#he should have never come back. damn it. everyone knew that would happen eventually

[goldenpinof]

putin: *has elections*

putin: *finally kills the only opponent he feared*

putin's regime killed Navalny?! if this is true and people won't do anything-

[logansdoll]

professor

the students are excited to have their old biology teacher back, but you can't be that great... right?

CW: fluffy fluff, the events of Last Stand didn't happen, Logan being Logan, reader is a chlorokinetic (controls plants), love at first sight, Logan's down bad off rip

It was a couple months back when word of your return began buzzing around the mansion.

No one knew where the rumor started, or who started it, but the day wasn't even half over before the entire student body was obsessed.

Whispers muttered during class, lunchtime gossip chains, study group pow-wows.

Many couldn't believe it.

You? Come back?

No way.

Some could've sworn you were supposed to be gone for at least a few more years.

Others thought you weren't supposed to come back at all.

And a small few even believed that your arrival could come as soon as the following month.

But after a week or so of no follow up, eventually, the rumor was put to rest, interest diverted to the next, newest gossip on campus.

...

That is... until the story came out.

Apparently, one of the students—who seemed to have some sort of super-hearing—eavesdropped on a conversation between Scott and Charles, and found out you would, in fact, be returning to the school and your position as the biology teacher.

And that was all the students needed to go absolutely berserk.

It wasn't even a full twenty-four hours later before the first meeting of your welcoming committee was held, the new club already having about twenty-five members.

While they began making preparations and to-do lists for your arrival, another group began going out to your garden on the weekends, trimming the overgrown weeds and planting new flowers in their place, caring for them in the meantime.

Some students even started straightening up your old classroom, cleaning the clouded glass of the greenhouse and redecorating with your favorite blooms.

And, of course, Logan had to return from one of his trips right in the middle of it.

Now, at first, he didn't really give a shit.

But out of curiosity, he asked Rogue what all the commotion was about—especially after some kid ran past him with a trolley full of potting soil—and what he gathered was that you were some professor who left about a year ago to teach abroad.

Apparently, you were nearly every kid's favorite teacher, your fun and interactive lessons, along with your genuinely kind and caring personality, touching the hearts of damn near the entire student body.

Even kids who had never met you before were chipping in, helping out those who needed a little extra manpower.

It was almost unbelievable.

'If this chick doesn't show up, Charles is gonna have a nuclear war on his hands...'

"Guys!" Kitty shouted, running straight through the front door and into the foyer. "I think her car just pulled up!"

The following stampede could've ranked as a 9.0 on the Richter scale.

It was eight in the morning on a Saturday, and half the kids were still in their pajamas, but they all moved with lightning speed, grabbing their signs and noise-makers before running down the stairs.

A boy with super speed sprinted to the lower level dorms and woke everyone else, while a girl with the ability to stretch hung up a welcome banner over the archway.

"Hurry! She's walking up!" Kitty reported, her head halfway through a window.

Quickly, the students formed a crowd at the door, the teachers slowly descending the stairs to join them.

"Mmm. She's here already?" Jean yawned, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she landed on the final step, hand in hand with Scott.

"Still as punctual as ever," he smiled.

"I'll say," Ororo grinned, crossing her robe over her chest, "She wasn't supposed to show up for another week."

Logan was less amused.

No one should have that much energy on a weekend.

Even still, he quietly settled himself off to the side, leaning up against a wall while the others joined the crowd.

'You wouldn't get this kinda reception if the President was the one coming...'

"Y'know..." Ororo started, seemingly out of nowhere, as she joined him on the wall. "I think you'll like her... she's just your type."

He turned to her, raising a brow, "Is she, now?"

Despite his playful tone, he wasn't entertaining the idea in the slightest.

All that true love-soulmate bullshit didn't exist for men like him.

He was 136, going on 137, and had loved and lost enough times to realize that at the end of the day, he'd outlive her.

So why bother?

His life would be one he forever walked alone—a fact he was slowly coming to terms with.

Or at least he thought he was.

Because as you walked through the threshold before him, flashing a heart-stopping grin, he felt all that shit go flying out his head.

You were absolutely beautiful.

And you'd think after 200 years he'd learn...

"Surprise!" the children cheered, proudly holding up their signs and tossing confetti into the air. "Welcome home!"

You gasped, dropping your bags and covering your mouth in shock as you admired the homemade decorations.

"Kids, you shouldn't have!" you smiled brighter than the sun, letting out a small laugh as they all rushed you for a group hug.

And, of course, you were happy to oblige.

"It's good to see you, (y/n)," Scott greeted, he and Jean walking over.

(y/n).

The name sounded like honey on his tongue.

"Logan," Ororo smirked, elbowing her friend in the rib. "You're drooling."

The man cleared his throat, closing his mouth and averting his eyes so they couldn't embarrass him any further.

"Some of you have gotten so big since we last met!" you cheesed, pulling back to examine each of them. "And I see some new faces, too..."

But, against his will, Logan's gaze trailed back to you, Jean's speech going in one ear and out the other.

And when it landed on your face again, he realized he wasn't the only one staring.

Your soft, (e/c) eyes were trained on him as well, their flicker of curiosity and awe completely contrasting your composed demeanor.

It made him feel hot, being subject to your gaze, and he could feel himself thoughtlessly straightening his posture, making himself appear taller, and slightly larger.

You let out a silent laugh, discreetly bringing a hand to your lips to cover it, but not before letting the man get a peak of your smile once more.

Fuck, that smile.

"Can you two quit eye-fucking? It's gross," Scott groaned, joining the two on the wall.

Logan ignored him, looking toward you with a small smirk.

Something about you gave him a good feeling... like things would be different.

Maybe love could exist for him after all...

[buckyalpine]

You know what I was thinking of all day? Comforting our sad baby Bucky who just wants a hug. He's tired from a bad mission. His body aches. He saw things he didn't want to. He could really just use something.

Even just a smile?

He doesn't have a lot of friends and most people around the compound outside of the team avoid him. Even those who'd worked with him for ages were still wary, scared he'd snap if they just asked how he's doing. He would have liked it, even just a hello in passing. When he walks by with a scowl on his face, no one meets his eye. If they did, they would have seen the storm that was brewing inside was not an angry one.

He just needed to be held.

When he continues to make his way towards his room, he's given a few nods from a couple of teammates but he knows they're doing it while holding their breath. He reaches his room and the damn is about to break, he hasn't been held in years, he feels so cold and empty, was he really so terrifying, no one would-

"Sergeant Barnes?"

A gentle voice calls for him, forcing him to swallow the lump in his throat. He knows that voice, mustering his best smile as he turns around to find Tony's lab assistant with a cup of chamomile tea in his mug and a file with the mission report he was supposed to fill out.

"Everyone's filling their reports in the conference room, I figured you'd rather have some privacy so I thought I'd bring it to you" You give him the same warm smile you grace everyone with, handing him the steaming cup, "and of course, your favourite"

It's too much. Normally it wouldn't be but he's never given such kindness but he always gets it from you. You're so unbelievably affectionate to everyone and he really doesn't feel worthy but today he needs it so he graciously accepts the tea and file with a soft thank you.

"and call me Bucky, doll"

You stiffen at the slight crack in his voice, frowning when he keeps his eyes trained to the floor. It wasn't unusual for Bucky to keep to himself but you catch his reddened nose and glassy baby blues and it breaks your heart.

He opens the door to enter his room ready to drown in a lonely storm when that voice calls again. Surely he was dreaming. He sets down his things, turning to find you still at his door.

"Bucky?" You enter his room, standing before him when he doesn't ask you to leave, "Are you okay?"

He doesn't trust himself, nodding and desperately blinking back tears. He wished you'd leave, he wished you'd stay, he wished he could just tell you what he needed, his hands fisted into balls by his side, he should just suck it up, what was he expecting-

"Come here" You whisper, your hand coming to cradle the back of his head, bringing it to rest into your neck where he can let go, your arms wrapping around his body.

Bucky doesn't get a chance to realize what's happening because as soon as he feels your touch the first sob escapes. He's hidden himself away in your hold, his tears wetting your skin with no remorse. He clings onto you like a lifeline while you coo and comfort him, playing with his hair and rubbing his back.

You don't let go, allowing him to cry for as long as he needs. Even after his cries turn into sniffles, you comfort him, pressing a kiss to his temple while he holds you extra tight.

When he's finally ready to let go, albeit reluctantly, he's instantly shused from trying to apologize. You don't ask questions asking what happened or why he was upset. It really didn't matter. You just knew. Bucky whispers a thank you, making a mental note to get you some flowers to properly showed you how much he appreciated it.

Of course you'd always just know when he needed it so he'd thank you again with coffee.

Dinner.

Dinner again.

Eventually, a ring.

You always knew what he needed.

A hug.

That was all.

[yanderes-galore]

Micah bell with Prompts 8, 10, by inuzkua

12/13

Wel almost there

-🧨

Oh... well, these prompts alone are pretty dark like most of the Micah ones. I'll see what I got. WARNING, THIS COVERS SOME DARK TOPICS, PLEASE KEEP THIS IN MIND.

Prompts Here

Yandere! Micah Bell Prompts 8 + 10

“You’re so dramatic. The bleeding should stop soon.”

“The more I look at you the more I wanna hurt you, why is that?” 

Pairing: "Romantic"(?)

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Manipulation, Sadism, Micah likes to hurt you, One-sided relationship, Possessive behavior, Blood, Violence, Marking/Branding with a knife, Touchy behavior, Forced "relationship".

You and Micah had never gotten along. Honestly, not many got along with Micah in general. However, you and Micah tended to clash heads more than most.

You had gotten into many arguments. Most of which were because Micah wanted to see how far he could push you. To him, being cruel to you was his form of fun.

He liked to see you get worked up. He liked you upset. He liked fighting with you. He liked how much it hurt you.

Micah wasn't sure why making you suffer brought him joy. He was already quite insufferable to everyone he comes across. Yet with you...

It's so much different.

He likes the tears in your eyes as he's belittling you. You may hide them, but he knows. He likes that he has that power over you.

Your fellow gang members were aware of Micah's sadism to you. His gaze was normally cold, yet there was a hint of desire in his eyes as he looked at you. One may even describe it as ownership towards you.

You thought it couldn't get much worse. You thought he was just going to be a stinking rat who likes to toy with you. Unfortunately...

Micah loves to discover new ways to hurt you.

Micah was always vile. You knew that even before he got touchy. He always has such a grin when he reaches for you, chuckling when you smack his hand away.

Micah would give you crude flirtation as he wraps his arms around you. He acts like you two are something close. In reality, you despise him.

He probably despises you for other reasons.

After all, why else would he be insistent to hurt you? He insults you, makes you uncomfortable.... Micah is a vile man, always will be...

Yet he's a vile man with a goal it seems...

A twisted goal.

“You’re so dramatic. The bleeding should stop soon.” Micah grumbles, looking wistfully as his blade finishes its job. Blood coats the sharpened edge as he pulls it away.

In its place, a carving of 'M.B' struggles to heal, no doubt meant to leave a scar.

You're shivering, tears pricking your eyes as you hiss and sputter in pain. It all happened so fast. Micah and you had gotten into another argument after you had finished one with Arthur.

Things seemed to just keep getting worse... You had even left camp to get away from him...

Only for Micah to follow... and tackle you with his knife.

You had thought this was it. Your arguments had hit a peak and Micah was going to risk it all to kill you. Except... He didn't.

He just liked the fear in your eyes as he carved his name into your back.

"You're so irritating, know that?" Micah growls, begrudgingly wiping off the blood from your skin. The action makes you tense, another hiss leaving your mouth.

“The more I look at you the more I wanna hurt you, why is that?” Micah continues, staring at the engraving. "You make me feel a weird way, cowpoke. Bet you have no clue, huh? I can't explain it..."

You tense when he grabs your chin, turning you to face him. His eyes still hold that cold desire in them. He looks at you like you're an annoyance he can't quite let go.

"I want to make you mine." Micah eventually says, grip tight on you as you shiver. "I want to be the only one who has you. I want to mark you as mine, I want to be the cause of your hurt. That way... you'll know you're mine... and I can ignore these damn feelings you keep giving me."

Micah spoke to you like he was in denial. He was obsessed with you, you knew that at the very least. The nature of his obsession... was significantly harder to pin point.

Was he obsessed with hurting you... or just trying to distract himself. Did he love you and didn't want to admit it? Did he view himself as weak for you catching his eye... and wanted to punish you for it?

Regardless, it only made you hate him more. Even now as he pins you to the dirt ground, your blood spilling his hands, you doubt anything will be done. You doubt Micah will get in trouble with Dutch.

Nevertheless, you remain hopeful.

"Now you're all mine, sweetheart... gonna be sweet for me from now on? Maybe that will change something in me...."

Even when Micah leans into your ear, telling you you're his, you think of hurting him in return. There was never going to be anything good between you and Micah. You didn't care if he seemed misguided.

You just hope Dutch would do something to make Micah pay once he eventually learned of this... because if he doesn't...

You may very well be the cause of Micah's retribution if he isn't careful.

[hiddenwritingsintheworld]

My Alpha Ch. 3

 Donations | Share your Thoughts & Feelings | My Alpha Series (coming soon) | Chapter 2

You wrapped your arms around yourself as you leaned closer to the campfire. The quarterly pack camping trip, you hated this damn camping trip and for the last two years, you’d been lucky enough to get your heat during EACH one. But, you should have guessed your luck would run out eventually. “Hot chocolate?” Declan's voice came from above you, looking up, you saw him extending a hand with a small, steaming cup in it. 

You smiled and graciously took the cup, “Thank you very much,” you said sipping the hot beverage. Declan took a seat next to you and smiled nodding, “Of course, you looked like you were ready to throw yourself into the flames to get warm.” he chuckled as you laughed some. “Yeah, I haven’t been on one of these trips in a long time, forgot how cold it gets.” you said quietly. 

Declan stared at the fire for a few moments, just enjoying being near you, before he looked in your direction, “Do you mind if I ask you something?” he asked as you looked at him and shook your head. “Where’s your mom?” he watched as you flinched slightly at the question. “I’m sorry, it's not my business, I shouldn’t have asked.” but you shook your head, “No, it's fine. I just…haven’t thought about my mom in a really long time…” 

You turned more toward Declan, wrapping both hands around the hot chocolate to keep them warm. “My mom and dad were killed by a passing pack. Since I was a baby, pack master became my dad.” you shrugged as he looked on with sorrow etched in his features. “He became my dad after I was orphaned…” you looked from the cup in your hands up to meet his eyes as Declan laid a hand on your arm. 

“I’m so sorry, that sounds awful, did you ever find out who was responsible for their deaths?” he asked as you shook your head, “No, dad just said it was another passing pack, I guess there's some packs that act on wilder tendencies than we do.” you sighed softly looking over at the fire, as Declan nodded, “That’s why I left my previous pack. The Alpha pack master always wanted to fight over all the omegas, he felt he was entitled to “own” them.” he shook his head, “Omegas, I think, are greater than Alphas…everyone looks at them like they’re this weak, timid, mindless, baby making, homemaker machines…but they’re strong…they not only take care of the younglings, they make a home for their alphas to come back to, they hold the entire family together…” he smiled looking down. 

“My mom and dad were true mates, and she used to tell us that Alphas were the biggest and best, because she knew, that one day my brothers and I would become alphas, She was correct by the way, we all became alphas, and last I heard my younger brother just had his 6th child.” he chuckled as you smiled, “thats awesome, congratulations,” you smiled up at him as he smiled back at you. 

Arthur glared from across the campsite, this could not be happening. You were not going to be taken from him, he refused to let you go. His plan may not have gone the way he wanted, but dammit, he’d come too far to lose out now. He had to get you away from Declan. 

“So, I'm sure you believe in true mates and all that?” you asked as he nodded, “yeah, I mean, I know it’s rare but I do, I believe there are two souls that are destined to be together.” he refilled your hot chocolate, and took his coat off, draping it over your shoulders as he noticed you getting colder. “Thank you, it's never been this cold before, but I also don’t remember us ever coming up this high on the mountain for these trips.” you said, shivering. “What’s the point of this trip anyways?” he asked as you bit back a laugh, “It’s supposed to bring us all together, and make us a better pack…but really I think it used to be a way for betas, alphas and omegas to just kinda...hook up, without their parents finding out…and dad just kept it going, but usually the alphas go out hunting, and the rest of us ladies stay here and…as you said “home make”” you laughed as he chuckled, “But it's not all bad, we really get to bond as a pack, which is nice. The guys usually share hunting tips, and they all usually come up with some project, dad usually talks to you guys about anything we need to be aware of, while the women bond, some of us like to sew, so we bring that along with us, others really enjoy books, recipes, even just talking. I think my dad misses how it was when he was a kid, and the women would all kinda….come together to raise and manage the kids, while the men hunted for dinner.” you rolled your eyes as Declan laughed, “your dad is not that old.” 

“Well, what’s got you two laughing so much?” Arthur asked as he stepped in front of you and Declan, “oh, I was telling Declan about why we do these camping trips.” you smiled softly as Declan nodded, “she’s actually given me quite the history lesson of them, I’m really glad I get to experience it this time, my old pack never did anything like this.” he smiled at Arthur who eyed you before nodded and forcing a smile on his features, “yes, pack bonding is important, it’s important we all remember our roles in a pack too. Declan, I wanted you to join us alphas tonight on a hunt. We’re hunting boar…have you ever hunted boar before?” Arthur asked as Declan and you both stood, “I have not, but it sounds exciting, I’d love to join you.” he glanced over at you, and Arthur could feel the time slow right before his eyes. 

An Alpha….checking in with his omega. 

It’s a silent exchange, one that usually happens without either party knowing, Arthur knew exactly what he was staring at and he had to stop it before it progressed any farther. True Mates. He watched as you looked up under your lashes at Declan, blinking once before a small smile crossed your face. Giving permission….to him. He felt his temper growing more and more as each second passed. “Great. We leave in 5 minutes, best go grab your stuff.” he forced out as Declan nodded at him before glancing back at you. “I’ll see you later,” he smiled as you nodded with a smile. “Of course!” 

Arthur watched as Delcan walked over to his tent before grabbing your arm. “Stay. Away. From. Him.” he growled using his alpha voice on you, but something in your eyes, you weren’t entirely buckling before him this time. “I was just being friendly…dad.” you said quietly. “Bonding...as a pack….the whole point of this trip. Declan is part of this pack right?” you asked, raising an eyebrow as Arthur flared his nostrils. “Just stay away from him.” he snapped, growling as others glanced over at the two of you. 

You watched as Arthur stormed off, gathering supplies and others for the hunt. You were standing in your tent, when you heard someone clear their throat behind you, turning around, you smile, seeing Declan holding the tent door open, “Mind if I come in?” he asked as you nodded, “Sure.” you nodded watching him duck and stand hunched over slightly. “I wanted to apologize for earlier if you got in trouble for talking to me…I don’t like seeing you get into trouble.” he said as you shook your head, “Don’t worry about my father, he’s just over protective…he thinks you're going to hurt me or something.” you wave your hand dismissively but Declan nodded, turning his head to listen before looking back at you. “I wanted to tell you that I really enjoyed talking with you tonight and I hope we can continue our conversation over breakfast in the morning.” he smiled as you bit your lip, “I’d really like that,” you said softly. 

The small tent caused the two of you to stand closer than you usually were used to. His scent of pine and campfire filled your nostrils. As you looked up at him again, you could feel the blood rushing into your cheeks, “I overheard your father telling you to stay away from me,” he said softly. You nodded, “But I don’t want to, please be careful out there hunting with everyone else.” you whispered as he leaned down and let his cheek graze yours, “I hope you don’t stay away from me,” he whispered as his lips brushed over the shell of your ear. 

You let out a shaky breath as he slowly pulled back some, and pressed his lips gently to your cheek. “I’ll be fine sweetheart, you stay safe too. I won’t go far, so if you need anything, call me okay?” he stared down at you, his eyes soft as he smiled. You pressed yourself against his chest, rubbing your face into his shirt sighing, “I will. Thank you Declan,” you whispered as he wrapped his arms around your smaller frame. “Of course,” he stayed there for a moment before he pulled away and left your tent without anyone seeing. 

You stood with everyone else as the guys loaded up and headed out to hunt for the night, you kept an eye on Declan as he glanced at you, before they all left. “God he’s so fucking hot, Devin would kill me if he heard me say that, but damn what I wouldn’t do to let that alpha fuck me.” Marlene said as she and Christie walked back toward their tents, your father left a list of chores for the women and betas to take care of while he and the other alphas were gone. As the night went on, most of the women finished their chores and laid down in their tents. 

You however, were still sewing on some items when an alpha broke through the trees, “Pack Master has been injured!” he yelled waking the camp up.

Tag List:

@notebooks-of-nonsense @fdl305 @bval-1 @calimoi @syntheticavenger @forgetmenotsexy @mrsjenniferwinchester @chaneajoyyy @mommad @wolfieeebbbyyy @dontbescaredtosingalong @ellen-reincarnated1967 @adriellej @coffeebooksandfandom @patzammit @posiemax @auriel187 @ladybug05 @stoneyggirl2 @fallenoutofrose @mrspeacem1nusone @teamfreewill-imagine @inlovewith3 @auvisanspeur @whiskeytangofoxtrot9889 @leaveitbythewave @sleutherclaw @sandlee44 @aaqua-tofana @nohumanswereharmed @msgrandma49 @seraph-ulysses

[devildomwriter]

One Little Thing, A Ring Part IV | Mammon x Reader

1.1K Words | GN! Reader | CW: Angst

You came home late again that night from work and were surprised to find Mammon already asleep. The past few weeks you’d been working extra hard, Mammon had stayed up for you and offered you a rose he’d stolen from a bouquet somewhere in the house. But tonight he was sprawled out under the covers and his cheek was pink and puffy.

You inspected closely without waking him up and felt the skin had liquid beneath. Using your magic you identified the perpetrator and healed his wound, draining the last bit of magic you had in you for the day.

Not bothering to change out of your old clothes you lifted the blanket and fell asleep next to Mammon.

Mammon was practically comatose but he could sense your presence and his pained face grinned as he snuggled closer to you, head on your chest.

You smiled and held onto him as you drifted into sleep.

Mammon was sad the next day to see you’d left early again. He noticed your slippers by the bedside and began to wonder if you’d actually been there or if he’d dreamed it up.

He pulled out his D.D.D. to call you but you couldn’t answer and he gave up after a few tries and sighed.

He scratched his back and stretched, trying to wake up his body before being put back to work. Despite the cheer of the holiday season, Mammon stayed occupied only with work and didn’t enjoy it as he normally did. All he could focus on was money and this time it was for a good reason. All of this was for you.

Mammon’s brothers had all learned what was happening and dealt with it in their own ways. Lucifer’s way of dealing was to occasionally ensure Mammon had more work to do but he remained at the castle a majority of the day to make sure he wasn’t worked too hard.

His brothers began to randomly appear at the castle and soon after some kind of disaster would occur that they’d never be punished for.

Eventually, Mammon caught on and he wasn’t happy. He put up with a lot of shit from them over thousands of years but he wasn’t having it and called for an intervention.

They didn’t listen to him so Lucifer forced everyone to come together and hear him out. Mammon got a pardon from work so everyone could meet up at an acceptable time of the day.

“Okay, why’d you call us here?” Leviathan asked annoyed and focusing more on his D.D.D.

Mammon growled, “Dammit, you know why. All of ya do!” He pointed his fingers at his brothers.

Asmodeus gasped and placed his hand over his chest. “I’ve done nothing wrong, how could you accuse me!”

Mammon glared at him and Satan nudged Asmo to cool it with the theatrics.

Belphegor rolled his eyes at Mammon’s declaration. “What did you expect?” He hissed, in demon form.

Beelzebub put a hand on Belphegor’s shoulder trying to ease his anger but it was palpable.

“You guys know damn well why I’m working and you’re makin’ it harder what gives!”

Satan glared at Mammon now, “as Belphie said. What did you expect?”

Mammon clenched his fists and his demon form slipped out which surprised his brothers. Mammon didn’t often lose control like the rest of them, even when they beat on him, called his names, or won their money back, Mammon would stay calm. But not now, Mammon was beyond pissed.

Lucifer remained silent, he knew what Mammon was going to say and he knew that Mammon would be right too.

“Do ya realize that by gettin’ in my way, you’re really just gettin’ in ___’s way!”

They froze in silence.

“I get that you’re all mad they didn’t date you instead! I get that cause I’d feel the exact same way! Y’know how pissed I got all those times I thought they were dating one of you! Or when they kissed Lucifer that time he got amnesia!”

Lucifer chuckled and earned hateful glares from each brother.

“Anyways, I get it! But this isn’t about me, it’s about ___! And if you really care about them then you should want them to be happy and like it or not, they’re happy with me! And I’m tryin’ to give them a ring they deserve and I’m doin’ honest work! So quit comin’ into the castle and screwing everything up! It’s not cool and you know that!”

Everyone was silent for a while and Mammon finally tucked away his wings and sat on the couch facing his brothers.

Lucifer finally spoke with a small nod. “I know.” He relented. “You’re right. All of us are making things harder on you.”

“Hey! You don’t speak for me,” Belphegor snapped but Satan shook his head.

“Give it up Belphie. We’re too obvious.” Satan looked Mammon in the eye. “Fine. We’ll stay out of your way and we’ll do it for ___ not for you.”

Asmodeus nodded and Beelzebub looked at the ground.

“But know this,” Satan continued. “I’ll be waiting for the moment you slip up and when that happens I’ll be the one by their side.”

Leviathan set his D.D.D. down and glared, “That goes for me too.”

Everyone agreed and Mammon sighed. “Whatever, that’s not gonna happen so you’re all gonna have to suck it up for ___’s sake. You really think they want you guys trying to ruin their relationship the second you can?”

Satan turned red and Beelzebub blushed in some sense of shame. They wouldn’t admit to it but they still intended to romance you any chance they could get. Similarly to Diavolo, they were hoping that after hundreds or thousands of years with Mammon, polygamy might be on the table.

Mammon knew this and stayed wary of his brothers but took solace in the fact they wouldn’t dare upset you, so his relationship was safe as long as you were happy. That scared him at the same time.

The closer Christmas got the more he panicked. Was he really good enough? Could he really make you happy forever? He couldn’t even make up his mind on a ring because everything looked so damn perfect when you wore it and he couldn’t afford to get them all.

Mammon looked at the calendar one more time before collapsing into your bed, “the twenty-third already…” he sighed and covered his face.

He was so close to eternal happiness but at the same time feared letting you down. Mammon had nightmares that night until you shook him awake.

“Huh! What’s happening!” He shouted with a start, his cheeks stained with dried tears.

“Mammon…” you said in a gentle tone and wrapped your arms around him. “You need to tell me what’s going on.”

Part I • Part II • Part III • Part V

[lovely-peace]

Moonlight To Dawn

Summary: A forgotten night is all it's gonna take to mess up a life. A forgotten warning is all it's gonna take to mess up everything.

Pairing: Sirius black x hufflepuff!reader

Warnings: past toxic friendship, past toxic relationship (not with the reader), insecurities, self conscious , fake dating

Masterlist Last Part Part 7

Wc: 4.2k

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the first game of this Quidditch season! And for the start, we have the most heated game of all! The golden heroes against the silver antihero! The big lion against the sly snake! Ladies and gentlemen, we are watching Gryffindor against Slytherin!" Loud cheering.

"The Gryffindor who played the moderator this time really had no taste. I mean 'sly snake'? 'Silver antihero'? Between the lines, he's saying we're the bad guys! What a jerk…" whispered Cassie. I tried to listen to her, but I couldn't.

I could only focus on what I was seeing right now. A little Black, glaring at his brother's 'girlfriend.' She stared back at him in disbelief.

How could I have overlooked all of this?

Ohhh, Sirius. You little jerk. You despicable, vile, loudmouthed, disgusting, scheming-

"Now that everyone is on the field, we should start soon! Our dear players must move on their brooms and rise into the air. Are you ready?"

Regulus Black knows his brother well. Even when I was with Sirius, he knew when our relationship was just a pastime. He was never mad at me. At least not that I knew of.

"One!"

He knows much more about me and my friends than I want. Sometimes he scares me.

"Two!"

Sirius and he have quite a few conflicts. They almost never agree. And even when I was with Sirius, they argued about it. But not about whiskey.

"Three!"

Why not? Because Regulus didn't know Sirius liked whiskey. Why didn't he know?

"Go!"

Because it's not real. Holy crap, Sirius.

"There, our heroes rise into the air and battle for the balls! Gryffindor's Seeker James Potter searches the field from high above for the Snitch! Will he find it? Probably not, as the game has just begun!"

~~~

"Come on, it's not that bad! I'll take a glass, and you take the bottle, okay?"

She looked at me with wide eyes. It was just whiskey, after all. Why was she making such a big deal out of it? I smiled at her, hoping she would finally drown herself in the drink.

Carefully, she took the bottle and looked at me uncertainly. "Seraph, are you sure nothing will happen?"

I shook my head, laughing. "What could possibly go wrong, you silly? Maybe you'll feel a bit off for a moment, but so what? You'll have done it, and the experience counts, right!"

She stared at the bottle for a long time. Eventually, Damien whistled loudly. "Come on, or I'll take the bottle!"

He was a repulsive guy, way too loud, with too little empathy in his small brain. Leander, sitting next to him, looked at him frustrated and shook his head.

His hair shimmered in the light, and his eyes had that deep brown color I wanted to disappear into. His lips looked so gentle…

An uneasy feeling spread within me, and I took my glass and downed it in one gulp.

"Seraph!" the girl in the yellow uniform looked at me in shock. "Are you okay?"

My head seemed to spin. The face of this ugly girl spun right before my eyes as if it would never go away. I wanted to hit her. Push her away. I wanted to take the bottle and beat her to death with it-

"Of course!" I snapped at her. "And now, hurry up! If you don't have the guts anymore, it's okay, but say it so we don't have to drag this out unnecessarily!"

She flinched and stared back at the bottle.Her lips trembled and something shimmered in her eyes. I felt something like triumph when I saw her fingers turn white from the firm grip on the bottle. "I told you." Phina said after a while. "She's just too scared-"

With one gulp, she opened the bottle and drank. She paused occasionally and then continued. Until. The. Bottle. Was. Empty.

"Damn, she did it!" Damien laughed loudly, probably at my friend's stupidity. He couldn't stop laughing.

"Stop laughing, you jerk," grumbled Leander, looking almost concerned at her. The look in his eyes disgusted me and I wanted to push her out of there. Had he looked at me like that once? No, there was no need to worry about me. Somehow it still made me angry. I don't know why, but I wanted to hit him. I wanted to pull her out of here and never bring her near my friends again.

My little friend swayed and desperately grabbed onto me for support. "Oh my God, she's gone! I can't take it anymore!" Damien laughed even louder. His laughter rang shrill in my head, like a warning. Get out of here.

"Seraff, where are you? What elshe do I hashe to do?" she mumbled the words incompletely and swayed in my arms. Why was I even holding her?

"Let go of me," I snapped at her and pulled away. Her dirty hands seemed much worse than usual. Her eyes were glazed, and it dawned on me that she probably wouldn't remember this tomorrow. "Go to your house. Now."

Confused, she looked at me, as if nothing in her head was functioning. Slowly swaying, she moved toward the exit. I didn't watch her as she left the room.

"Come back tomorrow, 'Whisky'!" Damien shouted after her. "Dude, shut up!" Leander gave him a little slap on the head, but Damien just laughed.

"Why? The name 'Whisky' fits, right?" I wanted to kill him with my gaze. My head throbbed. I didn't know what was happening to me, but something in me sought satisfaction. Phina looked at me approvingly and nodded. Her smile revealed how much she was enjoying the situation. She looked at me with half-open eyes and that stupid smile, I could puke.

"Or don't you think so, Leander?" I challenged him. Agree with me. Now. Come on. Stop hesitating. You're always on my side, what's wrong? Agree with me. Please—

"Well, yes… But—" he looked away and fell silent. Something in me tightened at this 'but.'

"What 'but'?" I asked with a sugary voice. Come on. Say it already. What do you hate so much about me right now? What? Say it. Say it to my face. I want to hear why you're looking at me like that.

"Cassie also collapsed because of the alcohol. What if your friend collapses on the way to her house now?" he scratched his neck and didn't look at me.

Damien groaned loudly. "Oh, who cares. Then she'll miss the test tomorrow, no big deal."

Leander ignored my glances. He stared into the fire. I wanted to push him into it. He should finally say what I did wrong! What did I do?

"Phina, let's go to sleep." I stood up and finally turned away from this guy who frustrated me so much. "We have an important test tomorrow."

She looked at me bored. Then she looked back at Damien, and I saw out of the corner of my eye how they seemed to silently discuss me.

"Come on!" I said now with a firmer voice and went to the girls' dormitories.

"I'm coming already…" said a very annoyed Phina. I wanted to strangle her.

Phina followed me, and we closed the door to the girls' dormitories behind us. But I stayed for a second before closing the door.

"You guys are such assholes." Black. "Be quiet, kid. It's none of your business." Damien. "You should be expelled from school." Regulus Coward Black. "Where are you going?" Leander. "Somebody has to take her to the Hufflepuff house." Two doors slammed in response.

~~

Late it was that evening when I left the Slytherin common room to search for the intoxicated girl. I didn't know her personally, but I somehow felt connected to her. She had been in our Slytherin common room on several occasions.

I saw it all. Seraph, who always dragged her along, or rather, the one who always followed her. Damien, who mocked her. Leander, who felt pity for her but was too captivated by Seraph to do anything. And Phina, who didn't care about anything as long as there was some drama.

It was disgusting to watch them.

I walked through the corridors of the grand castle, wondering how far she had gotten. But certainly not far, because it was dark, and she had a massive amount of alcohol in her system.

Holding my wand high with the Lumos spell, I hoped not to be discovered by teachers as I heard labored breathing. I scanned my surroundings, but there was no one. No corners, no closets to hide in. Yet, I heard that breathing. What the hell?

Soft steps echoed through the corridor as I turned around, trying to find the origin. Was I going mad here?

I turned around and saw a silhouette at the corner of the corridor and was about to run towards it when—

"Regulus, what are you doing here?"

Sirius.

Startled, I turned to my brother, who looked at me inquiringly.

"How did you—? You—Just a moment ago, there was no one there!" I looked at him suspiciously as he gave me a feigned look of confusion.

"What are you talking about, Regulus? I just came from the Gryffindor tower," he said, grinning crookedly. "What are you doing out so late on a full moon?"

"I could ask you the same thing." His gaze hardened a bit. "Besides, it's none of your business."

I turned back to the silhouette, but it had disappeared. Sighing, I continued, disappointed that my slightly older brother was following me.

"Well, I think I have a right to know what my little brother is up to at this late hour," he murmured as he walked behind me. "My little brother wandering around in the middle of the night… What if something happens to you—"

"Shut up, Sirius," I snapped at him, hoping he would lose interest. I looked around, but 'Whisky' was nowhere to be seen.

"Or…" Sirius grinned now. "You're looking for something." He looked at me triumphantly. "I can help—"

"I said, 'shut up, Sirius!'" I listened carefully to the steps, and it seemed like I could faintly hear them.

"What's actually going on with you? Lately, you hardly talk to me! I'm really worried about you, Regulus. Has something happened?" his voice behind me became somewhat harsh. "Did your parents say something?"

"No, they didn't." Lie. "I just find you insufferable lately." Truth. Recently, he basks in his popularity, constantly putting himself in the spotlight and enjoying the attention, with many girls chasing him like little dogs.

I hated how he acted with his 'friends.' Their 'jokes' were just disgusting. I couldn't understand the senseless joy in it. But how could I.

"Hey, what do you mean-"

"Shush!" I signaled for him to shut up. It was very quiet, but you could hear it. A muffled sob.

"Do you hear that too? That-" I couldn't hold back anymore; I punched Sirius lightly to make him understand he should be quiet. "Hey-!"

Very quietly, I took step after step towards the crying. I was almost at the corner of the corridor when-

"What are you doing here anyway?" A. Much. Too. Loud. Sirius.

The crying immediately fell silent. Now it was dead silent. I flipped my brother the middle finger before turning the corner. An empty corridor awaited me. But unlike just now, there was a small cupboard here. A suffocating little cupboard.

Sirius followed me, but before he could say anything, I knocked on the cupboard. "What are you doing there?" he asked, but I ignored him.

"Hello?" I inquired.

Silence.

I knocked again, but this time slower. "Everything okay in there?"

Silence.

"Do you think someone's in there?" Sirius stood behind me with crossed arms, as if I were the dumbest person in the world. He probably never had to hide in school before.

"Sirius, for the last time, please shut up!" I couldn't hear him anymore. "No one asked you to follow me!"

Sirius just shrugged. "As a big brother, it's my duty to annoy you. Besides, I have to be there when you get yourself into trouble."

"That's funny coming from you. As if you've ever fulfilled your duties as a big brother." He was really getting on my nerves.

"Hey, I've made a real effort in the last 2 years to annoy you properly! Nothing that makes you uncomfortable or anything…" He briefly looked out at the shining moon. "But I also had to take care of other things. But I'm trying!"

"Oh yes, you're really busy not doing your homework and annoying other students with your jokes that sometimes go too far!" He infuriated me. How he stood there as if he understood something. As if someone like him understood how I feel and why I don't want anything to do with him.

He is the one who is leaving me alone.

"Okay, Regulus, I have the feeling that you, how should I put it, are angry. Mainly, that's probably due to the absence of your humor, but that can be fixed, don't worry." He came closer. "Next time, you can join us in Hogsmeade. If you want, we can also come up with a prank together!"

"I don't want to participate in one of your bad jokes, really! I'd rather have detention with Professor Binns, and that says something." His smile disappeared. He looked at me almost desperate. For the first time tonight, he said nothing. And that's why I heard it.

"Pffff-"

Laughter.

Sirius pushed me aside, went to the small cupboard, and pulled out his wand. With a slightly tense voice, he said, "Alohomora!" and with a very exaggerated aggressive jerk, he opened the cupboard.

A laughing girl, seemingly out of her mind, looked out at us. Sirius still pointed his wand at her when she -

"AHHHHH!!!" she screamed and blinked against the presumably very bright light. "DON'T EAT ME!"

"Did you hear all that-; Wait, what?" Sirius lowered his wand in confusion and looked at the girl bewildered.

She looked at him as if he were the devil; he had apparently scared her. But his confused look was priceless. I had to chuckle slightly, I admit it. Sirius glared at me and now completely put away his wand.

"Who are you, what are you doing here, and why are you hiding from us, and why in a cupboard???" With each question, he got closer to her, and eventually, his head was half in the cupboard. "Let her breathe; she really doesn't need your breath in her nose." I grinned at him this time and took full advantage of his confusion.

The girl laughed again. Sirius backed off from her and looked at her almost scared. "I don't have bad breath! Or do I?" She laughed even more but shook her head. He grinned at her oddly. "Come on, that wasn't so funny?"

Somehow, I wanted to puke at the sight of the two. "Just let her out already." He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. But then he grinned at the girl in the cupboard again. "I'm sorry. Here, let me help you out." He held out his hand to her. She looked as if she were thinking about it, like only a drunk person could.

"No, thanksh. I can manashe on my own getting out of here; after all, I manashed to get in. Besidez, I don't trusht you yet! It could be that you actually want to zell me to Professor Shlughorn so he can make a potion out of me!" She slipped out of the cupboard and sat swaying on the floor.

Sirius looked dumbfounded at her. He looked between me and her. Eventually, he looked at me utterly bewildered, and I had to laugh. She seemed not to understand him and shook her head. "You think I'm weird, don't you? No, you're jusht not direct enough; what do you want from me?"

"Me? I haven't done anything! What's your problem, anyway?" Sirius still looked at her confused, but he also started to look really worn out. "Seraph said that every good-looking guy who comes to me just wants to take advantage of me! So, what do you want?" The girl glared at him, and now she also looked at me. Slowly she began to speak normally. "And how did you know where I was hiding-"

"Wait, wait, who is Seraph? And more importantly, you find me good-looking?" Sirius tilted his head and grinned at her. I felt increasingly nauseated. "You can go now." I raised my voice again, eager to take her back to her house.

"No, you're right! Where did you know she was?" He looked at me confused. I sighed loudly. "We heard her footsteps, and the cupboard was the only option where she could hide."

"I mean, why did you go out in the middle of the night and look for her?" He looked at me skeptically.

"How did you come out of nowhere? You can't fool me; you suddenly appeared out of nowhere behind me! How?" Now I looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"You just imagined that."

"Then you imagined that I knew where she was. I was just taking a walk and happened to find her."

The girl looked between us and chuckled again.

"What?" we asked simultaneously.

"Sorry." she fell silent and looked at the ground. She stood up, swaying, and tried to walk away but didn't get very far due to the swaying.

"Hey, hey, hey, we must take you back to your house; where do you want to go so late?" Sirius stood up and went to her. I sighed but nodded. "For once he's right; you shouldn't go alone."

But then she took Sirius' hand and pulled him behind her. "Hey, don't you think it's a bit too early for hand-holding?" Sirius asked with that disgusting tone. Confused, she stared at him; alcohol must have taken her mind for flirting. "Where do you want to go? The Hufflepuff common room is in the other direction." I said and pointed her in the right direction.

Uncomprehendingly, she stared at me. "But we have to go to the hospital wing first." She just pointed in the other direction. "And it's over there."

Sirius laughed softly. "Maybe you really belong in the hospital wing, but I don't think you want to be caught there because of alcohol consumption, believe me."

"Not because of me. You're injured." She said to him, looking at him questioningly.

"What are you talking about?" I asked since I didn't notice any injury on Sirius. "His arm. He has a wound there. That's why his uniform is so messy." She shrugged and tapped on Sirius' right arm. He flinched in response to this touch.

Sirius looked at me, attempting to appear confused. "I think we should take her away quickly before she collapses from the alcohol."

"You're much more likely to collapse." She said, smiling at him. "Come on, you don't have to act so tough. Just let yourself be taken to the hospital wing." Again, she walked off, pulling Sirius along with her.

"Is that true? Where did you get that wound?"

"You're not really interested anyway. Anything related to me doesn't really matter for you." Sirius muttered. "You're just on our parents' side anyway."

I glared at him. "Now you're just talking nonsense to wallow in self-pity again."

"Hey, no more arguing! He's injured; that's more important now!" 'Whisky' looked at both of us angrily. Sirius looked at her almost guilty. "Sorry," he said, but she just shook her head. "Apologize to him, not me. He was just worried."

Sirius turned to me. "I'm sorry, Regulus." She nodded at him and now looked at me expectantly. I sighed loudly but finally gave in. "Sorry, Sirius."

Acknowledging, she nodded at both of us. "Good, now let's-" But then she blushed. She looked at Sirius for a long moment and then at her hand that was holding Sirius' hand. Startled, she let go of his hand and looked at him in confusion. "Are you Sirius Black?"

"Would that be a problem for you?" he asked, looking at me questioningly. I just shrugged.

"No, of course not," she whispered softly, putting some distance between Sirius and her. "You can tell the truth; no one would blame you. I would understand it very well!" I said, grinning at Sirius, who just looked annoyed at me.

"Who are you, anyway? Do I know you?" he asked, looking at her hesitantly. But she just shook her head. "No, don't worry, of course not. I'm nothing without Seraph, so it doesn't matter anyway-"

"Who the hell is Seraph? You mentioned her twice, and again, she doesn't seem very likable to me," Sirius said. I laughed at that. "A bitch. She's a bitch. But an interesting one."

Sirius looked at me confused. "Aha." He turned back to her. "Why are you drunk wandering around the castle in the middle of the night?"

"Seraph," I just said, and that explained everything. Sirius apparently didn't understand this simple explanation. He now looked accusingly at me. "So, you did know why she's here and went looking for her!"

"It's not that important now; you need to go to the hospital wing!" a very confused Hufflepuff said. "You're injured!"

"And you need to go to your bed!" Sirius looked at her just as accusingly. "You've apparently drunk yourself to passing out! Probably because you haven't gotten over your friend or something, right? Well, let me give you a tip, drinking doesn't help at all!"

She looked at him somewhat frightened. "That's not how it was… I just did it for Seraph, that-"

"Seraph really seems to be a bitch," Sirius said. I nodded. "Yeah, she's perfect for you," I added.

"Hey!"

"He's right."

Both of us looked at her confused. She looked down. Sirius laughed nervously. "Hey, I didn't mean to be mean or anything-"

She looked at him in shock. "No, no, that's not what I mean! I just mean… she's so nice and beautiful and funny and -" she took a deep breath. And then breathed out again. "She's amazing. And she really just wants to help me."

Sirius looked at me confused. This time I looked just as confused back. "What the hell do you mean-"

"You know what? We should really take you to the hospital wing now!" she quickly changed the subject and went back swaying towards the hospital wing. I followed her, gesturing for Sirius to follow. She probably wouldn't go back to her house until Sirius was treated.

"Hey, what's your name?" Sirius looked at her curiously. She looked at him confused. "(Y/n)"

We stood in front of the hospital wing. When Sirius turned to her again. "Well, (Y/n), firstly, your laughter is really cute, and secondly, I already like you more than Seraph." With that, he disappeared behind the door.

A very confused (Y/n) stood next to me. But upon closer inspection, she seemed to be blushing. Wait, what?!

"Uh… I should probably go to my dorm, right?" she looked at me hesitantly. I just couldn't imagine someone like her… No, that was just wrong.

"Yeah, let's go. I'll take you." I finally said. Awkwardly, we walked down the corridor while my mind was racing.

"What year are you, by the way?" she asked eventually, smiling at me crookedly. Her way too innocent face was killing me.

"Third. Are you in love with my brother?"

Silence.

"How, what, why do you think that???" She looked at me with a red face.

I looked at her for a long time, but I had to sigh. "I don't care about that, but I just want to warn you. My brother is not really known for serious and lasting relationships."

She looked at me for a long time. Then she smiled one of those sad smiles and looked ahead. "I know. It's not like I think I could ever be in a relationship with him."

We walked in silence for a while. Outside, the full moon was slowly going down while the sun seemed to be rising. "That's not what I meant. I just want to tell you that you have to love yourself first. And you have to finally let go of Seraph. By now, you must see that yourself."

We stood in front of the Hufflepuff entrance as she looked at me hurt. "You can go now."

I looked at her for a long time. "Otherwise, you'll always remain 'Whisky'."

I saw her tears and left.

~~~

In the end, I don't know what happened that night. Whisky couldn't remember herself, probably because of the alcohol. I only found her exhausted outside the Hufflepuff house the next day. She didn't come in, must have forgotten the password. We had a test that day.

Everything seemed normal with her, but she was a bit wobbly on her feet. At some point Sirius Black came to her and asked if she was feeling better. At that moment, I was confused as to why he was even talking to someone like her.

"She's fine!"

And then she pukes on her test. Since then, teachers have been looking more at students who look like they have been drinking.

And now this boy, who looked after her that evening, had this mad look in his eyes as he went up into the sky.

Taglist: @theofficialmadman @fanboyluvr @fjdjsiskcjfj @starsval @olkathedestroyer @helloitsmeeeeeee @xamapolax @maripositanoctruna @ancientimes @cloudlst @marina468 @regulus-black-223048 @loving-and-dreaming @tarzanathetumblingwarrior @princesspuffle8@lonely-nerd-sodaholic@lostgirlsstuff@wolken-n@thepunisherfrankcastle@nefri-black@solitarioslilium@briskesby@ropickle@my-current-fandom-is @hawkinsavclub1983@dancingwithreality

[flowers-of-io]

Destinytober - Grief, Together

Read on Ao3 with proper formatting

Zavala skims over the report with unseeing eyes. Something Shadow Legion, something something Boaz reassigned from field duty. Something... experimental arc grenades? He shakes his head.

It is a beautiful afternoon (every afternoon is beautiful in the Pale Heart, uncannily so), not-sunlight shining through the trickling stream of tea as his mug, then the one across from him, are refilled. He hums in gratitude without looking up.

"Shouldn't you be takin' some time off, anyway?" A handwave, its shadow flickering over the table. "I'm sure our Hunter Vanguard there can manage on his own for a bit."

"I'm good."

"Oh come on." There is a longer beat of silence, distracting him enough that he moves on to the next report, and then words like a blinding grenade: "If it's about dealin' with grief, that ain't the way to do it."

Zavala's jaw clenches, hard. "I don't need a therapist."

"Not what I'm suggestin'." The faint plop of a sugar cube being dropped into the tea, then the clinking of a spoon against ceramic. "But you could use a talk with someone who has a bit of a different perspective."

Now he does look up from the datapad. He tries to school his tone into something as little bitter as possible and says, "What do you mean?"

Amanda leans back in her chair, mug held in both hands. "Y'know, I never envied you guys--Guardians, I mean--that you lived for so damn long. Berriole once told me of a Warlock she used to date, some Hidden who worked with the Owl Sector or whatnot. They'd been pretty serious about it, but then the whole transmission crisis happened and Shun got sick and all, and I guess that made everyone think harder about their own mortality 'cause they wound up partin' ways. The girl couldn't stand the thought of stayin' involved and then havin' to lose Berriole one day."

Zavala smiles sourly. He'd had that conversation with Safiyah, many lifetimes ago, long before they knew it wouldn't be the death of either that'd part them. Ironically, the stakes seemed lower then, because Guardianship was a high-risk profession back in the Dark Ages, and he retreated into the quiet life in the countryside primarily to protect her from losing him. It was only when Hakim came around that he was first faced with the stark possibility of outliving his own child.

The smile fades, and Zavala's fingers clench around the datapad. Yes, he was ready for eventually having to watch his son die. But not... not like this.

"Are you suggesting I should be glad of my current position?"

"You think I'd ever tell you somethin' like that?" Amanda says this reproachfully, but her eyes are soft when Zavala meets them. "What I mean is there're people 'round you who are... transient, Eris would say. I've had my fair share of watchin' folks I loved die on me, and I can't imagine what it's gotta be like to, you know, see little kids out in the City and know you'll most likely be there after they grow old and die. You can only lose so much if you live only so long." Her kind expression morphs into something impish, something he's recognised since the day she finally smiled months after arriving in the City, all those years ago. "And besides, I know you'd miss me."

[aerodaltonimperial]

hello katy. i had just the most fucked up thought about your split jack au and ive never used tumblr before but im learning how to send an ask right now because i NEED to know what you think of this.

does julia… tell jungle boy that he’s going to forget? those five years that he goes back and changes for the better— surely julia knows that when the time comes, the jungle boy that got sent back to 2019 and changed jack’s world for the better will become nothing but a memory that everyone but jack himself will be aware of. and if julia tells him… lets him know that his time is limited… does jungle boy not do it all anyways?

does he make every decision in this new timeline knowing that he’s setting up a life for the jack who deserves it most and not himself? when the days tick down and he knows he’s running out of time… does he leave notes for jack? does he leave notes for darby? how do you explain to the person that matters most in your life that one day you’re going to wake up and be replaced with someone a thousand times more scared and broken, and you need to love him just as much as you love me now, because he’s me, and i love him too?

im sorry you fucked my whole world up and i hate you and ive been crying about it for days. im sending you an edible arrangements. fucking god damn it man

Yo, you just fucking CHANGED MY WORLD with this ask. Like, this.... this is the stuff I legitimately DID NOT LET MYSELF THINK ABOUT when I was writing that because this is so much. Jesus CHRIST. I am... I am sitting with this because I am going to be really honest with you, I don't know the answers. The only thing I can say that I leaned on during this was the traveler's immunity concept: that essentially, the person doing the changing is immune from shifting when everything else does. And it's that immunity that all of this hinges upon. 2024 Jack has the immunity, and he is the original remnant that will remain.

Would Julia tell Jack, the Jack that is going to become nothing once the timelines merge? I presume that, eventually, she would. But what he DOES with that information? Oh my god. I don't even know. This ask has fundamentally changed me as a person LOL. I imagine... in a perfect world, that Jack does leave notes for himself. Because in the end, that's who he is doing this for: a better future, even though he won't be there to experience it once the right time hits. He got a gift. And he is giving one back. A huge, monumental gift that he will never get to see through to the end. But that's what so much of that fic really ended up being about, in the end: forgiving and loving yourself. He would want himself to have SOMETHING to figure his way around, even if it's just important dates. Anniversaries. When events happened. When things DIDN'T happen.

Would he warn Darby? Honestly, I'm less clear on that one. Because at his core, Jack knows that would change them, in his present. And if he had limited time, I don’t know. Would he be able to tell Darby, knowing that it would fundamentally change everything? Would he be able to say, hey, I'm not going to be here anymore, at least not the way you knew me? Man. I don't know. How do you warn someone that you are going to disappear, but that part of you will remain? And that part isn't going to understand that love should be soft? Or that you don't have to fear letting someone in? Or that people, deep down, care about you? How do you prepare someone for that?

This is the most fucking horrible and amazing ask I have ever received. I'm going to frame it on my wall. I'm going to be thinking about this for days. Holy shit, man. As for the notes that Jack could leave for himself, for when he's gone? Let him cook for you, it makes him happy. When you argue, he'll need to go blow off steam before he comes back. I never told him about what happened in that jump, but I also didn't lie when I told him he was all of the firsts.

You told me that love wasn't real. Well, he loves you, and it's the realest fucking thing in the world.

[dokidokitsuna]

Inventor/Invention

-In case you didn’t notice, I’ve been trying to make most of the characters in this AU look like they’re age 50+...which is something I’ve never done before, and it might explain why the designs have been so hit or miss. ^^;;;  Fortunately, Susie seems to be a hit; I like how this drawing came out. ^^ I think this body type + clothing aesthetic + age demographic is a particularly rare combination; personally I’ve never seen a character who looks like this before. And yet, I managed to make it work~.

-Susie (the current ‘President Haltmann’, btw) is basically Magolor’s right hand, and helps him with all the technological aspects of his conquest-- not only did she create Auto-Nightmare, she also had a large hand in cloning Blade, and studies the progression of her disease throughout the story. In return for playing the tech support role, she’s allowed to have the Haltmann Works Co. drain resources from all the worlds that Magolor conquers-- which he would agree to, of course, since it would be an easy way to keep his new subjects in line (read: oppressed and afraid) while he’s off looking for more heroes to murder.

It makes me wonder, though, what would happen if the “player” chooses to have Magolor become nicer over the course of the story…like, if he really does turn himself around, he and Susie would have to come into conflict over this deal eventually. ^^; Maybe I just won’t let him get to that point; maybe the best he can do for the purposes of the story is learn to love Blade and take care of her…while completely ignoring all the evil he’s done to the rest of the universe, and simply not giving a damn about letting the HWC consume everyone and everything he left behind. XD

-P.S. Susie basically has two main designs: she’d appear in this physical form for certain cutscenes, but fight exclusively with her mecha (which I totally will draw at some point…I promise…⚆u⚆; )

-Auto-Nightmare is the result of me wanting to finally use Nightmare in an AU for once, but wanting to do it in an unorthodox way. ^^ Besides, I can’t really see a more canon-esque Nightmare willingly being subservient to someone like Magolor…and in terms of traitors/fickle allies, Mags already has his hands full with Marx. I don’t need another character in the party who plays the same role…

So Auto-Nightmare was born, combining the Power Orb with some of Nightmare’s accessories to create this cuter, more unassuming design. Which eventually informed his character concept.

-”Auto” is not really Nightmare; not even an amnesiac-reset version of Nightmare. Technically he’s just a machine that was designed to force Nightmare’s Power Orb to awaken…but ultimately failed, and now simply draws from its power to create his own identity and abilities. The result is this walking bundle of anxiety who feels inferior to his “former self”, and tries to make up for it by doing everything his bosses tell him to do. ^^; However, over the course of the story, he befriends Blade, and starts to become more assertive. He may not be able to stand up for himself, but he quickly learns to stand up for his ailing friend, even to the point of openly criticizing Magolor for his treatment of her.

-As you might have guessed, this is where his “death” comes in. ^^ Soon after I decided he should be Blade’s only real friend, I kinda knew he had to die, because he would end up getting in Magolor’s way. Isolation is a large part of what makes an abusive relationship work; a victim with a staunch supporter who genuinely wants what’s best for them will escape your control eventually... …Besides, Magolor is terribly petty, and would probably be offended by this ‘magic tin can’ talking back to him…enough to snap and shatter his face while Blade is unconscious, if the "player" so chooses. =T

Because Auto isn’t really alive, he doesn’t exactly die…the Power Orb itself can even reform on its own. But breaking it in the first place causes his whole system to reset: he reverts to a silent, emotionless shell who just stands around and follows simple commands...and this is a devastating, soul-crushing event for Blade. Especially if you go one step further and choose to have Magolor lie about what happened to Auto, and/or imply that she killed him accidentally during one of her Malady flare-ups.

-On that note, if you don’t choose to have Magolor go down ^that sickeningly cruel path and just leave Auto alone, Blade actually does kill Auto accidentally, leading to a similar outcome. But at least then, it becomes an opportunity for Magolor to help Blade through this traumatic experience, and start to form a genuine bond with her. Again, if the "player" so chooses~.

[hey-that-hurt]

The following Beetlejuice contract au musings brought to you by @rocketonin because they made me realize that if I want it to at least be possible for this AU to turn into something big I should probably figure out what the plot’s trajectory is before I write myself into a corner

Anyway. What would happen long term? Though the circumstances are very messy I still want this to fundamentally be a redemption story.

To me, that means that things have to eventually end on an optimistic note for Beetlejuice. I don’t want him to give up and decide that he’d rather isolate himself than deal with the contract, but I also don’t want him to be worn down to a shell of his former self, to suppress his anger and blunt his teeth so the family will never have any reason to get rid of him.

I think I’d like him to fluctuate between these two points, resenting his situation so much that he’s tempted to leave and accepting it to the point he’s no longer the same person. Both ways to escape the pain of his situation.

Honestly, the smartest thing for Beetlejuice to do here would probably be to leave. He’s effectively trapped in an abusive dynamic where he’s almost entirely dependent on his abusers to realize how awful their behavior is and choose to change it. And that’s what I plan to happen, but he doesn’t know that.

But, as is often the case with abusive relationships, he doesn’t feel like he has anywhere else to go, and he thinks that the messed up love he’s currently getting is more than anyone else would give him.

He might be able to eventually make some friends in the netherworld, but currently the impression he’s getting is that pretty much everyone down there hates him. He could go back to wandering the surface, but then he’s back in the same hopeless, horribly lonely position he started in.

And based on Juno saying “you were so desperate for somebody to love you that you act like a damn fool”, we can guess that she’s said some pretty terrible things about his chances of ever being loved.

Basically his situation super super sucks, and leaving would be a good idea, but I’m gonna say that his relationship with everyone is very unfortunately still one of the most positive relationships he’s ever been in. Lydia actually enjoys his company and wants to spend time with him, the Maitlands are fairly nice to him, Delia is weird with him and not unkind, and Charles… well, Charles isn’t as bad as his mother was, so there’s that at least.

It’s the closest he’s ever felt to being loved and as long as that almost-love is there he’s not going to be able to tear himself away from it.

It’s the same reason he signed the contract in the first place. He knew it was a terrible idea, but the fact that they presented it to him at all meant that, in a way, they wanted him.

So that’s what stops him from leaving. But what’s stopping him from giving up the other way around?

I think it would take a long time for the circumstances to genuinely start to alter Beetlejuice’s personality, but there are still a lot of coping mechanisms he could develop. Coping mechanisms that he developed to cope with his abusive mother and severe isolation could also start to rear their head again.

The main way Beetlejuice seems to react to feeling hurt is anger and violence… except when his mom comes into the picture. With her… I wouldn’t say he’s obedient, but it’s like he turns into a whiny child in trouble with their parent. Interestingly, that’s the sort of behavior I would except from a kid that frustrated with their parent’s actions, but not a kid who was afraid— and Beetlejuice radiates fear when Juno shows up. When she starts insulting him, his face turns distraught, he frantically looks around like he’s searching for an escape route or someone to help. And then he pleads with her again. I wonder if the embarrassment was bravado, in a way. It’s a situation that would be horribly embarrassing, but I think he may be playing up that emotion in order to hide his terror.

In Say My Name, we see him rapidly switch from showboating to begging and back again. It seems like the less power he has in a situation, the more he resorts to pleading, bargaining.

I think that as his frustration with situation grows, the more he would start to jump between anger and pleading— and the anger would likely result in retaliation depending on who he takes it out on, so the pleading would start to win out. I think the pleading would vary in intensity too. With Lydia, yes, he begged, but it was different to how he was with Juno. With Lydia, he was pleading for help, but with Juno he pleaded for mercy.

I don’t think he’d start out afraid of anyone, except maybe Lydia a bit. As time goes on though, the urge to be clever, annoying, or otherwise rebellious might have to fight against the knowledge that any member of the household can force him to stop those behaviors. Pain would rarely be guaranteed, but I imagine that there would be something nauseating about having to suppress yourself to such a degree. He’d constantly have to choose between making himself behave acceptably or being forced to under threat of pain.

… oh god, it would be like wearing a bark collar. Even if he can eventually find people to retract unfair orders, for the duration that the order is active he’d still be effectively getting trained to behave in whatever manner the order demanded.

I decided not to have the contact enforced via mind control/compulsion, but I honestly wonder now if the long-term psychological damage of this method would be worse.

Losing control of yourself due to mind control would certainly be traumatic, but I feel like once the magic was gone so would any urges to behave as you had been ordered to.

But Beetlejuice… he has to learn to adjust his behavior himself. He has to learn to comply almost instinctually, because if he forgets and behaves as he always does it’s going to hurt.

And that means the behavior is going to linger.

… I think that early on, Beetlejuice would be angry a lot, but maybe he’d hold himself back. He chose to sign the contract, he knew what he was doing, and he wants to make a good impression so maybe they’ll actually want to keep him around. This might be when he would be willing to actively annoy Charles— apparently not letting him come back without a contract was his idea anyway. Thus, this would also probably be around the time that the closet incident would happen. He’d probably be pretty whiny during this period too, complaining about the rules being annoying and asking for them to be changed. He’d hang out with Lydia as much as possible, and they’d have a pretty good time.

Before long though, Beetlejuice wouldn’t be able to keep a lid on his temper anymore. Towards the end of this period is probably about where his fallout with the Maitlands would happen. I think he’d also have at least one fight with Lydia, maybe multiple, and she’d order him around more in retaliation. He’d start pushing the limits of his rules as much as he could, trying to upset people, see if he can destroy anything in ways that the contract doesn’t count as destructive, maybe even taking advantage of people being nice and revoking rules, which would cause conflict between other household members. This would result in him being given a lot of very restrictive orders. He’d probably consider leaving at this point, but would ultimately decide he can’t bring himself to.

The aftermath of his angry period would be where his actions would start to reflect fear. Maybe at some point someone actually taught him some grounding exercises for his anger, and he starts to use them to calm himself down so he doesn’t try to break any rules and get hurt in the midst of an outburst. He starts pleading again, but it’s more like how he was with Juno. He starts hiding, reducing the amount of time he spends in places where people can easily see and interact with him (and thus order him around). Orders he’s had for a long time that he used to have to concentrate on obeying become natural to him. He still hangs out with Lydia, plays the part of her friend. Does his job. Makes sure he’ll still be wanted. Lydia notices the downturn in his mood and starts trying to be nicer to him.

The Maitlands, seeing what’s happening, finally decide they need to put a stop to this. Tense discussions are had. I don’t think they’d remove the contract fully, but they’d dismiss pretty much every rule.

Things start to improve. People stop intentionally giving Beetlejuice orders, and accidental orders are quickly revoked. Relationships are improving, and anyone who didn’t fully think of Beetlejuice as a person is starting to now. However, the psychological effects the ordeal has had on Beetlejuice are apparent.

I’m not entirely sure how Beetlejuice would react at this turning point. I think that at some point there would be anger, but it would take a while because of how good at suppressing it he’d be at this point. By this point his mindset of ‘they want me here to be useful, not because they care, but that’s good enough’ would be super internalized. Having the rules be taken away might even be anxiety-inducing, because what if he messes up and they don’t want him anymore and he went through all of this for nothing? He’d keep obeying a lot of rules by himself, which Charles and Delia might see as good while the Maitlands and Lydia might be concerned.

Eventually, there would start to be some mutual trust. Beetlejuce would stop expecting to be ordered around every time he does something that bothers someone. Some behaviors from the orders would remain, but he’d gradually learn where the lines were and his reason for keeping those behaviors would gradually transition from fear and habit to genuinely not wanting to upset people. And one day, the contract would be dismissed, or maybe altered such that Beetlejuice wouldn’t have to live in fear of being forced to leave.

[delopsia]

Del ☕ we know a lot about Rhett's relationship with his father but do we know anything about Robby's? 👀

Now this is something I've been brewing on for damn near a year 💃

The story I crafted isn't pretty, so here is your honorary trigger warning for drug and alcohol use, major age gap relationships, overdoses, verbally abusive relationships, death, and mentions of PTSD.

Here we go

Robby's dad, Glenn, was an ex-Air Force pilot who had served in the Vietnam War; he was 41 when he met Bob's momma, Nellie Floyd, newly turned 19, having run from her small town in Texas, seeking the finer things out in California. At the time, Nellie had her eyes on everyone but Glenn, but they just kept showing up at the bar at the same time, and eventually, that led to conversation. Conversation led to dates, and dates led to something more.

It wasn't meant to last, they both knew that, but they were two lonely people desperate to feel loved. Wanted. So they kept seeing each other. No strings attached, either could walk away when they were reader.

Until Nellie learned she was pregnant. And suddenly, there was a very big string tying them together.

At first, they made it work; their first argument was over Glenn's desire to have Robert take Nellie's last name, Floyd, and by the time her little son was finally born, she was too tired to argue. Robert Floyd, it was.

Glenn made a lot of questionable decisions in his life, but the one unquestionable thing he ever did was love his son unconditionally. Bobby was his entire world, and for a few months there, it was enough to keep him from drinking. They were a happy trio.

Until they weren't.

Nellie and Glenn had absolutely nothing in common; they were so different in every way imaginable. Political views, ages, personalities, experiences. Nellie was a young, free spirit who wanted to explore the world, and Glenn was an old, weathered soul who had seen things no man should see. The last thing he wanted to do was leave his familiarity. His drinking was getting worse, and when Nellie became aware of the drug use, things took a turn for the worse.

They broke up and got back together every few weeks. Nellie would walk away because of Glenn's addiction, Glenn would temporarily clean up, beg for her to come back, and she would return. Rinse and repeat. Over, and over, and over.

During that time, Nellie met another man, one her age but no less toxic, and fell pregnant with twin girls. Where Glenn was a gentle speaker who never raised his voice in front of the children, the father of Bob's sisters had a temper like no other.

And this is where Bobby grew up. Filtering between homes, between being around a hateful man who swore and hollered like no other, and a husk of a soul that turned to the bottle to escape.

Glenn tried to get sober for his son, he really did; he managed to stay clean for the weekend visits. Took Robby to Air Force and Naval museums, even if the very sight of planes made him tremble. He's where Bob learned to love to fly; they got on planes just to turn around and come back right after landing.

They visited ships and built model planes. Glenn was no Navy boy, but he taught Bob to swim better than anyone could. He was the one to get him into surfing. Always challenged him to see who could eat the most dinner; Bob always called him out for letting him win.

Every weekend was an adventure. Bob thought his daddy was just fun like that. Glenn was just trying to keep his son from learning the truth.

But Bobby knew; he was too young to understand at the time, but in time, he would. He saw the bottles and the needles, understood what that funny smell on his dad's breath was.

Glenn passed of an overdose when Bob was eight.

Nellie tried her best to keep Bob from knowing what had happened, but Bobby has always been smart. Not only had he already put two and two together, but he had heard the conversation when the police officer came to tell his momma what happened.

Glenn was supposed to be buried, but before the funeral, Bob overheard his momma talking about moving back to Texas and kicked up a massive fit about wanting to take his dad with them. He didn't want to bury his dad in a place that he could never visit; that wasn't fair!

So, instead, Glenn was cremated, and his urn was sitting in Bob's lap for the entirety of the move to Texas. He has his own shelf wherever Bob moves, some small thing covered in model planes and tiny surfboards.

Bob's childhood was anything but perfect, and it shaped a lot of who he's become. He doesn't drink because of what happened to his father, doesn't swear or raise his voice like his sister's father did. In many ways, he strives to be the opposite of both men, but he's like his dad in so many different ways.

The only reason he ever got grounded was for sneaking out of the house to go surfing at the same weirdly specific hours Glenn did. He shared that love of planes that took him to the Navy; he got into bronc riding because it had always been on his dad's bucket list.

His meal proportions are larger than normal because being a big eater is evidently hereditary. He laughs the same; he wears glasses similar to the ones Glenn did; he unknowingly loves the same books and genres, but he lives his life so much differently.

Bobby is the result of a crippling pattern being broken; he comes from a long line of war-torn veterans on his dad's side and refuses to walk the path created by those before him. He's learned to be strong in all of the places they were weak, and he's far from perfect, but his momma always says he's something close to it.

The only thing he couldn't beat were the sensitive allergies that run on his dad's side of the family 🙄 he's out of commission every spring.

But that's just my two cents 🌼💃

[nickhembery]

2023 wrapped

Let's try to sum up the year.

First, the TLDR: a long, drawn out groan of "fuck".

Second, what actually happened.

Remember that blog from a while back where I had six goals and if I did them all then I'd customise my mechanical keyboard? That didn't really work out. The treadmill I bought was a bit of a lemon and had to be sent back. It was one of those machines that's not really built to be used, it's designed to sit in a corner and have the owner look at it and say "I should use that sometime", but they never do. It's documentation all pointed to it breaking down pretty quickly with the amount of use I'd put it through. Not in the documentation was that it switched itself off after 40 minutes without warning. Based on that, I sent it back and got a refund, minus the shipping cost because the refund label I was given wasn't enough for the damn thing's weight. Oh well.

The writing didn't go so well either. Stress ground that to a halt. Two things happened to spread that over the year.

First, I got solar panels installed on my roof. That's a good thing. They're cool and they've cut my energy bill down a lot. But to put the panels in I needed scaffolding in place. It couldn't be put up and put down on the day of installation because a) different companies handled the panels and the scaffolding, and b) in case something went wrong. In my case something minor did go wrong. One of the installers got lazy and instead of securing the main power cable to my outside wall, he zip tied it to guttering downpipe. As I explained on the phone when I complained, this makes a mess of liabilities if I ever need work done on that pipe. Fortunately, a couple of guys came out to fix the cable problem. But no one came to pick up the scaffolding... for three months.

Remember I mentioned that different companies handled the panels and the scaffolding? Well, I could only talk to the panel company as they hired the scaffolding company. It took a lot of phone calls, emails and Official Complaints to find out what happened. The scaffolding company ran into financial trouble and didn't tell anyone for a while. To keep the money coming in they kept installing scaffolding in properties and didn't bother collecting any. They had scaffolding to spare and knew that no one would dare/be able to take down the stuff left behind. Eventually, once the panel company found out what was happening they got the scaffolding company to start coming out and collecting again.

The reason this was a big problem was the scaffolding shut off access to a few things. Two of my windows, and my neighbour's garage. It's a bit of a pain trying to explain all the problems with the scaffolding company hired by the panel company over a text message. But... one day they finally showed and took it away. Stress over. Except.

Except, that day, the very same day, there's an all-hands meeting with work. Everyone tunes into the conference call to hear the news. The company's in trouble. Layoffs in the US office, redundancies in the UK office. The layoffs had already happened by the time of the meeting, the redundancies would be announced after call. When the call ended, I decided to give it ten minutes before declaring myself safe. I got the notification at about the seven minute mark. It was, indeed, fuck.

So, in the US they did layoffs. You're called in, you're told, you leave. No argument, no appeal. In the UK we do redundancies. That's a process about a month long where people are 'at risk' of redundancy and no one is officially fired until the end. For some, there are groups who have the same or similar titles, and the high ups have to decide who in the group to get rid of. For others, like me, you're a one of one, and you'll be gone, unless you can convince them to keep you on. This isn't even the shitty 'interview for the job you're already doing', it's argue that your job should even exist. In my case, the documentation about the redundancy said the plan was that my duties as proofreader would be split up between the writers. Mood: Pickard face palm.

So, got that news. That night I ordered a big box of grease in the form of a pizza for dinner and ate it all while feeling sad. The next day, I got to work. The amount of people at risk of redundancy in the company was so big that there were too many for the HR people to speak to, so we were split into sub-groups based on departments, and those groups would need reperesentatives to come to meetings with HR and then dissiminate the information back to their group. I volunteered to be a rep at is a) meant I was getting all of the information and b) meant I could channel all of anxiety about the process into being a control freak. I made spreadsheets, I kept masses of notes, I wrote up every single meeting. Half the questions I asked in the meetings I had come up with rather than people in my group.

About a quarter way through the redundancy process time frame, I got a meeting with HR to make my pitch. It was really pretty simple: You Need Me. The writers make mistakes, in grammar, in spelling, in simple facts. They don't have the time to research things properly so just it wrong sometimes, and asking another writer to check it won't work out because they won't have the time either. But, I needed some carrot with the stick so offered a solution. My utilisation was down, so I could go on part time hours for a while until things pick up again. They were receptive in the meeting, and asked for a written pitch. I wrote it, read it over, edited it, read it again, then sent it. They accepted. My job was saved, well half saved.

It was a good thing too, as my backup plan feel through. Just before the redundancy process had started, I interviewed at a science journal to do proofreading there. Say what you will about the business model of journals (it's all a bit predatory), but it would have been a big step up from marketing. It was really nice to be taken seriously as a contender for the role, but in the end they decided to go with someone who had basically done the same job at another journal before.

Back to the job stress. I had a half a job. Better than zero job, but still. Finances were tight. I had just enough to pay my bills each month, but that was it. I was not going on holiday or even replacing that crappy treadmill. I got very lucky with the situation. If I hadn't gotten the raise in January the cut to my pay wouldn't have been viable at all. I didn't mention the raise. Man, this is all over the shot, isn't it? Short version: company introduced system to get promotions for most roles, left me (and some other unique jobs) out. So I wrote my own job description for the promotion system in specific way so that they would have to promote me. I gave them plenty of chances to stop me. And the promotion went through in January with a nice raise. And then in May that raised pay was cut in half.

Being on part time isn't all it's cracked up to me. What do you do with all that spare time? Well, you stress out that the rest of the job will be taken away from you, that's what. I played a lot of video games, watched most of the MCU and watched most of Star Wars. The only thing from the MCU I haven't seen is Ms Marvel, I watched every other movie and show. I watched all of Star Wars except the Resistance show set around Episode 7. Only people who have seen all seven seasons of Clone Wars, all four seasons of Rebels, The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett understand what's going in Ahsoka. It's like a soap twenty years long and suddenly plot threads from the entire run are all coming together.

Amongst all the TV watching, I gardened my garden. When I bought my house, there was decking in the back garden. But I quickly discovered that the decking was no good, it was rotting. Far too gone to Ship of Theseus it, I tore it all out, dug out the posts, lifted the gravel that was underneath the decking, lifted the second layer of gravel that was under the first, broke up some random paving stones that were in the corner, and cleared the whole area down to the mud. That took months of work. I filled my car three times with wood for disposing of and filled a four-tonne skip with the gravel and rocks. After the garden was clear, I got fresh gravel and membrane and covered it all over.

When November came around, I did NaNoWriMo again. I wasn't aiming for the full 50k though. It had been months since I'd tried writing and really I didn't have enough story to need that many words. So I went for writing every day. Late in the month I got sick, my first cold in four years. That knocked me pretty hard, so there was one day where I only managed 98 words. But I did manage to write every day, and a couple days into December I finished the first draft of the book I've been working on since 2019. It's gotten away from me a bit, it's 322,000 words long. I may try to cut it down to one big epic novel, or I may keep the length but split it out into a series of novellas. We'll see how editing goes.

That brings us to about now. Christmas is soon, and for the first time we're skipping presents. I'm actually relieved, I had no idea what to get anyone. Last day of work is tomorrow, then it's Christmas break.

This year has been stressfull. I'm seeing more grey hairs in the mirror than before. But it could have been a lot worse.

2024 is actually looking up. Going to do an editing pass of the mammoth novel, got a plan to do it in 100 days. Through a confluence of events, including metaphorically finding bodies stuffed in a cupboard, I'm going to be back at full time at work, so money will be okay again. I've got a plan to keep myself organised for the year, it involves a whiteboard and a physical diary. I'll do another blog later to explain that.

[turn2tech]

what the fuck just happened

ok um sorry for posting this on tumblr out of literally anywhere else but i just got out of a really WEIRD relationship and im honestly not sure what else to do!!!

tws: possibly toxic relationships? (past) physical/emotional abuse

holy shit wow where do i even start

this all happened so fast!!!

ok me and my bf of 1.5 years have broken up!!! It was our homecoming dance i invited them as well as our mutual best friend, and when they got there they told me they thought it was going to be a date. They acted very upset throughout the entire thing brought down the mood all together. I'm not saying that they aren't allowed to express their emotions, but the thing is, they were there when i invited the best friend. After that, i broke up with them while we were waiting for our parents to pick us up (we're freshmen). We agreed to stay friends.

After all of that, i invited the best friend over to my house, mainly so i could complain about how they were kind of a manipulative asshole throughout the entire relation (dw, ill get to that later) and we got to talking, eventually coming to the conclusion they we should also stop being friends with them.

Me, being the irrational and impulsive prick that i am, told someone that max was close too! I told him the next day at school, not realizing i forgot to tell him that the confrontation itself was going to happen at a later date, and him, confused, went to class and asked my boyf what happened.

blah blah blah yada yada yada i said some stupid shit in a group chat, insulted them while trying to explain the situation, and was just kind of bitchy about the whole thing. Without hearing my side of the story, everyone immediately took max's side and kicked me. I understand it to an extent, but even to this day they refuse to get my perspective which is really concerning to me. I had someone i knew inside the group chat still, and they sent me screenshots of everyone saying how they never liked me in the first place and how AND I QUOTE "only ever talk about cartoons and video games." Like... damn. I would genuinely rather be punched in the face and have my nose broken by a complete and utter stranger on the street then to see that.

A few days after, the friend that started this all insisted that apologizing to the bf directly would fix everything. I gave a whole ass SPEECH about how i was in the wrong about the things i said, but i still felt our relationship was unhealthy for me. They didn't add me back to the group chat, nor did i ever have someone ask me for my side. Oh, and the inside friend? refuses to defend me in fear of getting kicked out as well.

The mutual best friend actually made amends with the bf so they aren't on bad terms, but in truth they are only there to report what he has said about me. He has said the following:

that i was emotionally distant

i ... smelled bad????

i didn't give them enough "physical affection" (i frequently said no to making out)

And that just got me thinking. The entire reason i was emotionally and physically distant was because of, well, physical and emotional abuse ive suffered in the past. Ive had terrible relationships, and even more terrible friends. I told them about this several times, and that it's not their fault im this way! clearly they don't care and have decided to take it personally, which is not my problem.

So you know what? ive got a couple of gripes with you too.

you never(rarely) showered and actively admitted that to me

you were a compulsive liar that lied about fucking EVERYTHING

you frequently emotionally presured me into staying with you, using the phrase "I'd probably kill myself if we ever broke up haha" frequently

you faked being scene (dressed the part, did not listen to the music LMFAO I JUST REMEBERED THEIR FAVORITE ARTIST IS MITSKI HELP)

AND LAST, BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST,

YOU FUCKING FAKED BEING TRANS TO DATE ME

yes, you read that last part right! the NIGHT we broke up they went to all their social media accounts and changed the flags in their pfps, as well as the pronouns in their bio, oh no, im sorry, HER BIO. I am pissed and angry and mainly sad that i didn't see the signs earlier. And hey, if you read this far, thanks.

Anyways, there's actually a lot more inbetweens to this story, including the collapse of an entire friend group, rumors, and a musical (not fucking kidding), but im tired and typing this just made me really sad. goodnight.

[caelmellark]

B A S I C S

Faceclaim: Sean Teale

Name:  Cael Mellark

Age: 26

Gender: Cis Man

Home: District 12

Role: Civilian (future rebel)

Personality: guarded, stubborn, antagonistic, brave, curious, impulsive

Song: Wolves by Ryan Bingham

B I O G R A P H Y

trigger warnings for: cheating, physical/verbal child abuse, passive suicidal ideation

Being born out of spite is a difficult thing. Well, perhaps not out of. But due to. Despite his mother's vehement denial of the fact, Cael Mellark, was not a Mellark in the real sense, no true son of Aldar.

Pudina was a hateful woman, and this trait only worsened by the first wound inflicted by her husband; making her the second choice behind Lilian Everdeen, began to fester. This was a slight she would never truly recover from, and that's where the spite comes in. She had an affair. Although, perhaps affair is an affected way of describing it. She fucked someone else, a man from the seam of all places. That should show him, right? --- But perhaps she hadn't thought it through, hadn't thought of what would happen when her stomach became round with child. When the child came and he had tanned skin, raven hair and dark, curious eyes that reminded her of his father and not Aldar or her first son, Rye, she once again made a decision in the moment and stuck to it, consequences be damned. He was Aldar's son. They had ancestors from the seam, the swarthy phenotype must have skipped a generation or two, she insisted to anyone who would listen. She even had another child four years later, another boy with the same golden looks as his eldest brother and father. See? She was a faithful wife. That middle child was just an anomaly.

Those first four years of Cael Mellark's life, until his mother could prove herself with the birth of his younger brother, Peeta, were difficult ones. A woman who refused to acknowledge her mistakes had to stare at her biggest one in the face every day she woke up, and she decided to make that everyone else's problem, but especially the young boy's. He was too young to understand, all he knew is Pa's eyes seemed to pass over him as if he wasn't there and that he wished Ma's eyes would do the same. But they always landed on him, and they were always so angry. And he couldn't figure out why. By 6, Rye had already learned how to obey, to submit and avoid the open hand or closed fist of their mother. But perhaps Cael was slow, his mother always liked to say he was, and at just 4, he would behave as a young child would. He'd make messes, he'd throw tantrums, or his biggest sin: he would hit back with tiny fists as he was punished for the all the former mistakes.

Even after the addition of his second brother, as the years caught up with them, Rye continued to obey, Peeta had learned to secede and play peacemaker, but it seemed as if Cael couldn't or wouldn't learn his damn lesson. Stubborn, insolent boy! His mother would yell as she whacked him with the rolling pin meant for the thickest of doughs. Sometimes Cael could pinpoint what he had done to ‘deserve’ the kiss from his mother's palm or lick of her belt, and he would make sure to avoid doing those things in the future.  But eventually, times he had no clue what he had done outweighed the times he did, and it didn’t take long for Cael to grow from scared to resentful.  It became obvious to him it didn’t matter how he behaved, his clothes would still cover and hide bruises and his father would still look away from the marks on his sons' cheeks, so why try? 

Sometimes, in the bed he and Peeta shared, they'd whisper of different lives they could be living, imagining what different districts were like. These moments of escape, which for all he knew, Peeta might not even remember, were cherished by Cael. They were moments that couldn't be stolen by their mother with her stern looks and even harsher hands. And in a family where distance between members seemed to stretch oceans and loyalty only existed due to shared blood, it was the only time he felt like he had an ally. So maybe, when Ma would start in on his younger brother, Cael had something to say about it, a witty comment, a snarky thought. It was a well practiced game for the middle child: distract with a comment, duck the blow of ma's hand at least once, get the beating that was coming anyways, just a bit earlier. Sometimes she'd turn back to Peeta or Rye, and Cael would only be able to provide them with a momentary reprieve, but sometimes he pissed her off enough to distract her indefinitely.

But then Rye went off and got married, leaving only two sons and their parents in the small apartment above the bakery. But hey, at least they got their own beds, now. And then what felt like in no time at all, the world shifted again, as Peeta's name was called out on the microphone by that lady in the ridiculous wig in front of the justice building. Cael froze. He wondered, if he had been of age, would he have volunteered? If he could have, either by age or courage, it probably would have made things easier. Send the black sheep off to the killing floor, leave the golden ram. Perhaps if he was gone, Ma would take it easier on Rye and Peeta. But it wasn't an option, and still, to this day, Cael wasn't sure even if it was, if he would have been able to thaw himself out in time to raise his hand to volunteer in his little brother's place.

His mother refused to watch, an action Cael couldn't figure out. Did it come from callousness, uncaring about the fate of her son? Or was this one of the few moments in which Pudina Mellark displayed something other than disdain and annoyance for her children? Was the thought of watching one of her children go through something as horrible as the games just too much? To this day, Cael wasn't sure. But he watched. He watched whenever he could. Fingers tapped in a nervous tattoo on the bakery counter as he waited until he could. Something about watching, as stupid as it sounded, made it feel as if he was protecting his brother. If he watched, nothing bad could actually happen to him, right? There was no way he could watch his brother die on screen.

And thankfully, he didn't have to. But Peeta's return was another world shift, as he moved into the Victor village, and despite it being years since they had shared a bed, shared dreams of the future, Cael found being the last one of his brothers to reside in the family home disconcerting and jarring. Of course he still saw them when they all worked in the bakery, but there were those damn oceans again. Rye had moved on, started a family. Peeta had become infamous, and seemed to be well on his way to starting a family of his own. But Cael...Well Cael was where Cael always was. And he felt like a shadow darkening his brothers' doorsteps whenever he visited. So he didn't. Or, he rarely did. They both had new lives, and much like he had been a reminder to his mother of her biggest mistake, he didn't want to become a reminder to his brothers' as well. He wasn't sure if he could take that.

So he stayed away, and he let those oceans grow...and grow. He thinks he might drown soon.

( * cael mellark | about. )

[forthedancingandthethriving]

Fleeting Sands Arc

The New Pet

Lily gets a pet hognose snake after begging SMG4&3 for one for a while. She and Lil Coding enjoy spending time with it until Boopkins accidentally releases it from its enclosure. This leads to the trio having to find it before the adults figure out that it's lose.

Mario goes for a glass of water

It's hot. Like, desert levels of hot in the Mushroom Kingdom. No one knows why. Mario goes to get some water, but it turns out the plumbing isn't working! He has to do his job for once, and it goes as wondrously as you'd expect.

Mario goes to the Desert

Thanks to Mario pissing off Kamek, he, Luigi, Tari, and Saiko have all ended up in the damn desert of all places. With no easy way back until the others realize they're gone, so they decide to find some place to rest and not die of heatstroke.

As they make their way through the desert, they see bases for pillars that seem to have been ripped away, taken by some unforseen being or force. They eventually come across a worn down and faceless statue of a king, on its back in the sand. The pedestal that it once stood upon long gone.

Everyone is rightfully confused by this and slightly offput as well, but there's no time to question it, as Domain and Forum have arrived to collect them. They decide not to question it, though, and are grateful to head home.

Lily's Lessons in Blackmail

Lily turns out to, unknowingly, have a lot of blackmail on everyone due to being the quiet, unsuspecting child of the whole gang (at least formerly). Bob realizes this when she casually mentions to him one day something about Boopkins anime obsession even he didn't know about. Cue her showing her all the blackmail she has on everyone without even realizing.

This quickly leads into him teaching her the wonderful world of blackmail, where you can use it to get what you want. He teaches her how to use blackmail (namely on Wario and Waluigi, because they've been setting up scams on his terf again).

It's actually a positive bonding experience between the two, with Bob actually being a good influence and reminding her not to do it all the time. But she should absolutely do it to get back at those who wrong her.

Mario the Babysitter

Mario's got to watch over Lil Coding, Lily, Jubjub, Boopkins, and Cody for the day! Normally, this would be fine, considering he has matured a lot in this au. However, Lil Coding found the catnip that was hidden is causing absolute mayhem around the castle while the others are out. He attempts to call Antivirus and CPU to have either of them help, but both say that, unfortunately, they have some really pressing matters to attend to and that they can't help despite wanting to.

After the group manages to get Lil Coding under control.. the end shifts abruptly to Antivirus, CPU, and Crash entering a desert-like domain, where the wind is howling.. before the episode ends.

A Glitchy Tale

The kids decide that, for their fun today, they'll have Lil Coding infiltrate the Adminspace archives and find out about all the viruses and over enemies that have been dealt with. It's presented in the form of a story book, with each virus defeat told (except for Re: Eternity, because Lily still has trauma from that) and then they get to.. a Virus with no name. It's title is blank.

It's described as a giant serpent, with piercing yellow eyes not even the darkest depths could hide. Its silver scales would glint in the sun of the universe it would then consume and destroy. It was said that it was impossible to contain, until one day.. it vanished. No one knew what happened to it, and search parties were sent out but it was never found.

It's commented on how ominous that is.

We get another abrupt ending change, with the Crash, CPU, and Antivirus, all dodging various attacks from an unknown being in the desert domain. They're all in their bird forms, and worryingly, they're panicking. And it's made apparent why, when Crash mentions that since Antivirus and him both just went through and update, they are nowhere near their normal power level and can't fight. Unfortunately, whatever is attacking them won't let them reach the exit.

The trio dodge some more until the attacks begin to come from the air, and they begin flying closer to the ground. Unfortunately.. this was a trick. Whatever was attacking them had prefired some shots long before, and now they were finally coming down.

The trio revert back to their normal holograms.. just in time for a shadow to shoot over them, and for the three to realize in absolute horror, they were tricked. The shadow shoots down and cuts to black.

It then shows Ozymandias, slithering towards the exit, saying, "I am Ozymandias, king of kings. All those who try to contain me are fools, and you three are no different."

Missing 3

There's a bit of panic in the Adminspace, because of the fact that they have LOST THREE VERY IMPORTANT ADMIMS AND NO ONE CAN FIND THEM.

Considering the recent track record that's been happening, there are a lot of Admins out searching for the three (but we only focus on the ones we've been introduced to). The tone of the episode gets progressively more panicked before Lag and Buffer lands in the Mario universe, both really really hoping that the trio is here and just something is wrong with their location transmitters.

Only for more despair to set it when it's confirmed that, no, none of the three were here. Just as the gang goes to inquire more, Ping arrives with a badly beat Umbra, with Abyssal not for behind.

They found CPU, Antivirus, and Crash! But.. the trio is being held hostage by a giant virus snake that's currently rampaging through a universe? What's worse? It has them in some strange orbs on its body, draining them of their power, and none of them know how much longer those three will last.

Movie: Fleeting Time and Falling Sands

(A WOTFI wouldn't work because,, Ozymandias just wouldn't agree to it-)

Understandably, everyone is freaking out over this. Moreso when they realize that, aside from the one file that Lil Coding read once, there is nothing on Ozymandias. But Umbra is able to tell them that the virus did say something about how dragging it "down to that infernal prison won't work." Giving the terrifying realization that Ozymandias can't be contained in Computer Hell.

Everyone ends up agreeing that there must have been somewhere that the virus was being contained. So, the Admins capable of fighting decide to head off the universe to fight and stall for time while the Hologram Trio, the SMGs, and Umbra head out to try and find where Ozymandias has been kept. The rest of the gang stay behind, mostly in case something happens while everyone is gone.

A good portion of the movie is split between the Admins fighting Ozymandias and the other group trying to figure out where the hell the virus was trapped. Thankfully, they do eventually find the separate prison, but they're running out of time. Antivirus, Crash, and CPU aren't looking too well, and Buffer surmises that they only have a certain amount of time until all three are drained of their power, and Ozymandias decides to stop torturing them.

As the Admins lead Ozymandias back to its prison, they try various ways to free the trio, but to no avail. However, Abyssal ends up getting a lucky shot and breaks the three free.. only for Ozymandias to notice and immediately shoot down, intent on eating the Admins whole.

Just barely, though, Buffer and Abyssal manage to grab the trio and get away from an increasingly incensed Ozymandias. However, it's Buffer that realizes that the virus really wants them, and it's then a plan is made.

The other group quickly use their abilities to change the scenery of Ozymandias's prison, changing it to look like an unsuspecting universe. And thankfully, it works. They're able to lure the virus in and get back out. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, though, as everyone is able to witness Ozymandias crack the walls of its prison.

It may not be able to escape its own code, but it can certainly weaken it. Ping and Abyssal take it upon themselves to do their best to reinforce the protection of the walls keeping Ozymandias in, while everyone else focuses on Crash, CPU, and Antivirus. The three will live, thankfully, but at the current moment, they're very weak and are going to need a lot of time to recover.

Movie ends with a flash forward to a few days later. Antivirus is playing with some of the kids, and CPU and Crash are watching. The trio decided to spend most of their recovery in the Mario universe because, despite all the story chaos that happens, it is actually pretty peaceful by SMG standards.

Though, when asked if they know who locked Ozymandias up, all three avoid the question. They'd rather not remember the first time they nearly lost their lives. Thank you very much. And while Ozymandias is still very much a threat, its containment is still being updated.. it's not a threat now. So everyone's content to take a moment to breathe.