#i forgot if the bodies of those who died in the memory zone disappear

[walpu]

walp walp hear me out

remember that trailblazer scene with firefly and how she just just gets stabby stabbed by the creature (memory zone meme i think)

and + Aventurine having access to the 'real' dreamscape, combine that with bodyguard! reader who will go through hell and back to make sure Aventurine will. Live.

reader follows aven during the entirety of the Penacony quest, including when Black Swan teleports the both of them to the real memory zone. (also, does anyone else feel like bodyguard! reader and Trailblazer would be besties... no, just me?)

now, keep in mind, Aven and reader have a... complicated bond. IPC workers here and there say their dating, the Trailblazer has straightup asked if they would just get a room (you get their vibe, you can go along with the secret assassin! bodyguard! reader req i sent in)

a little bit more insight on their dynamic (again, going with the assassin reader thing, its already known between the two atp, so this can be set after that period), Aven wants to love reader, wants to hold them close, and wants their affection, but dammit, he just cant bring himself to. Not when he's sure he'll just hurt everyone that comes close to him (his sister, cough cough)

and reader has the same mindset, they love Aven, as a boss, as that annoying but endearing friend, and perhaps as more. But they have blood, the lives of people that they've unlawfully taken, not to mention, they are 100% sure Aven would never love a person who killed just for monetary income.

now, here's where the real show starts. There's also another assassin (seriously, Duke Inferno should save his manpower) following reader and Aven. Safe to say, only one is making it out alive. How the assassin followed the two of them? No fucking clue, but somehow it does.

After i assume beating the living shit out of hordes of memory zone monsters, the assassin appears, and just when Aventurine's unsuspecting?? Boom, goes in for the kill.

Yeah, too bad. Aven's not dying. But reader is! Yeah, in a act of (cliche) protection, reader allowed themselves to be the one to suffer from the attack. (Bonus if they get decapitated, or just stabbed like how Trailblazer was by Cocolia). Aven will never forget the way that he just- watched reader's body fall, the light just gone from their eyes.

Anyways, he doesn't even get to hold their body. You just- poof into bubbles like Firefly did. The last thing he has left of his beloved bodyguard? Just a simple red earring, matching the one he wore. Nothing left.

Okay, im also going to cope here that the whole shitshow with Aven and Acheron did not happen, he returns to the room that reader had, and he just... stands there. He takes in the way that half of the room was messy, half of it was untouched. So much like them, unpredictable and just had a touch of the weirdness he loved so damn much.

(Bonus if you want a happy scenario, reader's alive and well, afterall, dying in the dreamscape doesn't kill anyone. Reader is probably smiling very awkwardly while they stare at a teary eyed Aventurine, then they make out /hj)

yay another rant, i had this idea for days, the decapitation part may or may not have been plaguing me (should i be concerned), anyways, thanks for listening to my word vomit, stay safe and stay healthy <33

feel like falling on my knees and begging to forgive me for taking so long this spring doesn't let me breath istg. I've got this request before 2.1 and only got to it now that's why Aven is ghosting me.

bodyguard!reader "dying" in the dreamscape to protect Aventurine

sort of a sequel to this but can be read as a separate work as well, the main thing you need to know is that reader was originally an assassin sent by Duke Inferno but they've changed their mind and stayed by Aven's side

notes - gn!reader, angst, unestablished relationship, no beta

You both knew the trip to Penacony would be difficult. You, in particular, knew that something big and very sinister is coming, judging by the way Aventurine danced around the subject, not giving you full information.

You may not know all the details of Aventurine's plan but you know him well enough to realize that he's planning on doing something extremely reckless and dangerous.

So you do your best to protect him. To shiels him from any possible danger, to keep him within your reach.

Of course Aventirune notices. How can he not notice when he already keeps his eye on you most of the time anyway. And just as you're trying to look out for him, he wants to looks out for you.

This mission already could be considered suicidal and he doesn't want you to be caught in this. Better to keep you in the dark, away from it.

Yet he can't help but selfishly enjoy your attention, your tenderness. You go out of your ways to make sure he's fine and he feels so undeserving of it. How can you be so kind when he's keeping so much from you?

You've seen him at his worst and you've stayed. You've proven so many times that you care for him not because it's just your job, not because of his money or status but because it's him.

He still struggles to believe in it sometimes. When he feels doubtful , he rubs his cheek against your shoulder in a playful cat-like manner and watches your reaction. Amusement you're trying to hide. Adoration you can't hide.

How can he doubt you? You're the one who should be doubting him.

He wants to melt into you, to be even closer than the two of you already are, but how can he love you without putting you in danger? Without draining your luck, without cursing you?

Sometimes he sees the same struggles in your eyes. When you carefully trace his face with the tips of your gloved fingers, your gaze sometimes lowers and you pull your hand away, as if you're ashamed.

But of what, of what? The blood on your hands? He has it too!

He wants to tell you this, to hold you tight, to never ever let go. The wish is so primal that everyone else can see. The memokeeper giving him a knowing smile as soon as she sees you two together, the masked fool taunting him about the only one willing to listen to him being his loyal dog ("though, judging by the way you look at them, little peacock, you're the one on the leash here~" she says. It feels like even a lower blow than the comments about his past. At least he expected those, but being taunted about his obvious feelings for is new), mx. Stellaron asking you two to get a room with a deadpun expression.

The worst one is the doctor though. Asking Aventurine to focus on the mission, then, in a softer tone, suggesting to tell you more about the plan. "It's foolish to keep it from your most trusted person, gambler. In the end, it may hurt them even more than your obsessive concerns".

If Ratio of all people gives you relationship advice you're doing soooo bad.

Yet Aventurine can't bring himself to listen to his words. He wants you safe and well, and he's sure (he's not sure) he's doing the right thing.

And yet he's wrong. He can't shield you, he can't. One of the richest people in the IPC, one of the Ten Stonehearts, the blessed one, yet he can't protect the one he loves no matter how much he tries. He's cursed, doomed, isn't he?

Damned Duke Inferno. He's dead, annihilated, and yet, somehow, one of his wretched dogs, his sneaky little assassin, finds you two in the depths of the memory zone. Such dedication to the cause!

There are two gunshots. Inferno's little rat and you strike at the same time. Them, aiming at Aventurine, and you, aiming at them. Only one bullet reaches it's target though.

It all happens so fast. You react immediately, covering Aventurine with your body. You move instinctively at the same second you shoot.

When their bullet hits you, you don't even feel it. Maybe because it's still a dreamland? The pain just won't come even though your back feels like it's on fire. You don't understand it yet but your body already starts disappearing.

All you can focus on is Aventurine's wide shocked eyes. His beautiful, beautiful eyes.

You smile weakly at him. That's all he can see before you're gone. He doesn't even have time to reach out to you, to hold you. As if he ever had the privilege of holding his loved ones in their final moments.

You just poof into the blue bubbles.

He rushes into the real world, in your room, praying to any deity that may here for you to be alive and well. It was a dream, not a real world. You can't die in a dream, not really. You weren't even killed by the memory zone meme, surely you're fine!

Yet you're not. You're not here, not anywhere in the hotel. You're truly gone.

He feels everything and nothing at the same time.

Of course, of course, of course he wasn't able to protect you!

How lucky he is, he has avoided death once again! His beloved died to protect him but he has survived! He's so blessed, truly, so blessed!

He finds himself on his knees, on the verge of hysterical laughter. The only thing you left behind is a small red earring he has gifted. And he clatches it so tightly his hand bleeds. Perhaps the pain is the only thing keeping him sane at this moment.

It feels like a cruel joke. It doesn't feel real, it shouldn't be real.

Wait... That's it! It isn't real. It's impossible to die in a dream! It was his theory all along, after all. It must be true. You just can't be dead, you can't, not you too.

His plan hasn't changed, he tells Ratio when he comes to check on Aventurine. He just needs to reach the real Penacony. To reach it and to find you there. You're strong and brave and so wonderful. You're out there somewhere, he just needs to help you to get back to the real world.

He holds into that idea like a madman. It doesn't matter how dangerous it is. It never did, to be honest. But now it's like he can't focus on anything else.

He hasn't feel so despaired in years. He just needs to find you, everything else is meaningless.

So when it's time for the final act, he gets on stage, fears not and doesn't look back.

He still holds his hand behind his back though. Clutching your earrings for dear life.

[chloelucia13]

Chapter 15: The Mall Rats and the Case of the Missing Lifeguard

Pairing: none for the moment (currently Jonathan Byers x (kinda) Platonic!Henderson!reader)

Prompt:  You always thought Hawkins was the most boring town of all, stuck in a vacuum void of excitement and entertainment. Well, it seems that way until the world decided to flip upside down, literally.

Chapter Summary: You felt... different. Whatever happened that night in that warehouse had changed you, but you feared telling anyone else about what had occurred. Or maybe... Maybe you couldn't.

Warnings: some fluff, some angst, mostly just going in depth with plot, language, kinda gory, discussions of not having control over your body (flashbacks in italics, separate perspective in bold)

Word Count: 3746

A/N: The series continues! The chapters for season three are gonna get pretty wild, so I hope everyone���s excited to see it! As always, my requests, inbox, and tag lists are open! 

Tags: @just-my-fandom​, @nightbu-g​

“Get the fuck up! We gotta go!” 

A harsh cough rattled your lungs as you awoke, blinking quickly to try and clear your vision and orient yourself. “Wh-” you grumbled, scrambling to get on your feet.

A hand grabbed your arm, pulling you to your feet. Your mind quickly caught up with your body and you began to sprint. Behind you, a snarl echoed through the empty warehouse, spurring you further forward and out of the building. “Get in the car!” Billy demanded, and you followed his instructions with no second thought. 

As soon as you both had sat down, Billy sped out of the lot and down the long stretch of road. “What the fuck was that?” he shouted, his voice strong despite the clear wooziness that plagued both of you.

It was familiar, that you knew. That presence, it was something that had left a large imprint on you. You thought it was gone. You thought you didn’t have to suffer any longer.

But whatever that thing was, it was more than you had ever seen. It was new, worse than anything you had ever experienced. It scared the shit out of you.

So you only half-lied when you responded, “I don’t know.”

Within moments, Billy screeched to a halt in front of a phone booth. You both stumbled out of the car and tucked yourselves away in the glass box, praying that it would be enough to shelter you from whatever that being was, if only for a few seconds. As you leaned against the wall to try and get a full breath of air int your lungs, Billy held the handset to his ear and dialed 911. From where you stood, you could hear a tinny female voice come through the speaker.

The single light above your head began to flicker, and any hope that you had in your mind that this was something completely foreign flew out the window. 

You and Billy exchanged a glance as the light died out, and he hung the handset up before hesitantly pulling the phone box’s door open and stepping out. You followed behind him, footsteps sounding in the distance as you stared out at the open road where the car’s headlights illuminated a path. A thick fog had settled over the air, ashen particles intermingling with the fog and creating an all-too-familiar dread in the pit of your stomach.

As the two of you walked forward, the silhouette of a crowd could be seen through the haze, their footsteps growing closer and closer to you.

“What do you want?” Billy huffed, standing his ground in the middle of the road. You stood beside him, but your fear was evident. “Hey! I said, what do you want!”

“Billy-” you attempted to stop him as a clash of thunder and flash of lightning streaked the red night sky.

“I said, what do you want!”

The crowd froze, and two individuals stepped forward, their features materializing through the fog.

Features you knew as well as your own. Features that were your own.

***

When you finally came to, you were already at the pool. You assumed you had just zoned out this morning, too wrapped up in whatever happened last night to realize what you were even doing.

But that was the thing. You couldn’t remember what happened last night. Sure, you remembered the crash, and that thing, those people. But that was it. Everything else was blank. 

You felt different. Like your skin was on fire and your insides were frozen solid. Every light was too bright, every brush of wind felt like you were being whipped, and every sound was far too loud. And you were so thirsty.

These new feelings made working at a pool more miserable than it already was. You tried your hardest to push through it, ignore the pain and just get through the day, but it proved to be much harder than you were anticipating. In order to live through the day without feeling like absolute shit, you had swapped shifts with Heather, allowing you to sit in the air-conditioned office and work at the entrance to the pool.

The day had gone smoothly for the most part, except for the lingering feeling of wrongness that had settled deep into your bones. It was that same feeling that had plagued you when you were stuck in the upside down, a sense fo familiarity in a completely unfamiliar place. But, at the same time, it was like nothing you had ever experienced, like your entire being was just a thought shoved in the brain of a body you didn’t own. 

You were about to get up and grab another bottle of water from the fridge when a figure appeared at the front counter. “How many?” you hummed, pulling your sunglasses over your eyes to block out the sunlight.

“Are you okay?” the person responded, and your shoulders slouched at the familiar voice. 

“Hey Steve. Sorry, I didn’t realize it was you.”

he scoffed, folding his arms across his chest. “Just a ‘hey, Steve?’ You didn’t call me last night! I drove over here and you weren’t here but your car was! And now you look like you’re dying and you didn’t even recognize me!” he shouted.

You winced at the volume of his voice, your head pounding. “Sorry, sorry. My car broke last night and I had to get a ride from Billy.”

Steve vividly stiffened. “He didn’t... Do anything, right?”

“No! God no! He- he just dropped me off and I fell asleep and forgot to call you. that’s all.”

“That’s all that happened last night?”

“I said, what do you want?” Billy’s voice roared, nearly matching the intensity of the thunder clapping in the sky.

You stood stock still as the mirror image of you stepped closer and closer until they were toe to toe with you. 

Your clone and Billy’s clone spoke simultaneously, a singular bellowing voice echoing out, “To build. I want you to build.”

“To build what?” you snapped, fingers curling into fists.

“What you see.”

Your brows furrowed in confusion and you stepped back. 

“I don’t understand,” Billy huffed. With a clap of thunder and a flash of lightning, the figures disappeared, leaving you and Billy alone on the deserted street. 

“Billy, we need to go-”

“I don’t understand!” he snarled, spinning in circles and taking in the dramatic change of atmosphere that happened in a split second. “What do you mean? I don’t understand!”

A startled gasp fell from your lips as you snapped out of your memories, eyes wide as you fixed your gaze back on Steve. 

“What the hell, Y/N? Are you sure you’re okay?” Steve urged, reaching forward to touch you.

You recoiled, stumbling out of your chair and onto your feet. “I’m fine,” you hissed, winding your jaw tight. 

“Y/N, you’re clearly not-”

“Steve!”

He jumped at the tone of your voice.

“I’m fine. Just drop it. I need to work. I’ll call you tonight.”

He mirrored your clenched jaw, but he nodded and walked away without another word.

You collapsed to your knees with a shuddering sigh. You weren’t okay, and you wanted to tell Steve. You wanted to beg for help, for him to take you to a hospital or something. But there was this weird switch in your mind, a defense mechanism of sorts, that turned you into a completely different person. It was like you were possessed.

Your reflection on your current state was cut short, though, when a guttural yell echoed from the showers. You sprung to your feet and rushed over to the showers, only to run into Heather who had heard the same thing. You two shared a look before hurrying over to the only running shower. 

However, as soon as Billy’s crumpled form came into view, your body began to move on that same autopilot that it did just moments ago, your mind and being possessed by an entity that you couldn’t hold back. Silently, you stood behind Heather as she called out Billy’s name, hoping to snap him out of his stupor. After a few tries, she was successful in catching his attention.

“Billy, are you hurt?” she asked, lowering to her knees in front of him.

“What?” he gasped, brow furrowed.

“I said, are you hurt?” She let out a huff when he continued to stare. “What’s going on? I heard screaming. Should I call an ambulance?” She glanced back at you, confusion further marring her features when she noticed the rigid-but-dazed state that you were in.

You watched as Billy’s eyes lifted up to yours, and then everything went black.

***

The bumpy road made you dizzy as you stared at the road ahead. The car was completely silent, except for the revving engine and the thunder, of which you couldn’t decipher if it was coming from outside or if it was inside your head.

The car rolled into the familiar gravel lot that sat outside the abandoned building. You and Billy robotically exited the car and as Billy opened the trunk, you began to slowly descend down the metal stairs that fed into the building’s basement. Once you were at the bottom, you sat on the concrete floor and stared into the deep black abyss that laid just feet from where you were.

Billy’s footsteps echoed throughout the building as he walked down the stairs, his figure and the limp body he was carrying coming into view. As he walked past you, nausea settled in the pit of your stomach and you were positive that you were going to vomit, but you couldn’t even move.

He gently laid Heather’s now-alert body on the cold concrete between you and the staring darkness. Her eyes locked with yours, silently begging for mercy, and your eyes began to well with tears along with hers. Billy whispered lowly in her ear before rising to his feet and standing next to you, both of you disturbingly still as a growl echoed through the humid air.

From the darkness emerged a creature created from limbs and blood and gore, its monstrous body crawling towards the sacrifice you had involuntarily placed before it.

Beside you, though, Billy was able to tear his eyes away from the sight, anger radiating off of him. You, however, couldn’t force your body to look away.

***

When Max said that Billy may be doing something weird, Eleven didn’t expect this. 

Through the empty expanse of black, a car sat feet away from her. BIlly’s car. The headlights glowed bright into the dark, illuminating the large shatter on the windshield as she walked over to the driver’s side and peered inside.

Soft whimpers reverberated through the empty air as she rounded the back of the car, glancing into the opened trunk before looking up and seeing Billy’s figure knelt on the ground.

“I found him,” El announced.

“What’s he doing?” Max inquired.

“I don’t know. He’s... on the floor... talking to someone.”

Billy’s voice mingled with the harsh whimpers from a disembodied voice as Eleven walked closer, anxiety gnawing at her lungs as she struggled to gasp in a breath.

As she walked, she nearly stumbled over another figure that sat on the floor, a few feet away from Billy. 

“Y/N,” Eleven breathed.

“Y/N?” Max nearly shouted, and Eleven imagined that her eyebrows had shot up to her hairline. “What is he doing to her?”

“Nothing, she’s just... sitting there.” Eleven knelt in front of you, examining your face. “She’s crying.”

Just as she was about to reach out and touch you, Billy rose to his feet, startling her attention back to him.

And he looked at her. He saw her.

With his eyes locked on hers, her heartbeat jumped to her throat. There was something off lurking behind his eyes, something disturbed. But as soon as she saw him, he was gone, evaporating into nothingness.

She gasped in terror and ripped the blindfold from her eyes, light flooding her vision as blood dripped from her nose.

“What is it? What happened?” Max urged, reaching forward and touching Eleven’s arm in an attempt to ground her back into reality.

***

By the time that you had left the Hargrove/Mayfield residence, exhaustion had settled deep into your bones. Silently, you trudged along the broken road that winded from Billy’s house to yours and reflected on everything that had taken place in the last eight hours. 

You felt... disgusting. Monstrous.

You couldn’t remember much of it, but what you do remember made you ponder who you really were. Were you actually you? Did you truly do those heinous things? Or were you just a pawn, a puppet forced to orchestrate these terrible acts to appease these beings?

You were so deeply entrenched in your own thoughts that you didn’t even notice the pair of girls walked towards you.

“Y/N?” Max voiced, startling you.

“Max! El! Hey! What are you guys doing over here?” you hummed, smacking a smile onto your face and acting like nothing was wrong.

The two girls exchanged a look. “We were, uh, walking to my house. What are you doing?”

You nodded, awkwardly crossing your arms over your chest. “Oh, I was just taking a walk. Needed to stretch my legs.”

“Right.”

“Right.” You pursed your lips and looked over to El who was staring at you with a strange look. “Well I should probably get going. It looks like it’s gonna start raining soon. You guys stay safe, okay?”

They both nodded, but their demeanors were unusual. They were usually so comfortable around you, and it made you worry that you had done something to them that you couldn’t remember. 

“Bye, Y/N,” El spoke finally, nodding at you before Max grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away.

***

With adrenaline coursing through their veins from what they found hidden under the bathroom sink, the two girls rushed to the heart of town to dig further.

As they exited the pool house, they noticed Jonathan and Nancy leaving the Hawkins Post. They ran over to the other pair, calling their names. 

“Hey, what’s going on?” Nancy asked the girls, her brows furrowed in confusion from their panicked states.

“Have either of you talked to Y/N recently?” Max inquired, leading the group under a large awning attached to one of the shops on the block to escape from the rain.

Nancy and Jonathan both shook their head. 

“Why? Is something wrong?” Jonathan spoke up.

“She didn’t show up to work today. Neither did Heather or Billy,” max explained.

“She probably didn’t feel good and she stayed home,” Nancy tried to reason, giving the girls a reassuring smile. “Besides, I doubt Billy and heather skipping work has anything to do with Y/N.”

Eleven vehemently shook her head. “She was with Billy,” she argued, anxiety evident in her voice.

That made Jonathan and Nancy exchange a look between each other before looking back at the girls. “What do you mean?” Nancy urged.

“Last night, we were messing with El’s powers and we decided to spy on Billy. We thought it was gonna be a bad idea, but we weren’t expecting...” Max trailed off, searching for the words. “El saw Y/N with Billy. She was sitting behind him, and she was crying, and he was talking to someone.”

“And this morning,” El broke in. “She was walking from Billy’s house.”

Max nodded. “We looked around and we found a whole bunch of lifeguard stuff hidden under the sink. We don’t know if it’s Y/N’s or someone else’s but-”

“It was bloody.”

The same panic that the girls felt began to invade Nancy and Jonathan’s systems, their hearts palpitating and their breathing becoming ragged. “Oh my god,” Nancy breathed out finally.

“Maybe it’s nothing,” Jonathan spoke, shaking his head. “Maybe we’re just reading into it too much. I’ll call her tonight and check in on her. It’ll be okay.”

The girls nodded, but that anxiety still lingered in the air. They hadn’t even mentioned what El had seen in the showers at the pool, but they thought that it wasn’t dire at the moment.

“Do you guys need a ride home?” Nancy asked, breaking the silence.

“No, we still need to do something,” Max stated vaguely before the two girls pulled their hoods over their heads and ran through the rain over to their bikes.

***

The rain was pouring outside as you tucked your hair behind your ear, a blank look on your face. In the dining room, Heather’s parents chatted idly with Billy while you and Heather meandered dazedly around the kitchen.

Some sort of bell or signal appeared to go off in your mind, as you slapped a smile on your face and made your way into the dining room, sitting in the chair besides Billy and joined in on the senseless chatter.

After a few moments, the chat fell silent, and you and Billy lifted your gaze to see Max and Eleven standing in the doorway of the dining room. You noticed both girls were taken aback by your presence, reeling for a moment.

“Max,” Billy stated plainly.

“We didn’t mean to... Barge in,” Max began to explain, finally finding her voice. “We tried to knock but maybe you didn’t hear us over the storm.”

“I’m sorry, but who is this dripping all over my living room right now?” Heather’s father spoke up, shifting to look at the two girls.

You and Billy both chuckled, exchanging a glance before you subtly gestured for him to introduce them. “I’m sorry,” Billy hummed. Janet, Tom, this... Is my sister, Maxine.”

“And her friend, El,” you added, following Billy as he stood up and walked over to the two girls.

“What on earth are you doing here?” he grumbled. “Is something wrong?”

“We just wanted to make sure everything is okay,” Max explained, quickly glancing over at you before returning her gaze to Billy.

“Okay? Why wouldn’t it be okay?” you spoke, looking between the two girls.

Max looked at you incredulously, as if that was a rhetorical question, before Eleven spoke up: “Where is she?”

“I’m sorry, where is who?” Billy hummed, a playful tone in his voice.

“Well, they’re a little burnt, I’m sorry-” Heather rambled as she brought a tray of cookies into the dining room, pausing when she saw the small group gathered between the living room and the dining room.

“Heather! This is my sister, Maxine! And I’m sorry, I did not quite catch your name...”

“El,” El stated plainly, fire in her eyes.

“El.”

“Now, what is it you were saying, El? You were looking for somebody?” you said sweetly, giving her a smile.

El’s brows furrowed confusedly as she looked over at Heather, stutters falling from her lips. I-I saw- I saw you-” El tried to formulate.

“Your manager,” Max cut in. “At the pool. He said you guys didn’t come into work today, so we got worried.”

“Heather wasn’t feeling so hot today, so we all thought we’d take the day off to nurse her back to health,” Billy explained, smiling at you and Heather. “But you’re feeling just fine right now, aren't you, Heather?”

“I’m feeling so much better,” Heather agreed, shaking her head emphatically. As Billy turned back to the girls, Heather offered the two girls a cookie. “They’re fresh out of the oven.”

“No, no, we should get going,” Max voiced, gripping onto El’s sleeve and giving you one last worried look. “Let’s go.”

“Billy, do you mind walking them out?” you asked, smiling at the two girls.

“Of course,” Billy nodded, walking behind the two girls as you made your way back to the table.

“Well, they’re quite lovely,” Janet noted. “So nice of them to check on you two, even if they dragged some mud in doing so.”

“They truly are the sweetest,” you agreed. “Sorry about all of that, though.”

As Heather’s mother began to go off on a tangent, a sharp pain began to course through your skull. Suddenly, visions of El sealing the gate closed flashed before your eyes, her screams piercing your ears. You gripped onto the table and watched black veins creep up your arms between flashes of the burning orange gate slowly web closed. It left as soon as it came though, though the veins still lingered on your skin and a heavy fog clouded your mind, inhibiting your thoughts.

The creature took over your mind, taking advantage of the fog to make you act as if nothing was wrong. You watched Billy walk into the room and sit beside you, him seemingly in that same daze.

“Is everything alright?” Heather questioned, brows knitted in concern.

“Yes,” Billy stated simply, and you took note of the black veins that snaked in his eyes when he glanced at you. “Everything’s fine.”

“Your sister really didn’t want to stay?” Janet asked, mirroring her daughter’s concern.

“No, she’s just not... you know, really a people person.”

“Well, I just don't like the idea of them out there in the storm like that.”

“Oh, they’ll be fine,” Tom huffed, clearly wanting to end the conversation.

Janet nodded hesitantly and reached for her wine, only for her hand to graze the glass and knock it over. “Oh!” she exclaimed, grabbing a cloth napkin and beginning to dab up the spilled liquid.

“I told you to slow down on that wine, Janet,” Tom grumbled, shoving another forkful of food into his mouth.

“Yes, darling.”

“Are you okay, mommy?” Heather asked, her brows furrowed once more.

“Yes, I’m- I’m just... Feeling a little lightheaded is all.”

As Tom made another comment about the wine, you and Heather and Billy exchanged a look, all of the emotion gone from your faces. Out of your peripheral, you watched as Heather’s mother rose from her seat, only for her to collapse to the ground.

Heather’s father shot to his feet to help his wife, all the while you three gripped your weapons in your hands. You handed Billy a bottle of chloroform and as he wet his cloth napkin with it, Heather carried her wine bottle into the living room. Silently, you both followed behind her and watched as she swung the bottle into her father’s skull. Billy handed her the napkin a moment later, and Heather quickly finished off the remaining half of her parents.

[blue-bird-kny]

Hi! I would like to request a Zenitsu X Fem Reader please, I hope your ok writing for Zenitsu again, if not that's completely fine :3 But if you do consider this, could I request a Scenario, Perhaps, like, Zenitsu and the reader have been dating for a few months, they have exchanged a few kisses here and there but never anything frisky,so the Reader makes it her mission too get zenitsu all blushey by giving him heated kisses (Nothing too extreme if your uncomfortable tho, Hope this makes sense)

Thank you so much for your request! It’s always been on my mind since it was requested because it’s so outside my normal, comfort zone. Okay buckle up people because this is something I've never seriously written nor published, so please bare with me. Enjoy~Amanda

P.S- I’d like to take this moment to personally thank you, I always see you on my notifs and your support is much appreciated!

Warning: Sexual Themes, Riding, Blow jobs, NSFW

( 1.6k words)

“Let’s Do Something New”

You sat across from your boyfriend, absentmindedly pushing around the grains of rice that rest untouched in your bowl. Quietly, you observed the small quirks his face made as he ate and spoke, committing all the small movements to memory. “What am I doing? It's not like he’s a stranger, you can just talk to him” except you really couldn’t.

There was never really a good way or time to walk up to the person you’re with and be like “Hey I like you, please touch me”, just the idea made your stomach churn with embarrassment. You were a woman with needs though and you wanted nothing more than to have all your delicious fantasies fulfilled by the one you love. You weren’t completely driven by sex, but you longed to have Zenitsu give you some sort of special attention.

Whenever things get a little too sensual, too romantic, too heated, Zenitsu always pulls away, leaving all your pent up excitement to go to waste. Tonight would be different; tonight you were taking this boy down, it was his turn to be all riled up. Luckily, you knew your beloved well enough to know exactly how to get him to that point.

“Y/N-chan what's wrong? You haven’t eaten anything” Zenitsu's concerned voice invaded your personal world, innocent eyes peering into your own. Your smile hid your dark intentions as you spoke to the unknowing boy in front of you, “Not a thing my love”. God how you wanted to take that innocence for your own use. 

You excused yourself from dinner early to prepare for tonight's endeavours. You freshened up, tousling your hair and switching to a pair of flimsy, thinner clothing. You knew you had to act quickly, the minute you left the dinner table Zenitsu would be hot on your heels. Almost like clockwork, Zenitsu’s quiet knock could be heard from the other side of the door. Show time

“Come in”

“Hello Y/N….” his cheery greeting died as he took in your appearance. The outfit you wore was much shorter than what you usually wore, and thinner to, the small perks of your hard nipples becoming painfully obvious to the poor boy. Zenitsu gulped as you strutted his way, his eyes unable to look anywhere but you captivating orbs. 

“Zeni, why won't you come lay down with me? I promise I’ll be good” your sultry voice spoke into his ear, hands trailing down his exposed arms, placing the slightest amount of pressure on your nails. This was out of your usual character but if it drew Zenitsu into the palm of your hand it was worth it. He could only hum in response, the words stolen from his tongue, as you pulled his helpless body toward the bed. “Sit” you commanded gently, Zenitsu obliged thoughtlessly.

You trapped the boy between your thighs as you straddled his hips. You smirked as you admired the boy who sat beneath you; his cheeks had taken a permanent rosy color, his pupils blown and his breath already unsteady, all from a few light touches. You couldn't help but slightly quiver at the sight, “Will you let me touch you Zeni, just a little?” you continued to languidly trace the curve of his jawline with the tips of your nails, working your way over his bottom lip.

For a brief moment, you forgot your motives as your heart melted; it was obvious how badly he wanted this yet he still held back “Why are so cute?”. 

“C’mon Zeni, let’s have some fun” you ground your hips against his, slowly so that he felt every second of it. That was all it took for the last bits of his resolve to shatter, leaving behind pure lust. “Okay” was all he mumbled, that was all you needed. You devoured his trembling lips, your tongue exploring his foreign wet cavern. He groaned at the feel of your tongue against his, his little noises edging you on. He gasped in surprise as you sucked on his tongue, coiling your warm appendage around his.

You pushed off his slouched form, growling at the sight before you. Zenitsu’s chest was heaving as he caught his breath, his swollen lips were now a tempting cherry red and a small line of drool slipped past his parted pair; Breathtaking. You rolled yourself against his hips again, rougher this time, relishing in the way his hardness rubbed against your heat. Leaning forward, you spoke into Zenitsu’s ear “Don’t be shy, I know you wanna touch me too”. His hands shook nervously, but he couldn’t help himself. 

Hesitantly, Zenitsu shifted to your fleshy ass, slightly squeezing the cheeks in his strong hands.  A moan left your lips vibrating against the juncture of his neck where you’d been suckling. He shuddered at the sound, continuing to play with the jiggle of your ass checks. The effect he had on you was intoxicating, a new sense of confidence drove him.

“Please touch my boobs” usually you’d be embarrassed at the words you were speaking, but you’ve been so desperate for your lover’s touch you didn’t care; there was no room for restraint. You slipped your night dress over your head, leaving you only in a pair of panties, giving him better access to your bare breast. He stared in wonder as he watched the way your breast bounced, he was determined to hear your beautiful sounds again.

He took one in each palm, softly kneading your tender breast. You tossed your head back in pleasure, closing your eyes at the sensation of his rough skin against you. Zenitsu swiped his thumb over your hard nipple, a shock of pleasure coursing through your body. A loud moan slipped past your lips, overwhelming his ears; he’d have those sweet nosies engraved in his memory.

“You’ve become such a tease Y/N-chan, you're driving me crazy with those sweet sounds” his husky voice drove your cunt to tighten around nothing. It was your turn to become speechless as his hand snaked around your waist, bringing your chest closer to his awaiting mouth. You choked as your mound was engulfed by his hot, wet mouth, his tongue working fervently on your nipple. “Zenitsu” you breathed out, your finger gripping his shoulder for support. His tongue switched between each boob, swirling around your small bud, sucking and tugging against it torturously.

You were a wet, helpless mess at the mercy of his mouth,  your hips grinding harder and faster on to his desperate for any sort of friction. “Please Zenitsu I need more, please let me feel you inside me” you pleaded, you were going insane at the slow pace Zenitsu had fallen into. “ Y/N-chan are you sure…”  you grabbed his chin, focing his eyes to stare into yours, “Zenitsu I’m sure, I trust you”

He untied his robe, sliding the short sleeves down his toned arms, his sculpted chest left on full display for your hungry eyes. You traced the bulge that was stretching the fabric of his boxers, he shuddered at the touch. “Y/N-chan please get to it, I won’t be able to handle anymore teasing” he was desperate at this point. With a smirk, you pulled down the pesky piece of clothing. Zenitsu wasn’t too thick, his dick was thinner but he made up for it in his length. You droold at the prospect that he’d be inside you, your finger collecting some of the leaking precum from the tip. You brought the finger to your lips, Zenitsu was mesmerized as you brought the finger into your mouth, your tongue collecting his salty taste. Zenitsu moaned loudly, you almost feared the others had heard.

You slipped your panties to the side, aligning his cock with your entrance. Inch by Inch his member disappeared between your slick folds, you winced in pain as you adjusted to his size, waiting for the pain to subdue before you began moving. You bounced on his dick, bottoming out before taking him whole again. Zenitsu laid his head against the wall watching with lidded eyes at the way your breast bounced with each thrust, the way your face contorted in pleasure, the sinful noises that rolled off your tongue for anyone to hear. “Zenitsu I’m gonna cum soon..” you mewled shifting your angle so that each thrust pounded into that special spot inside you. You yelled in ecstasy as you came, riding out your high while your cunt clasped onto the cock buried inside you, your juices dripping down onto the sheets.

“Y/n please” you knew he was close too and he didn't want to cum inside. You pulled yourself off his dick, your juices glistening on his cock. Your knees dug into the hard ground as you eagerly wrapped your lips  around his red tip, your eyes rolled to the back of your head as the taste of your slick and his bitter precum mingled together on your tongue. It only took a few fierce bobs of your head to have Zenitsu come apart in shambles, you made eye contact as you swallowed every last drop of his seed, the warm, milky liquid going down smoothly.

You both were exhausted, sheen layers of sweat covered your bodies. The room, that was filled with the sounds of desire and want moments ago, was now silent, only deep breathing could be heard. Your naked body nuzzled closer to your boyfriends, who stared wide-eyed at the ceiling with crimson cheeks. “Get off the covers Zeni, I’m cold and tired” you murmured.

 “Shouldn’t we..” 

“Shhhh, we’ll wake up early to clean up”

Bonus!

“You guys hear all those noises last night? It was like there were animals inside the house” Tanjro questioned. Zenitsu’s cheeks immediately reddened as he opened his mouth, you placed your hand on his thigh to silence him before he could say anything, “Nope we didn’t hear a thing” you smiled kindly. Zenitsu shook his head vigorously in agreement, although he was so nervous he wasn’t entirely sure what he was agreeing to.

Main Masterlist

Well that was definitely different from the content I usually post, but I’m satisfied! Maybe we’ll be seeing more smut on my page, who knows ;) Anyways I hope you all enjoyed it, thank you~Amanda 

[sebastianstanbuckybarnes]

The Order Season 2 (SPOILERS)

2x01 

I like Blond Jack <3 

GABRIELLE DUPRES IS IN JACK’S BED?!?!

That goddamn powder 

“And you think all blonde girls are stuck-up skanks,” WOW GABRIELLE 

Jack. Is. Dancing. For. Cheer. Squad.

It hurt me to see all the Knights not know each other and be in the same area 

I don’t trust Professor Foley 

A guy’s body just burned with bright light - are we sure angels don’t exist in The Order? 

For reals though, who’s that witch in the corridor? 

I forgot Brandon was in the cat ornament 

Can I sAY i love Werewolves? 

 Deja vu, you say Hamish? I WONDER WHY. 

The Knights taking down those acolytes gives me so much satisfaction

 “Stuck-up skank,” Dammit Gabrielle 

Huh, a body disguised as a statue? The rogue witch? 

“Alien Superheroes,” Never change Randall <3

Jack transforming into his wolf form to get the others too is high-key awesome 

DID YOU JUST REMOVE THEIR MEMORIES AGAIN, ALYSSA?! 

OH, THANK GOD! I may hate you Alyssa, but thank you for returning their memories. 

KILL THE ORDERRRRR 

2x02 

The cleaning returnsssss

“Youthful optimism,” I say this again, Randall, never change 

Poisonous Kombucha - out of curiousity, why are people so obsessed by Kombucha?

More cleaningggg 

Andddd Vera just cleaned it up for them 

I love a good Star Wars reference 

THE ADEPTI 

HAM SANDWICH?!?!? RANDALLL

Randall awkwardly sitting there, my poor boy :( 

No, Lilith making Randall even more sad :(

Does Jack have two hides now?

PROFESSOR CLARKE RETURNSSS 

HAM RADIO?!?!? Omg RANDALL 

That remembering potion made everyone go temporarily insane. 

I LOVE PROFESSOR CLARKE, THEY DID DIRTY BY KILLING HIM 

DAMN! ALYSSA JUST KILLED THAT ELLIE TAYLOR WITCHY PERSON 

Jack being really sweet while Alyssa was upset just shows how wholesome Jack actually is after everything she did to him 

2x03 

HAMISH AND RANDALL. THE KISS AND THE ESKIMO KISS. NEED I SAY MORE?

LILITH AND NICOLE KISS TOO! 

MAGIC HEIST! 

Honestly, I get Hamish’s fear, I hate dolls, including ventriloquist ones.   

Hamish making cocktails is life. 

I had a feeling it wouldn’t work, mostly because it was only 20 minutes in 

I’VE SEEN FROM ENOUGH MOVIES AND TV SHOWS THAT YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND ANY CIRCUMSTANCES SUMMON A MOTHERFUCKING DEMON! IT’S COMMON SENSE!

Randall drinking milk is so wholesome and sweet 

Alyssa is now drinking the milk 

Zecchia looks like me from my goth/alternative days 

Can I say that I’m loving Lilith’s blue streaks in her hair? Looks awesome! 

AND SOMEONE STOLE THE ARTIFACTS 

2x04 

Honestly, Zecchia is all of us on Tumblr 

The Excidium sounds like a very bad thing. 

CAPTAIN SEAN RENARD IS EMPEROR ROGWAN?! 

aND aLYssa’s fears have been eaten 

Gabrielle deserved that punch but maybe not from Alyssa...Maybe Nicole? OR BRANDON?! 

Of course Vera knows that they have their memories back 

NO! HAMISH! RANDALL! 

SHE PUT HER HAND IN THE BLENDER?! 

hONESTLY, I like Alyssa without her fears, she’s so much more fun 

Alyssa saying goodbye to Lilith and Jack is actually really sweet, and made me hate her less... 

NO! LILITH! FUCK! 

2x05 

Brunette Jack returns 

Sending Jack and Alyssa, a werewolf and a broken witch, behind enemy lines is the worse idea ever - remember the necromancer incident? 

“Remember when she murdered Kyle,” I love Randall so much 

For some reason, I don’t trust these Prometheans 

Randall walking in heels and succeeding is making my day 

“Hold my purse,” RANDALL <3 

Hamish being an absolute gentleman and holding out his arm for Randall to hold onto as he walks - i’M LIVING FOR THIS

THat juice is having a weird effect on Alyssa - STOP DRINKING IT! 

A surprising team up between Randall and Gabrielle - I actually like it 

“Dear God, help us,” HAMISH 

I’m kinda shipping Orbin and Alyssa in a way

WTF?! THERE IS AN EYE IN THAT TREE! 

Jack writing SOS on his forehead to tip Vera off was genius 

2x06

CANNIBALISM! 

This is why you don’t trust Foley 

Alyssa is withdrawing 

FUCKING BLOOD ATONEMENT?!?!

THEY’RE TURNING JACK INTO A TREE AND ALYSSA IS JUST FUCKING STANDING THERE!? 

YES! YOU GO GABRIELLE!

Jack is still turning into a tree

Vera using their Egregore connection and her pain to her advantage - you go Queen! 

And Jack is now cured with no help from Alyssa whatsoever

Gabrielle having a concussion and Randall taking care of her is goals <3 

AND the Prometheans are dead

2x07 

Poor Nicole :(

ALyssa is clearly not coping well

Hamish mentioning Cassie :( 

Invoking Privilege = Beer Pong  

Lilith is going to kill the boys for joining the Order 

Orbin lives on Campus?! 

I really hate Kepler - can someone kill her?

I really don’t like Alyssa or Salvador 

I love Vera messaging Hamish for a drink 

KARAOKE! <3 

OMG HAMISH 

OMG VERA 

Dat KISS and SEX?!

ALYSSA! After sex etiquette does not include stealing their hair! 

Gabrielle slapping Jack is so dramatic of her but I love it 

But then Gabrielle has Randall’s shirt, so, I’m pretty sure they slept together? Or at least made out? 

Jack going werewolf at Angus because he tries to keep Jack out of the Temple is hilarious

VERA IS ALIVE! THANK GOD! 

Because Improvising plans always goes well, Jack 

Alyssa, you are very selfish for drinking that tea even if it didn’t work 

...How did Salvador choke hold a supposed werewolf against a wall? 

Clearly, Salvador is the leader and playing the long game 

Foley is eating a blue scarab? I wonder what that does... 

The way Vera asks if “everyone is okay?” when they drag Foley in but looks at Hamish the entire time who briefly smirks is everything 

I SWEAR TO GOD IF THIS IS ANOTHER ATTEMPT ON VERA’S LIFE AND SHE DIES, I’M SUING THE WRITERS! 

2x08 

Well, she’s alive

What exactly does Angus have against werewolves? 

I really hate Angus at the moment 

That poor man who I don’t know the name of..? 

Quarantining? How on point for what’s happening at the moment... 

Alyssa committing B&E 

Adepti walking in is very sinister 

A cameo from Ian Ziering playing himself 

And Salvador hits Alyssa with the sleeping spell 

TWO PRINCESS BRIDE REFERENCES?! YASSSSSS! 

Ew. You just ruined your white shoe, Randall.

FFS ANGUS! 

And Jason Priestley is a part of the Adepti too! 

THEY ARE NEGOTIATING COMIC CON APPEARANCES!

JASON PRIESTLEY IS DEAD! 

Kepler certainly changed her tune 

OMG! THEY POWDERED ALYSSA! 

Ian Ziering is now Jason Priestley?! 

So, Alyssa does remember because Salvador protected her memories with the Risotto

2x09 

And Alyssa has stabbed her hand

3 month time skip? 

VERMISH?! 

Randall and puppies <3

I still really hate Angus. Like he’s cute but also a dick 

Magistratus though, they’re moving up in the ranks 

Salvador cured a blind woman? 

“You’re like a little sister,” Did Gabrielle just get friend-zoned by Randall? 

“She kinda scares me,” Oh, Randall, all women should scare you :) 

More sex

Hamish having Vera’s lipstick on him. I CAN’T BREATHE 

The Plagues of Egypt. Pompeii. Tunguska. All caused by an apocalyptic eruption. Damn. 

I STILL HATE ANGUS. AND SELENA.

Hame-Burger Helper. Jesus, Randall!

Randall and Jack trying to pull a fast one on Hamish, but hurting Hamish’s feelings as well. Of course he would help Lilith, you nimrods! 

Plausible deniability! You’re failure in pre-law is coming in handy Hamish! 

Kepler’s eye is now lizard like? 

Alpha is in Salvador? 

“Does anyone have classes anymore?” Gabrielle speaks the truth! Why aren’t you all in classes? 

No, Gabrielle! YOU ARE BETTER THAN THIS! 

Vera and Salvador meet...this isn’t going to go well

Yes, Gabrielle! You are better than this! CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! 

Wait, no! Midnight! I swear to god if you hurt her!

OMG! EW! But pretty cool effect of Vera’s fingers splitting open 

Vera using a gun rather than magic is awesome - shows human weapons work just as well as magic 

And Alyssa has disappeared...again. 

2x10 

“Simply slowed time,” Can time be slowed that simply, Vera?

 “Cut the head off a snake?” In the words of many Supernatural and Superhero based TV shows and films I have watched, two more grow back in it’s place. *Cough* HYDRA *Cough*. Just saying...

“She’s just waiting to make an entrance,” That basically sums Gabrielle up if we’re being honest! 

KYLE IS IN THE COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS?!?! For real though, Jedidiah Goodacre making a brief cameo as Kyle is awesome! I love him as Dorian Gray too!

Goddammit, Alyssa! 

Gabrielle saying no to killing Jack is definite Character Development! 

“Bring it,” Gabrielle standing up for herself! 

“Open a passage to the demon realm,” Jack has finally hit the brick wall of oh god, this is all real? How is this all real? Jack only wanted to be a marine biologist 

Okay, yeah, Midnight is totally riding Gabrielle around while Gabrielle is going through hell in the collective unconscious 

Yaldson = Archaic; term for the son of a prostitute! I’m using that! 

Tartarus eruption almost killing the knights...

...But they opened a portal to hell in Timber’s locker

Fuck, Alyssa knocked out Hamish and paralysed Vera with that stupid necklace that Salvador used against her 

Randall chopping off the heads of demons that come through the portal <3 

Midnight collapsing as Gabrielle 

VERA DOESN’T HAVE HER POWERS?!?!?! 

Jack poking Gabrielle with a stick :’) 

gABRIELLE waking up briefly to tell Jack midnight wants to kill him before fainting again 

Midnight not killing Jack and going with Jack’s plan instead. Character development from Midnight! 

And Alyssa’s in the toilet 

So, they need a witch not an owl, how did she get them mixed up?

Randall making use of the powder on Nicole 

MAddox makes a reappearance?! 

Randall kidnapping Kepler. Probably killing her for the ritual! 

LILITH IS BACK! I HAVE BEEN WAITING HALF A SEASON GUYS! 

OH, NO! HOW DARE YOU! YOU MADE LILITH A DEMON?! ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?! 

oH, WELL, Alyssa got her just desserts! 

Randall burying a body again 

Oh, poor Gabrielle, she’s really upset and I’m upset with her. And Randall hugging her, I ship them so hard <3 

I’m shipping Vera and Hamish too but I hope Vera doesn’t break Hamish’s heart... 

And Jack carrying Alyssa with the Vade Maecum through the meadow and forest

with the song in the background...

MAGNIFICENT! 

[yellowmagicalgirl]

(the garrote killing me is made of your) heartstrings

Wizards whose powers awaken at a young age stopped aging in their late teens until they meet their soulmate. That didn't mean that Douxie expected to meet his soulmate any time soon, however.

This was inspired by that one tumblr post where you start aging again when you meet your soulmate. Warning for discussions of death as well as mild body horror concerning Akiridion biology.

AO3

FFN

“So, how did you manage the whole living for 900 years thing?” Claire asked. The two of them were in Douxie’s old bedchambers; they spoke quietly to avoid waking Steve up.

“By taking it one day at a time,” Douxie said. Some of those days had been better than others. Some of those days the only thing that had kept Douxie alive was that one day, Merlin would come back and need Douxie.

“Er, I actually meant the fact that you haven’t aged from now to when we left Arcadia... I hate time travel.”

“Oh. That’s actually simpler. Wizards whose powers awaken at a young age stop aging in their late teens until they meet their soulmate. Then, if they want to gain their immortality back they have to kill their soulmate. I mean, it’s still really hard to kill a wizard if they’ve met their soulmate, but I just haven’t aged in about nine centuries.”

“How do you know, that someone’s your soulmate?”

Douxie blinked. That wasn’t a question he expected Claire to ask. “Why, I thought you had more faith in me. I would never kill my soulmate.”

Claire raised her hands apologetically. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that! I just... I guess you’ve never met yours, so it doesn’t matter, I’m sorry I asked.”

Douxie glanced toward the dungeon. She was probably asking about Jim. “There was this guy, back in the early nineteenth century, and at the time I thought he might’ve been my soulmate. Obviously, he wasn’t, but I loved him nonetheless. And like I said, if you have to struggle with immortality, then you have to take it one day at a time. Live in the moment. And yeah, outliving your loved ones is hard. But there’s upsides to immortality as well.”

Douxie walked into Hex Tech, thankful to see a short girl with pink hair pinned neatly into place. He didn’t trust any other hedge mage like he did Zoe. Douxie walked up to her. Her, and a boy at the front desk shoving something into a backpack.

And as he bore the wrath of the boy Douxie had technically cut in front of, Douxie felt something unlock deep within him.

Surely, it was just a feeling of familiarity, and safety, from being in a place where the Arcane Order wouldn’t find them.

Douxie came home to the shared studio apartment to find Archie and Nari talking in low voices. That... wasn’t exactly a good sign. It wasn’t automatically a bad sign, but it wasn’t exactly good.

“Douxie,” Archie said gravely as Douxie put away his keys. “Have you noticed anything different, in the past two months?”

“Uh, we’re in New York?” After a week of making their way around the continent and setting up false magical signatures for Nari, the three of them had buried themselves in a small, crowded part of New York City. The Arcane Order wouldn’t be able to find them here. Also, Merlin was dead as opposed to just asleep, but Douxie was trying not to think about that.

“Other than that,” Archie said. Douxie shook his head in response.

“You’re aging,” Nari said.

“What? No.” Douxie couldn’t be aging, he still had so much to do. He protected the Earth for about 900 years and he planned to keep doing so. He planned on protecting Nari for eternity if he needed to. If he was now mortal, then he wouldn’t be able to do so. “I don’t have time to be aging.”

“We all knew it would happen eventually,” Archie said. “Who do you think your soulmate is?”

“I...” The problem was, Douxie had only met one person whom Douxie had thought was his soulmate. That man died a little less than two centuries ago. It had been for the best, really. If Douxie’s lover had been his soulmate, he wouldn’t have been able to meet Merlin again in Arcadia Oaks. Who knew what he could accomplish if he lived long enough that he would still be around two centuries from now? “I don’t know.”

“Give me your hand,” Nari said, “and I can try to find them.”

Douxie obediantly stuck out his left hand, and Nari took it in her own. She closed her eyes. Her hands glowed with green light, and illusory vines wrapped around Douxie’s hand and floated in the air. The vines then disappeared, and her hands stopped glowing. Nari opened her eyes.

“That is strange,” Nari said. “I can sense the living soul of every being of this planet. But your soulmate is not one of them.”

“So... my soulmate is dead?” Despite Douxie’s frustration with aging, he still felt a shallow pang of grief. It wasn’t fair. If he had to once more age, then he’d want to meet and get to know the destined person that Douxie was intended to die for. And instead, he wouldn’t even get that.

“I do not know,” Nari said. “Your soulmate’s soul could be in the Shadow Realm, like Jim’s was.”

“We need to find a way to better hide you and the seals, or even find a way to defeat Bellroc and Skrael for good,” Douxie said. “The Arcane Order has forever. I’ve got, what? Eighty years?”

“Or longer, if we use the right spells, or...” Archie trailed off, looking away. Douxie frowned. It must be hard on Archie, to know that he would definitely outlive Douxie. Dragons could live for three or four millennia, after all.

“We can’t be sure, but we think that you might be aging slightly slower than the average human,” Nari said.

“Could it be because I died?” Nari and Archie flinched as the words left Douxie’s mouth.

“I don’t know,” Nari said. “You’ll have to give me time.”

That was something Douxie was running out of.

“So, I was thinking,” Claire said as she rummaged through Douxie’s pantry, looking for a snack. She was quite the prodigy, having progressed quite far in the year and seven months that Douxie had been training her. The two of them had come back to his apartment after setting up decoys for the Arcane Order in various locations across Central and South America. “Jim’s mentioned that he wants to find a way to return to his troll form, but not permanently. And my first thought was maybe making him a changeling, but then we’d have to kidnap someone.”

“Not a good idea,” Archie said. “Hand me that can of tuna?”

“Exactly,” Claire said as she passed along the can. “But, we might be able to adapt Akiridion transduction so Jim can choose if he wants to be a human or a troll. So, what do you say to bringing Krel into this project?”

“Sure,” Douxie said. A couple days after Douxie had left Arcadia Oaks, Steve had added Douxie to a group text with the other Guardians of Arcadia. Douxie and Krel had started talking on their own a couple months after that. It would be nice to see Krel in person again. “Do you or Jim want to ask him, or should I?”

Claire brought Krel with her through a shadow portal soon after noon the next Sunday. Krel looked around, fidgeting his fingers along the edge of his jaw. Douxie expected to be annoyed that in the time since Douxie and Krel had first met, Krel had grown taller in his Akiridion form. They were no longer the same height, which had been... oddly nice, for reasons Douxie couldn’t name. Krel was now tall enough that his hair brushed against the ceiling of the apartment. Douxie wondered if it naturally grew that way, or if Krel had to spend time using products to make it stand up. From all the time the two of them had texted each other, Krel didn’t seem like the type of guy to spend a lot of time and gel spiking his hair every day, and Douxie had once been the type of guy to spend a lot of time and gel each day, making sure his hair was nice and spiky.

A small pang of grief for his lost immortality came with the memory of the old, somewhat cringe-worthy hairstyle. Douxie had mostly adjusted to his newfound mortality, but it still hurt sometimes. He, Nari, and Archie still hadn’t made any progress on the topic of Douxie’s soulmate, either.

Douxie forced himself to stop staring at Krel. Yes, Krel was attractive in a way that caught him off guard. There was something about the way his face now looked that made him look regal, moreso than Arthur and Morgana had ever looked. Maybe it was the fact that his faceplate had finished detaching a week ago? Krel had complained over text a month or two ago that it was an uncomfortable process that signified the start of adulthood for a royal Akiridion.

“You’re...” Douxie trailed off. He wanted to say beautiful. “A little later than expected.”

“Yeah, sorry, Mass ran late,” Claire said. “So, how’d you want to get started, Teach?”

Six hours of three frustrated prodigies ignoring each other’s personal space as they debated schematics passed. While Akiridion technology and magic were surprisingly compatible, transduction wasn’t quite as compatible with human-and-troll biology as they had hoped. Still, they weren’t quite ready to give up. Well, not forever, anyways. Words were starting to stop making sense for Douxie, and he wouldn’t be surprised if the same was starting to more-or-less happen to the others as well. Douxie stifled a sigh. He didn’t want to be the one who bailed first, but he also got the feeling that if he didn’t say anything the three of them would continue attempting to work for another hour or two of increasingly angry conversation.

“Do you want to break for dinner any time soon?” Douxie asked.

“Please,” Claire said in a desperate, thankful tone, “I’m starved.”

“Wouldn’t it just be a late lunch?” Krel asked.

“Time zone difference,” Douxie said.

“Right, forgot, sorry,” Krel said. A year ago Krel had explained how time zones weren’t really a thing on Akiridion-V. Instead, all clocks were set to the same time as it was in the capitol, but depending on where on the planet you lived you might start your delson at a different time. That being said, the amount of artificial lighting on the planet meant that location didn’t quite matter for when people were supposed to be awake or asleep.

“Can we get pizza from that one place a block away?” Claire asked as she stretched. “You’ll love it, Krel.”

“Archie, Nari, we’re going out, you want to come?” Douxie called across the apartment.

“Bring me back something with anchovies!” Archie said. Claire wrinkled her nose.

“Give me a moment to put on my disguise!” Nari called. Krel activated his transduction. While Arcadians had gotten used to trolls and extraterrestrials, and New Yorkers were mostly unphased by Nari’s antlers, Krel’s four arms and glowing body might draw unwanted attention. Douxie swallowed in order to stifle a gasp.

If Krel had grown into a regal young man in his true form, as a human he had become a roguishly adorable sort of scruffy. Krel had grown his hair out into messy a chest length ponytail. He was an inch or two taller, too.

Nari walked over to them, disguised as an incredibly short human with a beanie that had antlers attached to it. There was probably something to be said about how a nature goddess was more focused on a game on her phone than her surroundings, but she was used to the layout of the apartment. Plus, she could sense the soul of every living being of the planet Earth. She wouldn’t bump into anything until they left the apartment. Then she’d have to be careful.

She bumped into Krel, and looked up, startled.

“Sorry, I didn’t...” Her eyes narrowed. “I didn’t sense you. You’re not from Earth, are you?”

“No, is it still that obvious?” Krel fidgeted with the ends of his ponytail.

“Not if you can’t sense souls,” Nari said. She gave Douxie a pointed look. He had no idea why.

Nari and Archie spoke in hushed enough to be somewhat worrying tones as Douxie got ready for work the next day.

“Should we tell him?” Nari asked.

“He’ll figure it out,” Archie said. “Or well, he should. If he doesn’t figure it out within a year, I guess we should tell him, but until then if he’s that oblivious it won’t hurt him.”

Douxie decided to ignore them and whatever they were talking about. His phone buzzed with a text from Krel, and Douxie smiled.

A/N: I decided to leave it ambiguous as to whether or not Jim and Claire are soulmates in this.

[headless-killjoys]

bear with me as i ramble about the Vibes that Sing by HU gives me in relation to killjoys

so obviously it’s kinda similar to, well, SING by mcr (kinda) and obviously SING is waaaay more tied into the kjcu (killjoys cinematic universe) than Hollywood Undead. but bear with me.

to sum it up? like a tl;dr - it has the slow, sombre, mourning vibes of like.. post-SING mv? but reflective.. retrospective. like if it was a song that the four used to sing to the girl, and now she’s singing it as she’s taken away from their dead bodies and back into the zones. she watches the sunrise and for a few minutes, the souls of the four return to sit with her and they sing together one last time.

alright, now im gonna go through the lyrics because im Like This

so the chorus (and beginning of the song),

Sing, sing, sing just a little bit more, more More than they're asking for, for, some of us never change But we can give, give, give just a little bit Live, live, live just a little bit, love, love, love just a little bit more It's all that we're asking for It's all that we're asking for, oh, just a little bit more It's all that we're asking for, oh, just a little bit more

gives me the Feelings of killjoy-mourning? maybe it's literally only me who feels that but that's how i feel, that's what i see. standing by a mailbox, saying your final goodbye to the mask in your hands. it also gives me the feeling of like.. this is also something you sing to someone in mourning. in a "keep living, keep loving, don't give up" sort of way. it’s almost like a lullaby but for death (“eternal sleep”)? 

“Sing just a little bit more / more than they’re asking for, some of us never change” 

like, exceed expectations, go beyond what people think of killjoys, put your all into everything you do (because you never know which moment will be your last) and because killjoys often die young, there’s not much room for any sort of.. well, huge life change usually? they’re very “life fast die young” but that doesn’t mean they don’t find satisfaction and fulfillment in their lifetimes 

“Give just a little bit, live just a little bit, love just a little bit more” 

be bold, be reckless, live, remain compassionate to other killjoys, find love in every corner of the desert. love your friends, your family 

to put it into a pre & post SING mv context: what i see for this beginning is like... memories The Girl has with the four, blowing shit up, racing down route guano at high speed, curling up together in the nights, the four finding so much love in their hearts for her, and she loves them so much too. 

verse 1:

My friend, my friend Is it breath you're holding in? Or the questions from within? Do they end as they begin? Oh, my heart, my heart Is it left out in the dark? Is there light after the start Like the clouds after they part? No, the end, the end Is it written in the sand? Is it slipping through your hands Like a dream that never ends? So my friend, my friend Are the walls still closing in? Time and time again These are words from a broken friend

so this verse. to sum it up: this one feels like The Girl singing it, directly after the SING mv, curling up around herself in Dr D’s van while she’s being driven the fuck out of the city and she’s just remembering when the four would sing this to her and now their positions are flipped and these words are things she wishes she could sing back to them. 

I’ll break down how it makes me feel/what I see in my mind when I hear this 

“My friend, my friend Is it breath you're holding in? Or the questions from within? Do they end as they begin?”

The Girl thinking about all the things the four left unspoken, all the things she left unspoken, how all those words have now died with them - ending as they began. all the emotions she’s struggling to hold in, all the breaths that she’ll take alone now, all the breaths that the four will never breathe again. 

“Oh, my heart, my heart Is it left out in the dark? Is there light after the start Like the clouds after they part?”

She’s alone, sitting in the diner that is too dark, too big, too empty, without the four. Wondering what to do now that she’s been forced to turn the page to a new section of her life, without them to help her anymore. 

“No, the end, the end Is it written in the sand? Is it slipping through your hands Like a dream that never ends?”

Desert sand falling between her fingers, the sands of time, and the string that was cut too soon. Is there such thing as fate? Was it their fate to die to save her? She draws their logos in the sand, and watches as the wind erases them again. 

“So my friend, my friend Are the walls still closing in? Time and time again These are words from a broken friend” 

So this is where she would get up, and go to sit on the rooftop of the diner, like she’s done so many times with the four. But this is where the ‘voice’ starts to get mixed, so it’s not just her anymore. She’s surrounded by the open air but the silence around her is suffocating, and BLi is still there, the walls are always closing in. Keep running. 

None of them are perfect… were perfect. But they’re family.

(chorus again) 

verse 2: 

The stutter in the static, it's the voices of the attic It's the pitch inside the panic and the voices of the manic, oh I just want a minute here, and after sixty seconds I swear that I will disappear Yeah, you know that I'm a liar, and I wanna live forever, and I wonder why I'm dying, so Like the bottom of a dream, I was running for the sky, I forgot the in-between It's so hard to understand that there's meaning in a man And it's lost inside the love that I guess I never had But we're all a simple chance, holding on with gentle hands We're as simple as a symbol, let me slip into the past Before I ever let go, the things are getting better, so my daughter has a little hope That's the meaning of a memory that there were better things, better dreams, and a better me

Now this verse, oh this verse. this is the souls of the four returning to share this one final moment and song with her. here’s the parts that give me the strongest vibes: 

“I just want a minute here, and after sixty seconds I swear that I will disappear Yeah, you know that I'm a liar, and I wanna live forever, and I wonder why I'm dying, so Like the bottom of a dream, I was running for the sky, I forgot the in-between” 

This part really makes me think of the four. The ‘minute here’ referring to this being the final moment they have to say a proper goodbye to The Girl, and then they’ll be gone, they’ll disappear. Physically, at least, because they’ll never really leave her, will they? She’ll carry them in her heart forever. 

But although they knew they were going to die, there’s still a sort of like… vibrant recklessness to them? Like it’s the same feeling I get from listening to Na Na Na. Where you want to go cause some chaos, feel that rush of adrenaline, go do something and just be wild, be free. I think they knew that they weren’t going to make it out alive. But there’s still a wild and young part of them that doesn’t want to die. They want to feel invincible, to live forever. Running for the sky, reaching up higher and higher, looking for that next rush, keeping up the fight however they can. 

“It's so hard to understand that there's meaning in a man And it's lost inside the love that I guess I never had But we're all a simple chance, holding on with gentle hands”

god. this. this. 

I feel like it’s just, super self-explanatory, if you think about it in the context of mental health & killjoys. They’re holding onto each other, maybe they didn’t all get the same love or same amount of love in their individual childhoods, but they came together and they found their family in each other. They found their home in each other. And they shared so much love, all she has to do is hold onto that, hold on to what they had, hold on to who she is, hold on to herself. 

“Before I ever let go, the things are getting better, so my daughter has a little hope That's the meaning of a memory that there were better things, better dreams, and a better me”

This is the part that absolutely destroys me. 

I view the four’s relationship to The Girl as older siblings rather than parental figures but the point still stands. 

They’ll just be a memory to her, and that will fade over time as she grows up, as she grows older than they ever got to be. There were better things and better dreams, and there will be even better in her future. She’ll remember them at their best and at their worst, and she won’t be the only one to remember them. She’ll always love them. They know their time is almost up, and they’ll be leaving her for good, so… 

They want to leave her with hope, with belief, with love. 

(final chorus)

They sing to her one last time now, sitting side by side like they always did, she can’t take her eyes off the sky, but she knows they’re there. She doesn’t realise she’s crying until she feels ghostly fingers wipe her tears away. 

She’s alone. But she’ll sing a little more, she’ll give a little more, she’ll live a little more, she’ll love a little more. For them, and for herself. 

[imaginesmai]

Peter Parker-Skip (1)

I don’t know if you’ve read the story about Skip and Peter? I read it a few weeks ago and I thought it would be cool to write something about it. Enjoy! This will be my new series; if you want to be tagged, let me now! I’ll post a new part (if this works) every Monday.

Plot: Peter’s new life couldn’t be better. College, aparment for himself, you. Still, Parker’s luck is not on his side, and the memories are coming back.

Warnings: it gets dark. Really dark, for Peter. Mentions of child abuse and rape. Angst, so much angst.

The sun was bright as Peter walked the sidewalk towards your new college, with his jacket thrown over his shoulder. He had managed to get out of class a few minutes earlier, even being the first day and all; so that he could pick you up and ask you about your day. A warm breeze combed through his hair, and birds flew around, chirping, both sure signs that summer was backing off and autumn was on its way. Peter worshipped its arrival, with its coldish weather and Halloween. You tucked on his side watching scary movies, planning awful pranks on the avengers together. He was smiling so hard that his cheeks hurt.

People around him chatted excitedly, and he saw the first students getting out of the building. A group of loud girls walked past him, and maybe in another place or time, he would have looked at them and blushed at their blanted looks. However, he had the most beautiful girl walking down the stairs in front of him, and he didn’t notice them.

You were easy to spot through the fence. The bright yellow blouse he had helped you to choose the previous night stuck out, hair pulled off your face with a high bun. Peter’s heart swelled with love when he noticed the small chain in your backpack, red and black with big white eyes. With a smile, Peter stepped up to meet you halfway, following the path that led to the front of your college.

“Hey”

Your head went up instantly after hearing his voice, and you saw a dorky looking Peter in front of you. He was wearing a white shirt with the first buttons undone, wanting to make a good impression in his own university. The backpack was hanging loosely from his side, and he was gripping one strap as if it was the first time he saw you.

“I, uh, I wanted to give you a surprise” he said, shifting his weight. “Got out early, thought you might like me picking you up. But I won’t do it again if-“

Peter was thrown a few inches forwards when your lips collided with him, arms around his neck and he chuckled softly. He felt your smile through the kiss, and the doubts about stepping over a boundary were long forgotten. The kiss lasted too little for his liking, and you were out of his arms in seconds.

You let out a excited giggle when you teared apart, jumping a little, happy to see your boyfriend’s face again. You were dying to tell him about your day, about your new classmates and hear about his.

“I want you to do this every day” you said, chin held high.

“Teachers won’t like that a lot” he laughed. “I had to get out early, but it was worthy”

Turning around, you gripped Peter’s hand and started telling him about your new classes. You were enthusiastic about the whole deal, and were almost bouncing with excitement; too busy to notice how Peter didn’t move an inch.

It felt as if the world stopped for him. The laugh got caught on his throat, it chocked him, it died, as Peter’s eyes landed on a man across the stairs. He was holding a big bag with papers, talking with another teacher he guessed while walking your way. His body went cold, and the air was filled with the smell of cheap aftershave and songs from cartoons. The group of girls that had been giving him eyes disappeared, you disappeared, and all that was left was Peter and a man with sandy hair.

Suddenly, he wasn’t in college, he was May’s apartment. He was watching cartoons and having cereals for breakfast. The disgusting smell of lemons filled his nostrils, and he could almost feel them. His hands, on his hips, on his chest, on his thighs. Peter crying, begging, so-

“Pete?” you pulled at his hands softly, wondering if he was even listening at you. You looked to where he had his wide eyes fixed, but only saw your Statistics teacher talking to the principal. “Bub, you okay?”

Peter blinked and shook his head, trying to put an smile for you. He took a deep breath and exhaled, looking away from the familiar man. Because that was it; he was just familiar, nothing else, nothing more. A look alike. It couldn’t be Skip, and his frenetic mind made a list of reasons; he moved far, far away. He wasn’t a teacher. His hair was longer. And, he couldn’t have been a whole day near you. Not there.

So, he just squeezed your hand and pulled you forward, almost dragging you out of the building.

“What was that?” you asked, frowning. You quickly forgot about your day or his. “Something wrong?”

“No, I’m fine. Fine. Just zoned out for a second” he said, words stepping over each other. “Do you want to Thai? I’ve seen a place near my university. Looks a bit shady, but-“

“Peter” you made him stop walking, and he finally looked at you.

In the middle of the busy streets, he felt much safer than in your university. Because he wouldn’t try anything in front of so many people; if he was Skip, which Peter didn’t want to believe. You looked at him worriedly, but he only grinned back. Placing both straps on his shoulders with rather shaky hands, he shrugged.

“Really, Y/N, is nothing. You know I tend to get lost in my head” he reassured you.

Of course, Peter Parker had a lot of years of practice in lying. He had lied to his aunt with the spiderman thing, and had tricked Mr Stark more than once when a patrol had gone too bad. And, well, even if he wasn’t proud of it, you didn’t find about his night activities until he decided to tell you. So it wasn’t difficult for him to make you believe that everything was alright, and start again the conversation about your classes.

Smiling again, you linked your arm with his and kissed his cheek, talking again about the first period. As you did so, Peter’s mind went back to the man. You walked to the Thai place; you ordered, waited for your food and Peter managed to tell you a little about his day without throwing up everything he had in his stomach. Because, the more he thought about him, the more similarities he found between Skip and him.

It was ridiculous.

He was far away, Peter was safe, you were safe, the world was safe without him. He had seen his car drive up the street with his little eyes, and May had assured him thousands of times when the nightmares came. Still, the thought kept ringing on his head for the whole lunch. When the dessert arrived, he decided to out and end to the anxiety.

“What are the names of your teachers?”

“Hm?” you asked, your mouth full of cream.

“You know the name of your teachers?” he repeated, swirling his spoon around the mint ice-cream that was making him sick.

“Hm, I suppose? I don’t know, I haven’t meet them all yet” you swallowed what you had in your mouth before talking again. “Why do you want to know?”

“I-I’ve heard there are common teachers between the colleges” Peter said, hoping you hadn’t noticed the stutter. “Just wanted to know if we might have one of those.”

“Oh, I didn’t know” you looked down at your cake, trying to remember some of the names. “There is-there is this woman called Mrs… Mrs Doubtfire.”

“What?” Peter squealed, and let out a loud laugh.

“Yeah, I thought the same!” you smiled, and pointed the spoon towards him. “And she kind of looks like the one in the film. Only that is really old and doesn’t know how to smile”

“At least it’s not Umbridge” he joked, feeling a little better.

“I think it’s worse” you sighed, taking another spoonful of your dessert. You offered it to Peter with a quick glance, but he shook his head. “An older girl had told us that she is always breathing down your neck, and that if she sees you going out on a Friday night, she’ll take one point from you.”

“She made that up” Peter snorted. “Please, tell me she just made that up.”

“I wish I could, bub” you rolled your eyes. “But she’s not the only one that had told us. There is the guy whose class is tomorrow that says it’s true”

“Another teacher?”

“Yeah, he’s kind of… weird, though. Doesn’t give me a good feeling” you said, not really caring about your words.

The guy had approached you in the corridor when you were walking to the third period, with a girl you had just met. Even if for her it had been normal, you had noticed something off about the blonde man. You had blamed it to Peter, whose paranoia had made a space on your heart.

But, while you didn’t care about it, it made Peter’s heart skip a beat.

“And… um, what’s his name?” he asked. Peter took a small bite of his ice-cream. It melted on his tongue, but wasn’t as good as it should be. Surprisingly, it tasted like lemon, and Peter gagged.

“I don’t really remember. Last name is Westcott, but I don’t know more” Peter almost threw the spoon to the floor, but caught himself before doing anything to startle you. “He teaches Statistic, first class on Tuesdays. I’ve heard he… gives candy when you get a question right. I’m not fond of the idea. But who am I to judge? Guy might be a total teddy bear.”

You went back to eating your cake and the knot of Peter’s stomach tightened. He held onto the table, hoping that you wouldn’t notice the way his knuckles were turning white, and hoping that if he held on tight enough, he wouldn’t be ripping away from the planet while his thoughts spun out.

Closing his eyes, he counted. Opening his eyes, he searched for the five objects. A lady’s purple purse. Black sauce scattered on the floor. Big lamp a little crocked. The blue necklace you were wearing. Waiters’ uniform. You had taken his silence as the end of the conversation, and you were happy to eat your food in peace. Tears pooled in Peter’s eyes and he wiped them out quickly, not wanting you to see them. But you did.

“Are you crying?” you frowned, spoon mid-way to your mouth.

“No, no. It’s just-brain freeze” he chuckled, and sighed in relief when the alarm in your eyes disappeared.

“I don’t know why you thought it was a good idea to order an ice-cream” you teased, winking at him. “Someone so hot can’t handle the cold”

He tried to smile for you, to force the memories away. But he only managed to give you a small smirk.

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

Peter waited until he heard your heartbeat slow and your breath go back to normal to roll out from the warm covers of your shared bed. Renting an apartment with you had seemed as the logical decision. You were dating, studying in the same city and didn’t have enough money to afford something bigger. Peter had been shaking with happiness when he opened for the first time the wardrobe and saw your clothes beside his. But, as the anxiety consumed him, he wished for his old apartment, where May slept like a baby and he could sneak out.

He slipped on a plan black sweater without a hood and dark jeans, putting back the boxers that he had thrown a few hours before under the bed, too focused on undressing you to care. Peter ran to the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror; dishevelled head, red and swollen lips and bright eyes. However, they were not from the love making, but from the need of letting all of it out.

Angry and frustrated, Peter turned around and walked back to the bedroom; stopping when he saw you sleeping soundly on your side. You were hugging a pillow, probably missing his body next to you. Even if he didn’t want to say it out loud, Peter was always the little spoon when you two slept. It made him almost regret his decision, seeing you sleeping so peacefully. He really wanted to be back in your arms; but he also wanted to safe, above everything and anything.

So he sneaked out.

It wasn’t Spider-man problem. He wasn’t trying to stop some robbery, or save some lady from nasty guys. No, it was Peter Parker’s business. Skip Westcott was Peter’s business, and keeping you safe from the thing he feared the most was also. The suit didn’t come with him that night, only the web-shooters so he could be back into your arms sooner.

Peter had found Skip’s address hacking into the school’s website, and Google Maps directed his way into the night.

There was a playground at the end of the street where he lived, and as Peter walked past, the wind blew through the chains of the swing set. He stopped and stared at the park. Even in the dark, the memories came back. Hands. Touches. Begging. Moaning. Pain. Thrusts.

He moved past it and didn’t stop again until he stood in front of the white fence surrounding the blue house. A nice park was in the driveway, and the yard had some flowers growing. No one would ever be able to tell what kind of person lived there.

Want to know more about me? Here is my Masterlist! Feedback is always appreciated!!

Tom Tags:

@delicately-important-trash

[dillydedalus]

october reading

 books. i read ‘em.

the bird king, g. willow wilson ugh i’m disappointed with this - i expected it to be more about the fall of granada, rather than just taking that as a jumping-off point for a very slow story of how fatima (concubine to the last andalusian sultan) and her bff hassan (magical mapmaker) escape from lady inquisitor luz to a magical/legendary island. that’s more of an expectation mismatch, but i also found this just a bit boring and confused, didn’t like the characters or the emotional moments. 2.5/5

lanark: a life in four books, alasdair gray y’all... this is a weirdo pomo mess which gray himself describes as ‘a portrait of the artist as a frustrated young glaswegian’ (instant love), it’s about duncan thaw growing up in post-war glasgow (not a good place) and lanark, sans memories, finding himself in the city of unthank (probably The Bad Place), where the sun hardly ever shines and people grow dragonskin, but really it’s about art & cities & politics & scotland & hell. it’s completely nuts & has a chapter where the protagonist meets the author in the process of writing and there’s a chapter-long sidebar detailing all instances of plagiarism in the book (incl. the lack of influence from robert burns, more sinister than all plagiarism). it’s a bit flabby in places & could stand to be a 100-200 pages shorter, but damn. 4/5

the memory police, yoko ogawa (tr. from japanese by stephen snyder) very atmospheric, quietly disturbing magical realist(ish) book about an island on which sometimes certain things (birds, roses, ribbons, fruit) just disappear, with the inhabitants losing their memories and emotional connection to the thing. the disappearances seem to occur randomly and on their own, but the memory police makes sure that no disappeared items remain and that those who can still remember also... disappear. really liked the quiet slow dread building here, the mysterious workings of the disappearances, and the interplay between the main story and the novel the narrator is writing while worrying whether words too will soon disappear. 4/5

trick mirror: reflections on self-delusion, jia tolentino collection of nine essays about roughly, life & self-image & politics in the social media age (and its predecessor, the reality tv age), gender politics and uh scams and self-delusions. many of these essays felt vaguely like things i’d read before online (& i might have) & didn’t offer anything completely new but i liked the examinations of big wedding culture, and her take on the ‘difficult woman’ archetype of millenial feminism. tolentino in general is an engaging, sharp writer, and even when she’s writing about familiar topics, she often puts an interesting spin on things. 3.5/5

here in berlin, cristina garcía and the anglophone-berlin-books saga continues. a cuban-american woman with a mild personal crisis goes to berlin (as people w/ personal crises so often do) and there collects a variety of snapshot stories from berliners (by birth or choice or accident), mostly about world war 2 and the latin american diaspora in berlin. some of the snapshots are p interesting or bizarrely funny but mostly they retread the same ground (history, trauma, collective & personal responsibility, commemoration etc) without really saying anything new (except the connection garcía makes between the nazis and south american dictatorships). there’s also a pretty annoying attempt to create authenticity by peppering in german words and phrases which sometimes aren’t even appropriate or spelled correctly* (get a german proofreader you cowards i’ll do it for free... like wtf is ‘volkenbrot’). 2/5 *i ordered it used and got an ARC, so maybe some of these issues were fixed for the final version but lmao. volkenbrot. 

wilder girls, rory power this is annihilation as YA, set on an island called raxter where a mysterious illness called the tox has taken over, transforming the wilderness, the animals (deers grow canines y’all), and most of all the girls at raxter boarding school. the narrator’s eye has fused shut & something is growing under it, her friend has grown an extra spine, other girls have gills or claws. less fortunate girls (and most of the teachers) just die. there was a lot i liked about this, especially the tox and the ambivalent relationships the girls have to their changed bodies, but the last third just... eh. also, like, i like tumblr monster-girl poetics as much as the next person, but this is really overdoing it. 2.5/5

nach mitternacht (after midnight), irmgard keun KEUN HYPE TRAIN!!! this one’s super interesting because it’s the first novel keun wrote in exile, published 1937 and set at around the same time. the protagonist, sanne, is a naive and politically uneducated 19-year-old who is repeatedly & very dramatically confronted with the political reality she lives in, first when her aunt denounces her to the gestapo and later when her boyfriend franz is arrested. for most of the (very short) novel, sanne is observing and not quite understanding the increasing legal discrimination against jews, culture of paranoia and denouncement, and glorification of fascist ideology, which makes for a very disturbing reading experience, especially with the reader’s retrospective knowledge, but the climax is truly nightmarish & devastating. 4/5

children of god, mary doria russell the sequel to the sparrow, which i read & loved earlier this year. in this one, emilio sandoz, still in recovery from the trauma of his first trip to the planet rakhat, is forced to return there (bc the pope thinks it’s god’s will lol) and finds the planet changed after decades (space travel makes time weird) of revolution and civil war. i liked this but it’s not as good as the sparrow, the characters (except my man emilio) aren’t as interesting & well-developed and the dual timeline structure isn’t as well-executed but hey. there’s some closure for emilio & that made me hella emosh. 3.5/5

the wilful princess & the piebald prince, robin hobb a novella telling the true (?) story of charger farseer, the piebald prince, a historical figure that has great influence on the six duchies of fitz’s time, especially regarding the treatment of the witted (people who can magically bond with aninmals) and how fitz is framed & reviled as the ‘witted bastard’. this was cool & i enjoyed how it twists the story, but it’s not worth reading if you haven’t read the main series. 3/5

the inheritance, robin hobb/megan lindholm collection of short stories by hobb under her two pseudonyms - i mostly skipped the lindholm ones (sorry), but the three hobb ones were really really good. the first is about the first expeditions into the rain wilds (i love the cursed shores so much & wish there was a full trilogy about the first settlers there), the second is about bingtown & wizardwood, the third is about how sometimes you gotta kill your abusive ex & if you’re lucky, your cat will help you do it. it’s great & the cat is called marmelade. 4/5 for the hobb stories only

unholy land, lavie tidhar alternate history + multiple realities + high-concept pulp - lior tirosh, a pulp author (it’s meta) returns to his homeland, the jewish state palestina, established in east africa in the early 20th century, and there becomes involved in... rival plots to destroy/stabilise the borders between the worlds, not only between this alternate one and our real one, which tirosh seems to occasionally slip into, but all the million others, including one where the moon broke. love the concept, but this is so vague & confusing on so many points and the ending so abrupt that i was left kinda frustrated & unsatisfied (also bc we never find out much more about the world where the moon broke). 3.5/5

tigermilch (tiger milk), stefanie de velasco german ya book about two teen girls growing up in a poor neighbourhood in berlin. nini’s father is absent, her mother depressed, while jameelah’s father died in iraq and her mother is worried that they might be deported, and their bosnian friend amir’s sister is dating a serb. it’s some pretty harrowing stuff & it’s good to see Issues (TM) addressed in german ya in a way that doesn’t feel super didactic & preachy, but ultimately i’m really not the target audience here. 3/5

sea monsters, chloe aridjis

weirdo brainy dreamy novella about a girl in 80s mexico running away from mexico city to the beach because she’s looking for ukrainian circus dwarfs (???). i liked a lot about this (atmosphere, poetic & mythical allusions, a lot of the writing, the depictions of mexico city and the weird beach culture are both really cool) but a lot of the time this was so dreamy that i just kinda zoned out. 3/5

i am currently reading emma by jane austen bc i forgot about my monthly austen project until the last few days of the month lol & one of the hugo long list anthologies. the one with the cool fox on it.

[teddystrap]

[神なる君と] Spirit duo - Yuzuru

Hmm I think the recommended order of the routes is: Narumi -> Yuzuru -> Yakumo -> Rei (-> Mikoto). So I kind of spoiled part of Yuzuru’s story by doing Yakumo first. But I wanted to do the two osananajimi routes one right after the other to get a good comparison. Also this route proves why Yakumo will always be my hero, even though he himself doesn’t feel confident enough to fulfil the role.

-Ninokami Yuzuru-

Yes I know your name is spelled with a 「づ」 not a 「ず」, but ‘Yuduru’ just sounds incredibly stupid to my English-speaking brain, so...

Yuzuru is the president of the student body and Yakumo’s close friend and classmate. It was revealed in Yakumo’s route that several hundred years ago, he saved a Takekiyo ancestor from being a human sacrifice by giving him a medicine that brought him back from the dead - thereby extending the curse to the kid’d descendants. Now here we get the full story:

Yuzuru was once a God (his surname ‘Ninokami’ is a dead giveaway), he came to earth and befriended a child (Yakumo’s ancestor). Later he found out that the child would be sacrificed to prevent the Great Demon’s curse, so he tried to persuade him to run away, but the child refused. So in the end the villagers got their sacrificial ceremony, and Yuzuru stole a forbidden medicine from Heaven and brought the child back to life.

For that he was punished, stripped of his godly powers and banished to earth as a demon. A blizzard started happening around the same time that lasted many years and claimed many lives (by famine), and the humans totally thought it was his fault for saving the boy (even though he did it after the fact so there was no conflict). The villagers locked him up in a dungeon and tortured him for many decades. At first he believed that the boy he saved would come and rescue him, but he gradually lost hope, and finally when the boy (now an old man) came to save him, he had already reached misanthropy level 900...

As part of his punishment, he is supposed to perform community service on earth and accumulate enough karma to restore his godly powers and return to Heaven. So he’s been happily (well, deep down angrily) doing that for a few hundred years, until Sakuya and co. came along. Early on in the route, Sakuya was confronted by the baleful spirits who died during the famine, who asked her to avenge their death by killing *a certain demon* (ahem *Yuzuru*).

Not knowing who they are talking about, she went to Yuzuru for help, and ofc he refused. So then she went back to negotiate with the spirits and they started attacking her like crazy. Yuzuru saved her and healed her, using up all his karma in the process, so now he has to start over from zero. He decides to start a new life, so he erases everybody’s memories (yes he can do that) and disappears without a trace.

The next day Sakuya goes to school and enters the *Twilight Zone*, because nobody knows/remembers ‘Yuzuru-senpai’, and there’s no record of him ever existing. Finally she found Yakumo who also remembers the poor bastard. Yakumo speculates that those closest to him have memories that are too strong to be erased by his memory-erasing powers. They hold a group meeting to try to find him, but in the meantime time is of the essence because even their memories are fading...

Yakumo-nii-san totally came to our rescue in this route ｯ(ﾉω･､)ﾟ.+°

Sakuya goes to Mikoto for help, and he takes her to the Ancient God who placed the curse on Yuzuru. For some reason the Ancient God takes the form of Yorihito the stone hound with evil eyes and has a disembodied robot voice. But anyway. The Ancient God tells her Yuzuru’s whole history, and she decides to return his act of grace by helping him return to Heaven.

She eventually finds Yuzuru and latches on to him like a stage-5 clinger because she’s scared he’ll disappear again. Then, with the help of Aki and Fuu-san’s tools, she goes back to find the baleful spirits and successfully sends them off to be reincarnated. This drained a lot of her powers and she fell sick for a while, until Narumi notices something is wrong and her life is at risk. 

She goes back to the Ancient God, who tells her that the bad energy from the spirits is slowly eating away at her, and she will die in a few years - unless Yuzuru gives up all his supernatural powers to heal her, and becomes a regular human. So she doesn’t have to die, and he can stay on earth with her. Two birds with one stone, how convenient, you can’t make this stuff up... except Otomate totally did rofl XD.

(Also somebody probably should’ve told her this stuff before she went and saved those evil spirits huh.)

All this talk about the impenetrability of Fate is frankly kind of ironic in a ‘choose your own ending’ visual novel.

So Sakuya doesn’t want to keep Yuzuru from returning to Heaven. She tries to come to terms with the fact that she’s going to die... when Yuzuru found out about all this from Narumi, and decides to give up all his powers to save her. He takes her to a hilltop on hoshimatsuri night and gives her the Kiss of Death Life.

In the good end he gets a job after graduation at the same government agency as Aki and is responsible for watching over the peace of Mikagurayama. He asks Sakuya to move in with him (she agrees ofc), and they get married after a few years. (She also gives him a badly knit scarf but whatever.) I didn’t make enough save states so I couldn’t get the other/bad endings, but tbh I don’t think I’m strong enough to handle a tragedy, after everything that this route has put me through...

[Thoughts] Honestly this route is the most emotional one for me so far, I felt like I really went through an entire relationship in this short span. The common/early events were a riot. I love the back-and-forth exchanges between them - you get some of it in Narumi/Yakumo’s routes, but since they were already close to her to begin with, the later contrast/transition in the interaction is not as great.

Normal couples finish each other’s sentences, but soul mates finish each other’s tsukkomi!

In a lot of ways I felt like Yuzuru really pushed Sakuya to her limits. In Yakumo’s route she was trying to be an emotionally responsible adult, but here she’s giving her best in everything she does - whether it’s working at his store or helping out with the student government events. Also Yuzuru is the only one who’s able to force her to study lol.

And ofc the grand gesture she did risking her own life to send him back to Heaven - she has to make sacrifices in every route, but here it felt like she really did it for him and not just for love. It seemed like she forgot about herself / their future momentarily when she was just thinking of making him happy by fulfilling his wish. I thought it really fit her personality.

Yuzuru is a total sweetheart!! I already liked him in all the other routes, and his own story certainly didn’t disappoint, he honestly can do no wrong. I almost feel like saying, here, here’s an ‘asshole’ character done right - he comes across as an asshole but everything he does is incredibly sweet and selfless (a ‘sharp tongue full of love’, as they say). Unlike in some games where the do-S bastards do nothing but abuse the heroine and she somehow still ends up falling in love with them out of some Stockholm Syndrome or something. But anyway that’s another story.

One thing I noticed is that Sakuya says, ‘うれしい／うれしかった’ a lot in this route, which is proof of how happy Yuzuru made her and what a great guy he is (*/^-^)/. Seriously this game just has one great character after another, I feel like I like each one more than the last and I can’t choose!

When Sakuya told Narumi her fear of losing her memories of senpai, Narumi opened his mouth to say something, but then thought better of it... I wonder what he was about to say?

Sakuya is also extra cute in this route - the way she held Yuzuru's hand and wouldn’t let go when she finally found him, the way she got jealous that he was polite to everyone else, etc. It almost makes up for her eating up all his karma lol. Also I guess the writers are trying to avoid spoilers, but I kind of wonder what happened to Yakumo in this route, because there was no mention of his ‘condition’ here. (This route did display the epic bromance between those two, though. Even more than in Yakumo’s route.)

...At this point I only have Rei’s route left, before I get to the hidden character ԅ(≖‿≖ԅ) [ミコトさん、私を待っててくれ！]. Rei is adorable even though I don’t get the romantic feels for him (#shouta; I guess the fact that he’s unusually mature for his age makes up for it a little bit), but nonetheless (a) his story is a total mystery, and (b) I’m really curious how the writers would make his ending work, since as a ghost/wandering spirit he’s supposed to find his purpose and be sent of back to the reincarnation cycle.

[from-red-string]

Maybe, we could’ve had that

Day 2 - Ghosts

Happy halloween week! 

That’s truly amazing, I love this. This is my first officially co-writing fic, bless Miranda @lunambar for being so open to all the changes I bursted out of nowhere haha. For you, a little text:

We live in different time zones and speak different languages, our contries are very distinct fom each other but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m always here for you, how maybe not physically but I’m on your side whenever. I love you, M💛

And for you, I hope you enjoy our fic! 

Ámbar is bored, she can't believe she spent her Halloween night with the two dorks, by the bright side Simón is also there so this night it's not a total waste. Anyway, Halloween might is never boring, she waits all year for that, it can't be blank because Nina didn't want to go to the Halloween party, Ámbar would make it remarkable somehow.  

"Luna, why do you need to go home now?" Ámbar asks watching the small kids running around, she eyed Luna. "Are you scared of being out after 10 PM on Halloween?" She smirks, Luna shook her head.  

"No," Luna is scared of being outside late night. Her nightmares are already enough to get her scared, of course, she wants to be home before it's late. "I'm just tired." Luna pauses looking to her friends, they clearly don't believe her.  

"It's okay, Luna." Simón says, then turning to Ámbar whispers. "Bonita, we can leave Luna and Nina and go somewhere else." Ámbar bits her bottom lip but she isn't ready to give Nina and Luna a break, not after making her night so boring.  

"We can get home alone, I don't want to bother." Nina clarifies making Luna wide her eyes, shocked. Ámbar watches the kids again, noticing every kid avoiding a certain old house. This is about to get interesting.  

"No way, Nina." Ambar fakes a smile, Simón frowns at her. "We just need to make a small stop."  

"A stop?" Luna questions tilting her head, while Nina realizes the danger in the question before it escaped Luna's mouth. "Where?"  

"There." Ámbar points to the old house that seemed even darker than two seconds before, two girls ran through the gate screaming as if they are being hunted by a zombie version of Sesame Street.  

"No." Luna squeals in fear, being the small one she could only imagine she is the first to be caught by whatever was waiting there.  

"What are you afraid of? Do you expect to grumpy ghost to come get you?" Ámbar mocks, earning a hard look from Simón.  

"You don't need to do that." Simón voices trying to make Luna calmer, Ámbar rolls her eyes.  

"There's nothing to be scared of. Ghost doesn't exist, physics already explained death is death and dot." Nina vows with a sure in her tone, there's finally some way of proving Ámbar wrong. "Must be people who enjoy scaring others on Halloween, nothing to be scared of."  

"Come on, Lunita." Ámbar insists. "Just a little fun tonight. We get candies and run home like you want."  

"Okay." Luna gives in, annoyed with the situation so they crossed the street reaching the gate. "Do you at least know who lives here?" That ask gets Ámbar thinking that she actually didn't know who live there, she never truly noticed that house before, it looks so old, grey and weirdly familiar.  

"Yeah, an old couple." Ámbar lies, trying to remember any time she saw someone in the house, Simón takes her hand in his. He knocks on the front door and it opened. Luna jumps entangling her arm to Nina who just frowns.  

"It's open." A male voice says Luna stepped inside, pulling Nina and Ámbar started laughing.  

"That's the lamest thing ever." Ámbar grins walking through the door. The dim light that had in the room went completely dark when the front door closed, making the four turn their back to each other forming a circle.  

"Lame?" Another male voice growls, Ámbar starts to shake her whole body, shutting her eyes.  

"No no no." She murmured, scaring the girls and Simón who paced closer to her. "It's not real."  

"Ámbar?" Simón called standing in front of her with his hands on her shoulder.  

"Ámbar?" The male voice tests the name, rolling out of his tongue. "What a small world." Ámbar shivered feeling the voice closer. Suddenly, a candle lighted up in a corner then three more and behind the lights two guys.  

"Gastón?" Nina yelped shook and amaze rushing through her body, she can't believe she is seeing him again at the same time she wants to believe it.  

"No!" Ámbar screams scaring Simón who can't understand her sudden change. In a second she was making them go into the house, in the next, she is pale and shaking in fear.  

"What's wrong, Ámbar? Don’t want to see us?" The guy with curls in his head asked moving closer. Simón switches standing behind Ámbar watching the guy who looked too bright to be human, his image quivering the whole time as if she would disappear in a blink of an eye. The guy also watched him. "I don't know you. I'm Matteo, Ámbar's ex." Simón felt a bit threatened.  

"I'm Simón, Ámbar's - " Simón started just to realize he doesn't have a word, Luna saved him.  

"I never heard of you before. Are you sure you dated that Ámbar?"  

"Until the day I died, I dated that Ámbar," Matteo answers waiting for the brunette to realize what he said. "But she didn't need a day to forgot me." He eyed the blondie with pain in his eyes.

"You are dead? Wait, dead dead?" Luna repeats shocked. "You're a ghost." She states while Matteo watched her green eyes getting brighter. "I can believe you're a ghost. You look too good for this." Matteo tilts his head and she keeps babbling. "I mean, you look good for a dead person. Also, for a living person." Matteo smirks down her.  

"Nina!" Gastón recalls loud, making Nina jump noticing him by her side. Gastón was trying to remember her name the whole time, but a dead person's memory is a tricky land to search facts. Luna's eyes widen analyzing the whole scene, she lifted her hand up.  

"You all know each other," Luna exclaims excitedly. Ámbar shakes her head heavily. "Simón," Luna called. "How do you know them?"  

"I don't-" Simón is clearly weirded out by everything happening.  

"I'm out." Ámbar hisses shifting and finally eyeing Matteo and Gastón, her eyes wet. "I can't." She running through the door and Simón follows her. Both ghosts stand in front of the door looking at the couple, their faces showing disappointment.

"She definitely doesn't want to see us." Matteo announces forgetting about the girls behind them for a second.

"Maybe she's not ready yet." Gastón guesses. "She turned her back on death, that's her way of dealing with it."

"Ámbar hadn't ignore it, she listened what everyone heard and tried to keep going." Nina declares getting the boys attention so she asks what really was stuck in her mind. "You've died, I know you did. How? What? You shouldn't be here."  

"Nina, it's Halloween. The night when ghosts, wizards, and whatever creature is free." Matteo chuckled. "There is no explanation, by the morning we're 'dead' again and you can't see us again."  

"Now another question. You are dead but what happened? You lived in this house?" Luna asks sitting on the floor, she felt calm to see that ghost aren't those horror movies creatures, horrific things starving for revenge.  

“We were killed in this house,” Gaston says, looking straight at Nina with dark eyes. “A year ago at a party here. We were killed by Xavi, your ex. He felt threatened by us. So when we were wasted, he used his father’s stolen gun and shot us in a bathroom upstairs,"  

By the time he finishes, Nina and Luna are both huddled next to each other, keeping their breaths held in. "Xavi?” Nina asks. “I mean I knew he was crazy, that’s why I dumped him but I didn’t think psychotically crazy."  

"Well, believe me. He was,” says Gaston. “From what little we saw of the crime scene investigation, they didn’t want such a terrible story going around own. So they covered up how we actually died by saying it was from alcohol poisoning or some stupid shit like that,” Matteo says. He’s been looking at Luna the entire time. His eyes never leave her face, staring deeply into hers with such intensity. While Luna only stares back at him as well, curiosity taking over her brain of the strange ghost boy who seems to attractive for his own good.  

“I can’t believe it, that’s the craziest thing ever. Did they ever put Xavi in jail? Gosh, I hope they did,” Nina babbles. “No,” Matteo continues. “He escaped Buenos Aires without a trace. They had been undercover searching for him, but he hadn’t been under their radar. That’s all I know of it,"  

"This is all too much for me. First, I see ghosts then I find out they were brutally murdered by my best friend’s ex. I need a juice right now,” Luna says while rubbing her temples with shut eyes. Matteo chuckles. “Well, there’s nothing more you can do about it. What’s done is done,” he says sympathetically.  

Nina looks down in her lap sadly, playing with the hem of her skirt. Gaston floats slowly over to her in an attempt to comfort her. With enough concentration, he takes his hand and concentrates it on making it solid. When it forms, he rests it on the girl’s knee making her yelp and jumps back several feet.  

“You-you just touched me!” Nina quavers. Gaston tries calming her down. “I know, yes. We can do that. But only for a short period time and with enough human presence and concentration,” he explains. Nina seems to calm down a bit but still looks at him anxiously. She holds her hand out and shakily touches her finger to his palm, amazed by the solidity of a dead person. He grabs her hand completely with his and holds it, making her blush furiously.  

Matteo floats closer to Luna, making her lift her eyelids up. The butterfly motion, batting her long eyelashes and looking at him with her piercing green eyes, making him lose everything inside himself. It was completely wrong of him to feel anything since he’s dead after all. It would only be a matter of minutes until he disappears for god knows how long it felt like.  

He concentrates on making his hand solid. Her eyes light up when shes the transformation right in front of her. He brings it to her cheek, caressing her jaw oh so delicately. She just sits completely still, following the motions with only her eyes. “You know Luna,” he begins. “Either if I had known you when I was still alive or if I were still alive right now, I think there could’ve been something between us,” he whispers. Her lips curve into a soft smile, staring at the hand in her face, his thumb gently stroking her cheek. “Maybe,” is all she says. “Maybe, we could’ve had that."  

They turn when they hear a gasp coming from the girl next to them. She has her phone out looking at the time. Luna peers over her shoulder to read it. 11:55. Had it really been that long they thought?  

"So we’re gone in five minutes?” Gaston asks with a croaking pain in his voice. Matteo looks at Luna sympathetically, taking his hand from off of her cheek and entwining it with hers.  

Nina gets a panicking feeling in he chest. Since they had come here and discovered the two boys here, she knew she had to let Gaston know the truth before it was too late. So she let her mouth run the words before her brain could think. “Gaston, before you go, you have to know this. For the longest time, I was deeply and incredibly in love with you. I wouldn’t dare say this to you if you were alive which is why I’m saying it know. I was never brave enough to ever talk to you then, I never had the nerve. Just know that whenever you did try and talk to me, I never avoided it on purpose. I was scared. And now I’m losing you all over again when you weren’t even mine in the first place.” She’s crying by the time she finishes

Gaston is too stunned by her words to notice that his body is slowly dissolving into thin air. He gets out a few final words for her. “Nina, I liked you a lot too. You just never gave me the chance to show it before. But I understand why. I think about you still when I’m not on earth. And I promise that you’ll still be on my mind when I’m gone. Just know that I feel the same. And I wouldn’t forget you.” It’s too late for him to solidify himself anymore at this point to touch her one last time. He is more and more transparent.  

Matteo still hasn’t disappeared yet either, still remaining intact. Luna gets a worried face. “You’re leaving now?” she chokes. Matteo so desperately wants to hug her and protect her with immense warmth. But of course he can’t, even a copious amount of concentration wouldn’t be enough for a full body solidification.  

By surprise, he uses up the last bit of it as possible to form his lips. He leans over and presses his lips to hers. He pulls away almost immediately. Time is up now. He begins growing more transparent, but he says his final words to Luna. “We’ll meet again soon. In a dream or another life. But you’ll be there. I’ll make sure of it.” Luna cracks a small smile, his reflecting hers. The two girls wave together as the clock strikes midnight on the phone. The two boys disintegrate into the air. And they are left by themselves in the emptiness of the old home.  

They get up, moping and hobble over down the steps, walking back toward the house. “Nina, is it true? Do you really think we’ll see them again somehow?” she asks her best friend. “I don’t know,” she answers back. “Maybe somehow, some way. But there could be a way. Just not today.” Nina poetically responds. And the two of them step back into the house where Ambar and Simon anxiously waiting for them on the couch.

"Not a word about that house." Ámbar specifies seriously. "Forget about it." She turned her to them and climbed the stairs with Simón. The girls sighs looking at each other, they didn't need to say a word to know that none of them could ever forget what happened. It's impossible.

[jeoncooky]

My WINGS Tour Experience (Hong Kong 14052017)

After remaking I’m posting this again to have this somewhere safe in my blog lol

I was wondering whether I should write something down about my experience from this Sunday. As some of you know, I went to BTS’s concert in Hong Kong this Sunday (14th May) and even though I don’t know whether any of my followers are interested to hear about my thoughts of the experience, I thought I would write this anyway so that I would have some written memories left in a few months after this date.

I booked the tickets through my friend back in March during the pre-sale, so unfortunately I can’t help you much if you happen to have questions about them. I got a B2 standing zone ticket (the last one they had on pre-sale apparently!!) and it was 1705HKD in total, so not too bad considering the concert was 2,5 hours in total. Asia-World Expo in general is actually not that big arena, I was actually surprised how small the Hall 1 was! The standing area was not full at all even though the concert was sold out, so there was a lot of room to move around!

Okay, back to the day of the concert. As I wanted to buy some merch, I went to the arena at 10am in the morning thinking there wouldn’t be much people. Turns out, of course there were a lot of people. I ended up lining up for about two hours to get my t-shirt (which luckily didn’t sell out omg i was so worried!!) and I even had a really nice American army with me as my company and we got to talk a lot during those hours haha. All the people I met were super nice and friendly even though not everyone spoke English, but I appreciated it anyway! There were people handing out things (as always i guess) and one girl in the line to the security check asked which member was my bias (I reluctantly responded Tae, but I was so conflicted HOW CAN I CHOOSE OK) and she handed me this cute bag with tae’s picture on it omg (I get excited about the smallest things ok?).

After getting my merch I returned back to my hotel and only returned to the arena just before 4pm. Turns out, they opened the doors from the holding area at 4pm and I just lost my queueing place by being late (like 15 mins)… But it wasn’t too bad, as I said, there was a lot of space and I was actually in the second row at the back (like really close to one part of the stage!) I’ve never been in a concert where my ticket has been checked so many times but lol maybe that’s just me.

Personally I think the first part of the concert was musically the best (Not Today, Baepsae, Am I Wrong(?) ahhh I don’t remember to be honest), or perhaps I was just the most hyped during those few minutes because they were the first minutes after seeing BTS for the first time. The moment the fabric covering the stage dropped and the first notes of Not Today started blasting around the arena were magical! It’s just my personal opinion, but some songs clearly worked better live than others. Cypher 4, Not Today, Baepsae, First Love, Awake, Reflection, Wings, 2,3 and Spring Day were my favourites, while I didn’t really feel that much during 21st century girls (even though I love the song!). I gotta give it to the boys tho, they had so much energy throughout the concert that even I was exhausted (and I didn’t even do anything but sing along and dance and scream ehe). They looked semi tired though, but that is given considering how busy they’ve been in the past few weeks and months. I hope after this tour they get at least some time to rest!

During the first part they also introduced themselves and it was even more amazing and cute than i expected! Suga’s *i-pretend-i-didn’t-hear-you* is hilarious and Hobi’s I’M YOUR HOPE IS THE CUTEST THING I’VE EVER HEARD.

After the first part they did together, Jungkook appeared on stage alone with some dancers to do Begin. LET ME TELL YOU I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT DANCING BUT HE IS AMAZING AND I LOVED IT AHHHHHHHHHHHH DID I REALLY HEAR THAT SONG LIVE OMG YES.

Next was Jimin’s Lie, and tbh my mind blanks when I think about that stage. He is gorgeous and omg the part where he dances with his eyes blindfolded AND THE PART WHERE THEY LIFT HIM ahhhhhhhhh. And his vocals were amazing, I really loved the high notes!!!

Suga’s First Love was simply beautiful. Unlike other songs before, the audience actually quieted down and mostly just listened to Yoongi’s rap and only shouted a few words along him. When the song ended(?) the audience started repeatedly shouting Yoongi’s name (Min Yoongi, Min Yoongi, Ming Yoongi - I felt like crying tbh it felt magical how taken the whole arena was by him)

Next was the vocal line’s Lost, and it was also the first song that was performed semi close to me (on the middle stage). The song is not my favourite, but I still loved it (well I loved the whole concert so is there really need for me to stay this over and over again lolololol). Then the rap line appeared for Save ME and OMG YES PLEASE SAVE ME. Was Dope next? I just remember Jungkook doing something but idk. And INU came as well (the audience exploded ok but that was expected INU IS THAT GOOD)

Out of the solo songs Reflection was actually one of the best live - it’s not my favourite from the album, but it really works live. I could feel the emotions in Namjoon’s voice and when the audience started chanting “We Love You” towards the end of the songs I got chills all around my body I swear.

For some reason I don’t remember much of Stigma??? BUT V BBY I LOVE YOU AND THE HIGH NOTES AT THE END OMFG B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!!! There was supposed to be a fan project for V’s song but for some reason I didn’t see people holding up the sign? :///

Then MAMA! It works really well live and it’s such a fun song to sing along! It was mother’s day, so it felt even more special that day. AND THE END WHEN HOBI SMILES AND THANKS HIS MOM AND THE AUDIENCE SINGS ALONG AND OMFG

Awake was amazing! Jin’s vocals were on point that night, and he is one of the members who really stood out that night. The long high note really hit me personally and ahhhhhhhhhhh I loved it so much! There was also supposed to be a project for Jin’s song as well but idk what happened to it???

THEN CYPHER 4 OMG I DON’T THINK I’VE EVER BEEN THAT HYPED ABOUT ANYTHING THAT SONG WAS GREATER THAN GREAT AND DON’T LET ME GET STARTED ABOUT HOW GOOD THEY LOOKED AND SOUNDED AND OH HOW AM I ALIVE

I think Fire came after that? Maybe? 3:33 was as impactful as I thought it would be! I think Jimin fell right after that though, and I was so worried for a few moments but he seemed to be okay afterwards. Jimin seemed probably the most tired that night tho, or maybe I just imagined it but I really hope he’s getting a lot of rest!!!!

During N.O I lost it because that was the first time BTS walked right by me I WAS LIKE 3 METERS AWAY I COULD SEE SWEAT ON THEIR FOREHEADS I AM STILL NOT OKAY LIKE HOW DO THEY LOOK SO PERFECT IRL IT SHOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE. Like I knew they are good-looking but guys, it really isn’t photoshop you’re seeing YOU’RE SEEING BASICALLY PERFECTION omfg. Suga, Jungkook and Namjoon walked right past me (Suga was so cool?? That’s what I remember thinking… JK did a cute little spin and NAMJOON DID A BODY ROLL AND I THINK I DIED I WAS NOT READY FOR THAT RUDENESS RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY EYES AND I STILL CANNOT UNSEE IT NAMJOON WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY can you see how struck i was by rapmon)

Because they were so close for the rest of the concert I think my judgement of anything musical was just gone, but oh well. During No More Dream and Danger rest of the members came by my area too (first V, then Jimin, then maybe Jin and Hobi ahhhhhh i don’t remember??). Jimin was so cool as well omg!

My mind kinda blanks after that, but Boy in Luv, Run and 21st century girls happened. I remember screaming a lot. Yeah.

BOY MEETS EVIL IS IMPORTANT wow Hobi is not from this world. He was far away but the song just makes you so hyped and his dancing is out of this worldddddd. It’s kinda sad they cut the song just before the chorus thing at the end lmao the audience started to sing it and then it cut :((( Before they disappeared for a while they did BS&T, and I just remember V’s parts tbh but it was great ok it was great.

They obviously had some small speeches in between, but they were mostly in Cantonese-ish (sometimes Korean), so I cannot tell you much about what they were about. But it didn’t take away from the experience tbh! Suga’s face at one point was hilarious (I think he forgot how to pronounce his line?? I was thinking “same yg, same lmao). And Jin’s hanger heart was so extra but cute hahahaha.

Then came a short VCR in Chinese so too bad, I still don’t know what i was actually about SO ANY OF YOU WHO KNOW PLEASE TELL ME I WAS SO CONFUSED AND LOST hahhahaha

Photography and videos were actually not allowed in the arena and there were people stopping audience from filming but i think they kinda gave up in the end?? Because everyone basically had their phones up (I might have done that as well for a few seconds tbh, but I really tried to focus on the concert and not touch my phone for the most of it).

After some time Bangtan appeared back on stage to do Outro:Wings (and we did the BTS HK fan union fan project, slogan saying “Together let’s fly even higher” in Korean. Afterwards NJ told us they saw the signs and thanked us (and told us what it means in English haha. I also held the sign upside down for like the first 20 seconds because they were walking towards me and I panicked ok). During that song they came to my part again, and wow they were suddenly so energetic?? I’M PROUD TO SAY I’VE SEEN JIN’S HAND KISSES LIVE AND THEY ARE CHEESY BUT GREAT ahahaha. I remember looking at JK’s earrings and thinking that they looked cool (now that i think about it afterwards why on earth did i spend time looking at his earrings lmao). V came by as well and did his adorable flower pose right in front of me ;__; I’m not ok. Suga just walked coolly by us again ahahaha he didn’t really waste time posing much lol ‘S OK I STAN THE RIGHT MAN GOSH I ADORE HIM. Hobi flew by us as well (like literally flew with his hands on his sides OMFG HOW IS HE SO EXTRA AND CUTE). Towards the end they returned back to the middle to do Hobi’s rap (Tae looks at Hobi so lovingly when he does his part???? wow he is a fan)

Then Namjoon thanked us and told us our time was approaching the end so they would do two more songs. 2,3 started playing and I legit started crying (ehe). As it was May 14th (Rose Valentines day?) we did a pink ocean for Bangtan - it was really pretty!

Last song was Spring Day and did I cry? Yes. The song is very meaningful and personal to me, and only then I realized Bangtan would be leaving soon and wow it was depressing but beautiful. Afterwards they walked to the end and bowed and thanked us a few more times and then returned back to the front AND WOW THE POSES THEY DID I MEAN YOU’VE SEEN JIN&JK&YG etc videos going around wow they are beautiful and cute and precious I love them so much.

Oh wow this is way too long, messy and probably not even good but I wanted to write something in order to have something to read when I really want to remember things. The night was amazing, even though I didn’t eat the whole day and almost fainted at some point and apparently screwed up my knee (it’s 2 days later and I still can’t walk properly LOL) and the flight tickets cost a lot but IT WAS DEFINITELY 100% WORTH IT. If you ever have a chance to see Bangtan, I recommend it, it’s worth it.

So yeah, this Sunday happened. It was beautiful. I love them so much. I basically owe them my life, my happiness and I’m so grateful. I wish them great things in life and I hope some day I’ll have a chance to see them again ♥

[lordavanti]

ONESHOT Request: hello I'm reading your viking imagines and if the requests are open will you write 'Being the younger sister of Björn,Ubbe, Hvitsterk,Sigurd and Ivar? ❤

Words: 1920

He pulled you behind him into the forest, you looked over your shoulder, giggling before disappearing between the trees, embracing his touch while his lips placed on yours. This foolish love you shared with this boy made your life worth living. Your fingers tangled into his hair while he pushed you against a tree. His body pressed against yours, feeling every bit of warmth from him coming right at you. It felt good, your hand traveled over his chest while his hand lowered over your leg. ‘He seems like an eager one.’ A sudden voice snapped your right out of the moment. The boy startled, jumping way back while you only looked angry towards the trees. ‘Brother.’ You hissed. Ivar putted his fingers up, greeting you with a sarcastic smile before he pulled his body up to the tree stump not for aside him. ‘Let’s see.’ He began, gesturing the boy to come closer. You grabbed the boy with his elbow and threw Ivar a warning look. ‘Don’t start. I’m only one year younger, you treat me like a little child.’ You snapped to him. He was always around, keeping an eye on you. How much you loved him, this was annoying. You pushed the boy away. ‘No, stay.’ He stopped the boy from walking further. You clenched your teeth and turned back around to Ivar, almost begging him to let the situation go. ‘I’m your brother Y/n, I need to know if you are safe, I need to give my approval about certain things,’ his voice trailed when he looked over to the boy, judging. You knew right away that boy wouldn’t look for you again, certainly not after meeting this brothers … of all the brothers you had it had to be Ivar to begin with. ‘I don’t need your approval; I can manage on my own. You just do it because you like it to disturb my life.’ ‘Yes, a little.’ He admitted. You breathed out and Ivar send the boy away with a loose movement of his hand. ‘My other brothers aren’t like this.’ You pounded when the boy finally disappeared. ‘That’s because they have other thing on their mind.’ ‘Don’t you have to do something else then.’ ‘Y/n, let me do my job.’ ‘I hate your job Ivar. When are you gonna let me go?’ You asked, standing before him, still angry about his appearance right on the moment you started to feel something. ‘Never, you are my little sister. Come on.’ he fall down from the tree stump and started crawling. You rolled your eyes and followed him. ‘What if I get married?’ You asked, not really wanted to know what he would answer but you hoped it would be something positive. ‘Then I hope your husband treats you well.’ He looked up with a promising look and you forgot the whole idea of that positivity. That night during dinner you didn’t say much. You sat aside your mother, changing angry glares with Ivar who was just amused by your anger. ‘What is it Y/n?’ Aslaug asked, stroking your hair. You hated it when she got so touchy, like you were some kind of a doll, or baby. Why they all treated you like this? Yes you where the youngest of the four but it didn’t meant they had to treat you like it. ‘Nothing.’ You replied, looking over to Ivar who chuckled. Aslaug changed her gaze towards her youngest son. ‘What did you do Ivar?’ Aslaug asked him with a soft hidden smile. You threw your spoon into your soup and leaned back because you were for sure he would tell. ‘She was kissing a boy and I wanted to know who he was.’ He shrugged. Hvitserk who was just gonna put his spoon into his mouth froze, looking over at you before he looked back to Ivar. ‘Is that true?’ Aslaug asked you. ‘Yes.’ You murmured. Sigurd started to laugh and you turned your eyes to your other two brothers. Hvitserk suppressed a smile while Ubbe tried to be deadly serious about the matter. ‘What is so wrong? How old was Ubbe when he kissed a girl?’ You fired back. ‘That’s not the same sister.’ Ubbe reacted. ‘Why not?’ ‘Because you are a girl, a princess, you are precious.’ Sigurd answered for his brother. Ubbe nodded and you just sunk a little further in your seat until they all started about another subject. Hvitserk, who sat aside you, leaned over to your seat. ‘How was it?’ He asked, curious with that boyish grin on his face. You looked aside to him and smiled softly, knowing that Hvitserk always would be your back up in every situation. You stood before the great hall, facing Ubbe while your three other brothers sat on the stairs before. You pulled the sword, giving him a challenging grin. Those brothers all had their task in your life. Ivar kept an eye on you, Hvitserk was the real brother, caring, sharing, always around and Ubbe learned you the most, fighting for example. With Sigurd is was sometimes difficult, he didn’t act like a brother but could bring you the most at ease when you were troubled about something, just by sitting aside you, playing something. ‘Watch your feet.’ Ubbe pointed out. You looked down to your own feet, nodding confident before attacking him. Growing up with four brothers turned like them, strong headed and with the fighting skills. Although you needed some more practice, Ubbe was faster than you, stronger. In the little breathing space he gave you, you walked back, panting. ‘You do good Y/n.’ Hvitserk approved. You looked aside to your brother and smiled. Ivar was asking for your attention and when you looked at him he pointed down to the back of his knees. You frowned while looking back to Ubbe who was drinking, remembering the fight he lost against Björn, the small injury he got. The corner of your mouth got up, giving Ivar a promising look before turning back to Ubbe. On that part you could be as devious as Ivar sometimes was. You took Ubbe right back, making the wrong move so he was misled before kicking him against the back of his knee, causing him to fall through his knees. ‘Look at that, a shield maiden to be.’ Somebody announced. You turned around, a smile spreading over your face when you saw Björn, covered in fur, looking proud. You let your sword fall and ran at him, wrapping your arms around his chest after seeing him not for days. ‘Proud of you Y/n.’ He smiled. You felt the heath going up to your cheeks when you let go of him and he started to greet his other brothers. ‘Is Aslaug inside?’ He asked Ubbe. Your brother got up in the meantime and nodded, Björn disappeared right after. You sat down between Ivar and Hvitserk, looking over to Kattegat without paying any attention to what they were talking about. It took you a while to notice that the sounds changed, the crown changed. You hand petted Ivar his shoulder, looking how the people came together in the distance. ‘What is it?’ He asked, rather impatient. ‘Look.’ You pointed out. Your other brothers followed your finger towards the crown coming closer. But there was nothing you could see about why they were gathering. Ubbe pushed up, putting his sword back into his belt before he started walking. You rushed up, picking up your own sword before walking aside Ivar after  the other brothers. When they pushed through the crowd there wasn’t any of them who could say a word. Hvitserk pushed you into the safe zone between him and Ivar, the four of them looking to the man in front of them. You never knew your father well, you had memories of him but it didn’t present anything and now he stood here. You had heard so much about the famous Ragnar, you knew how your brothers looked towards him but you never could form your own image. But the grey old man before you hardly satisfied your imagination. Ragnar his eyes trailed off to Ivar who was smiling because he got the first attention. ‘Ivar, there is no mistaking you.’ Ragnar began before his eyes locked on you, intensely bleu green eyes. ‘Y/n.’ He said. You fingers clenched around your sword and Hvitserk grabbed your hand. Ragnar saw that movements, smiled on the same intensive way he looked. ‘I see you learned a lot.’ He tilted his head, you felt Ivar looking up to you. In that one moment Ragnar looked at you, your brothers where defending you by tensing in his look. You didn’t say a thing, looked how he walked away towards Ubbe, telling a whole speech that ended in the screams, ‘Who wants to be king!’ Later when everything was settle the five brothers of Ragnar joined their father in the great hall. You sat in the dark, curious but divided along side of Ivar, who just behaved the same as you. Björn did all the talking while Hvitserk and Ubbe were drinking and Sigurd really didn’t care. You asked yourself over and over again why he showed up after all these years. In the years he was away your brothers acted like fathers over you, while the real father was running of, just like you mother seemed to do right now. ‘Y/n.’ You startled up out your thoughts, looking over to him. ‘Yes?’ You asked slowly. ‘Do you want to travel with me?’ ‘She is not going anywhere with you father.’ Ivar reacted in defense.  Ragnar smiled, curious if you would let your brother defending you. ‘Why would I? I don’t know you.’ You said. His smile died away while he stroke his bald head. ‘You can’t actually blame her father.’ Ubbe began. ‘I always tried to imagine my father, yes I had memories but never one that kept lingering. I heard most from your fame from my brothers.’ ‘Can I make it up to you?’ Ragnar asked. ‘I’m not the only one you have to make it up to.’ That was the only answer you gave him. Your brothers missed a large part from their father to growing up. ‘She is right, for once.’ Ivar reacted. You kicked him against the arm and he chuckled, giving you a softer smile, even proud that you talked on your own. ‘For what’s it worth, I see you grow to become one of Kattegat most feared women.’ ‘She already is, she won from Ubbe today.’ Ivar smiled cheerful. ‘By your help.’ ‘You never said I couldn’t ask for help.’ You fired back to Ubbe. You smiled towards your older brother and he smiled right back. ‘You all should come join me to England.’ Ragnar announced. And the silent dropped immediately. You looked over to Hvitserk from who you knew had plans with Björn. Sigurd started to laugh as first. ‘You come back after all those years expecting that we will follow you everywhere?’ He spotted. Ragnar looked for some support and he didn’t find it with Ubbe, or Hvitserk, not even Björn. But when he looked over to you and Ivar he found something, something small. You looked aside to your brother, equally challenged to go in on it. But maybe it was a dangerous thing to say, although, you didn’t had to fear for your life with Ivar around. Like he said it so himself, he kept an eye on you.