#he’d be like. uh is it normal for my morty to be like this. should i worry about him plotting revenge or something.

[fear-no-mort]

useless headcanon that evil morty trained himself to sleep with his eyes open originally as a safety thing but also later down the line it helped him get through boring meetings and stuff when he was president

[robininthelabyrinth]

I'd like to see more of the Jiang Cheng has spider venom fic. Mostly because I want to see him bite someone else. How about a Jin?

Normal For the Spider - Extra: 5 People Jiang Cheng Bit, Some of Whom Deserved It

ao3

1 – Wei Wuxian

“So I’ve been exchanging letters with shijie on account of the whole theoretically banished business,” Wei Wuxian said as they strolled down the Qiongqi Path together, Wen Ning behind them making shy stuttering friends with the handful of Jiang sect disciples Jiang Cheng had brought along with him – he’d deliberately picked the friendliest and most social of the lot, the ones that acted like overgrown puppies and wanted to adopt everyone they met, and sure enough they’d mobbed Wen Ning like a bunch of crows intent on raising the poor little sparrow they found into a proper bird. It was no more than Wen Ning deserved, in Jiang Cheng’s opinion. Someone needed to socialize him, and clearly neither his sister nor Wei Wuxian were doing crap about it.

“That’s nice,” Jiang Cheng said. “If by nice you mean extremely suspicious. What about in particular?”

“Your family inheritance.”

“Is this about the summer house we have near that mountain lake? I told you, it’s been deserted for years and may possibly be haunted by something resistant to the usual liberation techniques, but if you really want to go there, you’re of course allowed…”

“That’s not the inheritance I meant and you know it.”

Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes. He did know it. “What questions do you have now?” he asked. “More medical stuff from Wen Qing?”

She’d recovered from the venom very well and immediately started wanting to know everything. Recovered a little too well, in Jiang Cheng’s opinion.

“No, this one’s for me,” Wei Wuxian said. “We’re going to Lanling City in order to let Jin Ling bite me as a way to establish familial ties and let him ‘absorb’ good aspects from my personality, right?”

Jiang Cheng nodded.

“So in some cases, biting is an act of affection?”

Jiang Cheng nodded, a little more warily.

“Then how come you’ve never bitten me?”

“It’s only affectionate when you’re a baby,” Jiang Cheng said. “Once you grow into your childhood venom, it starts being dangerous, even to family; you don’t do affection-bites after that point. And when you’re an adult…well, you saw Wen Qing!”

“Eh, she’s fine now,” Wei Wuxian said cheerfully. “I feel like I missed out! It’s not fair, Jiang Cheng. I deserve a bite! I’m practically your brother! We share essential bodily organs!”

“Wei Wuxian! Don’t talk about that!”

“Bite me and I’ll stop.”

“I’m not biting you just to make you stop being annoying –”

2 – Jin Zixun

“What are you doing here?!” Jiang Cheng demanded. “This is an ambush! Is the Jin sect considering waging an act of war against the Jiang sect?”

Jin Zixun scowled at him. “Not against the Jiang sect,” he said haughtily. “Against the Yiling Patriarch.”

“He’s my head disciple!”

That got a confused sort of frown. “But you banished him…?”

“Rumor,” Jiang Cheng said, with dignity, the way they’d always planned. “Baseless rumor, that’s all.”

Rumor he’d never denied, and had instead implicitly encouraged so that people would leave his Jiang sect alone for a little while as he gathered up strength and resources to tell them to fuck off.

“But…” Jin Zixun hesitated. “You just – attacked him?”

Jiang Cheng glared at Wei Wuxian, still lying prone on the ground with his head in Wen Ning’s lap to elevate it and his neck bandaged but still a little red – surely the paralytic had worn off by now?

Wei Wuxian noticed him staring and gave a jaunty little wave, grinning and very clearly regretting nothing, which meant that the paralytic had worn off and he was just lying there to be comfortable while watching the fun.

Typical.

“A friendly exchange,” he said, trying to maintain his dignity. “Also? Not the Jin sect’s business. What about you? What did you want with him?”

“I want him to remove the curse he cast on me,” Jin Zixun said, and he strode forward before Jiang Cheng could stop him and kicked Wei Wuxian in the side. “You hear me, you bastard?! I want the damn thing gone this instant or else –”

3 – Wen Ning

“So this is going to be a little awkward to explain,” Jin Zixuan said, rubbing his face. He looked tired, but that was possibly a side-effect of having Jin Zixun as a cousin. “Tell me, why are my cousin’s flunkies – er, I mean, my cousin’s friends convinced that it was Wen Ning that poisoned him?”

Jiang Cheng scowled.

“No offense meant,” Jin Zixuan added, nodding politely to Wen Ning. “It’s just, you know, you’re very much not a Yu, or even a Jiang.”

“No offense taken,” Wen Ning mumbled, though to Jiang Cheng’s eyes he looked a little pleased, even if his stiff wooden face still didn’t do emotions all that well. “It’s nice not to be automatically feared.”

“It’s because Wen Ning punched Jin Zixun in the face at the same moment that I bit him,” Jiang Cheng interjected, because someone needed to answer the actual question. “And then Jin Zixun fell over and someone started shouting about corpse poison – even though he’s obviously turned purple! Purple venom, purple spider, purple lightning…what part of this thematic color scheme is not obvious?!”

“Technically, the livor mortis spots generated by corpse poison are also purple,” Wei Wuxian said, completely unhelpfully. “According to Wen Qing, it’s the lack of oxygen in the blood pooling under the skin or something, which is the same thing your mom’s poison does.”

“Do you think you’re helping?” Jiang Cheng demanded.

“No, not at all. Did I sound like I was helping? I didn’t mean to.”

“I’m going to bite you again, you little…”

“My father isn’t going to want to let Wen Ning through the door if he’s considered a possible threat,” Jin Zixuan said, wisely deciding to carry on with the conversation despite their bickering. “You know he’s been saying all those things about how dangerous the Yiling Patriarch is – this’ll just feed into that.”

“I’m not going to Lanling City without Wen Ning!” Wei Wuxian exclaimed. “Wen Qing made me promise! It’s his first time visiting such a big place, too!”

“I’m pretty sure Wen Qing made you promise not to leave him behind because she was worried about your well-being, not Wen Ning’s ability to be a tourist,” Jiang Cheng said.

“Doesn’t matter! I’m not leaving him, and I’m definitely not going to not attend the party, so you have to fix this!”

“I don’t know how to fix this –”

Wen Ning coughed lightly. “Uh,” he said. “Jin-gongzi…would your father let me in if I wasn’t a threat? Say, if I was unconscious?”

A moment of silence.

“…does venom work even on fierce corpses?”

“Of course it does,” Jiang Cheng said irritably. “It wouldn’t be much of a defense mechanism for a cultivator if it didn’t.”

4 – Jin Guangshan

“I didn’t mean to!” Jiang Cheng said, his hands over his mouth. “I really didn’t mean to! It’s Wei Wuxian’s fault!”

“How is this my fault?!” Wei Wuxian asked. He looked amused, which was never a good sign, and even less so given the extreme crisis of the situation. “I wasn’t even in the room.”

“You encouraged me to keep biting people as a solution to everything!” Jiang Cheng hissed. “It got me in the mood. I wasn’t thinking!”

He looked down at the unconscious (and swiftly purpling) Jin Guangshan and grimaced. There was no convenient Wen Ning to put the blame on this time: it had been just the two of them, Jin Guangshan and Jiang Cheng, alone in a room together. Jin Guangshan had wanted to have words with him, sect leader to sect leader, which mostly meant that he wanted to throw his weight and seniority around to try to brow-beat Jiang Cheng into doing what he wanted, except that wasn’t going to work because Jiang Cheng was prepared, okay, he’d worked so long and so hard to try to build up the Jiang sect until it could resist Jin sect pressure.

And he’d probably just ruined everything.

“He has legitimate grounds to declare war against us now,” Jiang Cheng said miserably. “Or maybe to demand that we hand over that stupid Tiger Seal he keeps bugging you about as reparations, or in order to keep him from declaring war…”

“We can’t let him have it,” Wei Wuxian said at once. “It’s far too dangerous. I’d destroy it, first.”

“But then he’d still have a reason to strike against us…”

There was the soft sound of someone clearing their throat, and at first Jiang Cheng thought it was Wen Ning but when he looked up it was Jin Guangyao, instead. He looked the same as always, gentle and personable and smiling, which struck Jiang Cheng as being unaccountably weird for some reason that he couldn’t figure out until he remembered that the man’s father was currently lying on the ground being poisoned and maybe Jin Guangyao shouldn’t be smiling so much.

“If you don’t mind,” Jin Guangyao said, “I might have a suggestion that would get rid of that problem…”

5 – Wen Qing

“…and long story short, Jin Guangyao is going to run Lanling Jin until Jin Zixuan is done having kids, which may be never based on the soppy looks he and my shijie keep exchanging, and we all have the Jin sect’s blessing to move back into the Lotus Pier,” Wei Wuxian concluded. “All’s well that ends well, right, Jiang Cheng?”

Jiang Cheng crossed his arms and glared, admitting nothing.

“I’ll be happy to move anywhere that has decent food,” Wen Qing remarked. “This damn place won’t even grow radishes properly, and it’s Yiling; the radishes should be practically growing themselves.”

“I’ve arranged for some farmland for your people,” Jiang Cheng said, because practicalities he could do. “There’s still lots left over from before the war, lying fallow, and some of the places are medicinal herb fields – we need people with cultivation to tend to those, so I figured that might work for you. You’d have half regular farmland, to make sure you can grow whatever food you feel you need to be comfortable, and the other half, the herbs, can be sold to the Jiang sect at profit.”

“That sounds good,” Wen Qing said.

“Especially since they’re medicinal herb plants,” Wei Wuxian chimed in. “You could stock up on medicines you need!”

“A lot of medicines have to be obtained through trade, you utter nincompoop! I can’t make medicine just using what a single medicinal herb field will generate!”

Jiang Cheng nodded approvingly, thinking to himself that at least there was someone else in the world who understood exactly how aggravating it was to have to deal with Wei Wuxian’s unbridled and illogical optimism on a regular basis.

“And as for you,” Wen Qing said, turning to Jiang Cheng, who blinked owlishly at her. “Don’t think I missed the part of that story about how biting people is a sign of affection!”

“It’s – what?! No, you don’t – that’s when we’re children– it’s –”

Wei Wuxian started cackling.

[ask-the-riders]

Famine's Surprise

Famine decides to surprise his partner, and it's a surprise that neither of them will ever forget

((This has been stuck in my mind for probably more than a week now, and I couldn't hold off on writing it any longer))

"Hey uh... Do ya think we could talk, firefly?"

Retribution glanced up at his partner from the book he'd been reading. He made a sound in confirmation and gave a nod, "Of course. What's up, Famine?" The taller of the pair slipped into Ret's bedroom, tugging the door shut behind himself. Famine took a seat on the former prince's bed, his cheekbones flushing a soft shade of faded denim blue, "I... Was wonderin' if we could maybe go over our relationship a little." Retribution arched a brow bone, marking the page in his book before setting it aside. Scooting closer to Famine and laying his head on the taller's shoulder, he hummed, "I suppose we could do that, if you'd like. Is there any particular reason why you wanted to talk about it?" Famine gently wrapped an arm around his smaller partner's waist, "It's nothin' bad, I promise. I just thought it could be nice ta revisit some a' the more special moments we've had."

The shorter rider made another sound, this time in acknowledgment, "You know, I think you might be right about that. I think it could be nice, too." He paused, offering Famine a soft smile, "Which moment should we start with? We've had quite a few already." Famine hummed in consideration, tilting his head, "Hmmmm, let's see... Our first official date was somethin' pretty special." Retribution's cheekbones became a faint shade of cyan and his smile widened slightly in amusement, "What was special about it? It's not like we went out somewhere or did very much, after all. I'm actually a little surprised that you managed to remember it, considering how bland it was." The taller rider shrugged his shoulders, absentmindedly beginning to caress Ret's side, "Maybe you think it was bland, but I remember it a bit differently. I remember bein' on the roof with you in my arms. You were adorable, y'know."

He offered Retribution a small, sheepish grin and continued, "...When the sun finally set and it got dark out, ya practically lit right up, takin' the opportunity ta point out constellations and tellin' me stuff about 'em. Ya got embarrassed about ramblin' at me and tried ta apologize, but then I told ya to shut up. Ya looked pretty bummed out, so for clarification, I asked ya ta tell me more about the stars." The former prince's expression softened and he let out a sigh, his cyan blush darkening the smallest bit, "Ah. Of course you'd remember that." Famine snorted in amusement, "Mmhm, you bet I did, firefly. I remember how happy ya looked when ya were tellin' me about all the constellations, and nothin' was more beautiful ta me in that moment. Genuine happiness and enthusiasm looked really good on ya, and I wanted ta keep seein' ya like that."

The shorter rider's blush continued to very gradually darken and he tilted his head, "Well you're certainly quite the charmer, aren't you? How about we talk about you being cute now, though?" Famine blinked in surprise, his faint blush becoming noticably brighter as Ret pressed even closer to him. As the former prince straddled his lap and turned to face him, Famine instinctively gripped his hips. Ret lifted a hand and gingerly touched Famine's face, humming lowly, "You've been working so hard lately to overcome the part of your trauma that involves children. I've seen the way you are in the kitchen with Morty, and it's incredibly precious... While he still has quite a bit to learn, you're always right there, more than willing to teach him."

Famine smiled to himself, sheepishly glancing away from Retribution, "I guess? 'M just tryna learn ta relax around kids again, honestly. He's a good kid, and I don't mind lendin' him a hand and showin' him how ta do stuff." The former prince cupped Famine's face with both hands, rubbing circles on his cheeks with his thumbs. The taller rider all but melted under his touch, and Ret smiled warmly, "And that's what I love about you. You're always so willing to help those around you, regardless of what it is that they need." The taller of the pair rumbled lowly in acknowledgment, turning his head to press a kiss to one of his hands and murmuring, "Ya make me sound a lot better than I really am, Ret. I ain't that good of a person. I try, but sometimes it's a bit tricky."

The shorter of the pair arched a brow bone, absentmindedly tilting his head, "That's complete nonsense, and you know it. I'm only stating facts and things that I've observed." Famine rolled his eye light in mild amusement, "Yeah, yeah. Whatever ya say, moonbeam. If we're stating facts now though, it's my turn." Retribution opened his mouth to question the other, but was cut off, letting out a startled sound as he was flipped onto his back. Famine leaned over him, his grip firm but gentle as he pinned the smaller down. As his cyan blush visibly brightened, the taller rider smiled affectionately down at him, "You're understanding and patient, and ya never give me grief when I forget somethin'. Ya choose ta let your guard down around me, and ya treat me like a normal guy, even though ya know about the things I've done. I trust you with my soul, the same way you trust me with yours."

Retribution stared up at him, and he sighed softly, moving a hand to gently touch the other's face, "You're so considerate a' me, and if I start ta lose my grasp on things, ya know how ta bring me back ta reality. Even if I'm so far gone that I'm seein' shit that ain't there, you know exactly what ta do ta help me out a' that. I'd be lost without you, Ret. I don't care if your job as karmic justice gets a little messy sometimes, and I don't care that you're some alternate guardian a' negativity. I'd follow ya ta the end of the multiverse itself... I mean it." Ret's blush became even brighter and began to glow faintly, and he was left speechless. Seeing that his partner was at a loss, Famine sighed softly, sliding his free hand into his pocket. As he began to fumble with something, he continued smiling at Retribution, his gaze still just as warm and loving as before.

The former prince's surprised gaze remained locked on him, and he murmured, "Famine?... What brought this on?..." His larger partner hummed, "I know we haven't even been together a full year yet, but I seriously can't imagine my life without you. I wanna make you mine, and I feel like a good way a' doin' that would be ta progress our relationship further than it is now." Ret's voice became softer than before, "...What are you saying, Famine?"

Famine's own blush began to gradually darken and he began to look shy, "I... I'm sayin' that you're my world, Ret. My sun, moon, and stars, all at once. I dunno what I'd do without you, and... With that bein' said, I want you ta be my life mate." He paused, and Ret's eyes widened as he withdrew a ring from his pocket, sheepishly offering it to him, "I want you ta marry me, Retribution. I understand if I'm askin' too much a' you too soon, but you're so amazin' that I couldn't help it. I love you, and I wanna stay by your side as long as you'll have me." Cyan tinted tears began to prick at the rims of Retribution's sockets and he whispered, "You really love me that much?... But... But I'm... I'm ME. Disgusting and corrupted. I'm NIGHTMARE. Are you sure you'd really want to spend the rest of your days with someone like me?"

Without hesitation, Famine made a sound in confirmation, gently stroking Ret's cheek with his thumb, "Of course I'm sure, firefly. I'm as sure as I am honest. I don't think you're disgusting, I think you're perfect. And so what if you've got a little corruption in ya? I do, too. As far as bein' Nightmare goes... That ain't true. Maybe ya started off kinda the same, but you're not him anymore. You're Retribution, the rider a' karmic justice... Not Nightmare, the evil bastard guardian a' negativity." Cyan tears began to roll down the former prince's face and he wrapped his arms around Famine. Tugging the taller rider down until their bodies were flush against each other, he buried his face in the crook of his partner's neck as he sniffled. Famine wrapped an arm around him and held him close, wanting to provide as much comfort as possible.

A moment passed before Retribution gave a tiny nod and murmured, "...Yes." His larger partner tilted his head and made a sound in response, his tone questioning. Ret wiped the tears from his face with his sleeve and drew in a deep breath, "Yes, Famine... I'll marry you."

[celestial-coolatta]

... Okay. I need a concrete answer on what non-human, cold skin colors are okay for Benrey designs. This is getting out of hand and at a certain point we need to come to a reasonable conclusion that doesn't hurt anyone. I've asked a lot of people at this point and most of them say nobody actually gives a shit but I still don't want to upset anyone so we NEED to find a better solution than just assuming we all know everything

Here's all I know on the subject. Please tell me if I'm getting any of this wrong.

Obviously, green is very, VERY bad. That's obvious. As far as I'm aware of, there is no logical reason why green would make any sense, either.

Doesn't work with the uniform's color palette, and I can't think of any lore reason why he'd spend the entire time off-camera coated in copper, anyway. Big Nope.

The main issue is, green is partially connected to a lot of well-known antisemitic propaganda and dog whistles, so, while it's not inherently bad for ALL characters (ie. would be fine for grass-y characters that are literally made of green things), linking this to a villain specifically known to be deceptive (specifically in regards to appearing human at first glance) is a much bigger problem.

Blue has issues re: antisemitism, too, although it's not as well-known. Not as prevalent as green; I know where the green skin caricature comes from, but I've been trying to find information on where blue came from, and the majority of people who actually study this sort of thing appear to agree that it doesn't actually have any historical root, it's just been linked by association as a generally unnatural color.

Matches the color palette of the uniform and is much less "bright" than green, so it blends in well with shadows.

Generally associated with Livor Mortis (which is, if you're HCing Benrey to be partially undead in any way, absolutely NOT something you can afford to gloss over like you could with other set-ups), freezing/morgues/general cold storage, and/or complete exsanguination.

Common trope for zombie/alien characters, but, again, has a lot of negative connotations.

Not inherently awful when used for things like elementals/ghosts, but still could be taken very, very wrong with the specific archetype Benrey fills.

Purple has no link with antisemitic caricatures, unlike green and possibly blue.

Works as a cleaner method of expressing Livor Mortis or exsanguination, because it's closer to the tone that many lighter skin colors turn when drained this way.

A little harder to mesh neatly with the rest of the color palette than blue, for obvious reasons, but has the bonus of looking much "warmer"/pink at a glance, so it makes more sense that someone might look at Benrey and not immediately get that it's not just a trick of the light.

Grey is... Neutral, in most ways? I've never heard of this being consistently used as an element of caricatures. I think it was used once in Mulan, but that's literally the only time I've seen it used to mark someone as an "other", and it wasn't exactly the most, uh, eye-catching element of that shitty design. To be completely honest, I've only really seen it used for stone/metal elementals, robots, and Homestuck characters. If anyone has sources that say otherwise, though, please tell me! I wasn't able to find anything when I looked it up, but I'm not that good with search terms.

Matches the color palette, but doesn't feel "cold" so much as it feels... Yeah, I think neutral might be the best word I've got. It's just... Nothing in particular. Definitely gets the corpse vibes across, but feels less undead and more regular dead. I'm sure some folks who are better at palettes could figure out a way to make it work, but I can't think of anything off the top of my head.

... He could prrrobably look human-ish at a glance like this, if the lights were low or whoever was looking at him just didn't pay attention to colors??? I could see this working under harsh florescent lights - y'know, the kind that bleaches things out? - but that's a pretty niche scenario.

That's all I've got at the moment. If anyone else is aware of connections I've missed, or specific cold color shades that have their own distinct complications, I'd appreciate the feedback.

... Side-note: I know it's fairly common to just ditch this side of the color wheel entirely and suggest yellow because it's easy to water down into something that looks good with the blue tones, but... No. I'm not doing that. We are not side-stepping one group of caricatures only to jump into another. I can't think of any good reason why someone would suggest red, but that should be an obvious no, too, for the same reason. Muted oranges and browns are just... Normal human colors, and clearly, that's not what we're searching for, either.

I am specifically asking for safe COLD COLORS. Idk how to be less subtle about that

[tiip2ydoodles]

Are You Even Morty Anymore

Morty’s been quiet ever since the night of the dance, and Summer’s starting to worry. Read it [HERE] on AO3!

“Sooooo...Morty’s been quiet lately.”

Summer leaned against the doorway to the garage, phone in hand. If it weren’t for the tone of her voice, everything about her would lead one to believe that she didn’t care about the topic at hand; her shoulders slumped, face passive, even blasé. One would be wrong about that assumption, however, and recognize that immediately once they heard the tautness of her voice. She crossed one leg in front of the other to properly wedge herself between the hardwood and the doorframe, hitting ‘send’ on a text before looking up at her grandfather.

“Yeah, and?” If Summer didn’t care, Rick really gave no fucks. Hunching over the worktable, squinting at something that Summer couldn’t see from her vantage point. She knew he was squinting, though. He always squinted when he was working.

“ Aaaand, he’s been quiet ever since the night of the dance. You know, with the whole cronenberg disaster that you started.”

One very well maintained eyebrow quirked up pointedly, but Summer’s nose was back in her phone after a cursory glance. Rick didn’t reply for a second. From the stiffness of his posture Summer correctly guessed that something had caught his eye and that he’d reply when he’d finished picking at whatever little bug had irked him. Mostly correctly, anyway - he didn’t end up replying. It was like he’d forgotten Summer was standing there at all.

That’s fair, Summer thought to herself. I’m being quiet and he’s a narcissistic bastard.

She cleared her throat. Rick groaned.

“Ugh, what. ”

“Are you going to tell me what happened to Morty then or do I have to tell Mom that you traumatized him again.” Cutting straight to the point. Rick turned, eyes narrowed, looking Summer up and down. Summer pocketed her phone, folding her arms over her chest and giving him that laser-focused glare Rick would otherwise be proud to say was from his side of the gene pool.

So it was a battle of wills, then. He glared her down as well, but in the silence it was becoming increasingly obvious that Summer wasn’t backing down from this. She actually cared.

With a surrendering, aggravated noise Rick threw his arms up and swiveled back in his chair to face his desk. “Listen, Summer, I don’t have time to-- to, to constantly make sure his fragile psyche is still holding together. If you want to tell your mother, I-I-I don’t give a shit, she won’t do anything about it anyway. She’s too scared I’ll run off again.”

He pounded on his chest in the middle of the sentence, forcing out a loud belch. Summer wrinkled her nose and scoffed.

“Whatever.” It wasn’t exactly the most stinging of dismissals, and Summer knew it, but she wasn’t about to fight with Rick over whether or not he should feel remorse or heaven forbid, empathy. Whatever he’d done to fuck Morty up this time, she wasn’t about to get him to see that it was probably his fault. He’d never see it, not in a million years, and most likely in a few months’ time Morty’s going to have it repressed as usual.

Honestly, Summer had no idea why she even bothered sometimes. Clearly their parents had stopped trying long ago. She turned, not bothering to close the door as she went back down the hall to the living room.

Morty was there, as usual. He’d been there for a while now, easily since before breakfast. Always that same look - the mouth slightly agape, staring somewhere just a few feet up and to the left of the TV screen instead of actually at it. His homework sat on his lap, not even touched - not even the classic dicks and doodles 14-year-olds would normally spend time procrastinating on. Summer felt a cold clench in her chest to see him sitting there with the thousand yard stare of someone who’d seen a lifetime of war. He’s just a kid.

How did her parents not notice this?

Rick was right, in a way, she supposed as she passed the living room and headed into the kitchen to get a drink. She turned the tap, staring through the kitchen window and to the outside where Jerry was obsessively cutting the weeds, again. After a while, her eyes became glassy and she, too, stared off into the distance, lost in her own thoughts. Beth was too scared to stand up to Rick for fear of him leaving and Jerry was….well. Summer loved her father but he was what he was and nothing would change that. He’d never do anything to jeopardize his clearly failing relationship with Beth, and that meant letting Rick steamroller over them both and continually break their son over and over.

Cold water flowed over Summer’s hand and it shocked her so badly out of her reverie that she squeezed the glass too tightly, shattering it in the metal sink.

“Summer?” Morty’s voice even cut through the air a little weaker than it used to. He sounded like an old man, frail and weak and barely having the strength to talk. It wavered with more than his normal stutter and Summer’s eyes stung. “Are you okay?”

Are YOU okay? She wanted to ask, wiping her eyes. Jesus christ, did I forget my meds today? I don’t usually get this weepy. Morty’s going to be fine. I’m just overthinking it.  

Right?

“I’m fine,” She called. "I just dropped a glass, that's all. Clumsy me, haha." The laugh came off as forced but she knew he was too out of it to notice. Lowering her hand from her face, she realized she’d cut it on the glass. The smell of iron clung to her nose from where it wafted from the stain under both her eyes. She could hear Morty’s footsteps coming into the kitchen, coming to check on her. Shit.

Summer grabbed a dish towel and viciously rubbed her face clean, wrapping up her hand just as Morty came in. If he had anything to say about the redness around her eyes, he said nothing. His own eyes slid from her towel-wrapped hand to the still bloody shards of glass in the sink. He turned, leaving the kitchen again.

“Oh. I-I’ll get a first aid kit.”

Summer stood there, stunned. He’d never really been queasy for just a little blood, it took a lot to really freak him out nowadays when it comes to gore, but the way that he simply shut down and didn’t react in the slightest scared Summer. It sent a chill up her spine.

No person in their right mind just sees that much blood and doesn’t even care. Something whispered in Summer’s mind. He’s NOT okay. Do something-

“Morty--” Summer called. There was shuffling, and Morty poked his head around the kitchen doorway again before coming in with the large first aid kit from the broom cupboard.

“Yeah, Summer?”

Summer faltered as he opened the plastic case, pulling out bandages and antiseptic. He motioned for her hand, making a ‘gimme’ motion without looking at her that she’d seen Rick do to him a million times. It made her stall, and Morty looked up at her.

“Are you okay? Are-- are you going to faint o-or something…?”

He’s already so much like Rick.

“Uh….no.” Summer mumbled. She held out her hand. Morty said nothing, peeling back the towel that was now thoroughly stained a deep red. He didn’t even flinch, not a single wrinkle in his blank expression to show that he acknowledged it.

“This is going to hurt.” He said instead, picking up the antiseptic spray and pausing for a moment. He looked up at Summer for the barest split second, and Summer caught the concern in his eyes, in the way he frowned. The way he waited for permission.

Her chest hurt. Why are you so worried about me? What the hell happened to you, Morty? Are you even Morty anymore?

“It’s fine. Go ahead.” She said, then winced as the alcohol hit her open cut. Morty bandaged it quickly and tightly, doing a much better job than Summer could have ever expected from him. As he tied it off and cut it, making sure the gauze underneath was in place, she stared at him. Something in the very back of her mind wondered how often he’d had to bandage himself, or others, or even Rick.

The thought left a bad taste in her mouth. “...Thanks.”

“No problem. Now clean up the glass, that’s your own damn fault.” There it was, just the tiniest spark of life. Hope flared up in Summer that maybe he wasn’t totally broken just yet, but then the spark died as he went back on autopilot aand put the leftover bandages back in the kit.

Summer watched him pack the kit away, leave the kitchen and sit back down on the couch. Task accomplished, fugue consuming him once more, he’d forgotten what he was doing and left the kit by the arm of the couch where he sat. His homework reclaimed its spot on his lap as if he had never gotten up, and he resumed staring at the not-TV screen with that blank, slightly agape look on his face. Summer watched him for a good five minutes but he just...didn’t move. Not even to scratch.

Her chest hurt as she turned back to the sink, slowly picking up the broken shards and throwing them away.

[guynamedultimax]

My take on Brawl Stars lore

GUESS WHO IS STILL ALIVE *points at its own almost dead body injured by Avengers: Endgame, Nintendo’s E3 2019, the latest Brawl Talk from Supercell and the Stranger Things 3 Final Trailer*

MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

And I brought you my own take on what is the Brawl Stars universe!

The Old West is ancient history. Welcome to the New West.

Technology got slightly advanced here. Portals to different time periods and  and alternate universes have been created and people from all over these places join the core of the New West, Brawl Town, main residence of the Brawl Games, friendly games that are being made to decide the Ultimate Brawl Stars. Main battles are 3v3 and happen in the Nameless Desert, costantly invaded by meteors, evil Robo Bandits and mysterious shrooms and drinks.

The teams are known as:

THE BANDITS: A group of gentleman thieves on friendly terms with the Junkers.

SHELLY: The leader filled with determination. Some say she has a soft spot for the town sheriff...

RICO: Former pool bot known as Ricochet who discovered his amazing aiming skills and joined Shelly. Lost his original body in a Robo Rumble and received a new one from the Junkers.

BROCK: Gamer from the modern age who stole a rocket launcher from an evil corporation and came into Brawl Town in search of adventure.

THE JUNKERS: A family of redheads who re-use metal junk to build turrets and other robots.

COLT: Only male of the family, Sheriff of Brawl Town with an obsession with his pretty face. Unlike his family he is more of a guns guy.

JESSIE: Colt’s younger sister with a passion for pets, to the point she named her own dog-themed turret Scrappy.

PAM: Leader of the family and a real mama bear. Touch her sons and you’re in for a bad time.

THE PIRATES: A robot pirate crew from overseas who came to Brawl Town for one thing and only one thing: MONEY.

PENNY: A pirate captain who is very good at building robots and cannons, to the point she built her own crew. She is quite competitive and a bit arrogant. Hates Jessie for some reason.

BARRYL: Formerly a barrel filled with gunpowder, Penny built this silent but deadly guy and, therefore, he stays loyal to her and her only.

TICK: Formerly a giant cannon, he was turned by Penny into a metal ball of energy and happiness. He is always with his explosive head in the clouds and loves mines. Some even describe him as a “Pirate Spike” because of his personality.

THE UNDEAD: A group made of vampires, monsters and undead beings. They are on friendly terms with the Mysterious Ones.

MORTIS: A mysterious vampire known as the Bringer of Doom, who is able to resurrect the dead...often with unexpected results (see his comrades). He his quite self-centered and a bit evil, but is still loved by his team and friends.

FRANK: The one time that Mortis tried to use technology instead of his magic to resurrect an undead body, it turned into Frank, an unstoppable, brainless beast...who seems friendly and at ease when listening music.

POCO: Usually when Mortis resurrects people they are under his control. While trying to resurrect a musician who lost all of his fans, somehow, the mind control didn’t work, so Poco has free will. While he bears no ill will towards his teammates (helps Frank with his musical condition and tries to find friends for Mortis), he lives with the Junkers and has more of a relationship with them.

THE LEATHER JACKETS: A group of thugs from Retropolis, a town south of Brawl Town, who give to every challenger they come across the sweetest pain. But they aren’t actually evil.

BULL: Leader of the Leather Jackets and owner of a diner in Retropolis, Bull Blanco has anger issues and LOVES shotguns and football.

CROW: A mysterious bird man who came from nowhere in the Brawl Stars universe who asks for respect and respect only. Even if he is edgy, he is a nice guy who taught Leon his ninja ways. (Spoiler: He is actually an alien sent to study the BS universe by his species who created the Robo Bandits and conquer it from the inside, but now he loves this world and has sworn to protect it. Probably explains why Robo Bandits aremore aggressive towards him.)

BIBI: A girl from Retropolis, who is a bit childish but is brutal with her bat, properly named Mr. Bat. Before Crow arrived she was Bull’s only friend (and crush, but don’t tell her otherwise he’d kill you)

THE TRIBE: The name speaks for itself. What is left of the Indians in the world of the New West.

NITA: A girl with lots of energy and ability in fighting who received from her guardian a gift to protect her: the necklace that summons her inner animal spirit, the Big Baby Bear, to protect her at all costs. Has a crush on her foster sibling.

BO: Leader of the Tribe, who highly believes in the spirits and combines old with new by mixing his unstoppable archery skills with mines crafted by Dynamike. He is very serious and has a strong sense of justice.

LEON: Orphaned at a young age, this kid with a chameleon hoodie from the modern world came into the New West, received ninja lessons from Crow and, thanks to his new family made of Bo and Nita, he learned how to become invisible.

THE MINERS: A squad made of two miners and a bartender who highly specialize in searching gems.

DYNAMIKE: Also known as Old Mike, this former miner is not only good at building robots but also has pyromania and always has a short fuse. The bird in his head is called Birdy by him.

CARL: A knows-it-all robot miner with a childish personality, great ability in throwing his pickaxe, and a love for geology, horrible geology puns and Jessie.

BARLEY: Mike’s first robot, built when he was still a miner to serve him some moonshine. Time passes by and his circuits started fusing,so now he became a Brawler to recieve money to fix all damages done in his bar at Brawl Town.

THE MYSTERIOUS ONES: No one knows who they are or where they came from. They were reunited by their leader to fight in the Brawls.

TARA: A mysterious tarot card reader literally coming from the shadows, but no one knows that...except for Gene, probably.

GENE: A childish genie who came out from a rebellious lamp found by Tara. She sees Tara as his “mommy” and has a SERIOUS love for sweets and especially chocolate cakes.

SPIKE: Last member of the living catcus people, except for their sakura cactus siblings. He is shy and reserved on the outside, but cheerful and happy on the inside. He just never shows it because he is scared he might hurt someone with his, uh...hugs. Tara found him wandering in the desert alone and took him with her.

THE FIGHTERS: Two fighters and a sniper coming from around Brawl Town.

EL PRIMO: Originally a useless no one, Primo got hit by a meteor, receving superpowers and becoming the strongest wrestler in the New West. He is especially good with children and is searching for his brother, who is thought dead (and may actually be). He found him but he can’t recognize him.

ROSA: Primo’s number one fan, a botanist from the jungle west of Brawl Town who is also a boxer and is accompanied by her house plant. She is quite smart and built a lab in the jungle.

PIPER: The Belle of the Brawl herself, Piper de la Prim is usually a lone wolf who grew up learning how to use her umbrella gun and the proper manners. Since all teams were filled, she diced to join the Fighters.

THEIR THEME SONGS

THE BANDITS: Shot Me Down by David Guetta featuring Skylar Grey. It was more of a choice from Shelly and Brock

THE JUNKERS: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, personally chosen by Colt

THE PIRATES: He’s a Pirate by Hans Zimmer. Darryl hates it though.

THE UNDEAD: Thriller by Micheal Jackson, even though Poco prefers Remember Me by Miguel

THE LEATHER JACKETS: They are still undecided. Bull says it should be Wake Me Up Before You Go Go by Wham!, Crow says it’s In the End by Linkin Park and Bibi says it’s Karate by BABYMETAL

THE TRIBE: Nita forced them to choose Great Spirits by Tina Turner, not that Bo minded that anyway.

THE MINERS: Carl ironically proposed Heigh Ho (the one from the Seven Dwarfs). Dynamike unironically chose that.

THE MYSTERIOUS ONES: Gene asked for Friend Like Me by Robin Williams and since they didn’t have any other ideas (and he made a puppy face) they just went with it.

THE FIGHTERS: Rosa wanted to use Eye of the Tiger by Survivor but Primo just kept saying the Guile Theme was suited enough, and even Piper liked that. So they chose the best of both worlds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edPUrkEf_ow

SKINS BACKSTORIES

BANDITA SHELLY: Her self from a dark future in which the Robo Bandits destroyed Brawl Town.

STAR SHELLY: She became a gamer after suggestions from Brock.

PANDA NITA: She usually wears that necklace on Halloween.

HOLIDAY SKINS: They come from the Brawlidays Universe.

SHIBA NITA: In another JP-based universe, she is a normal schoolgirl that summons a bear-shaped shiba to fight bad guys. So kawaii!

ROCKSTAR COLT: Karaoke Night on Friday is a big deal for Colt so he always prepares for the best.

IMPERIAL AGENT COLT: In the same JP-based universe from where Shiba Nita hails, he is literally an imperial agent.

OUTLAW COLT: Hails from the same universe as Bandita Shelly.

VIKING BULL: He dressed up as a viking on Halloween and he even customized the shotgun.

QUARTERBACK/LINEBACKER BULL: Did we mention that Bull LOVES football? Sometimes he even calls it Footbull.

DRAGON KNIGHT JESSIE: They say she hails from a “Royal Clash” universe or something like that. ;)

SUMMER JESSIE/BROCK: They just prepared for summer, that’s all.

BOOM BOX BROCK: His attire back when he lived in the modern world.

LION DANCE BROCK: Sidekick of Imperial Agent Colt.

HOT ROD BROCK: His attire when he took a vacation in Retropolis.

CHEF MIKE: He is quite the bad chef, but he makes it up with his knowledge of spicy peppers.

ROBO MIKE: Comes from the same future as of Outlaw Colt and Bandita Shelly. The problem was an incident with the Robo Bandits. He doesn’t talk about it. Birdy is all that is left of his former self, and even then, he pilots him.

MECHA BO AND MECHA CROW : They got roboticized after a bad incident with the Robo Bandits in the Outlaw Universe (the one from which Robo Mike hails too). Colro variations are made by them to make themselves look cooler. They are what is left of the official Brawl Stars tournament members, the others kidna cut the ties with the “sport”.

EL RUDO: Primo’s darker self who manifested in the Outlaw Universe as a collateral effect of the meteor who hit him and gave him his powers.

EL REY: For special occasions in the battlefield, Primo wears this attire.

GOLDEN BARLEY: Back when he was still a fresh model, Barley used to look like this.

WIZARD BARLEY: You know it.

BAKE SALE BARLEY: In what was the worst moment of his whole life, he worked at Bull’s diner and was forced by Bull to wear that.

MAPLE SYRUP BARLEY: The guy once went to Canada. Canada changed him. Now he loves maple syrup.

SERENADE POCO: He once helped Colt trying to serenade Shelly. It ended with lots of spare shotguns being thrown at them.

LOADED RICO: Back when he was a pool bot, rich people used Rico to store gems. He HATES that.

POPCORN RICO: He also worked at Brawl Town’s cinema for a month or so. He got a popcorn addiction and got fired.

DUMPLING DARRYL: From the universe in which Colt and Brock are secret agents, he is a robot who loves dumplings and supports them in their secret missions.

BUNNY PENNY: During Easter, a prank war between Jessie and her was ongoing. She received a lesson by getting her outfit and cannon modified after hanging Scrappy upside down.

ROAD RAGE CARL: To try to look cool for the Leather Jackets he started dressing up like this. His Outlaw Universe counterpart keeps wearing it.

CAVEMAN FRANK: He dressed up liek this on Halloween.

ROCKABILLY MORTIS: Karaoke Night on Friday is a serious thing for Mortis too.

TOP HAT MORTIS: He once wore a hat that is now lost in time and space.

NIGHT WITCH MORTIS: Mortis once exchanged bodies with a Night Witch from Clash Royale. It was all her fault though.

SAKURA SPIKE: She comes from a similar species to that of Spike, made by sakura catuses. She hails from the same unvierse as Shiba Nita and the Lunar New Year skins.

WHITE CROW: A condition that Crow has is that in the winter he turns his feathers white.

PHONEIX CROW: Crow’s true form.

WEWWWWWWWWWWWW ABOUT DAMN TIME I FINISHED

STICK A FORK IN ME, I’M DOOONE

[elizaviento]

Assimilation (part 12/23)

Note:  Some more smutty goodness for ya along with a healthy dose of angst.  Enjoy!

NSFW -- 3150 words

(FYI: Additional chapters of Assimilation can be found in the Rick Fic Masterpost link in my blog description.  Or, you can click the #assimilation tag in this post, within my blog, to access all additional chapters.)

*****

After I left the garage, I spent the remainder of the night lying on the trundle bed – staring at the ceiling while a steady stream of tears leaked from my eyes, down the sides of my face to soak into my hair.  Every now and again, I would wipe them away but mostly I let them fall.  I could hear the sounds of my family moving about in the house but I couldn’t bring myself to get up and join them.  As much as I tried to comfort Morty earlier, I wasn’t very good at doing so with myself.

I felt guilty.  How could I have tried to completely erase Chris from my life?  It wasn’t possible; a fool’s errand.  And, that’s exactly what I was – a fool.  No one had ever loved me as much as he did and I doubted anyone ever would.  And, what did I do?  I betrayed his memory.  I only hoped that my counterpart appreciated her husband more than I did mine.  I’d find out sooner or later, though, once I got my hands on those goggles.

My life had become one giant cluster fuck made worse by the fact that I allowed myself to fall into an affair with someone I had no business even entertaining the possibility with.  Was I strong enough to tell Rick that this couldn’t continue?  Could I resist him if he came on to me again?  No, probably not.  Why did I ask him to recount our time on Unity’s planet?  What exactly was my end game with that little request?  I obviously hadn’t recovered all of the memories of my assimilation but what did I gain by learning the rest from Rick’s point of view?  Most likely, he’d give me a watered down version; downplay any expectations he had or advances he’d made.  I couldn’t even blame him because that’s exactly what I would do if the tables were turned.  He had no clue I wasn’t myself so the humiliation he probably felt upon discovering otherwise must have been intense.  Not to mention, the betrayal associated with such manipulation.

I was so deep inside my own head that I was startled by the knock on my ‘bed room’ door.  It was Morty, wondering if I was okay.  I lied to him, of course.

“I told Mom and – and Dad that you’re – that y-y-you aren’t feeling well,” he informed, his voice muffled as it carried through the pressed wood.  I thanked him and told him to go enjoy his evening.  I’d be fine, really.

At about 2:30 am, I got up to use the toilet and when I returned, I found the inter-dimensional goggles hanging from the door knob with a sticky note attached that simply read “D-79”.  Feeling my heart rate increase, I snatched them up and locked the door behind me even though there was absolutely no movement in the house.  I felt like a teenager about to sneak watch porn; like I was about to do something dirty.  Perhaps it was dirty to spy on someone else’s life.  However, as I had told Rick earlier – I didn’t give a shit.

Luckily, the controls on the goggles were pretty self-explanatory.  There was a power button, a select button, a play button, a fast forward button, and a rewind button.  A rewind button?  The idea that I could rewind the life of my counterpart was almost unbelievable.  Almost, because the idea of inter-dimensional goggles was unbelievable in the first place, yet here they were in my hands.  After taking a deep breath, I pressed the power button and slipped them over my head.  

I assumed that I would have to locate the dimension I needed since Rick made sure to indicate it on the sticky note, but it was already queued up – based on the tiny display at the bottom – and was playing live, right in front of my eyes.  Well, it would have been if my counterpart wasn’t obviously asleep.  All I could see in this moment was the back of her eyelids.  Of course, she’d be sleeping at 2:30 in the morning.  I felt like a moron – until I remembered the rewind button.

Without removing the goggles, I ran my hand along the outside until my fingers felt the indentation of the two backward facing arrows and pressed.  Images began to flash in front of my eyes at lighting speed and I made myself wait for twenty seconds before locating and pressing the play button.  It seemed like those twenty seconds sent me back to about mid-day in dimension D-79.  As the images began to play back at normal speed, I was amazed at how it seemed like I had assumed my counterpart’s body instead of just watching through a pair of goggles.  She was at work; the same place I had worked before moving away which surprised me, for some reason.  Regardless, this wasn’t what I wanted to see, so I pressed the fast forward button for about five seconds and pressed play once more.

----------

I walk through the front door of my house and immediately kick my shoes off, sending them flying across the foyer.  It was a long day at work and I just want to peel the rest of my work clothes off and drink wine until I fall asleep on the couch watching MSNBC.  I hear my phone chirp and pull it from my bag to see a new voicemail from Chris.  He never leaves me voicemail — preferring instead to text — so I know it has to be something important.

“Hey, babe.  I’m leaving for my shift now.  I don’t know if you still plan to go over to Beth and Jerry’s for dinner tonight but I’ll try to call you when I have a break.  Something weird happened today that I need to tell you about.”

Shit, I forgot it was Wednesday.  No wine and MSNBC for me after all.  We always eat at Beth and Jerry’s on Wednesday but I’ll make sure to let them know I’m expecting a call from Chris so Jerry doesn’t get pissy if I step away from table to take it.  Especially since Chris doesn’t usually work the night shifts but has been recently to fill in for a co-worker out on leave.  Truth be told, I’m still paranoid of Chris working nights after that guy stabbed him.  He nearly died and was in the hospital for a month.  I really don’t think I could live through something like that again.

It’s 5:30 pm now so I should make my way over so I can help Beth.  I wonder what weird thing happened that Chris felt the need to call me about.  My gut twists at what I hope he doesn’t say when I hear from him later tonight. Trying to forget about it, I change into my favorite jeans and a t-shirt before making my way next door.  I let myself in and say hi to Jerry and the kids as I head to the kitchen, where I know I’ll find Beth.

“Hello, Bethany, my love.  What do you need help with?”  I notice that the door leading to the garage is open so I peak my head inside and also say hi to Rick.  He’s sitting at his work station with his back to me and doesn’t turn around but raises one hand in the air to greet me, which is typical.

“Can you set the table?” Beth asks before adding, “Chris still working nights?”

“Yes, for a little while longer.”  I see Rick turn around on his stool from the corner of my eye.

“I – uh – I’ll come help ya, Chicken,” Rick says as he makes his way into the kitchen.

“Aw, thanks, Dad” Beth says, placing a hand on his shoulder as he passes by her and saddles up next to me as I’m pulling dishes from the cabinets.  He doesn’t need to stand this close to get to the silverware drawer and I throw him a glance.  He smirks and but doesn’t move away.  When I have all the dishes I need, I make my way to the dining room with Rick on my heels.

The kids are already sitting at the table.  Summer is tapping away on her phone, as usual, and Morty is reading a book that was assigned to him in his English class.  There is a jacket cover on the book so I ask, “Lord of the Flies?”

“1984,” he replies, placing the book on the table with a sigh.

“Also good,” I confirm, placing glasses and plates at each sitting.  Rick is close behind with the cutlery.

“I-I-I can’t pay attention – concentrate on it long enough to know w-w-what’s going on,” he says, sighing again. He look so dejected.

“I can explain it to you, kiddo.”

“No, he needs to read it and understand it on his own,” Jerry interjects as he enters the dining room and takes his place at the table.  

“Don’t pretend she didn’t have to read – explain it to you, Jerry,” Rick spits.  I throw him another glace as I’m really not in the mood to hear them bicker throughout dinner.

“Jer, I may need to step away and answer a call from Chris while we’re eating.  He said he needs to tell me about something weird that happened today.”

“Oh, y-y-you mean when he was practically fuckin’ – dry humping an alternate version of you in the driveway?” Rick mentions, his tone casual.

“Excuse me?” I ask with a laugh before the expression on his face confirms that he’s not joking.  “Wait… what?”

“That – t-t-that’s not what happened, Rick,” Morty says, rolling his eyes.  “Some other Rick and Morty showed up here, probably to s-steal from us like we were doing.”

“And, they had an alternate version of me with them?”

“Yeah,” Morty says.  “It was weird though ‘cause she was hugging Chris.”

I glace at Rick and he shrugs his shoulders.  “I ran – chased them off.  You’re welcome.”

I take Morty’s lead and roll my eyes.  Rick can be such an ass.

Dinner is uneventful, thank god.  I check my phone a few times but Chris doesn’t call.  I do get a text from him right before I’m about to leave that says, “No time to talk.  Not a big deal though.  See you in the morning.”

It’s 8:00 pm now and I’m exhausted but I can still enjoy some wine and catch the remainder of my favorite political shows, which excites me.  I then realize how boring I must be to become excited over cheap wine and politics.  Suddenly, I hear the whirl of a portal opening behind me and I turn to catch Rick as he steps through before it pops out of existence.  I don’t have time to open my mouth to speak before he closes the distance between us, places his large hand on my mouth and shoves me against the wall.  He’s already hard and I wonder for how long as he places a gentle love bite to the junction between my neck and shoulder.

“Mmm, I-I-I know you want this cock, baby,” he says, grinding it against my thigh.  

Then, he removes his hand so I can reply.  “What took you so long?”

Now, positioning both hands on the small of my back, he glides them down to cup my ass before hoisting me up.  I wrap my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck as he carries me down the hall to the master bedroom.  When we reach the bed, he gently sits me down on the edge.  As he straightens, I’m already unbuckling his belt, my mouth is watering.  It takes mere seconds to get his pants and briefs around his ankles and my mouth around his cock.

“Ah, fuuuck.  T-t-that’s nice, sweetheart.”

He rakes his fingers through my hair before gripping at the scalp.  I flick my eyes up to meet his and hold contact as I blow him, taking him as far down my throat as possible – just how he likes.

“Christ, you know how to suck a dick,” he encourages as he uses the grip on my scalp to bob my head on his length.  I let my mouth fill with saliva as he fucks my face and it begins to slip out and roll down my chin to the expensive Persian rug below.  I paid way too much for that rug but can’t give a fuck about it now.  

Far too soon for my liking, Rick pulls his dick from my mouth to command, “Strip.  Bend over.  Palms flat on the mattress.”

Of course, I comply – pulling my clothes off as fast as I can – and soon, he’s rubbing the head of his cock up and down my slick cunt.  I moan and fist my hands into the comforter when I feel him slowly press his way inside.  But, suddenly he stops and pulls back.

“What the fuck?” I whine, looking over my shoulder at him.  I guess he’s decided to be a tease.

“I wanna put – stick it in your ass tonight, sweet girl.  Pound t-t-that ass ‘til you cry.  Would you like that?”

“Oh, yesss,” I hiss, turning to face forward again, lying my upper body on the mattress while he retrieves the lube from the night stand beside my bed.  I watch as he strips the remainder of his clothing while he’s on his way back to his position behind me and a moment later, I feel the cool substance drip down the crack of my ass.  It makes me shiver and giggle.

“Shit, you – y-you’re fucking sexy,” he growls, rubbing his callused palms down the curve of my ass before spreading my cheeks wide.  When he gently presses a thumb over and inside my puckered entrance, I groan at the intrusion but I know it’s nothing compared to what he has in store for me.  He then removes his thumb and replaces it with an index finger, then a middle finger.  The stretch is amazing and now I’m panting, dying for his cock.  Of course, he takes notice and chuckles.

“You’re ready now, huh?”

He doesn’t wait for my reply before positioning his cock and pressing forward.  I cry out and press my face to the mattress when he breaches the ring of muscle and pops inside.  Then, he stops to rubs his hands up my ass cheeks until he reaches my waist and continues forward slowly toward my tits, his cock sliding deeper inside.  When he finally reaches my nipples – rolling them between his fingers – he’s fully seated inside my ass and my pussy is already aching.  

With his chest resting against my back, he whisper in my ear, “Don’t y-y-you dare touch your clit until I say so.”  Then, he straightens, grips my hips, slowly pulls nearly all the way out and then presses all the way back in even slower.  He continues at this pace for what seems like an eternity – until I’m losing my mind and begging him to speed up.

“Oh god, Rick, please!”

“Please what, baby?” he asks while slowly pressing back in.  Yes, tonight he’s going to tease.

“Go faster!  Please!  Just fuck me already!”

“Mmm, you – you sure?”  Slowly dragging out.

Too overwhelmed to reply with words, I sob and press my face to the mattress once more.  He has apparently decided he’s teased me enough, however, because the next thing I know, he’s quickening his pace.  I cry out in gratitude; sparks of pain and pleasure radiate through my lower half and my pussy is clenching, dying to be filled.  

“Rick,” I groan, “Please… fuck my pussy with your fingers.”

“Is she – is she feelin’ lonely, huh?” he asks, sliding them up my slit.  “Fuck, you’re dripping.”  Finally relenting, he pushes them inside, hooking to effortlessly locate my g-spot and press rhythmically, in time with his thrusts.  

“Oh my god…” I continue to sob as tears prick my eyes.  He’s going to make me cry, just like he promised.

“Who makes you feel this good, sweet girl?”

“Oh fuck!  Just you!”

“Rub that clit for me.  I w-wanna feel it – feel you squeeze my dick and my fingers.  Do it, baby.”

I snake an arm down my body and the moment the pads of my fingers make contact with my swollen clit, I cum.  It’s so sudden and intense and I can feel my entire body tremble with the force of it; my cunt and ass clinch in time as Rick sings my praise –

“Oh fuuuck – oh Christ, that’s it baby you – you’re g-g-gonna make me fuckin’ cum!”

He leans over again to grip my shoulders, ramming my entire body back, impaling me on his dick.  Then he groans and collapses on top of me as he fills me up.

Soon, I feel him going flaccid inside me and my stomach rolls with guilt.  The afterglow is always so short.

“You should leave now,” I say, feeling desperate to get him off and out of me.

He doesn’t reply.  As he peels his body from mine, I feel him slip from my ass along with what feels like a gallon of his cum.  My stomach rolls again.  I rise from the bed and stand, pulling my robe from the back of the closet door and watch as he hastily gets dressed.  A moment later, he’s shooting a portal at my bedroom wall.

“Yeah.  See ya,” he says, stepping through.

----------

I removed the goggles with shaky hands.  Holy shit.  She was fucking Rick and obviously had been for a while.  She was cheating on Chris and didn’t even have the decency to use one of the guest bedrooms.  Was that the life I would be living right now if my Chris hadn’t been killed?  Would I have Chris but not appreciate him to the point that I’d have an affair with Rick?  My entire life, I thought I was a good person; that I tried my best to do the right things.  It had all been bullshit.

The thought occurred to me that there are multiple versions of me who are currently banging a Rick.  I could scan through dimensions and find out how many of my counterparts are so fucking ungrateful of their loving husbands that they willingly fall into the arms of Rick Sanchez.  I could torture myself with it all night long.  All week long.  All year long.  Until the day I fucking croak.  

Rick had warned me that this was a bad idea.  Did he know?  What an idiotic question.  Of course – of course – he knew.  

 To be continued…

P.S.  A huge thank you to @porkchop-ao3 for letting me borrow her inter-dimensional goggle technology tweaks from her amazing story Someone Else’s Shoes, which you can find under her Ao3 account username PorkChop.

[chickensoupleg]

There's a Dead Body in my Bedroom

Happy Halloween you goobers, have something that's meant to 'encourage' my fic abilities. Or something like that.

To be fair, nobody particularly plans to wake up with a dead body on your bedroom floor.

It simply wasn’t a thing people do.

Regardless of any form of planning, it certainly what was happening right about now. Not that Steve knew what to do with it.

Steve stares down at it, the crumpled, pale form that was strewn next to his bed in a rather awkward position, like it was carelessly thrown there or fell off the bed like a ragdoll. He knew it wasn’t the latter option, seeing as he was there just a second ago. He would, reasonably, know if a body showed up in his bed in the middle of the night. Especially one that looked fairly recent.

His lack of surprise at this was very much not a recent surprise at all. At this rate, he figures that he’d need the kids to tell him that his house was in fact a living breathing entity with a uvula chandelier that was slowly but surely absorbing its sole inhabitants lifeforce.

Which… It hasn’t yet, so no surprises here.

He should probably check if he knows this body, he figures he’s been staring at it too long to be outwardly healthy. Steve nudges it with his foot, the skin cold and waxy to the touch, but past rigor mortis it seems. Kicking it over, the head rolls into a position that he could see the face.

“ Hmmm… Yeah, who the hell are you,” He mutters to himself, squinting at the face held in frozen shock, as if whatever they saw in their last moments scared them. Steve scans the rest of the body over, wondering what exactly killed them. His floor didn’t look all that dirty, so either they were killed and cleaned beforehand, or it wasn’t anything that could stain it in the first place.

Steve didn’t want to touch it any further. He steps over the body and shuffles out, heading into the bathroom.

He comes out ready for the day an hour later, heading downstairs and to the phone.

“ Hello? Robin speaking.”

“ Hey Robin. Uh. Question.”

“ Shoot.”

Steve twirls the cord around on his finger, squinting at the wall. “ What… Do you do if there’s a dead body in your bedroom?”

It was silent for a good three seconds before Robin reacts with a loud noise of confusion, followed by equally as confused and frankly concerned words. “ What do you mean a dead body?! Is- Is there a dead person in your house Steve what- Steve, I love you but please don’t tell me you killed someone and then slept with a corpse because frankly that is disgusting and probably can get you horrifically sick. Was this a new development? Are you really that lonely that you dug up some grave and kidnapped a person? Well, the body is already dead, likely rotting- Steve is the body rotting yes or no because then it leaves me to wonder if you have maggots and those things could-”

“ Stopping you right there Rob. Take it easy. Yes there is a dead body, no I didn’t steal it… I think-”

“ You think?!”

“ Okay, I know I didn’t steal some random body because I was asleep like any normal human person and sleep kidnapping is NOT a thing. But there’s a whole, not rotting corpse in my bedroom and I don’t want to touch it.”

“ And you called me… why?”

“ Because you are much smarter than me and probably know what to do with a random dead body that appeared in my room. If it makes you feel better, I won’t make you touch it either.”

“ Doesn’t really help the fact. Okay- Okay- You know what? I’m coming over. Are you going to call the others?”

Steve shrugs to empty air. “ Probably Nancy. Hopper, definitely.  Oh, actually. You think Hopper would arrest me for having a dead dude in my house?”

“ Did you murder them in your sleep?”

“ Uhh…. Don’t think sleep murdering is a thing either, so no?”

“ Ugh. Fine. I’ll be over soon dingus, don’t do anything else stupid.”

“ I’ll try not to!” He chirps politely, Robin hanging up on the other end. Steve goes to call the other two to come over as well, both very prompt yet also had that slight tone of confusion. Steve heads into the kitchen after that, cooking himself some eggs and toast while he wait.

They arrive a few minutes after Steve plates his second egg toast, Steve opening the door with plate in hand.

“ Hi Nancy.”

“ Where’s the body Steve.” She asks, prompt as ever. Steve gestures to the stairs as he steps aside to let her enter. Hopper’s car pulls up to the driveway seconds later, the man climbing out and approaching.

“ Hi Hopper. The body’s still upstairs.”

“ So. You woke up with… A dead body and didn’t think to call 911?”

“ I called you, didn’t I?”

Hopper sighs, Nancy coming back down a little pale but not appearing to be ill. Hopper looks over at her, Nancy taking a deep breath and nodding.

“ There is a dead body in there. No pulse, definitely has been dead for at least more than a day considering bodies usually stiffen up at some point after a very recent death. It doesn’t smell as terribly as I thought though.”

Hopper nods, heading up the stairs to confirm. Nancy’s gaze falls on Steve, narrowing.

“ Steve.”

Steve blinks.

“ Steve.”

“ Uhhh… yes, Nance?”

“ Why did you not call emergency services immediately. You have a dead body in your bedroom.”

Steve sputters a little, but shrugs it off. “ I dunno. I just woke up an hour or so ago, give me a break.”

“ Dead bodies in houses do not come with hourly breaks, Steve.”

“ Yeah well…. Mines did.”

Nancy pinches the bridge of her nose. “ Honestly…”

“ Hey, at least I found it early! I don’t think I’d handle it if it was all… Stinky. And messy. That would definitely be traumatizing.” He nods to himself, taking a bite of his egg toast.

“ Steve. Waking up to corpses is also fairly traumatizing to the average folk. Do you even know who that is?”

Steve shakes his head. “ Never seen them before in my life.”

“ Uh huh. And what about the hands, Steve.”

“ The what?”

“ The hands. Did you not see that they were missing?”

Steve slowly blinks, trying to remember. Did he see hands? He’s pretty sure the body was alright when he woke up. Hand included.

“ No…. I’m pretty sure there were hands attached to that body.”

“... You saw hands.”

Steve nods. “ I saw hands.”

“ So you’re telling me… That somehow… In the span of you calling us and us arriving… That someone stole their hands.”

Steve can only shrug again. He hears the clatter of a bike falling down and turns to see Robin running up the driveway to his door, Steve smiling and waving.

“ Hi Robs!”

“ Steven, you better tell me right now what is going on!” She jabs a finger against his chest, Steve raising his hands in surrender.

“ Woah, hey! I did tell you! Over the phone, remember?”

“ Oh, I remember alright. What the hell Steve! You can’t go around sleeping with dead bodies!”

“ I was not sleeping with a dead body!”

“ Technically, you were!”

“ Not in the same bed! It was on the ground!”

Robin huffs, pushing Steve back and shutting the door behind her. “ Fine. Not sleeping with a dead body. Now. You. You feeling weird anywhere? Any itches, anything tingly? Does your head hurt?” She raps her knuckles against his noggin, Steve pushing her hand away.

“ Stop it, I’m alright! It’s probably like… Some dummy? It didn’t smell so like. Maybe it’s fake?”

“ It’s not fake. That is in fact a corpse in your bedroom.” Hopper descends the stairs with a grave expression. “ I called for an ambulance to take care of the body. In the meantime, everyone out.”

“ Huh? Why?”

“ Seeing as this is a random body that holds no relation to you in any matter, and was found in quite an odd state, I’m calling it a crime scene.”

“ Oh.”

“ So wait, is Steve in trouble?” Robin asks, twisting her ring around her finger. “ Because Steve wouldn’t up and murder someone for no reason I swear. Unless he sleep murders.”

“ Which I don’t.”

“ See? 100% not a sleep murderer.”

Hopper slowly nods, staring at Steve. “ Wouldn’t believe that for a second either. But an unexplained death is an unexplained death, so until then go hang out somewhere else.”

No fault there. “  That’s fine by me. Think I can hang out in your basement for a while, Nancy?”

“ Sure. But we’re not telling Mike.”

Steve snorts, easily waving it off as he opens the door again. “ Got it. Not telling any of the kids. They don’t need to know.”

“ They’ll figure it out eventually. Those kids are ruthless sometimes…” Robin mutters, grabbing onto Steve’s hand as he heads to his car.

“ I don’t doubt it but… Saves me the headache?” He gives her a lazy grin, Robin rolling her eyes at him.

“ Whatever dingus. Onwards, to camping out in the Wheeler basement until the kids inevitably find out!”

[alsokaz3313]

The Newest Student

Aaaa, I finally wrote a Rick and Morty Fanfic! I hope to continue this.

Feel free to comment constructive criticism, grammar/spelling mistakes, if you’d like to be tagged, or general feedback.

For now there is no shipping but hints of Rickcest or Mortycest might come up. Nothing major!

Also this is mostly teacher Ricks point of view

Ps It’s also on AO3 so calm down if you see it in two places

Rick slumped down in his black swivel chair closing his eyes. He savored the last few minutes of silence before the bell would ring and the multitude of Mortys would arrive. He could see the next few hours perfectly all of them would be incessantly yammering about trivial Morty things and Rick would have to clear his throat one too many times to get them all to shut it. He momentarily glanced at the stack of papers marked ‘plans for the turds’ and suppressed a groan. Scribbled in almost illegible chicken scratch was a long list of activity’s he’d prepared for his students but... Augh. An hour long speech about how Mortys should obey there Ricks? Was he drunk when he wrote this (then it occurred to him that yes, yes he was)! How was he supposed to conjure it up out of thin air with a splitting head ache. Fuck that, he thought to himself. He would just play an hour long documentary for them. He could sleep through that. Rick sluggishly got out of his chair and bent down to pull the box packed with movies hidden underneath. He skimmed through them and pulled one out titled ‘Founding the Citadel the greatest achievement since the portal gun’. Rick rolled his eyes at the cheesy title and remembered when he had to watch this during a meeting. The documentary seemed sound at first but it skimmed over so many details (ones that caused a great deal of controversy) and sugar coated so many unjust laws that it should’ve been named ‘How we want you to THINK we founded this bullshit place so no one questions whether our moral compass’ (of course what would you expect out of Ricks?). Despite that he’d show it to the turds anyway, most of them would sleep through it and for once he’d let them.

“BBBRING BBBRING,” His phone suddenly erupted with noise.

“God damn, the hell do they want,” He said before snatching the phone from its base

“Is this-burp-room 203?” Front Desk (Nicknamed FD) Rick asks.

“Yea, couldn’t you have waited until the bell rang?Eh, never mind what do you want?” Rick sat back in his chair aimlessly spinning around on it before abruptly stopping so the phone cord didn’t twist in knots. On one hand he could continue spinning until the cord would snap and he’d be free from this conversation but on the other it would be a temporary fix and the phone bill would come out of his paycheck (and he could barely manage paying his rent as is much less when it’s halved).

“We couldn’t get a hold of you last night and the department wanted to inform you of a new student joining class,” FD said.

“...alright?” Rick shook his head annoyed that they had to interrupt him for something simple like that.

“He’s like Slow Rick,” FD stated.

“Oh,” Is all Rick can muster up to say. He understood why they called, another ‘Rick’ being in the class needed to be addressed. Still it didn’t change anything.

“He was found when a group of trader Ricks stumbled into the ditch he was in. Thought he was dead apparently had blood all over his shirt- yellow shirt I might add- and appeared unmoving. But as they were going to leave he suddenly sprang up. They took him with but he didn’t make a peep. Surgeon said he’s still in shock but being in the school might bring him out of his muteness. Him not talking kinda a bit eerie but he definitely is like a Morty, no doubt about it. I met-“ FD started to ramble on and Rick half listened.

“Okay, whatever, bye,” Rick finally interrupted him slamming the phone down. “Time for a mini nap,” Rick rested his head on the desk shutting his eyes.

“RING,” Then the first bell rang draining Rick of any hope to get a quick rest. In a few minutes all the Mortys would pour through the doors and he’d have to deal with them for eight hours. He stood up and started to set up the documentary grumbling to himself.

“Oh, geez S-Slick! Y-you really pulled it off?” Rick glanced over seeing the first group of Mortys arriving. Though Rick normally didn’t care about the Morty’s little cliques this one always drew his interest. None of them were relatively bad Mortys, albeit unless disturbed no Mortys were really bad, but they had an energy to them. The one nicknamed Slick would get in the most trouble but it was harmless pranks or slight vandalism’s.Though another quality that set him apart from the rest beside his rolled up sleeves and ‘bad boy’ attitude was his numerous previous Ricks. The rest of the group included Left hand Morty (other students also called him Fat Morty when he wasn’t in ear shot), Specs Morty(or four-eyes as Rick would call him) and Lizard Morty who accompanied Slick on his misdemeanors and they all seemed to get along.

“Hey, four eyes! C-come over here!” Rick called over and after a moment of shock the Morty complied.

“Uh- Yea?” He curiously asked.

“Assignment?” Rick reminded him. He had ‘forgotten’ yesterdays homework at the dorm. Rick gave him the benefit of the doubt and told him to hand it in in the morning.

“I-uh-oh-ah-geez,” Specs gripped his vest and looked down at his feet.

“Where is it this time?” Ricks brow raised and he saw the little turd start to tremble. Oh god, he was gonna cry and Rick really wasn’t in the mood. He opened one of his drawers and grabbed yesterday’s assignment. “Your lucky I have extras turd. Next time don’t lose it,” Rick scolded but he saw the tears start to dry. “After announcements g-go in the hall and finish it,” Though as he said it the Morty already scampered off to his friends. “I’m getting soft in my old age...nah I’m just tired of dealing with this,” He muttered to himself as he watched more Mortys arrive.

“RING,” The second bell rang as most of the Mortys run to there seats in fear of getting a tardy.

“Al-,” Rick began his usual morning spiel but one last ‘Morty’ stepped in. FD wasn’t kidding about the eerie part. The ‘Morty’ roams in and began to scan the classroom with piercing green eyes. His gaze meets every single Morty’s in the room until it lands on Rick’s. Rick felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise and a drop of cold sweat slithered down his face. He was expressionless as he opened his mouth slightly but no sound came out. Rick couldn’t help but see the mass amount of dried blood splattered on the bottom of his shirt. Sure he possibly fell in a ditch but..

“Do you need something, um, Morty?” Rick asked while in the back of his mind he pondered a nickname for the new student. ‘Morty’ blinked a few times before strolling over to one of the students.

“Aw, g-g-geeze-um-uh,” The unsuspecting Morty squirmed in his seat. ‘Morty’ drew his hand over the desk and tapped it. Rick’s shoulders relaxed and he did his best to keep himself from laughing.

“Oh, you n-need a desk and chair,” He sighed getting up and strolling over to check the closet for a spare. Wasn’t that embarrassing making a big deal out of nothing, Rick thought.This job was gonna be the death of him.

[trashunlimited]

to conclude, here’s the epilogue. also, i’m putting this all on ao3 and will post the link soon. this isn’t the end of my rick x julie content, there will be more! i need to post something fluffy to make up for all this angst.

chapter 1

chapter 2

chapter 3

chapter 4

chapter 5

chapter 6

chapter 7

chapter 8

chapter 9

chapter 10

chapter 11

chapter 12

chapter 13

chapter 14

chapter 15

chapter 16

tagging: @nightshade1994, @glampyra  

Rick had been looking for a powerful fuel source, and remembered the one on Fyralog, perhaps the crystal was still there? It was certainly worth a shot.

Taking Morty along with him as normal, they were flying around on Rick’s ship, looking for the remains of Fyralog. Rick grinned excitedly when they finally come upon Fyralog, and landed on it. The planet look barren, desolate and deserted, the buildings destroyed and there was no life in sight.

“Jeez Rick, what happened here?” Morty asked nervously.

“This Morty, is all that’s left of the Fyralogin Empire, once the dominant force in the galaxy before it collapsed and was replaced by the F-Feds.” Rick explained. “But g-guess who took it down? Me!” He proudly proclaimed, pointing to himself.

“You took down an entire e-empire?” Morty responded in shock.

“Hell yeah dawg! Years ago I stole a chunk of the fuel source we’re here for, they tried to get it back but it collapsed before they could!” Rick laughed.

He knew he shouldn't be surprised, this was Rick after all. But to know he took down an entire empire single handedly? It was both shocking and amazing.

“So...why are we here now Rick?” He wondered.

“To get the another chunk of that fuel source obviously! What else would we come here for?” He hissed. Morty realized that maybe he shouldn’t have asked.

----------------------

As the duo wandered together, Morty found himself really creeped out by the place. The combination of the lack of life when there clearly had been some at one point, the broken and boarded up buildings and the feelings of emptiness made him uneasy. “This place is really cr-cr-creeping me out Rick..” He mumbled.

“Don't be a baby Morty, y-you've been to worse places, this'll be cake.” Rick brushed him off. Morty sighed and continued walking with him.

He started to realize they were headed towards the large building in the center, and so figured that the fuel source must be in there.

When they arrived in the building, it was completely dark, so Rick took out a flashlight and turned it on, using it to help him look around and traverse the building. Morty clung onto his lab coat as they walked, even more frightened than before.

As they walked around, they saw a green glow and headed towards it, where they the crystal-like fuel source, Even now, it still had broken and mangled wires connecting to it.

“Jackpot!” Rick grinned, pumping a fist in the air.

But as soon as he started heading towards it, a figure with two pairs of golden glowing eyes appeared in the darkness. Startled, Rick used the flashlight to get a better look at the figure, and wasn’t surprised when he saw it was Pyri, the former empress of the Fyralogin Empire. There was a look of pure malice and insanity on her face, which made sense, she had been here, alone in the darkness for decades.

“You..” She snarled, glaring at Rick. “You took everything from me! My planet, my people, my empire, my pride..”

Rick ignored her and she watched as he took out another of the crystal. Her eyes wandered around and landed on Morty, and she became confused, unsure who he was. Pyri had expected to see Julie, but she wasn’t there. She’d never seen what Julie actually looked like, but assumed she would’ve seen a woman around Rick’s age, not whoever this was.

“Where is Julie?” Pyri asked, making Rick stop dead in his tracks. When she didn’t get a response, she asked again. “I asked you, where is Julie? What happened to her?”

Rick still wasn’t responding, which gave her a hint on what had happened. “Oh I see, so she’s dead huh? Did you kill her or something?”

At this, Morty noticed he was shaking and had a horrified expression on his face. He wasn’t sure who Julie was exactly, but knew whoever she was, she must’ve been important to Rick.

“So you did kill her after all huh? Should’ve known...she loved you and killed her!”

Morty didn’t know what to do when he saw Rick clench his fists as he started to tear up.. Something was wrong…

Pyri kept egging Rick on and taunting him. “Poor sweet Julie, you dragged her into your bullshit and tricked her into loving you. She died because of you, it’s all your fault!”

Rick snapped at this, and pulled out a weapon with him. “No!” He screamed as he shot her. “I didn’t do it! I didn’t do it! I didn’t…” When Pyri collapsed dead on the ground, Rick sat down on his knees and sobbed.

Morty was concerned and worried for him, what was he supposed to do now? He didn’t want to stay here any longer and so tugged on Rick’s shoulder to get his attention. “W-We should go Rick…”

Rick looked over at him and wiped his tears away. “Yeah...whatever..”

------------------

On their back, Rick and Morty were both silent, neither saying a word to each other. What could they even say? Morty had seen Rick in such a vulnerable moment, he had let his emotions get the best of him, he wanted to avoid doing something like that again.

Morty nervously rubbed one of his arms and glanced over at Rick. “Rick...whose Julie?”

Rick clenched his fists on the steering wheel of the ship, tightening his grip on it. “Shut up, just shut up...:” He growled before looking away.

Morty knew he wasn’t going to get an answer out of Rick, so he thought on his own who Julie could be. She was someone clearly very important to him, who was also dead. With this, Morty wondered if Julie was his grandma. He’d never met, seen or even heard of his grandma before, no one seemed to want to talk about her, there was no pictures of her in the house, but why? Considering Rick’s reaction to her being mentioned and all, maybe it was just too hard to talk about her. Though Morty was curious about Julie, he wasn’t sure if he would ever get to learn about her, he hoped he could though someday.

------------------

When they returned to Earth, Rick immediately went up into his room, refusing to even look at anyone. Summer had seen this and walked over to Morty, just as confused as he was. “Uh...what’s wrong with Grandpa Rick?” She asked.

“I...I don’t know..” Morty admitted. “When we went to go get something on another planet, someone there mentioned a person named Julie, she told Rick that he caused Julie’s death and he freaked out and killed her. He wouldn’t say a-anything about it on our way b-back.”

Summer was surprised by this. “What? Really? Who do you think Julie could be?”

“I was thinking that she’s our gr-grandma. I mean...with Rick’s reaction and all, I think she was important to him, but she died…” He answered.

“Makes sense, it would explain a lot wouldn’t it?”

“Yeah...I just h-hope either R-Rick or Mom will want to tell us s-something about her eventually..”

-----------------

Rick sat alone on his bed, tears flowing down his face. When he had brought Morty to Fyralog with him, he hadn’t thought Pyri would even be there, he presumed she’d died, but he’d been wrong unfortunately, at least until he’d killed her himself. But he should’ve known better...he’d came there for his own personal gain, and Pyri had ended up blaming him for Julie’s death.

The truth was that Rick did actually blame himself for Julie’s death. He felt if he hadn’t left her all those years ago, that she would still be alive, that they would still be together and be happy. He could wake up in the morning and be greeted by her lovely face, he could still taste her kisses and feel her warmth, and Julie would continue to be there for him, loving and supporting him as always.

Even if she had developed the condition that killed her anyways, Rick knew he could cure her, but he couldn’t cure her now that she was dead. Despite his genius, Rick couldn’t reverse death. He didn’t see cloning as an option either, because while he could do that, it wouldn’t be the same, the clone wouldn’t be the Julie he fell in love with, it would be someone completely different.

Before Julie had entered his life, it had been lonely, miserable, empty and depressing. But once she had become apart of it, his life instantly became better. She’d brought out the best in him, made him feel genuinely happy, probably for even the first time in his life, and was the first to show him love and kindness.

Now she was gone, and the empty feelings had returned to him, the only way they could be filled, the only way his heart could heal is if she came back into his life. But because she was dead, that was impossible. Rick believed he was doomed to remain a depressed, suicidal alcoholic for the rest of his miserable life.

He took out the crystal rose he’d gotten for Julie, before they’d even started dating. She’d loved it so much, and he could still remember the day he took her to that gemstone planet visibility. Rick remembered they’d even had their wedding there. He clutched onto rose and angrily threw it on the floor, but it didn’t break, there wasn’t even a crack, it stayed still and intact.

Rick pulled out his flask and opened it, downing some alcohol as more tears stained his face.

[ricksbitchc-137]

Untitled-Rick x Reader

This is based on a message I received a few days ago that made me freak out and spiral completely out of control. I don’t add people on Facebook that I do not know, so this message was either sent to me by a family member or a close friend-which is what hurt the most. So I wrote a little something because I’m garbage and I’m really bummed about it, but this can go out to anyone who has to deal with anonymous assholes like I do.

The anonymous message you just received hit you like a freight train.

You had downloaded the Sarahah app for a little anonymous fun, and you could tell which friends had sent you which jokes or your favorite tv show quotes. It was fun to guess, but this message was different. This one pointed out how annoying you were, how ugly you were, and how no one cared about what you loved or what you had to say, about how you weren't special or different, and how no one cared about you.

It's enough you were depressed from high school graduation and all your friends leaving you to go off to college or move out of country. With your mom in and out of the hospital, and your brother possibly going to jail, the Smiths offered you to move in with them, so you did-but had been guilt ridden every day since. So you'd been looking for something to perk you up a bit. But you didn't know something like this would happen.

At first you shrugged off the message but, right now, you could feel an oncoming panic attack. Your breathing was shallow; your eyes widened subconsciously, and tears started welling up. Luckily no one was home so you could fully release your feelings without any judgement. You picked up your phone to text your closest friend that you wouldn't be online for a while, but your hands were so shaky that even auto correct couldn't find the right words to say. So you opted to give up.

Setting your phone on the table in front of you, you hugged your knees to your chest and tilted your head forward, letting your breath chase and catch those sobs emerging from your chest. You felt pathetic.

Why would anyone take the time out of their day to hurt you? Why would anyone go completely out of their way to say something so mean? You've been hanging on for so long now, you've been through therapy, tried dozens of antidepressants, and you've tried so hard to keep it together. Only for someone to knock you right back down to where you started? Why? What did you do to deserve this?

You were squeaking with every intake of breath, shaking on every exhale, and your skin and clothes were soaked from the tears that flowed freely and without care.

The seat beside you sank a bit, but you were too hurt to give a fuck who sat next to you. At this point you didn't care who saw you this way, you just needed to breathe and let it out. A hesitant hand patted your back, and a familiar gruff voice told you to breathe.

"You...you okay, kid? I've never *urp* seen you this way."

But you couldn't respond. You were panting every breath, silently hoping he might leave. Your hands dangled out in front of you, trying desperately to grab onto something...anything. You were soon pulled into a tight embrace, letting your legs sink to a normal sitting position. Rick wrapped an arm around you to where you could hold on to it and calm yourself down.

"Did someone fuck with you?" He said from behind you, his face pressing against the back of your head slightly. You squeezed his arm for affirmation, hoping he'd understand so you wouldn't have to talk. "Y'know, I didn't want to have to kill anyone today." You giggled a little, your breath slowing down enough to calm yourself fully.

"Well," you snorted, "people kinda suck."

Without missing a beat, he replied "Kinda? Bit, uh, a bit more than that, don't you think?"

You leaned back a little, your back pressing into his chest. "Heh, yeah."

A moment passed as you focused on breathing, and you reached for your phone. You loaded up the message, feeling the tears well up again-but you pushed through and handed Rick your phone. "I know you don't exactly care, and I won't be surprised if you make fun of me, but this is why I'm upset."

He narrowed his eyes as he read the message, seemingly scrutinizing every word. You drew random invisible patterns on his arm with your finger, patiently waiting on his feedback. Before you had the chance to get lost in your thoughts, he locked your phone and set it beside you on the couch. You glanced up at him, and he did not seem happy.

"Who the fuck sent that to you?" He growled, his arm protectively tightening around you.

"I don't-I don't know. I-It's anonymous. I can't even get an IP address from it, like you showed me."

"Sounds to me like someone's projecting. Look, uh...you're writing me out of character here, and, for your own comfort, but...you are by far the most unique person I know. In any-any multiverse, shit. You're too old to be eighteen, th-there's no kid this bright…y-you're not a sheep. This kid sounds like they've got some fuckin,' daddy issues or something. I know you wouldn't hurt anyone, you bitchslapped me just for suggesting you shoot the guy who assaulted you. So, I don't know what this guy's deal is, but fuck 'em. Why should you give a rat's ass about some, stupid little weak ass pussy who hides behind a screen's opinion? Jesus Christ."

His words weren't exactly what you were looking for, but this was as kind as he'd ever been, so you settled. Might piss him off, but you took a chance and turned around to wrap your arms around his neck. He stiffened a little, but eased up and awkwardly patted your back. "Thank you, Rick. It means a lot to me that you said anything."

"W-whatever, just...fuck everyone else, kid."

You grinned to yourself, knowing full well Rick cared about you more than he would ever let on (*cough* just like with Morty *cough*). Confidently you pulled his face towards yours and kissed him on the cheek, earning a hateful glare and a slight blush that you wouldn't notice had you been a few feet away.

I think I'm going to take Rick's advice. I don't fucking care what anyone thinks of me. They can have their opinions, but boy howdy, I'm also capable of mine. I am far, far better than some coward who can only voice their opinions from behind a screen. And I deserve better.

This isn't only for me, but for every tumblr user and friend that I've lost because anonymous assholes decided to take time out of their day to hurt them, just because they could. You are so much better than anyone who thinks you're a piece of shit, cuz check this out, Rick doesn't think that. I mean, he might say it, but well, we all know the truth. Anyway, I wrote this for myself ideally, but it can totally work for anyone else in my situation.

[heartbxnd-blog]

Mementos of that Summer

This is a discord thread with @auraguardians​

This is a follow up to Back in our days thread! So please read it, in order to get a better understanding of their context!

Part 1 | Part 3

Part 2/3

Description: It has been 13 years since that Summer, Riley was able to leave it to rest since. Or at least, he thought he did. For some odd reasons, the ghosts of his past keep coming back - and it all seem to link to his current boyfriend. What could possibly be Morty keeping from him?

It was like he had just seen something truly horrifying, his face expressed horror- fear even. As he couldn't believe in what he was looking at.

His hands are trembling- he can feel his guts twist, his chest felt incredibly tight.

It was him, he can't deny it- he recognizes himself rightaway. Yet- he had no recollection at all from any of this, ever happening.

"..."

No words leave him as he can't get his eyes out of the pictures.

Fear, utmost horror.

Why can’t he remember anything?

It was like Morty had seen a ghost - and, as a result, the smug smile would finally leave Riley's face and get replaced with worry.

He gave a quiet sigh, and pointed at one of the photos where both of them were smiling happily. "See? Same dimples here. And... that's the shirt. You're wearing. On me."

Riley looked up at Morty, then stood up and pulled him into a hug.

He really didn't remember, did he? That was a different problem, but... "It's okay, Morty. But - do you see why I've been freaking out? I... can't believe it."

"No...No it can't be..."

Morty muttered under his breath, while he was being pulled in by Riley's arms- but before his boyfriend could lock them up like that he stepped back- instinctively moved away from him. He was in shock at the whole thing- it was a shock of reality for him.

"No...No, no, no, no..."

The gym leader repeated to himself aimlessly- as his gaze shifted between the other and the picture in his hands.

What's wrong with him?

"I...I'm not- That can't be right- The Summer of that year...I...I...I'm not like this- I...I would never- forget something like this- I..."

"...What's wrong with me...?"

Morty thought out loud, as he could feel tears forming on his eyes. Were his fears- real after all?

Clearly, Morty was shaken to his core by this - and, really, Riley could hardly blame him. Just because it gave closure to one thing for him, didn't mean Morty felt the same way.

"Morty. We'll figure this out, okay? Why you can't remember. But... listen to me, okay?" He tucked the picture back in his wallet and reached out to grab Morty's shoulders.

"Breathe, Morty. It's going to be okay. I'm here. With you." 

Morty started shaking his head- dismissing what Riley said, but still moving away from him he really didn't want to be touched. One of his hands started wiping out his tears, this most definetely wasn't a closure to him.

If anything- it felt more like a complete new rabbithole had just been found.

"My God this is...A lot worse- isn't it? Hah- You can't see my aura... So I'm basically dead- and apparently... I don't even- know myself..."

"How am I even alive?... Guess- I'm not really-"

Morty mumbled, as he by now was pressing his back against the wall- unable to back away anymore from Riley.

That was true - the aura thing was even stranger, now, since Riley distinctly remembered Enoki had one. That alone had been enough to throw him off.

But right now? Calming him down was Riley's primary concern.

"Morty - I know I joke about that a lot, but... you're definitely alive, honey." He reached out to cup Morty's cheek and look into his eyes. "You're alive... and... I'm here."

God, I can't believe it's really you. 

"...You should be mad at me..."

Morty muttered under his breath, as his head tried to move away from Riley's grasp. He sulked up- taking a deep breath, and looking down at himself.

I was right all along, this isn't right.

"...I...I really don't have any memories...Of you- Of us...Nothing comes to me- nothing rings a bell to me...God..."

He scoffed, as his voice cracked due to his sobbing.

"...I wouldn't blame you...For thinking- I'm liying..."

"...This is all the fault- of these goddamn powers..."

"I'm not mad," Riley said, shaking his head. "I'm... worried. But not mad. I trust you, Morty. If you say you don't remember... I'm sure that's the truth."

He sighed and leaned in, hugging Morty once again.

"I... just want you to be okay. That's all. But - I have to say, it's... a relief. Knowing - he didn't just disappear. I found him - I found you. And I love you, Morty. I... always have." 

When he was hugged- that was the moment he broke down into even more tears, his body pressed against Riley's- his head was set against his boyfriend's shoulder as he kept loudly crying on him. It should feel similair to the other.

"I'm sorry...I'm so-orry Riley... I can't remember..."

The blond muttered between his sobs, as he clinged onto the other- as much as he could.

"I'm so afraid...I'm so scared- I don't know what I am...-"

I don't fully comprehend what I did, but it hurt you- it is all my fault...

It was all so painful to him.

"I love you Riley...I love you so much..." 

It certainly did feel familiar... but Morty would just feel Riley hold him close as he was allowed to sob and cling to him.

"Morty, shh, it's okay. It's not your fault. I'm sure of that. You... might not remember, but... I do. I can help - but... maybe not right now. Right now, let's... have some Pinap Jam on toast, okay?"

That's sneaky, Riley. Don't -

"Or whatever else you want - I just... want to make this right." 

Morty gave Riley the look of a defeated man, it felt empty- devoid of life as more tears kept running down his cheeks. He proceeded to nod at his offer for food, while still sulking.

He still was in his state of shock- as he sat by the kitchen's counter, waiting for the food his boyfriend was preparing for him. After his break down, he had gone silent- his eyes looking down avoiding any visual contact with the other.

By now his Gengar had picked up on his master's state, and while he was being entertained by Aaron- he wouldn't stop to glare Riley from across the living room. What did he do to his master?! 

"Stop glaring, Gengar..." Riley sighed, giving a little shudder as he spread the last of the jam on the toast. "Come to think of it... just because Morty can't remember... doesn't mean that applies to you as well."

He slid the plate of carefully prepped toast to Morty, while casting a look at Gengar. "You were a Haunter then, weren't you? And Morty also had a Misdreavous... I remember. You never liked me much - not even back then."

He's just trying to see if the Pokemon has any reaction - but at the same time... Riley gave Morty's shoulder a gentle pat. 

Oh good, he is self-aware. Gengar thought to himself, as he kept glaring at Riley- before taking the moment to use one of is hinder legs to scratch his ear. The shadow creature let out a whiney grunt- he couldn't take staring at the human's face anylonger, especially whenever he felt like touching his master.

As such he hopped out of the couch he was sitting at, and walking on his four legs he went somewhere else while carrying in his mouth one of his toys.

"...He must have been...I remember evolving him...With Zuki's help- when I was 18- so I believe...Two years after all of this...?"

Morty muttered in a weak tone, as he stared at the toasts for a short while- before taking his first bite out of it. 

Oh yes, I'm sure he remembers.

Riley gave a little huff as he poured himself some coffee to sip on while Gengar shuffled off - only to freeze up and choke on it a little when the numbers finally clicked.

"Ack - shit, sorry. I... forgot, you're... a couple years younger than me." He'd clear his throat and set the cup down, a slightly dazed look there.

"You were... sixteen, then. Shit, Morty - uh. I thought - he was older. At least, he always implied he was - that is, you implied... fuck, this is confusing." Riley sighed. "We had beer, a couple times. It was nice. And, uh..."

Should I tell him we fucked... or would he just get more upset? Better just keep that quiet, for now. 

"..."

Morty stared in silence, as he watched the way Riley handled the information. He waited until the other recomposed himself, before saying anything else. Somehow- he isn't surprised by the concept that maybe there was something more than just one or two beers.

"That sure doesn't look like it, c'mon say it Riley..."

"What did you and he- I mean us do?"

It is obvious the toast isn't holding his interest in that moment. 

He brushed his thumb against the side of the cup, giving another little sigh. What the hell.

"You were my first kiss, actually. My... first..." Riley cleared his throat and met Morty's eyes. "...Lots of things. How do you think I know you had barbell piercings, dear?"

Riley actually flashed a smug grin. "I suppose... I sort of got to take your virginity twice. Though the first time, though, you... took mine as well. You were a lot smaller then.... Not that I mind the change." 

"Oh great- so I could've murdered someone in the past- and I probably wouldn't have known..."

Morty added rolling his eyes- he took the news with a grain of salt to it, he wasn't amused nor thrilled by it. What had once driven him into tears- was now getting under his skin, his words- his tone hinted at his frustration.

He hated this sensation of helplessness- depending on others. He didn't want to be seen as dependant on Riley.

"Fuck...Fuck these powers honestly. It's like the more we dig things up- the more pathetic I look and make myself be like..."

"...Eusine never mentioned such things- so clearly...This must've been before meeting him..."

"I don't think it's pathetic, Morty. It's normal, for something like this to... cause this sort of reaction. You're taking it pretty well, I think. All things considered."

He gave a little sigh and finished off the cup, setting it aside. "You never mentioned having any other friends, that summer. I'm not even sure... where you were living."

It seemed so obvious in hindsight, just how much Morty had needed someone back then... Riley wished he had convinced his uncle to let them stay a bit longer. At least then filling in the holes would be easier - if they needed filling in at all.

"I met you at the park, the first time... My Riolu... knocked you into the fountain. You were so mad... ha. Seems like that's just - how it is, with us. I'm sorry... I keep making things hard for you." 

"...I may as well have been all alone...Eusine would tell me how much I used to  avoid everyone"

Morty muttered in a low tone as he moved aside his toast, while leaning forward slightly on the counter. He put some thought into Riley's words as he visibly still carried quite troubling thoughts about himself and the whole thing, a sigh left him.

"...Until you came into my life, I felt so lonely... Loneliness scares me so much. I was afraid I would end all alone..."

Morty stopped for a brief moment as he looked over at his boyfriend.

"I don't see it as though you are making things harder for me... Just by waking up, and no longer feeling that dreadful sensation of emptiness and solitude... It makes everything worth."

He added, looking over at his beloved boyfriend before reaching out for his hand.

"...No one said life was going to be easy, but if that means I can be with you...Then I am up, for the ride... Because right now? I couldn't see myself with anyone else beside you by my side..."

"...I remember when we confessed our feelings to each other...- As adults, not really from when we were younger...I told you...I want to be with you- regardless of what happens..." 

"Yes... I know. I... feel the same way, Morty." And that was true regardless of their past. "I never had many friends, when I was young - and... meeting you, both times, made me... happy."

He gave a soft sigh, putting his other hand out to clasp Morty's between both of his. "I just wish I could help more. I don't know what happened after I left... You never... got in touch."

I can't even be sure you meant to, and that's what really hurts. Riley didn't say that out loud, though. He just smiled at Morty, and gave his hand a squeeze. "We were dumb kids, though. Even... if we had, I'm... not sure we would've made it work the way we do now."

Riley actually laughed a bit, reaching up to fix his bangs. "Ha... Man, come to think of it... it would've been really awkward to try anything over video... if I didn't live alone..." 

"We have yet to try that one out..."

Morty softly chuckled for a brief moment- as he put on himself a smile, there still was much more for him to process and think on. But somehow- in the end, he felt like an weight had been lifted from him.

After all- whether he liked or not- it would be natural for his boyfriend to wish to know about his past. Even if there isn't much, he is aware of. Maybe they do need to talk about it, if they wish to go forward.

"I think- it is about time for us to talk about this...I've been meaning to talk about me- for awhile now...So...What was...Enoki- I like Riley?" 

"Mm... only because it's hard to find the right times. Maybe - I can stay up late for you, sometime?"

But future plans aside, Riley felt a spark of happiness when Morty asked him what he'd been like. Of course, he knew the chances of Morty remembering anything just from being told were small, but... that summer was still one he looked back on fondly.

"What were you like...? Hm. Well, you... were less of an 'edgy bitch' than I expected, to begin with." Riley said, giving a laugh. "The first day we knew each other, you went from being pissed at me about being shoved in a fountain to... buying me beers and getting me pretty smashed. You know, I think that night was one of the few times I've ever had a hangover?"

He gave a little sigh, grinning at the memory. "That night... the first night we were together... I already had a huge crush on you. You were so... carefree, or at least that's... how you seemed, to me. But you never really told me much about... your life." 

Morty quietly listened to Riley's words as he let go of his hands, in order to rest his chin over his palm. It honestly felt like he was meeting- or being introduced to a whole new person, he still had to get through the fact- that was him. By the end of it, he would sigh in response.

"I guess...A few things have been carried over after all..."

He adds followed by a low chuckle as he rests back on his chair, his seemingly calm demeanor didn't last much longer however.

"...I...I think it is time... Isn't it? Even if I can't remember much...I think, you should know- about my story...Mhmph...Of course- only if you're....Up for it Riley..." 

"You don't have to tell me anything," Riley said - eyes fixed on Morty's face. "But... I would like to know, yes. No matter... what it is."

It was true, after all, that some of the children he'd worked with in the past had some pretty messed up histories. He'd heard some pretty bad things - and yet, this was different. This was Morty.

As such, it was bound to hurt.

"I'm here for you... regardless of what happens. Or what has happened. You know that." 

It's time, and there is no turning back.

Morty went silent, while staring deeply into Riley's eyes, before looking down and at the table- that should help him focus and bring those memories back.

It's fine- you can do this, he is here- he deserves to know. Let it all out.

He thinks to himself- finally he takes a deep breath, and starts talking.

"...I was born in Cherrygrove city with dark brown eyes, I remember being born...normal just like any other child, in a family that seemed to love me. Father- especially... This is why when the flu came which- almost killed me, it felt like a low kick to them..."

"To a point that everything... Drastically changed- when I got better, but my powers showed up- my eyes changed into this color...It was humiliating to my parents...Infuriating as well- I guess..."

"We became distant from the rest of my family...Things only went downhill from there. I had to wear those lens that change your eyes' colors, to make me look more humans- as my parents would tell me... There never was a moment that I truly felt safe in that house... I was forced into watching those gruesome horror movies- since early on my life, all while being compared to those things... I had to tell myself how those weren’t real- in order to try and get through the nights...Mother would do anything to please my father...”

“I only felt safe, whenever father’s Dunsparce- who was essentially our housepet came looking for me and hid away with me in my room... Eventually we would be joined by Gastly- who I had to keep as a secret from my parents...I don’t remember much afterwards- not until the night I fled from home- because I felt like... My end was near if I had stayed there anylonger-...”

Morty took a deep breath before continuing, it wouldn’t last much longer- he is almost there.

“The night I escaped- I got my very last glimpse of father... He...Aparently used the same kind of eye lens that I did- and... He had the same eyes as I do- The same vivid, bright purple shade...”

By the end of the sentence, Morty had tears running down his face cheeks- he looked so scared. The memory was still as vivid as ever.

It was painful to watch Morty talk like this, and all Riley wanted to do was hold him close - especially when the tears started flowing. But he waited for him to finish the story before getting up to envelop Morty in a hug.

"Morty... that's horrible. What they did... that's the thing that's monstrous."

Riley sighed, running a hand through Morty's hair to calm him so much like he had so long ago... and pulled back to look at his face.

"You're just as human as I am, Morty - which is to say, we both are. Human. Just... not ordinary ones. But that doesn't mean we're not. Your family - people like them - are the reason people like us have to hide anything at all."

But Riley didn't want to make this about him.

"You're... perfectly fine. Just as you are." 

Morty felt so weak right there- as soon as he is done sharing his story, he feels completely drained. But at the same time- relieved, as though another huge weight had been removed.

Riley’s words and tough felt so comforting- letting him know the storm is over, you did it. All the pain he felt is validated, it was wrong for him to be put through everything. Finally he can let his past go- leave it to rot away.

But right now, he just- relly needs his Riley’s comforting touch and warmth, as he is crying- everything still felt so vivid to him.

“...Thank you- for everything...Riley...” 

"...You don't need to thank me, Morty. It's... what I'm here for." At least now, he felt sure that... everything would be okay.

Because they were in this together.

[deathsdesiign]

I’m posting this, but i’m going to delete it after a day cause it’s not edited for tumblr. but it’s also mort’s original about or whatever for the forum he’s from. and i figure people might want to see it. under a read more cause it’s long af 

The room is bright and sparsely decorated; almost clinical if it wasn't for the collage of somewhat crude pictures and posters on the far wall. Images that are quite clearly of corpses in various stages of the embalming process. Like before and after shots of a particularly gruesome accident, except that a young face is grinning at the camera in each of them. Body bent over the table, offering a thumbs up or thumbs down, in a scale you're not sure you ever want to know. You want to look away, your eyes are burning with the effort, but it's like watching a train wreak. You can't look away no matter how hard you try, and each set of pictures seems to be more gruesome and gore filled then the last.

"You know people used to pay to have their corpses photographed? Wicked, huh?"

The voice startles you, and your heart stops for a fraction of a second. Ironic considering your current location. If there was ever a better place to drop dead, surely the prep room of a funeral parlor would be it. But considering you were alone with three corpses just seconds ago your little moment of fear doesn't seem too uncalled for.

With a spin you're facing the young man. He looks out of place in there; jeans and a black t-shirt, with beat-up converse on his feet. Like he'd snuck in to get a glimpse at the dead, and you should be calling security.

Except of course you know better.

"Yep, they used to drop their loved ones off. Get them all nice an' tidy. Then people like me would prop them up real nice using wires, or you know stands or whatever. Get them looking like everything's swell." He's pulling on a pair of rubber gloves, black ones, if you must know. "Photography was expensive back then, people could only really afford like three pictures tops. Some of them, that's the only family photo." He laughs, and dark eyes drift up to focus on your face. Eyes that are much too old for that childish grin. "Can you imagine that, family photo with all the kiddies gathered around grandma's corpse?"

You kind of just stare at him, what else are you supposed to do? You're here because haven hill needs this interview, and with the three car accident victims laid out in front of him, he'd put off this meeting for the last time. So they'd sent you here. To the last place anyone should ever want to go willingly.

At least anyone human.

"Ahem, Mr. Wynter I-"

"Please, dude. Call me Mort. Or Morty, whatever gets your gears grinding." He's grinning, but he's also prepping a tube and syringe, and just looking at it is making you want to throw up. Never mind the corpse with an unrecognizable face laying on the table between you.

"Um...Mort. You know why I'm here, right?"

"Yeah, you want to hear my story, I get it. You don't mind if I talk while I work do ya? These guys need to be prepped by tomorrow and- are you gonna be okay? You're looking kind of green around the gills there?"

"I'm fine...just-"

"Never been this close to a body before, huh?" He looks sympathetic but you doubt it. For some reason you doubt his ability to be something so...human. Especially not when there's a wall of selfies with corpses at your back. All you want is for this to be over, and to get the fuck out of here.

"Just start from the beginning, alright?"

"Alright, but it's a long story. So I hope you're not planning on going anywhere for a while."

"Just go."

He's working as he talks, but to your relief he's at least talking and for the moment you can forget the bodies laying around you. Car accident victims with their faces a mess and their bodies shattered. Of course your eyes drift down anyway to watch as he begins the draining process, unable to look away even as the body's fluids seep out of the plastic tubing and down a drain. It makes your stomach flip and turn as his voice washes over you; enthusiastic, but almost mechanical. Like this is something he's shared a thousand times before, and its become little more then a script to recite.

I wasn't born. Not in the strict human sense of the word. What I am, my nature, it kind of doesn't allow for that kind of thing, you know? I mean sure there was a moment where I wasn't there and then a moment where I was, but I didn't have a mother. Or if I did she or he or it, wasn't around when I finally realized that I could...well, realize things. There were others that came before me of course, you might recognize them. The oldest was another pair of twins; Light and Darkness, then came Life and her twin Time, then my sister and I.

You're probably wondering; How could you have a twin if you're not born? How do you know? Well the answer to that is kind of simple really. You just did. And if you didn't, you had the older ones to tell you that's how it was. According to Life we flared into existence one instant after the other. We always came in pairs, with centuries between each match.

He laughs and you don't really understand why. But it's a sound that sends chills through your entire body, like you've just taken a dive in ice water.

A little on the bubbly side for my taste, but I could handle that-

Anyway, I'm off track here. Which I shouldn't because this can stretch on for centuries, and I doubt you have that much free time.

Basically it was six of us, three pairs, but the focus of all this is my sister and I. Like I said we were twins, except we weren't. It's just the easiest way to describe us in human terms. Technically we aren't related or anything, we're just there. Concepts, constructs, that help the world and the universe run. Fate's purpose was to write out the stories of each and every being in existence. She knows literally everything, and if you were to go to her 'room' you'd find that it was filled to the brim with books and strings that crisscrossed all over the place. An organized mess with her in the center of it, blank stare focused off into the distance. I asked her once what that was like the whole 'seeing everything and anything thing' and the way she explained it was like having an infinite number of televisions playing in your head at once. Crazy right?

I do not envy her in the least...but then I guess it's something you get used to. I mean it's not like my version of keeping track of things is any less fucked up.

He pauses then, and takes a minute to turn around, arms reaching behind him to tug up his shirt. The process makes you pause in confusion, but then your eyes widen and you feel yourself gasp. It takes a moment but clear skin seems to shimmer away and suddenly every inch of him is covered in bloody scratches..and they're moving. You know for a fact that they're words; names...but they heal and reappear far too quickly for you to even begin to read them.

"Neat, huh? I think it's just our world...but I might be wrong. I feel like the longer I stay here, the more names from this place start to pop up." He's shrugging and the scratches vanish, leaving his skin clear ( at least to your eyes ), before he lets his shirt drop back down. "Doesn't hurt by the way, in case you're wondering."

A gulp, and you find yourself asking "A-at all?"

He shrugs, fixing the tube to start pumping the body with formaldehyde. "I think it did at first...but I don't remember. It was fuck-all-forever ago." Stepping away from the body, he moved to the second table, waving that you follow. "That one's gonna take a few minutes so." He'd set up some bottles with what appeared to be cleaning supplies, hands moving deftly over the man's limbs. Lifting the arms and wiggling the fingers.

"Gotta check for rigor....anyway, where was I?"

"Uh..." it was a struggle to keep the queasiness building in your stomach. Especially with this one. Arguably the worst of the three. "Your s-sister..."

"AH, yeah."

It's just the way it was.

From the get-go we had pretty much one job and we sort of just dove right on into it. I mean it was our entire reason for existing, you know? So it was kind of a given that from nanosecond one we were doing what we were programmed to do. Fate would write out the stories, when someone was supposed to die I'd get the name. ( By the way I mean real honest, to goodness Death. Not 'oh look I kind of sort of died but hallelujah I didn't' ) Like, when I get your name, that's it. Unless Life pulls some divine move bullshit and calls a God or something to intervene, your soul is fucking mine.

I'd like to think she had a little more respect for me then that. Normally she'll give me a heads up if she doesn't want someone to die ( mostly so I can intervene with Fate cause I mean my sister DOES NOT enjoy outsiders fucking with her shit. ).

You should count yourself lucky by the way, not everyone gets a backstage tour of this shit. It happens in another plane of existence. One, people like you can't even dream of. It's broken into sectors and my personal space is kind of like this void where I can go anyplace I want. I just have to think it.

Makes getting souls and tossing them off to their respective resting grounds a hell of a lot easier. Just gotta think it, and boom I'm there. Easy as popping an eye out.

Fate and I, this is what we did. Non-stop. For billions of years. Since the first spark of life it was me and her; writing and reaping. Over and over and over again. You know how fucking boring that is? I mean lets just put aside that we're basically immortal concepts and not actually people, for like five seconds. Can you imagine doing the same damn thing non-stop; morning, noon, and night. From the instant you crawl out from between your mom's legs to the moment you fall ass first into your coffin? It could drive you mad, and you know, I think it kind of did. Well...not me, but Fate? God damn, you should have seen her. Everything that happens next? It was all her idea, but you're not gonna see me complaining. Fuck that. Those were some of the funnest years of my life, and I'm going to tell you exactly why..cause buddy, it's got about everything to do with how I got here.

He's stopped, seemingly to catch his breath, but really he's gesturing animatedly at the body between you two. "Holy shit dude, this guy's ribs are poking out. Come see!"

"Um...no."

"Aww, c'mon it's just like the movies. Here, look." Before you can stop him, he's yanking you forward and your eyes widen because you can't help but stare at where he's pointing. The stark white bones jutting free of the man's side. It makes you want to throw up, and you gag, trying to pull free. Despite the scrawniness of his size; the thin arms, there's a power hidden behind those muscles. Strength that keeps you pinned as one gloved black hand pokes curiously at one of the bones. He's got his face as close as possible too, hovering over the wound, and inches from yours with that same grin. "Neat, huh?"

The urge to throw up is growing stronger now.

He seems to finally sense your discomfort and his hold loosens and drops away. Finally allowing you to shoot back away from the table until you're pressed against the far wall. Gasping for air; and unfortunately finding nothing but the stale air of the morgue. The sharp smells of copper, formaldehyde, and death.

You need a distraction, fast. "C-can you bring people back?" It's the first question that pops into your head. Your eyes by this point are rolling around in your skull in an attempt to look at anything BUT the dead man on the table. Though you finally settle back on him, just in time to see him offering a thumbs up and smile at his phone as he takes another picture for his wall.

"Me? Nah." He snorts, "I told you there was a Life right? Only she can do that shit...now what I can do." His nose crinkles, and he tilts his head "I can keep you from dying. For however long as I want, well, maybe not forever. There is an order to this shit and eventually I have to listen to it." He shrugged "That's when the cuts really hurt you know, when I keep someone kicking even though their name showed up? It hurts like a bitch. It's different when Life does it, cause you're getting a second chance, but me? Nah if I keep you around it's still part of your first. So your name is going to just keep slicing itself in till I get the message." he snorts "Course you might not want me to. I can keep you alive forever but I can't heal you so lets say you jumped off a fucking building; splat. Can you imagine being alive, like that? Would you want to be?" It sounds horrifying and you find yourself shaking your head in horror. "Didn't think so."

He shrugs, spinning a pair of scissors on his fingers. "'Course it's not all bad. I can also keep you alive long enough for someone or something else to intervene? I mean lets say I stabbed you in the heart right here and now. Imagine if the doctors had literally all the time in the world to fix you? They could patch you up, hell they could even take your heart out and wait for a new one to show up months later and you'd still be fine." he grins. "It's relative really. The order's there and I have to follow it...but people can intervene, people 'change it up' or 'cut in first'."

"I-I don't think I follow."

"That's alright, that's what the next part of the story is for."

I mean...I'm not evil either, it's kind of morally grey actually. I have no idea what I am, but anyway...

The games started pretty recently all things considered. You'd expect this whole fiasco to be my idea, but it wasn't. Like I said, doing the same thing over and over again it drove you mad. And if anyone one of us deserved to go mad it was Fate. I mean she had the whole 'infinite tvs in her head' thing going for her. It's no surprise when one day she kind of just yanked the floor out from under me.

I was actually pretty goddamn pissed at first. There's not a lot to get excited about in my line of work, but occasionally. Occasionally I'd get something big. Like war or tragedy big. Sometimes you people will fucking screw each other up so bad and the death count can just blow your mind. Other times it's some freak accident or some natural event. Either way, the big stuff. God that gets my jollies cooking if you know what I mean.

The stream of death on a daily basis is constant. Always flowing, never stopping. It's like the blood flow of the universe. People's souls are moving in and out like air through cells. It's beautiful ( if you're not forced to look at it forever. ), like a work of art. Sometimes though, there's a big rush of it. It's like when your beautiful mountain view is broken by a sudden avalanche. It's still fucking beautiful, it's nature, but it's beautiful in a different kind of way. You feel me? A chaotic, heart pounding kind of way.

That's what was about to happen. A big chaotic something.

A bridge collapse to be exact.

I'd been planning this for months, eagerly anticipating what was going to be the biggest flash point tragedy I'd seen in ages. I was fucking psyched for all the souls that were about to come flooding through my door. Literally the highlight of my existence in that moment as depressing as that might sound to you, I'd like to take this moment to remind you that people dying is how I exist. There's no beating around the bush or lying about it. I live and thrive because people are dying, and it's not my fault I get my jollies from big tragedies. So don't go thinking I'm the one that caused this to begin with. I don't cause Death, I don't kill things. I collect what dies. Simple. Easy. This bridge was going to collapse and all I had to do was stand back and watch it all happen.

That's when Fate did her thing. You see Fate, her job is basically nothing. It's watching, witnessing, writing. She isn't supposed to intervene like Life might, she can't even grant things like deja-vu like Time can do sometimes if he's feeling especially douchy one morning. Fate basically drew the short straw in our little relationship. Which is I guess why she just snapped. I honestly think that she did what she did just so she could see if she could actually do it or not, at least that first time. She wanted to be something more then a bystander is what I'm guessing, and was I mad that her little ego trip ruined the greatest day of my life? Yeah a little bit.

See she shoved what she could see, into one of the bridge victims. He saw and lived his fate down to the very last second. He saw every moment, felt the spray of blood on his face, probably even felt his damn soul leaving his body. Only to weak up like it was all a very vivid, very 'about-to-fucking-happen' dream. Of course dream boy shit his pants and freaked out. Now, he didn't manage to save EVERYONE on the bridge, but he saved six people. Six people living on borrowed time, six names that suddenly hurt.

You see, I'd never known you could skip a name. Before only Life did it, and like I said there were no consequences when that happened. This time? Nah, this time I felt it. I felt those names digging into my skin like whatever divine force held the pen was pissed at me. Not Fate. Me.

I had never felt pain before. It was kind of awkward.

Here he was stopping again, focusing on his work, or gathering his thoughts. This part of story seemed to take more concentration seeing as his demeanor had changed somewhat. He was still at ease in his surroundings but there was a more focused expression on his features. Eyes darkening as he finished prepping the last body and gestured for you to follow him back to the first. "I could never understand my sister. You'd think that she did all of that because she cares. I mean...why else give the poor kid a premonition? Why even bother trying to save anyone's life if you didn't actually want them to be saved?" A huff of breath, that frosted in the air in front of him as though you both stood out in the snow. Morgues and funeral parlors were kept cold, naturally to preserve the dead, but not that cold. That was him.

"She didn't care?"

He had face close to the first victim, and he glanced up to shake his head. "Not one fucking bit." A chuckle "She's not evil, so don't go thinking that either. None of is is good or evil. We're...grey. We're not supposed to feel anything, I don't think...but we do." His head tilted slightly "I used to call it a 'backfire bond'. It was like we were meant to be connected to humanity. To help it run, but something went wrong. The connection was supposed to go only one way and I guess at first it did. Only the more people there were, the bigger the flood of information going through the bond.Until the only way for it to stay open was for all of that to go both ways." He straightened, hands falling to his hips, "Does all of this make sense?"

"Not really."

"Figures. Well, the only other way I can explain it is like a doorway. If you have one of those double doors and the crowd is small you can just open one and everything is fine. The people coming through are usually coming one or two at a time on a good day and it's easy to keep track of everything. But then some huge nightclub or something opens upstairs and suddenly that one door is being flooded with people trying to come in ten or twenty at a time. Not just that but there's people wanting to go out and you're standing there trying to keep track of it all. Eventually you need to open the other door to ease the flow. Except that second door was closed because it actually cut through your home or your office...so now this surge of people is walking through your personal space." He shrugged "You don't want them too but they're there, and when they come through bits and pieces of them get left behind. Clothing, accessories, the stink of their perfume. It lingers inside of your personal space like a disease you can't get rid of."

"I think I get it now...you were absorbing parts of humanity? Parts of us?"

"Bingo."

"And your sister...she.."

"She absorbed a lot more then the rest of us. Enough to make her a little cruel. She's a total sweetheart of course, but something inside of her- nah, something in there is broken. Like I said before she gave the first vision just to see if she could. She knew it'd do nothing, except maybe torture those people, but she did it anyway. Just to see."

"What about you, what'd you do?"

He grins.

Anyway, I stormed to where Fate was and I yelled. After all this was a mess that had repercussions all over the place. The list on my skin was practically having seizures. Simply because as long as these people were alive they were interacting with other people, changing events that they shouldn't have even existed for in the first place. Because of them certain events that should have happened didn't. And I couldn't just snap my fingers and make them all simultaneously drop dead of an aneurysm. I'm Death but up until then all I did was collect souls, I didn't physically interact with the world to actually cause anything.

Fate didn't make it any better. She was pleased with what she'd done. Like the cat that swallowed ten canaries she just kept taunting me. Saying that she was better, that she'd bested me. Laughing because now I was stuck, and she could beat me whenever she wanted. All she had to do was show someone what was coming, and that was it. "Let Fate Decide" She told me, and grinned like a cracked piece of glass right at me. Fate had decided. She'd decided to be a pain in my ass.

Well two could play at that game.

I decided that if she could interfere then so could I. It took a little practice but I managed, following her little 'chosen ones' and playing with the world around them until I caused a brutal enough accident. Sometimes they caught on. ( Even then I had to go in order ) and sometimes they even managed to avoid me more then once. Hell there was even one time where Fate just kept giving the girl visions. Over and over and over again every time she noticed me getting ready to do what I was doing.

Have you ever heard of the game mousetrap? It's a personal favorite. A board game where you have this confusing setup in the middle of the board and everything's connected. When the mousetrap is set off one thing causes another until the cage comes down over whatever player gets caught.

That's what I did.

Turn on a forklift and taking the break off so it starts moving on its own. Directing it towards a shelf full of hardware supplies, knocking the supplies down so that one of the wooden logs bursts the bag on an air compressor making it explode. That explodes knocks some dude ten feet into a wall of spikes or a nail gun with the safety off. Brutal, but effective. If no one stops it or intervenes I win. I get the soul that I needed to get and fix my list. Except, that kind of power...it gets to your head. It makes you want more, and eventually we stopped seeing it as our job. We were seeing it as a game.

It didn't matter that we were playing with people's lives. That we were making humans who were set to die especially brutal and traumatic deaths to begin with, miserable. All that mattered is that Fate could give them premonitions and I could get them killed. It became a race; could I get rid of all of them before they caught on, could I kill the last batch before she started the new one. Of course I was limited by a strict order and she wasn't so there was a bit of an unfair advantage. I could kill people but if they escaped my trap I'd have to swing back for them later, and if Fate started a new group I couldn't get to the survivors of the last one until I'd run through the new people.

Life thought it was disgusting.

Oh but it was so much fun.

We did our damage, and sometimes I even gave them hints myself. Like...did you know that if you're next but you kill someone who wasn't supposed to die. You switch places on the list? Technically since these people weren't supposed to exist in the first place, anyone they killed could arguably be classified as 'not supposed to die'. I told them that, I made sure that they knew...gave them hope. Then I made sure they picked people who didn't have particularly long to live anyway. Nice right?

You look horrified and he can see that, but he just smiles at you. Fingers working to stitch up the broken face of the corpse in front of him. Fixing the damage of whatever accident got him him. "We were cruel sons a bitches, that's obvious...but we were bored. We couldn't help it. I think, in the end, that's how the darkness found us."

Here you perk up. Sensing the closing of the story.

"We're supposed to be background noise, but all this playing with people's lives meant that we had our hands buried deep into the world. We were leaving our little side dimensions and spending more and more time among people. Giving them visions, fucking them over. Fucking each other over. Too busy to notice that something was wrong. There was a taint in the air...a sour taste like rotting corpses." His nose crinkled, and it's almost ironic. "Sis and I, by rights we should have been the first to notice that something was killing people. Something big was destroying the world...wiping out Fates and flooding me with souls, but we didn't."

He sighs, and stands back, hands stuffing in his pockets "When the Darkness was completely here I didn't notice until I finally went back to my dimension. The place was packed. Full to the brim and growing fuller...straining with the influx of death and destruction that was taking place and it was only getting worse. I tried, I really did try to fix the damage. To start the souls moving on but...to where?" His head shook and there might have actually been sadness there. "The places they should have been going weren't fairing any better; heaven, hell, hades, Elysium, purgatory. Didn't matter, they were all feeling it. It was Chaos."

"That bad?"

He nods, and his shoulder's slumped "Fate was freaking out, the tvs in her head were shutting down or something, I guess. But I couldn't even be bothered. All those souls were in my domain and I could hear them screaming, could hear them crying. They wanted to go somewhere, but I had nowhere to put them. You'd think it wouldn't phase me much but that was my purpose it was fundamental part of who and what I am. What good is a Grim Reaper, Death, if he can't traffic souls to their final destination? Worthless that's what."

"That's not-"

"Oh believe me it is. I broke down. I couldn't do it, couldn't even begin to handle it. I tried but it was too much, so I ditched. Didn't even tell Fate where I was going. I just...had to get out of there. Had to go back to the world and breathe. I pretended to be human for a little while, that's how I found out about the portal. I didn't think I'd ever cross. My duty, my job is the animated world. I'm connected to it...stitched into it. I didn't even think I could cross."

You're watching him closer now, the changes in his expression. A hundred different emotions flicker there in the course of all this. Too fast for you to really read any of them. "But you can? Or you could..."

"Yep. I decided to give it a shot. Who knows, maybe if I'm not there people can't die anymore. right? Worth a shot. I took the dive, and now I'm here. Gotta say...being an actual real human. It's a fucking trip." He laughs now, and a bright grin spreads across his face "I knew about all this stuff but to actually get a chance to play with any of it? To watch movies, play video games, take pictures? EAT FOOD. It's great. Better even. No wonder nobody wants to die...fuck if I had all this, I'd want to live forever too." The grin widens, almost maniacal. "Good thing I can, right?"

You shake a little at the look on his face, and then he's suddenly moving around the table to stand next to you. Wrapping an arm around you and pulling you close before holding his camera phone up over your heads. "It's been nice meeting you kid, loved the chat but I gotta head back to work." There's a flash as he grins at the camera before turning and laying a sloppy kiss on your cheek. "Tell your mom to cut back on those candies she likes, and stay away from public transportation." You're left in minor shock as he saunters back to his side of the table, tucking his phone in his back pocket. "I better not find you using any of that in a book without permission, remember I can find you." A teasing wink.

Too bad you didn't see it that way. You were practically running out of there once you'd finished. Desperate to escape the bodies and the chill he'd settled into your bones.

Don't take the bus?

Why?

[fallen-imagine-angel]

Unlikely Friendships and Great Adventures - Part 2

Notes: Hey guys! So I decided to go ahead and post part 2 to Unlikely Friendships and Great Adventures today! This is a long one. I hope you enjoy! (hopefully, this makes up for the really short part 1 to this)

Unlikely Friendships and Great Adventures - Part 2

Newt Scamander x Reader

Word Count: 1,376

Warnings: fluff, arguments, angst, dueling, etc.

Here’s the rest of the series:

| Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | 

“Hey! (y/n)! Wait up!” You hear a voice behind you. You turn to see Newt making his way towards you. You smile at him and wave. Secretly, you had begun to take a liking to the brown-haired boy. But sadly, he had gotten into a relationship with Leta so you could never voice your feelings to him.

“Hey, Newt! What’s up?” You ask him as he starts walking with you to your common room. You had become great friends and had bonded over magical creatures.

“Just walking with you.” He grins. You roll your eyes playfully.

“I know that.” You laugh and bump him in the shoulder. Then Leta comes up in front of you guys, beaming at Newt. You and she had an interesting relationship. You weren’t really friends, but you’d enjoy a few conversations here and there. Although you could tell she didn’t really like you because of your relationship with Newt. It’s almost like she could tell you liked him. You guess it’s just a girlfriend’s intuition.

“Hey, Newt!” She grins and kisses him, hugging his neck and basically ignoring your very existence. You see Newt give you a side glance as she hugs him tightly. You just shake your head and send him a small smile as you walk off to your common room. You were fed up with Leta making sure you saw her kiss him, marking her territory. It was sickening. And not just because you liked Newt.

Once you reach your common room you whisper the password and walk in. It was peace and quiet, an awfully rare thing. So, being you, you decided to read.

As you realize you don’t have a book, you start walking to the library. When you arrive, you’re met by the one and only Newt Scamander.  Of course.

“(y/n)!” He whisper-shouts as he crosses the library, heading towards you. You grab your book and start to walk out.

“Wait!” He blocks your path with his arm, but you just duck under it and keep walking.

“What are you doing?” He asks, grabbing your wrist. You turn back to look at him, huffing.

“Avoiding you.” You tell him plainly.

“But why?” He asks, confused and slightly hurt.

“Leta hates me because of my relationship with you. She thinks I’m a threat.” You wave your hand in dismissal.

“Why? We’re just friends.” He tells you innocently. However, the comment stung a lot more than it should have.

“That’s what I told her, but she won’t listen.” You shrug.

“Well, I’ll get her to listen.” He grins. You nod and walk faster, approaching your common room. You hear Newt calling after you but you step into your common room before he can reach you.

~~~

“What do you mean she’s trying to steal me from you? That’s ridiculous, Leta.” Newt scoffs. He was discussing the, ah, ‘situation’ with Leta since she wouldn’t talk to you.

“Newt, you’re so blind sometimes! She has a crush on you!” She yells at him. Thankfully, they were in a hallway hardly anyone ever used.

“No, she doesn’t. She agreed that we were just friends earlier today.” He shakes his head at her, and she just lets out an exasperated sigh.

“Just because a girl says she’s ‘just your friend’ does not mean she doesn’t like you. It means she’s willing to sacrifice her feelings so she doesn’t lose you as a friend because you don’t reciprocate them!” She almost screams at him. He’s taken aback by this, hesitantly reaching for his wand as she continued to scream at him.

“Oh, you wanna duel, huh!? Well, two can play that game!” She takes out her wand, pointing it at Newt.

“Aguamenti!” Leta yells, and water drenches Newt. He looks back at her, slightly angry and slightly hurt.

“Locomotor Mortis! Leta, please! Don’t do this! I don’t want to hurt you!” He says back, but still locking her lugs under her. She growls.

“Confringo!” She screams and flames explode onto Newt. He hurriedly tries to pat them out before they get too big.

“Furnunculus!” She yells again, taking advantage of his slight predicament. He screams, now covered in boils.

“Obscuro!” Newt yells now angry. A blindfold goes over Leta’s eyes. Little did they know, you were walking around the corner as you saw Leta cast boils onto Newt.

“Expelliarmus!” You yell at Leta, breaking up the fight. Her wand flies out of her hand. You pick it up and stuff it into your robes. She turns to you, eyes ablaze with hatred.

“Why you little-” She starts, but you lift your wand and point it at her.

“Langlock.” You growl. Her tongue lifts to the top of her mouth and she glares at you.

“I an sill alk!” She tells you angrily.

“You’re right. That doesn’t work well enough. Hm...Silencio!” You wave your wand at her again. She tries talking, but nothing comes out. She tries to scream in frustration but nothing happens. She starts to walk away.

“Immobulus!” You flick your wand at her, causing her to stop in her tracks, now unable to move.

“Why’d you do all that?” Newt asks you.

“Because I don’t want her walking away from me or talking to me right now. I want to question her in a few minutes. But for now, I want to question you.” You tell him.

“Alright, then. Ask away.” He shrugs.

“Hold on. Muffliato.” You flick your wand at nothing in particular before tucking it carefully back into your robes, next to Leta’s wand.

“What does that spell do?” Newt asks.

“Prevents people from listening in on our conversation. Now, why were you fighting with Leta?” You interrogate him.

“Because...well...she...you were right. She thought you liked me as more than a friend and I said that you didn’t because, well, you don’t but she refused to see that and so she started yelling at me. But I made the mistake of subconsciously reaching for my wand when she started screaming at me and she challenged me to a duel, using Aguamenti on me.” He frowns. You nod.

“Well, she is a Slytherin...so I would get that behavior from her…” You sigh. He nods. You flick your wand and the spell is lifted, your conversation now normal.

“We better get going before someone catches-” You start, but a deep voice interrupts you.

“Miss (y/l/n) and Mr. Scamander? Oh, and Miss LeStrange? What are you three doing here at this time of night?” Professor Dumbledore asks you.

“Well, you see...we were just…” You trail off, looking at Newt.

“I was showing them a creature I found. You see, it’s a magnificently interesting creature but I was hoping to go to a place not many people are near so I could show them it in peace, Professor.” Newt lies. You glance at him questioningly.

“May I see this...creature?” Dumbledore asks. Newt takes a creature out of his pocket, surprising you. You didn’t think he’d actually have one. Flicking your wand, you unfreeze and unsilence Leta. Dumbledore didn’t seem to notice you do this or the fact that she was frozen before.

“This is...Mr. Scamander do you know what kind of creature this is?” Dumbledore asks, peering closely at it.

“No, Sir. I was just hoping to read about it and find out.” Newt answers honestly.

“This is a Jarvey. When it’s grown, it will basically be an overgrown ferret. But, it’s also illegal to have these.” Dumbledore tells you three. You gasp. You had only heard of Jarveys in books, and they were illegal, as Dumbledore said before.

“A Jarvey!?” Newt’s eyes grow wide as he looks back at Leta who had mysteriously left.

“Where did you find this?” Dumbledore asks.

“I...uh...in the Forbidden Forest, Sir,” Newt tells Dumbledore, but you see through his facade. He didn’t find it in the Forbidden Forest. No, he’s lying. But why? You made a mental note to ask him about it later.

“I see. Well, I’ll have to...ah, talk to the headmaster to find out what to do...with this.” You see conflict in Dumbledore’s eyes.

“Wait! What will happen to Newt?” You ask, worrying.

“That remains to be seen. I do wish you the best of luck, Mr. Scamander. Go back to your common rooms. Goodnight, students.” He apparates away. You turn to stare at Newt, narrowing your eyes.

“What was that?” You ask him.

“I was getting you out of trouble.” He scoffs.

“No, that was getting you in more trouble.” You tell him, huffing.

“Whatever. How was I supposed to know it was a Jarvey, anyway?” He asks.

“Well did anyone else see you with it?” You ask. He nods.

“What? Who!?” You ask, groaning. This was just getting worse and worse.

“I may have decided to feed it when I was getting bored in class and it attacked my classmate next to me.” He tells you sheepishly.

“That makes this even worse.” You sigh, rubbing your temples.

“What do you mean?” He asks, confused.

“You could get expelled, Newt!” You yell at him. He backs away, hurt. He didn’t like people yelling at him. You sigh again.

“I’m sorry, Newt. I didn’t mean to yell.” You lower your voice back to normal. He just shakes his head sharply.

“No, it’s fine. I get it. Absolutely. You being associated with me could get you in trouble, too. And you don’t want that. I’m sorry, (y/n). I’m sorry I screwed up.” He huffs and walks off.

“What!? No! Newt that’s not what I’m saying!” You call after him, but he’s already gone. You lean against the wall, sinking into a sitting position. Your knees were pushed to your chest and you set your head against them, tearing up. Eventually, you let the tears fall. Newt was your only friend and you had lost him due to your terrible way of wording things. Great.

Exhaustion hit you like a brick while you were there, curled up in a ball. You couldn’t hardly move so you just let sleep take over, hoping no one found you until you woke up.

~~~

When you do wake up, you realize you’re still exhausted. Yesterday did not go your way. At all.

You groan and get up, realizing you were still in yesterday’s robes. You sigh and head towards your common room.

When you walk in, all eyes fall on you. You could imagine that your hair and whatever little makeup you had on was messed up severely, as well as wrinkled robes.

“Whoa, (y/n), what’d you do last night?” One Gryffindor boy sniggered. You just brush past him, muttering “Tarantallegra” under your breath with a flick of your wand at the boy. He starts to dance. Terribly. Everyone else laughs as he stares at his dancing self, confused and worried. He glares at your back as you make your way to your bed.

Once you’ve changed into new robes, you head to your first class. Care of Magical Beasts. Great. Newt was in that class. Just your luck.

You arrive at the Care of Magical Beasts class in a few minutes, walking in just on time. Looking around, there’s only one seat left. Next to Leta LeStrange.

“Did you hear?” She asks you, sniggering once you sit down next to her.

“Hear what?” You hiss at her.

“Your boyfriend is visiting with the headmaster right now, as we speak.” She chuckles cruelly.

“Don’t you mean your boyfriend, and why is he visiting Headmaster?” You ask confused.

“It’s about that beast in his pocket. He got in trouble.” She shrugs. For the rest of class, you ignore her and the lesson. Why would he get in so much trouble he’d need to visit the headmaster?

When class gets out, you immediately rush over to the tower where the Headmaster’s office is located. You get there just in time to see Newt packing up his stuff and heading out of the office.

“(y/n)?” He asks, confused about why you’re there.

“What happened?” You ask worriedly.

“I...uh...I got expelled.” He tells you awkwardly. Your hand flies to your mouth and you tear up.

“Oh my...no, that can’t be.” You gasp. He hangs his head. Then you remember your mental note.

“Wait a second...you lied to Professor Dumbledore!” You accuse him. His head shoots up, eyes wide.

“No, I didn’t!” He gasps.

“Yes, you did! You said you found the Jarvey in the Forbidden Forest, but that’s not where you got it! So, tell me Newt, where’d you get the Jarvey?” You ask him, narrowing your eyes. He hangs his head once more.

“I got it from Leta.” He mutters.

“Leta? Leta!?” You screech. He groans.

“But don’t tell anyone. I don’t want her to get in trouble, too.” He shushes you.

“You...you still love her, don’t you? Even after she screamed at you, purposely got you in trouble, and dueled you?” You whisper, looking at him with shock. He nods his head.

“I do.” He agrees.

“I can’t believe you.” You scoff. It stung. He would never love you like that. Not like he loves Leta. To him, you were just the friend who’d always be here for him. Just a friend.

“Please, just... don't leave me. I can’t lose you, too.” He pleads. You see the sincerity in his eyes. You sigh and hug him, wrapping your arms around his neck. He buries his face in the crook of your neck and wraps his arms around your torso.

“You won’t lose me. Ever. Because I’m coming with you.” You whisper into his ear. He pulls back.

“What?” He asks, shocked.

“You heard me. If you’re getting expelled, then so am I.” You march into the Headmaster’s office.

“Headmaster?” You ask. He turns around and stares at you, gesturing for you to go on.

“I gave Newt the Jarvey. I thought it was cool so I gave it to him, not knowing the consequences it would have. If you’re going to expel anyone, make it be me.” You tell him. Just then Professor Dumbledore walks in.

“Please, expel neither of these children. They didn’t know the difference between a ferret and a Jarvey. They thought it was harmless. They didn’t know it was illegal. Please.” Professor Dumbledore pleads. The headmaster shakes his head.

“Unfortunately, I will have to expel both of you. You leave tomorrow morning. Pack up and say your goodbyes.” He tells you. You nod solemnly, walking out. Newt is standing there, shocked that you’d do that for him.

“You should’ve stayed and finished your education. Gotten a job. Been better than me. (y/n), you had a chance at life. You just threw it away to...to be with me.” Newt shakes his head, probably thinking you’re insane.

“I know.” You grin at him. He looks at you, surprised that you’re grinning after the events that just took place.

“You’re...utterly insane.” He shakes his head. You nod yours.

“I know.” You punch him playfully in the shoulder. He looks over at you and can’t help but crack a smile himself, yours being too contagious.

“Now, come on! Let’s go pack our bags!” You drag him off in the direction of his common room.

~~~

Once the morning comes, you grab the suitcase you packed and meet up with Newt at his common room. Together you head to the train station.

“This is it.” You fiddle with your hands. He, being nervous as well, grabs your hand as you two walk onto the train. Great adventures awaited you, although you had no clue what they were yet. 

But they were sure to be the best time of your life.

A/N: Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed part 2 to Unlikely Friendships and Great Adventures! Part 3 should be up as soon as I finish writing it. Also, requests are open still (when are they not?) and I hope some of y’all request some stuff! Thanks!