#i know i said Yellow is a piece of sh!t but i actually love him. pls get him therapy

[charlitabutterscotch]

So I recently got into the Malevolent fandom due to a friend and tried sketching out my own design for Johnny boi here. I eventually got attached to the design with the mask and the horns, as shown on the first picture hehe

[dawninlatin]

We’re not getting a pet, love

Part of the Manorian Teacher AU

This was requested by @biaguiar11​. Sorry for taking so long, hope you like it:)

Words: 2307

AO3 Link

Masterlist

A/N: I would like to dedicate this fic to my cat, Chewbacca. Had you not been so adorable this morning, this piece of shit never would have existed. *tears up* I love you man<3<3

Also feel free to leave a comment, telling me what you think;)

«Come on!»

«No.»

«Manon, please.» Dorian tried his very best to make sad-puppy eyes at his girlfriend, pouting his lip, all of it to convince her that they simply had to get a cat.

«We’re not getting a cat, and if you send me one more GIF of cute kittens I will block you on all social media.» She was glaring at him from across the counter, and Dorian would be lying if he said it didn’t terrify him slightly.

They’d been having this discussion for weeks, but she wouldn’t budge. Dorian insisted that it was the natural step to take next in their relationship - they’d recently bought a house - and honestly, every home should have a cat.

Too bad Manon didn’t agree.

«But just imagine a teeny, tiny, adorable kitten curling up against you, with it’s tiny paws and tiny, little face.» The image was so adorable it made Dorian tear up a little.

Manon shook her head, giving him an annoyed look. «Kittens aren’t adorable. They’re cunning, vicious little creatures that will kill you in your sleep,» she said, shuddering.

«Don’t tell me the Manon Blackbeak is afraid of kittens?» 

«Pfft, I’m not afraid of kittens,» Manon claimed, but Dorian noticed the way she didn’t meet his eyes, the way she bit her lip. His girlfriend was many things, but a good liar was not one of them. 

Dorian was baffled. Even if he hated that word, it was the only way to truly describe how shocked he was at this admittance. She was the one who killed the spiders in their relationship, after all. «So getting a pet snake is fine with you, but you’re afraid of a cat?»

Last week, when they’d had the exact same argument, Manon had suggested that if he was so eager to get a pet, they could get a snake. He knew she’d said it just to shut him up, but he wouldn’t be surprised if he one day came home to them having a pet snake. The mere idea had him feeling a little sick. He’d told her as much then, but Manon had only grinned like a mad woman.

No way were they getting a snake.

«I’m done with this discussion,» was all she said before disappearing up the stairs.

Dorian wasn’t done though, and he stood up, trailing after her, all the way into their bedroom, where he found her putting away laundry. She always started cleaning when she was angry.

«Why can’t we get a cat?» he whined.

«I’m allergic,» she said, her words blunt. She didn’t even turn around to look at him, instead walking into the adjoining bathroom with a pile of clothes.

Flopping onto the bed, Dorian said, «We both know you’re not allergic.» He gave her a pointed stare as she reentered the room, stopping in the doorway.

«I just don’t understand why you absolutely have to get a cat.»

«I just don’t understand why you absolutely refuse to get a cat.» Dorian pouted once more, fluttering his eyelashes for extra effect.

Manon let out a long, annoyed sigh, but he knew her anger had faded based on the faint smile playing on her lips.

«Pets are a lot of work, Dorian. We’re busy enough as it is.»

This, at least, was an argument he had prepared for. «It isn’t. All you have to do is feed it twice a day, let it out when it has to pee and give it some love and attention. And you’re very good at the love and attention part!»

«But I have already decided that we’re not getting a cat.»

Turning so he lay on his stomach, he brought back the puppy eyes from earlier, and said, «But think of all the sad, lonely kittens at the animal shelter who doesn’t have anyone to love them…» Dorian pretended to wipe away a tear. Manon answered by giving him a deadly glare accompanied by her middle finger.

«Must you be so dramatic? I’m really dating a child…»

Dorian placed his head in his palms, kicking his legs just to further her point. «You love it when I’m dramatic.»

«I don’t,» Manon said, sitting down next to him.

«You do,» Dorian said, flicking her nose.

«Don’t boop me.»

«If we had a kitten I could boop them instead.»

Manon quickly stood up again, throwing her arms in the air as she let out a frustrated groan. «I’m not losing this argument!»

-

She had lost the argument.It was the only way to explain why she now found herself standing at the local animal shelter. 

Manon wanted to be mad, she really did, but Dorian was making it hard for her with his fawning over all the tiny, squeaking kittens.

«Oh, look at that one Manon. Isn’t it adorable?» 

No, they weren’t adorable, she wanted to say, eager to get it over with as soon as possible. They had come her straight after work, so she was tired, and hungry, and she didn’t even want to get a cat. This was all on Dorian.

But to be fair…he deserved this. Deserved to be happy. It was what had made her cave in the end, actually. 

Dorian had pouted his lips and made those puppy eyes for the billionth time and said, «Don’t you want me to be happy?» 

And truth be told…she would gladly endure a little ball of fur terrorizing their home if it meant the love of her life was happy.

Manon rolled her eyes at her own thoughts. Living with Dorian had made her soft…

Sensing her discomfort, Dorian placed a hand on her lower back, drawing her closer. He pressed a light kiss on her head before his attention shifted back to the small demons. 

But Manon couldn’t stay in here for much longer. Animals in cages, even if they were well cared for, and only here for a short while, had always made her uncomfortable, and the hall was too dark, too cramped, the walls coming closer, and then there was the gods-damned smell. Was this smell supposed to take permanent residence in her house from now on? She had to get out, had to get air-

«I’m sorry,» she mumbled to Dorian before heading towards the heavy door at the end of the hall. She’d nearly made it when a tiny squeak made her stop. 

She crouched down and peered into the dark cage. In one of the corners, she could make out a tiny, pitch-black kitten taking her in with big, sad eyes.

«What’s wrong with this one?» she asked the middle aged woman that had shown them around.

«He’s a fighter, that one,» the woman said, giving Manon a grim smile. 

«Born much smaller than the rest of the litter, so his mother abandoned him. When he came to us, he was so weak we didn’t think he would survive, but he fought with teeth and claws, and now he’s as healthy as any other cat.» She looked proud of the little black cat. «He still keeps to himself though, won’t go near the other cats, as afraid as he is. I swear he is even terrified of his own shadow.»

Hearing these words, Manon felt something strange settle deep inside, and she hardly had time to think before she announced to the room; «We want this one.»

Dorian, who’d made his way over to her, looked at the kitten, then back at Manon, and grinned. «If you say so.»

Maybe this wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

-

This was a horrible idea.

When they’d first gotten home, the cat with them, Manon had gone straight to the shower, leaving Dorian to take care of it all.  

Once she emerged from the bathroom, nearly an hour later, Dorian was still sitting on the floor, and the cat was still inside the cardboard box they had carried him in. 

Apparently, Dorian had tried everything he could think of to coax the kitten out of his hiding spot, but he remained in the corner, curled up into a quivering ball. 

It wasn’t until he had spotted Manon, looking over the edge, that he had let out a high-pitched meow, making his way out of the box on stumbling feet.

«Him,» she tried explaining, pointing to Dorian, as the cat made his way towards her, «Go to him.» But the cat either didn’t understand, or he simply didn’t care, stopping right in front of her.

«I’m not your mother,» she told the creature, voice frantic. It was sitting on the floor, staring at her with big, yellow eyes. It blinked once, and Manon jumped off the floor.

«Okay, that cat is giving me the creeps, so I’ll leave you to it, I have work to do.» 

Dorian’s answering chuckle followed her into the kitchen, where she started making a much needed cup of coffee. She opened the cabinet and pulled out her favorite mug. The one shaped like a t-rex.

A yelp escaped her as she turned around to find the tiny, black kitten sitting right in front of her, head tilted slightly. «Holy sh-»

«I think he likes you,» Dorian said, appearing in the doorway. He was wearing his usual smug expression. 

«Nope, I can’t do it,» Manon said, taking a step forward. The cat followed, trailing her like a shadow. 

Deciding to distract him, Manon walked over to his bowls and stood there, waiting, until he began eating. Once she’d made sure he wouldn’t fall into his water bowl and drown, Manon hauled ass all the way to her study on the second floor, leaving Dorian with the horrid beast he had wanted so badly.

As the door shut behind her, she let out a sigh of relief. If the cat somehow managed to reach her now, she was moving out. He could just have the house.

Manon began to work, needing to plan her classes for tomorrow. She tried to focus on her task, but more often than not, her mind wandered off to what she was missing out on downstairs.

She truly didn’t care for the creature, but what if he was scared? Would he be able to settle in their home? He had been treated so horribly…had been so alone. Would he get the love and care he needed from them?

Cursing her boyfriend for putting her in this situation, Manon grabbed her laptop and dragged herself back down to the living room. 

What she didn’t expect to find was the house all quiet, Dorian sitting on the couch with a book, the cat nowhere to be seen. «Where is he?» she whispered carefully.

«Under the couch, sleeping. I think he likes dark corners.»

«Hm,» was all Manon said, sitting next to him. She opened her laptop once more and tried to focus on her work.

«Are you okay?» Dorian asked, and as she turned to look at him, she found concern softening his features.

She sighed. «Yes. I’ll get used to it…eventually.» She didn’t sound entirely convinced, but Dorian released a breath of relief.

«You know I love you, right?» Dorian asked, before standing up and pressing a kiss to her forehead.

«Yeah, and I love you,» she whispered back, pulling him down so his lips could meet hers.

As they broke apart, Dorian headed towards the stairs, announcing, «I’m taking a shower, won’t be long.»

Manon sunk further into the couch, fighting to stay awake. She just had to finish up her work-

A high-pitched meow interrupted her, and she looked down to find their cat trying to climb onto the couch, his claws imbedded deep into the fabric. «Not the couch,» Manon groaned softly, but there was no real reprimand in her voice. 

The kitten struggled to pull his tiny body onto the piece of furniture, and when he finally succeeded, Manon reached over to pet his little head. The movement felt awkward, but the cat’s eyes widened, and he quickly climbed onto Manon’s chest, before settling there, right over her heart. 

Manon’s whole body stiffened at first, nervous for what the beast would do next, but he only began purring, pressing his small paws against her chest. «Fine,» Manon whispered, giving in at last. She placed her laptop on the table, simply letting herself relax.

She began stroking him, and he answered by purring even louder.

«What a big day you must’ve had,» Manon said to the small cat. «I can’t imagine how scary it must be to move into such a big house with two strangers.»

He probably couldn’t understand her, but she kept going anyway.

«This is your home from now on. We’ll give you love and care, and I promise we won’t abandon you.» The kitten looked at her with those big eyes of his, meowing once. It made Manon’s heart feel all warm and fuzzy.

«We need to give you a name, too. Dorian wanted Batman, you know, since you’re all black, but one, that is the most uncreative, unoriginal name I have ever heard, and two, all the other cats will bully you for it, and we can’t have any of that, can we?» She gave him a serious look. «So I refused, you can thank me later.»

But Batman or not, the cat still needed a name. Manon searched her memory for anything that could fit. It had to be unique, and badass, and- 

«Abraxos.»

The cat lifted his head, staring at her.

«Your name is Abraxos,» Manon decided, marveling at how right it felt.

After that, he settled down, curling into a ball once more. Before Manon knew it, Abraxos was asleep, and at the small, warm weight on her chest, at the sound of him snoring softly, Manon smiled, knowing she already loved this cat very, very much.

[liya4kar]

Liyada’s Pokespe AU Masterpost

I decided to do a Pokespe AU Masterpost because I have a lot of them and unfortunately never get to speak of them with anyone because nobody knows them. And doing a master post with also help me to actually keep track of all of them.

I’ll also probably do one post for the more developed AU where I can develop them fully, as I’ll try to keep this post short.

If you want to send me an ask about any of them, please do! I’d love to speak of them more~ If you want to know more about a character in an AU, or how some events happen, I will love to answer you!

Also, every work relate to those AU will be tag on my blog, you can find the tag name at the beginning of each AU, as well as the related fics if there are any!

Summary:

The Magical Dexholders AU

The Magical Pokémons AU

Humans Gods AU Number 1

Humans Gods AU Number 2

Kagepro AU Number 1

Kagepro AU Number 2

Kagepro AU Number 3 (Though the only link between this AU and Kagepro is the idea behind Ene)

Yorozuya no Lack-Chan AU

Legendary Dexholders AU

Blond Family AU

One Piece AU

Natural Spirits AU

Ducktales AU

1. The Magical Dexholders (Will have a special post)

(Fic for it: The Magical Dexholders)

Tag: #The Magical Dexholder AU

A canon-compliant AU, where all the canons adventure has already taken place, and when a new adventure arises. Except that this time it’s not an Evil Team but the Darkness Force of the Evil that is so Bad that They stole the Snack of a Four Years Old Child, and that the Dexholders are not fighting with their Pokémons but with their Magical Powers they obtained from some random strange sassy colorful creatures, and they fight with the power of Friendship, Anime, and Protagonist on their side.

Aka a total self-compliant Magical Girl AU where I put whatever strange idea I have. 

In this AU, you can find:

Sassy little creatures

Characters being dumb

Diamond and Silver bonding over their passion for Proteam Omega while fighting The Darkness of the Evil that is blabla Snack of a Child blabla.

Blue and Yellow kicking ass.

Hippie Celebi (oops this one is a spoiler)

Not all the characters are Magical Holders right now but they will all appear up to Sun and Moon at least. Maybe SWSH if I or someone finds a way to incorporate them. (Though if you ask for the destiny of any specific character of this AU in an ask, I’ll surely answer!)

Some people bonding over their friends being dumb (Or how Pearl, Green, Crystal, and Y ended up in a group chat with a Satanic God) (Ooops Spoiler again)

2. The Magical Pokémons (Will have a special post)

Tag: #Spe Magical Pokémons AU

This AU, though created before the Magical Dexholders, is actually linked to the Magical Dexholders. Technically, they happen in the same setting and meet at one point. But of course, when I wanted to write a fic for it alongside the Dexholders, I realized I actually have no time to write it! Ahah-

Basically, still a Magical Girl AU, still a parodical AU where the only goal is to have fun and laugh, but this time it’s not the Dexholders that are the Magical Boys or Girls but their Pokémons! Well, not all of them. Two per Dexholders. Do you realize how complicated it’s to manage all the DH? So all their Pokémons? No way- So only two Pokémons per DH.

Warning, this AU happen before Black was released from the Light Stone. But Sun and Moon are already out of the Ultra-Dimension. Respecting the timeline? It’s my AU I do what I want. (Mainly cause this AU was created back in 2018 actually)

In this AU, you can find:

Pokémons doing dumb sh*t when their trainers are not in sight.

Black being the only humans having powers because he was in the Light Stone when Reshiram received powers, and now he can sometimes go out of the Light Stone when the situation is desperate enough.

Also when Black activates his power he wears a white wedding dress.

Yellow also joining sometimes?

3. Human Gods AU Number 1

Tag: #Spe Human Gods AU Number 1

I always found weird there were only Pokémon Gods in the Pokémon Universe. So what did I do? I created not only one, but two Humans God AU! And here we go for the first.

So. Once Upon a Time, there were Human Gods. But they were not really nice. Actually, they wanted to destroy all the Pokémon Gods and to at best, reduce Pokémons as slaves, at worst killing them all. Of course, the Pokémons Gods did not agree, and after a (little) war, the Humans Gods were sealed by the Pokémons Gods and erased of mainstream history. But of course, things are not that easy, Humans Gods still have secret followers and are planing for their return.

Centuries later, when those followers are finally close to getting back their Gods and need to steal some old parchments for that, they are noticed by Cynthia who asked the help of the Sinnoh Trio. Of course, nothing works like expected, and when the Human Gods finally break their seal, they need bodies to reincarnate in and it’s really convenient that Diamond and Platinum are just right there. Now, the Humans Gods free and ready to put their reign of terror in place, it’s up to Pearl (who saw his best friends lovers possessed in front of him yeah!), the other DH, and the (for once) united army of the Pokémon Gods to stop them before it’s too late. Oh, and also maybe get Diamond and Platinum back.

In this AU you can find:

AnGsT

Entourageshipping

Epic fights

I mean there are powerful Gods so EPIC FIGHTS

Even more angst

Maybe Major Character Death. To see.

Development of Pokémons and Humans relationship

Did I mention Angst?

4. Human Gods AU Number 2 (Will have a special post)

Tag: #Spe Humans Gods AU Number 2

And yeah, there is a Number 2- They are not the only AU that ends to have several versions of it at the end.

So. Basically, like in the previous AUs, thousands of years ago there was a war between the Pokémons and Humans Gods, each other judging the other being invasive and dangerous to the other being. Normal Humans and Gods also participate in this war. But on both sides, some start to lose faith in this conflict and believe that cohabitation is possible. Things become more complicated when Gods from both factions start to bond. Together, they decide to end the was so everyone can live peacefully together. If the Pokémons Gods accept it pretty well, the Humans ones don’t, especially after one of the most vehement deity simulated a Pokémon attack, and they decide to end the war by using a magical machine to destroy the Pokémons Gods (the one used in the Kalos war is a less-powerful derivate of it).

 As the Humans Gods working for the peace don’t have much time left before the arms use, they take an extreme measure and seal their fellow Gods to the price of their own life. The Pokémons Gods then decided to end the war and to let the Pokémons and Humans live together without interfering with them anymore. They also used a bit of their power to grant the last wish of the Humans Gods who sacrificed themselves, who wanted to see a world where everyone can cohabitate. The said Humans Gods, no longer Gods, reincarnate as normal Humans once in while, still having a little fragment of their powers, 

Thousands of years later, the seal finally breaks, and the Humans Gods come out, some planing their revenge, some wanting to see how the world has evolved in their absence before taking a decision. Obviously, the DH gets involved. Either by meeting the gods and decide to help or fight them depending on the situation or by being one of the reincarnated Gods themselves.

What do you find in this AU:

Angst, surely

Some DH in God versions with cool designs

Human and Pokémon relationship development

Lore created from crap by me, with some inspiration from the real world but with also a lot of invented stuff, because hey it’s my AU and I do what I want

Magic. Everywhere.

5. Kagepro AU Number 1 (Aka the Fidel to the Kagepro Plot)

Tag: #Liya’s Spe Kagepro AU 1

I used to be in Kagepro a lot last, so OF COURSE, I ended doing an AU of it. Wait, not only one actually- I’ll list them by “How close to the Kagepro plot they are”.

So, in this first one, it’s basically “We replace the Kagepro characters with Pokespe characters”, though some things change, depending on the personality of the chosen characters. But they still have the same powers as the originals Kagepro cast.

Here the main cast!

Red as Ayano

Green as Shintaro

Blue as Takane/Ene

Yellow as Haruka/Konoha

Prof Oak as Kenjiirou (Ayano’s father)

Platinum as Kido Tsubomi

Diamond as Seto Kyousuke

Pearl as Kano Shuuya

White as Momo

Whi-Two as Mary

X as Hibiya

Y as Hiyori

What you can find in this AU:

Angst, I missed you!

Family relationship between several characters because ships are great, family is better.

Major Character Deaths. Like, they all die at some point but come back to life because of time loops reason!

Damn, there is so much angst possible with this one.

6. Kagepro AU Number 2 (Aka I take a lot of liberty from the original plot but you can still see the Kagepro influence) (Will have a post)

Tag: #Liya’s Kagepro AU 2

So... How to explain this one... 

It’s my most developed Kagepro AU, and so my more complex one. Too complex to even summarize it in this post (I try and stop when it became longuer than all the previous AUs combined ahah-), it’s why it’ll be the first one to have its post. Please be patient, I’ll link it as soon that I'll post it!

It also follows the canon, though some events/characters interactions change.

What can you find in this AU:

Angst, to change

Four DHs that are not all related being a found family because I can.

Major Characters Deaths. Once again.

Friendships too. Friendships are great.

7. Kagepro AU Number 3 (aka there is nearly no link to Kagepro by this point)

Tag: #Liya’s Spe Kagepro AU 3

So. In Kagepro, I always loved Ene. And all the angst include by everyone believing you are dead while you are transformed into a virus/computer program.

So basically, there is a crazy scientist organization that is doing all sorts of experiments on humans, to get immortality. Those experiments are killing nearly all the people who go through them, the rare survivors being broken beyond repair and not immortal at all. If they took random people at first, they end up taking more different people, from all backgrounds with all kinds of lives, to see if there is any difference. They tend to socially isolate their prospect guinea pigs before simulating their death in an accident.

One of this experience include separating the soul from the body: they transform the brains data into informatical data and transfer it in a computer. Like any of their experiments, there is a lot of death. But for once, it succeeds, and they end up with one person with their body in a coma while their “soul” is on a computer. Thrilled by this success, they do other attempts and end up with two other survivors. All of them are determined and stubborn people who have some people they hold dear to see again. At some point, the organization decides to try to kill the bodies to see if the informatical data stay, and the three of them decide to run away on the Internet, so the scientists can’t try this new experiment. They change of appearance, name, and end up in the computer of the BW Agency, and after some misunderstood, end up working for them.

White is glad to have three artificial intelligence helping with her work, she did not remember her software supplier having programs that powerful.

On the meanwhile, Pearl, Shauna, and Green are glad to not be experiments anymore, nor do they mind helping White with her work, though they would like to get their bodies back one day.

And far from the Agency, Platinum, Blue, and X, after a rather strange meeting, end up investigating their friends' mysterious deaths of their friends with the help of Lack-Two.

What do you find in this AU:

When was the last time I saw you; Angst?

Pearl, Shauna, and Green are doing shenanigans. And also end being close friends/found family?

White is also joining them in shenanigans

Funny and light with White and the three “Yes yes we are AI, absolutely not humans!” while the others are more on a dark, crime movie atmosphere

Also, some characters don’t cope well with their friends' deaths

Do we tag Major Character Deaths when someone believes someone else is dead even if it’s not the case and that the reader knows it?

8. Yorozuya no Lack-chan AU

Fics for it: Dogwalker Lack and The Begining of Yorozuya no Lack-Chan

Tag #Yorozuya no Lack-chan AU

Got a drabble request once and ended up doing a whole AU of it because meh why not? Like you can say with the title, it is somehow Gintama inspired.

So basically, at the end of BW2 Lack-two got fired from the International Police and start doing odd jobs for a living. He even created an agency for it, who do any work from you as long that you pay. He even has two employees, who he doesn’t really pay, aka Whi-Two and X. Yeah.

What do you find in this AU:

Furry Neko Sun

Characters being dumb

Do you wanna laugh?

Characters doing odd jobs

9. Legendary Dexholders AU (Will do a post about this one)

Fic for it: Giratina

Tag: #Legendary Dexholders AU

Being an immortal god can be boring after a few thousand years, especially when nothing had happened for a while. And one of the advantages of being a God is to left a copy of yourself while you are wandering around in a human body.

Aka several Legendaries Pokémons decide to just reincarnate in humans and, of course, they had to end up becoming Dexholders and have a complicated life. Well, at least they did not have that much fun since the last drinking contest between Kyogre and Lugia five hundred years ago.

What do you find in this AU:

An AU firstly created to be funny but the only fic I wrote about it ended up being a character study fic

But at the end, the Legendaries Pokémons are just doing shenanigans

Arceus is so done with them

Also feature mainly the main Sinnoh Legendaries Pokémons because I love them but there are also a few others

10. Blonde Family AU

Fics about it: Don't listen to others confessions or you'll end as responsible as them and To be a Cousin

Tag: #Spe Blonde Family AU

What if several blonde characters were related? Aka the AUs where Yellow, Pearl, Bianca, and Y are all cousins, and Emerald is the son of Palmer but neither Em nor Palmet know it until Ruby and Sapphire decide to investigate what happened to Emerald’s parents.

In this AU, you find:

Yellow, Pearl, Bianca, and Y are cousins, pretty close to each other, but when they see each other it usually ends up in a catastrophe

Emerald could not care less about his father because he has a found family but Ruby and Sapphire still decide to investigate (notably to kick their b*** if one of them is still alive and abandoned Emerald).

To Palmer’s defense, it was an adventure before he met Pearl’s mother, and Emerald’s mom ran away without telling him she was pregnant

Either cousins doing dumb cousins stuff together or Ruby and Sapphire going on a hunt to kick Palmer’s a** while Em and Pearl look and eat popcorns.

11. One Piece AU

Fic about it: Bonding on the Grand Line

Tag: #Liya’s Spe One Piece AU

With this AU, we arrive in the AUs that don’t take place in the canon world! The other AUs where all somehow link to the canon world and the canon adventures of the DH, except for the Kagepro number 1. But starting from this one, they all take place in other worlds!

This AU was created for the Pirate Summer Event of the Pokespe Art Community Discord and but I like it so I’ll probably write more about it if I find time to.

So basically, your One Piece AU, that happened 20 years before the death of Gold Roger (so 40 years before Luffy & Co.). To protect his best friends, Pearl ends up becoming a pirate, captain of his own crew (with the Sinnoh Gym Leaders!). And being a pirate on the Grand Line is not always easy.

What do you find in this AU:

Pearl's and Cheren's friendship. I’d die for it.

Pearl, Cheren, and the Sinnohan and Unovan Gym Leaders doing shenanigans

But also a bit of angst because hey, you know me now

Also other characters but I need to plan more their role in this AU

12. Natural Spirits AU (there will be definitely a post about this one)

Tag: Spe Natural Spirits AU

There are two beings on Earth: Humans and Natural Spirits, magical beings close to nature, each one of them being connected to a natural concept. The Natural Spirits stay hide in their cities, with only a few humans knowing their existence, and tend to despise the humans, destroying the planets at a ridiculous rate. But the Natural Spirits society is complicated, and as the human society, is far from perfect.

X, a prodigy Spirits, can’t take the pressure anymore and isolate himself far from his city, near the human town. Whi-Two, another Spirit, have a strange fascination for the humans but never go through the forest and the human town frontier. Until the day when they each meet one human, and befriend them, despite the warnings they had heard since they were children. Hiding that they are not humans, they end up joining their two new friends to a rather strange place call High-school. 

Pearl and Sapphire have rather normal lives. School, homework, friends... But since they met two new people in the forest, things start to become more interesting. Especially with the wave of people trying to take over the world... Wait, what?

What do you find in this AU:

A friendship between four characters who never met in the canon

But all the other DHs and several secondary characters have their roles

And some of them are also Natural Spirits

High-school life

Magic too

Both Humans and Spirits teams trying to take over the world and the four friends had to stop them every time

Also, the Natural Spirits society is like humans one, very far from perfect

Secret identity problems like hiding to your human friends that you can actually speak to mushrooms.

13. Ducktales AU (Will have a post because there is so much to say about this one)

Tag: Spe Ducktales AU

Ducktales, Woo-Ooo!

I love Ducktales. I have been hyperobsessing on it recently, so of course, I had to make an AU out of it! Special thanks to Vex who supported my random brainstorming in her DMs.

So... Basically, once upon a time, the richest Duck of the world, Prof McWak, had four grandchildren, two pairs of siblings: Green and Blue, and Red and Yellow. Like any normal family, on their weekends they used to go on ancient temples with deadly traps and fight monsters to get new treasures. When Prof McWak died, the four cousins, now young adults, continue to go on adventures, while Red, Yellow, and Green found their own families. But everything ends one day when, following some disastrous event, Yellow disappears, more likely to be dead. The three left cousins argue and end up splitting up, Blue founding her own company, Green becoming the CEO of their grandfather empire, and Red leaving with his new-hatched son and Yellow’s egg, never contacting his cousins again.

Ten years later, Diamond and Pearl, two cousins who grew up as brothers, accidentally break into the infamous McWak Enterprise CEO manor and met his oldest daughter, Platinum. After she brought them in a self-proclaimed adventure, when the trio became good friends, they have the surprise to find that first, Diamond’s Dad/Pearl’s “Uncle” Red and Platinum’s Father Green are actually cousins and that since they blew up Red’s houseboat during their adventures, they now get to live in the McWak Manor.

What happens next is history.

What do you find in this AU:

The Kanto quartet, the Sinnoh Trio, and Moon being all relatives because FAMILY TROPE YEAH

Pearl and chibi sassy Moon investigating Yellow’s disappearance

Family, Humor, Adventures, Angst AU

Red and Green need to learn how to communicate

Also, Sinnoh Trio adventures because those three are too precious

It’s all for the moment! I’ll probably add more AUs as I’ll inevitably create more. Thank you for reading this AU Masterpost!

[slut-4-beetlejuice]

The Demon and the Board (beetlejuice fanfiction

Otherwise known as "Beeja-Board 2 electric boogaloo" also known as "I actually put a lot of effort into this, but I'm going to pretend like I didnt and make jokes about it to protect my pride lol"

Couple of PSAs: 1. So, this is kind of a sequel to my beetlejuice ouija board headcannons, check that out to see how we got here, and 2. So, I'm not all that experienced in writing BJ, so constructive criticism is always welcome! Hopefully I'll figure him out as we go along.

Ok, here we go!

"So babes, you wanna know what a bio exorcist is?" The green haired demon asked through a smirk. You stared at him blankly, trying to figure out what the hell just happened. One moment you were playing with an ouija board, then shit got wild and now theres a demon standing in your bedroom. And to make matters worse, his suit was giving you a headache. "Wh...what the hell?!" You asked, confused. "Who are you, wha-..." you started putting the pieces together. "You're beetlejuice, arent you?" "Sh sh shhh!!" The specter scolded you. "Careful with the b word babes. And yea, thats me," he flashed you a wicked grin "the ghost with the most."

You laughed a bit. Well, more forcefully breathed out. "Holy shit I summoned a demon." "Yes, yes you did!" He laughed, "now, do you wanna know what a bio exorcist is or not?" You rolled your eyes at the admittedly cute man in front of you. "Sure," you shrug, "what is a bio exorcist?" Beetlejuice grinned and whipped out a white board. "Ok, so, when you die in your house, you have to stay there for a certain amount of time" he said, drawing a house with little dead stick figures in it. "But, as you a breather know, when people are no longer alive, and therefore can no longer pay rent, new, living people are brought in to pay for the house!" He explained, erasing the dead stick figures and putting in living ones. "Now, normally, this ain't a problem. If you dont like the new roommates, scare em out" he started drawing ghosts. "But what if you're bad at scaring? See, that's where I come in."

Beetlejuice threw the whiteboard behind his back and smiled, standing straighter and straightening out his suit. He stuck his hand out for you to shake. You did. He was...cold yes, but somehow warmer than you expected. "Hi!" He grinned, "I'm B-E-E-T-L-E-J-U-I-C-E, The bio exorcist! I come in and scare out all the breathers so you can breath easy, and ya know, rest in peace and all that jazz!"

You laughed. You found it odd that he spelled out his name despite no longer being in the ouija board, but still found his whole display very entertaining. And oh man, he looked pleased as punch to get a laugh out of you. He had to admit, he found this breather to be better looking than most. They seemed so sweet too...

"So what's your name beautiful" he grinned, showing off his slightly yellow teeth. "Y/N" you said, grinning back. "And, I appreciated the lesson in bio exorcism. Is that a common profession for the afterlife?" Beetlejuice shook his head. "Nope! I'm the one and only! Pretty damn good at it too, if I do say so myself." He seemed so cocky and sure of himself. What you wouldn't give for that kind of confidence...

"So, wait," you asked, "if you're a bio exorcist, what we're you doing in an ouija board?" Suddenly, the spectors demeanor changed. It looked almost like his vibrate green hair started to turn blue at the ends and he scratched the back of his head, looking down. "Well, eh... being dead is kind of lonely. I dont talk to anyone really. Well, I mean, there's my best friend, but shes got like, school and stuff, and friends that are still alive like here and we dont talk as much as we used to. Theres this dead couple that live- well...exist in the house too, but I'm pretty sure I'm just annoying to them. I'm annoying to everyone. I though ouija board duty would be a good way to make new friends." Something he said bothered you. "You dont annoy me" you assured the demon. "Yet" he mumbled back. You smiled softly at him.

"I dont think you can annoy me. I dont believe it." "Oh you should." He said bluntly, "I'm a demon for a reason." You shook you head, "nope, done believe it. You'll have to prove it." Beetlejuice looked up at you, a smile tugging at his lips as he caught on. "Oh yea? Is that a challenge?" He purred, the green returning to his hair. Did...did it change color with his moods?

"Yes sir, yes it is!" You said smugly. "I bet I could summon you every day and still not get annoyed." "Oh you're on!" Beetlejuice laughed, loving a good challenge. Then, he felt it. The farmilar tug in the back if his head of a summons. Lydia. Shit, how long had he been gone? She must be worried about him.

"Uh, hey babes, I gotta go. Urgent bio exorcist business." He said, dispite not wanting to leave. "But, I'm holding you to this challenge! If you dont summon me tomorrow, I'm gonna say I won. You know how to summon me, no excuses!!" You laughed and smiled reassuringly. "Dont worry, I'll summon you." You promised. Beetlejuice smiled as he started to become smokey and vanish. "You better" was the last thing you heard him say.

Definitely not what you expected when you decided to play with an ouija board. Though, you're definitely not upset at the outcome either.

(A/N: so like, I did my best. It's not great but, I also dont hate it. As always constructive criticism is welcome and if you want this to be a series just let me know!! I had a lot of fun writing it!

Edit: someone said they liked it better when I color coded it, and then I realized I forgot to color code it before posting last night!!! So here it is, now coded with colors lol)

[ashintheairlikesnow]

The Rescue, Part 2: Nate’s POV

Remember how I told you there were two parts to The Rescue? I lied. There’s actually three or four, because Nate got chatty. Whoops. In any case, here’s the second part of the Rescue and how Nate got Danny away from Bram. Follows directly on The Rescue, Part One (may want to read that one first for context if you haven’t yet

Tagging @special-spicy-chicken, @spiffythespook, @bleeding-demon-teeth, @finder-of-rings, and @whumpywhumper!

CW: The dog kennel makes a reappearance. Referenced/implied noncon, serious violence, blood, mention of dissociation/trauma

“I was m-mad,” Nate said flatly.

“Mad?” The detective raised an eyebrow, tapping her pencil on the yellow notepad laid out in front of her. “That’s it?”

“I was r-r-really mad.”

“Based on the drawing you made for us of what you keep referring to, it’s… clear what happened to Mr. Michaelson during the incident you say led you to plan an escape. So, I looked at the notes from the officer you initially spoke with… it says here that it wasn’t the first time.”

Nate ground his teeth together, fighting the surge of anger and picking up his mug of coffee instead, taking a slow drink, letting the scalding liquid burning the roof of his mouth distract him. All of this was helpful, he reminded himself. All of this was one step closer to getting Bram somewhere where he couldn’t hurt Danny anymore. “No,” he said, keeping the word quick and curt. “He m-made him wear it when h-h-he was angry with him. It was the th-thing he hated most. He’s… he was sc-scared of it.“

He was tired of answering questions, and Danny was all alone back in the breakroom, sitting in that stupid fucking folding chair with a blanket around his shoulders. Alone. He didn’t do well by himself. He didn’t like being alone - Bram had taken Nate on a supply run once and left Danny chained in the living room with enough food for a few days, told him they’d be gone for a weekend - and then stayed more than twice that long.

Danny had been desperate and terrified and so fucking grateful to Bram for coming back. Certain they’d left him in the living room to die, just like when Bram threw him in the cellar, in the dark. Then dragged Nate away to a small hunting shed down the road for a week, two weeks, a whole fucking month.

Returning to a Danny thirsty and starving, out of apples and water, willing to do anything - anything - if Bram promised not to leave again.

And somehow, Nate thought, Bram always seemed to know the exact day Danny ran out of food and water.

Nate’s bad hand tried to tighten into a fist and he winced at the spike of pain, the feeling of bones badly healed grinding against each other.

“I w-want to see R-… Danny,” Nate said, taking another sip of coffee, trying to calm down. Steady. You are rescued captives, not criminals, and they’ve already said Danny’s brother will be taking you back to sleep at his place. “We sh-… should talk to you t-t-together. In the same r-room.”

“I just want a few pieces of information to round out what we know,” The woman reassured him.

“Ma’am, I uh-understand that, but h-h-he’s scared. He d-d-doesn’t like being alone, it’s b-b-better if we t, talk together-”

“Listen, this is not an interrogation and we’re really not holding you. We only have you in here because the trauma expert we brought in has said it might be better for him not to overhear it, especially the bits involving…” She tapped her pen on the drawing Nate had made for her of the thing Abraham put on Danny’s face, then tapped her own cheek.

“But I h-h-have to hear m-me say it?” Nate sighed, and it felt good to sigh in a place where no one was going to mock him for how often he did it, or hit him, or cut the words STOP FUCKING SIGHING SO MUCH into his back. 

Part of him ached with missing Bram’s presence, the hand that would have been on the back of his neck right now, telling him what to say without ever having to speak a word… but that part was too far gone, down a well of once you did this, it was too fucking late. “It’s n-n-not easier for me, you know.”

“Isn’t it? When we tried to speak to Mr. Michaelson, he shut down entirely.” The woman tapped her pen again, and Nate narrowed his eyes. That sound was getting really, really annoying. “I only want to learn a little bit more. You’re doing just fine, Mr. Vandrum.”

“I’m n-not worried about me.” Nate took a breath, gentled his voice. He tried even to gentle his expression, but it was hard by now to break the self-protective mask he wore, the one where bitterness and hostility fought for dominance, where he always looked bored and angry. It was a safer face than any other, and only with Danny did he find it easy to lose. “Even if it’s j-j-just a break,” He said quietly. “I want to s-s-see him. Soon.”

“Just a few more questions, Nate, and we’ll facilitate that. Once we’re done, we’ll take you back in. I’ve been told Mr. Michaelson’s brother has picked up a couple hotel rooms for you to stay in, and we can take this back up in the morning afterward. Is that acceptable?”

He thought about it, but they both knew it wasn’t really something he had a choice in. He at least was pretty used to not having choices. He wondered, idly, what had happened to Bram’s truck.

The body’s truck, not Bram’s.

(he’s not supposed to be back here for three months)

Not body. Victim.

(of course I’m going to kill him)

“Fine.” Nate sighed, again, and relished the sound and the way all the detective did was try to hide a small half-smile.

“Good. I just want to get through what you were thinking on Mr. Michaelson’s twenty-sixth birthday, when both of you have stated that the incident occurred that led to your escape, and then we’ll take a break. What made this different, if I might ask?”

Nate frowned. “Made w-w-what different?”

“You say this was done to him before, as… a form of punishment?” When Nate winced, her eyebrows furrowed in a moment of regret. “Ah, I’m sorry. I should have worded that differently. You say it happened more than once, at least. That it was not uncommon as a method of control. So what made this last time different, in your eyes? Prior to this, you had not been able to effect an escape. So why this time?”

Nate looked at her and thought of Daniel with the thing on his face, when the blue eyes were empty and gone, curled up in the back of the dog kennel in the cellar, whining in his throat like a kicked animal when Nate came close, looking at him and seeing Abraham Denner instead.

When those eyes stayed empty, stayed gone, for so long that until Nate had him in Bram’s truck (the body’s truck) he’d been perfectly and totally certain that it was too late, that Danny would never come back.

You’re a fucking fairy tale, Nate. Kissed the sleeping prince to wake him up. He had to fight back the bitter laughter, knowing that if he started laughing he might never stop. I didn’t exactly slay the dragon, though, did I? “He m-m-made me put it on h-him.”

“You had never done that before?”

He glared down into his coffee. “Not l-like that.”

“Why not?”

“Because I said no,” Nate snapped. “Because I f-fucking h-h-h… haaaah… I hated that thing. And sometimes he l-l-listened to me.” Sometimes he loved me enough to listen. Guilt blossomed, flowered inside of him, and he fought it back down. It was his fault Bram was sitting in a hospital room right now, handcuffed to the bed, would go to prison. His fault his fault his fault.

No. It wasn’t his fault.

If he hadn’t done that to Danny, everything would still be the same. Nate had understood, he’d learned all his lessons. He’d become exactly what Bram wanted and they’d been together for seven years, more time with Danny there than without him. After seven years of every attempt to find himself, to escape - to stand up for Danny - failing, Nate had been ready to live like that forever if he had to. Danny and his books, that was enough.

It would have to be enough.

But Bram had made the choice that nearly stole Danny from him for good, and if Danny was the only thing Bram had left him…

Danny was the only thing he wanted enough to kill for.

“But not on the day in question. On the day in question, he forced you to fasten this implement onto Mr. Michaelson’s face?”

Nate shook his head.  "He wanted Red-… Danny to watch me b-be the one to d-d-do it.”

So that even I was a threat, the bad guy, someone who hurt him. That he couldn’t turn to me for help, because I was just as bad as Bram. Just like him, going to be just like him, just like them… so that he knew no one was safe, and I wanted to be safe for him.

That was all I wanted.

Bram took that away from me.

“So that was what made you start considering escape?”

“Not… n-not really. It made me th-think about it, but… what made me do something didn’t happen until September, when he b-brought him back into the cabin.”

“How long was that after going in? Two months, give or take? Okay, so what happened?”

“Two and a half. He went in on July 10th. He brought him back up right before October. If I answer, do I get to see him for a while?”

The woman went still, the slightest flare around her eyes the only thing betraying surprise. That’s right, Nate thought, I don’t always stammer. Sometimes I get pissed off instead, and the switch flips, and the words get back on the track to my mouth like they used to. She tilted her head, considered. “Yes. We’ll take a break, and you can see him, then. What happened in September?”

“He s-s-sent me down to get him,” Nate said softly. “G-Gave me the key.”

“H-Hey, Red, it’s m-m-me,” Nate had whispered, coming down the creaking wooden stairs, the cellar door thrown open to let as much light in as he could. “Where are y-y-you, Red? D-Danny?”

A low whine from the corner, behind the shelves that were empty now but would be full of pumpkins and apples in the winter, potatoes, too - all the food that they kept down here. Danny would make pumpkin pies and pumpkin pasta, black bean soup with pumpkin thrown in. Nate was fucking sick of beta carotene by spring.

He followed the sound of the whine, his heart dropping as he heard a soft metal scraping noise - rhythmic and horrifying, even when he didn’t know what it was.

He’d heard Danny trying to scream down here, when Bram went down to check on him. The whining sound like a kicked dog, ratcheted up to a horrible high pitch, followed by smacks and thumps and thuds and Bram’s laughter breaking it apart, shattering Danny’s fear and misery. Neither of them sounded human, down there, any longer.

That was when Nate had begun, piece by piece to realize that he didn’t feel quite the same when he looked Bram in the eyes as he used to.

Nate had moved around the corner of the shelf to find the large dog kennel shoved against the corner. It was nearly full-dark even with the cellar door open, this far back. Danny was curled up in the back, knees nearly to his chin, wide blue eyes staring sightlessly ahead.

Bare feet caked in dried dirt up to his ankles, streaks of old mud along his arms. The collar was cinched so tight that Danny breathed in shallow half-gasps. His red hair was dark, too dark, and Nate thought Bram must have been shoving him down into the dirt when he came down here, because Danny’s hair was clumped with mud.

Nate stared at Danny, and Danny stared back without seeing him, his whining turning to a low, frightened, inhuman whimper. He curled up even more tightly, and Nate realized what the metallic scraping was as Danny rubbed the side of the muzzle against the side of the kennel, trying to find the relieving, soothing pressure without touching the muzzle himself.

He couldn’t, after all - his hands were tied behind his back.

There was blood caked and dried on his chest, down his torso. A huge bruise he could see even in the semi-darkness on one hip.

“Oh h-h-holy fuck, no.”

Nate crouched down in front of the crate - feeling a twinge of pain in the knee Bram had damaged, once upon a time - and when he put the key into the lock to open it, Danny flinched away from him, tears leaking from his eyes, mixing with the blood on his face.

“C-C-Come on, Red, it’s t-t-time to c-come upstairs…”

Danny shook his head, whimpering again, turning his eyes away. Nate had to reach in and grab him by one arm, feeling like the lowest scum of the earth, and pull Danny whining and frightened forcibly out of the crate. Had to drag him up to his feet, which barely seemed able to hold him. Had to pull him up into sunshine he hadn’t seen in two and half months, leading him like a blind man when Danny whined and pushed his face into Nate’s shoulder at the pain of the light.

In the light, Nate could see what he’d missed in the dark.

He could see that some of what he’d thought was dirt on Danny’s arms and legs, his torso, along his spine… was blood.

And his face was still bleeding fresh, new bright red to cover over the dark dried brownish flakes on his cheeks under the grid.

And when he got him inside, Bram had looked up at them from his place sitting at the kitchen table, and smiled.

He’d taken pictures, with his phone, of the bloody wreckage where a man once had been.

And Nate had thought to himself, I’m going to kill you one day. And for the first time in seven years, he meant it.

In the present , Nate came back to himself, to the curious, patient stare of the detective. “I’m s-s-sorry, you had asked-”

“What was different about this instance?”

“Oh, um, time… He sp-spent two m-months in the… away f-f-from me, and when we g-g-got him back upstairs and c-clean-”

“How long had you gone without seeing him during the captivity prior to the event?”

“… I didn’t, n-not since Abraham took him. I s-s-saw him every single day until then, except w-w-when he took m-me on a supply run or t-two. We were… we were e-e-everything for each other.”

Still are. He’s everything, and no one’s going to take him away again.

“When he brought Mr. Michaelson back up from the cellar, you were still angry about what happened in July?”

Nate just nodded, this time, and took another drink of coffee. It was cooling rapidly in the little questioning room, and he frowned down at it. It was terrible coffee - Danny would hate it, he’d never stopped being a coffee snob even during the worst days, at the end, when he didn’t even get to drink the coffee he’d made, because…

“Bram wouldn’t take it off,” Nate said in a low voice. The anger was back, the fury that lived inside of him and flipped the switch inside his brain. The words suddenly came easily, all but fell out of his mouth, tumbled over each other in his eagerness for someone to understand what he’d done and why. “He wouldn’t take the fucking thing off of him, even after he brought him back up. Just to sh-shower, for eating. He made him… he’d worn it for…” He counted it up, the days and weeks of seeing Danny’s empty fucking eyes, and knew he’d done the right thing. “… he’d worn it for five goddamn months by the time I got him out.“

The woman sat back, watching him carefully, writing quickly on her notepad without ever taking her eyes off of his face. “Five months, Mr. Vandrum?”

"Five. Months. He didn’t get to take it off - other than to eat or for me to take care of his- his bleeding, to get his face cleaned up and bandaged-… for five months.”

“I understand,” She said, with that exaggerated but impersonal empathy that he fucking hated hearing in cop shows and definitely hated even more in real life. “Mr. Michaelson didn’t tell us it was that long.”

“He p-p-probably doesn’t r-remember. I was… I’d been m-mad before, but you kn-know, you g-g-get over being mad, in a relationship. You fight a-and you work it out, s-sometimes he hurt m-m-me until I stopped b-being angry, but…” One of the woman’s eyebrows twitched upwards, then just as quickly went back down. She said nothing. “But th-this… he knew, he knew he wouldn’t come b-back, this t-t-time, and he didn’t.”

“Come back? Can you explain-”

“D-Danny goes away in his head when it’s on h-him. He's…”

“Yes,” The detective said, thoughtfully. “The trauma expert told us he dissociates, and he does seem to struggle with understanding where he is, or when he is.”

“Wh-who he is,” Nate whispered.

My name is Red and I belong to Abraham Denner.

“Right. So you’re saying that the muzzle-” Nate flinched at the word, and the detective cleared her throat. “Apologies. You’re saying the implement is the cause of his dissociation, and he doesn’t come back until you take it off. That Mr. Denner purposefully kept it on, and kept him dissociated, for five months.”

“Y-Yes.”

“So when he chose to keep it on… this upset you further?” The woman asked, voice pitched lower and lower.

“Of c-course it did. He let me c-clean him up, and everything, but he m-m-made me p-put it back on afterwards. Over and oh-over, and… and over-” Nate’s voice broke, caught with the tears he hadn’t shed, not in a long time. The guilt might eat him alive. He’d let it go on for so long before he could pull everything off, before he could do what he had to do. This was on him, all of it. What had happened to Danny, what had been taken from him. How little was left. “He s-said it wasn’t coming off this time until he felt like he’d learned, th-that he’s not a p-person, just the f-f-fucking puppy.”

The detective swallowed. Her composure did not crack, not for a moment.

“He’s n-not. He’s not wh-what Bram always, always s-s-said he was, he’s not. He is a person!”

He’s my person.

Mine.

“I understand your frustration,” She said, carefully compassionate, still distant. Did she not like him, Nate wondered or was it just professional composure, not to crack under the weight of the story Nate was telling her? “This was the catalyst for the actions you undertook between October and December 10th?”

“Yes.”

Catalyst. Perfect word for it, wasn’t it? Nate smiled, the barest, faintest little smile. Yes, it had been the catalyst.

Daniel had come up from the cellar filthy, clinging to Nate with eyes that saw something else, that belonged to someone else. Bram had ordered Nate to get him into the shower and clean him up, and then put him back on his mat.

Every bit of dirty water down the drain, all the shaggy red hair he’d cut off when he couldn’t get the tangles to come apart no matter how long he combed at them… every new wound and scarring bit of skin and bruise he’d found… every time Danny whined at the feel of his hands, even though Nate took the thing off in the shower…

All of it was a little bit more of what tied Nate to Bram - the fear and the affection, the love and the pain, the power of his eyes - draining away.

Danny’s broken arm had healed even if more of the rest of him was hurt - Bram must have splinted it, while he was in the cellar, in the dog crate. Even with the thing off his face, Danny didn’t come back, not even for a second. He just sat there, empty, and allowed himself to be cleaned.

Once he was clean, the story of the past two months in the darkness became even more apparent. Nate could see new cuts, reddish and infected, layered over old mostly-healed ones. His body was littered with bruising, and when he took the collar off for the shower he could see that the skin was raw and blistered under there.

He fastened the collar back on, at Bram’s command, but at least he could make it looser for him, this time.

He could see the muzzle wounds dug so deeply into his face that Nate thought his jaw might never heal all the way that his nose would always look like that now dug in hard on the top. They kept leaking blood even after he bandaged them, thin blood vessels so close to the surface, so repeatedly forced into exposure with the air.

And he could see, in the empty blank blue eyes, the worst wound of all - the way Danny had retreated into his own mind to escape, and couldn’t find his way back out.

Once he was cleaned up, dried off, and dressed in a thin button-up and his cotton pajama pants, Danny sat quietly on his mat, staring at nothing, and no matter how Nate tried to get him back, he was gone.

Not even when Bram ordered him into the bed that night.

All Danny did was stare blankly at the two of them and do exactly what he was told. He fell asleep that night with his head resting on his shoulder, wavy red hair tickling at his ear, the metal grid of the muzzle pressing lightly against Nate’s neck.

Nate had held him until he fell asleep, and known he couldn’t keep going like this. The fury did not die under Bram’s eyes, this time. 

He held on to that fury for as long as it took to do what he had to do to save him.

“This was in late September. We didn’t receive the call until… December 11th, it says, that you and Mr. Michaelson reported yourselves to a police station around 2 am. What happened?”

Nate swallowed.

I stopped loving Bram.

I learned how to love Danny more.

“I came up with a plan.”

“A plan, Mr. Vandrum?”

Nate looked her right in the eyes, and dared her to question what he had had to do. Dared her to say a goddamn word about his choices that night.

“Yes, m-ma’am.”

“And your plan was…”

“A m-m-murder.”

[another-sonic-blog]

That Makes Us Two: Chapter 4: Sleep

Finally, they had some proper rest. After the previous day, Shadow and Amy needed a few hours of sleep.

Especially Shadow

Strangely, and as to her conclusion, Amy didn't feel tired on the least and this was only because she was in Shadow's body.

Being the Ultimate Life Form, Shadow's body didn't need sleep to function properly. However, just for the pleasure of it, his body would oblige and get a nap.

For the first in his life, as inside being Amy's body, Shadow was utterly exhausted. He had to admit, that it was nice, to feel this normal.

Just normal.

It was day time when had arrived at their next destination. This time, Shadow knew where they were going and guided Amy through the whole flight time. Once they landed on land, and settle in their tents, Shadow had told Amy one thing only before drifting into sleep.

"Do not...I repeat...Do NOT touch anything...wait for me to wake up."Amy nodded as she was more fascinated by the place than worried by Shadow's words.

As Shadow went to sleep, Amy waited outside. Looking around the Island she noticed blue and hot pink trees, something that she had never seen before. Plants and flowers that weren't written on the books she had read before; animals and insects that that were alienated yet cosmically beautiful.

No wonder why this place was called "Dream Island"

Shadow said to not touch anything, but he didn't say she couldn't go exploring, right?

Is everything went alright, she didn't have to see an angry Shadow today.

Amy walked slowly as to not wake up Shadow. She made sure that she was far away from the camp before she began running.

She ran as fast as she could getting the adrenaline through her body. The feeling was amazing, the feeling of being able to go where-ever you wanted, whenever you wanted...that feeling of power, of being on top of the world...

She appreciated it, but it wasn't for her.

She liked taking her time. Appreciating each fragment in life, all living things, small or big. She liked going slow and steady, enjoying each moment, savoring it slowly.

She had now realized how different she was from Sonic.

and she wonders if Shadow felt the same.

She walked some more and as clumsy as she is, she stumbles upon a large and thick tree root. She laid on her tummy for a while thinking how lucky she was that she was in Shadow's body. She felt fine and was ready to stand up, but as soon as she held her head up she noticed a large mushroom in front of her...and the mushroom had eyes, a mouth, and small hands and feet.

"Oro"

"AAAAHHHHHHH!"

Her loud scream was heard all the way to the camp.

"I told her to not touch anything", Shadow mumbled as he woke up from his slumber. He quickly stood up and got out of his tent. He looked around the area but didn't find Amy anywhere near the camp. Shadow then, ran towards the scream.

Amy stumble as she felt sleep take over her. She could hear a river nearby and decided to go there to clean herself up a bit before she went back to the camp. The giant Mushroom had thrown at her face some kind of yellow powder, kinda like pollen. It covered all of her body and she was beginning to feel itchy about it...and sleepy too for some reason.

She had finally made it to the river and washed her face with the cold water, hoping that maybe, that way her sleepiness could go away.

She looked at her reflection on the water.

Well, more like Shadow's reflection.

Dammit...he is attractive.

She thought as she appreciated Shadow's features more. He had beautiful red-colored eyes, his face was delicate where it needed to be but strong at the same time. Perfect teeth, and if he tried a little bit more; the perfect smile. It wasn't only his face, but his body as well. Slender and fit, not too bulky, just perfect. Every aspect of his physic was well balanced and-

WHY AM I THINKING ABOUT HIM?!

She already had a boyfriend, a secret one on the least, Sonic. There was no one but him in her heart. Now and forever.

She loved him very dearly since they were kids and now they were finally together. She loved him and he loved her.

Right?

Amy laid down on the grass as she drifted on her thoughts, looking at the blue wide sky.

Sonic...

Sonic...

Sonic...

Shad-

.

.

.

Shadow swore that she was going to give a piece of his mind to the pink one once he finds her. He kept looking all over the place, and even went back to the camp several times.

Didn't she know how annoying it was to walk?

And the pain it was to run?

As the Ultimate Life Form, if Shadow wanted to go somewhere, he just ran. Front and back without getting tired. Now he had to worry about keeping a constant breathing pattern if he didn't want to get tired too fast.

It was just so annoying being a normal Mobian.

After walking some more, he had finally found her.

Sleeping.

Now she's really going to get it.

Making him worried and panic, he was really about to start screaming her name and she dared to be asleep?

Not like he cared enough about her to do that, no, this girl was as worth as trash to him. Yeah, she didn't matter at all, but that wasn't the case right now,

Who in the world did this girl think she was?

Shadow decided to have good use of the River. He was going to wake up Amy in the worst way. He mustered up all of the strength and rolled her to the river.

Wow, I am heavy. I should work out more.

He thought as he successfully placed Amy on the river with aloud 'Splash!'

He waited for her to start screaming at him, angry and irritated.

He waited a few seconds.

And a few more

"SH*T!"

Shadow jumped to the river and as he tried to pick up Amy, he struggled way too much. Her whole body was wet and the water and its current made it difficult for him to raise her.

He got desperate, this was supposed to be a stupid prank. This wasn't supposed to escalate so drastically.

Why in the world she hasn't woken up?"

Finally, Shadow felt Amy's body being lifted by an unknown force. He was too concentrated on getting out of the water himself that he hadn't noticed that a local Villager had come to help him.

Shadow finally got out of the water and sighed in relief to see that Amy was breathing.

"Seems like I got here at the right time." The villager said as he looked at Shadow.

"Yes...Yes, you did."

.

.

.

Shadow well knew Dream Village, a few years back, he had lived within the community. Everyone knew him, and so, the whole village showed concern when the body of Shadow the hedgehog was brought up to the Queen of the Village. Of course, no one knew that the one inside Shadow's body was Amy.

The doors of the castle open as he recognizes an old friend running towards them.

"What happened? What did you do to him?" The Queen asked Shadow angrily, unaware that she was, in fact, talking to Shadow himself.

"There's a lot of things I have to tell you, Elena."

.

.

.

"So, you switched bodies with the pink one? She is trapped in your body and you are trapped in hers?", Elena asked Shadow. They were both on a bedroom, watching Amy sleep. Shadow in one corner of the room, arms crossed; he placed his right foot on the wall to be more comfortable. Elena the fox, Queen of Dream Village, delicately sat on a chair next to the black hedgehog's body.

"Yes, and now for some reason, she can't wake up."

"Doctors have told me she must have scared a Yume Mushroom, making it release a powder that makes you sleep."

"Is it curable?"

"Yes"

"Well, will you tell me what's the cure?"

"First answer me something" Elena stood up from her chair and walked across the room towards Shadow. "Why did you come back?"

"To get our bodies back, we need to find the broken pieces and put them back together to form the Purple Gem...and we know one of the pieces is here," Shadow said as he looked at the red fox on the eyes.

"So...you didn't come back for me?", She questioned.

"If I had come because of you, believe me, I wouldn't show up in this body." Shadow tried to move away but Elena had grabbed him by the arm, making him look to her blue gaze.

"I don't care in what body you are..." Elena took a few seconds to get closer to his face. " You could stay like this and be with me...you know that I never cared if its a boy or a girl, it's you who I like...and your friend's body is not bad. Actually, is pretty above average, a very beautiful hedgehog indeed."

"I am honored your majesty, but", Shadow was finally able to break free from her grasp. He walked towards Amy's bed. " I don't feel comfortable in this body, I would very much like my body back...so, could you please tell me how to wake up Amy and give me the broken fragment of the Purple Gem?"

"Being on the wrong body...is something I had to live with since I was small, so I know what you must feel like...Fine, I'll give you the piece of the broken Purple Gem but under one condition..." Elena had changed her go flirty attitude to a more serious one. "Once you put the Purple Gem back together and have returned to your body, bring me the Purple Gem...there's something I must do with it."

"Yes, my Queen."

Shadow didn't bow but smiled at his old friend. Shadow had to confess that she was probably the only person who had his respect. She had helped him localize all the Chaos Emerald before without asking a single question, she had confided in him and him in her. They had a long history together that it would be too long to describe in a single paper.

Elena smiled back. "Well, the only way to wake up your friend is...with a kiss."

"I didn't you as one to joke around," Shadow said.

"That's because I don't make jokes." Elena simply said. She knew she had lost the battle as soon as she Shadow's worried face. Shadow could have been a great friend to her, but not even once in their years of friendship had Shadow showed such emotion towards her or anyone.

The pink one must be changing him and for the better.

"...Fine." Shadow didn't want to think too much about it. It was just a kiss, just lips against lips...nothing more. No feelings were needed.

So then, why was his heart beating so fast?

For Chaos' sake, it was just the pink brat, why was he getting so nervous for?

Come on Shadow, just do it!

He was slowly getting closer and closer to her face, he closed his eyes as soon as he felt her breathing coming out of her nose. Any minute now, their lips would touch...just right now.

"PERVERT!"

Shadow felt Amy's hammer hit against his head, making him fall to the floor.

"WHAT THE HECK ROSE, I WAS TRYING TO WAKE YOU UP!", Shadow said as he quickly stood up from the floor, facing her.

"YOU WERE GOING TO KISS ME WHILE I WAS ASLEEP!" Amy said screaming at him, rapidly standing from her bed.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, Shadow..." Elena had an evil smile on her face. "Before entering the room, I had sent a knight to kiss Amy and she woke up...that still doesn't explain why she was asleep when we entered."

"YOU WERE EAVESDROPPING ON US!", Shadow exclaimed.

"IT WASN'T LIKE THERE WAS ANYTHING WORTH EAVESDROPPING ON! IT WAS JUST YOU BEING A HORNY TEENAGER!",Amy turned her face away from the black hedgehog, not wanting to show her anger.

"YOU LITTLE BRAT, I SHOULD HAVE LEFT YOU SLEEP FOREVER!"

"YOU NEED ME TO SWITCH BODIES BACK, IDIOT!"

Elena smiled to herself.

She had made the right choice

.

.

"Can you pass me the water?" Shadow asked Amy as it was his turn to pilot the Tornado.

"Why don't you ask Elena, I am sure she would love to give it to you.", Amy said with a mocking face.

"Thanks to her we got one broken piece of the Purple Gem, food and a warm bed and you are angry at her? What did she do to you?"

"It's not like you would understand, you guys move your tails whenever a beautiful girl passes by." Amy kept looking at the sea, even to her it was strange to get this angry.

"Are you...jealous?",Shadow asked.

Amy snapped her head to look at him. "Me? Jealous? I-I, no! Don't get confused idio-

"Because that's good! Now you know how it feels!", Shadow said without thinking.

"What?"

"Whenever I walk around the Villages, guys look at my body, your body! I can't help but want to punch them in the face and-"

Shoot.

Shadow realized that he had been talking none stop. That his thoughts came out of his mouth without him noticing. He looked at Amy who had an evident tint of pink on her cheeks. "Not like I am jealous! I couldn't care less, I just hate everybody and want to punch everyone just because! This is me just looking for excuses to punch everyone!"

Shadow began to panic, his had begun to sweat and Amy still had no response whatsoever.

"UHG, JUST FORGET WHAT I SAID...JUST FORGET IT... I HATE YOU DAMMIT!

.

.

.

.

.

.

Next: https://another-sonic-blog.tumblr.com/post/186757026195/that-makes-us-two-chapter-5-name

Previous: https://another-sonic-blog.tumblr.com/post/186691118880/that-makes-us-two-chapter-3-affliction

[lake-lyn]

ET’s exclusive excerpt of The Tyrant’s Tomb by Rick Riordan (1/2)

Chapter 1

There is no food here

Meg ate all the Swedish fish

Please get off my hearse

I believe in returning dead bodies.

It seems like a simple courtesy, doesn’t it? A warrior dies, you should do what you can to get their body back to their people for funerary rites. Maybe I’m old-fashioned. I am over four thousand years old. But I find it rude not to properly dispose of corpses.

Achilles during the Trojan War, for instance. Total pig. He chariot-dragged the body of the Trojan champion Hector around the walls of the city for days. Finally I convinced Zeus to pressure the big bully into returning Hector’s body to his parents so he could have a decent burial. I mean, come on. Have a little respect for the people you slaughter.

Then there was Oliver Cromwell’s corpse. I wasn’t a fan of the man, but please. First, the English bury him with honors. Then they decide they hate him, so they dig him up and “execute” his body. Then his head falls off the pike where it’s been impaled for decades and gets passed around from collector to collector for almost three centuries like a disgusting souvenir snow globe. Finally, in 1960, I whispered in the ears of some influential people, Enough, already. I am the god Apollo, and I order you to bury that thing. You’re grossing me out.

When it came to Jason Grace, my fallen friend and half bropppther, I wasn’t going to leave anything to chance. I would personally escort his coffin to Camp Jupiter and see him off with full honors.

That turned out to be a good call. What with the ghouls attacking us and everything.

Sunset turned San Francisco Bay into a cauldron of molten copper as our private plane landed at Oakland Airport. I say our private plane. The chartered trip was actually a parting gift from our friend Piper McLean and her movie star father. (Everyone should have at least one friend with a movie star parent.)

Waiting for us beside the runway was another surprise the McLeans must have arranged: a gleaming black hearse. Meg McCaffrey and I stretched our legs on the tarmac while the ground crew somberly removed Jason’s coffin from the Cessna’s storage bay. The polished mahogany box seemed to glow in the evening light. Its brass fixtures glinted red. I hated how beautiful it was. Death shouldn’t be beautiful.

The crew loaded it into the hearse, then transferred our luggage to the backseat. We didn’t have much: Meg’s back- pack and mine (courtesy of Marco’s Military Madness), my bow and quiver and ukulele, and a couple of sketchbooks and a poster-board diorama we’d inherited from Jason.

I signed some paperwork, accepted the flight crew’s condolences, then shook hands with a nice undertaker who handed me the keys to the hearse and walked away.

I stared at the keys, then at Meg McCaffrey, who was chewing the head off a Swedish fish. The plane had been stocked with half a dozen tins of the squishy red candy. Not anymore. Meg had single-handedly brought the Swedish sh ecosystem to the brink of collapse.

“I’m supposed to drive?” I wondered. “Is this a rental hearse?”

Meg shrugged. During our flight, she’d insisted on sprawling on the Cessna’s sofa, so her dark pageboy haircut was flattened against the side of her head. One rhinestone-studded point of her cat-eye glasses poked through her hair like a disco shark n.

The rest of her out t was equally disreputable: floppy red high-tops, threadbare yellow leggings, and the well-loved knee-length green frock she’d gotten from Percy Jackson’s mother. By well-loved, I mean the frock had been through so many battles, washed and mended so many times, it looked less like a piece of clothing and more like a deflated hot-air balloon. Around Meg’s waist was the pièce de résistance: her multi-pocketed gardening belt, because children of Demeter never leave home without one.

“I don’t have a driver’s license,” she said, as if I needed a reminder that my life was presently being controlled by a twelve-year-old. “I call shotgun.”

“Calling shotgun” didn’t seem appropriate for a hearse. Nevertheless, Meg skipped to the passenger’s side and climbed in. I got behind the wheel. Soon we were out of the airport and cruising north on I-880 in our rented black grief-mobile.

Ah, the Bay Area . . . I’d spent some happy times here. The vast misshapen geographic bowl was jam-packed with interesting people and places. I loved the green-and-golden hills, the fog-swept coastline, the glowing lacework of bridges and the crazy zigzag of neighborhoods shouldered up against one another like subway passengers at rush hour.

Back in the 1950s, I played with Dizzy Gillespie at Bop City in the Fillmore. During the Summer of Love, I hosted an impromptu jam session in Golden Gate Park with the Grateful Dead. (Lovely bunch of guys, but did they really need those fteen-minute-long solos?) In the 1980s, I hung out in Oakland with Stan Burrell—otherwise known as MC Hammer—as he pioneered pop rap. I can’t claim credit for Stan’s music, but I did advise him on his fashion choices. Those gold lamé parachute pants? My idea. You’re welcome, fashionistas.

Most of the Bay Area brought back good memories. But as I drove, I couldn’t help glancing to the northwest—toward Marin County and the dark peak of Mount Tamalpais. We gods knew the place as Mount Othrys, seat of the Titans. Even though our ancient enemies had been cast down, their palace destroyed, I could still feel the evil pull of the place—like a magnet trying to extract the iron from my now-mortal blood.

I did my best to shake the feeling. We had other problems to deal with. Besides, we were going to Camp Jupiter—friendly territory on this side of the bay. I had Meg for backup. I was driving a hearse. What could possibly go wrong?

The Nimitz Freeway snaked through the East Bay flatlands, past warehouses and docklands, strip malls and rows of dilapidated bungalows. To our right rose downtown Oakland, its small cluster of high-rises facing off against its cooler neighbor San Francisco across the Bay as if to proclaim We are Oakland! We exist, too!

Meg reclined in her seat, propped her red high-tops up on the dashboard, and cracked open her window.

“I like this place,” she decided.

“We just got here,” I said. “What is it you like? The abandoned warehouses? That sign for Bo’s Chicken ’N’ Waffles?”

“Nature.”

“Concrete counts as nature?”

“There’s trees, too. Plants flowering. Moisture in the air. The eucalyptus smells good. It’s not like . . .”

She didn’t need to finish her sentence. Our time in Southern California had been marked by scorching temperatures, extreme drought, and raging wild res—all thanks to the magical Burning Maze controlled by Caligula and his hate-crazed sorceress bestie, Medea. The Bay Area wasn’t experiencing any of those problems. Not at the moment, anyway.

We’d killed Medea. We’d extinguished the Burning Maze. We’d freed the Erythraean Sibyl and brought relief to the mortals and withering nature spirits of Southern California.

But Caligula was still very much alive. He and his co- emperors in the Triumvirate were still intent on controlling all means of prophecy, taking over the world, and writing the future in their own sadistic image. Right now, Caligula’s fleet of evil luxury yachts was making its way toward San Francisco to attack Camp Jupiter. I could only imagine what sort of hellish destruction the emperor would rain down on Oakland and Bo’s Chicken ’N’ Waffles.

Even if we somehow managed to defeat the Triumvirate, there was still that greatest Oracle, Delphi, under the control of my old nemesis Python. How I could defeat him in my present form as a sixteen-year-old weakling, I had no idea.

But, hey. Except for that, everything was fine. The eucalyptus smelled nice.

Traf c slowed at the I-580 interchange. Apparently, California drivers didn’t follow that custom of yielding to hearses out of respect. Perhaps they gured at least one of our passengers was already dead, so we weren’t in a hurry.

Meg toyed with her window controls, raising and lower- ing the glass. Reeee. Reeee. Reeee.

“You know how to get to Camp Jupiter?” she asked.

“Of course.”

“ ’Cause you said that about Camp Half-Blood.”

“We got there! Eventually.”

“Frozen and half-dead.”

“Look, the entrance to camp is right over there.” I waved vaguely at the Oakland Hills. “There’s a secret passage in the Caldecott Tunnel or something.”

“Or something?”

“Well, I haven’t actually ever driven to Camp Jupiter,” I admitted. “Usually I descend from the heavens in my glorious sun chariot. But I know the Caldecott Tunnel is the main entrance. There’s probably a sign. Perhaps a Demigods Only lane.”

Meg peered at me over the top of her glasses. “You’re the dumbest god ever.” She raised her window with a final Reeee. SHLOOMP!—a sound that reminded me uncomfortably of a guillotine blade.

We turned west onto Highway 24. The congestion eased as the hills loomed closer. The elevated lanes soared past neighborhoods of winding streets and tall conifers, white stucco houses clinging to the sides of grassy ravines.

A road sign promised CALDECOTT TUNNEL ENTRANCE, 2 MI. That should have comforted me. Soon, we’d pass through the borders of Camp Jupiter into a heavily guarded, magically camouflaged valley where an entire Roman legion could shield me from my worries, at least for a while.

Why, then, were the hairs on the back of my neck quivering like sea worms?

Something was wrong. It dawned on me that the uneas- iness I’d felt since we landed might not be the distant threat of Caligula, or the old Titan base on Mount Tamalpais, but something more immediate . . . something malevolent, and getting closer.

I glanced in the rearview mirror. Through the back window’s gauzy curtains, I saw nothing but traffic. But then, in the polished surface of Jason’s coffin lid, I caught the reflection of movement from a dark shape outside—as if a human-size object had just own past the side of the hearse.

“Oh. Meg?” I tried to keep my voice even. “Do you see anything unusual behind us?”

“Unusual like what?”

THUMP.

The hearse lurched as if we’d been hitched to a trailer full of scrap metal. Above my head, two foot-shaped impressions appeared in the upholstered ceiling.

“Something just landed on the roof,” Meg deduced.

“Thank you, Sherlock McCaffrey! Can you get it off?”

“Me? How?”

That was an annoyingly fair question. Meg could turn the rings on her middle fingers into wicked gold swords, but if she summoned them in close quarters, like the interior of the hearse, she a) wouldn’t have room to wield them, and b) might end up impaling me and/or herself.

CREAK. CREAK. The footprint impressions deepened as the thing adjusted its weight like a surfer on a board. It must have been immensely heavy to sink into the metal roof.

A whimper bubbled in my throat. My hands trembled on the steering wheel. I yearned for my bow and quiver in the backseat, but I couldn’t have used them. DWSPW, driving while shooting projectile weapons, is a big no-no, kids.

“Maybe you can open the window,” I said to Meg. “Lean out and tell it to go away.”

“Um, no.” (Gods, she was stubborn.) “What if you try to shake it off?”

Before I could explain that this was a terrible idea while traveling fifty miles an hour on a highway, I heard a sound like a pop-top aluminum can opening—the crisp pneumatic hiss of air through metal. A claw punctured the ceiling—a grimy white talon the size of a drill bit. Then another. And another. And another, until the upholstery was studded with ten pointy white spikes—just the right number for two very large hands.

“Meg?” I yelped. “Could you—?”

I don’t know how I might have finished that sentence. Protect me? Kill that thing? Check in the back to see if I have any spare undies?

I was rudely interrupted by the creature ripping open our roof like we were a birthday present.

Staring down at me through the ragged hole was a withered, ghoulish humanoid, its blue-black hide glistening like the skin of a house y, its eyes filmy white orbs, its bared teeth dripping saliva. Around its torso uttered a loincloth of greasy black feathers. The smell coming off it was more putrid than any dumpster—and believe me, I’d fallen into a few.

“FOOD!” it howled.

“Kill it!” I yelled at Meg.

“Swerve!” she countered.

One of the many annoying things about being incarcerated in my puny mortal body: I was Meg McCaffrey’s servant. I was bound to obey her direct commands. So when she yelled “swerve,” I yanked the steering wheel hard to the right. The hearse handled beautifully. It careened across three lanes of traffic, barreled straight through the guardrail, and plummeted into the canyon below.

[mybleachedsoul]

ichiruki month. day 20. eye contact (also kind of an au)

contains mature language only

                                       Eye contact - 20/08

 The first time he ever laid eyes on her she was just sitting down, concentrated on a piece of literature that, based on the pink tip of her tongue sticking out in between her upper and lower canine teeth, seemed to be very captivating. She was like a blue rose plucked out of a meadow of dandelions, melancholic and fascinating. Her hair was short and darker than a midnight sky. It’s funny, he always thought he was a long-hair kinda guy.

But what struck him the most were her eyes when she looked up at him. Sharp and violet in a jungle of tedious brown irises. It was as if he was pulled into some kind of other dimension, yet there was no reason to fight it. In fact it was already a place that he felt could be called home.

And he fucking kid you not, she just stayed there and stared back at him.

As if she’d just said, “Welcome home, what the hell took you so long?”

                                                          *

As expected from their first meeting, being with her was comfortable, far too comfortable. He didn’t need to censor everything he said before speaking out loud, and neither did she. There was no place or need for bullshit in their friendship.

It was refreshing, and different than anything he’d ever had before.

Like that day in his apartment. The one where he ate cold ramen while keeping an eye on the TV, as Rukia tried on countless different outfits for upcoming interviews. She came up to him for his opinion, wearing a straight black dress and high heels.

“What about this one?”

Ichigo’s eyes moved away from the screen for five seconds, scanning her up and down. He shrugged and swallowed his mouthful of curly noodles.

“Dunno, Rukia. You still look like a fifteen year-old trying to play the uptight business woman.”

Rukia rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue in frustration. “Fantastic. How come other women look natural in these? I look ridiculous even with a smidge of makeup on,” she complained out loud before kicking off her heels and walking into his bedroom to change. Ichigo watched a man catch a ten feet long eel on TV, then Rukia came out again, wearing an oversized turtleneck with her hair tied up in a I’ve-given-up-on-making-money kind of bun.

“Maybe ‘cause they need that shit to look good. And you don’t.”

He knew she hadn’t expected that to sound like such a sappy compliment when she turned her head to meet his eyes. Hell, he probably hadn’t expected so himself. But he’d said it and well shit, it was still the truth, he wasn’t about to fucking take it back. So he looked back at her in silence, violet piercing through him with curiosity, and maybe also silently asking for a bite or two of that ramen. He handed her the bowl and she started eating, both of them turning their attentions to that oddly interesting fishing documentary. 

                                                             *

“That cloud on the far left kinda looks like a dick on acid,” she said in a monotone voice.

Ichigo squinted his eyes at the sky, trying to figure out exactly how any of those fluffy white puffs  could look like a male’s genitalia. He scoffed after a good ten second of silent investigation.

“I don’t see a single trace of dick in that sky. I usually like my skies dick-less, thank you very much.”

Rukia nudged him in the rib. “Did you actually just say the word dick-less?” A bee flew around his ear for a moment before moving over to another patch of green grass. “You’re such a weirdo,” she finished with a sigh.

“I’m a weirdo?” Ichigo spat back. “You’re the one imagining penises flying above your freaking head.”

“I’m not imagining anything!” Rukia exclaimed, lifting an arm to point somewhere high up. “See? Right there. There’s the two balls, then the sh-“

“Rukia, I beg you to not finish that sentence.” He interrupted her and by some miracle it worked because Rukia’s arm fell down and she stopped talking. She stood silent for a moment before he heard her laugh, almost like a giggle. She then turned around on her stomach and looked at him with a smile, her eyes looking ten times more piercing than they usually did with that ray of sunlight coming in from above and illuminating her face. It was like admiring the moon itself in all its glory.

That’s when Ichigo realized she was probably the most beautiful woman alive.

Yep, right after they’d spent five fucking minutes discussing dicks.

Maybe he was a weirdo after all.

                                                            *

Ichigo realized he was in love with Kuchiki Rukia on a Sunday.

It was on that super hot morning, where the sun was hitting so hard it was enough to boil skin. He knocked on her apartment door ten times in a row before she finally answered, wearing that dress shirt she had apparently decided to steal from him ever since he forgot it at her place. It looked so incredibly large on her, sleeves dangling past her hands and hem falling near her knees, but after bugging her a million times about giving it back to him, he couldn’t bring himself to take it back. Especially not after actually seeing her in it.

Rukia’s hair was a bird nest, and she yawned as soon as she opened the door. “Ichigo, the hell are you doing here. It’s 8 a.m. on a Sunday,” she frowned mid-way through her yawn.

Ichigo rolled his eyes and scoffed as he walked past her and into her living room. “We had plans to go to the beach with the guys today, remember?” he said, thinking about Ishida, Abarai, Inoue and Tatsuki, probably all already on their way to the beach house they had rented for a night.

Rukia groaned lazily as her body went limp and fell on top of the couch. “Fuuuuuck, I completely forgot about that,” she whined loudly. “I had to stay up last night to finish that report for work, you know.”

Ichigo took his phone out of his pants pocket and wiggled it in her face. “Yeah, I do know. You texted me at 3 a.m., and I quote: if I don’t wake up ever again, please water my plants twice a week for me.”

Rukia blinked, silent as she scratched her head. “That’s weird, I don’t remember texting you.”

“Well hurry and get dressed,” he added quickly before she could close her eyes again. “The others probably already left in Renji’s car.”

Rukia, already flopped down on a corner of her couch, groaned and mumbled something incoherent. Ichigo frowned, sighing.  “What the hell was that?”

“I said,” Rukia said louder, lifting up her head once more. “Do we really have to go?”

Ichigo opened his mouth, then closed it. “Wait, you don’t wanna go?”

Rukia shrugged, hands playing with a wild strand of hair. “I just…I dunno, kinda feel like staying in. Plus, this is the type of thing you do if you’re a social butterfly on the inside, and I’m just not sure we are.”

Ichigo remained speechless for a good moment, before finally letting a scoff escape his throat. He dropped his improvised suitcase on the floor with a thud.

“Thank god, I wanted to go almost as much as I wanted to pour boiling water down my back,” he said with a laidback smile, making Rukia look up at him in surprise. “Tell you what,” he said as he started making his way to the kitchen, Rukia still curiously eyeing him. “I’ll make you a cup of coffee and we’ll just stay in and watch horror movies all day. You can even take naps if you want.”

He heard a couple little steps follow him into the kitchen. He smirked. He knew how appealing the word ‘coffee’ was to her, especially before 11 a.m. “Oh my god, I love you,” Rukia exclaimed in all her lazy gratitude. “I could almost kiss you right now.”

Ichigo chuckled at her words as he mindlessly dug into the kitchen cabinet for roasted coffee grains. “Love you too.”

He froze in his track, spoon in one hand, coffee grains in the other. There was a chance Rukia hadn’t heard that at all. But based on the way she had also stopped all movements, he couldn’t count on it.

“Uh…?” Rukia breathed out in a low voice.

Yep, couldn’t count on it indeed.

And so, Ichigo had no choice but to turn around and make eye contact. As if looking into those violet eyes of hers would help his case.

“I- uh… I- meant that in a non-serious way, you know, a joke, a ha-ha kinda thing,” he scratched the back of his head. “Was following your lead, you know, ah…yeah.”

Rukia blinked once, then nodded. “Right.”

Well done Ichigo.

Well done.

                                                              *

He kissed her a week later.

Honestly now rethinking about it, he doesn’t even blame himself, he blames the whole setting. Seriously, standing on a rooftop at sunset drinking sake straight out of the bottle? Who does that?  

And he blames her eyes. Her goddamn eyes.

“Ichigo,” she murmured, eyes set on the orange sky.

“Hmm?” he mumbled, taking a sip of his drink.

“Why do you think people think we’re a couple?” she asked, in the most casual way.

Ichigo froze and scowled, bottle tipping midway on his lips. “People? Who’s people?”

“Our friends, your family, my brother,” she answered with a light frown and scoffed. “Pretty much everyone I guess.”

Ichigo stayed silent for a while. Eventually he sighed and took another sip. “I dunno, probably cause we’re always together.” He looked over at Rukia, who was now looking down at her bottle of sake. “But who gives a flying fuck what people think,” he added, for his benefit or for hers, he isn’t sure. “I sure as hell don’t.”

The sky had faded from orange to yellow, to pale lilac. “Ichigo, we’re friends, right?”

Her voice was low, and almost sounded different. He finished his drink in one last sip and placed the empty bottle on the ground next to him. He turned back to see that Rukia was now looking at him, eyes expressing something near despair, as if all she needed was for him to confirm they were indeed, friends.

He looked into her eyes for a few more seconds, then smiled sincerely without breaking eye contact. “Yeah, we are.”

Rukia’s expression softened, and she smiled back, and it was one of those smiles that could bring a dead man back to life. Ichigo bent forward, cupped the side of her face with one hand, and kissed her without another word.

He felt her eyelashes moving fast on his skin, and nearly tickling him. After two or three seconds she stopped, her felt her eyes close and felt her lips kissing him back. He doesn’t know how much time it was before they pulled away, but he remembers her cheeks being pink, almost as much as her lips.

Seeing how she wasn’t opening her eyes, Ichigo rested his forehead on hers and closed his eyes once more. They stood there for god knows how long. Just breathing.

“Ichigo?” her voice whispered into the silence.

“Hm?”

A second of silence. “You taste like alcohol. It’s gross.”

He twitched, and smiled. “Yeah? So do you.”

He felt Rukia’s forehead pulling away and opened his eyes to see her mouth break into a large smile as soon as their eyes met. She laughed and next thing he knew, she was grabbing the collar of his shirt and pulling him down, her lips on his once again. 

@ichirukimonth

[whimsicallyenchantedrose]

The Fireworks

This story was originally written and posted for my Fluffy Fridays Collection, but I thought I’d bring it back for the holiday.  Enjoy!

Rating: T

Words:  ~2500

CS Genre: Feuding Neighbors AU

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

           “Come on David, you can’t be serious!” Emma growled as her brother, the sheriff, eased her back with a gentle hand to the arm.

           “Yeah, Emma,” he said grimly, “I can.”

           As if to emphasize the point, he slammed the jail cell door closed behind her.

           Behind her and her jackass next door neighbor.

           “Now, mate,” said jackass drawled, stepping forward.  “Are you sure this is the best idea.  You know your sister and I don’t particularly see eye to eye.”

           David smiled humorlessly.  “Understatement of the year after what you two have done over the last few days.  But you’ve been disturbing the peace and driving everyone around you crazy, so yeah.  I think a night in jail is definitely in order.  You two’ll either find a way to work things out or you’ll kill each other.  Either way the rest of us might get a little peace and quiet.”

~~36 Hours Before…~~

           Killian settled into his bed with a contented sigh, reveling in the soft pillow.  The hum of the ceiling fan lulled him until his eyes gently closed.  It had been a long day, and he was in for another one tomorrow.

           Storybrooke had big plans for its 4th of July celebration on Saturday.  There were plans to shoot fireworks from a boat out on the harbor and set the whole thing to patriotic music.  As the town’s harbormaster, Killian had a big role to play in getting everything set up.  It was exhausting, and he wanted nothing more than to get a good night’s sleep before he waded into the madness all over again—ridiculously early tomorrow morning.

           Boom!  Crackle!

           Killian jumped at the sudden noise, and then heard a frightened yelp and the click of paws against his wooden floor, as his 75 pound Rottweiler mix sprinted into his room, jumped on his bed and plopped square on his chest.

           As Killian removed the panting, shaking, terrified canine baby from his person, his eyes narrowed.  He’d bet his last paycheck he knew precisely the cause of the disturbance.

           “Sh, Smee,” he said, stroking his dog’s black and caramel colored coat.  “There’s nothing to worry about.  It’s just…”

           Another boom, this one loud enough to shake his house.  Smee scrambled down and tried to wedge himself under Killian’s bed.

           Killian pushed himself to his feet and strode purposely toward his door, not even bothering to put on a shirt.  There was only one person who could be responsible.

           Swan.

           She’d moved into the house next to him about eight months ago, all long blonde hair and prickly exterior.  Never had he met someone so exquisitely beautiful—or so maddeningly frustrating.  The day after she’d moved in, he’d knocked on her door, friendly smile and “welcome to the neighborhood” bottle of rum at the ready.

           He’d prepared a genial, friendly speech about how he was pleased to meet her and glad the house was finally occupied again and how she shouldn’t hesitate to ask if he could be of any assistance, but then she’d opened the door, and all rational thought had fled.  Nothing could have prepared him for the utter perfection that was Emma Swan.

           So, rather than his careful, well thought out neighborly speech, what came out of his mouth was something along the lines of “Hey beautiful.  I think you and I need to get to know each other much, much better.”

           Needless to say, she’d slammed the door in his face.  Then she’d opened it again, swiped the rum from his hand, gave him a glare that could curdle milk, and slammed the door for the second time that morning.

           Things had only gone downhill from there.

           From that moment on, it would seem they were sworn enemies.  Oh he’d tried to apologize, explain, but approaching her had been like trying to approach a rabid porcupine.

           So he’d stopped trying to apologize and started in to do his best to completely piss her off, flirting outrageously with her whenever they came in contact.  She was utterly glorious when she was angry.

           She’d returned the favor with various acts of bad neighborliness—raking her leaves straight into his yard (he’d retaliated by raking the whole lot up and putting it in a messy pile at her front door) or parking her yellow bug smack dab in front of his mailbox—earning him the ire of Leroy, their bad-tempered postman (he’d retaliated by parking his own car at the end of her driveway), and all manner of other, deliberate acts of aggression.

           And tonight, it would appear she’d decided to shoot off fireworks at 10:30 pm.  Well, he wasn’t going to stand for it anymore.  Enough was enough.

           Righteous indignation intact, he stormed from his front door and marched right up to the exasperating woman who was preparing to apply a lighter to another bottle rocket, a preteen boy looking on with excitement.

           “What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing?” he’d shouted.

           Emma jumped and then glared.  “What does it look like I’m doing?  I’m setting off fireworks.  There’s a little thing called Independence Day coming up, and Henry and I wanted to celebrate.”

           “Yeah?” he’d growled, “well can’t you celebrate at a reasonable hour?  Some of us are trying to get some bloody sleep, so how about you cease and desist immediately.”

           She rolled her eyes.  “Not happening, buddy,” she said in a hard voice.  “So how about you take your un-patriotic ass off my lawn and go get that sleep you’re so desperate for.”

           He’d opened his mouth, preparing for a stinging reply, but then thought better of it as a brilliant, devious plan came to mind.  She wanted to disturb his sleep and scare his dog half to death?  Fine.  Two could play at that game.  Miss patriotic over there was about to find out that payback was a bitch.

~~6 ½ hours later…~~

           Emma was happily fast asleep when it happened.  A canon boomed and suddenly classical music, at roughly the decibel level of a jet, filled her peaceful bedroom.  She shot up in bed, hand going immediately to her heart, and then her eyes narrowed.

           Killian.

           No one else would even think of pulling something like this.

           She got to her feet, threw on some sweats and stormed from the house, prepared to give the son of a bitch a piece of her mind he would never forget.

           Killian Jones was the bane of her existence; had been ever since that first morning he’d knocked on her door and immediately set in to hitting on her.  Obviously thought he was God’s gift to women; that she should just swoon at his feet in ecstasy that he’d deigned to talk to her.

           Yeah, not happening.

She didn’t care how ridiculously hot he was.  And yes, with his piercing blue eyes, messy black hair, and perpetual scruff…well, hot didn’t even begin to cover it.  And when he’d stormed over to her house last night, naked to the waist and she’d gotten her first glimpse of that ripped, hair smattered chest….well, maybe it did things to her.

           Ugh!  What was she doing?  She wasn’t some teenager who couldn’t keep her hormones in check.  She was a full grown woman who was going to give a world-class jerk the verbal beating he so richly deserved!

           Killian Jones sat on his porch swing, cup of coffee in hand, smug grin in place.

           “Morning, Swan,” he said genially.  “Looks like it’s going to be a lovely day, aye?”

           She took his porch steps two at a time, walked over to the stereo system he’d moved to sit beside him—the stereo system who’s speakers were turned conspicuously toward her house—and punched the “stop” button with a viciousness that would have made a fairy tale villain proud.  “Cut the crap, Jones.  What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

           His grin spread maddeningly further.  “Just enjoying the morning,” he drawled.  “After all, as patriotic as you are, I’d assumed you’d enjoy ‘The 1812 Overture’.  Quite a good rendition this.  Did you know they used real canons in the finale?”

           Emma’s hand ached with the need to punch the smug bastard in the face.  “It’s freaking five o’clock in the morning!  I was asleep.”

           Suddenly a glint of temper entered his eyes.  “Aye?  Well darling, now you know how it feels.”

           And that was all it took.  Emma took a deep breath and started in on the long list of all the things she hated about Killian Jones.

~~Present Day~~

           Emma plopped down on one of the prison cell cots and turned resolutely from the man standing on the far side of the cell.  After the cataclysmic shouting match this morning, one of their other neighbors had evidently called the cops.  David had shown up, taken one, assessing look at the situation, and thrown both of their asses in jail.

           And now she was going to be stuck with Killian freaking Jones until tomorrow morning!

           Talk about cruel and unusual punishment!  This was going to be the longest night of her life.

           For long minutes they both sat there, each on their respective bunks, seething and glaring daggers in each other’s general direction.  Finally he let out a deep breath, ran a hand through his hair, and turned suddenly repentant eyes in her direction.

           “Look love,” he began.

           “Not your love, Jones,” she said automatically.

           He charged on, ignoring the interruption.  “Perhaps your brother is right.  Things might be…tumultuous between us, but we are neighbors.  We need to find a way to live together in peace.  I apologize for blaring music at you at an ungodly hour this morning.  Bad form, that.”

           He was apologizing?  Actually apologizing?  Taking responsibility for something he’d done and wishing to make amends?  Of all the things she’d expected to come from his mouth that was not it.

           “Um,” she said in confusion, “thanks for that.”

           He reclined his head in acknowledgement.  “I let my temper get the better of me.  I’ve been under a bit of stress at work lately, and when you set off your fireworks late last night—disturbing my sleep and scaring my dog witless—well, I suppose I snapped.”

           Sudden guilt clawed at Emma.  She supposed if she was being completely honest…she hadn’t handled last night’s altercation as well as she might have.  And, okay, maybe if she was further being honest, he wasn’t a complete pain in the ass all the time.  There was that time last winter when he’d come over and shoveled her driveway after a particularly nasty blizzard….and there was that time she’d been sick and he’d run down to the local diner and bought her some chicken soup.

           And, well, okay, maybe he had some justification for being angry after all the crap she’d done to him.  Maybe he wasn’t the only one who needed to make an apology.

           “Yeah,” she said, picking at a loose string on her cot and refusing to look over at him.  “I guess I should apologize too.  For the fireworks.  I didn’t think about them bothering anyone, but, well, I didn’t exactly handle our conversation last night well.”

           She felt the cot sag beside her, and looked up into the bluest eyes she’d ever seen in her life.  Killian extended one hand, friendly smile firmly in place.  “Apology accepted.  Truce?”

           She hesitated for another moment, and then gripped his offered hand.  A jolt of electricity passed between them at the touch, and Emma gasped, dropped his hand like it was a live wire, and turned startled green eyes his direction.  What she saw in the depths of his eyes was something she’d never expected.  Kindness, understanding, friendship.

           Emma’d had a rough life; always abandoned, always forgotten, always passed over.  It wasn’t until David’s mom, Ruth, adopted her at the age of seventeen that she finally found someone she could really trust.  Still, trust came hard.  Her default position was still to expect the worst.

           So it shocked her to her very core when she suddenly had the urge to confide in the man sitting beside her—the man she’d hated from the very beginning.

           “Look,” she said, once again glancing away from him.  “That boy that was with me last night...”

           He nodded, urging her to go on.  “That’s my…that’s my son.  Got knocked up really young; still a kid really, sixteen-and-a-half.  And when I told the father…well, he freaked out.  Walked out on us, and I’ve never seen him since.”

           Killian took her hand, and to her shock, she had no desire to pull away.

           “I gave Henry up when he was born, trying to give him his best chance, you know? What did I know about being a mother?  I’d never even had one to speak of.”

           “I can’t begin to imagine how difficult that must have been for you,” Killian whispered.  She looked up at him, nodded, and gave his hand a quick squeeze.

           “Yeah,” she admitted.  “Tore me apart.  I’ve been looking for him for years, and finally found him; here in this town.  The adoptive mom didn’t want me to have anything to do with him; almost took out a restraining order on me, and well, last night was the first time she agreed to let me have contact with him.  Real contact.  Henry loves fireworks, so…”  Emma shrugged.

           Killian was silent for a long time, and finally she looked up at him.  The compassion in his eyes was almost her undoing.  “I’m sorry for overreacting, love.”

           She shrugged again.  “Not your fault; not really.  You couldn’t have known.  And...well, I guess my default is to be defensive.  My experience…people don’t stay.  They don’t do nice things for you, at least without expecting things in return.  Their all out to screw you over.”

           “Emma, you deserve far, far better than that.”

           Something about the sincerity of his voice, the emotion behind his simple statement, finally made her snap.  Surging forward, she weaved her hand through the soft hair at the nape of his neck and slammed her lips against his.

           He responded instantly, giving as good as he got, deepening the kiss, making small noises in the back of his throat that drove her wild.  In the history of kisses, she was sure there had never been one quite so potent, so all consuming.

           When they finally pulled apart, she rested her forehead against his and felt his deep chuckle against her hand, resting on his chest.  “Love, that was…”

           “Mind-blowing, explosive,” she finished.  She leaned back and grinned at him.  “Jones, I thought you were against fireworks, but that..”

           He laughed again.  “Well, there are fireworks and then there are fireworks.”

           She laughed with him, and couldn’t resist going in for round two—the kiss far softer and more gentle this time.

           “Killian,” she finally said, breathlessly.  “I think we kind of started out on the wrong foot.  How about we start over and this time try to not, you know, attempt to kill each other every other day?”

           Killian grinned.  “Sounds good to me, love.”  He extended his hand once more.  “Hi, I’m Killian Jones.  Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

[sassycassie-s-writing]

Returning the Flash Drive

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC/BatFam - Jason Todd/Red Hood

Rating: PG

Original Idea: An AU prompt list I found on Pinterest but was from Tumblr.

Notes: (Masterlist)(By Character)(About Me) The italic blocks of text are parts of the original project. And that original project is actually an actual original project of mine. @welovegroot @batboys-and-other-messes Posting way early today because why not and I have no self-control

^^^^^

Jason plopped down at the library computer, fully intending to just search the catalog for Sense and Sensibility, check it out, and leave.

But he got distracted by the bright blue flash drive sticking out of the USB port. There was a piece of blue masking tape on the side, with a heavily worn-out name written on it. But it was so worn, all he got was a T and maybe an e. Though it could have been a g. He wasn’t sure.

Curious, he clicked out of the library catalog window, and found the drive on the desktop. It was named, “Bat-Drive.” He couldn’t help but snicker as he opened it up.

There was a long list of Microsoft Word docs immediately there with weird file names. Angst Galore, Crimson Poison, Duct Tape and Safety Pins, For What I Love, and Winter Went Down to Georgia as some of the ones he noticed. At the very top, though, was a file that read, !!!IF FOUND PLEASE READ!!!

Jason clicked it open.

“Hi there, stranger! If you’re reading this, that means you found my flash drive. This thing is my life. Thank you so much for finding it. Please text me at ###-###-#### and say you found it and where I left it. I’ll promptly come back and get it! Thank you so much! I appreciate it!”

Jason blinked and got out his phone, already typing the person’s number into a new text message box. He closed the file.

SUPERNATURAL HIGH—DRAFT 3

Another file name caught his eye.

Knowing he shouldn’t, he opened it. The person’s little note for whomever found the lost drive didn’t have a name. Just a phone number. But the file name implied it was some form of fiction. Maybe there would be a byline.

Supernatural High

By: Me

Well that wasn’t helpful. Jason narrowed his eyes in frustration.

Chapter 1—My Roommate is a Vampire

“Welcome to Supernatural High School!” the banner read over the huge front door. I looked at it, reading the same five words over and over again.

“Wow,” I said to my mom. “I’m here.”

Jason tilted his head, attention caught. He leaned forward, laced his fingers under his chin, and started to read.

He knew he shouldn’t be reading this. He knew that someone else’s writing was a private thing until made public, but it was good. The writing style felt like someone around his age wrote it—probably a girl if the main character being a first-person narrator female character was anything to go on—and it was engaging. Creative and with an interesting premise.

Jason poured over the third draft of the story—and glanced at the page count. 102. Single-spaced. Wow.

Enraptured, he continued reading.

Vicky pulled open the A-G Freshmen filing cabinet. It took her three seconds to find Adamaris, Aaralyn (the name of the protagonist) in the front of the drawer.

Vicky snatched it and flipped open the light-yellow file folder.

“What in Hades is an aquatic hybrid?” Vicky hissed to Carrie and Vinnie.

“What?” two voices asked quietly. Carrie left the computer where she was trying to erase Aaralyn’s name from the teachers’ rolls and Vinnie left the door so they could both look at the file over Vicky’s shoulders.

Species: Aquatic Hybrid.

“Huh,” Vinnie grunted.

“Yeah… what is an aquatic hybrid?” Carrie whispered.

The light flicked on. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” a voice said from the doorway.

Jason paused reading for a moment. Who was writing this? He needed to return the flash drive to its owner…

Opening the file explorer window again, he scanned down the file names.

Me—Facebook Profile.jpeg

Eureka.

Jason opened the picture.

Weirdly, the girl looked like the kind of girl who would write the piece of fiction open on his screen. A wide, sparkling smile. Eyes full of sweetness and intelligence. A few wisps of hair caught in a breeze. She was standing on top of the Wayne Enterprises tower on the observation deck, arms thrown in the air and one leg popped behind her, obviously excited. A Batman beanie was hanging out of the bag on her shoulder.

Jason smiled and looked around the library. He couldn’t see around corners or shelves, but in his line of sight, the girl in the photo was nowhere to be found around him.

So he kept reading. When he was done, he’d turn it in to the lost-and-found or go searching for her through the shelves—and maybe even down in the children’s section in the underground level.

He was so entranced by the words that flowed so naturally, so casually, down the page that he really didn’t notice time was even passing. He didn’t notice his back muscles growing stiff or the occasional buzz of his phone in his pocket.

When he finally reached the end of the document—“Kalen’s arms found my waist as the disco lights swirled over our skin and the music beat its gentle rhythm into the floorboards and our hearts. I smiled and”—he almost flipped the desk over. Why did it end in the middle of the sentence? Why did it end at all?! Where was the rest of it? That couldn’t be the end!

In a frustrated state, he closed the document, and the picture, ejected the drive, and yanked it out of the computer. He logged off and roughly shoved his chair back. Holding the drive lightly in his right hand, he started to wander the library, looking for the girl to return it to.

^^^^^

I’d been sitting in the same spot in the library for hours. My apartment’s electricity was off for the day while some wiring was getting fixed and my laptop had broken. Not to mention the library was the only place my sister wouldn’t look for me and I’d been avoiding her for two days. Long story.

I was sitting in a worn-out old velvet armchair with Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan’s Curse in my hands. My water bottle was halfway empty—I’d need to get up and refill it before I left… if I ever left.

Something hit me in the chest.

“What the—?” I muttered, looking down.

It was my flash drive. Bright blue with my smudged-out name in masking tape on the side.

“Why did you stop there? How’s it supposed to end?” a voice hissed.

I looked up, one hand closing around the drive.

The man in front of me was so ridiculously handsome that my mind went blank and my breath went away. Tall, muscular, black-haired, blue-eyed, chiseled face with a jaw sharp and strong enough to cut glass. Wearing skinny jeans that showed off exactly how powerful his legs were, a white T-shirt with what appeared to be Red Hood’s red bat symbol on the chest, and a red hoodie.

I didn’t even process that he’d asked me a question. My brain was going more along the lines of, “Oh hot dang he’s handsome. How is a man that handsome even allowed to exist? Wait. Hang on. Did he say something? Shoot.”

When I didn’t answer, and just stared blankly, he sat down in the long-vacant armchair across the tiny coffee table from me, and continued, “Your Supernatural High story. Why did you stop writing in the middle of a sentence?”

I realized what he was talking about. “Oh. You read… my story…” I trailed off.

“Yeah, missy. And listen, I get that Kalen and Aaralyn totally have a thing goin’ on, but c’mon lady! He’s too old for her at that stage in their lives and he may be the hot, bad boy type but she’s so bright and sweet! What about Conan? I know he and Zurie seem to have a small flirtation but everyone knows werewolf-vampire romances are doomed so why not just give him to Aaralyn? Though, I do appreciate the whole Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed lovers vibe they have since you mentioned that the Wolfes and the Addingtons don’t get along,” he ranted.

I blinked but didn’t say anything. This handsome stranger wasn’t finished yet.

“I also really liked the Pride and Prejudice, Much Ado About Nothing feel between Aaralyn and Kalen. Especially with Zurie, Lyric, Conan, and Ryker contriving to set them up in a very Lady-Beatrice-and-Lord-Benedick way while the Mr. Darcy and Lizzie Bennet thing can be slyly represented by the fact that he’s a pureblood fairy and therefore more respected in the community while she’s a hybrid that others distrust for being half-human. What’s she even a hybrid of? A-hundred-and-two pages and you still haven’t revealed what her other half is.”

Someone in the library shushed him.

I opened my mouth, trying to come up with something to say. I hadn’t really intended for there to be all those classic literature parallels, per se, but it was nice to know someone could pull something out of what I’d written.

“I don’t even know your name,” I finally managed to say, whispering because we were in a library.

“I'm Jason. And why isn’t this published?”

“It’s not done, genius. Why do you think?” I retorted.

“Fair point. But seriously, what’s Aaralyn’s other half? What even is an aquatic hybrid?” he asked.

“A-hundred-and-two pages of implications and you can’t figure out what she is?” I joked. “With everything I’ve mentioned and every not-so-subtle clue. From her singing at the dance to getting pushed in the pool to what happened when those three boys drowned at the school decades before she even attended and you have no idea?”

^^^^^

Jason thought hard for a second, trying to puzzle through everything he’d just read. To be fair, he’d read quite a lot in a short time and it had almost overloaded his brain.

He glanced down at the book in her hands. He’d never read the PJO series but he’d heard a lot about it. His eyes also searched the ceiling, as though still reading the text on the computer screen up there.

An idea popped into his head. He looked back down at the writer girl.

^^^^^

Realization dawned on the man—Jason’s—face. His jaw dropped. He mouthed one word. I smirked.

“There you go. You got it,” I said, a little louder than I intended.

The librarian shot us a dark look.

“Look, I don’t even know your name, but I have to read the rest of this story. Please. It’s really good and I was really enjoying it and you ended it in the middle of a sentence!”

I smile lightly. “Thank you,” I said before offering him my name. “And if you really wanna read it, give me your email and I’ll send it to you as I work on it. I’d love a beta reader.”

“Absolutely. Please. I have to know what happens,” Jason said.

I pulled my notebook out of my bag and passed it to him, tucking my flash drive securely into a zipper pocket and zipping it up. Wasn’t going to lose that again.

He handed me back my notebook with his email address scrawled over almost an entire blank page.

“Can I take you out to lunch or something and you can tell me more about your stories? Especially this one but what else do you write? I saw a bunch of titles on your flash drive but I only read the one.”

My jaw dropped open. “Uh—I mean—yeah. Sure,” I said.

Jason got to his feet and offered me his hand to help me up. “I'm sorry if I'm freaking you out. I'm just a… voracious reader—” I could tell by that vocabulary word. “—and I’ve recently been getting into more contemporary stuff. There’s only so much classic you can read. It’s a finite genre.” He pulled me to my feet. I scooped up my bag and put PJO back on the shelf. Before walking next to Jason out the door.

“It’s okay. You freaked me out at first because you never expect someone to approach you accusing you of not finishing your story when you don’t know them and don’t realize at first how they even read your story, but I'm so unused to having someone so enthusiastic about what I’ve written that I was just surprised,” I replied. He smiled.

“I really look forward to the finished product,” he said.

“Thank you. I'm excited to have someone who’s excited,” I said as we left the library.

[zora-moyashi]

First

Prev          Next

ZM

she hops up the building and stands next to her. "hi i'm back"

Core

“I see that, though you have been a brat

ZM

"maybe so, maybe so but you shouldn't deny that you started all that." she looks back at the kids for a second who were almost caught up.

Core

Shade climbed up faster than Shine. “Kits you bring oh what a treat, oh yes a treat Horror loves to eat.”

ZM

"funny you mention that. she's actually following us. to my knowledge you're not a star eater?"

Core

“I lack the teeth to do such a thing, like a bird lacking a Wing.”

ZM

"that's cause you're a human, am i wrong? do you wanna eat stars? cause that's kinda disgusting."

Core

“I eat what I want. Even with taunts.”

ZM

"except stars. oh yeah by the way sorry about going into your town again, i know i said i wouldn't but this is an exception." she takes the kids and putshes them to LJ a little.

Core

Shine seemed super nervous about LJ, hiding behind Chara

ZM

"LJ meet shine and shade, come to think of it you may already know them, seeing how close you are to night."

Core

“Know then I did not, but one of them; the real me they spot.”

ZM

she pauses thinking about that."that's a little to cryptic for me haha. what do you mean?"

Core

Shade noticed Shines nervousness, before looking back at LJ, seemingly catching on.

ZM

noticing shade she comes to the conclusion. "I'm completely left in the dark, someone care to explain?" she says irritated. 

Core

“She’s really really bad.” Shine whimpered.

ZM

"how so hon?"

Core

“Shadow.......” shine mumbled. LJ put a finger over her lips before laughing

ZM

chara is just baffled at how she doesn't understand a word of this. "what the f*ck are you talking about" she waves her hands around. "this meas nothing to me!"

Core

Shine grabbed Chaya’s arm as her eyes glowed letting Chara see what she saw. There was a shadow looming over LJ, with long fingers resting on her shoulders. Two beady red eyes was the only features on its face

ZM

(like that?)

Core

(Fran bow?)

(Then yes, exactly like that)

ZM

chara goes up while holding shine's hand and tries to touch the shadow.

Core

Shine planted her feet in the ground, not wanting to go any closer.

ZM

chara tries to drag her over

Core

Shine whimpers which was enough for Shade to get involved, freeing his sister from Chara’s grasp

ZM

she sighs angrily "shine i won't let it hurt you i just wanna take a better look!"

Core

Shine went fully behind Chara, touching her back so she could see the shadow.

ZM

she cocks her head and talks to LJ "so what is it exactly?"

Core

The shadow spoke. “See me, see me, yes you can. Looks to me like you’re part of a plan.”

ZM

"sounds to me like you're speaking nonsense, i've heard about these gods some of you talk about but they don't care about us, certainly not enough to have an actual plain made for us."

Core

“God She is not, but close enough to be given thought.”

ZM

"mmhm, and this plan is??/"

Core

“A game she makes, to see if you have what it takes.” Horror caught up, “you talking about the squid? Her games are so boring.”

ZM

"ah, ink? yeah she seems pretty boring to me too" she nods to horror

Core

LJ shrugged. “Boring it may seem, that is until you reach the final scene.”

ZM

"but how do you know this stuff? and what's gonna happen? what about ink is she like really bad i get the creeps from her, why are you attached to LJ why does shine hate it somuch?" she keeps rattling off questions. "if i know how it ends i can make it end my way instead."

Core

The shadow looked to the forest. “Said to much I have, but your actions are worth some laughs.”

ZM

"rude"

Core

LJ hopped down the tower, going her own way

ZM

chara follows, not letting her get off this easy. "hey, the kits are still going to help you weather you like it or not"

Core

“Help I need none, without help is much more fun.”

ZM

"i get that, but you need help."

Core

“No.”

ZM

"you don't have a choice."

"we should get night to join"

Core

LJ looked at Chara with a glare as Shine ran past, Horror chasing her and Shade chasing Horror

ZM

chara's sure they'll be fine and doesn't pay any mind. "it'll be fun!"

Core

LJ shook her head.”

ZM

"don't be a stick in the mud, i thought you were the fun one"

Core

“It is not wise to go against the squid. Even if you’re just a kid.”

ZM

"if we die we die, no need to prolong the enviable, live a little. isn't it depressing being in this town that's just as broken as you?" she looks over to the kids

Core

“No.” Shade hit Horror who slashed at him

ZM

"no it's not depressing or no you won't come?" she yells over "yo horror! stop harassing the kits!"

Core

“Both.” LJ said. Horror looked over. “What? I’m hungry.”

ZM

"we went over this," she pouts to horror than asks, "yo do you know how to teleport?"

Core

“No I don’t.” She said, grabbing Shade

ZM

chara shoots a yellow bullet through horror's arm shattering the bone and letting shade free. "a shame. it's going to be a lot harder to get her to cooperate without that..." she thinks and slides her view to LJ. "guess if you're gonna be like that, we'll just have to fight until night gets over her to save you."

Core

“Nightmare has to rest, starving herself again unlike the rest.”

ZM

"than it'd be a shame to wake her~"

Core

“She would eat you, but then again you have no clue.”

ZM

"she got beat by that error gal, i'm not as scared as i was before."

Core

LJ rolled her eyes.

ZM

"sassy today hm?" "tell you what, we go talk to night, see what she says about your mental state and we'll go from there. if she says you're fine then i'll leave ya alone" (doesn't mean i'll let the kids leave her alone)

Core

(XD Shine does not wanna stay with LJ)

ZM

(too bad haha >:P )

ZM

she turns away from her "okay y'all new game, get LJ to nightmare. shine can ride on my back if she's to chicken to be around LJ."

Core

Shine nodded, going to Chara

ZM

chara picks her up and they all make there way to the forest? i guess? "horror, you know where exadctly she is?"

Core

“Night? Yeah I do.” Horror said, leading the way

ZM

"sweet" when they get around the area chara scouts out to find her first even though shine's getting a bit heavy.

Core

She spots Nightmare resting in a tree. Shine got nervous

ZM

"hey nighttt~ member me?" she hops over disregarding shine's hesitance.

Core

Nightmare was fast asleep, her tentacles were wrapped around the branches to keep her from falling, one was buried slightly under the ground.

ZM

"okay well don't acknowledge me than! we're here to help out LJ, we were wondering if you approve or if you would like to help?"

Core

When Chara stepped where to tentacle was, it shot up and snapped her neck immediately, waking Nightmare up to eat, not caring who or what she killed

ZM

chara wakes up at her save shaking her head and rubbing her neck. "that was fun..." she gets up and goes back to where the others are.

Core

(Yeah, Nightmare is an ambush hunter, using as little energy as she can, she honestly hates having to kill others to eat, but has too, so she’ll starve herself to the point where she can’t do too much. So she hunts once a week or so) She was back at the castle when she reloaded. Shine had hidden as Nightmare ate, ripping off limbs to swallow the larger pieces whole.

ZM

(confusing lol, okay so in this world chara regenerates a whole body, got ya) she goes up to night again crouching by her, "enjoying your meal?" she says flatly. she also looks around for shade

Core

Shade was with Shine. Nightmare finished eating before answering. “No, never do.”

ZM

"well you're depressing haha!"

"did you hear what i said before or did you push that all out of your mind?"

Core

“What else is new? And no Iwas asleep.”

ZM

"great well, we want to help LJ." she waves a hand "and by 'we' i mean the kits"

Core

“What ki-“ Nightmare looked over and saw the two. Shade immediately arching his back slightly to make himself look tougher.

ZM

"your niece and nephew"

Core

Nightmare looked at Chara, “I don’t have any living relatives.” She said

ZM

"umm,?" she's just confused. "you know, like dream? her kits?"

Core

“Dream has been dead for five years now.” Nightmare glared slightly

ZM

"either i'm way behind on resent events or your confused. i met dream just about a week ago. she attacked me with her arrows and she was corrupted so ?"

Core

“That is Shattered, she’s from a different timeline.” Nightmare sighed

ZM

chara sighs with her. "you guys and your 'she's from a different dimensions/timelines so i don't care about her' like damn. i'm ninety percent sure any asreil i come across i would still care for like a brother. but whatev. i'm not here to talk about ethics."

Core

“But they wouldn’t be the same, they wouldn’t be the person you knew.” Nightmare said

ZM

"you're right, but you have to appreciate the ones that are here, make new memories. they're not your version of your family but it's still them. ah and shattered's dead too btws. " she holds a laugh under her breath.

Core

“See, I shouldn’t try that because they get killed too.”

ZM

"think what you want, i still want to help your little LJ and i'd love your assistance in doing so, so is it a deal or nah?"

Core

“LJ normally doesn’t need help, she does fine with her own, though sometimes if she’s too unstable I have to use some shadows.” Nightmare replied

ZM

"oh sh*t! you gave her that creepy thing?!"

Core

“Yeah, you saw it?”

ZM

"only because of shine"

Core

“Am I to assume that is one of the kits?”

ZM

"yes you are, it's that one" she points her out as shine hides more from being pointed out.

Core

“She’s awfully shy for a genocide star.”

ZM

"well that's news to me, i haven't seen them eat i suppose..." she squints. "are you sure about that?"

Core

“Her mother is Shattered, do you know the father?”

ZM

"nope, i'm clueless."

Core

“So either Neutral or Genocide?”

ZM

"i guess? i don't know how star genes work" she shrugs

ZM

"hey shine, come over here will you?" she calls

Core

Shine slowly can over.

ZM

"hey kid, did you know who your dad was at all?"

Core

 Shine shook her head

ZM

"helpful as always shine," "know what, how about you go fight horror for a while, see how many times you two can kill her, cause it's free exp." she turns to night "so you really don't want us to help LJ?"

Core

“She doesn’t need help”

ZM

Chara shakes her head not pleased. "Fine. Fine." She walks away with shine over to horror and shade. "That went well." She sighs. "Suppose we'll have to move on to killer."

Core

Shade didn’t say anything. “It’s actually harder to find her sometimes than it is to find the squid.”

"she was just here like an hour ago, why is she so hard to find??"

Core

“Because She has places she goes to.”

ZM

"hmmmm? well you're her friend, where are these places?"

Core

“That’s the thing, she doesn’t tell anyone.”

ZM

"alright but doesn't night keep tabs on her?"

Core

“Can’t.” Nightmare yawned. “I can only do that if I have made eye contact with them, but Killer tore out her eyes.”

ZM

"that's weird." chara folds her arms thinking of what to do next. she goes up to shade and kinda just looks at him

Core

Shade growls and sticks his tongue out

ZM

she snickers. "i haven't even been that mean to you kid, what's your deal?"

Core

“‘Haven’t been that mean?’ You killed me!!” He growled crossing his arms. Horror chuckled. “You act a lot like Night.”

ZM

"*snort* yep i've killed most of my friends. don't worry about it. you're alive so stop being a baby about it."

Core

Shade growled at her answer. Meanwhile Killer made sure no one was following her as she passed an abandoned house, the siding falling off as vines climbed up the sides. She went to the backyard, where two makeshift graves were. “Hey Jazz, Mom.... I know I’m late but.... happy birthday little brother.” She said with a sad smile

ZM

"you're going to stay salty about this aren't you? what do you expect me to do to fix it?"

Core

“Stop being a bully.” Shade said.

Killer sat on the ground, telling her deceased sibling and mother about events that had pasted

ZM

"pfff" she shakes her head "that's vague. i just wantta keep you two safe, you have a problem with that?"

Core

Shade pointed to Horror. “I don’t think that is safe.” Horror chuckled. “Man you really are a little punk, huh?”

ZM

"he sure is." she looks to shade "you're missing the point. i want to keep you safe in the long term. you need to be strong to be able to survive."

Core

Shade crossed his arms and looked away from Chara. Shine was still behind Chara

ZM

chara grabs shine's hand and pulls her a bit forward. "now that i think you understand are you going to stop moping or are we going to have to butt-heads more shade? sense LJ isn't willing to be helped it's time to find killer again. i'd expect shatter to know where she might be." she walks back to the rift expecting shade to fallow.

Core

Shade’s glare softened slightly when he saw his sister. He sighed and followed Chara and Shine. Shatter had reformed, and was talking to Tonic. “You know, today is a special day.”

ZM

chara's happy at shade's obedience. tonic's tail wags. "yes? how so?" she asks shatter.

Core

“Well, remember how I told you I had a little brother?” Shatter said.

ZM

Tonic nods solemnly

Core

“It’s his birthday today.” Shatter said with a sad smile

ZM

"do you plan on visiting his grave?" she asks

Core

(So my version of Ink can actually hear us, like when we talk in () )

ZM

(got ya, that's kinda creepy haha)

Core

“I don’t think he would’ve wanted me to, he always wanted us to keep moving on,” Shatter replied, looking over at Tonic. “But you already know that I suck at that.”

ZM

tonic looks down unsurely. "that's alright. i haven't been able to move on quickly as well. either way i'm sure your brother would want you to feel better. however you spend the day i'm sure he wouldn't mind." chara, shine and shade get back to where tonic and shatter are.

Core

Shatter smiled at pat Tonic’s head. “You would have gotten along with him.” She then looked over at Chara. “Now, the only reason I can come up with as to why you would come to me is that you either need me to babysit, or you need help.”

ZM

"well gee, nice welcome shatter. is it so wrong to want to see my friend." she snickers. "but yeah, you are right. i want to know if you'd know where killer is.

Core

(Ink can not touch water, or hydrogen in general, it ‘burns’ her) “Killer? Oh you mean Yuma....” Shatter stood up. “Well I have a pretty good idea.”

ZM

tonic watches shatter and chara asks "yeah? were's that? she seemed mad at me for saying that horror and i are her friends. she all blew up on us so...? " she shrugs.

(i'm unsure why people do the water hurts ink or nightmare thing. i don't know where that came from.)

Core

(as for with my Ink it is science, see hydrogen cuts through carbon bonds, and my Ink is made of pure carbon, so hydrogen harms her.) “Well, I honestly don’t blame her, but come on.” Shatter said, making a portal

ZM

(ah, makes sense! ) tonic follows and chara looks at shatter questioningly before joining.

Core

The portal went to an old house, the siding was falling off as vines climbed up

ZM

 chara went up to look around and finds yuma on the ground in the backyard

Core

Killer turned to Chara. “What are you doing here?”

ZM

"mmmm, mostly saying 'hi'" she looks at the graves "your brother?" she tilts her head?

Core

“None of your business.” Killer glared, as she spoke with a hiss. 

ZM

"i mean maybe not, but you know me. i like to be in everyone's business." she goes up closer slowly.

Core

Shatter stayed still, floating slightly above the ground, meaning Killer couldn’t sense her. “Yeah and it’s bloody annoying.” Killer hissed.

ZM

 chara just laughs. "come on, you know you love me." she goes to sit by yuma 

Core

“I tolerate you, maybe not even that.” Killer hissed.

ZM

chara shrugs sitting cross legged after a second she asks "is there a reason you're here today?"

Core

Killer picked Chara up by the back of her sweater. “It’s none of your concern.” She hissed, going over to where Tonic and the kits were. (Fun fact: Nightmare’s coating is poisonous)

ZM

(ooo) chara hangs from killer's grip lazily. tonic perks up at the sight of yuma, sitting up a bit straighter.

Core

Killer dropped Chara. Before ‘looking’ at Tonic. “And who are you supposed to be?” She hissed

ZM

"oh, I'm just. I'm just a friend of chara's." chara swipes the dirt off of her sweater. "that's putting it generously..." with a scowl.

Core

Killer turned to Chara. “So you don’t like them?”

ZM

"no, not at all."

Core

“See how you feel about them, I feel for you.” Killer said harshly, as she started to walk away

ZM

"pffff!" she hops up and stands in front of killer, blocking her way. "damn, you don't have to be so mean! we're just here to help ya know? the kits wanta help you out of this little pit you've dug for yourself. dont tell me you're pleased with were your life is right now cause i know you'd be lying.

Core

“My life is none of your concern. And I don’t need any of your help.” Killer said. ‘Hey, you might wanna use act and check.....’ Shatter told Chara via telepathy

ZM

chara with a shrug does as she's told and checks killer.

Core

Killer lv 57 hp 122/730 ‘something seems very wrong with this star’s soul’

ZM

chara pauses and looks at tonic who stares back at her blankly. "tonic heal up killer, she's hurt." she orders. tonic looks to killer unsurely. chara brings up her act menu and sees what's available.

Core

Killer turned back to Chara. “I’m fine.” She growled. -insult -ask -challenge

ZM

"sure you are" she says condescendingly. and chooses the ask option.

Core

-you ask Killer why she is hiding- Killer didn’t respond, but still wouldn’t let Tonic close

ZM

chara asks what's wrong with killer's soul

Core

“Look, I don’t pester you about your past, don’t pester me on mine.” Killer said, her tone more calm than before

ZM

"friends pester each other, just shows we care. if you're so fine and won't even let yourself be healed how about we fight and when i knock you out i'll get my answers the hard way."

Core

“Fine, you wanna fight? Then let’s fight.” Killer replied, grabbing her knife from her pocket

ZM

chara makes a slingshot. tonic panics a little. "do y-you really need to fight? i don't mean to be rude but you simply don't seem well..." they shuffles their feet

Core

“I told you already, I’m fine.” Killer responded as she started to circle

ZM

tonic looks up at shatter worried while chara shoots a few yellow bullets at killer's legs and goes in with her knife at her torso.

Core

Killer teleported behind Chara slashing at her back

ZM

chara swerves around slashing behind her as quickly as she can hoping to hit her before she moves again.

Core

She cut Killer’s hoody

ZM

chara goes up to tackle killer after giving a glance to the kits clearly ordering them to help her take down killer.

Core

Shine threw a explosive, making Killer jump out of the way, where Shade tripped her

ZM

after shade trips her chara goes up to cut killer's neck. 

Core

Killer teleported out of the way

ZM

chara turns to killer as fast as she could but gets hit in the back of the head, stumbling forward.

Core

Killer then pinned Chara to the ground

ZM

chara squirms to get her hand free

Core

Killer kept her pinned, “Just give up.”

ZM

"Not happening! Do ya even know me?" She kicks at her, not getting much of anywhere. "Kittttts come on!"

Core

Shade tried to slash only to get slashed at

ZM

while killer was distracted chara managed to roll away and get a small hit to killers back.

Core

Killer took 2 damage. She turned quickly to counter before her health cut by 50, forcing her to wince and teleport back to get some distance

ZM

chara checks her again and sees how much damage she did. and whistles to herself. "wow, you're worse off than i thought." she sets up a checkpoint and circles around killer as quickly she could and sets a few more. trying to put her in a cage of checkpoints.

Core

Killer hp 25 / 730 Her soul seems unstable. Killer glared as she watched Chara do this, as if planning something.

ZM

chara laughs. "you just going to let this happen?" with a shrugs she lets off a couple of rounds checkpoint shooting to another checkpoint and leaving a blue bar behind. one checkpoint lazer thing goes straight for killer to the checkpoint on the other side of her.

Core

Killer teleported multiple times in a row, getting the lazer to bend in a grid like pattern.

ZM

"well isn't that just pretty~ you making us some art killz?" she can't keep up with her teleportion so she tries to find a pattern in her movements instead

Core

Killer did have a pattern, it was as if she was trying to do something with the lazer, 2 feet left, 4 feet up, 2 side, 4 down.

ZM

she followed the pattern going about 2 steps ahead and set a purple web on the ground where she should land while readying her knife as well.

Core

Killer teleported once before breaking her pattern as a wormhole appeared in the grid

ZM

"ooo~" chara takes a step back observing but getting ready to get out of there with the kits. "this reminds me of digimon haha, do you have dementional powers? i don't know why but i wouldn't peg you as that."

Core

“No, just escape.” She said hopping through before the wormhole closed

ZM

".... pff. didn't take you for a coward either." she calls back the checkpoints and replenishes her magic. "shaaaater, whereee'd she go?" she goes up to where she was.

Core

“Probably skakarr....” Shatter answered. “Since she needed to heal, but there is no way I am going back there.”

ZM

chara makes a sad face. "hmph..." she turns to tonic knowing their the only hope she seems to have to get there. "take us there." she orders and tonic glances around surprised "uhhh" they say

Core

“Look, skakarr is not a place to just ‘go and visit’ ok? It’s more like an active war zone 24/7.”

ZM

"i can take care of myself." she shrugs and she goes closer to tonic. "so like how does this work? you know how to teleport right? not much of a health aid if you can't get there in time hmm?"

"well... umm. i'd need some blue magic." tonic says quietly.

Core

“Not there you can’t, ok? Whatever kind of place you think it is, I can assure you it is much much worse.” Shatter said

ZM

she looks back at shatter. "... well fine but killer's there. and at 25 hp. it feels like an obligation for me to help or at least see what's wrong so i can prevent it happening to the kits or somthin" "besides. war is war and i can always reset. it ain't no thing." she thinks for a second where she'd get blue magic cause she'd assume her replicate blue magic wouldn't work.

Core

Shatter sighed, “Killer is like me, remember? We’ve been there, and one tends to know where to hide there after 7 years.”

ZM

"well gee shatter! you know i'm gonna go anyway! should probably stop trying to talk me out of it hmmm? it'll be fun! you're strong! if you wanna keep us safe you can always tag along~" she goes a little closer to the kits. "you have purple magic right? can you like. cry blue magic or something cool like that? if stars even cry i guess haha."

Core

Shatter sighed.”If I take you, it should just be us two, and you need to listen to me.” She said.

ZM

"eeyyy!" she goes up and hugs shatter quickly. "thank you!" she has the biggest grin on.

[thesiteofstyle]

MYRIAM BONILLA

The Visual Merchandiser at KITH Miami on her oily skin, signature scent, and her future purchases.  

“Hey S.O.S. readers, I’m Myriam (@myri_yum) and this is a little intro to get to know me. I’m half Cypriot, half Colombian, born and raised in Cyprus but have been living in Miami for 5 years. I’m the Visual Merchandiser at KITH Miami, and this last year that our store has been open has been insane. The good insane. Between playing around with product placement, from my apartment, to my job, pulling looks for my clients, adding to my shoe collection, expanding my magazine and books and instinctively styling myself, it’s safe to say I’m a victim of consumerism. And I love it.

Being busy is way more exhilarating than being bored, so I start my days at 8 a.m. After a 50 minute workout and 30 minutes of yoga, I jump in the shower which is where my skincare routine starts. I exfoliate 2-3 times week with Clarins One-Step Gentle Exfoliating cleanser. A little definitely goes a long way with this product, you don’t need more than a dollop! I use Origins Checks and Balances Frothy Face Wash after – my face feels squeaky clean after this. I’ll never stop buying it. I hate seeing flaky, dry skin so I always make sure to hydrate. During the day I use Kate Somerville’s Daily Deflector Moisturizer, it feels like silky Greek yoghurt which probably doesn’t sound appealing but I love it since my grandma used to do yoghurt face masks on me.  There are 3 brands of face masks that I alternate during the week. My new found love is Drunk Elephant’s Sukari Babyfacial. I’d been seeing it a lot online and decided to give the tester size a try. I was sold the minute that manuka oil touched my face! Thankfully, Sephora had a 20% sale when my tester size bottle ran out and I bought the real deal. My other frequent mask, mainly because it’s so easy to wash off, is Kate Somerville’s EradiKate mask. It’s frothy and fun and that’s something my skin likes. My third mask is Origins Charcoal Mask – any Origins products I’ve tried thus far has become a staple in my routine.

My skin is oily and I remember being so insecure about it being shiny. I’m so thankful for “dewy skin” being a look because any skin type can achieve it! I try not to wear makeup on the regular, only for birthdays, special occasions, COURT. My go-to products are simple and cute: Laura Mercier oil-free tinted moisturizer, Fenty Beauty concealer match stix in Bamboo (I used to use Dior prior and have admittedly switched over!), Anastasia Beverly Hills brow wiz then I normally touch up my brows with Benefit’s brow gel. I have this amazing duo bronzer from Makeup Forever which they don’t make anymore so I try to limit my usage! I find that the bronze and gold looked great on my skin – I was so devastated when I couldn’t find this product again. My lips are always moisturized and if not my boyfriend always reminds me to (thanks, babe). I use Vaseline lip butter in cocoa for about 6 years now, Dior Lip Maximizer and I just recently picked up the Dior Lip Glow which I love!

The scent I’ve been wearing for about 3 years now is Balenciaga’s Florabotanica. I’ve recently been feeling overwhelmed by people’s heavy perfume scents, so I now just use Miss Dior hair mist after I do my hair. I’d rather someone remember me by my style or personality, than scent, the strongest sense in our body.  I don’t take care of my hair as much as I should. I chopped it all off after I turned 21 and have just been letting it grow back after I noticed how much heat damage I had. After my shower I use The Ouai’s hair oil, just 2 pumps! I swear by IGK Hair products. I know Franck and Leo personally and I trust them completely. I use IGK Rich Kid Coconut Oil Gel for my curls and it’s magical. I also ONLY use IGK’s Jet Lag Dry Shampoo, I’ve never used another brand and probably never will. Franck gave my boyfriend IGK’s Glitter Strobe Hair Spray and I’m trying not to use it unless it’s a dressy event, because if you know me, you know I love glitter, and I’d spray that sh*t on every day.

Any time I buy a new piece, whether it’s Zara or Dior, I must wear it no later than the next day. I’m sure most NORMAL HUMANS feel this need. It’s just a beautiful urge to know you obtained what you wanted, especially when you know how to dress the piece and yourself. My style has evolved over the years and I can’t wait to see what I’ll be buying in the future! I’ve always had a less feminine look compared to my friends – not just because of my sneakers. But, I’m confident and excited that in the beginning of next year I’ll explore my girlier side! My next big purchase will be the Chanel sling back sandals aka the grandma shoe. When I’m in ANY place (good or bad) in my work and personal life, you can tell from what I put together. And I’m not just talking about dressing myself. I choose the mannequin looks for KITH Miami and it reflects there to. That’s why I’m glad my decisions need to be approved!

I always think I have more prized possessions than I actually do. One of my rapper clients was recently asked what he can’t leave the house without and he said jewelry. I’m currently wearing two yellow gold 18K necklaces which I haven’t taken off since I graduated high school. It would feel weird without them on, I’d have to replace them with bigger, better, more intimate pieces. There’s this vintage bag I own from a store in Cyprus, I’d die without it. I hardly use it, but I love it because it reminds me of something my grandma would wear. A gift which I’ll cherish forever is a pack of Michael Jackson collectible cards that my boyfriend got from the Brooklyn Flea – you know the really old packs that came with a stick of gum too. Just so cool. The King of Pop and I share the same birthday, I listen to him on that date every year. My final cherished item is a baby’s hand I’d sculpted in High School for my IB exam. Its so delicate and life-like, creepy to some people, but the theme at the time meant a lot to me.”

Myriam Bonilla interviewed by The Site of Style

[overdrivels]

Could I request something with the good old-fashioned 'we have to share a bed because there's only one and no one told us beforehand' trope? With either Hanzo or McCree; you can decide which. (Like one of them and the reader get assigned to the same mission and have to stay a hotel or safehouse or something, idk.)

It’s Snow Problem

I am 9000% convinced that Hanzo would take the stupid floor if there wasn’t some really good reason behind it (like the floor was lava). So I mashed up two tropes: one bed + we’re going to freeze to death unless we share body heat.

The only reason why I never picked up this trope was because I would personally pick the floor. I’m very used to sleeping on hard surfaces, so the floor would be my preferred sleeping place unless there was, like I said before, lava.

“Da-damn, t-the–the he-h-heat’s n, not working eith-either?”

You literally could not stop your teeth from chattering or your fingers from trembling as you desperately messed around with the dial on the very, very outdated radiator. Didn’t this cabin have some sort of code to follow? You can’t be sure if the dial isn’t turning because it’s frozen or if you just couldn’t put enough strength into your frozen digits.

“There’s n-no hot water.”

Behind you, Hanzo steps out from the bathroom, barely able to contain the shaking in his voice. His heavy coat was positively encrusted with white, glittering ice decorated his hair, the dying rays of the sun catching them and lighting them up obnoxiously. It showed no sign of melting anytime soon. His face was red with windburn—you’re sure you didn’t look any better—and his breath hung around him like a ghostly veil.

It’d be a miracle if neither of you managed to catch a cold or worse.

You curse your luck and at Winston who sent you both here to Yukon on this mission to investigate rumors about Talon activity. Something about a hidden laboratory deep in the icy tundra of the Yukon. The two of you almost got caved in when you entered the space—it seemed to have been a final defense mechanism for Talon’s abandoned bases.

In hindsight, you really should’ve asked Mei to switch with you when she was assigned to go the Bahamas. Mei looked absolutely miserable when she was asked to go. You have no doubt she has the same thoughts as you at this moment. She never really did like showing off her skin.

It wasn’t as though you were both entirely unprepared–extra set of clothes, self-activating heat packs (courtesy of Genji), blankets, and other supplies that would’ve proven useful in the situation.

That is, if those supplies were drenched in the brief swim they took down some slushy body of water. In your defense, the footing was bad and in both your defenses, neither of you could afford to jump into the fast-moving waters. Luckily, Hanzo had managed to pin it to fallen tree with a well-aimed arrow. Retrieving it proved a little more harrowing than expected: you both nearly fell in when the tree partially gives out, leaving your pants and boots soaked. Luckily, the journey back to the cabin was a short one, saving you both from the possibility freezing your limbs. But not short enough to avoid the storm that is currently raging outside.

You cross the room to look out the window—it’s almost completely frosted over. The telltale ‘squish’ of your boots remind you of just how uncomfortable wet socks are and that they need to come off along with any other clothes that you have on.

“The-the generator’s out-outside. Sh-shit.”

It doesn’t look like the storm is going to let up anytime soon either. Going out there may be the equivalent of suicide. The lingering cold that roots itself firmly into your bones remind you of just how unforgiving the weather can be. The fireplace itself is empty, all the wood being outside. It’s probably all wet anyway.

“There’s no signal,” Hanzo announces, setting his communicator down on the table. You politely ignore how he nearly knocks it to the ground with the way his fingers shake.

“Looks-looks like we-we’ll have to wea-we-weather this one out. God damn it all.”

No electricity, no heat, no communications, no hot water–no people in sight of your tiny cabin window, it’s practically a repeat of the Omnic Crisis, just with less shit burning to the ground. If you both want to survive the night, there were some things you had to handle first. Namely, getting out of these clothes that are no longer doing anything to contain your body heat. A bulb of dread and anxiety drops into your stomach, swimming around for a brief moment.

You take a quick glance at Hanzo who seems preoccupied with checking his bow with whatever little light is left. In a few minutes, you’ll be lucky to see your hands in front of your own faces. It’s a small comfort that he won’t be able to see you (but your traitorous mind wonders what he would think if he did see). You shake your head to cast away those thoughts, droplets of cold water flinging everywhere. First thing’s first.

You take a breath for courage, and begin to tearing off your soaked gloves with your teeth, your other hand too clumsy to be of much help. You almost gag, the taste of melted snow and worn plastic fills your mouth.

Your attempts to undress must’ve attracted Hanzo’s attention. He sounds positively scandalized when he hisses, “What are you doing?”

“We need–we need to get out of these clothes.”

You could sense Hanzo opening his mouth to protest and immediately cut him off before he has a chance to lecture you on dignity. “You’ll fr-freeze, Hanzo. There’s no heat, no hot water, we’re—we’re soaked. Take whatever no-n-notions you have about modesty and shove–shove ‘em; we need to stay alive.” That’s what you’re doing at the moment, anyway.

At his skeptical silence, you add, “I’ll turn around, so no need to worry–I can’t see very well in the dark, anyway.” The wind rattles the windows as though adding to your point.

Little did you know, Hanzo had been specially trained to function in the dark without the need to enhancements or fancy goggles like a certain arachnid. Assassinations didn’t usually take place in broad daylight, after all. Every movement, every twitch of your muscles was easily captured in his eyes. It is beyond distracting, but he’d never let you know that.

Despite his silence, you know that Hanzo understands the sense you are making when you also hear the rustle of clothes behind you. Satisfied with his compliance (and that you won’t have to report to anyone that someone died because they refused to take of their clothes), you continued your own disrobing.

Each particle of clothing hit the hardwood floors with a loud, wet slap, and you can feel the floor jump at the impact, almost mocking you both. The tension is almost palpable, making the act of removing your clothes even more difficult with the extra water and snow caked onto it. With each piece of clothing you lose, you shiver violently at the air that assaults you. But you clench your teeth and press on. You have your own skin to save. The greatest relief comes when you take off your socks—there’s no worse feeling outside of pain that compares to the skin-crawling squish of wet socks—even though the wooden floors are cold as all hell.

“They–they should’ve sent M-M-Mei on this mission,” you say jokingly as you wring out your shirt. “She would’ve loved this. Probably would’ve been better prepared, too.”

You only receive icy silence, your attempt at a livening the atmosphere dies as it comes out of your mouth. Hanzo seems very single-minded in his unclothing. You slap an unsteady hand to your forehead. That thought was dirty. He’s your comrade-in-arms, not a pin-up. Calm down.

Normally, your thoughts didn’t travel down this route–sure, he is attractive, but not enough to distract you. Maybe the cold’s hindering your mental facilities. That must be it.

You strip down to your underwear and, to your infinite irritation, even those were soaked somehow. You’re going to put in a complaint with Winston about his new snow and water-proof gear. You tug at your underwear, grimacing at the wetness.

‘To hell with it’, you decided as you reluctantly pulled those off, too. You glanced quickly back at Hanzo as you did, hoping that he wouldn’t see.

It’s so dark you could barely even see him.

Actually, you don’t even see the archer anywhere. You whip your head around, trying to catch sight of his outline. Where did he–?

“Here.”

You’re hit by something soft and blissfully dry. It’s a large towel, musty from disuse, but welcome, nonetheless.

“Thank–thank you.”

He grunts, and there’s the sound of him putting on his own towel. You first wring your hair through it, the icy water dripping down your bare back is far from comfortable, before you wrap it around yourself in a very pathetic attempt to get warm. It barely does its job, and you feel a little less exposed to the elements. Now that you’re no longer in danger of freezing to death via an icy cage of fabric, there are other matters to attend to.

You cast a forlorn glance at the silhouette of the duffel bag, wondering if anything survived the brief dunk in the water. You decide it’s worth a shot, and try to open it. You hiss at the stinging cold. The bag is freezing still from having been dropped into the slushy water. Next time, you’re going to take a drone and you’re going to cold-proof it so it can carry your stuff. Brilliant.

You hold the towel closed as you rummage through the contents of the bag—wet clothes, wet bags, wet and ice-encrusted everything except—

“Yes!” You pull out a thick stick, and before Hanzo could even stop you, you twist and snap it, immediately flooding the room with a warm yellow light (and accidentally blinding yourself).

Hanzo hisses like a disgruntled cat, snatching the emergency light stick from your hands as you begin to rub your eyes free of the afterimages.

When you’re finally able to open them without seeing strange colors, you had to fight to keep your mouth closed. Hanzo is completely shirtless save a towel around his midsection, covering up his stomach and upper thighs. The muscles previously hidden by the thick layers of protective gear and winter wear now exposed to the nippy air. You drop your gaze so you’re not tempted to stare—you’ve seen other sculpted men before, but the fact that it’s Hanzo makes this different somehow. Though, something seems off about him.

You keep your gaze to the floor, his legs. You weren’t sure if your eyes were playing tricks on you, and rubbed your eyes to be sure. (It stung more than you would’ve liked.)

“You–you have legs? Human…legs?”

Behind him, what you thought were prostheses seemed to now be just empty casings, lying neatly on the ground. He glares at you but quickly turns away, arms crossed over his chest, the light making the dragons on his arm seem more ominous than usual. You’re not sure because the light itself isn’t strong enough for you to tell, but you could swear that there is a tinge of pink on his chest and cheeks.  

However, his biting voice immediately drives your thoughts away from that. “Is that a problem?” The condensation from his mouth circles him like dragons. The imagery is almost frightful.

“N-no, no!” you stammer, “I just, I just thought that…y-you know what, never mind.”

You turn your back and kneel down, returning to rummaging through the contents of the wet bag, trying find something useful and to distract yourself from the awkwardness of a topic that shouldn’t be discussed. A series of shivers run down your spine at the contact. Damn, you really should’ve switched with Mei—but then she’d be stuck in this situation, and she’s not exactly comfortable with being nude, especially in the presence of others (but logically, she’d probably be the most unlikely person to be caught in this sort of situation in the first place).

You chance upon a medium size container and you immediately brighten when you realize what it is.

“Hey, Hanzo, look when I found!” You hold up the thermos, kept airtight and thus uncontaminated by the cold. Perhaps it’s a little too tight, and you struggle to get it open while using your elbows to squeeze the towel against your body.

“Allow me.”

Hanzo gently snatches it from your trembling fingers, kneeling down to meet you at eye level. You couldn’t help but watch as the light illuminates his muscles undulating as he attempts to do what you could not, and highlights the sharp angle of his face and his nose, the fullness of his lips—you had to look away. The cold must be making you delirious.

“Here.”

He’s already poured a cup for you. Even at this distance, he refused to look at you, eyes stubbornly averting your general direction. You pluck it from his hands with a quiet, “Thanks”.  A close look at the contents revealed it to be more of a golden broth that the chef insisted you both take with you. The steam that rises from it is a wonderful reminder that the broth is very warm—perfect for this situation.

From the corner of your eye, you see Hanzo put his hands together and mutter a quick “いっただきます” before raising the steaming bowl to his lips and taking a hearty sip. You did the same and almost gagged at the taste.

It is somewhat metallic—strong hints of ginseng, ginger, and other flavors that you couldn’t quite place. It undoubtedly warms you, the stark contrast sends a harsh shiver down your body, skin raising with gooseflesh. Your teeth tingles from the heat, and your stomach feels a ton heavy like molten lava just made its home there. You didn’t really realize it before, but you seem to have been getting used to the cold.

You take another large, but difficult gulp; the broth leaves behind a bitter yet soothing aftertaste (you don’t think you’d drink it a second time outside of a life or death situation). You’re going to have a word with the chef when you get back to Gibraltar. You don’t know if Hanzo disliked the taste, but he didn’t comment, so neither did you. You weren’t exactly in the best position to complain about warm sustenance in the middle of a blizzard, after all.

You both ate in silence, the occasional slurp breaking it.

It probably wouldn’t be long before the other Overwatch agents noticed your disappearances—Winston had insisted on updates every six hours, and the last communications either of you had with the scientist was early this morning right before you and Hanzo went to scope the Talon lab. Since the communicator isn’t working, you wondered how long it’d take before anyone back at base realizes that you’re both stranded here.

Stupid technology, even after so many years of advancement, it still can’t send a signal in the middle of a snowstorm?

Hanzo gets up from his kneeling position, having finished his portion of soup. You’re still having some difficulty drinking it without holding your breath. Though, by the time you are done, Hanzo’s returned. He hands you some clothes hangers from the closet, now that you can both see in the dark to not stab yourself with one accidentally (unfortunate as it may be, it’s happened before).

“We should hang up our clothes so they may dry.”

You take a look at your sodden pile. “Oh, right, th-thank.” You set down your cup and take your chilly clothes into your arms and the offered hangers before stepping into the bathroom. As a side thought, you twist a knob on the sink and unsurprisingly, get nothing. You sigh. It was worth a shot.

You see that Hanzo was one step ahead of you, his clothes are already hanging neatly from the shower curtain. You wonder when he had the chance to do so without you hearing. You shake your head, it must’ve been when you were too preoccupied with stripping. Though, as you’re hanging your clothes, something else catches your eye.

A white, long rectangle of cloth hangs innocently off the railing, water dripping from it rhythmically. Wait, you recognized this. It was a…loincloth? You keep your mouth shut, teeth clenched to the point that they couldn’t even chatter. This is not a good point of conversation. Not at all. You’re sure that if you speak a word of this to anyone, you’d somehow receive an arrow to the head. Several, if Hanzo was angry enough.

So you quietly hang up your clothes, readjust your towel, and back out of the room. You sincerely hope that Hanzo does not realize you’ve seen his choice of undergarments (but to be fair, he hung them up first), you’re not sure you could ever erase the image from your mind.

Luckily for you, he doesn’t seem to even be thinking such things, instead, he’s standing there awkwardly, staring at the bed with open apprehension. Strange.

“What’s wrong?”

He continues looking at the bed, the corner of his mouth turned downward in distaste. You also squint at it like the answer would manifest itself if you stared hard enough. Was it monsters? Bed bugs?

You blink slowly at him, then at the bed.

It hits you like a freight train. It’s a problem neither of you realized when you first entered the cabin, too preoccupied with trying to get out of the storm and its non-existence comforts.

There’s only one bed.

It’s not that small, but it’s barely enough to fit the two of you, it seems. Inwardly, you groan. You’re sure that you’d never hear the end of this if any of the other Overwatch members find out.

“I will ta-take the floor,” Hanzo says briskly, already trying to establish his new place of rest by sitting down. You had to wince sympathetically when he gave a full body shiver—you could even see the goosebumps from where you stand. Not even his pride is going to be enough to keep him warm at night. His self-loathing and hate, perhaps, but again—thoughts you really shouldn’t entertain.

“You’ll freeze to death down there,” you protest, lifting up the covers. They were thick, and seem like they’d be great at keeping you warm. Unfortunately enough, there’s only one of them. “Not like there are any other blankets, either.”

He does not respond. You crawl into the bed first, biting back a gasp when your body meets the cold mattress. You position yourself as close to the wall as possible without actually touching it, leaving ample space for the archer.

When you turn, you see he still hasn’t moved from his spot, and you sigh. “Come on, Hanzo. It’s just for one night.” Hopefully. “There’s nothing for-for you to sleep on. Just—just get up here. I’ll just stay o-over on this side.”

You could feel his hesitation, so you turn again to face the wall laying down onto the pillow to give him so privacy (or the illusion of detachment)—the pillow, too, is freezing and your wet hair pressing against your skin made it even worse. You really couldn’t wait to get back to base. Maybe trade stories with Mei when she undoubtedly returns with sunburn.

“If you insist,” he says quietly, reluctantly. You take that as your cue to press yourself even further from ‘his’ side of the bed.

Slowly, you could hear Hanzo get up and take a few tentative steps toward the bed. You could hear his ribbon pulling free, and you could almost see his hair coming free of its confines, spilling over his shoulders stiffly. The mattress dips underneath his weight as he crawls in carefully, laying as far away as the blankets would allow. You have to hold onto your end tightly to keep them from slipping off and getting stolen by your new bedmate. You both lay there, back to back. If you even turn just little bit, your skin would be pressed against his own–you could imagine it just sticking to each other. Your back tingles at the proximity, and you try hard not to focus on the fact that you could feel his presence right behind you.

The chattering in your teeth is slowly subsiding, the warmth of two bodies underneath the covers chases away the cold that haunts you both. The metronome of your dripping clothes is the only thing that fills the silence accompanied by the howl of the wind. You could feel Hanzo’s breathing more than you could hear it—the blanket dips and rises with each breath.

When you finally regain some semblance of consciousness, you notice that it’s hot—almost too hot and you’re sweating all over, but at the same time, it was chilly. Your eyes could barely open, aching and somewhat swollen. It must’ve been the wind and ice yesterday, you reasoned. The next thing that comes is that you’re painfully aware of more skin to skin contact than you remember going to bed with.

You couldn’t move without feeling the sensation of peeling skin. The threat of a painful extraction is almost as cringe-worthy as what you image to be Hanzo’s reaction to waking up in this sort of position. At least by some miracle, both your towels are intact, left in the place you both had them when you went to sleep.

But to make matters worse rather than better, Hanzo fills the space between your chin and collarbone with his face, curling into a ball and pressing himself against you as though you two would suddenly click into place. One arm is curled around your back, and the other is trapped between both your bodies, drawing you impossibly close. It vaguely reminded you of a child seeking their parent’s comfort or, if your mind dares go into that territory, two lov—no, no. Don’t go there, thoughts.

However, your thoughts are quickly drowned out when Hanzo noses his way into your neck, his lips skim against your clavicle and you jump at the sensation. ‘It’s okay,’ you told yourself as your heart begins to race like mad. He is just sleeping. He doesn’t know what he’s doing; it’s an accident. As if to prove you wrong, he continues to press his lips there and mumble unintelligibly. You tried to squirm away, the ticklish sensation combined with the close proximity was too much to bear, biting down the need to start laughing or shoving him out of the bed.

Apparently displeased with your struggles, he tucks his chin in, and almost sprawls himself against you, pressing you down onto you back and lying on top. The sudden motion makes you hiss—you were right, the feeling of peeling skin really hurts. But you have little time to dwell on it when his weight is almost suffocating you. Your new position is arguably less ticklish, but no less awkward. You shift, trying to get comfortable, but his weight pins you down firmly.  

“Oh, com’on, Hanzo,” you whisper. You’re surprised he still hasn’t woken up—what sort of ninja is he anyway?

You try another half-hearted struggle, but huff and give up when it doesn’t seem like you’re making any headway, too tired to bother. Might as well let the archer do his thing—there isn’t much you could do anyway outside of bucking his straight off the bed and giving him a very rude awakening (that may or may not result in him attacking you in a blind panic).

Vaguely, you notice it’s still dark, and the screams of the wind from hours before have now died down to become whispers. It seems like the storm has calmed down, sufficient for a signal to get through and for help to come. It’s too bad you’re stuck under a couple hundred pounds of sleeping muscle. You smile to yourself and look down blearily at the archer.

He seems so comfortable, hair splayed out messily around him, legs intertwined with yours so intimately that you’re sure that he’s going to die of embarrassment when he wakes up. You sigh, closing your eyes and willing yourself to go back to sleep. You could deal with this later. The beating of his heart against your chest, his steady breaths, and warmth makes that easy.

The next time you awaken, there’s the distinct sound of chatter, a lack of a body, and a hand to your forehead. It’s large and comfortable, a stark contrast to the suffocating heat that seems to have clogged your throat and nose.

“’nzo?”

You whine when the hand jerks back, exposing your forehead to the chilly morning (was it still morning?) air.

“—ne moment. You’re awake?”

You make a noise of affirmation in the back of your throat—it hurts and it feels like something’s stabbing the insides, you realize. You bury yourself deeper beneath the covers, feeling like you haven’t slept a wink. Your body aches, and your head hurts—it must be the result of having your hair still wet while you slept in such cold weather. That sounds logical.

A few more words were exchanged between Hanzo and whomever he was talking to before, it sounds somewhat heated and pressing, but you weren’t paying attention, sleep beckoning you like a siren’s call that you had no strength to resist.

“Stay awake. You’ve caught a cold,” Hanzo says softly but sternly when he notices you trying to doze off again.

Through your haze, you don’t really understand the severity of his words, but you nod anyway, if only to have him leave you alone so you may return to sleep sooner. You could hear him rummaging through bags, cursing firmly and searching more frantically when he can’t seem to find what he’s looking for.

You’re tempted to laugh at him, but right now, you’re just too tired to do much but try to follow his order. You blink at his back—it’s clothed. Maybe his shirt has dried? What about your own clothes then?

“Apologizes, but there is no medicine,” he says suddenly. Your leg jerks, your whole body jolting to temporary wakefulness. It looks like despite your best attempt, you ended up dozing off after all. “I have contacted the others, they will be here in several hours.”

“S’okay,” you mumble. You just wanted to sleep some more, and it’s too cold to do some comfortably. “Hey, Hanzo. Do me a favor?”

“Yes?”

“Get in here, it’s cold.”

For the record, I rather like the ginseng chicken soups my mother makes. It just doesn’t taste very good in the first few sips. 

[cupcakeshakesnake]

Watching The Trial for the first time

SPOILERS!!

Okay I’ve never done this before, but I don’t think you’d be happy if you had to scroll through a post full of spoilers to get to the bottom of your Dashboard, so I’ll put the reactions below the cut.

(I watched it on YouTube btw.)

(I also put screenshots of, like, almost every single scene, so, extra beware I guess.)

-I have been freaking out for literally a week for this.

-Starting with a scene from the promo...

Ah, the ultimate punishment. Loneliness.

-Aquamarine: “My Diamonds I have captured Rose Quartz”  BD: “Finally, for so long I’ve been waiting for my revenge on that little sh--”  YD: “Lol ok just chuck her in a vault”

NEW GEM!!

-SHE’S A ZIRCON!!

-I love her voice!!

-Where’s her gem though... is it the thing on her neck?

*insert tfw meme here*

-Annnd scene from promo again

Sooo I’m assuming it’s a triangle because of the current Diamond Insignia...

-That means it would’ve been a diamond if Pink Diamond was still around.

what a smug lil green sh-t

-Are Zircons all lawyers? Is Zircon the Gem equivalent of lawyers?

-Man, Blue Zircon must be having a crappy day, having to defend an intergalactic criminal that the entirety of Homeworld’s (probably) been hating for the past few millennia.

WHAT HAPPENED TO YELLOW PEARL’S VOICE

-It sounds like it got an octave higher with twice the voice crack

-”aLL RISE FOR THE LIRLMADTDASDFGASY YelLOW DiAmOND”

-Is Yellow Pearl going through puberty

-BLUE PEARL TALKED

-(Did she talk before? I forgot.)

-She’s so quiet

THE GIANT SPACE LADIES ARE TELEPORTING

oOOHHHHHHHHHH

-THE PART THAT DROVE TUMBLR CRAZY

-SERIOUSLY GUYS MY DASH’S BEEN FLOODING WITH BELLOW FUCKIN DIAMOND BECAUSE OF THAT PROMO

-Little question: Why do their attire keep changing?  In Message received, YD had the long coat thing around her waist and her chest pattern looked like the above, then in That Will Be All, she was missing the coat thing and her chest part was split four ways.  Blue Diamond sometimes wears a hood and sometimes doesn’t.  Do they just shapeshift that often, or are those actual clothes that modify their appearance without shapeshifting? Is Yellow Diamond’s coat thing actually her coat thing?

-If that’s the case that would be a whole lotta fabric.

What’s YD’s hand shape

That moment when a Homeworld Gem sees Steven and thinks “wtf rose quartz”

Blue Diamond didn’t move her lips while talking here??

-Also, I was on the side of hoping that YD’s head thing was her hair, but it looks so much like a helmet by now that I may have to change my opinion.

-Ohhh there’s the quote from the promo

-I’m not sure if it was an animation error, or if BD was talking out of the other side of her mouth (invisible to us), or if Diamonds (or just Gems in general) can talk without moving their lips.

-So I’m guessing the Homeworld trial is meant for very serious cases, and the Diamonds are the judges? No jury or audience? Just the lawyer, the accused and the judge(s)?

their fucking chairs can teleport

OMFG BLUE PEARL DOODLING IS THE BEST THING EVER

-Unless that’s the Homeworld way of recording things

-The lines are so angular, it reminds me of when my tablet pen glitches out and draws a pentagon where I meant to draw a circle

She could have gone on with every single adjective in the dictionary  for hours and I would’ve watched that

Yellow Diamond don’t got time for yo shit

-Yellow Pearl looks so done

So the “Rose Quartz committed a crime” bit was said by Green Zircon. I thought it was Blue Zircon when I heard it in the promo.

-Tbh I think gems of the same kind sound similar except for the Diamonds, and anyway I’m pretty sure it’s the same voice actor

FUCKIN AGAIN, SHE SAID ‘WHY’ BUT DIDN’T MOVE HER LIPS

-AT LEAST FINISH YOUR GODDAMN SENTENCE BEFORE YOU START GOING ALL VENTRILOQUIST ON ME

-”Exhibit A”  Why do you use the human alphabet you smug rocky shits, if y’all are all so proud of yourselves at least make your own goddamn language

-LARS?!?!?!

pfft

-”WHO ARE THOSE HUGE - GIANT - LADIES?!”

-”Humans are loud, absolutely hideous creatures that serve no purpose whatsoever.”  It may be so but we can make a necklace out of you

At every trial, the accused just kind of... sits... in a triangular ditch on the floor?

-Poor Steven, he’s a kid, maybe teen by human age but he’s still mostly a kid, why does he have to go through this

-STOP THAT VENTRILOQUIST SHIT, GREEN ZIRCON

*dramatic sound effect* *rolls eye*

EYEBALL RUBY IS THE WITNESS

-THAT WAS BACK IN SEASON THREE

-HOLY FUCK

-Eyeball Ruby... ‘eye’ witness... heh.

-THE SMALL RED RAGE CHILD IS HERE

-Like, I’m sure this trial is super serious for everyone in there, but I just can’t help laughing at how overly dramatic they are

-And here I thought I’d be crying

Eyeball: “s o o n...” *disappears into the corner*

-”Ugh, she’s good.”

the smug secretary

Are you seriously telling me that doodling with polygons is a legit way of recording things in Homeworld

-”Well, I’m convinced. Time to execute!”  “Not yet.”  Inside YD’s head: hello darkness my old friend, i haven’t got time for this shit, just let this be over...

-Shiiiit I feel so sorry for Blue Zircon

-Yellow Diamond gives exactly 0 fucks

Are their projected oval things hard light w/ weight as well?

Even Steven looks done

“Your mind tricks won’t work on me, Jedi!”

zoOOOOOP

-Someone make a YTP where the pod thing rockets into the air and throws Steven off into the abyss of nothingnes

I’m very very worried for Steven’s safety.

-The Diamonds hate him, Homeworld hates him, he could fall of that platform, one of the Diamonds could literally squish him... the possibilities are endless and he is pretty much doomed

-let him get away please

-And again, I swear Yellow Pearl’s voice got even more nasally than before

-Steven! Your name is Steven! YOU’RE NOT ROSE QUARTZ! YOU’RE STEVEN! *cries in the corner*

“holy shit this is real??”

-Yellow Diamond finally gave a fuck

But I think Blue Diamond’s fucks-given count went down a little

Smug green shit.

-Also Gems either have truly outrageous hair or a strange sense of passion

OH SHIT

-okay, this is a tight spot because LITERALLY NO ONE IN OR OUTSIDE THE SHOW KNOW HOW PINK DIAMOND WAS SHATTERED EXCEPT THE ORIGINAL CRYSTAL GEMS, A FEW HOMEWORLD WITNESSES AND THE CREWNIVERSE (probably)

-I DON’T KNOW and yes thank you BD I was curious about that too, although not quite as angry

-BUT STEVEN DOESN’T KNOW

-HE CAN’T ANSWER??

-I HAVE THE VIDEO ON PAUSE RIGHT NOW BECAUSE SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT

-GOD STEVEN NO

-THIS IS GOING DOWNHILL

Freaking Blue Zircon

And Yellow Pearl

-BUT SERIOUSLY I’D RATHER YOU TRIED TO EXPLAIN YOUR SON-MOM THING THAN THIS

-GOD NO PLEASE

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

-I SHOULDN’T HAVE STARTED WATCHING THIS IN THE LIBRARY. I WANT TO LAUGH REALLY HARD BUT I CAN’T. AND I CAN’T STOP WATCHING.

-”IT WAS A SWORD!”

HOLY FUCK CHILL

-FIRST TIME WE HEARD HER RAISE HER VOICE

-DID BD WITNESS IT

-DID SHE TRY TO CONFIRM STEVEN’S IDENTITY WITH THAT QUESTION

-WHAT THE FUCK

I love how YD’s just sitting there like “yep, this again.”

o shit Blue Diamond has onion powers

-THE ONION FAMILY IS RELATED TO HOMEWORLD!!1!

best face 10/10

See?! You can draw with curves!!

Okay?

-Maybe her powers are related to emotion??

-Or this just happens with Diamonds???

“You... shattered.. her... with a sword...”

-oh god

-OKAY I CALLED IT, I WAS GONNA CRY AFTER ALL

-(ON THE INSIDE)

-Recess time!! Yay!

-”Don’t tumble my rocks!”

-oooOHHHH we’re getting on to something here

-HER PALANQUIN TELEPORTS. WHAT NEXT, HER HOODIE?

fuckin’ Ace Attorney shit goin’ down

Something went wrong with the frame here; Blue Zircon seems to have teleported as well as the screen lurching and the whole ventriloquist stuff again.

-Okay, maybe the episodes were produced in a hurry, or maybe it’s just that the guy who uploaded this on Youtube had some minor glitches in the process.

-”The question no one’s been asking is, ‘how?’”  “I’ve been asking that question.”

It’s like they’re having a dramatic argument at dinner

-But didn’t Rose Quartz like run off, start the rebellion and THEN shatter PD?

-Dunno Blue Zircon, I mean you’ve got some logic there, PD is probably too big for one Rose Quartz anyway, if you don’t mind fan theories do suggest that it was a fusion of all the main Crystal Gems.

-BLUE ZIRCON’S ON A ROLL

-I mean, the aforementioned giant fusion might’ve swept through all her soldiers, but if that was the case there’d be no eyewitnesses left??

-THANK YOU FOR BRINGING THAT UP, WTF HAPPENED TO PINK’S PEARL

S I L E N T  G A S P

-”They saw the whole thing!”  YES I GET THAT YELLOW DIAMOND BUT WERE THEY JUST SPECTATING AND WHERE ARE THEY NOW

-Yellow Diamond’s reactions are interesting. She either knows something they don’t or really hates this trial with all her being.

-Eyeball Ruby said she witnessed it??

le gasp intensifies

-mmmMMM THAT FISHY FISHY SMELL MMM

-”Wouldn’t her Pearl have cried out in alarm? *opera mode activate* wAAAAATCH OOOOUUUUT MYEIEIEIYYYYYYY DIAAAAMOOOONNNNDDDDUH”

-Maybe Rose Quartz (or the fan theory fusion) shapeshifted?

-(Can fusions shapeshift??)

-what

-THE CONSPIRACY INTENSIFIES

-oHHHH?!?

-DAAAYYUMMMMMMNNNN

-*DEDUCTION INTENSIFIES*

ZIRCON YOUR ARGUMENT IS PERFECTLY REASONABLE BUT I DON’T THINK ACCUSING YOUR LEADERS IN A DICTATORSHIP WORLD LIKE THAT WILL GET YOU OUT OF THIS IN ONE PIECE

-Blue Diamond: *GASP*

-Well at least things are interesting for her

HOLY FUCK YELLOW DIAMOND, FUCKING CHILL

-DUUUUUDE

HOLY FRICKIN FLIP FLAPS

-SHE CAN SHOOT GEM DESTABILIZING RAYS OUT OF HER HAND??

-ah yes the ‘angry villain kills their subordinates’ cliche

-BUT WHAT THE FUCK

-I DON’T THINK YELLOW DIAMOND JUST HATES THIS TRIAL ANYMORE

-i ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed

-EVERYBODY’S GOTTEN ON THE YD-SUSPICION BANDWAGON, HEY WAIT FOR ME

-ARE THE DIAMONDS GONNA FIGHT

SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT

I WISH I HAD MORE CREATIVE VOCABULARY FOR REAKING OUT OTHER THAN REPEATEDLY SAYING ‘SHIT’ AND ‘FUCK’

-Alas, my active vocabulary lags a lot when my brain overloads.

-”Those giant crazy chicks aren’t gonna be distracted forever!”

“dafuq”

DO I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE A WHITE DIAMOND THINGY THING

THEY HAVE A GIANT STATUE OF WHITE DIAMOND ON HOMEWORLD

-Does that mean she’s gone, or is she even above Yellow and Blue? Or is she like a gem deity?

-And the trial was in the little smoking balloon thing...

FFS YD PLS CHILL

And another promo scene +anime face lighting

-holy fuck what happened to Blue I hope she���s okay

-wELL I’M SCREWED, AND ALso outta time so I’ll watch the rest of the episodes tomorrow

-bye bye I’m totally okay (not)

[blueskyheadleft010]

Analysis of Stevenbomb: Wanted

There be spoilers under the cut

Ok, so first off I want to say that I am very pleased with this strong narrative Season 5 has started with and am dying for the next episode(s) to come out even though we have none scheduled as of yet. (I swear to goodness it better not be an entire month before we get another episode I’ll be frothing at the mouth and dying by then).

I’ll go ahead and skip analyzing Stuck Together since it aired early and most of the internet has already seen it. Having said that, let’s proceed to The Trial.

While there’s a lot to say about this episode, I’ll try my best to summarize it as just WOW.

True to her word, Rebecca has done it again by giving the fandom exactly what it has been waiting for since Jailbreak Season 1. A meeting of the Diamonds with Steven acting as a key factor. To be honest, I was honestly surprised we were getting straight to the point with this episode, seeing how Steven just sorta decided to surrender at the last moment in I am my Mom, but I’m grateful the Crewniverse wastes no time throwing us into the hellfire of a 6,000-year-old grudge against Rose Quarts as we finally get to see exactly what roles the Diamonds play on Homeworld.

I absolutely adored Zircon in this scene; trying her best to be a good lawyer and losing her cool, and yeah I get the show’s ‘logic’ is supposed to for kids, but honestly her dialogue had me raising an eyebrow or two as she tried to state her case, and I think even Steven knew she was getting nowhere with her argument.

Speaking of that, the attitudes that the different Zircons and Pearls have towards their own kind ruled under different Diamonds was an interesting little bit of information that clearly shows gems don’t seem to find ‘compassion’ and ‘friendship at the top of their list; at least when it comes to other gems ruled under another Diamond. (I also loved how Y-Pearl typed her entry in, while B-Pearl drew pictures. :3)

Adding Lars in for the trial was an interesting touch that I think surprised just about everyone, seeing how up until now he hasn’t really been significant to the plot other than for comedic relief and furthering Steven’s own maturity. I like how he’s just sorta dragged around by the gems, yet is still allowed to do his own thing to an extent. (So long as he doesn’t interfere with whatever the gems are doing). Seeing how he helps keep Steven grounded and focused on the mission I think is what makes him an important plot piece in the episode, as otherwise I think Steven would be very overwhelmed without a direct goal in mind. (And that goal is saving Lars and getting out of there.)

Blue Zircon really makes her debut after the brief court recess, as she finally gets her act together after Steven provides her with some actual evidence, and completely turns the tables around as she goes as far as to accuse the Diamonds of sabotage based on the factual evidence and eye witness accounts.

Here’s something I found funny. Eyeball as a witness. She had no real reason to be there, and frankly made herself look even worse when she admitted Steven healed her during the trial. Why would a Diamond shatterer heal an enemy gem? ;) Still, it was a nice little touch the Crewniverse added for comedic effect and I loved it all the same.

I’ll wrap it up by saying that Yellow seemed pretty mad to be accused of treason, though I have my suspicions that she’s not the real culprit here, nor is Blue. (Though dang Blue’s emotion manipulating abilities are something to be afraid out.) It might be White, since she’s not been seen yet, and she may not even exist I’m just spit balling, or it might be a color switching/shapeshifting alien/gem? We’ve never seen before.

Point is, Rose is pretty much confirmed to not be the killer of Pink Diamond. I’d bet my two cents that she loved PD, and that Pink was actually trying to help humans. :O

Off Colors

Oh you sneaky writers, you ;)

I really like how the title not only foreshadows Lars’ death, but is also a slang term for ‘defect’ on Homeworld, which I never guessed either would be canon in my wildest dreams.

So, we basically meet 3 new gems (8/9/10 ½ ??? If you count the fusions and whatnot) and Lars becomes a hardcore hero who sacrifices himself to save his new friends.

I have to give props to Lars for doing what he did, seeing how he’d basically been a yellow-belly this entire time and only ran away from his problems. Honestly I expected him to do the same this time around, but when I watched him interact with the defects I realized that he saw something he’d never expected to see in those gems. Himself. And why is this significant?

Let me put this in perspective for ya,

Have you ever looked at an old photo of yourself doing something either embarrassing or something that reminds you of a darker time in your life and go, “If only I had a time machine and could go back and tell myself not to do ‘x’ or that life will get better if you just hang on a bit longer… Then life would be so much better for the both of us.” This is Lars seeing his past-self reflected in these, scared, defenseless gems, who have no one to help them.

So this is why Lars decides to become courageous and be the hero he’s always wished he could be but was too afraid to act, and goes ape sh*t on the robonoids because he knows he’s the only line of defense they’ve got.

So ya, needless to say I’m very proud of Lars for sticking up for himself and protecting the defects from Homeworld.

(Also A+ writing for the team thinking about Lars being ‘invisible’ to the Robonoid’s scanners and using that against them! It was amazing and heroic and alkjfhdgjkdhfjgkhfj!)

Lars’ Head

So a bit of a misleading title, but understandable given it’s hard to explain what’s just occurred in a few short words while simultaneously not spoiling the episode. (Even though everyone already knows that Lars is Pink Lion 2.0 from the previous episode).

So wow, again I never expected this to be a canon thing in the SUniverse.

I can’t really express the excitement I got when Lars was revived by Steven, the team discussing death (briefly and without literally saying that word ‘death’ just ‘away from life’), and Lars is PINK now. (And has what I assume is a BA permanent eye scar, along with the fact his ear lobes are probably stretched out forever now hahahaha sucks to be you Lars! ;D)

I think Lars accurately summed up everyone’s thoughts when he asked Steven “Am I a zombie now?!?” because let’s face it, yes Lars, you are in fact a very, very, magical pink zombie. J

So yeah, let’s talk about the defect gems for a second since I totes forgot about them in favor of paying attention to my Pink Son for a moment.

We’ve got the Twins of Rutile, Rhodonite, Flourite, and  Padparadscha Sapphire (Which I’m gonna call P-Sapphire for now).

The twins are rather interesting, as they seem to be the most level-headed of the team, as well as quite possibly two of the brighter gems in the group. I just really love how they don’t seem to be all that concerned about their appearance, and more concerned about the group, which really shows how compassionate they are in comparison to some of the other characters on the show which are way more hung up on their looks than caring for others.

Rhodonite wasn’t a major shocker for me, seeing how we’ve already been filled in about Garnet’s past, but it did raise some eyebrows about how two gems fused on Homeworld and weren’t shattered right away for doing so, just merely replaced. I think theirs’s a lot more to their story the Crewniverse didn’t have time to put in, but hopefully somewhere along the lines we’ll see her again and get to know more about the two of them.

Flourite is… Interesting. Besides the obvious fact that she looks like the Hookah smoking caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland, her personality and combination of gems is so distinct from the others that it’s amazing she’s actually a stable fusion. I get the underlying theme is polyamory for her, but besides that it’s something else to see such a massive fusion remain so gentle and kind while not bickering between herself since she’s got like 6 or 8 gems… Sidenote: something interesting I wanted to point out was how slow Flourite talks when she’s speaking, and one can only assume that’s because of how many gems she’s comprised of, which is fascinating. It speaks volumes that the more gems involved in a fusion, the more time it seems to take to sync up thoughts and even actions, as demonstrated by Flourite’s behavior.

Lastly, P-Sapphire. A classic Rosalina appearance with a heart of gold. I’m really curious to know how the heck she survived this long and how she found this rag-tag misfit of gems since she can only predict the recent past, as she seems to constantly be stuck in her visions as demonstrated by her actions. Regardless, she’s still really cute and I love how eager and excited she is about everything, so hopefully we’ll get to see her character arc grow past just comedic relief.

Anyways, back to Lars. The fact that Lars is essentially a portal home is cool enough, but when Steven steps inside it’s shown he’s got his own tree in there too. So I get Rose can do plant stuff, which explains the tree on? in? Lars, but what I don’t understand is the portal power since it doesn’t seem to be connected to either of her abilities.

The fact Rebecca decided to leave the defects and Lars on Homeworld was a surprise, but an understandable one, not for the story’s sake, but because trying to fit Flourite through Lars’ hair would be a nightmare that I don’t think anyone would want to explain.

So Steven discovers he’s a necromancer and that Lion’s his undead slave pet, and then the gems and Connie and Greg all show up just in time to have a reunion and happy tears are shed. (And then Steven proceeds to eat everything in sight, prompting Greg to go out and buy the boy some more bread lol).

So much has been left out in the open, and I get the distinct feeling this is gonna be the least season for this show. L Still, I feel like everything’s gonna be amazing when we get the next episode, so for now I’m rather content. :D

[pyroclasmpixie]

persona 5 fanfic: Body of Art 1/12

T rating, Yusuke Kitagawa/Akira Kurusu (p5 protag). Instead of finding an irresistible muse in Ann, Yusuke discovers a different muse in a chance encounter with some mysterious masked thieves... or phantoms... An alternate unfolding of the events leading up to Yusuke joining the team. Some spoilers through April and May.

Posting this here only roughly edited. My AO3 account is resonant_aura. If you have any comments or are interested in betaing, please message me!

Body of Art

-Minimalism-

 To be honest, landscapes had never been his forte. There was nothing… moving to be found there, nothing that would stir more than the feeblest response from the soul. One looked at a landscape and thought, oh, how pleasant. And then walked away to some other stimulus, some engaging object that would inspire true feeling, in search of real beauty.

Real beauty didn’t rest in a landscape.

But since Kitagawa Yusuke had yet to actually finish this landscape, perhaps he was being too hasty in his judgment.

In fact, he had yet to begin.

Yusuke looked out over the gently falling slope descending away from the back wall of Kosei High, the neatly kept grass dotted with rebellious wildflowers, giving way to a line of sugi trees and ruthlessly tamed bamboo. On the other side was the broad concrete walk leading around the front doors, but that didn’t necessarily have to be in the picture. There was nothing especially beautiful about concrete, not here where everything was green and breathing and open to the sky. The setting sun cast everything in gold and indigo and enriched the shadows with undiluted ink. It would be remarkable, Yusuke supposed, to someone else.

Sensei had suggested he try his hand at a traditional Zen landscape. Perhaps it would help him to achieve some balance in his mind.

Gazing out at the landscape, peaceful and still—the other students had long since gone home—Yusuke searched his thoughts, then turned his attention to the empty sketchbook resting in his hands. Hmm. Similar contents.

Idly, he picked up a stick of charcoal from his supplies and swept a broad stroke across and upwards, a bold line of chalky black to fill the white. Then, glancing at the trees, a few thinner strokes in sharp vertical lines. Another line, a soft cloud of black, rubbed out with the heel of his hand and gentled into a textureless, smooth, shapeless grey.

They were studying minimalism recently. This would do for now.

He packed up his things and began the walk home.

---

Yusuke loved the metro. He didn’t have the opportunity to take it all that often, unfortunately. He didn’t have that many places he needed to go; and where he did go was usually within a healthy walking distance from the atelier. But the metro was always a place absolutely teeming with life, with things to observe and question and absorb. Colors and lights and movements and smells and the clack on the rails, the clack of boot heels and the echoing chatter of a thousand little snippets of life wandering by like distracted moths.

“Did you see Keiko-chan I could just—”

“—supposed to be raining but—”

“—due on Saturday, but I’ve got a swim meet then and I don’t know how I’ll—”

“I know!”

“—about these Phantom Thieves—”

“Of course not!”

“Buy Aqua Vitae, and drink from the springs of life!”

“—she should accept him, at her age.”

“There’s a meeting at 7:30 so—”

All these aspects of life, nearly invisible, gone in a flicker. That was beautiful. If only he could paint it. Yusuke stood to one side of the stairwell, watching the blue-white cell phones lighting the faces from below, watching the lime green and ocean blue and electric yellow flashes of the advertising screens, and felt his hand shake just slightly. He could paint it. He could. He could sit here in this corner and watch and no one would know, no one would notice, he could just—

No. Not tonight.

He clenched his hand into a fist, and walked back up the stairs.

Time to go home.

Sensei didn’t like when he violated curfew.

---

“Hey, did you see this website?”

Yusuke looked up from his textbook, blinking in the early morning sunshine. “Hm?”

It was his classmate, Muraoka-san. The other boy was twisted around in his chair, holding out his phone for Yusuke to see. “Take a look,” said Muraoka. “Some weird stuff, huh? I don’t know about all this justice talk, but the design is pretty cool. Right?”

Yusuke glanced at the screen. It was garish—black and red splashed in angular, mismatched shapes across the screen, with a blinking white comment bar at the top and a question in dripping, jagged letters: “Do you believe in the Phantom Thieves?”

“Phantom Thieves?” he asked.

“You haven’t heard?” Muraoka grinned, eager to share his insider knowledge. “They call themselves the Phantom Thieves of Heart. They say if you’re corrupt they’ll find you and steal your heart. Like vigilantes or something. You know?”

Thieves of the heart? Well that was… intriguing. He mulled it over in an absent fashion—soft lighting, soft shadows, an expression as mysterious as it was magnanimous—then shook himself back to the present. “Well?” he asked Muraoka. “Do you believe in them?”

“Nah,” said his classmate, grimacing a little at the screen. “It’s just some PR stunt. You know like how Wackdonald’s did last year? Someone will fess up to it soon.”

He swiveled around with a shrug. Yusuke watched, turned a keen eye to the slump of the boy’s spine, the jut of his scapula. Nothing. There was no feeling other than that of enduring the mundane, like being buried under yards and yards of wet wool.

Yusuke sighed and continued to read.

---

There was a crash, a rattling thump, the yowl of an angry cat. Yusuke froze, his bag over one shoulder, suddenly balanced on the balls of his feet as his heart began a violent pounding rhythm that he could feel in his temples and fingertips and the base of his spine. His skin crawled; his eyes went wide and blank, scanning the nighttime gloom of the empty back alley. Sensei had said there had been accidents—to be careful—that was why he was so insistent about the curfew, for Yusuke’s protection, it had nothing to do with the last piece he had created—and now Sensei was gone away on another excursion to the hot springs for his back treatments and Yusuke had thought, just once, just this once, it wouldn’t hurt, and he was choking under the bite of the bridle he was forced to wear and he had thought it would be fine—

But now there were looming shadows rising on the wall opposite him, outlined in bright pink and blue from the main street. He should never have taken back roads. Was he even certain of his location? He had been thinking on the composition of a canvas, on the significance of the foreground, and how was that even important just now—

“Oh my god, you klutz!”

“Sh-shuddup, you almost fell too!”

“Yeah, but not into a trash can!”

“You’re both all right?”

“Uh, yeah, thanks…”

How bizarre. Late night carousers? No, they had the sound of youth. Errant students, then? Not that he could throw stones.

… Thugs…?

Yusuke deliberately, carefully, stepped back against the wall and eased his way along the rough, tacky cement to the corner he had just rounded. He shouldn’t look. He should just go home.

But I don’t have a—

He peered around the edge of the wall, bag gripped tightly against his flank, shoulders pressed to the cement.

Masks.

It was an evocative scene—something out of a Bosch painting, vivid and yet completely nonsensical, and right here in the bowels of Tokyo. Blue and red light flickered over the figures in the alleyway, catching the outline of an arm, flashing on the metal teeth of a zipper, highlighting the white flash of an eye in some otherworldly hue. Their faces all appeared distorted, until the image resolved itself and Yusuke could see the inhuman curves and angles of masks on their faces—pointed ears, bared teeth, hollow black eye sockets. Had he fallen into hell? Was he hallucinating? No, they were probably just—performers—clubbers—tourists—

“Meooooowwwww, mrreowwrrr mrowp!”

“Yeah, we know,” said the gruff male voice. “We’ll get ‘em next time. You good to go, Joker? Let’s split.”

Yusuke would forever be grateful he had not blinked—if he had, it would have appeared as though they vanished into thin air. Instead, his eyes went wide as he watched two figures—human, they looked human, they had to be surely—light up with blue flames and then walk out into the night, perfectly normal, easily lost in the crowds.

The last figure, nearly invisible for all the black in its costume—Yusuke had only been able to pick it out for the brilliant red of its gloves—moved to follow them, and then stopped. It turned back, back towards the corner where Yusuke was watching. It was completely backlit by the lights of reality, a stark silhouette against a backdrop of noise. It was perfectly formed—just there—and then gone.

Holding his breath, Yusuke narrowed his eyes, trying not to move as he searched for signs of an exit, an approach, a—

He nearly choked when he suddenly went blind.

“Shhh,” someone murmured in his ear, and he tried to struggle but his arms were held down in an unwanted embrace and his legs were pinned to the wall and no and this is like and I don’t want

“Careful. You’ll hurt yourself.” The voice was unidentifiable, more breath than timbre, more sound than words, but he understood. Yusuke was used to capitulation and he went still, quivering and hyper-aware of the feeling of leather against his cheeks and forehead, of heavy seams pressed into his skin through the thin material of his shirt. “Now, do me the courtesy of a proper explanation. I like my privacy, and I react poorly to violations of that privacy. What were you spying for?”

“Not spying,” Yusuke gasped. It occurred to him, distantly, that since he was able to gasp (like a panicked animal, how unappealing) that meant his captor was allowing him to breathe. It was a kindness he hadn’t expected. “I-I was—was journeying home and I heard voices. I thought it might be—a dangerous group…”

“You weren’t wrong. I am dangerous.” Yusuke felt the concrete grind and scrape against his body as his captor’s weight shifted. The breath in his ears was so close, so warm, he could almost imagine he felt the very lips against— “Try to be a little quieter the next time you eavesdrop. Only silent cats catch their mice.”

“Who are—?”

An abrupt cacophony like wings, the thick flap and flutter of panels of leather moved by a sudden gust, cut him off. Yusuke flinched as the night lights of Tokyo pierced his unprepared eyes. He spun around to look up and down the dim alley, squinting through the pain-pricked tears, but he was alone. He ducked around the corner. Only a trash can, upended with a ruptured bag spilling out of it. No one there either. He held a hand to his forehead, trying to forestall a thundersome headache.

… Was that a dream…?

Yusuke looked down at the trash can. No. He heard—he knew—

He stepped closer to the can to inspect it, and a dash of black across his vision made him stumble backwards into the wall again. “Mrow!” said the cat who startled him so, looking triumphant with its languidly waving tail. It gave him an intent stare with its wide, glowing cat eyes, then bounded away toward the traffic of the main road.

Just a cat.

Was it just a cat…?

Yusuke stared unseeing into the shuffle and press of bodies and trolleys and bicycles. He lifted a hand to his ear, fingering the shell of it in search of some lingering heat—but his hands were so cold and unsteady he couldn’t tell anything from them. He checked his bag; everything intact. There weren’t even signs of distress on his pants or his pristine white shirt.

Yusuke would have believed he had just had a particularly vivid daydream, a taste of adventure, a strange mental catharsis, except—except for the way he felt.

Though still cold from shock, his skin was tingling everywhere. He was acutely aware of the brush of woven polyester over his knees as he took a step back, the folds of his shirt unsticking from his sweat-dampened spine. He could feel how dry his mouth was, how shaky his hands were, could feel the muscles in his arms and back sliding over one another and locking up to compensate for his unstable weight, the supply bag swinging against his hip. He could feel the blood pumping in his veins, thudding behind his eyes, rushing through his ears. He could feel the breath moving in and out of his lungs. He could feel the dry stickiness of his lips as they parted, feel the air moving over his tongue, as he inhaled and then said a single word in a bemused, wondering whisper:

“Joker.”

He was, finally, awake.

Yusuke blinked once, twice, still gazing out at the glaringly bright advertisements along the shop-crowded road. Then he turned and walked quickly back the way he had come. It was a good thing Sensei was away for a while. Yusuke would not be going home to rest for some time.

There was so much he had to do.