#hope this wasn't too confusing!

[icestar-74]

Shizaya Week 2023

Day 3 Body Swap

"This is literally the worst! Look at me! I look like I haven't seen the sun a day in my life. My hair is too soft and... is that concealer under my eyes!?" Shizuo shouted in the mirror at his face, Izaya's face. "How the fuck did this happen?!"

"Don't be hateful. You should be thanking your lucky stars that you get to be in my beautiful body. Look at me! I've gone back SEVERAL stages in evolution!" Izaya shouted, in Shizuo's body.

Shizuo, in Izaya's body turned on him. "The fuck you say!?"

"Actually..." Izaya, in Shizuo's body looked at his hands. "This might not be so bad. Think of what I can do with this strength."

"Oh hell no!" Shizuo growled.

"How are you going to stop me? I have the upper hand now." Izaya grinned, in Shizuo's body. "I have your strength. With this, and my connections I'm unstoppable."

Shizuo, in Izaya's body, surged forward. "Oh I'll stop you. I'll choke your fucking neck till you pass out and then I'll figure out how to reverse this." He wrapped his hands around the neck of his own body. It felt very weird.

Izaya only cackled. "So that's what this feels like! It tickles." He then grabbed Shizuo and lifted him up. "Alley oop!" He slammed him backwards in the tub.

"Ahahahaha! I'm unstoppable!" Izaya cried out. "+The world is mine! All of my enemies will shake with fear. I have become a true God! I-"

Izaya was shouting and rambling about his future plans for world domination when a needle peirced his neck.

"W-wah ungh..." Izaya fell to the floor. "Fuck..."

Shizuo looked up in the tub to see Celty. "Celty...?" The room began to spin with darkness around the edges of his vision.

"Sorry, Shinra told me he was trying some kind of body swap on you guys. I came here as fast as I could after he gave me the antidote. Thankfully I only have to hit one of you with it. Sorry for the sore neck." Celty held her phone up.

"Shinra....bastard." Shizuo said before things went black and he woke up in the floor.

Izaya, now back in his own body groaned and crawled from the tub. "What happened?"

Celty showed him a new explanation on her phone.

Shizuo, in his own body again rolled over and looked at her from the floor. "Hey Celty, tell Shinra next time he wants to experiment, I'll experiment with my foot in his ass."

"Agreed." Izaya groaned.

[ultravioletbrit]

“gone” - Jegulus microfic - @into-the-jeggyverse - 518 words

Part 4/5 (part 1, part 2, part 3 /part 5)

For a moment, Regulus still considers making a break for it but instead he takes a deep breath and turns to face his brother. They stare at each other for several moments, a myriad of emotions flicking across Sirius’ face as he opens and closes his mouth without saying anything. Regulus is struggling to find the right words also, but he’s saved when James breaks the silence.

“Did you really just try to sneak out the front door?” He asks.

Regulus’ stare slowly shifts from Sirius to James.

“And I was almost gone, if you didn’t notice.” Regulus defends himself.

“But we’re standing right here.” James gestures to emphasize that they are in fact standing very close to the front door.     

“Your point?” Regulus defiantly crosses his arm.   

“Hey guys?” Regulus faintly hears Sirius in the background.

“My point is that this is apparently your brother, which I’d still like a bit of an explanation about.” James starts.

“I can—” Sirius tries to interrupt.

“But regardless, there’s obviously something going on between you two.” James continues, ignoring Sirius.

“Yeah, but that’s—” Sirius tries again.

“So clearly, he’s not letting you leave without talking to him. And I’m definitely not letting you leave without getting your number.” Again, James talks over Sirius.

“You’re what?!” Regulus and Sirius ask at the same time.

“What makes you think I’d give you my number?” Regulus asks.

“Hey Reggie, good to see you, what are you doing here?” Sirius turns to the side—not facing Regulus—and dramatically asks no one.

“Do you not want to give me your number.” James smirks.

Sirius turns the other way, still talking to no one, “Hey Sirius, long time, no see. Funny story actually.” Sirius says in a mocking voice.

“I… …” Regulus tries to answer James.

Sirius turns around again. “Oh yeah? I’d love to hear it.” Sirius continues talking to no one.

“So, you do want to give me your number.” James’ smirk grows.

Sirius turns again and continues in a very dramatic mocking voice. “Well, Sirius, I just love you sooo much, I couldn’t be without you.”

“I never said that.” Regulus fires back at James—but also inadvertently answered Sirius’ statement.

Sirius turns to respond to Regulus until he realizes that Regulus wasn’t talking to him, then drops his shoulders. “I might as well be talking to a mirror.” He tosses his arms up.

“No… but you hesitated, love.” James’ smile softens and Regulus hates to admit that he has to fight to restrain his own smile. James opens his mouth, but Sirius cuts him off.

“OKAY, that’s enough!” Sirius stands between them and grabs Regulus by his ear and starts pulling him towards James’ couch.  

“OUCH!” Regulus yelps. “You are hurting me!”  

“Well, normally, I have a very sweet disposition, but you lost that right when you ignored me!” Sirius shouts and Regulus continues to yelp.

“Okay, wait a minute, Sirius.” James tries to jump in.

“I did my waiting! Twelve minutes of it, while you two were doing… whatever the hell that was.” Sirius throws Regulus on the couch. “Now sit. I want answers!”

[ask-the-splitmind-au]

How did the iterators get in thier head?

[queer-reader-07]

op could you elaborate on the she/her muriel thing. because i totally get what you mean but i find it so hard to articulate why... its just like. mmmmm. canon they/them character. but you wont respect their prns. but then again i enjoy when people get genderwierd w the ineffable spouses. would you respect my prns if you cant even respect a fictional character. is that the same thing. idk.

hi anon! i'll try best to elaborate, but apologies in advance if it comes off a bit... intense?

to give some context to my words:

i am nonbinary

i am afab

my pronouns are they/them

most everyone with the exception of close friends and people on the internet misgender me with she/her pronouns because they perceive me as a woman.

i think the root of it for me is that muriel has no experience interacting with earth, let alone humans, before they're sent down to be Inspector Constable. and because they have no experience with humans, they most definitely have very little context for the human construct that is gender. muriel's pronouns are they/them because those are the default gender neutral pronouns in english. muriel (like the other angels and demons) is referred to with they/them pronouns because, for all intents and purposes, they don't have gender.

whereas aziraphale and crowley (and even gabriel to a certain extent) have interfaced with humanity enough to have developed some level of understanding regarding gender, and possibly even an understanding of what they want their gender to be/be perceived as.

additionally, crowley and aziraphale play with gender in a way that feels very intentional to me.

crowley has canonically, in the show, presented femme. meta writers far more skilled than me have examined how, during the crucifixion scene, crowley is very obviously dressed more like the women in the background than the men. and it's not just in the historical flashbacks that we see crowley's genderfuckery. his modern look is comprised of a combination of femme and masc pieces. he wears a woman's cut waistcoat and his "11 years ago" look features women's sunglasses. all while inhabiting a decidedly man-shaped body.

i'm also just going to remind the audience that crowley outright denies being "a lad" in season 2. he straight up told us he's not A Dude.

aziraphale's genderfuckery is definitely less obvious and some might say debatable. that being said, i would make the argument that aziraphale's tendency to dress and present in a way that results in him being almost universally perceived as not only A Gay Man, but an effeminate gay man at that, is a quintessential example of gender as performance. and i do believe that aziraphale is making a very conscious and deliberate choice to present as a gay man. for fuck's sake he calls himself THE Southern Pansy, he knows what he's doing.

also, i know it didn't actually happen, but we almost got both of them presenting femme in the 60s so like. there's that too.

so, to me, it's ok to fuck around with crowley and aziraphale's genders in fanfic and art and the like because they do so canonically. the book makes it very clear that they are "man-shaped" but not necessarily men, ie they have chosen bodies that are perceived as being A Gender but that doesn't mean they technically are.

whereas muriel does not. muriel doesn't have a concept of gender because they haven't been on earth or around humans long enough to develop one. they are only ever referred to with gender neutral language. so it just feels really gross to me when people choose to she/her them. because to me it feels like saying "well this body that appears woman-shaped to me must mean they are a woman" which is a sentiment i, unfortunately, know all too well.

muriel is a character that is canonically referred to with they/them pronouns, on a major TV show on a major streaming platform no less. so it really fucking sucks to see people disregard that because they "can't remember to they/them muriel" or because they "seem like they use she/her."

to put it bluntly, every single argument i've ever read in favor of she/her-ing muriel has boiled down to "i just can't be bothered to remember they use they/them" and if you can't use a fictional characters pronouns correctly then i have zero faith you can use a real person's pronouns correctly. all i hear when i read those arguments is "i can't be fucked to do the bare minimum of gendering trans people correctly."

and lastly, i know it's genderfuckery when people she/her aziraphale and crowley because they're "man shaped" in the book and played by male actors in the show. but i don't have much faith that it's genderfuckery when people she/her muriel because i can almost guarentee it happens for no other reason than the fact that Quelin Sepulveda is a woman.

[things-methinks]

Can any RBR die hard fans help me out here

1) Does anyone know what happened to the maxv1stappen fanpage? I haven't seen them in a while.

2) What is happening with RBR? Are they imploding?

[maxormillie]

VOX HYPNOTIZING VAL TO SAY HE LOVES HIM AND HEAR IT BACK AND ERASING HIS MEMORY TO NOT DEAL WITH TGE EMOTIONAL FALLOUT / DYNAMIC CHANGE IS SO GENIUS OH MY GOD 🤯

Val wakes up like "wtf happened last night?" And Vox is just like "You got high and we fucked 🙄" Or maybe they agreed to hypno play beforehand but Val is tricked into believing it was standard CNC roleplay or whatever kinky shit they usually get up to and he's like "why does my ass not hurt tho?" And Vox immediately just hypnotizes him again to stop asking questions.

What if Vox has been doing this for years? What if every time they do hypno play, he tells Val its for extreme roleplay but it's just so Val can't remember him asking for a vanilla sappy fucking where he gets all weepy and clingy and tells Val he loves him? Somewhere down the line Vox was able to admit his feelings to himself but NEVER to Val, because even if Val feels with same, that kind of convenient and relationship just just wayyy too emotionally vulnerable for Vox, so he just whips up these hypno sessions where he can get out his feelings so they don't biol over but still sace face. He could play out a whole "fake" relationship with Val for hours if he wanted to, then just mind control him into forgetting after. And Val would have no idea. IM LOSING MY MIND THIS IS EVERYTHING FOR THEM. CUZ IF VAL FINDS OUT SOMEHOW.. LIKE THATS SO DEEPLY VIOLATING AND WEIRD BUT NOT AT ALL KINKY THAT IDK HOW HED FEEL ABOUT IT. LIKE IF IT WAS JUST A SEX THING, SURE FINE, BUT VOX CREEPILY PLAYING DOLL WITH HIM TO THE POUNT WHERE HE HAS HOURS OF GAPS IN HIS MEMORY REGULARLY HHHHHHHHHHHH I AM BITING AT MY ENCLOSURE THIS IS AMAZING

Oooo you see the vision. I've always liked the idea that Vox and Val are not above using their powers on each other (or Vel for that matter, if we learn she also has some mind altering ability or more potions, I will lose my mind, that would be so hot of her). Hypnotism/Mind control is such an over-powered ability that living with Vox would have me on edge all the time fisibhdjau plus not having any privacy. Honestly, Vox is terrifying in that sense. I have also been thinking about them using their powers on each other at the same time to the extent that they're both completely out of it. As in Vox completely off his ass on Val's poison but also hypnotizing Val. So they're both technically at each other's mercy, but barely in control of themselves. Sure, Vox can make Val do whatever he wants, but he's so poison-high that he's barely coherent and anything he commands will be the poison talking more than him. And Val has no choice but to obey. Just both of them being victims in this weird fucked up power use. There's just so many fun ways they can hurt each other...

[italictext]

Drew Alex as an apology to the poor people who followed me for tlos but got dn instead. I promise I'll draw more!!

[hall0wedwyrm]

A Story idea for you;

Werehog Sonic wants cuddles, but Shadow can't give them, he has to go to work.

However, Sonic wasn't asking, the ouppy brain was taking over...

Shadow will have to call in, he might've gotten bit in the ensuing scuffle, because he's a Werehog, too, now.

this is such a cute idea!! but unfortunately in not that big of a fan of werehog shadow sorry :/

I would someday love to do an AU of Sonic Unleashed with Shadow (my favourite Sonic game and favourite character) and something like this would sooo happen. Maybe Shadow gets called in to investigate the Dark Gaia stuff?

Thank you for the idea!!

[hushimstressed]

hihi! some silly questions about your spiderman!mariana and venom!charlie au - do you think that they would've had a falling out at any point? maybe out of fear, maybe an accident happened, maybe one of them was found out...

grgrgrgrggr idk idk

Oooooooh definitely!! They drive each other crazy on the daily but they always come back around to each other after a while :) they defintely had some friction after revealing their identities but they eventually got over it and it helped strengthen their relationship :D

The only execption being what happened to juanaflippa.

tw: child death, panic attack under the cut

An accident had occured on the way to her pre-school, and she hadn't made it. Mariana was with her, but couldn't save her in time. He wasn't even in costume, he was just useless, ordinary mariana walking his daughter cousin to school.

he cradles her just as he did when she was a baby. there's static ringing in his ears. he can't drag enough air into his lungs to breathe. he can't move at all.

his eyes just stare fixed at the blood on the concrete.

charlie can't understand how he couldn't even protect her, and mariana is asking herself the same question over and over.

so, she leaves.

and tells herself that Slime would be better off without a monster like her. and hates that shes too much of a coward to see the look of pity or disgust on people's faces, like they know what she is. They know what she's done.

not a good person, she's barely human at all

charlie was so angry that when he and venom were out at night they caused distruction as one being. every tear and strain isn't enough. he claws into another car so he doesn't have to think about anything else.

Slime sees so many around him and thinks why is everyone in this city so fucking happy when Flippa is gone? don't they know that a wonderful, perfect being is missing from the world?

why is there world still spinning when his has stopped to a standstill? he wonders why the earth hasn't swallowed him up yet.

he wonders how mariana is still alive for what she's done.

everything else blurs into numbness.

[sparklingchim]

What’s a movie that changed the way u looked at things

bestie i am unfortunately not a huge movie watcher n 90% of the time i recall zero (0) details after watching one 😔😔 but i think i would say my neighbour totoro & barbie and the magic of pegasus <3

[sophieswundergarten]

OKAY. Ended up watching Doctor Who with my sibling tonight, so I am presenting a series of revamped DW/MBS AU thoughts. Still very rambly and silly, but due in large part to the genius of @oflightningandstars and @nobody33333333, so a great deal of thanks to them :)

According to Bods' very clever idea, the Book versions of Mr. Benedict and Curtain are previous regenerations, and Show Nicholas and Nathaniel are their current regenerations. Of course, they are being set up as the Doctor and the Master of sorts: As two Time Lords who were friends and then enemies and the whole mess.

Mr. Benedict comes across Number Two when she's a small child, maybe ten or so, living in Victorian England (Because why not). She's been shipped off to boarding school and then orphaned, but the school is waiving her tuition and everything as a philanthropic public image stunt, at least until she's 18. However, she utterly hates it because she's the smartest kid there and while they let her skip a couple grades because she obviously couldn't stay in the class she'd been put in, they didn't care enough to evaluate her and acknowledge that she was far more advanced then their curriculum was prepared for. The other girls didn't like her, the teachers couldn't stand her, and the administrative people ignored her every time she tried to come up for a compromise or a way to make the system better.

She's outside crying quietly by herself because she doesn't want to go in to another class where she's mocked and derided and told to keep small and quiet, when, lo and behold, a random older man walks up to her. He's wearing a green plaid suit and has white mussy hair. He looks like he could be a teacher at her school, except he seems much kinder, and he asks her why she's crying. She tells him all about how she hates it at the school but she doesn't have anywhere else to go and while she does miss her parents, it's in a distant sort of way, because they were largely absent from her life and it was they who sent her to boarding school in the first place to teach her to sit still and shut up.

And he hugs her and offers her a biscuit, listening to her story until she's cried herself out and falls asleep. He'd be perfectly content to sit out there with her, except it's England and so it starts to rain, at which point he scoops her up and very carefully takes her inside his TARDIS (Which is disguised as a bookstore around the corner). After a bit she wakes up, and instead of feeling scared or upset, she feels safe, and like she's home for the first time since she can remember. He asks her gently if she'd like to be taken back to the school now, and he's spent so much time listening to her that she has the courage to ask, plainly and desperately, if she can stay. She knows, even as young as she is, that it's foolish. That he needs to take her back, that he's an adult, and that it would be irresponsible of him not to.

But, instead, he smiles at her as if the idea delights him. She can stay for as long as she likes, he says, and he'll still be able to get her back in time for tea. She's a little puzzled at this, until he whispers in a quiet, conspiratorial voice, as though he's telling her a great secret and trusts her to keep it safe, if she'd like to see something amazing. She says yes almost immediately, as for however strange this man is, she trusts him just as much as he seems to trust her. And what she sees certainly is amazing

Milligan is someone they pick up later, in a far corner of the galaxy at a time where humans certainly shouldn't have been able to make it there. He's alone, lost and confused, living on the streets and being largely ignored by the extraterrestrial inhabitants of the planet. He can't speak the language, and no one cares to take the time to understand the gibberish of some species they've never seen before. Number Two isn't very old, still, maybe in her early teens, and she stumbles across Milligan where he's sitting in an out of the way alley. He reaches out to the young girl with a desperation all too familiar to her, hoping that she might understand what he's saying.

She does, and though he looks half crazy in his muddled, panicked state, something in her lets her know she doesn't need to be scared. She tells him that she knows someone, a man who will help, a man who will help him find what he's searching for. She takes him to Mr. Benedict, and Milligan almost collapses in relief upon finding someone who understands him (And also from exhaustion). They work out that Milligan was taken, and his memories had been stolen. He isn't exactly sure where or from who, but he knows that he's missing something important. Something vitally important to him is missing, and while he isn't sure what it is, he knows he must find it again, even if Mr. Benedict doesn't want to help him.

Mr. Benedict quickly assures him that of course they will help him, and he's welcome to stay with them for as long as he's comfortable. Milligan thanks the two of them profusely, and while he's not exactly a stranger to space travel, his first trip in the TARDIS takes his breath away.

(And if he feels a strange need to look out for Number Two, maybe a bit more than another responsible adult would, that's his business and no one else's. Mr. Benedict looks at him sometimes with a strange sadness, as if he also knows that kind of hollow, aching loss that never quite leaves the lungs, but Milligan has yet to ask him about it.)

Rhonda they meet in what to Milligan is the future (And to Number Two the far future). She is living in a human settlement on a faraway moon, and she is the only child there. Her parents were prolific scientists, but when they passed away, she was left in the care of some of their colleagues who were rather too busy and self-important to handle a child. They relied on her intelligence and experience with her parents' research when necessary, but for the most part she was on her own. It was a lonely life, but at least she knew she was necessary, in that way that people who have never understood what it is to be truly loved do.

A few more years had passed at this point, and while Milligan had settled in with his new family, he still felt that there was something missing. He had regained a few memories, but nothing substantial enough for a man who had command of all of time and space to fixate on. To cheer Milligan up, Mr. Benedict and Number Two decided on a destination that would allow him to indulge the interest in chemistry he had recalled.

While exploring, Number Two, who is still not quite grown up but feeling that she'd rather like a moment away from her two slightly over-protective "fathers" (Seriously, it's as if she's never been on an alien planet before), wanders away. She comes across a girl, a few years younger than herself, hiding in a back storage closet and writing in a well-worn journal. She jumps a bit, but asks Number Two what she's doing. The older girl replies that she's just looking around, and asks Rhonda what she's writing about. Her younger sister (Because, even after only a few seconds, Number Two knows they'll be taking this girl with them when they leave) replies that she'd been recording notes on what the researchers were working on.

A few minutes later, Rhonda realises that this must be what real companionship must feel like, as Number Two has spent the whole time nodding and listening with great seriousness, and even adding a few thoughts of her own. She tells the older girl about how she came to be at the settlement, and how she's been hearing whispers of them sending her away. She really would rather stay, but in a falsely upbeat tone she adds that maybe leaving the settlement for the first time she can remember will allow her to make some friends.

This is the last straw for Number Two, and she announces that they're going to meet her family. Half dragging Rhonda, she swiftly navigates her way back to Mr. Benedict and Milligan, who are enjoying a presentation about compounds accelerating plant growth. Introductions are made, and Number Two watches smugly as her family grows. One of the researchers notices Rhonda, and comes over to tell her that a shuttle will be by sometime in the next day cycle to take her off-world, and officially enter her in the foster system. At Rhonda's panicked look, Mr. Benedict is quick to whip out his psychic paper and announce that, actually, they are the authorities responsible for taking this wonderful little girl off their hands.

Rhonda watches curiously as the exchange goes down, and is ushered to a strange little shop that turns out to be a great deal bigger on the inside.

[autobahnmp3]

ok i am home i am on vacation but i had a fight with my roommate but then talked normally i feel absolute whiplash but i have showered and i am in bed goodnight and let's begin this VACATION

[daz4i]

do you know if the anime is gonna go off manga after the next few eps?

seems so D: well. at least for that next ep, bc it seems this season will be 11 episodes! there's definitely not enough material left in the manga for a full episode but like, asagiri is working closely with the anime's team, and they def made today's episode a few months ago aka before the chapters it was based on were posted, so like the next episode likely WILL follow the manga! just! not material we've seen before!

[angelellipsis-devilofdots]

so i have two platonic partners. one of them became my platonic partner by normal means of communication and then the other one, back in september when we first started becoming closer, randomly messaged me asking "wait. are we NOT platonic partners??" like genuinely confused asf and i was just like "i mean i don't remember ever establishing that but i'd be down" and uh yeah. that's how i gained my qpps

[tvckerwash]

started a rvb rewatch and I'm remembering the pain of just how little there is to work with when it comes to ct and her personality while simultaneously being reminded about just how deeply she and wash mirror one another

[slashmagpie]

can i get a echoes! etho and skizz interaction mayhaps pretty please with an etho on top

Vote Etho! Request a fic!

When Skizz is young, his father dies. 

This is one of the first things he remembers, one of the first things he remembers about himself: his father is dead, and his grandfather with him, and this heavy ugly feeling in his chest is what the adults call grief. They move away, after that, he and his mother and his grandmother, and Skizz’s childhood home fades from his memories, along with his father’s face and the raw grief inside his chest.

He’s young, after all, and nothing lingers quite as it should when you’re young. 

And Skizz always knows that he’s different, always feels out of place at school and in the streets. His father is dead, after all, and his family doesn’t have the money others do, and that’s enough to set him apart from the other kids with their two parents and siblings and white picket fences. Sometimes he resents that, in the way little kids do, it’s not fair and why can’t I have what they do? He stops voicing those thoughts before long, though, because it makes his mother sad, and Skizz understands that sad is bad, even if he doesn’t understand much else.

And then, one day in the sun-washed haze of his adolescence, his mother and grandmother sit him down and tell him what really sets him apart from everyone else.

And, well, it’s not everyday you learn you have a secret origin story, so Skizz is maybe a little more excited about it than he should be.

Skizz has felt different his whole life, and every label he’s ever had for that difference—fatherless, poor—has felt like a thorn to the chest. One-quarter Enderian sounds cool and mysterious and like something worth being proud of, rather than ashamed of.

And then one day, years later, he fully grasps the meaning of the word genocide, and the sadness that had coloured his early memories begins to make a lot more sense.

But Skizz doesn’t like feeling sad. He doesn’t like it when other people are sad. That’s why he does the things he does, acting like a total goofball, trying to eke a smile out of the people around him. He likes it when they laugh. 

The first—well, second, really, but Skizz doesn’t remember the first—the first time Skizz meets Madafellionetho, he makes the man cry.

He doesn’t do anything to make Etho cry. He just kind of exists, and that alone is enough to bring Etho to tears, and then Skizz is panicking trying to comfort a guy he barely knows, all because Etho can hear that odd humming that Skizz didn’t realise was part of his tragic origin story superpowers.

(He’s beginning to realise he doesn't really know a lot about his tragic origin story superpowers.)

And Etho is… sad. Even after he stops crying, even after the game is over, even when Skizz invites him to his solo world to hang out—Etho wears his sadness like a second skin. Skizz has never seen him without it. And as Etho teaches Skizz how to pronounce his own name, and attempts to explain that the humming had once been a symphony, and reveals to him what endermen really are, well. That sadness settles into Skizz’s chest, sinks like a stone.

(Turns out having a tragic origin story is less cool and more tragic, who would have guessed.)

So Skizz makes it his mission to make Etho laugh. Really laugh, not the quiet snickers he lets out on a regular basis. So Skizz makes a fool of himself, fools himself with not-so-clever wordplay, is snide and ironic and silly, and one day, out on the shores of a lake, the sun streaming down through grey clouds above, he manages it.

Etho snickers, then snorts, and then the next thing Skizz knows is on his knees, gasping for breath, tears streaming down his face as his shoulders shake with laughter. And then Skizz is laughing, too, and the tightness in his chest eases, and the sadness slips from Etho’s shoulders just a little bit, and the humming begins to sound, just for a moment, a little bit like the music Etho tells him about.

And between breathless laughter Skizz feels, for the first time, what it feels like to not be out of place for once.