and art departments. At this point he had no self-restraint and was completely wrapped around inky fingers and Joey's lies. 

Norman is one such potential victim, and Dot and Buddy even passed by his ink-wrapped body while fleeing.

Now, the thing about trying to follow a specific guide and not having the actual means to make it exactly the same thing, is an easy enough notion to get (as shows like "Nailed It", and years of trying to perfect visual style mimicry, have taught me).

The Ink likely had the template it needed (maybe a printed copy of Souper Boris that got thrown around in the chaos), the insight of what Norman's role in the studio was, the amount of mass it needed to consume and transform his dead body, but not exactly the right sort of… Centerpiece for it...

Cameraman using his lens to light up his path.

But what's a projector besides a bigger fancier camera? Both blink, both take film, same thing right? The ink doesn't see the difference and just stitches together this humanoid bootleg cameraman with the pieces it finds that are similar enough.

Mechanical blinky head? Check.

Strange round disc near the belly? There's a speaker. That's round! Check.

Film? There we go, a nice big round reel full of film in it, let's put it near the head, that's how it works right? Check.

Lastly, no Joey to actually direct this artistic recreation of a one-off character. The Ink did it all by itself while he was off getting his hand broken by a rightfully upset Buddy Boris.

If you look at it objectively it makes sense that being the projectionist tasked with not only recording and maintaining the projectors themselves, that the entity in the Ink would pick Cameraman as a template for Norman's transformed self.

It also makes sense that the Projectionist is so off-putting in the studio. He's almost perfect, but not quite because there just weren't the right materials. He's stuck in between Twisted Alice and the Butcher Gang clones as another failed recreation.

Moving on to the next question on why Twisted Alice turn Buddy Boris into Brute Boris, when she hadn't done the same to any of the other Boris Clones.

It's hard to say really, but I think it all comes down to who Twisted Alice really is. It's very likely that, as Susie Campbell, she would have knowledge of the comic strips. A few were most likely made into cartoon shorts even (which isn't an unusual assumption to make), and maybe Susie voiced a few background characters for said shorts.

Susie may have lost her role as Alice, but before Joey came to her with his proposition for the "special project" it's very likely that she remained in the studio, forced to do the voices of characters that weren't noteworthy or that she felt completely disconnected from (talking chairs and singing hens really don't become beloved fan-favourites) . Maybe if the Souper Boris story was made into a short, she might have voiced Miss Twisted (which honestly would be personally insulting considering she once had the role of the main heroine).

Point is, Susie knows her lore, and that translates to Twisted Alice's repertoire of insightful knowledge on the abominations lurking around the studio.

She never did turn other Boris clones into brutish lackeys because at the time she didn't need to. But it doesn't mean she hadn't considered it. Henry's disruptive behaviour is just what she needed to put that plan into motion.

There was already a "Cameraman" walking about, one that could easily rip apart anything it came across, so acquiring the means to recreate the "Brute" would have been benefiting from her point of view. The Projectionist doesn't take orders and can't be reasoned with, so if she could make something just as strong that took her orders she could, theoretically, be safe from most terrors in the studio. If that didn't work, she would still likely send others to their death by simply sending them down to Level 14, or maybe lure the Projectionist to them herself (just because he doesn't take orders doesn't mean she can't use him to achieve her end goals).

Miss Twisted, the Brute and Cameraman in their evil swamp lair.

But why Buddy Boris specifically? Why couldn't she have used any of the bodies laying around? Freshness most likely. Rigor mortis is probably still a thing, even for living cartoons. Easier to work a fresh dead body than a bunch of stiff wolves.

That's at least why I think Brute Boris is a thing. Susie's knowledge of most Bendy cartoon/comic strip characters, taking inspiration from the Projectionist's presence, and honestly a very twisted sense of humor and irony. In her quest to become a Perfect Alice, the heroine of the show, she ended up becoming just as antagonistic (although more sadistic) as Miss Twisted, a Bendy comic strip villainess.

[gracewatsonauthor]

Becoming Will

‘Becoming Will’ is a prequel short story to The Story of Lizzy and Darcy, a modern-day queer re-telling of Pride and Prejudice. It tells the story of Will when he first came to live with Darcy, recovering from the lowest point in his life.

The Adventures of William Fitts is out now.

He looked in the mirror, studying his reflection.

It was odd, he mused, looking at his face and thinking ‘him’. Knowing that he could do that and he wasn’t hiding anything, he wasn’t lying to anyone. It had been three months since he’d last taken the time to look at his reflection, to really study it, and in some ways he could see all of the things that had changed, but in others… it was far too similar to how it had been before.

He was a lot thinner, for starters; skin and bones, really. And tired; he looked very tired. Even though the last few nights had been the first in a real bed since he’d left his parents’, he hadn’t been able to sleep. He saw shadows in every corner, and when he closed his eyes the darkness had swooped in. He’d ended up sitting there, curled up with the light on, willing himself to feel anything but fear.

It somehow didn’t feel real. It didn’t feel true that Darcy had spent weeks hunting for him, spent every spare minute searching when she should have been at home looking after her brother, when she had more important things to do. It felt out of place that she had carefully found some of Jordan’s spare clothes instead of her own, cut his hair short for him and presented him with a binder she’d ordered online.

There was a quiet knock at the door.

“Come in,” he said.

The door opened.

“Hi.”

It was Darcy. She was trying her best at a smile, but it didn’t really work; it’s not like she was particularly good at it before… well, before.

“Hi,” he replied, not turning to face her, staying with his eyes fixated on his own reflection.

“Dinner’s ready, I can bring some up if you want?”

“No. I’ll come down.”

She was being careful, so god-damn careful, and he just wished that something would happen. She’d cried when she found him – held him close and sobbed into his shoulder. He wished he’d felt relieved, but he’d felt nothing.

He’d thought that by now, he’d feel different. That somehow the world would look a little bit better once he had somewhere to go.

He’d been wrong.

There were three places set at the dinner table, although the chances of them all being occupied were minimal. He slid into the one nearest the door, trying to make himself as small as possible. He didn’t fit in here, he didn’t belong here.

Darcy came through with a steaming dish, placing it in the centre of the table.

“I made cottage pie, how you like it,” she said. “Or at least, I tried to. I couldn’t, um, I couldn’t do it quite like Mum does.”

There was a pregnant silence as they both registered the use of the present tense, neither of them correcting it.

“Thank you,” he said eventually, jerking his head slightly in lieu of making eye contact.

Jordan bound through as Darcy was serving up, grabbing his plate.

“I’m going to eat in my room. Hey, Darcy, could I have some money? The guys are talking of going away for the weekend, just to the beach.”

Darcy looked at Jordan, her eyes wide and hopeful. “I don’t think there should be any problem with that, we’ll just go over the details later, okay? How was, um, how was the last day of school?”

“What do you care?”

And Jordan was gone.

Darcy sank into her chair slowly, her face giving nothing away.

There was silence, once more, between the two of them.

“This is delicious,” he said. They both knew he was lying.

“Thank you.”

Silence.

“How are you doing? How are you… holding up?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

No more words were exchanged for the rest of the meal.

There was shouting that evening.

There had been shouting most evenings since he’d come here, and probably had been for weeks before that.

He sat there, curled up in the enormous bed, not caring that he could hear every word of their conversation. He didn’t have the energy to ignore it, or listen in, or pretend to do something else.

He didn’t have the energy to sleep.

“What is your problem?! I just want to go away for a few days with my mates, why is that such a big deal all of a sudden?”

The yelling reached every corner of the flat.

“Jordan, I don’t have a problem with you wanting to go away with your friends, I just think we should talk about how much these trips are costing! Besides, you’ve only just turned sixteen, you’re not old enough to go swanning off on your own.”

“Oh, so you don’t have money for me to see my friends but you have money for your charity cases? How is that fair?”

“He’s not a charity case, he’s my friend, and I’m willing to pay for this trip but I just want to know that you’ll be safe and responsible.”

“What the hell Darcy, you’ve never worried about that before!”

“Well, maybe I should have.”

“You’re not Mum and Dad, so stop pretending! Stop pretending to suddenly give a shit about what I do!”

The argument reached this point every night, no matter where it started out. It was all downhill from here, and he knew it wasn’t going to be pretty.

“I do care about you Jordan, I really do and I’m trying, cut me some slack here-”

“Oh, boo hoo, perfect Darcy can’t do everything perfectly! But it’s all okay, isn’t it, because you rescued him, you found him, you saved him, and he doesn’t even have a bloody name but apparently we’re not allowed to say-”

“JORDAN! Don’t you dare finished that sentence!”

“When will you get it into your head, you are not my parent!”

“Please, I just want to help. Tell me what I can do to help.”

“I want to go away with my friends.”

There was quiet, and he knew that Darcy was agreeing, giving in, because the same happened every night.

Twenty-four hours later and they were fighting again, only this time he was there to see it. He sat there, silently, not daring to make his presence known.

“It’s not like I have school tomorrow, why can’t I go out? I just want to spend time with my mates, why are you making it so difficult?!”

“Because you’re sixteen and you have a curfew which you’ve already broken this week. You can go out next week but for now you’re grounded.”

“I don’t believe this. Grounded? Like I’m a child? Darcy, you’re six years older than me, you can’t ground me.”

“I can and I have, deal with it.”

“You are just unbelievable!!! Prancing around like you’re so much better than the rest of us, but why don’t you just PISS OFF, DARCY!”

“Don’t you dare-”

He hadn’t realised that the shouting had stopped, or that he’d curled up into a ball with his hands over his ears, until felt gentle fingers prying his arms back down.

“Hey, hey, you’re okay now, you’re safe. It’s okay, there’s no more shouting, you’re safe here.”

He vaguely registered a heavy sigh followed by a “I’m going to my room. Don’t bother coming to talk to me,” as Jordan stalked out.

Darcy ignored Jordan, and focussed instead on him. “Are you… are you okay? I know that’s a stupid question.”

He nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

She continued. “I’m sorry about all this, I really am. I’ll do anything and everything that I can to make things better for you, okay? I promise.”

He nodded again. “You’ve already done so much,” he said quietly. “More than enough. Thank you, Darcy. I mean it.”

She sighed, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I’m your friend. It’s what we do.” She cleared her throat. “I was thinking, do you… do you want to go back to the doctor’s? Like you were before? It might help to talk to someone about everything that happened, and maybe if you wanted to you could start looking at the medical side of things? No pressure, of course; you have to do whatever’s right for you. But I’ll be here for you every step of the way.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Jordan needs you more right now, you need each other. Focus on him right now, he’s more important.”

Darcy sighed, leaning back against the sofa. “I don’t know what to do with Jordan right now. He’s my brother, and we’ve never been that close but we’ve always at least got on. Now, though… now I don’t know what to think, what to feel. I’m not sure I know how to feel. I’m just drifting, and I feel like I’m trying my best but that at the same time I’m barely trying at all.”

“You’ll figure it out,” he said, rubbing her arm in what he hoped was a comforting motion. “I know you will. You’re Darcy Williams, you can get through anything the world throws at you. I know you can.”

She smiled weakly. “So can you, Mr Fitts. So can you.”

And for the first time since coming out to his parents, he truly smiled.

“I was so cold and so scared. Every night, I curled up, afraid to sleep in case… in case something happened. Some nights there were some guys who would, um, they’d say things. Things that made me want to, want to, want to hurt myself. Sometimes I did. Some nights I found somewhere to stay, but most of the time…

“I told myself that, that if, that if things got worse, if I was there for a long time, that I’d end it. And I… I was going to. I had it all planned out. But she came, Darcy came to find me, she’d never stopped searching and she saved me. I owe her my life, literally. But I… I wish I could feel more grateful. I wish I could just get on with living my life. But I… I still don’t feel like I have a home. I’m still cold, I’m still afraid to sleep. And I just want it to stop.”

Silence.

“She sounds like a good friend.”

“She is. She’s the best friend anyone could hope for, but she doesn’t see that and sometimes I just want to shake her and make her see what she does for me, how much she does for everyone in her life. How much she sacrifices.”

“Maybe you should tell her that? It might be good for both of you.”

“…Yes. I think you’re right.”

Silence.

“I think it might be a good idea if she joined us for a few minutes next week. It would help her know how to help you best. How does that sound?”

“That would be okay, I guess.”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to. Think about it.”

Arguments continued, every night, but he started to sleep a little better. He made sure to spend at least a few minutes each day talking to Jordan away from Darcy, doing everything he could to integrate himself into this little, massively dysfunctional household. Sometimes he wanted to shake some sense into the both of them, make them see that all they had now was each other and they couldn’t throw that away. But the thought of speaking up like that made him feel ill.

He had some clothes of his own now. Darcy helped him pick them out; it was odd, shopping in the men’s section. He was used to standing in the women’s section, trying not to let his mother see him glancing over at the suits and the baggy jeans and the trainers.

He spent a long time each day looking in the mirror, analysing what he saw. He’d run his hand over his chin, imagining what it would feel like to have stubble there, standing sideways on to check that the binder was doing its work.

Sometimes things were bad. Putting on weight again had brought back the curves that he’d been so desperate to lose; the minute he noticed it, he didn’t realise until Darcy came running in that he’d smashed the mirror and was curled up on the floor, hand bleeding. She’d held him, talked to him, hushed him until he calmed down enough to let her treat his hand.

“Have you thought any more about a name? I understand that you’re uncomfortable with the name that you were given at birth, but having a name might help give you a sense of identity.”

“I… I’ve had some thoughts, but I… I know it’s stupid, but I don’t feel like I deserve it.”

“You don’t deserve a name?”

Shrug. “Something like that. It’s, um, it’s tradition in our family to name the firstborn son after his grandfather. I… sometimes I think that it might be nice to do that, you know? But then I remember that I’m not a part of that family anymore. And that hurts, so I stop thinking about it.”

“Do you think about your parents often?”

“Every day. All the time. I saw my dad, in the supermarket. I don’t think he saw me, and I was sort of glad because I don’t know what I would have done. I was… I was so scared, seeing him there, and remembering what happened the last time I spoke to him, when I… when I left. I mean, when they, um, when they t-told me to leave. But I – I wanted to, to go up to him and say that I’m sorry and that it was all wrong and could I p-please go home, because I just miss them both so damn much and I feel like I should hate them but I just can’t, they’re my parents. More than anything, I just… I just wanted him to look at me and see his son. Not a daughter that went wrong, a son. I mean, is that really too much to ask? I mean, the irony is, he always went on about how much he wanted a son, and then… well, yeah.”

“Did you come out to your grandfather? Does he know?”

A shake of the head. “No. He, he passed away a few years ago. I like to think that he would have been okay with it, you know? I mean, we were always quite close. But then, this sort of thing never came up. So I don’t really know. I guess I’m probably just kidding myself, but it’s a nice thought. But taking his name, it feels… it feels like a huge assumption. And I’m not sure that I’m ready to face up to the thought that maybe he wouldn’t have been okay with it.”

“What was his name?”

“William.”

Everything changed that night.

He was used to opening the door to Darcy and Jordan’s apartment and hearing shouting, yelling, and slamming doors, so it was unnerving when, that evening, he heard nothing through the front door. Not even Jordan playing music obnoxiously loud on purpose, or the sound of Darcy attempting to cook a meal.

He pushed the door open slowly, nervously, to see both Darcy and Jordan sat on the sofa, Darcy with her arm round her brother. A few steps into the apartment and he could hear that Jordan was quietly crying, apologising, while Darcy comforted him, whispering under her breath that it would all be okay, that she was sorry, that she would fix it, that she was there for him.

He didn’t know if they noticed him, but he didn’t mind. He slipped past them quietly, into his room, and sat in bed looking at baby names on Darcy’s old laptop. There was something very strange but sort of nice about picking out his own name; for once he was finally feeling in control of things, just a little bit. He must have looked at hundreds of names, from the usual ones like John and Jack to the weird and wacky ones that lacked vowels and were filled with Xs and Zs, but nothing seemed right. He couldn’t help but feel that he’d know his name when he saw it, but it was frustrating when nothing just clicked.

After a couple of hours, there was a knock at the door.

“Come in.”

Darcy slipped into the room, softly pushing the door shut behind her.

“Hi,” she whispered, perching on the side of his bed. “Jordan’s just gone to try and get some sleep, it’s been a… long day.” She rubbed at her red-rimmed eyes. “Do you… do you remember George Wickham? I think you might have met him once or twice at my birthdays or something.”

He nodded. “Yeah, vaguely. Friendly guy, looks like he stepped off the runway?”

“That’s him. He…” she took a deep, shuddering breath. “Jordan’s been spending all his time with him. All that time that I thought he was going to spend with his friends, and he was hanging out with George. All that money was going straight into George’s pocket, on gambling and drinks and God knows what else. I just…” She put her head in her hands as tears started to roll down her cheeks. “How did I not see this?! How did I let things get this bad, how did I let this slip by me? I’ve been so stupid, I’ve been ignoring my own brother. This is all my fault.”

He quickly put the laptop to one side, leaning forwards to wrap Darcy in a hug. “Darcy, this isn’t your fault. You two have both had a really tough time of it in the last few months and what matters now is that together you fix this. And I know that you can, because I know you. You can do anything you set your mind to. You’re my best friend, Darcy, and if anyone can fix this it’s you.”

“I couldn’t do this without you, either,” she said, her voice stifled from the tears. “I admire you, so much. The things you’ve been through, that you’ve fought against… Your strength and your will are inspiring. Honestly, they are.”

He didn’t realise that he’d frozen until Darcy sat up straight, looking into his eyes, concerned.

“Hey, are… are you okay?”

He nodded, humming. “Yeah, yeah, I was just… thinking about what you said.”

She raised an eyebrow. “What… exactly?”

He smiled. “Nothing.”

He didn’t say anything that night; he wanted to sleep on it, to try it out in his head for a while before committing to anything, but by breakfast the next morning he couldn’t hold it in much longer.

“You’re in a good mood,” Darcy said, almost suspiciously, as he came into the kitchen.

He shrugged, unable to wipe the grin off his face. “I just have a great feeling about today. In fact, I’m feeling better than I have in months. And that’s because-”

He was interrupted as the doorbell rang.

“Hold that thought,” Darcy said, going to answer the door. He began to make the tea, keeping one ear out for what was going on.

“George,” he heard Darcy say coolly as she answered the door. “I see you got my message.”

“Yeah,” he heard the visitor’s voice drift through the flat. “What’s going on, everything okay?”

He tiptoed through to the sitting room, peering around the corner to see what was going on.

“Jordan told me everything.”

He saw George’s face fall as soon as Darcy spoke, dropping his façade immediately. George squirmed, trying to talk his way out of it.

“What, that we’ve been hanging out? You, er, you didn’t know that? You know what it’s like, we’re basically family, and it’s like he’s my brother, I’m just watching out for him.”

“Doesn’t sound like you’ve been doing much ‘watching out’, as you put it. Sounds more like you’ve been dragging him into bad situations and taking money off him, taking advantage of him!”

“I wouldn’t call it taking advantage, he just helps me out occasionally like friends do, you know?”

He stepped out from his hiding place, surprising them all when he piped up, “Friends don’t do that, George.”

George looked at him disbelievingly, looking at him with scorn. “Oh, really? And how much do you know about friends, huh? I know all about you and your little sob story, you’re Jordan’s favourite thing to moan about. How’s not being homeless going?”

“George-” Darcy said warningly, but he cut her off.

“I know that friends are there for you when you need them the most, and that they do everything they can to build you up, not tear you down.”

He flinched as George strode towards him but kept his ground, looking George straight in the eye and ignoring how small he suddenly felt.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” George growled, his voice dangerously low.

He drew himself up, trying with all his might to appear more confident than he felt.

“It means that you need to get out and leave my friends alone. You’ve done enough damage here; now go and enjoy your sorry little life somewhere else.”

He heard Darcy gasp and it took him a second to realise that George had drawn back his fist, his face fierce with anger. He shut his eyes, ready for the blow, but it never came; George Wickham was frozen where he stood, trembling with restraint.

He opened his eyes as slowly as he dared, not daring to look at Darcy’s terrified face.

George spit on the ground in front of him, before growling, “You’re lucky I don’t hit girls.”

He felt like the breath had been knocked out of him. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t see anything, he couldn’t hear anything. He shrank, smaller and smaller, the room spinning around him, the cold and wet of an outdoor night seeping into his bones. He heard their voices, all their voices, telling her that she was wrong, that she was disgusting, that she should get out, that they never wanted to see her again, that she deserved to die. He hit his head over and over again, desperate to get the voices out, to tell them to leave, but that just made them louder and louder, and she wanted them out out out they needed to be gone. He needed them gone. He needed her gone.

“Shut up shut up shut up shup up shut up shut UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!”

And they shut up.

He opened his eyes. He was on the floor, George was gone, Darcy was there, Jordan was there. Neither of them said anything, concerned and worried but silent.

He took deep breaths, filled with a fire that he’d forgotten about, that he didn’t know he had.

He spoke.

“My name is William Fitts. I am Will. And I am me. I know who me is now. And that’s my name. Will.”

[writingcity]

Cloe Chapter One

Cloe is the only child of the leader of the Moon pack and she has no interest in taking over. Luckily, she meets someone who shares a similar frustration. Nightmares and love will soon start to blossom and it might bring more regret than happiness.

This is a prequel to The Unthinkable, but it's about Cloe, (I mean it's obvious since the title says 'Cloe' and not 'Aaliyah'.) not Aaliyah, but I do have a sequel for The Unthinkable planned. It's going to involve Ace, a lot of kids, and of course romance.

Sometimes I wish I had headphones. Cloe thinks as she flips through her textbook.

Her father seems to always be babbling about this moon pack he wanted his only child to take over.

I just want to go to school like a normal teenage girl, is that too much to ask? She thinks, mentally rolling her eyes. The moon mage glances over at her watch, "As interesting this conversation is, I have to go to school."

Cloe pushes herself onto her paws, packs her textbook into her shoulder bag via magic. She could feel her father's cold golden gaze on her, but she ignores it.

    . . .

Cloe's ears twitch as she picks up conversations around her, a bit irritated she can't study in peace.

"There's a new kid coming in today," a female voice whispers softly to her friend.

"He looks cute," the other giggles.

I should've gone to homeschool. Cloe thinks, looking at the ceiling.

After the ending bell rings, Cloe makes her way to the next class. It was crowded in the halls, students talking at the same time making it impossible to tell what they were chattering about. A male light mage squeezes his way through the overfilled hallway, he spots her and cautiously walks. He, unfortunately, walks toward her, for some reason he strikes her as familiar.

"Do you happen to know anyway to get these girls to stop following me?" he asks in a low desperate whisper.

"You could ignore them or tell them to screw off."

The group gives her a dirty look, but Cloe doesn't care.

"I'm afraid I'm too nice for that," he chuckles then walks around her, "thanks for the help anyway, Cloe."

She abruptly turns around to question how he knew her name, but the group following him seems to have swallowed him. The moon mage feels compelled to chase him down and demand information. But, she doesn't, she walks her stunned mind to the next class.

. . .

Cloe feels like some kind of stalker. But, I'm not stalking, just following him while planning the whole conversation.

She was hidden in the bushes on the path, wondering when she should confront him. The light mage looks more relaxed since the school group wasn't following him. Cloe takes a deep breath and shakily steps out.

"Ahem, new kid."

He almost jumps five feet in the air, "Would it hurt to not give me a soul attack?"

"Then why is it perfectly okay to call a stranger by their name?"

The boy squints at her for several seconds. "Well, considering our fathers' are in a business agreement, I thought you already knew my name."

"That doesn't make it okay," Cloe shakes her head, "is this your first time going to a school?"

"You and I both know Moon and Light pack do not send their offspring to schools often," he sighs, rolling his purple eyes.

"True."

"I hope you don't mind my bluntness," a friendly smile spread on his light yellow lips, "would you like a walk?"

Cloe narrows her dark golden eyes, "Why would you ask something like that?"

"Well, when we go home, there'll be just training we don't even want in the first place." With that, he starts walking away.

The girl mulls over this, her brain reminds her she should go home and study. But, her soul thrives for knowledge and knew dang well this boy has a point. Cloe pads behind him, "If I'm going to be walking with you, I should know your name."

"Abel."

"Uh-huh, what's that mean?"

The light mage raises an eyebrow, "Why, does your name mean something?"

"Something to do with blooming."

"It literally means breath."

Cloe snorts. "So, does your father expect you to take over some pack just because of only child bullcrap?"

"Yes, it's really annoying, it's just not my thing." Abel shrugs.

Cloe didn't usually have anyone to talk to, she never liked to, but talking to someone who shares a frustration similar to hers was comforting.

. . .

Her pencil shifted in her magic grip, she could barely concentrate. She rubs her forehead. What is wrong with me. She looks around a few times, catching creatures staring at Abel. He isn't the only cute boy in the room, you know. Cloe rolls her eyes before returning her focus to the paper.

The rest of the day rolls smoothly, she took another stroll with Abel after school. For the sole purpose of avoiding their fathers. The night didn't promise good dreams, however.

. . .

Cloe had found herself on the edge of the dark forest, the area dark all around her. A moon mage pup cowering near her front paws and a familiar light mage swaying on his limbs. Blood was dripping off his fur and his vacant purple eyes staring right at the two. It looked like Abel, but she didn't know why she would dream about him wounded. She couldn't understand what the pup was all about either.

It was a miracle he wasn't flat on the ground, both wings had been bent at a horrifying angle. Since the wing bones were connected to the backbone, his back also looked deformed.

Then she woke up, her tail curling around herself. Cloe did not have the slightest clue why she had that terrifying and confusing nightmare.

She didn't tell anyone about the dream and had no plans to. Cloe took her usual path to class, student conversations forcing themselves into her ears.

"Did Abel really hurt himself playing football?"

"Yeah, he broke a wing…"

That's when she seems to stop picking up sound and her brain forgot to command motion to her paws. A chilling grip held tight to her soul. After a moment, she could finally move again. But, she did not go to class. Instead, her legs lead her to the nurse's office.

"Way to go, you managed to break your wing in something as simple as football," the sarcastic voice of Cloe makes Abel jump slightly.

"Let's give me a soul attack while we're at it," the light mage huffs, swishing his tail.

"So, why football?"

"Those professionals were mocking me," Abel defends, putting a paw on his chest.

Cloe raises an eyebrow.

"Fine, I felt like they were mocking me with their eyes, yet they let me try to beat them at their own game."

Cloe sighs, shaking her head. "You're so stupid."

"I'm easily offended, not stupid," the male pouts.

The moon mage female spins on her paws, "Try not to break anything else, I'm going to class."

"Have fun," Abel says as she left.

She had to force the tempting smile off her lips, a smile of amusement.