#i need all three of them SO BAD but especially remi.

[grand-glacier]

EPIC GAMES! DROP REMI INTO SHOP, AND MY LIFE IS YOURS.

[kieraelieson]

A Visit From the Farrier

Set after the main section of the Centaur AU

Thomas yawned, sitting up. 

Things were moving slower now. It’s still a lot, caring for six centaurs, but nothing especially bad has happened in a bit. 

Thomas looked up and a bit to the side. His ‘bed’ was in the empty stall next to Roman’s. Roman seemed to still be asleep, standing with his upper body flopped against the centaur bed attached to the wall. It was a little strange for Roman to still be asleep, usually when Thomas woke Roman was already awake. 

There were soft sounds from nearby, probably Emile working on breakfast. He had very generously stepped into the position of breakfast maker most mornings. 

Not that it took too much work to open the packets, add water, and microwave. The Authiers mostly had provided pre-packaged centaur food. It was supposed to be healthy, with all the vitamins and minerals needed by a centaur in a day. But there sure wasn’t a lot of variety. There were a couple ‘different flavors’ that smelled roughly the same to Thomas, and all of them had the same shredded wheat kind of texture. He’d been bringing in as much human food as he could, trying to let them have something that actually tasted good. But the stable was small, and didn’t have a whole lot of extra storage space, much less a stove or a fridge. 

Thomas stood up and brushed off some of the hay sticking to him. He was still wearing the same clothes he’d been wearing yesterday, though, so was everyone else mostly. The centaurs weren’t used to pajamas, so they generally only changed if they felt their clothes were dirty. The exceptions were Remy and Emile, who were used to a bit finer of a lifestyle while living with Thomas. 

It was honestly a bit of a downgrade for them here. This stable was about the same size as Thomas’s, but had twice as many stalls inside it, and now three times as many centaurs. There wasn’t anything like a kitchen, much less one that centaurs could easily use, only a single microwave and some banged up plastic plates. 

Thomas opened the stall as quietly as he could and walked out to where Emile was, indeed, making breakfast for the centaurs. Thomas leaned heavily against his side, silent in the calm early morning. 

“Good morning,” Emile said quietly. 

“I appreciate you so much,” Thomas said in return. 

Emile huffed out a quiet laugh, reaching back to ruffle up Thomas’s hair. 

“The farrier comes today,” Thomas said, a yawn making him pause before he could keep speaking. “You and Remy aren’t quite due, but do you want to go ahead and get reshod anyway?” 

Emile considered, and then shrugged. “Might as well. If we will be staying here for the foreseeable future, lining up with this farrier’s schedule seems a good idea.” 

“I wish I knew them before now and could know what they’d be like,” Thomas said thoughtfully. “I guess after today we’ll know.” 

“He doesn’t tend to be too bad,” Roman said, apparently awake now and listening to their conversation. “Your biggest problem is going to be with Panic at the Everywhere.”

Thomas had guessed as much. Logan would need a bit of extra care to be sure his legs weren’t jostled too much, but Virgil was who he was most concerned about. He was by far the flightiest of the centaurs, and did not like strangers. Especially strangers touching him. And the farrier would be touching his feet, while Virgil tended to kick when nervous. It all didn’t add up to a great time. 

But Thomas had been getting a bit worried about Virgil’s hooves. He certainly could get himself around well, but he wasn’t walking quite right, and Thomas worried he might have a problem that would only get worse with time. 

“Or he could just leave me alone again,” Virgil said, his tone tinged with defensiveness. 

Thomas pursed his lips. He went over to Virgil’s stall. 

“I’m supposed to keep you safe and healthy,” Thomas started. 

Virgil scowled immediately. 

“I’ve been noticing that you can’t step flat on your hooves, and I’m worried that they might hurt you if they aren’t cared for.” 

“I don’t care what kind of nice words you wrap it in, I’m not letting some stranger come in here and cut parts of me off.” Virgil crossed his arms and turned his back on Thomas. 

Thomas’s mouth dropped open. That was. A way. To see it. “I mean… technically that’s how it works, but your hooves are just like your hair, or your fingernails. It won’t hurt you.” 

“I don’t care, I don’t like it, and I won’t stand for it.”

“I’m almost certain you’ll feel better after it’s done,” Thomas tried coaxing. “It has to be awkward to walk and run like you have been.”

“I’m fine,” Virgil insisted, still with his back turned to Thomas. He stamped one hoof against the floor of his stall. 

“You don’t have to throw a tantrum,” Roman said snappishly. “Everyone gets their hooves trimmed and gets shoes at one point or another.” 

“I don’t want to!” Virgil yelled, officially breaking the calm morning atmosphere. “I’m fine without shoes, I never had to have them! I can still run, I can still carry someone, and I can give a smoother ride than just about any damn person without shoes.” 

“Virgil,” Logan says. Just his name, but Virgil seems to deflate slightly. 

“Could we compromise?” Thomas tries. “Will you let the farrier look at your feet, and trim them so you can walk properly, and unless it’s medically necessary you don’t have to wear shoes.” 

Virgil turns to look at him, suspicion clear in his eyes. He grimaces. “Fine. I’ll try. But no promises.”

Emile came by then, passing out plates. 

“I guess I’ll go get my own breakfast,” Thomas said. “I should be back before the farrier arrives.” 

••^*^••

The farrier drove up to the stable in a large truck, the back of which was covered in tools. Thomas went out to meet him and see if he needed any help. 

“Hey there,” the man said cheerfully. “I heard there was a new groom.” 

“Thomas,” he said, holding out a hand and smiling. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all. The guy seemed nice. 

“Jerry,” the farrier responded, shaking his hand firmly. “Just let me set up a little and then bring them out one at a time. Shouldn’t take too long.” 

“There’s actually two more centaurs,” Thomas said. “They were shod last about three and a half weeks ago, but I figured I’d get them all done at once.” 

Jerry started doing some things with his tools, setting up. “Huh. Alright, I think I can manage that. Five of em shouldn’t run me out of time, so long as they’re well behaved.”

“Uh, six,” Thomas corrected. 

Jerry turned to look at him with a reluctant grimace. “I’m sure you’ve experienced that that little black one is fuckin crazy. Last time I managed to actually touch his feet we had to hold him down with about six men, and even then one of em went home with a nasty bruise.”

Thomas winced slightly. “Yeah… well, I’m worried about his hooves. I guess he hasn’t been getting very regular care for them.” 

Jerry laughed drily. “Not much ‘care’ you can give one as jumpy as that.” 

“I’d still like us to try today,” Thomas said. 

Jerry sighed. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll try. But I’ll be charging a fee for dangerous circumstances, and another for canceling on my other customer today. I certainly won’t be making it there in time.”

Thomas nodded firmly. “Thank you, Jerry. I appreciate it.” 

Jerry waved him off, continuing to set up. “You go ahead and make sure he’s got on a tight harness and blinders. Call over some more guys for when he flips his shit.” 

Thomas hesitated. 

Jerry scoffed. “What, unless you’re intending to sedate him for it?” 

“I’ll do my best to keep us safe,” Thomas promised. 

He started heading back to the stable, feeling the doubtful stare follow him. 

Once inside, he went to Logan first. Deal with the small problem, then all the (hopefully) easy ones, and finally tackle what seems like it’ll be a monster of a task. 

“Would you be ok with going first?” Thomas asked. 

“I don’t mind,” Logan said, straightening slightly. 

Thomas opened his stall. Of the centaurs that had been here before he showed up, only Virgil seemed willing to let himself in and out of his own stall. Patton would do it if he thought he had permission, but Roman and Logan always had to be let out by Thomas. It was odd, but Thomas didn’t want to push on something he could easily do for them. 

With a warning to the farrier, and Thomas standing beside watching, it actually goes quite smoothly. When he got back in the stable, Logan even said that it didn’t hurt his legs any more than they already hurt. Which, well, ideally Logan would be in no pain, but no increase in pain is pretty good too. 

The others go easily as well. Turns out Patton didn’t wear shoes very much, just kept up with trimming. It made sense, since he didn’t do much running around, and when he did it was on soft grass. 

A few hours later, everyone had been seen except for Virgil. Jerry was off taking a break for a bit while Thomas prepared Virgil for the shoeing. 

“It’s your turn next,” Thomas says gently. “Is there anything I can do to help you feel better?” 

Virgil was twitchy. Had been since Remy went, with Remy being the last one other than him. He shifted and flinched at every tiny sound or movement near him. 

Virgil looked at Thomas, fear, and the difficulty he was having fighting it, plain on his face. His hands grip around his arms. 

“I— I probably shouldn’t be able to see it,” Virgil rasped out. “But don’t put something over my whole head!” 

“It’s ok,” Thomas said soothingly. “I’m not gonna do something like that.” 

He considered for a long few seconds. He really didn’t like putting blinders on centaurs. It felt dehumanizing. Oh! 

“What if you put on one of the hoodies and pull the hood up and forward? It’ll cover the sides of your vision, and it’ll be hard for you to look back at your hooves, but there will still be the whole front open for you.” 

Virgil blinked, stilling momentarily as he thought about the suggestion. “You… really? Just a hood?” 

Thomas shrugged. “I mean, unless you want something different. The problem here is that you’re scared of what will happen, so forcing you isn’t going to help, I want to work with you, and make it less scary.” 

Virgil looked at him like he was insane. “What, so you aren’t going to harness and hobble me?” 

“Not if I can help it,” Thomas said with a small smile. 

Virgil gestured towards the wall of the barn, or rather, through it to where he knew the farrier was. “He’s never gonna go along with that!”

“I’ll handle him,” Thomas promised. “You just tell me what you need.” 

Virgil bit his lip, frowning doubtfully. He crossed his arms, turning half away. 

“It would help if I knew what he was doing. Like… like you did with the brushing.” Virgil mumbled, not looking back at Thomas. 

Thomas was glad for the confirmation that his rambling at them had been actually helpful. “I can explain what he’s doing, so you don’t have to look, and you’ll still know what’s happening.”

Virgil nodded stiffly, his hand coming up to his mouth. He chewed on his thumbnail, his gaze starting to look a bit distant. 

It wasn’t ideal that he was learning dissociation from Logan, but if it could get him through a rough thing, Thomas wasn’t going to protest. Yet. 

“Is there anything else that could help?” Thomas asked gently. 

Virgil shrugged, and shivers ran over his flanks. 

“Alright, let me get that hoodie and then we’ll go outside, ok?” 

Virgil just shrugged again, but he didn’t seem able to stop twitching. 

Once Virgil had on the hoodie with the hood pulled up, Thomas handed him a halter. He still had to have halters on the centaurs whenever he left the stable with them, which felt ridiculous. 

He led Virgil out, feeling the slightest tremble through the lead. 

“It’s alright,” he reassured, bringing Virgil over to the truck. “I’ll be right here the whole time. I won’t let anything bad happen. I promise.” 

Virgil gave a jerky nod, squeezing his crossed arms tighter around his chest. 

“Oh hell no!” Jerry said loudly, coming back from his break. 

Virgil flinched, his stance stiffening. 

“I am not working on that centaur with only a fucking halter! He slips right out of those! You may be new, but I’ve dealt with him before, and this will not work. One of us is going to get kicked in the face before he runs all the way to the end of the property before anyone can get a rope over him.”

“It’ll be ok,” Thomas said firmly. “I’ve been working with the centaurs and it will be fine.” 

Jerry scowled at him. “You think you’re a fucking centaur whisperer or some shit?” 

“Yes,” Thomas said intensely. 

The farrier’s face twisted unpleasantly. “Yeah, she would hire a delusional fool,” he muttered under his breath. “Look, if I try with this one and he starts flipping his shit, I’m leaving. And I’m still billing till the end of the day.” 

“Deal,” Thomas said immediately. It wasn’t exactly his money to promise, but at the same time, he hadn’t gotten in trouble for spending too much yet. 

“But I’m not going within a yard of him till you hobble the feet I don’t have to be touching.” 

“It’s fine…” Virgil whispered.

Thomas looked up to see Virgil’s face was red with shame. Well, there went any good feeling he had left for Jerry. Officially in the asshole book now. 

Reluctantly, he went to get a hobble. 

Virgil got even more stiff and trembly with his legs hobbled. It must be nerve-wracking, tied in place with someone doing something scary to him. 

Thomas stroked his hand along Virgil’s side. “It’s alright, you’ll be ok.” 

Jerry finally approached, pulling up one of Virgil’s back hooves and pinning it between his legs. Virgil’s leg twitched and moved, but not enough to pull it free from the farrier’s grasp. 

“There you go,” Thomas soothed. “You’re doing great. He’s just gonna take a pick and clean your hoof first. Just like normal.” 

The farrier picked out Virgil’s hoof very quickly, quicker than Thomas could. He motioned to Thomas to come closer and look. 

“Well, he’s obviously not wearing shoes right now,” Jerry said. He pointed around the wall of the hoof. “You can see it’s definitely overgrown, I’m surprised he isn’t limping around. But see here on the toe, he’s grinding his hooves against concrete. That’s the only way they’re relatively even. But that makes the sides way too overgrown, especially compared to the toe and the frog. I didn’t look too close as you brought him over, but he’s gotta be walking funny.” 

Thomas nodded seriously. “Will a trimming help?” 

“I mean, of course it’ll help. But what he needs is shoes. And he’ll have to get used to walking on hooves that are trimmed right. You’ll need to watch him to be sure he doesn’t sprain one of his legs while he adjusts.” 

“I will,” Thomas promised. 

The farrier reached for another tool. 

Thomas set a hand on Virgil’s flank, trying to give some other touch for him to focus on. “Alright, bud, he’s got his hoof knife and he’s going to start trimming the dead parts of the frog.” 

There was a strangled, distressed sound from Virgil, and his leg pulled in the farrier’s grip. 

“Don’t you dare try and kick me,” Jerry muttered darkly, trying to move as quickly as he could on Virgil’s hoof. 

“It’s alright, Virgil, you’re alright,” Thomas said soothingly, stroking along his side, which was beginning to feel damp with sweat. “It’s starting to look better already. Just getting the dead bits off. He’s working on cleaning up your sole now. He won’t cut any live parts, just the overgrown bits. Just like trimming fingernails.” 

Virgil was trembling beneath his hand. Thomas leaned heavily against his side. He seemed to feel better when Logan squished him, maybe the smaller pressure Thomas could provide would still be helpful. 

“You’re doing great, Virge,” Thomas praised. “Doing real well. He’s gonna take clippers now and trim the wall of your hoof. We’re getting close to done with this one. You’re doing so well.” 

And it was going well, until Thomas was too focused on Virgil to notice the farrier switching to the rasp. At the first movement, Virgil yanked his hoof back. 

“What’s that?!!” Virgil yelled, his voice high and stressed. 

“Shhh, shh, it’s ok,” Thomas said, trying to calm the suddenly much more tense atmosphere. “It’s a rasp, it’s alright, it just helps to smooth things out.” 

Jerry grumbled something as he picked up Virgil’s hoof again, gripping it right between his thighs as he tried again. 

A high, animalistic whine escaped Virgil’s throat. 

Thomas moved over to his front. “Hey, hey, look at me, ok? Everything’s fine. This is the last step of the trimming for this hoof. You’ve been doing so well. I’m so proud of you. It’ll all be ok.” 

“It feels weird, I don’t like it!” Virgil gritted out. 

“I know,” Thomas said sympathetically. “I know it doesn’t feel good. But it won’t take long. He’s almost done with that hoof already. And you’re doing so well.” 

Virgil’s face was screwed up, his eyes shut tight. If he wasn’t wearing a hoodie, his fingernails would surely be cutting into the skin of his arms with how tightly he was gripping them. As it was, Thomas was still worried about finger-shaped bruises. 

“There.” Jerry dropped Virgil’s hoof. 

Virgil’s eyes shot open, and he stomped that foot against the ground. His scowl didn’t leave. 

“I hate this.” 

“I know it doesn’t feel good,” Thomas said. “But it’s really important for you. I don’t want you to get hurt.” 

Virgil grumbled something Thomas couldn’t quite hear as Jerry picked up his other back leg. 

It was an achingly slow process, painful for all of them, to get the rest of Virgil’s hooves trimmed. But they did get through it. Eventually. 

“Alright, now he said you really do need shoes,” Thomas said gently, again coming to stand in front of Virgil and catch his gaze. “This bit should be easier. It’ll take a bit longer, but most of it will be him over there on the side of his truck getting the shoes ready. So he won’t have to touch you so much.” 

Virgil nodded miserably. His face was a blotchy mess now, with a few tear tracks he hadn’t yet swiped at. 

“Why don’t you talk to me?” Thomas offered. “Let’s talk about something and just focus on that and not the farrier.” 

Virgil shrugged. 

“Well, maybe let’s get to know each other a little better. I’m 25, um, I don’t have any siblings. I do have several aunts and uncles though, my parents didn’t really carry on the tradition of big families.” 

“I’m 8…” Virgil mumbled. “But I’m 9 in the fall, I’m not a colt anymore.” 

Thomas blinked, a bit confused. “Well, of course not.” 

Virgil nodded, justified. 

As far as Thomas knew, centaurs were adults at 5. Or at least counted as adults. Some five year old centaurs he’d seen seemed more like older teens. But he wasn’t the one whose opinion was important. 

“I don’t really know anything about siblings,” Virgil continued. “I was brought here a little before I turned 4, and I didn’t know of any before that.” 

“So you’ve been here for close to five years?” Thomas asked. “Wait, aren’t centaurs supposed to stay with their parents till age 5?” 

Virgil nodded. “There’s like, a lot of exceptions to that. Most people don’t get that lucky.” 

“Oh,” Thomas said, an odd twist in his stomach. But this wasn’t about him, this was about distracting Virgil. “So, how has it been growing up here?” 

Virgil gritted his teeth. “Awful. Some of the stories Patton and Logan tell are worse, but this sure isn’t a nice place to be.”

Thomas wasn’t sure if he was doing particularly well at distracting Virgil, or just being a particularly nosey and rude conversation partner. 

“I wish I could make it better,” Thomas said. 

Virgil shrugged. “You do your best.” 

Thomas frowned. “My best isn’t good enough when you’re still miserable.” 

“Well, what else are you supposed to do?” Virgil asked. “Not much you can. You may be human, but on the human social ladder you’re pretty much on the bottom. Uh… no offense.” 

“You’re fine,” Thomas said. He sighed heavily. “I feel like there’s something I can do, and should be doing, I just don’t know what.”

“Well… last time the farrier actually did anything to my hooves,” Virgil said. “I was in like three different harnesses, and hobbles, and a fucking bag over my head. And then when I freaked out they kept sticking ropes all over me, and a bunch of humans were yelling and sitting on me and pulling me around. So. What you’ve already done is a pretty big improvement.” 

Thomas grimaced at the story. “I just can’t believe it got that bad in the first place. You know, I have some experience with Remy and Emile, but like, they lived with my aunt for years, and as far as I know she was nice to them, and then they came to me when she passed away, and… I guess I just didn’t think that people really treated centaurs as badly as some of the horror stories.” 

Virgil just shrugged. “This place is all I really know, so…” 

“What about when you were still with your parents? Do you remember much from back then?” 

“Well, a lot of the time I was just kinda in a stall. I think we lived on a farm, and my parents still had work and things. Sometimes I’d be let out into a field, and that was really nice. There were a couple other centaurs there, one or two foals and some old ones. I didn’t really see the humans there very much, or I don’t remember it anyway.” 

“Sounds like a pretty lonely childhood,” Thomas said sadly. 

Virgil just shrugged again. “Why don’t you tell me about yours instead then.”

Jerry was coming back with a ready shoe. 

“One of the shoes is ready,” Thomas said. “It should be fairly quick to put on. There will be a strange hissing sound when it first goes on, and he’s going to hammer in nails, but they won’t hurt, and you’ll be ok. I can tell you some more about me while it’s going on.” 

Virgil tensed up again, rigid and trembly. He scowled, but nodded. 

“So my parents both came from pretty big families, and I was the first grandchild, so I had a lot of adults around when I was little,” Thomas said. 

The muscles in Virgil’s leg bunched as the shoe was pressed against his hoof, and he winced hard. 

“Then when I started to get more cousins, the attention got more spread out. But Aunt Patty still came over to visit all the time. She was Mom’s sister, the one who first had Remy and Emile. I would visit sometimes when I got just a bit older, like 10 or something, and I would get to ride them around. I was… kind of an idiot back then, and I hadn’t really realized that they were people too. I’m not sure Aunt Patty did either.” 

Virgil slowly began to relax after Jerry let his hoof down again. 

“Or wait,” Thomas said. “Maybe it was only Emile back then. I know Remy’s younger. Sometimes childhood memories get just a little blurry together. I ended up getting to be kinda friends with them both by the time I was a teenager. When I moved out from my parents house I went to live with Aunt Patty actually. She always said I was her favorite nephew. That’s why she left me the house and all when she passed away.” 

Jerry seemed to have done extra prep work before bringing out the first shoe, because he was returning much sooner this time with the second. 

“Here comes the farrier again,” Thomas warned. “Just like last time. You’ll do great.” 

Virgil nodded shakily. “Keep talking? Please.”

“Yeah, of course,” Thomas said. “Let’s see, um, have I ever told you that Emile has a therapy license?” 

Virgil shook his head, biting down on his lip as the new shoe was placed against his hoof. 

“He does,” Thomas continued. “Aunt Patty had an anxiety disorder. I mean, I do too, but I’ve had an Emile around for longer to help me. Turns out centaurs can get therapy certifications. It’s a bit closer to like, a support dog as far as paperwork is concerned, but Emile really liked the idea, and he has a whole bookshelf back at home of psychology books and I bet if they allowed centaurs to do the same certification test for human therapists he’d pass. He’s really been a lifesaver. I don’t know what I’d do without him.” 

Thomas had to pause to switch the hobbles from Virgil’s front legs to his back ones. 

“When I was a younger teen,” Thomas said. “I used to think of him like he was another one of my uncles. He was always taking care of me whenever I visited, and we both really cared about each other. Just about anything I know about centaurs and what they like and what they don’t I learned from him. Remy was more standoffish until a few years ago. He’s not much of a fan of humans and the whole being owned thing, which like, of course not! But it made it a bit harder for us to become friends.” 

Jerry was back again with another shoe. 

“You’re getting real close to being done, Virgil. I’m real proud of how well you’re doing, especially since it’s so hard,” Thomas said earnestly. 

He chattered on about random things, interspersing praises for Virgil, until the farrier finally finished with the last shoe. 

Virgil lifted his legs awkwardly. “Ugh, they’re heavy and weird.” 

“I guess you took ‘centaur whisperer’ literally, huh?” Jerry said to Thomas. “I mean, I can’t deny it worked. You’ll never get that one to stand still without jitters, but still, that was damn impressive.” 

Thomas tried to smile. It was really all of Virgil’s effort making the difference. And like, not being rampantly abused the whole time. 

Jerry grinned mischievously. “Well, I’m outta here. Still gonna charge you through the end of the day.” 

Thomas rolled his eyes, but didn’t protest. His focus was on Virgil, not cost. 

“Can you walk?” Thomas asked as the truck started to pull away. 

Virgil stepped forward, frowning down at his hooves. “Yeah, it’s just weird.” 

Thomas unclipped the halter and laid it over his shoulder with the hobble, instead holding out a hand for Virgil to take if he chose. “I can help you inside, and then you can get brushed down if you want.” 

Virgil’s coat was rather wet now with nervous sweat, and it couldn’t be comfortable. 

“I can walk on my own,” Virgil said, not accepting the offered hand. He didn’t stumble, but he definitely was walking oddly, raising his hooves high between each step. “And I want to stay with Logan for a bit.” 

Thomas easily acquiesced. “Absolutely. Whatever you want. You deserve it, after all that.” 

Virgil offered him a small, tight smile. “Thanks, Thomas.” 

Thomas smiled back.

It had been a success. An exhausting success, but still a success. 

[luverofralts]

Arkhelios Adventures

Dear Adam,

I snuck out with Brion yesterday. No, not how we sneak out after class, don't worry. I just had to get out of there or I'd lose control of my powers again, despite how good my control has gotten. Oh shit, you don't want to hear about that, it's just going to make you worry. Dammit! I swore I had white out here. Well, forget I said that. I'm never going to hurt you again, but this place is another story. I'd destroy it in an instant if I could. There's just so much pressure on me. I'm getting closer to the end of the curriculum they gave me, which is great, but the tests I have to do are exhausting.

I think they can sense how stressed I've been, which is the only reason I was able to sneak out in the first place. The usual magic circle on the floor had the edges smudged in a very noticeable pattern. I don't care if this wasn't the school's actual plan. I need some small piece of sanity to hold onto.

Brion makes escaping at night a habit too, though for much different reasons. With the magic circle broken, I could send him a message via spell to meet up with me. I tried sending you one too, and the message turned to ash in my hand in an instant. Either the magical barrier between us is that thick, or whatever spell your mother cast against me is incredibly strong. You get these messages, so I'm not too worried. All it said was that I missed you (with a hint about what I especially missed about you 😉).

There's this weird abandoned house outside of town that Brion likes to visit. Pleasantview was founded on Old Tredony, and this strange country is just as old. The people who used to live in the house were from Ticktop. We had a quiz about them I think in second year. They were the ones with wooden golems and spells that messed with time. I wonder if my stalker, Reogus, knew anything about them. If he suddenly shows up to kidnap me again, I'll have to ask.

There were all these cool pictures on the wall, like a memorial to three different ladies who must have lived here ages ago. They were pretty cool to look at. I think I've seen at least one of those women in a textbook somewhere at school. Maybe they went to school here when they were my age.

Of course, in a weird memorial in the middle of nowhere in the strangest place I've ever been, there was a familiar face in one of the photos. How the hell did Lukas end up here and when? I'm probably better off not knowing. Seeing them pop up here at least reminded me of you and the life I've left behind. I hope I can come home to bad talk deities with you soon.

Brion likes coming here because it's out of the way of most people. Every one else thinks it's haunted. There's way too many creepy buildings that you don't want to mess with here and this is no exception. No one is alive to maintain the property, but the grass is cut and the memorial is well maintained by something. Probably a vengeful ghost, I think. If I had a creepy memorial, I'd make sure it was able to stand the centuries. The words "the question" are carved all over the wood door like it's some kind of horror movie. There might even be blood caked in the carvings. 👻 it would be a great place to make out at on Halloween.

Anyway, Brion took me there to tell me a secret. He looked really nervous, but he said that he could tell that I was different like him. (That's when I told him that my hot girlfriend, Remy, was really my hot boyfriend, Adam. He looked at me funny and said, "No, not like that." Well, at least someone knows about you here)

He was kinda creeping me out with how intense he looked. Then I thought about how a guy with a secret had lured me out of school to the middle of nowhere in a haunted house. I should really think things through better in the future. I would obviously win if he tried to murder me, but still. I don't need more trouble in this place.

Anyway, Brion didn't try to murder me. Instead, he began shaking and glowing with this intense light. It was sort of like watching a demon form emerge.

Except he wasn't a demon.

I've never seen a werewolf before, Adam. Have you? I've never heard of them in Arkhelios or seen them in Pleasantview. They're really rare. It turns out Brion was born a werewolf. He's adopted and his adoptive parents don't know about it. He comes out to the middle of nowhere to transform when he has to.

It only seemed fair to tell him my secret (I personally think it's more interesting that I have a boyfriend, but I guess being a demon with a dark form is interesting too)

I told him a bit about my family and all the people who have tried to kill me or my dad. He'd never heard of the Great Demons before. Well, he's heard stories of the unholy, evil daemons of old, but they're not allowed to study them or their history. I think anything relevant would be stored in my school, because there are definitely demons here. They're my teachers. It's what I study. I for sure have proof there are demons here.

He didn't scream or anything at my dark form like I thought he might. He thought it was cool.

We swore to keep each other's secrets. His fur looked really soft and he could smell things from miles away. Werewolves are kind of awesome. We've got to find some at home to hang out with.

Maybe Brion wasn't surprised by my relevation about having a boyfriend because his sister seemed to be sneaking out to meet with a werewolf of her own. Security outside of the schools must be pretty lax. Lucky for them.

It was nice to sit outside and watch the stars again. I have no idea where I am, but I like to imagine that somewhere, you're sitting under the same stars, thinking about me.

I can't wait until I'm back in Pleasantview again and seeing you face to face. My dads are coming to see me soon. They're asking me to perform a demonic wedding ceremony for them, just like the Sovereign asked of them years ago. She doesn't care anymore about it, but apparently, they do. I asked them to sneak you along with them, but they said no and that I wasn't taking my studies here seriously. If I can use this to prove to the school that I'm in control of myself, maybe I can go home even sooner.

Love,

Theo ❤️

[divadivine13]

How To Choose The Best Synthetic Hair Extensions for women

Whether you are a professional or a complete beginner, navigating the world of hair extensions can be overwhelming. When purchasing extensions, there are many things to consider, from choosing the right Weave to learning how to care for, style, and color your extensions. So, we talked to some great experts in hair extensions, like Lamiese Prior, the founder of Rumor Hair Extensions, and Vivian Kaye, the founder of Kinky, Curly, and Yaki. This hair extension company specializes in textured hair extensions. They offered us insider information on choosing the best hair extensions, regardless of our hair type or daily styling routine. They also told us everything there is to know about choosing hair extensions. Here’s everything you need to know.

What Type of Hair Should I Buy?

The very first thing we should know, there are two types of hair extensions; natural and synthetic. Most stylists recommend natural hair because it blends in more easily with your real hair. It is essential to bear in mind that many companies mix natural and synthetic hair, so always double-check your hair type when purchasing.

If you want natural hair, you have two types of natural hair to choose from, Remy or virgin. Lamiese explains, “Virgin hair is raw and unprocessed hair.” And Vivian explains that “Remy’s hair is not the same as virgin hair. It’s hair that has gone through any process, whether it’s color, texture, or any kind of hairstyling.”

Most hair stylists prefer virgin hair due to its quality. Yet, Lammie says, “In this industry, hair fashions are constantly changing, and people want to change the hair color/extensions, length and volume of their hair regularly, “If you want to change your hair regularly, we would not suggest it. Although it is the best type in terms of quality, it can also be costly.”

Which Type of Extension Attachment Will Work Best for Me?

Clip-ins -

Pros: Lammies say clip-ins are great for clients who only want to wear hair extensions on special occasions but want to avoid the maintenance of wearing them permanently. They add instant volume and glamour, as well as confidence. Vivian agrees, “Clip-ins are great because they can easily add length or volume to your hair.”

Cons: However, Lammies also warns, “If the rows are too heavy if you’ll be wearing it every day, it’s also going to cause thinning and breakage. Most customers report backcombing, especially where the clips attach.” If you’re thinking about purchasing clip-ins, check out our guide to fitting clip-ins here.

Wefts -

Pros: “The wefts are used for weaving, which is a long-term option. You can wear this style for up to three months with care. You can do a full stitch, which will protect all of your hair, or a partial, which will leave the hair in place to blend in with the hair extensions. Using hair that matches your natural texture is key to creating a seamless, wispy look,” explains Vivian. She adds, “Even after you remove the weave, you can still carry weight and be more versatile.” Can make wigs for talent.”

Lammies agrees, saying in her experience, “Weave is becoming increasingly popular. The great thing about them is that they are the only method of permanent extension that maintains consistent volume from root to tip. A Weave Application Contains no glue and chemicals and is the safest hair extension application method if properly fitted and maintained.

Lamiese told us, “Over the years, I have watched my client’s hair grow healthy and improve in condition while wearing a weave. It has always been amazing when clients have their extensions fitted and see their confidence change instantly. They leave with a bounce and a hair flick, and that satisfaction never disappears for me.”

Cons: “Unfortunately, there are so many hair stylists that do not fit this method of hair extensions properly, and that gives the weave a bad reputation,” says Lamiese. Another common misconception Lamiese is familiar with hearing is that “People think a weave can be bulky or heavy, but this all depends on the weft top and the application. Like any improperly fitted hair extension method, this method has the potential to make clients uncomfortable and damage their hair.

And there are different types of weaves too. Lamiese says that for her extensions, she uses 100% human hair and prefers to use “double drawn, meaning it maintains its thickness from the top right through to the ends. I decided against single drawn as most of the Dubai clientele want to gain thickness and volume at the bottom of their hair, which single drawn doesn’t offer.”

What do I Need to Consider When Buying Extensions Online or In-Store?

Vivian Jor says that when buying extensions online, you need to “do your research” because “you get what you pay for.” Vivian says the questions you should ask are: “Will your company help us after a purchase? Do they provide good customer service? Are the photos they post really of them?” These are all signs of a good supplier.

As with all beauty buys, it is not only essential to know what is right and what to avoid while buying a product. Lammies warn against buying “hair that’s matte, hair that’s too thin underneath and doesn’t blend [or simply] the wrong color for your hair. All the above are poor extension quality, poor aftercare, or wrong. It May be due to color matching and fit by the hairstylist.

How Long Should My Extensions Last?

Vivian confirms, “Extensions can last for years. The hair extensions and clips are reusable, and you can sew on the wig cap. However, the wigs I have are at least six years old, and they still hold up.

Lammies also points out that the longevity of your hair extensions is “totally dependent on the client’s lifestyle and care routine. Hair extensions need extra TLC because they don’t get the oils and your scalp that your hair needs.” provides.

It also depends on your routine and the climate in which you live. For example, suppose you live in a hot environment like Dubai. In that case, your extensions will need extra TLC, “Post-hair extension care in Dubai is very important due to the elements here, which include hard water, pools, Sea, humidity, etc. are included. If properly cared for, hair extensions can usually last for about nine to 12 months; however, if the client does not follow the aftercare provided, the hair can last up to four months.

Although synthetic hair extensions are inexpensive, you can only use them for a short period. But if you are using it for a short time, then it will be right for you. We hope our list has helped you find the one that will work perfectly for you. Based on our research, 1 hair stop Hair Extensions, Nishhair Hair Extensions, and Diva Divine Super Volume Hair Extensions are our top picks for the best Hair Extensions** in India. We also considered factors such as material, type, quality, appearance, and styling options when making recommendations. Tell us which worked best for you!

[sg-the-mag-by]

Yes! This is good to see another side of fairy World and how maybe it's failing more kids than helping them especially in the modern age with so many young fairies now becoming Godparents like Peri.

Or it's always failed Godkids but Cosmo and Wanda were the outliers because 1. They wanted a family of their own so badly but the fairy baby ban prevented that so instead they "adopted" all their godkids as their own, and 2. They have caused a lot of havoc for Jorgen(Cosmo being the main reason he and Wanda lost Crocker, then years later becoming so attached to Timmy he was basically their son more than any Godkid they'd ever had so pulling the family away was both a headache and heartache for Jorgen) by not always following Da Rules so when they retired we actually see how bad Da Rules are.

Also can I just say, for all the love and care Juandissimo spouted having for Remy, you gotta admit he failed Remy by not being a father figure to him, instead just making all of Remy's wishes come true that in turn almost lead to the death of not only two fairies but could have also accounted for the death of three children(which again feeds into this fairy mindset of "make as many wishes as possible and not really question them unless they are fully against Da Rules). Maybe Remy finally realized this by the time we see him for the last time with his parents in Country Clubbed, he realized that he'd never get parental love even from his godfather so he resigned himself to this life, Juandissimo was permanently taken away, and we can only hope Remy turned out a better adult than his parents and only because he realized it on his own and just found a better outlet for his anger, sadness, and lack of familial connection. I know people see Juandissimo and Remy as a good match, but never once did these two give me "they are father and son" vibes like Cosmo and Timmy did, and isn't that what Remy needed over being bent on revenge to a kid who didn't even care about Remy's life style and would have actually been the perfect friend to him?

Now yes Timmy finding so many loopholes did cater to many of the news ways certain wishes have to be granted(time based wishes going through Father Time, nature based through Mother Nature, and of course love ones through Cupid) BUT I will stand my ground that Timmy was kinda the final nail in the coffin for Fairies to actually make these rules(you cannot tell me that a little girl causing WW1 did NOT have the fairies reconsidering plenty of wishes if she was able to take out a human-probably the reason you can't wish physical harm on anyone like how Timmy was trying to do to Chip Skylark before he really got to know his big brother figure(yes I will die on the hill that over the years they saw each other as brothers and Chip even helped Timmy get his ear pierced).

So, having Peri get personal lessons on how being a fairy works from Jorgen, plus with all the changes to Da Rules(which in Battle of the Dimmasonian we even see Peri question Da Rules when it came to Viozalea) not to mention he was a really young kid when he left Timmy and his parents handled Timmy's emotional side while Peri just helped grant Timmy's wishes or just was being his baby brother.

Peri also fearing he'd make his Uncle Jorgen sad by failing him(over making his parents sad since to him they never saw any flaw, which if we get a Season 2 I REALLY want to know what happened between Cosmo, Wanda, and Peri leaving Timmy to Cosmo and Wanda going on their time traveling 10,000 year vacation, to Peri getting his Godparenting license up to where A New Wish starts. Like Peri decided instead of becoming a Fairy Dentist to follow in his parents "footsteps" and become a Godparent but not seek them out for any help in his studies or ask them questions about how they dealt with different kids.) is very viable for him since Jorgen and Tooth probably helped with Peri's schooling while Cosmo and Wanda were on their vacation.

Also with Cookie's ideal ways of wishing, I wonder how many of her previous Godkids went back to being miserable once she left because she just grants what SHE thinks they want over what they need and she'd only be with kids for barely a year because she gives them all this stuff, but what if she was assigned to a kid who was similar to Timmy or Dev, neglectful parents(or worse actually abusive) and would not take any of her "precious time" to sit and talk to her godkid and comfort them like how a real parent would(probably not realizing how bad the parents were unless she would see actual bruises on them but just magic them away). Even if these kids were able to wish themselves out of those homes(which could the modern day Rules even do that?) they would still be heavily effected by whatever happened only now that they were deemed "safe" by Cookie's and Da Rules' standards she'd leave them and just go on to the next kid.

You think Peri met her and even once questioned her methods and how different they were to his parents? Then again he'd probably just think this was how things were done today for Godkids and not even question it, until-you know, he finally saw his parents again and slowly started realizing what Dev needed, but it was too little too late.

Okay sorry I rambled here but I LOVE now picking out how Peri, and Jorgen, were setting Dev up to keep being miserable and if we get a season 2, even if Dev kept his memories but doesn't keep Peri, will he resign himself to knowing he'll never get his dad's love and affection or will he get an actual competent Godparent. I've seen people suggest Juandissimo buuut unless he did a LOT of soul searching I'm not thrilled if they go that route. But, I would think the writers could revisit the concept of two different kids sharing the same Godparent, ie Hazel and Dev share Cosmo and Wanda. With actual care put into the writing this could work, especially since while both need the emotional support Cosmo and Wanda give, Hazel needs it more to calm herself and have cool adventures while Dev needs it to find out who he is when not living in his dad's shadow and generational trauma(looking at YOU Doug Dimmadome owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome!).

And done. Thank you.

It’s so weird to me that some people put at least part of the blame for Peri’s behavior and mistakes on Jorgen. Yes, he may be responsible for his attitude towards work and rules, but certainly not for his attitude towards Dev himself.

Some compare Dev to Timmy and wonder why Peri didn't cheer him up then on his birthday(after all, he could have seen his brother Timmy in him). And they forget that 13-14 WHOLE years have passed (and 20 years in total). His personality could have changed beyond recognition since he was a child. Yes, yes, children tend to grow up and change depending on their upbringing and environment (and sometimes not always for the better). That's why I'm so interested to know what kind of childhood Irep and Peri had.

Peri was raised by loving and caring parents who often see only the good in him. And Irep was also raised by parents who love and care but are more distant, giving him more personal space. And if Cosmo and Wanda mostly see only the good in Peri, A.Wanda and A.Cosmo mostly see only the bad in Irep. But not in the way that many might think. After all, they are anti-fairies. So.. of course they saw him as their distributor of chaos (lovingly). While at school and everyone else saw only the bad in Irep, but already in a negative way for him. Irep always lived with the thought deep in his head that he was only the worst half of his fairy counterpart and all the time tried to prove the opposite. Therefore, he constantly tried to present himself in the best light in his typical manner…

[beardedmrbean]

Okay mostly know Indy from clips(Disney hurry up and put the films on plus) but didn’t Indy try to save artifacts so that the NAZIS and Soviets wouldn’t have them?

While we don’t have to take stuff like the British museum, but after all these church burnings, statues being destroyed, and other shit (especially in the Middle East) I would prefer artifacts to stay in a secure place rather than being at the mercy of emotionally immature people.

Sorry this took so long, keep getting distracted by things and people. Mostly people.

Ya the British Museum bit is a quality observation since there's a post on here that goes over that situation perfectly, guy from I believe Iraq visiting the museum and crying in front of an exhibit of stuff from "home" cue the ignoramuses with no capacity think of any possibility beyond 'white people bad' displaying a stunning lack of critical thinking skills and outright ignorance, until someone points out that if someone had bothered to read the article they would have seen they were tears of joy.

For Indy, the first movie 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' he finds the Jewish artifact generally referred to as the "Ark of the Covenant" got the broken OG 10 commandments tablets, some manna, and Aaron's staff in it, manages to get that away from the Nazis because just because they hate Jews it doesn't mean they won't try and take advantage of their sacred artifacts.

Winds up in storage in a warehouse in the US that holds all kinds of things that are on the do not touch list.

In regards to the movies it's the only thing he did not get back to it's rightful owners.

Temple of Doom, the whole thing was with stones that were somehow magical and provided prosperity to the village where one of them was, their sacred object gets all three but loses two when they start getting charged up off of Indy's grumpiness but he saves the one that belongs to the village and gets it back to them.

Last Crusade at the opening (RIP River Phoenix) there's a cross he's trying to retrieve from a guy that will pretty much just sell it on the black market, not an object with any specific owner other than maybe the Vatican and he says it belongs in a museum.

Which I can agree with given the type of object it is, to a point, maybe ask the Pope if it's ok.

Then it's looking for the literal Holy Grail, which can't leave the spot in well they used Petra for the outside shots so let's go with that, so it's still where it was when he started just underground a bit maybe.

Crystal Skull, took it back to where it belonged and the aliens took off in their space ship since they needed the last one's head before they could do that.

Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, I can't think of any artifacts that he specifically recovered and took away once he was old enough to know the score, went in to a mummy's tomb as a child with TE Lawrence and a few other folks who did stuff but he was like 8 what could he do. Same with meeting up with Teddy Roosevelt on a safari in Africa with several other big names if you know names from that time.

Tolstoy's Bible might count, but he traded Tolstoy his baseball cards for that so fair deal (wild thing to say) got to hang out with the last round of Hapsburg's in Austria too, really top quality show.

Kinda jumps from childhood to him late teens, riding with Pancho Villa meeting Remy (RIP Ronny Coutteure) who wants to go back to Belgium since well that whole first big tussle with Germany and Austria Hungary known as WW1 is going on and he wants to defend his home, so lot of WW1 stuff there not much archeology, do get a episode with Tim McInnerny playing Kafka that's a lot of laughs but that's an espionage thing, whole episode played out like Kafka wrote it fun stuff.

After all that he goes back to the US, and there's no archeology at all, rocket building with Goddard, college dorm mate with Elliot Ness, learns Jazz from some of the masters in a episode featuring Harrison Ford (finally) Civil rights stuff here and there.

But ya, all of the stuff he finds winds up in the hands of it's rightful owner.

As unproblematic archeologists go he's up at the top I'd say.

Think Spielberg did that all on purpose, ark thing works for him since he's Jewish so he can decide what he wants there.

_______________________

This was long, sorry. Hope it's a bit interesting at least.

[forever-emo-phase]

Mission Status: Sick!

Notes: Hello this is my first fic for Sanders Sides! It is inspired by @illogicallyinclined​‘s hockey AU! If you haven’t ever gotten into it, do it! However, you can still read even if you don’t know anything about the AU! Characters: Virgil, Logan

Ship: The whole thing is pretty much just analogical pining Warnings: Panic attack is described Genre: Just guys being dudes being gay. Fluff maybe? It’s not sad and that’s all I can tell you. Summary: Which is how Virgil arrived at his current situation, Logan tensely sitting at his desk in the middle of the night with shoulders so tight he looked like he was seconds away from shattering.

'It's a good thing that my homosexuality is stronger than my pride', Virgil thought as he opened a capri sun and violently squeezed it onto his sheets.

Check it out on Ao3 here! https://archiveofourown.org/works/33804841

Anxiety sucks. Virgil’s nails are always bitten down to the quick, hands never still, and the insides of his cheeks chewed and raw. If Virgil had to find a bright side, it would have to be his ability to read people. With just a look, Virgil could tell by the slump of his shoulders when Roman needed a little bit of extra praise. He would notice the redness around Patton’s eyes and know that he would need more company than normal. 

But the one person Virgil prided himself on seeing was Logan. It was almost second nature for him to sense the tension in Logan’s shoulders without even looking, he could almost feel it in the air. He could see when Logan needed to get out of his head and stop pushing himself before he broke. 

Dealing with Logan’s emotions, however, was slightly harder. If his approach was too physical, like he would approach Patton, Logan would withdraw. If he tried to take the same approach he would with Roman, showering compliments tempered with a light bit of teasing, Logan would get uncomfortable and retreat.

Which is how Virgil arrived at his current situation, Logan tensely sitting at his desk in the middle of the night with shoulders so tight he looked like he was seconds away from shattering.

'It's a good thing that my homosexuality is stronger than my pride', Virgil thought as he opened a capri sun and violently squeezed it onto his sheets. 

The thing with Logan is that he doesn’t care about himself. He will push himself to his limit and keep going, but, if someone else needs something? He will help as much as he can, even though sometimes it may not be overly obvious that he is helping.

“Hey Logan?” Virgil says from across the room, staring at his now soaked bedding. 

“Yes, Virgil?” Logan doesn’t look up from his computer as he sharply replies. For a moment Virgil wonders if this scheme was the best idea, it could fail horribly and Logan could be angry and refuse. But, the wheels were already in motion, his sheets were already wet, and there was no turning back.

“I fucked up.” He said plainly, watching as Logan’s head turned so fast to look at him that he was surprised that he didn’t hear a crack. Realizing how ominous his statement was, Virgil raised his hands and quickly spat out a placating “No it’s okay i’m fine!”

Logan let out a sigh before replying “What did you manage to do that was so dramatic that it required that statement, while I was sitting in the same room, only a handful of feet away from you?”

“Well…” Virgil started, choosing his words very carefully to make sure his plan could not fail. “I was panicking a little bit while I was drinking my Capri Sun and I squeezed it a little bit too hard. It spilled on my sheets and my bed is soaked now.” 

Logan’s eyes assessed Virgil, making him momentarily wonder if his lie was believable. Did his dishonesty show on his face? Was Logan about to get angry and yell at him? His hands began to shake slightly and his breathing picked up and, he thought wryly, at least now he wasn’t lying about being anxious. His fears were eased when he saw the slight softening of Logan’s face. 

“Oh Virgil,” Logan huffed out, his face morphing into an expression of fond exasperation, “You need to stop having drinks in your bed, especially ones of the extremely spillable and sugary type.”

Virgil shrugged, “It is what it is, you know?”

“It does not have to be the way that it is?” Logan said with a hint of confusion sneaking into his voice. “You can very easily change the circumstance.”

A small chuckle escaped from Virgil as he watched his roommate struggle to wrap his head around the statement. Logan was extremely smart, that was obvious, but watching him puzzle out modern slang and sayings struck Virgil as endearing every time. “It’s too late to change it now, you know?”

“You are correct.” Logan intoned and Virgil could already see some of the tension leaving Logan’s shoulders as he began to relax during the conversation. “Do you have a plan for drying your bedding before it is time for you to sleep?”

“Not at all.” Virgil said as he absentmindedly brought his hand to his mouth to bite his nails, but stopped as Logan let out a soft click of his tongue as a reprimand. As he lowered his hand, he absent-mindedly wondered if Logan was even aware that he had made the sound. Either way, Virgil found it incredibly sweet. “I’ll probably just sleep on the floor. My pillow is dry.”

Virgil made a show of picking up his pillow and feeling around for a dry blanket so that he could make a temporary bed on the floor, however, he was quickly interrupted.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Logan scolded lightly, “You can sleep in my bed. I will be up for a significant while longer doing work, it is no problem at all.”

Everything was falling into place for Virgil and he had to resist the urge to steeple his fingers together like a Bond villain. But his work was not finished, there was still one more task- Get Logan In The Bed.

“Dude no!” He exclaimed, “I’m not taking your bed! You’ve gotta sleep at some point!”

“Virgil,” Logan sighed, “I have a lot of work to do that I need to get done soon. I was actually planning to get up and pour myself some more coffee.”

Shit. If Logan got caffeine into his system, it was game over. His plan would fail and he would just be in Logan’s bed, and while that wouldn’t be the worst thing, it was not the plan. Panicking, he blurted out a quick “No!”

“No?” Logan said with a raised eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

‘Now or never’ Virgil thought to himself, before delivering the line that had inspired the whole plot.

“I wouldn’t feel okay with taking your bed, just in case you decided to sleep. Could we just share for the night?”

Logan looked puzzled, “I suppose, but I have already told you that I am not necessarily planning on sleeping tonight.”

“I know but.. I would feel bad.” Virgil said, his anxiety rising now that he was this far into the plan and there was truly no turning back. “Could you just… Would you just lay down for a minute? It would make me feel better.”

Judging by Logan’s expression, Virgil was convinced that he had lost Logan. His plan had failed and he felt a burn of shame in his chest, clenching his eyes shut. God he was so stupid! He should have just refused the offer to take Logan’s bed and slept on the floor! He should have not even tried this stupid plan! Virgil had not noticed his breathing picking up and his fingernails burying themselves into his palms as his thoughts spiraled into a pit of anxiety. He had not noticed until Logan’s voice washed over him.

“Virgil?” He said, somehow both softly and with authority. “Name five things you can see.” Virgil pried his eyes open, not really remembering when he had closed them. “Bed. Computer. Shoes. Water bottle. Posters.”

Logan nodded his head, with a small smile. “You are doing very well. Now four things you can touch.”

“Uhhh…” Virgil hesitated, eyes darting to Logan, “Sheets. Pants. My hair. Wet blanket.”

“Good job. Three things that you can hear now.” 

“Your voice. The air conditioner. Our obnoxious neighbors.” His breathing had started to slow and he could feel his body relaxing.

“Two things you can smell, you’re almost there.”

“Capri sun from my sheets and your disgusting coffee.”

“Last thing, one thing you can taste.” 

“Toothpaste.” With his breathing regulated and feeling calmer, Virgil smiled wryly back at Logan. “I’m sorry. That was… sudden.”

“You are perfectly fine. I have reassured you multiple times that I do not mind helping you.” Logan said soothingly. “Why don’t we go lay down? You are typically quite tired after these events.”

“Yeah… that sounds good.” Virgil said as he stood to move to Logan’s bed, straightening his sleep pants and he went. “Do… are you going to lay down too?”

Logan hummed, walking to his laptop to shut the lid, as well as flipping the main lights in the room off.  “Yes I suppose that I can for a moment. Just to assure you that I do not mind that you are in my bed.”

Virgil lifted the sheets of the bed and crawled under, scooting over so that he was next to the wall, leaving space for Logan to enter. “Alright. I promise I won’t keep you too long.”

“Well.” Logan said as he joined Virgil under the sheets, “I, in all honesty, could use the sleep.”

Virgil smiled at Logan with a soft “Good night then.”

“Good night Virgil.” Logan whispered, reaching up to turn off the light next to his bed, plunging them both into darkness.

The next time Virgil opened his eyes, the sun was shining through the window of the room and his head was resting on Logan’s shoulder. One of Logan’s strong arms was wrapped across Virgil and Virgil could hear Logan’s soft breathing against his ear.

Slowly reaching into his pocket so as to not disturb Logan, Virgil pulled out his cellphone, which was at 9%, and quickly snapped a picture before sending it to Remy with a simple caption.

“Mission accomplished.”

 (And that is the end! Feedback is very appreciated!)

[lovelivingmydreams]

Oooh. Oh my. Prince is a little upset it seems. Virgil does not mind.

He glanced at the tug pointing a gun at him. “Doll?” he asked unimpressed, wielding sass as his only weapon. “A pretty thing like you? Seems fitting. We gotta chat, Doll,” the tug said. Emphasizing the ‘petname’ but it held nothing of the endearment Virgil had used when he referred to his fan as such. “I’m not carrying any cash and my phone is crap. Sorry,” he stated. “And I’ve been looking at far scarier weapons than that Walmart piece of junk just in the past week so I’m sorry but I don’t scare that easily,” he added for good measure. “You might not. But we don’t need you to be scared,” the tug smirked as three others surrounded him slowly, acting very casual. The tug with the gun was standing in an alley a bit out of sight of the main road. Virgil was not going to let them drive him into that alley. Being somewhat in sight of other people was the safest option right now. “One of our palls got into some trouble recently. We think you can help us help him out,” the main guy explained. “Maybe. But I don’t wanna,” Virgil stated. It didn’t take a genius to follow the logic of this guy. Remy had probably played some part in the arrest and they thought that if they went after the seemingly powerless baby brother they’d have an easier time than the dream walking, nightmare wielding detective. “Still you’re gonna,” mr boss man insisted. “You do know that threatening me hasn’t worked out that well for anyone lately right?” Virgil asked. The tugs chuckled. “We checked. Your hero isn’t at his best today. You must’ve tapped him out or something,” one of the underlings grinned.

Virgil felt a little twist in his stomach. Could that happen? Prince had shown off a whole bunch of powers over the past 6 months, hence why Logan was so interested in him. He seemed to be unbound by the rules everyone believed there to be for powers. But logically speaking, there had to be a drawback, a consequence for all that. Prince had never seemed as formidable as he showed himself to be the past month, especially ever since ShockWave showed up. Virgil had told Janus that ShockWave should’ve taken Prince in account, but in truth even if he had, no one had known Prince could summon a storm into himself. Did prince have a fuel tank that could run out if he used powerful abilities? Had Virgil’s bad luck pushed him to his limit? “Damsel dear, dare not doubt me,” Virgil and his would be captors looked up into the alley where Prince stood above them on the fire escape all heroically. “your knight is here, and I shall set you free. You fiends messed with the wrong daring gent, I just so happen to have some anger to vent.” With that Prince clenched the hand he’d been waving around theatrically, but not without purpose it would seem. The underlings and the weapon were joinked off the ground with force and the leader was left trembling and alone. “No. You weren’t even using any powers today. You were weak!” he insisted. Prince floated down, his eyes locked onto his target. “I had no need, my adventures were rather tame. But for this dashing deed, my power burns like a solar flame,” Prince growled picking the tug up and hanging him by his jacket from the bottom of the fire escape.

“Consider yourself lucky indeed, I must play it by the book. But if for any reason I feel the need, I’ll gladly give you my right hook,” Prince huffed, making the leader whimper and shut his mouth wisely. With all the bad guys subdued, Prince turned to Virgil, floating just a little higher than him, with a rather annoyed frown. “What is it with you? Honestly, Are you doing this on purpose?!” he demanded. Virgil was a bit flustered and annoyed that he had been jinxing it after all. He leaned against the nearest wall, crossing his arms and looking away. “Of course not,” he huffed defensively. Prince took a deep breath. “I know. I know you don’t but seriously. Avoid the shady alleys at least or something. I am not blaming you but if I hadn’t happened to check this neighborhood…” he continued, still upset with him evidently. Virgil was truly annoyed now. “Bite me,” he hissed. Suddenly he heard a hand hit the wall beside him and Prince was towering over him. “Be careful Princess,” Virgil felt a shiver run over his spine, a pleasant one. “Or I just might,” the hero added, his eyes burning with a genuine worried furry. Holly… Was he into this? What the hell? Prince studied his face and suddenly realization and amusement flashed through his eyes.

Then he gave him some space. “I have to wait for the cops. Do you want to wait to or do you have somewhere to be?” he asked with a knowing grin. Oh frick. Part of Virgil wanted a lift, sure. Prince’s arms were not an entirely unpleasant place to hang out. He was very fit underneath that costume. Maybe he shouldn’t though… “Nah I uh. I’m not that far rom my place. I’ll be fine,” he explained, hoping he succeeded in hiding his blush. “Well, until next time then… Princess,” Prince grinned a bit mischievously. What was up with him trying to get to him all of a sudden? “Yeah, bye princey. Thanks again,” Virgil muttered as he walked away, trying to cool down. Okay so he was somewhat attracted to a mostly faceless hero. Big deal. He’d seen the fanpage. Many people thought he was dreamy and ever since people saw that he’d been holding back all this time and was capable of far more than they thought, that number of simps had gone way up. The fan section had been given a rating system to keep it safe for younger fans. At this rate this website was going to teach him a lot more about web design than his professor had. He’d had to skip ahead in the syllabus and even look up some stuff himself just to get it up and running. Downside of a big city commissioned project he supposed. Virgil found himself in front of his dorm, feeling a little nervous. He didn’t feel like lying to Roman about the whole thing, but he was also not very excited to admit that he’d gotten in trouble again. Well… Standing here was not going to change anything about the situation.

Virgil let himself in. “I’m home,” he called out a little nervous. “Virgil? You okay buddy?” Roman asked from the couch with Nox on his lap. “Um… Yeah. Fine just… A very quick little hold up after therapy, nothing major all things considered,” he muttered. Roman quirked a brow. “In short you jinxed it,” he concluded. Virgil nodded. “Learned my lesson. Not that I believe that my overconfidence changed anything but it’s more embarrassing when it happens after making it into a big thing,” he admitted. Roman chuckled. “I was thinking on ordering in. I’m in the mood for some pizza,” he offered. Virgil nodded. “Sounds good,” he agreed as he settled in and gave Nox, who was settled in Roman’s lap, a few pets. “How was therapy?” Roman mused. “Oh really good.” I decided I can trust you. “Remy and Emile are finally going on a date I think. Might get a family discount out of it,” he jested. Though he wasn’t sure if there were rules about dating your patients brother. Virgil still felt comfortable talking to Emil, but maybe it wasn’t allowed… Eh. Worries for later. “Well that’s nice for them,” Roman stated. “Yeah, maybe Remy will get off my back from now on,” Virgil mused hopefully. “Fingers crossed,” Roman nodded. “And I assume you saw your dashing prince today?” he teased. Virgil blushed a little but hoped it didn’t show that hard and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, Poetry Prince showed up again,” he confirmed as he got up. “I’m going to record for an update tomorrow. I think you’ll get a kick out of it,” Virgil announced. Roman took the hint and dropped the topic. “Looking forward to it,” he called after him as Virgil headed to his room and got settled in his closet.

He had two things prepared for today. Two Prince stories as it happened, considering it had been so well received on stream. One intense battle fic where the civilian ended up patching Prince up after he narrowly defeated the badguy, or so Virgil guessed from the tags. He thought it would be fun to have some surprises. The second was one pretty much written about the escaped from a fairytale theory he and Roman had put on the website as a joke. It had a name reveal and everything. Rated spicey. So that would definitely be fun. He made sure everything looked in order and pressed record. Once he set up the video to be published the next day he left his room and met up with Roman for pizza and movie. Once the endcredits of their third disneyflick played Roman rose up and stretched. “I’m heading to bed,” he hummed as he approached Virgil and knelt down, slowly, to give Nox some scritches. “Goodnight princess,” he muttered lowly, making Virgil stiffen in surprise. What did he just? “Night Virgil,” Roman added as he got up and headed for his bed. Oh… Oh of course. He was talking to Nox. Why would he call Virgil princess of all things… Wait… Did he want Roman to… Nah… Tired. Still a bit all over the place because of the prince induced gay panic. Bed. Bed now.

When he woke up the next morning he got a text from Remy. “We are going on a date. What do I do!?” Virgil rolled his eyes and got up as he texted him back. “And you are asking me for advice? Do I have to remind you why I’ve never been on a date before?” he texted as he caught sight of Roman sipping on a cup of tea as he petted Nox on his lap at the dining table. “Hold on a sec,” he added. “Hey Roman. Where would you go on a first date?” he wondered, causing Roman to jerk and nearly spill his tea, sending Nox running due to the sudden disturbance of his peace. He must’ve not noticed him coming in. “W- Why do you ask?” he wondered flustered as he put down his tea. Virgil showed his phone. “Remy needs advice and I have zero experience on the subject,” he explained. “Oh… I see. Well… Um… Sure. I’ll help. Just… Give me a moment to get dressed and stuff,” his roommate muttered as he got up and headed to the bathroom. Virgil texted Remy. “Come over, we’ll have a dating intervention.” Virgil knew it wouldn’t take long. Remy might be able to hop from dream to dream and be here in like 10 minutes. It was 8 in the morning on a Sunday after all. There should be plenty people still asleep. Wanting to get as much amusement out of his brother’s situation as he could, and genuinely wanting to cover all his bases, he invited Logan over as well Remus and Patton. He’d gotten their numbers last time they hung out together. He texted Remus last, which was a good because his power went off right after it showed up as read, prompting him to guess that Remus might be using a shortcut through his phone. When his phone started glitching and showing images that looked like they might be crime scene pictures of some of his murder mystery stories he put it down on the table just in time for a demonic entity to crawl out of his screen with a sadistic grin, only to turn into Remus the moment he fully left the device.

“Hya. What’s this about a dating emergency?” Remus wondered intrigued. “My brother asked Patton’s brother out, finally. But I never went on a date so we’re going to put our heads together to help him out,” Virgil explained. “Patton and Logan are going to come by too. Not sure when they’ll get here. Logan usually gets an early start on the day no matter what, so he might be up. And if Patton doesn’t need to work the counter this morning he might be on his way as well,” Virgil reasoned. “Oh, this is going to be fun,” Remus grinned in a way that made Virgil wonder if he should have invited him. “Remus? You’re here too?” Roman wondered as he stepped out of the bathroom now dressed in jeans and a mickey shirt. “Why yes brother dear. The more the merrier after all,” Remus stated as he dropped himself on the couch. “Well I haven’t had breakfast yet and I know Virgil hasn’t eaten either. So I’m going to make grilled cheese sandwiches,” Roman announced. “Sounds good. I’m getting dressed real quick and I’ll be right back,” Virgil assured them as he ducked inside his room to get his hoodie, some jeans and a Cheshire cat shirt before rushing to the shower. When he came out with his contact in (he wasn’t ready for Patton or Remus to comment on it) Remy, Patton and Logan had arrived.

“Good. Everyone’s here. So as I mentioned in my text. My big brother grew a pair and asked Emil out,” he explained as he sat down at the breakfast table where a plate was set aside for him. Roman was sitting in his own spot, his breakfast already almost finished. Patton nodded with a smile. “I heard something like that from Emil last night,” he confirmed with a twinkle in his eyes. “Since neither of us have any idea of what we are doing I figured that at least one of you should be somewhat helpful. And together we might actually scrape together some decent advice,” he explained. “Virgil may I remind you that my experience with ‘romance’ is almost exclusively through the witness accounts of animals?” Logan argued. Virgil nodded. “Yeah, but that’s why you are a neutral party. You are the brain here. Just in case the rest of us get carried away,” he pointed out. Logan nodded thoughtfully and pulled out his phone. To do research no doubt. “Well… If no one else has a reason they feel they shouldn’t be included in this discussion…” It was silent, though Roman glanced at his brother with suspicion while Remus was just grinning from ear to ear. Virgil knew that Remus would probably bring lewd humor in the mix but he wanted to cover all bases.

“Good. Roman. Let’s start with you. Any advice?” Virgil wondered, though he wasn’t entirely certain if his roommate was experienced. He’d guess he was. There was no way this guy could have had trouble landing dates if he wanted. Roman blushed. “Well… I only really dated one person before…” he admitted. “That’s one more than either of us,” Virgil stated gesturing between himself and his brother. “Go on,” he encouraged. Roman nodded. “Well… On our first date I made sure to make it about them. So I made us a picnic with their favorites and we went to a museum exhibit I knew they’d like. And I took their cues on handholding and stuff. I think I did well. I mean we went on a second date and even stayed together for a little under a year or so after that?” he shrugged. Remus snorted, earning a jab from Roman. “What? They were so not your type. It was hilarious,” Remus teased. Judging by the way Patton’s mouth pulled into a little smile despite his attempts at not laughing he wasn’t exaggerating. “But you were the perfect boyfriend that’s for sure. Even got yourselves couple of the year nominations for the yearbook.” “What’s important, in my experience,” Roman continued with a  glare to his brother before turning to Remy. “Is being open to their needs. I’ll admit that I overdid that part at times. It should definitely be a two way street. But show that it’s important to you that he’s comfortable,” he concluded. Remy nodded. “Okay. That sounds very basic… But the basics are where things tend to go wrong the most,” he admitted. Virgil meanwhile was thinking about all that Roman had said.

“Well you got the ultimate cheat code. You have a catalogue full of the coolest gifts,” he pointed out, remembering how Remy would pull out Virgil’s favorite ice cream whenever he’d have a really bad day back when he was little. “How so?” Patton wondered. Remy summoned his see through catalogue as he stared at Patton through his shades. “Page 14…. Item 6. Teddybear,” he stated and in place of the catalogue appeared a teddy that made Patton squeal. He grabbed the stuffed animal and hugged it tight. “I lost this guy in the move ages ago! Where did you get it!?” he wondered. “A dream of a kid who saw something,” Remy shrugged. “Got lucky with my pick,” he admitted. “How long does he stay?” Patton wondered hugging the bear tighter. “Since it’s so important to you. Forever,” Remy stated letting out a yawn. “Oh, oh that’s perfect. Emil will love it so much!” Patton squealed. “Don’t overdo it though. Don’t wanna fall asleep 10 minutes into the date,” Virgil warned. Remy got a dopey grin on his face. “Maybe he’ll let me rest my head in his lap,” he mused. “Near his gun?” Remus wondered with a wicked grin. “Good choice. I like you. Wanna… Practice before you get boring and domestic?” he wondered suggestively before getting a hit over the head from Roman. “Emil doesn’t have a gun,” Patton offered helpfully, making Remus snicker.

Suddenly Patton jumped up and looked at his phone. “Oh look at that. Seems Emil wants to have a similar chat with me. Any advice I should give him?” Patton grinned helpfully as he picked up his jacket to leave. “So long as he is his adorable self? I don’t care,” Remy told him. Patton giggled. “Well… Since you were so honest. Emil has mentioned you. And he loves how sincere and sassy you are. So keep being sincere, don’t be afraid to make it fun. You’ll do great,” he advised before heading out. Prompting Roman to open his bedroom door so Nox could move about again.

“Well. I guess it’s time I bestow my wisdom,” Remus declared. “Please don’t,” Roman muttered under his breath as he leaned against the wall. “I have beckoned many a hottie to my bed. So if you wanna get laid, I’d be the best to ask.” Roman groaned. “Remy isn’t looking for a hookup Remus,” he insisted. “Well. Same basics apply,” Remus argued. “Don’t get too eager. No matter how hot he is, be on guard for red flags. And that’s not just for abusive bastards. I mean your personal red flags. To me that means anything that shows they hope for more than a hook up and a few very specific turn offs. Instant block. You figure out what makes you go ‘ew no’. You want it to be long term? Make sure he’s someone you can stand to be with long term. Or whatever,” Remus explained, leaving them all speechless. “That was… Surprisingly good advice. And not overly R rated,” Roman concluded. “Well I only give good advice bro. And I keep the R rated stuff to annoy you,” Remus grinned. “So far all advice seems to be in line with what I found,” Logan joined in, still looking at his phone. “I would like to add that, when it comes to the location of the date, it seems to be advisable to try something new together so you are on equal ground, allowed to be vulnerable and find common ground. Those seem to be the pillars of a strong foundation for a new relationship,” Logan read out.

Remus jumped up. “I got the perfect place!” he exclaimed. Roman nodded. “That actually might work,” he agreed. “What might?” Remy wondered nervously. “I work at the Bounty Hall!” Remus announced. Virgil’s eyes widened. He’d heard about that place. “The escape room complex?” Remy asked. Remus nodded and wrapped his arm around him. “I’ll give you a tour and you can pick out your fav. I’ll see you there in an hour,” he grinned before jumping into the tv. “Off to terrorize his roommate,” Roman sighed. “I assume my services aren’t needed anymore either?” Logan surmised as he looked at the screen Remus left through with interest. It seemed he had a new powerset he might want to run tests on. “Yeah, thanks for coming so early Lo,” Virgil said sincerely. Logan nodded. “It is no problem. It is always pleasant to spend time with you Virgil. And I find I do not mind the companionship of your new friends either. A good day,” he bid before leaving. “Well… Guess I’ll get proper breakfast and plan a date,” Remy mused. “See ya later BB. Roman,” he nodded before leaving as well. “And then there were two,” Roman concluded, pushing off against the wall and cleaning up the plates. “Yep. Plans for today?” Virgil wondered. “Clean up and then there is a certain youtuber who uploaded a new video,” Roman grinned. Virgil chuckled. “Are you sure you can handle it darling?” he wondered dangerously. Roman stuck out his tongue and moved to the kitchen. “By the way, RavenKnight was apparently spotted yesterday. There’s a tweet with a ton of traction going around,” he announced as he started washing the dishes.

Virgil checked his Raven Twitter page and found that Roman was right. The fan had tweeted about meeting him and linked the audio file and fans were loving it. She didn’t give details no where and when. Just that he was nice. “Cool,” he noted as he picked up a towel and helped drying the dishes. They settled into the couch and Roman pulled out his phone to listen to the newest update while Virgil updated the website with the pictures and the article ‘Billy Baker’ had supplied. Occasionally he glanced up and was happy to notice that Roman seemed to be enjoying the Prince stories. When asked about it he’d been pretty positive but in a casual way. Virgil was guessing that he’d downplayed it. It was a few little things. Something in the way he wrote about him. And how Patton had chosen Roman’s favorite cupcake flavor for the Prince themed pastry. Why hide that he was a fan though? Virgil could come up with a few reasons…

Suddenly he looked up and he saw that Roman was no longer listening and no longer in a good mood. What? “Hey,” he said as he nudged him with his foot. “What’s with the sudden mood.” “Ethos? Really?” Roman asked almost insulted. Virgil frowned. Ethos had been the name the writer had picked for Poetry Prince. “Prince’s name?” he asked. Roman scoffed and rolled his eyes. “His name is Not Ethos,” he grumbled. Virgil frowned. “How would you… Wait…” Roman’s eyes widened and the blush on his face confirmed his suspicion basically. “You are one of those headcannon stans aren’t you?” he concluded. Roman became even redder. “I never let a hate comment I swear!” he pleaded. Virgil shook his head. “Dude, it’s fine if you are like crushing on him, I get that.” Roman would fall for a guy like Prince. “But not everyone’s going to have the same head cannons as you. If it bothers you that much, write your own stuff,” he suggested. Roman looked like he was about to argue, but then changed his mind. “Okay,” he nodded softly. “There crisis averted… By the way. Is it okay if I do another stream next week? I was thinking of making it a weekly thing,” he explained. Roman shrugged. “Sure. It doesn’t really bother me,” he stated. “I’ll bet it doesn’t,” Virgil grinned teasingly getting a pillow to the head.

He would love, love to say that the rest of the whole next week went by without a hitch. That the most drama he had was on his twitter page when he made the announcement of the weekly streams. It was not. But the pattern remained the same. Something potentially life threatening happened and Poetry Prince was there. He had forgiven him for the sass last time it seemed though he called him Princess at least once every encounter just to see if it still got to Virgil, it did. Virgil probably imagined that he was held a bit tighter to the hero’s chest when he did that though. But speaking of strong arms… Wednesday brought something… Interesting. Virgil came home to find the twins playing Mario Kart. Roman was winning by a lot. The two were bantering as brothers do and when Remus lost he tossed the remote to the ground and cursed. Or Virgil thought he cursed. He wasn’t sure if what Remus said was even a language spoken on this planet though.

“That’s it. Push up contest! Now!” he demanded. Roman threw his head back and laughed. “If you want to get your but kicked again that bad,” he allowed as he looked up. “Want to join us Virgil?” he wondered as he got up and took off his revealing a sleeveless shirt. Virgil shook his head as he leaned against the dinner table to watch the twins get ready to have their contest in the space between the table and the door. Roman right in front of Virgil. “No. My max is like, 5,” he admitted. “Fine, you can look and make sure Ro doesn’t cheat,” Remus grins with a wink. Had he noticed Virgil liked to appreciate Roman’s physique? “Sure,” Virgil shrugged as though he didn’t care much. “Um… Ready? Set. Go!” he said. And with that the twins started doing push ups in perfect synchrony. Virgil was not opposed to getting a good look at Roman’s arms straining under the exercise. They got up to 10. 20. 30. A mind blowing 40. Remus capped off at an impressive 50. Roman did not let himself stop before he got to 60 though. Sweat dripping of his forehead and his chest heaving with exhaustion. But a grin on his face as though he just won Olympic gold. “Face it Rem. I’m the man,” he told his brother. “You’re the ass,” Remus countered. “Right Virgie?” Virgil tried not to show just how much he’d enjoyed watching that. “You’re both in way better shape than me,” he muttered, making the brothers laugh. Virgil might have dreamt about Roman carrying him that night. He just might be able to.

There was still no sign of ShockWave and the public started to think that he’d taken the L. But Virgil and pretty much anyone in his direct surroundings felt it was calm before the storm. “Should I walk you home?” Adam wondered on Friday. One of the reasons they’d initially planned to room together was because they were getting the same major. Adam was the opposite of the classic computer nerd stereotype in other ways than Virgil was. He was like over a head taller than Virgil. Broad shoulders and big buff muscles. Not a bodybuilder but well past athletic which had Virgil’s personal preference. The muscles were a fairly recent development. In highschool he’d stuck to Virgil and Logan to hide from bullies. When he met Eva, his girlfriend (yes everyone had made that joke), his confidence increased by a lot. And his muscles seemed to follow. “Hmmm… No it’s fine. I don’t want you to be caught in a crossfire if something does happen. I’ll be fine,” he promised. Adam hesitated, but nodded. “I’ll walk along a bit though. Need to go the same general direction for the dorms,” he explained. Virgil nodded in understanding. “So. Has Remus driven you mad yet?” Virgil wondered. Adam had gotten Remus in Roman’s stead due to the little mishap at the start of the year. “Honestly, aside from the entrances and the seducing… He’s a great roommate. Like he keeps things clean and he asks if it’s okay to bring someone over, and if I say no he’s quiet when he does get back. So I could have a worse roommate all things considered. He’s super respectful of me and Eva and gives us space. He checked in with her if she’s okay with his flirting. He never actually makes me uncomfortable… I’d almost consider taking him up on the offer. You know me and Eva are open about that stuff.” Virgil nodded. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to do that if he ever managed to get himself a boyfriend, but Eva and Adam managed to make an open relationship work. He was happy for them both.

“How bout you and Roman? Raising a kitten going okay?” Adam wondered. “He took her to Logan’s boss today for a check up and some shots. I assume he’s bought her a whole castle to make up for it,” Virgil chuckled. “That’s sweet. We should get together sometime. You know. I get to know my roomie’s brother and my buddy’s roomie. Roman gets to know his brother’s roomie. Could be fun. I can bring Eva along,” he explained. Virgil nodded. “Yeah. Might be. We’ll see,” he shrugged. “Cool. See ya Monday,” Adam waved as they split paths. Virgil waved back and headed home. Tomorrow was streaming day. Roman had settled in the livingroom this time, since he wasn’t hiding that he was listening along anymore. Also that way Nox had someone to pay attention to zir while Virgil was doing his thing. “Welcome again my darling chaos gremlins. It’s been a week, so I’m so glad to be here with you guys today. I see you guys have found my twitter and have been so lovely over there.” Messages flooded his inbox and he chuckled. “Oh wow, I see you are hoping for your own encounters with me in the wild. You’ll have to be lucky though,” he smirked. “Today will be a mix of Q&A, voice requests and yes, maybe a storytime at the end. A link should be up to a poll where I put up all the fics you requested that I felt I could do for you this week. If things go well I might plan a bit more time in for next week…” Virgil read the comments again and chuckled. “I don’t think I’d have to go as far as to be quite so… Extreme in keeping my roommate quite. He promised to be good.” Virgil assured his audience. “Well. Let’s get going with some Q&A. Shoot,” he said. Questions streamed in. Some a bit too personal for him to answer. Some he could do. He told them a bit about what got him in voice acting who his favorite characters were growing up. And then he spotted a ton about Roman. Well, if the people want it… “Hey! Dude! Come over for a minute. My audience is curious about you,” Virgil announced. He heard some stumbling in the distance and then his closet door opened. “Welcome back to the closet my friend,” he grinned as Roman found a spot next to him. “It’s much cozier than I thought it would be… Um, hi everyone. Call me… Dove,” Roman said. “Gaaay!” Virgil laughed. “Why very astute Raven. What gave me away?” his roomie wondered. “Literally everything about you,” Virgil said. Roman shook his head and chuckled. “See what I have to put up with?” he asked the chat. Immediately getting support. Virgil chuckled. Deciding to win back his audience. “Two bro’s sitting in the voice room, no feet apart cuz they’re both gay,” he sang. “You’ll regret that,” Roman announced. Virgil rolled. “Why? What are they gonna do?” he scoffed. “I warned you about jinxes.” Roman said ominously. Virgil felt like he might regret that one indeed.

@just-my-interpretation @naturallyunstablegamer @meowthefluffy @moonlightshow00 @frida0043 @angelic-cali @selenechris @theblackveilinreverse

Raven poetry

Chapter 9: Jinx

First chapter | Previous

[kuroopaisen]

heart attack || bokuto koutarou

➵ your hot roommate likes to walk around without his shirt on. 

wc: 2.8k

warnings: implied f!reader, swearing, pure chaos

a/n: @stelleum jac darling, happy birthday! i tried writing you shipfic but i chickened out and wrote this instead (mayhaps i’ll finish the bkak fic one day, but for now it will sit in my drafts hh). i’ve already wished you a happy birthday so i won’t write you an essay here (although i’m fully capable of it), but i love you, and i’m so grateful to be counted amongst your friends. you bring such light and laughter with you, and i honestly feel like i’ve learnt a lot from being your friend. i hope you find this fic delightfully chaotic (just like you), and that it manages to make you smile a little -- you deserve nothing less (also big shout out to remy and ren for reading over this disaster fdsljk)

“he’s doing it again.”

“huh?” oikawa’s voice crackles from the other end of the phone.

“he’s walking around the house shirtless.”

it takes oikawa a few seconds to catch up. “oh, right. your hot roommate.”

you two have had this conversation many a time over the past two weeks. you’d quickly surmised that bokuto koutarou would be the death of you. probably by heart attack. oikawa had found that idea stupid.

“what do i do?” you ask, chewing on your lip.

“you could always ask him out.”

you scoff at the absolute certainty in his voice. “how dare you assume i wouldn’t shrivel up and die if i so much as attempted that?”

you don’t need to see your best friend to know he’s rolling his eyes at you. “why would you shrivel up and die?”

“what if he says no?”

“he’s not going to say no.”

“but he could.”

“you’re hot, it’ll be fine.”

“but you haven’t seen him, tooru,” you huff, waving off his assurances like they’re nothing. “pictures don’t do him justice.”

“i can’t believe you’re an adult…” oikawa sighs.

“you’re one to talk.”

“at least i can talk to people i find attractive,” he grumbles.

“he’s going to be a professional volleyball player,” you stress. “you know what they’re built like.”

“you were friends with us all throughout high school, and yet i don’t remember you ever talking about any of us like this.”

“the only one of you worth talking about is iwaizumi.”

a moment of silence. “that’s fair.”

“anyway, that’s all besides the point,” you grumble.

“do the other guys know about this?” he asks. you don’t like the playfulness in his voice.

“as a matter of fact, they don’t.”

“why not?”

“if i told them, they’d meddle,” you stress. “directly.”

“you can’t stop me from telling them.” you can tell from his voice that he’s grinning.

“i’ll block your number and never speak to you again.”

oikawa doesn’t need time to decide that it’s a viable and realistic threat.

“wait, are you hiding in your room again?” he asks.

“duh.” you roll your eyes. “i wouldn’t be talking about this in the living room, would i?”

---

meanwhile, bokuto’s sitting on the couch, quite shirtless as he twiddles his thumbs.

when kuroo had first told him that the best way to win his roommate’s heart was to ‘just walk around shirtless,’ bokuto had been a bit doubtful.

of course, kuroo hadn’t won the heart of his partner by walking around shirtless, but boukto was loath to completely disregard his friend’s advice. he does, after all, have a partner, so perhaps following his advice isn’t the worst idea.

but you’d scurried into your room almost immediately upon catching sight of him, and bokuto fears that he’s frightened you.

he likes to consider you friends. sometimes you’ll watch movies with him -- on occasion, you’ll even commit to a full anime series (even though he needs you to explain what’s actually going on half the time) -- and there’s a certain ease of conversation between the two of you. in his mind, it’s only natural that he should develop a little bit of a crush. 

unfortunately that line of common sense didn’t follow through to the next step of actually asking you out. 

---

your sheer embarrassment goes head-to-head with your insatiable hunger and loses.

you peek through a crack in your door, trying to ensure that the hallway was clear. perhaps you could survive seeing him in the front room, but an encounter in your cramped little hallway was bound to end in humiliation.

you manage to skitter into the kitchen quietly, every one of your senses on high alert for the enemy (see: bokuto koutarou’s god-like body). 

you spy the back of his head on the couch from your new vantage point. if you’re quiet enough, chances are he won’t notice that you’re in the kitchen. if the universe really gave a damn about you, then it would let you be invisible for a few seconds. 

“hey!” bokuto calls from the couch, holding a hand up.

“hey,” you mumble as you make an active effort not to look at him. damn him and his masterfully sculpted biceps. they’re almost enough to make iwaizumi jealous. almost.

you dash over to your pantry, opening it up and rifling through a couple shelves. you don’t have the mental or emotional fortitude to stand around and cook a proper meal right now, so the next best thing is instant ramen.

“whatcha looking for?”

you almost shed your skin in fright.

there’s a warmth hovering over you, and you’re far too aware of what it is.

“something to eat.” you can only hope that those words came out legibly.

“oh, yeah, there’s not really much,” he shrugs, tilting his head at you.

you’re still not looking at him. has he done something wrong?

“ah,” is all you can muster in response.

“did you want to order in?” bokuto asks, a certain lightness to his voice. it’s similar to the tone he uses when he wants to pick what you guys watch on a saturday night.

“uh—” oh no. “i—i don’t—um—”

what are you trying to say? you don’t know. bokuto has no chance of deciphering it.

but, he simply beams at you. “i’ll pay!”

sure, he has more money in his bank than you could ever dream of having – damn professional athletes and their egregious pay checks – but you still don’t want him to pay for you.  

“it’s okay,” you manage to say, holding up a hand to wave it off. 

you don’t expect him to take said hand. 

“please, let me treat you,” he grins. “as a thanks for helping me out with the bills last week.”

ah. that’s right. bokuto may be a sports star in the making, but he’s horribly lacking in the common sense most people rely on to make it through the day. 

“okay.” 

it’s very hard to say no to him when he’s looking at you like that, with his golden eyes all big and round and his fluffy hair falling around his face. damn him. 

you let him fiddle away with one of the delivery apps – you admittedly aren’t paying much attention to what he’s ordering – and entertain yourself with the bare walls of your kitchen. 

maybe you could sneak back to your room until dinner came? 

“how was your day?” bokuto asks brightly, effectively trapping you in a conversation. 

shit. 

“uh– fine?” you swallow. “my lectures felt like they wouldn’t end, but i survived.” 

“good thing you did,” he beams, tilting his head at you. 

you blush, trying to ignore just how handsome he is. “how was practice?” 

sure, you want to turn your tail and run, but you really don’t want to hurt his feelings. 

“it was good!” he grins. “tsum-tsum’s been less annoyed with me recently!”

“oh, that’s great!” you mean it. from what you’ve heard about his team, this ‘tsum-tsum’ seems like he’s the sort of person who’s hard to keep up with. 

“he almost gave me a compliment today,” bokuto said, voice brimming with pride. 

“really?” ‘tsum-tsum’ doesn’t seem like the type to give compliments, but bokuto always has a way of seeing the best in things. 

“yeah! he said my cross-court shot wasn’t half-bad!” 

you’re not quite sure if that counts as a compliment, but you won’t pop his bubble. 

“and omi didn’t flinch as much when i patted him on the back, either,” bokuto nods. 

“do you still use that hand sanitiser i gave you?” it had been a mindless little gift, one you’d bought after finding out he works with a germaphobe, but you are curious nonetheless. 

“of course!” bokuto nods enthusiastically. “it’s my lucky charm.” 

your breath catches in your throat. does he not understand what saying something like that could do to a person? especially when it’s coming from the world’s best himbo? what are you even supposed to say to that?

for the first time today, the universe takes pity on you. 

there’s a loud knock on the door. 

bokuto perks up. “i’ll get it!” 

“wait!” you call out instinctively.

bokuto pouts at you over his shoulder, frozen mid-stride.

“you’re shirtless.”

bokuto blinks at you for a moment. “is that a problem?”

three more brain cells stop fighting the good fight and perish. “no?” you frown. “yes?” he’s staring at you. “maybe?”

he’s still staring, a unique concoction of confusion, earnestness and disappointment in his eyes.

“it’s… a lot,” is all you manage to sew together.

“a lot?”

“you’re… a lot.”

“i’m a lot?” bokuto looks like he doesn’t know whether he should be upset by that statement or not.

“yes… muscles.” it’s official. you want to die. there’s no coming back from this.

bokuto glances down at his chest for a moment, a perplexed expression on his face. well, he is beefier than most, and none of his teammates are quite as built…

“just let me get it,” you breathe, well-aware of just how red your face is. after what is bound to be a horribly awkward dinner, you’d need to hop online and look for a new place to live.

you take a deep breath as you open the door, hoping, praying that this exchange, at least, would go smoothly.

you freeze as you look at the delivery boy’s face.

no way.

“holy shit,” makki grins, eyes crinkled and red cap slightly askew.

“no.” this is the last thing you need right now.

“this is where you live?” he asks, trying to pop his head through the doorway.

“uh—” you push him back instinctively, mustering up all your strength to budge the headstrong six foot asshole currently trying to force his way into your apartment.

he freezes, and you know the worst has happened.

“is that your roommate?” he asks, taking a step back with an infuriating grin on his face. “or are you getting some?”

“oh my god makki, i’m going to—”

“do you know this guy?” bokuto’s suddenly behind you, hands clasped behind his back and head tilted to the side.

“unfortunately,” you mumble, trying to keep your expression as neutral as possible. if makki catches even a hint of weakness, he’d press at it relentlessly.

you look him up and down, frowning. “i thought you were working at a tech shop or something.”

he shrugs. “i lied.”

“why?”

“i dunno,” he says, as if lying about your part-time job is the most casual thing in the world. “it sounded more impressive than ‘delivery boy’.”

it’s not like you expected any more from him, but even this feels a little strange.

bokuto’s stomach grumbles from behind you. you remember that he’s right there – and makki’s staring at him.

“why is he shirtless?” makki tilts his head to the side. “who is he?”

“my roommate,” you admit through your teeth.

makki stares at him for a few seconds more, a smirk spreading across his face. “is this why you won’t let us come over to your apartment?”

change of plans. time to pencil in a murder for seven o’clock. after your scheduled self-implosion, which is bound to happen any moment now.

“give me my food.”

“not until you answer my question,” makki grins, holding the takeout bag above your head. damn him and his height.

you glare at him, fists clenched at your sides. “i won’t hesitate and you know it.”

the threat of a knee to the balls is usually enough to make any man quiver. but not makki.

“really?” he smirks. “in front of your hot roommate?”

“i’m going to kill you—”

“i can’t believe you’ve been keeping him from us,” makki tsks, holding out a hand to bokuto. “nice to meet you. i’m a friend from high school.”

bokuto shakes his hand tentatively, a bit behind on exactly what’s going on here.

“and you are?” maki asks, a disgustingly sweet smile on his face.

“bokuto.”

“nice,” makki nods, looking him up and down. you know this will be immediately reported in the group chat. you’re never going to live this down. and, makki now knows where you live. you expect that you’re going to get some unwanted visitors very, very soon.

“get out of here,” you grumble, taking full advantage of makki’s distracted gaze and grabbing the bag out of his hand.

“hey!”

“have a nice night!” you call, pushing him out of your doorway with one hand. “i’ll leave you a bad review!”

“no, don’t—”

the door slams in his face, and you feel like you can breathe properly for the first time in the past ten minutes.

that is until you remember that bokuto’s standing right behind you. 

“should we eat?” he asks, a little too close to your ear than you would like. 

you flinch, taking a step forward. your nose presses against your front door and you curse every conceivable deity that comes to mind. 

“yes,” you nod, lightly banging your head on the door. perhaps it’s what you deserve. 

“okay,” bokuto says slowly, as if he’s not sure about what to do next. “i’ll get some plates.” 

you take a moment to catch your breath. all you have to do is make it through, what? the next twenty minutes? surely you could manage that. surely. 

bokuto’s already over by the couch, two plates in hand, and still very, very shirtless. that’s the reason everything’s gone tits up today. because he wouldn’t constrain his pectorals behind a thin wall of blended cotton. 

but you sit yourself down on the couch after unpacking your food on the coffee table. you sit yourself down on the couch, unsure if you can find the strength to start eating. 

bokuto plops himself down next to you. it’s almost like he’s vibrating with excitement. why does he have to be so damn hot and cute?

the two of you sit on the couch in total silence. 

bokuto stares at you. you make a pointed effort to look anywhere that isn’t him. 

“are you okay?” he asks, a genuine pout on his face. 

“can you… can you put a shirt on?” it feels a bit like an admission, or some kind of surrender, but this has gone on too long. 

“oh, okay.” bokuto hops up, watching you for a moment before dashing off. 

once he’s out of sight, you sigh, resting your head in your hands. what is going on? when you’d gotten back from university, you hadn’t expected the day to go like this. 

bokuto reappears out the corner of your eye, now modestly covered with a white shirt. it’s almost worse, honestly – the shirt really compliments his tan. 

“are you okay!?” his voice pitches as he moves towards you, placing a hand on your back. 

you flinch, dropping your hands from your face and closing your eyes. “yeah, i just…” honestly it feels a bit like you’re in purgatory. but that might sound a little dark. “it’s just been a weird night.” 

“i’m sorry.” you can’t see bokuto’s frown, but you hear it in his voice. 

you finally brave a proper look at him. somehow, his hair looks more deflated than usual. 

“i’m sorry if i made you uncomfortable,” he specifies, rubbing the back of his neck. 

“uh–” you swallow roughly, unsure of where to go with this. “thanks? i guess?” 

bokuto pouts at you, his gaze flicking down to the floor. “i was just trying to impress you.” 

every single thought skids to a stop. what? what? he was walking around shirtless because he was trying to impress you? well, it worked, but he probably didn’t expect it to leave you speechless. 

“you… were trying to impress me?” the words feel strange coming from your mouth, but you manage to meet his eyes. 

“yeah,” he nods, his own cheeks darkening. it’s nice to know that the embarrassment isn’t one-sided. “my friend told me it was the best way to win you over.”

whoever this friend is, you intend to have a very stern word with them.

“you could just… ask me out,” you blink at him, unsure of how to proceed. 

“i could?”

“yeah?”

“would you have said yes?”

“i–” you clear your throat, breaking eye contact. “i guess?”

“so… that’s a yes?”

“yes?” 

bokuto stares at you, cheeks even redder than before and mouth slightly agape. 

“what?” you stare back at him. is he broken? has his brain finally given up too? 

“do you wanna go on a date?”

“i–” it’s your turn to have your mouth hang slightly agape. 

“please?” he asks, eyes going round and sad. 

“sure,” you blink. you? bokuto? a date? when? how? what–

“woo-hoo!” bokuto cheers, pumping his fists in the air. “alright!” 

oh man, this boy is definitely going to be the death of you. probably by heart attack. but, maybe that’s not the worst fate. 

[celestial-ringleader]

https://celestial-ringleader.tumblr.com/post/658246663116341248/mushroom-cookie-bears-send-me-a-character-and

Remy & Pietro??

@lucifers-favorite-child Buckle in y’all because this is gonna be a long one

Remy LeBeau:

favorite thing about them: So. Many. Things. I can’t decide on one so I’m just gonna list off my top three:

- His entire aesthetic is just so cool to me?? I love the idea of his character, just him being a thief (and an heir to an entire Guild on top of it) but I also like how he’s often seen as siren-like with how he can pull people in and smooth-talk his way out of almost anything. Also his eyes are so fucking cool idc what anyone else says. The black with red sclera is just so awesome.

- His powerset, omg people seriously underestimate what he’s capable of. Some think his power is just throwing explosive cards when it’s so much more than that. Like do you have any idea how useful it could be to manipulate energy?? He could literally make a moving object stop because he can just sap out the kinetic energy within it. On top of that he made a missile explode in Excalibur which I think was an interesting way of using his powers.  Also his goddamn reflexes are broken as all fuck, like he can sense a bullet coming even before anyone else notices it and dodge it perfectly. And if he’s quick enough he can hit it back at the person who shot at him. It’s fucking insane. And let’s not forget that in an alternate universe he was able to kill the Dark Phoenix and destroy his whole planet in a fit of his powers overloading. So.

- This is gonna be cheesy, but I love the way he talks. I like how no matter how much time has passed, he hasn’t changed how he speaks and is proud of it. Besides, his accent is just,,,so good.

least favorite thing about them: Aside from the moments where he’s characterized and portrayed poorly, I can’t think of anything.

favorite line: “I ain’t a thief, or an assassin. I’m an X-Man and I’m never comin’ back.” He said that to Belladonna in X-Men: The Animated Series and it stuck with me so much.

But also the line “You need ta get a life. Seriously.” is so good too. Just ANXF in general had a lot of good lines.

brOTP: Oh boy I have so many so I’m listing them off:

-Remy & Ororo Monroe

-Remy & Laura Kinney

-Remy & Anna-Marie (and before I get people asking, I personally don’t ship them romantically. Not saying no one else should, it’s just a personal preference.)

And some bonus crack brOTPs:

-Remy & Neena Thurman

-Remy & Felicia Hardy

OTP: There’s a lot here too,,,

-Remy/Pietro Maximoff (obviously)

-Remy/Fantomex

-Remy/Johnny Storm (this is more of a crack pairing, but I blame rping on discord for this)

-Remy/Kurt Wagner

-Remy/Warren Worthington III

nOTP: Honestly Remy is so shippable with a lot of people so I don’t really care all that much. Like,,sometimes I like people exploring him in toxic relationships (like with Sabertooth or Mister Sinister) so I really don’t care skjvbdkj

random headcanon: I like to headcanon that Remy has ADHD, which mostly shows itself through him having special interests, stimming, and having a bad case of RSD (Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria) because of past trauma associated with him being abandoned by those close to him. Also I like to imagine he uses playing cards to stim and his special interest is science fiction and space operas. Let him be a nerd.

Also he’s an Omega Level mutant. There I said it.

unpopular opinion: Okay, nobody get out the pitchforks and torches, but I don’t like this common headcanon that he’s a himbo and a narcissist. Usually a himbo is described as a character who is dumb while also being kind and beefy, but Remy just doesn’t tick all those boxes in my opinion. He’s incredibly clever and learns quickly, but he also doesn’t waste his time with knowledge that won’t help him. Like maybe he can’t do basic calculus but he understands how to get a lock to break based on it’s materials. Also because he was a physics teacher and I’d buy that he understands physics very well, especially since energy is such a big part of physics. So to me, he isn’t a himbo, he’s just a decent man. And as for the narcissism thing, he just doesn’t fit into the personality of someone with NPD. In fact, most of the time he talks down about himself and thinks himself less worthy....the exact opposite of a narcissist. Sometimes he’s just full of himself because he loves himself for once and that’s perfectly okay to me.  

song i associate with them: “Blood on my Name” by The Brother’s Bright, it has a southern gothic feel and it fits well into his backstory. Also “Poker Face” because why not. And also “Addict” by SilviaHound (yes it’s a Hazbin Hotel song but the vibes fit him so well)

favorite picture of them: I have,,,way too many I like. But these ones are just so good.

Also this one because it genuinely made me laugh

okay and now onto pietro

Pietro Maximoff:

favorite thing about them: There’s so much I love about Pietro so I’ll just list it off again ajkdbvkj

- His powers are actually really fucking cool. Like people think he can just run fast but forget that running fast is just one thing he can do. He can literally vibrate himself fast enough to go through walls, he has been shown to have some control over metal like Erik, he ran faster than the speed of sound (and possibly light), and he can leg press over 2,000 pounds. Also his superhero name is just so good, not even being ironic, the name Quicksilver is so badass.

- I love his relationship with Wanda, like sometimes it’s written really bad but other times it’s the cutest thing ever. Like he feels so protective over Wanda because of the environment they were raised in, but at the same time he learns when to let go of his own insecurities and let Wanda be her own person. Like,,their sibling dynamic is one of my favorites.

- His entire backstory is so tragic and I love it. He always feels like he isn’t good enough and tries to be as good as he can despite it all, but he’s also unabashedly pissed off about the circumstance he’s in. Like Pietro has every right to be bitter and I love seeing him call people out on their bullshit (especially in Quicksilver: No Surrender when he calls out people for marketing and appropriating Romani culture) 

least favorite thing about them: ...I literally can’t think of anything akjdbvkj

favorite line: Oops it’s all gamquick

Remy: Are you being difficult on purpose?

Pietro: What other reason is there to be difficult?

And also-

Pietro: Well, that’s a step up from a blow-up doll, isn’t it?

Remy: Did anyone ask you?

(Yes these are both from ANXF)

brOTP:

-Pietro & Wanda

-Pietro & Lorna Dane

-Pietro & Clint Barton (not MCU)

OTP: Okay I really only have two but I’m gonna gush about gamquick for a minute-

-Pietro/Remy LeBeau: I don’t even know where to begin with these two, I guess to start out with they both just look so good next to one another. They also bounce off one another banter-wise very well and while neither of them take bullshit from anyone, they still don’t mind messing with one another because it’s strictly playful. Also both their backstories are similar and lends itself to them finding solace in one another, they both recognize each other’s pain and will try their best to alleviate it as best as they can. They both understand what it feels like to be abandoned and abused and would never inflict that on each other, they both came from poverty and find it hard to fit into the “normal world”, but also Pietro usually never shows his softer side to anyone, but with Remy he’d make the exception because Remy wouldn’t hurt him like that. It’s also cute to explore them being able to settle down and get away from the superhero life for a while, but also them being a battle couple is A++

There’s just so much to say about them ajbdvkj

-Pietro/Namor Mckenzie: This became one of my favorite Pietro ships mostly because of @imperiuswrecked​ but also because apparently they were gonna be a couple in House of M?? Like that sounds so good to read about! Like Pietro is more carefree than Namor in some instances and it would be nice to see Namor relax a little bit more around Pietro. But also because I love imagining them being That royal couple and it’s so good.

nOTP: Pietro/Crystal. Just no. That ship is a garbage fire and it should’ve burned out ages ago.

random headcanon: Pietro has darker roots because his hair used to be the same color as Wanda’s before his powers manifested themselves. Also I like to headcanon/draw Pietro with darker skin.

unpopular opinion: Sometimes Pietro is seen as being misogynistic towards Wanda and I hate that interpretation of him. He’s protective over her, but he still allows her to make decisions on her own. Also people need to stop blaming Pietro for the events of House of M. For the love of god stop that shit.

song i associate with them: “Dollhouse” by Melanie Martinez

favorite picture of them: Need I say more? Pietro carrying his Cajun bf goes without saying

This was a lot of fun to write out and there’s so much more I can say but for now I’ll leave it here ajdbvkj

Ask Meme

[kieraelieson]

Centaur AU 8

When Thomas woke up, rather slowly, feeling itchy and groggy and much in need of a shower, it was to soft voices and little clops of moving hooves.

“And where is the rest of the food?”

“That’s all there is out here. Mostly we tend to eat the pre-made stuff.”

“I’ll have to put it on the list too then.”

Thomas opened his eyes, registering that Patton and Emile were talking.

Patton sighed. “It’s just… strange. I worry that with all of the new nice things that once Thomas leaves it’ll be so miserable and I don’t know how I’ll be able to handle it.”

“Thomas won’t be leaving. Or if he does, we’ll be taking you with us.” Emile promised.

Thomas nodded slightly, staying silent.

Patton moved, peeking over the shorter wall that separated his stall from the one Thomas was using as a bed, met Thomas’s eyes, and jumped back with a sound rather like a loud squeak.

“Oh, dear! I’m sorry, I didn’t think you were awake.”

Thomas sat up. “No, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s alright,” Emile said. “Little mishaps happen, you both are fine.”

Thomas stood up and stretched, gratefully noting that Emile was making breakfast for everyone. Between yesterday and now already this morning, he could tell he was going to greatly appreciate Emile. He was going to have to find some way to pay Emile back somehow.

He opened the stall, seeing Roman and Remy blinking and drowsy, and Virgil very much awake.

“Let me see what we have going for today,” he said, mostly to himself, as he walked over to the schedule on the wall. “Oh, Emile, thanks for making breakfast.”

“You’re welcome.” Emile said. “Though, as you may have heard, we are woefully short on ingredients.”

Thomas nodded.

“What about coffee?” Remy asked. “Please tell me they have coffee here.”

“Not yet.”

Remy let out a long groan and flopped onto the floor dramatically.

Thomas couldn’t help a little smile. He looked at the schedule, trying to parse out the rather terrible handwriting. He should get a new one and fill it out himself. His handwriting might not be that much better, but he could read it himself more easily, and he wouldn’t have to try and translate names with a tired brain.

Patton had a party at five, though it didn’t say when it ended. And Logan had one of those charity things, which he would certainly not be doing. Thomas considered a long moment, and then started looking for a phone number. He was probably the one that had to call and cancel things like that.

He finally found a whole list of phone numbers on the back of the calendar, and managed to get the right one, and tell them that Logan wouldn’t be able to participate in anything for at least six months, or however long the vet said after follow-up visits.

They weren’t very happy about it. But in this, Thomas wouldn’t take no for an answer, and if they were going to talk to the Authiers’ lawyer, well, hopefully the lawyer knew what to do. Because Logan wasn’t going back to a single one of those contests, legal or otherwise, until he was both healed and wanted to.

He turned back around to see worried faces, and wished that the phone wasn’t corded so that he could have taken it outside and not worried them all.

“It’s alright, I just canceled all of Logan’s events for the next few months. He’ll be fine to rest up and get well now.”

“Well that’s good,” Roman said.

Virgil and Patton nodded solemnly.

Thomas yawned and considered. What should he do next? It took a moment to come to his fuzzy brain, but he realized that he should come up with something for them all to do all morning, rather than just standing around. He felt slightly bad about having the paddock be his go-to, but it was worlds better than being cooped up in a stall, and he didn’t really know enough to give them somewhere else to… perhaps that’s what they could do. Explore the estate as a group and find all the places where they could go, and figure out what there was to do.

He had to have Patton back, clean and ready, by five then, and he needed to do something to set up Logan first, but that seemed like a very good plan. Also, considering clean and ready, they would all need a good brushing down at some point. Perhaps he ought to aim at getting back by three then, and asking Remy and Emile for help setting up a kind of grooming circle.

But he had a plan! And one that, barring unforeseen troubles, seemed like a good one. It wasn’t too ambitious, and it might even go well.

But first breakfast. Which… he didn’t really have. And he felt absolutely terrible to say it, but he didn’t want to try the centaurs’ food. He’d always kind of guessed they didn’t mind that weird grassy smell, cause they ate grass anyway. That was a thing he needed to ask about.

“Well, if they have a bunk room, they might have something like a cafeteria here, I’m going to see if I can find it and get some breakfast. If there’s coffee, I’ll bring you back a cup, Remy. Also, I might need your phone, and I’ll expect someone to call me if Logan wakes up.”

Remy, still splayed out on the floor in a rather uncomfortable-looking position, nodded and floundered, trying to reach his bag without getting up. He was unsuccessful, much to the amusement of everyone watching. He made sure to pout at each and every one of them once he got his bag and his phone.

“You know someday it won’t be little funny smiles!” he threatened, turning away from them all.

“Thank you, Remy,” Thomas said seriously. “I’ll be sure to get you coffee.”

Remy grumbled out something that might have been a thank you, or perhaps something else.

And then Thomas went for a walk, running his hands through his hair and swiping at his clothes to hopefully make himself look less like he’d been sleeping in a pile of hay. He vaguely knew that the bunkhouse was somewhere roughly straight from one wall of the stable, though he wasn’t certain how far it would be. And he just hoped someone would still be in the bunkhouse that he could ask.

Perhaps he should have asked one of the centaurs to come with him. It would be faster, and another set of hands in case he had to bring back several things. But he didn’t want to stop them from eating or having a bit of time to themselves. They certainly could use all the good things he could possibly get them.

He walked a good way before seeing the building, and jogging towards it. He was lucky enough to reach it right as someone else was walking out.

“Oh! Uh, excuse me, can I…” He had to pause a moment to breathe, but managed to continue. “I’m looking for a… cafeteria?”

“Yeah, it’s over this way, but breakfast ends at nine, you should hurry.” They pointed to a different nearby building, with its doors standing open.

Thomas nodded quickly. “Thank you!”

He ran into the cafeteria, grateful to see that the line was only a few people long. There was prepared eggs, sausage, bacon, something that looked like oatmeal perhaps, and toast. Thomas piled up his plate and then looked until he found the coffee. He served himself a cup of coffee and found some to-go cups, filling one up with coffee as close to the way he knew Remy liked it.

He felt rather overwhelmed by hurrying, especially as he glanced at a clock on the wall and saw that, if nine truly was the cut off, he only had ten minutes to eat. But despite his hurry, he had a fleeting question float through his mind. Would any of the other centaurs want coffee?

He should find a way to get decent food to them. Or bring them here. They may indeed like grass and hay and food made from it, but they also liked normal food, and should have it as a regular option.

He just didn’t know how. Yet.

He was working on it. And that would have to be enough for the moment.

Thomas tried to relax a little and eat, but he couldn’t help worrying that something bad would happen while he was gone.

Soon he was getting up and going back towards the stables, hoping that everything was fine, that they’d had a nice breakfast and Logan was still peacefully sleeping, but worrying that it wouldn’t be the case.

When he opened the door though, they all seemed perfectly fine. Logan was even still asleep. He really needed to trust them a bit more.

“Hi, guys,” he said, feeling more than a little awkward, all out of breath from having hurried back when nothing was wrong.

“Did you get my coffee?” Remy asked eagerly.

Thomas nodded. “ Yeah, I did, here. It’s not hot anymore, but it’s still a bit warm.”

Remy made a weird face, somewhere between grateful and still a bit displeased at the luke-warm coffee.

Thomas agreed with him, honestly. It wasn’t even close to ideal. And surely there was something better they could do. “I wanted to talk with you all.”

Virgil seemed concerned, but the rest of them watched him curiously.

“About what?” Patton asked.

“Well… this isn’t working out the best…”

On seeing the look on Virgil’s face, Thomas quickly backtracked. “Not like I’m giving up! Not at all. More like, I’m gonna need some help to know how to actually move forward. I’ve been doing my best, but it’s not exactly worked out well.”

“Ok…” Roman said slowly. “I think we can agree that things haven’t exactly gone the best, but… it’s not like we can help with much.”

Thomas nodded. “I know it feels that way, it does to me too, but there has to be something we can do. For starters, there’s the cafeteria. It exists, and I know that now, but do you guys want to go there? If you do, I’m sure I can come up with a way to make them let us in. It’s big enough. Or perhaps we could have them set out tables outside for you all. But I need to know that it’s what you want too. If you don’t care, or would rather stay here, we can work that out too.”

There was some shuffling back and forth, and several pairs of eyes staring at the ground.

“Well, I for one want hot coffee. Count me in.” Remy said firmly. “And I bet Emmy wants to come get some real food too.”

Emile nodded. “Yes, I’d prefer more of a variety of food than what is here.”

Thomas looked at Roman in particular next, hoping he would have more firm opinions.

Roman sighed, a rather pinched look on his face. “I like the idea of better food, but I’m not sure if I want to deal with all the other workers to get it.”

Patton nodded immediately. “We’d have to be quiet, and they would say rude things, and it would be pretty miserable even with the good food.”

Virgil nodded silently, clearly agreeing with Patton.

“Alright then,” Thomas said. “Well, what if I were to call the Authiers and see about officially changing what you’re all fed? If I insisted, I’m sure there’s a possibility of getting food sent here. We’d perhaps have to deal with the courier, but that would be less trouble.”

“If it’s at all possible, which is not certain,” Logan said.

Thomas went immediately to his stall to check on him. “Are you feeling ok? Would you want more painkillers? You haven’t eaten yet, right?”

Logan gave him an odd look. Of all of them, Thomas had the hardest time decoding what Logan’s looks were supposed to mean.

“Yes. Painkillers would be nice, and I haven’t eaten yet.”

Thomas nodded quickly, shooting Emile a glance. Emile was ahead of him already, getting a plate of food for Logan. Thomas went and made the same kind of slurry with the medicine that Logan had asked for the other time, putting some drink mix into the water so it wouldn’t taste as bad.

Once he got back, Virgil was already in Logan’s stall, trying to help him sit up without jostling his legs. Emile handed the plate in and then backed up so Thomas could get in with the medicine.

“Here you go, and I’ll go get some clean bandages to wrap your legs up in.”

Logan nodded stiffly and then downed the medicine with a slight grimace.

Thomas grabbed a few rolls of bandages and went in, extremely concerned to see Logan looking spacey already.

He knelt down next to Logan’s shoulder, laying his hand on his gently and rubbing very small circles. “Hey, there, Logan, are you with me?”

Logan looked at him silently, his face concerningly blank.

“I’m a bit concerned, ok? Can you stay here with me? I’d like to know I’m not hurting you, so I’ll need you to talk with me, ok?”

Logan let out a sigh. “I won’t be hurt by the changing of bandages.”

“Well, I certainly hope not, but just in case, can you try and stay present with me? And with Virgil?”

Logan looked up at Virgil, who was much more obviously concerned than even Thomas was. He slowly nodded.

“Alright. Here’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to run my hand down your leg to the end of the bandage and start unwinding it. Can you stay focused on Virgil for me? Tell me things about him, what colors can you see in his eyes?”

Logan frowned slightly, which was a good thing to Thomas. “What do you need to know the color of his eyes for?”

“To help you pay attention,” Virgil said softly. “You help me pay attention to safe things around me sometimes, this is like that.”

“Yes, exactly.” Thomas said, slowly and lightly running his hand down Logan’s leg. “Alright, I’m going to unwind this now. What colors can you see?”

Logan was looking far more attentive and present, staring up into Virgil’s face. “Mostly black. A very dark brown. Something that might appear green, except for the darkness of his eyes in general, which makes it look like a dark gray.”

Thomas very gently started unwinding the bandage. “That’s very good. What about his hair?”

“Most would classify the color as black. But when seen in the light there aren’t the cool undertones usually present in a pure black. I would classify it as a very dark brown.”

“That’s a very thoughtful way of saying it,” Thomas said. “My hand is going to move over to your other front leg, and then run down to unwind then bandage the same way.”

Logan nodded.

As Thomas moved to unwind the next bandage, he thought of another thing. “Why don’t you tell me about what you were doing in the paddock the other day? It seemed very clever. Something to keep you away from the holes without being able to see them clearly.”

Logan gave him another one of those odd looks when Thomas said the idea was clever. Thomas still wasn’t certain what it meant, but he decided to remember that, and use the word clever more often with Logan.

“It’s more of a common sense idea, but if you’re curious…” Logan trailed off, and Thomas looked up to see him looking the slightest bit bashful.

“I’m going to move to your back leg now. And yes, I am curious. It sounds like a useful thing to learn.”

Logan cleared his throat. “If you’d like to learn then, I suppose I’ll tell you.”

Virgil sent Thomas a look, a look that said he’d stumbled across a key, and that Virgil wasn’t certain how he was going to use it. Though to be honest, Thomas wasn’t sure either.

“I’m going to touch you now, and stroke down your leg to unwind the bandages,” Thomas said, careful to keep his tone light and unobtrusive, hoping Logan would continue.

“I am far-sighted, so I could see the holes at a distance, but not close to my own feet. If I could place the hole along the fence, and if I was careful to take measured steps, I could place it between the two fence posts, and I could know how many steps from the first post until I would need to step over or around it. Virgil was helping by confirming the distance. I haven’t yet mastered taking steps of perfectly regular length, so my calculations were often incorrect by a step or two.”

“Wow. -I’m moving to your other back leg now- That really is very smart, Logan. I’m impressed.”

Logan smiled slightly.

Thomas counted that as a very big win. “Alright, I’m going to go and get the ointment and then wrap your legs up. You can go ahead and eat your breakfast. And then the vet said we need to have you walking some, but slowly. I’ll be right back and then explain my plan.”

Logan nodded.

Thomas was quick, and soon got back with the ointment.

“So what is your plan?” Virgil asked.

“Well, first helping Logan,” Thomas said, kneeling again by his legs. “I’m going to go in the same order as last time, starting with this leg. And once I’m done, we’re going to very carefully help Logan up. If he’s doing well, then I’m hoping a few of you will help him walk around the outside of the stable a few times. -Alright, I’m moving to the next leg- And while you all walk around, I’m going to try and set up the iPad with a bunch of books, and see if I can make it so that Logan can get more when he wants to. That way he will have something calm and enjoyable to do while we’re gone. -I’m moving to your back legs now- And then I was thinking that some or all of the rest of you might want to come with me, and explore some of the estate, see what all there is, and where else we might like to spend time. Ok, last leg now, Logan.”

“That seems like a good plan,” Roman commented.

Thomas looked up to see Patton looking around at them all, confused. “What’s up, Pat?”

“Just… what’s an iPad? Is it like a bookshelf?”

Thomas was a bit concerned to see a few curious looks. Apparently several of them had never heard of an iPad.

“Well, I bought one… yesterday? Was it yesterday I went to the store? I think. Anyway, it’s a small rectangle, and it runs on electricity. It does a lot of things, and it’s pretty complicated, but the reason I bought it is that it can hold many many books inside it without taking up much space.”

Patton nodded slowly, still looking confused.

“Later today I’ll let you try it some too, ok?” Thomas said with a smile.

Patton nodded more confidently this time.

“And the rest of you too, I’m sure you’d all like a little bit to try it out. It’s mostly for Logan, especially while he’s healing, but everyone can try.”

Thomas stood up, looking around the stall. “Ok, Logan. Do you think you can stand up with just me and Virgil helping? Or would someone else be better? Or would you like to try by yourself?”

Logan frowned slightly in consideration. “I’d prefer just Virgil.”

Thomas nodded immediately and left the stall. “Just be gentle on yourself.”

Logan set his empty plate aside, held up a hand for Virgil to grab onto, and then heaved himself up. His face twisted in pain, and once he was standing he leaned heavily on the wall.

Thomas gave him a moment before asking, “How is it?”

“Painful. But bearable.”

Thomas nodded solemnly. “Ok. I’d like you to try walking around the stable. Take long, slow steps, don’t push it too much. If the pain changes at all, stop there and come back in to lay down.”

Logan nodded, very slowly moving to leave the stall.

Thomas left it to them all to take care of him, and tried to figure out where he’d left the iPad, and where would be a good place to plug it in.

From outside, he heard quite a few ‘be careful’s, followed by Logan saying ‘I may be injured, but I don’t want to be babied, I can walk on my own’.

Thomas smiled to himself. With Logan doing this well, if he could just keep going, he’d surely be better soon.

———

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[also-sponsored-by-starbucks]

Logan nodded at Roman, "Indeed. I needed one that the device could scan for language data before I could use it on myself." He scanned the cat in the crate, then pointed the laser at a spot where no one was standing. "Alright. Everyone stand back. I have it set so that there is a delay of ten seconds between pressing this button and the laser activating, so that I can put the remote down and get back into position. I don't want the remote getting damaged in the process of this test." He then sighed, bracing himself. He was so excited to finally see all his hard work pay off.. As soon as he pressed this button there would be no going back. He just hoped it didn't horribly backfire..

He took one last deep breath, and counted down, "Three.. Two.. One." Then he pressed the button. He set the remote on a table nearby, readying himself for quite frankly and likely his greatest invention yet.

He wondered if you could win a novel prize for-

"CAWW!" Out of nowhere a bird flew in through the open window. Everyone was trying to get away from or catch the bird, and accidentally drove it straight into the cat crate, knocking it over and jostling the latch loose. The cat shot out of the crate, which only scared the bird more, making it knock into something else, causing a domino effect behind our characters as they started to finally get a handle on the bird situation. First a book, then a heavy magnetic ball, then gradually bigger and bigger things like some accidental Rube Goldberg machine, until finally the bookshelf fell onto the laser.

Meanwhile, everyone was completely unaware of this as they were all trying to work together to catch this bird or chase it out the window. They finally had it cornered, but just in that moment, the bookshelf fell onto the laser, knocking it over until it was pointed directly at all of them. They all screamed as they realized the laser had reached the end of its ten-second-delay, and blasted all of them together.

Remy panicked. What if they all merged together in some sort of goop monster, like in those horror movies?

Logan couldn't believe everything had gone so wrong.

They all then fell to the ground, allowing the bird to escape through the window again.

Logan's ears were ringing, as if everything was much louder than before. His head hurt. It was as if all his senses, especially his sense of smell, were all being bombarded all at once. It was a little over stimulating. He finally opened his eyes to look around. It was a little blurry, he subcontiously wondered if his glasses had cracked or fell off. Nothing hurt too bad, but.. everything around him seemed.. bigger-? That couldn't be right. He instinctively lifted his hand to his face to feel for his glasses, perhaps fix them, but he couldnt feel them. In fact.. his face felt weird. He couldn't put his finger on it though.. His eyesight must be worse than he remembered; he could almost swear his hand looked.. furry.

@mightyvirgil54

Logan had been working day and night on this machine, and finally, FINALLY, it was ready for testing. He called out for everyone to come see what hed been working on.

"Everyone! I would like you to come into my room! I am finally able to show you all why I could not come out for so long!" He knew he should probably wait until he knew it even worked before he put his hard work on display, but he didnt care in that moment. He had been working so hard that he had to show everyone, even if it blew up in his face. Figuratively, of course.

Remy looked up from his coffee towards the stairs, where Logan's voice had come from, then groaned. "Whaaaaaatttt?" he called up in a whiney voice as he slumped sideways, draping himself over the arm of the couch. "Logannn, you already came out of the closet as bi, how much more 'coming out' can you possibly do??"

Emile stepped out of the kitchen and into the living room, pushing up his glasses. "Now, now, i dont think that was a very nice way to talk to our dear friend. Let's go at least see what he feels inclined to show us, hm?"

Remy groaned again and grabbed his iced mocha latte and trudged up the stairs with Emile, and everyone else in tow.

[stillebesat]

Meeting Virgil (5x1) -First Time

December Drabbles Day 16  Sanders Shorts: Remy  Sanders Sides: Virgil  Blurb: A Special Delivery Prequel. -Five times Remy tried to give Virgil a child and the one time he succeeded.  Inspiration: @book-of-charlie​ asked: What did Virgil mean by "the last 5 times?" Fic Type: STORK!AU, Winged!Remy Fic Warnings: Bad Parenting implications, Injury, Hitting  Taglist in Reblog. 

The baby girl stirred in Remy’s arms just as the bright lights of good old NYC came into view. “Shh. Shh, little one.” He soothed, brushing her tiny cheek with a single finger, leaving the faintest of traces of dark green dust behind that would ensure that she would drift back into whatever dreams a newborn could have. “We’re almost there.” 

It had been a long night of flying for the both of them, though Remy had been doing all the work with his wings, having flown over three major storm cells in his cross country journey from West Coast to East. 

You couldn’t argue with the Parent Line though. 

Remy glanced to the brightly glowing purple ribbon of light he’d chosen to follow out of the half dozen that had been presented to him when he’d taken the baby girl from the hot car she’d purposely been left in and tilted his wings, adjusting his flight path to take him deeper into the city. 

Always choose the brightest. That was what he’d been told to do when multiple ribbons appeared in his vision. Not that any of the choices were bad per se, but the brighter the colored ribbon, the more easily the parents could integrate the child into their lives and that was what was needed. A smooth transition. 

Far smoother than most of the others. Remy let out a low whistle, wings fluttering as his weaving through the city led him to one of the skyscrapers that housed the richer millionaire type of people. “Well look who lucked out.” He mumbled, pushing his sunglasses onto his head as he landed gracefully on a balcony halfway up the south side. 

A richy. That was...different. Usually the fools were too obsessed over making money and buying their next fancy jet or island to want to deal with children, especially newborns. It just didn’t...fit. 

Remy frowned, adjusting the baby in his arms, his wings curling around them to block out the wind so she wouldn’t get cold as he double checked that the purple ribbon was leading him inside.

It was.

“Huh.” The word left his lips involuntarily as he moved to the sliding glass door, the latch unlocking at his touch so he could slip inside the darkened room. Maybe she wasn’t going to the millionaire but to their maid or butler instead. That would make far more sens--

WHAM.

Remy staggered as something cold and definitely made of heavy metal hit the side of his face. His sunglasses flew off, landing somewhere to his left as he whirled to the source, wing raising in time to block the frying pan swinging again for his head. “WATCH THE BABY!” He screeched at his unknown assailant as he desperately tried to blink the stars from his eyes. 

Geez. And he’d thought seeing stars was a myth. 

The shadowy figure froze. “Lights.” A man said in a low voice.

Remy hissed, ducking his aching head as the room flooded with light, blinding him. His wings automatically folded in over him to protect his poor eyes, but also so he could check on the baby girl. 

If this idiot had harmed her---

But no. The tightness in his chest eased to see her still sleeping soundly. Good. The dust had helped to keep her asleep despite the noise. 

He looked up, wings pulling back as he straightened to glare at the man in a black hoodie with dark eyeshadow under his eyes like a freaking raccoon standing before him with a  frying pan held in his hands. “Geez Rapunzel. You’re lucky you didn’t hurt her!” 

The man bared his teeth, a hiss coming from his lips, though his grey storm colored eyes anxiously checked the bundle in Remy’s arms. “What sort of idiot brings a baby to a break-in?” He demanded.

Remy scoffed, taking a slow step backwards to get out of range of the ‘weapon,’ holding his charge protectively. “Gurl! Me? Break in--out of the two of us--” He gestured with one wing to his brown leather jacket and jeans, wondering why no one else had come to investigate the commotion yet. “Which of us looks more like a robber? Cus it certainly ain’t me, Sugarbee.” 

The man glanced down to his clothes and smirked before he surged forward, pressing the edge of the frying pan against Remy’s throat before he could blink. “I’m the one who lives here, Flynn Rider.” He growled, stormy eyes glittering. “I can dress however the blazes I want and no freaking glowing green-eyed Angel is going to tell me how to dress.” 

Angel?

Remy froze, swallowing as the cold metal pressed against his throat. Impossible. Adults shouldn’t be able to-- “You can see my wings?” He asked carefully, ignoring the comment about his eyes. He already knew people were offset by the metallic quality they held, but it came with being a S.T.O.R.K. along with the wings.

“Well…yah?” The man frowned, grey eyes flicking to them, the baby and then back to Remy himself. “I mean you’re no Mothman, that’s for sure, they're more polite.” 

No Mothman? The man spoke like he’d met one. That wasn’t--they didn’t exist! It shou--who was this guy?! His wings spread out, puffing up. “But that’s---you shouldn’t!”

The man raised his eyebrows, taking a step back. “Why shouldn’t I be able to see them? They’re rather hard to miss.” He gestured to the wings with his makeshift weapon. “All white and huge.” 

“Because you’re not---” Remy cut off, abruptly realizing where exactly the purple ribbon in the room led. “Oh Jiminy Crickets.” He breathed as he made the connection.  “You are.” It still didn’t explain how his wings were visible to this guy, but--

The man tensed, fingers going white on the handle. “I’m what?” 

Remy relaxed, wings snapping shut. It was unusual, yes, but there were no other ribbons drifting through the apartment. Meaning that the Emo Nightmare before him was the only person here. A single father. Unusual, but not uncommon. “You ever hear of a S.T.O.R.K?” He asked, moving a step closer, brushing the sleeping baby girl’s cheek with a finger. 

“The regular bird, or the legends about how babies--” The man inhaled sharply, going pale as the frying pan slipped from his fingers to clatter to the floor. 

Remy smirked. Looked like Rapunzel could piece the puzzle together on his own. “Still wondering why I’m here in your apartment with a baby?” 

If anything the soon-to-be Father got paler, stumbling back a step. “I can’t!” His voice cracked.

Yah, Remy had heard similar exclamations with other deliveries he’d made. “Of course you can.” He said, carefully holding the little girl out to him. He wouldn’t be here if the young man wouldn’t be a good Dad. “You already have a Father’s protective instinct down.” 

If he didn’t end up with half his face black and blue in the morning, Remy would be very surprised. “You’ll be fine.” 

“But she’s a tiny baby! What if I hurt--no.” The young man violently shook his head, vaulting over the back of the black couch to put a blockade between him and Remy, crossing his arms in front of him as a feeble blockade. “No. No, I can’t take her! I’m not a good dad. I won’t be--I can’t!” 

Denial too was to be expected. It isn’t always easy to comprehend that you’re suddenly a parent. Though no new Dad had reacted quite like this before. “You’ll be fine.” Remy soothed. “I wouldn’t be here otherwise. I don’t make mistakes.” No S.T.O.R.K. did. “Here.” Again he held her out. “Just hold her and you’ll see.” 

The familial bond could only be made once the parents, or in this case, parent held the child in his arms. Not before. But once he did. Flynn Rider here would be fine. He’d be a great Dad.  

 Edgelord shuddered, closing his eyes as he turned away, arms crossed tightly against his chest. “No. Please. No. I can’t. I can’t. I CAN’T! She deserves better. Please.” 

Please.

The purple ribbon fizzled out, vanishing before Remy’s eyes only for a bright pink ribbon to suddenly flash into view, leading out and away from the apartment. 

What the what?! Remy pulled the child close to his chest, rocking her as she stirred, whimpering in her sleep. The ribbon had just--that had never happened before! EVER. Once a S.T.O.R.K. chose a ribbon, then the child would go to that family. No question. And now--suddenly--Remy swallowed, slowly shaking his head, his wings half spreading, fluttering in his confusion. 

He didn’t get it. But if the man felt that strongly, so strongly to change the ribbon’s color-- 

”Alright. Hey. Hey. Gurl, it’s alright. You don’t have to say yes.” It was unusual. Actually, all of this was just plain weird. No one ever refused a S.T.O.R.K. once they were chosen. “I can take her to another.” 

The man refused to turn around. “Then do it.” He choked out. “Go.” 

Remy frowned, but didn’t argue, scooping up his sunglasses as he moved to the open balcony door. He needed to get the baby girl to this family of this new glowing pink parent line before the sun rose. 

Still, he paused on the threshold, looking over his shoulder to the man in black. “I do stand by what I said though.” He slipped outside, spreading his wings. “You will make a great Dad.”  He called as he took a running leap, jumping off the balcony to soar up into the night sky, following the new ribbon’s trail northeast towards Boston. 

Remy set his jaw, holding the babe close to his chest as he climbed. He just needed to find the right child to prove it.

To Be Continued Second Time

[onestowatch]

Aidan Bissett Wants You to Know It’s Okay to Be Alone [Q&A]

Photo: Brooke James

Aidan Bissett’s sunny and effortless disposition contrasts the chaotic ode to classic rock that is his latest track “Dumped.” The introspective and cathartic nature of his latest offering speaks to age-old feelings of heartbreak while doubling as an optimistic reminder that cloudy days cannot last forever.

Releasing soft-spoken tracks followed by headbanging, classic-rock inspired hits, this young artist’s music truly feels alive, shifting and evolving from one release to the next. With a soulful dedication to “music first, lyrics second,” Bissett is steadily creating his own lane defined by a relentless drive for experimentation. We had the chance to talk to Bissett about his creative approach, his latest single, “Dumped,” and plenty more. 

Ones to Watch: So, tell me the story behind “Dumped?”

Aidan Bissett: Wow, that’s a good question. I wish when I wrote it, it came from like, I had just been dumped… Well, okay, I had sort of been dumped. I don’t know how to explain that, but let’s just say I was in a relationship, taking time off, in a sense. When we were writing it, it was me, my friends, Ryan and Sean, and we were writing in a zoom session for like three hours. It was not a good song, and none of the three of us wanted to say it was a bad song. So, we were like, “OK, we are going to go take a break for a little.” 

Then I pulled my guitar off the wall and started messing around, because when I get bored, especially in sessions, I like to try and take my mind off things. I’ll play random chords and sing random lyrics, like ad-lib over them just for fun. So, I started playing like three chords that are all throughout “Dumped,” singing this hook line that—it’s going to sound really weird—“I’m taking dumps all the time.” The guy I was producing it with was like, “OK, gross,” but that actually could be really cool… what if we change it to “I’m getting dumped all the time.” And I was like, “Woah.” That’s kind of how it started and we were on a roll and wrote the whole song in two hours.

And the song does mean a lot to me, because I have actually been dumped, multiple times. It sucks, it’s not a fun feeling, so every time I listen to it, it is kind of an “f you” type of song. Like, “yeah, I got dumped but I’m better off on my own anyway.” I always like that feeling better than wallowing in sadness. So, for anyone who does listen to it, I hope that it helps bring you out of the mourn and into a new light.

In the music video, you are seen reading an “Idiot's Guide To Love.” What was the last book you read?

I do love reading, I’ve always liked reading. I have not, in the past year, read a ton of books, which sucks because I actually do like reading. Well, okay, my senior year of high school I read like 13 books but a lot of them were for school. But they were still good books! I’m in the middle of reading Dune, which is very good so far. So, hopefully, I can finish that before the movie comes out. But yeah, I do like reading… when I have the time to sit down with my ADHD mind.

“Dumped” is a noted sonic transition for you. Can you tell me about how you approach your genre-spanning sound?

I don’t really like putting myself in one genre. I’m in a certain lane in the sense I do indie-pop, I do alternative, but I don't want to do straight pop. I feel like it's such a box, and it’s so limiting. I just love exploring different sounds, so even from the start, I put out “Different,” and then the second song was “Worst Girls Of All Time,” which was a completely different sound than the indie-pop wave that “Different” is. So, me putting out stuff like this after “Communication” is me exploring new sounds. To be honest, the things I like to hear always change, the bands that I’m listening to are always changing, and I take a lot of inspiration from a lot of different bands. I just love trying new things. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but it just keeps me on my toes instead of just doing the same formula over and over again.

What are you listening to right now?

That’s a good question, it’s kind of all over the place. There’s this one girl, Remi Wolf, who I’ve been non-stop listening to… I have been listening to her for a minute. When she put out her first EP, I loved it. But now, she’s putting out these new tracks and Solomonophonic, her producer, he’s just incredible and her voice is incredible. They are doing so many things that just aren’t normal in this time of music; it’s just so her own lane. I find that really inspiring in the sense that she’s carving her own path and not following in the line of others.

I feel like I’m always listening to Wallows no matter what. I always have them ready to go. COIN. Role Model’s rolling out new stuff so I’m excited for that, he’s kind of taking a change in his own discography. [The] sounds that he is doing are definitely a lot different from his earlier stuff. This guy, binki. He’s actually opening for Role Model on this tour. Oh my gosh! His music’s insane, so cool. It’s got so many sounds going on, similar to Remi Wolf, there’s so much going on, you’re like ‘wow.. I’ve never heard something like this before.’

For those who don’t know, you write, record and produce your music all by yourself. Can you walk me through your creative process?

Yeah, I’m very musically-driven. Everyone has their own thing, I feel like a lot of artists, like the Olivia Rodrigo types, are lyrically-driven. I’m definitely music first, lyrics second. So, when I sit down to write something I try and get something I latch onto. I’m like, “Oh, this sounds cool. Lyrics could sound cool over this.” Anytime I go into a session or I’m recording by myself, I try to lay down some form of music, and then I’ll freestyle lyrics or freestyle melodies over the top, or pick a melody I like and throw lyrics over that melody. Whether that’s a hook or a verse, that kind of just depends on how I’m feeling. It’s definitely a bit unconventional compared to other artists. I feel like artists are a bit more put together when it comes to writing music just because I’ve only been doing it for like a year-and-a-half. But I have my own process, and it works. Every time I write something I learn something new. I’m excited to see, even a year from now, what my process will be… and even if it's completely different or efficient, who knows?

Tell me about the influence of music in your childhood and the decision for you to be a musician at a young age - you started playing electric guitar very young - what was your household like? Musical family?

My dad wanted the kids in our family, I have two other siblings, to play an instrument for two years during our young adult life. He wanted us to play piano before we got to pick, so we had two years of piano and then we had to pick an instrument. So, my sister went and played two years of piano and didn’t really stick with it afterward. Then, it was my turn and I was like, “Well, I don’t really want to play piano, can I play guitar?” And since I was the only one who asked, who expressed interest in a different instrument, he was like, “Sure.” I started in second grade and I’ve stuck with it the entire time. I took lessons for years, and that’s how I kind of got into the classic rock scene. My dad was a huge classic rock fan so he showed me all greats… and that was all I listened to for years. It definitely had a large impact on what I did. I would even play in little recitals, and I always played classic rock songs like AC/DC or Guns N’ Roses.

It wasn’t necessarily a musical household, like my dad isn’t musical, my mom isn’t musical. The reason he wanted us to play an instrument is because his mom made him play an instrument as a kid, so he was like, “You guys get to do that, too.” But it is true, one of us ended up using it.

What do you want people to take away from “Dumped?”

It’s an amp-up song. I want them to feel energized, to be happy with yourself. Getting hurt in relationships happens all the time, but it's okay to get hurt in a relationship. It’s kind of how you bounce back, and I want this song to be like a bounce back. Like, you hear it and, “Oh! This is me bouncing back! I don’t need to sit and cry anymore, because that’s not fun.” Sitting and crying is okay, everyone’s done it, but there’s a point that you reach, in that break-up phase, when the crying needs to stop and you need to go out and live and be the person that you are, independently. So, I would hope that it inspires you to be your independent, wonderful self again.

Is there anything else you would like to say about your music, or in general, that you want to take the chance now to say?

Well, I’m sitting on a lot of songs. So, I’m excited to get all the rest out, and again, everything is so diverse. All the music is so diverse, I just feel like each song is its own thing, which I really enjoy. I feel that’s really unique to my own music, where you’re getting something new every time. I���m moving to LA. That’s the other thing. So, if anyone sees me in LA, please stop me and say hello!

[craftypeaceturtle]

Distanced, part 1

Summary: A group chat fic! How shall these useless students cope with daily life.

Note: This is my first attempt at anything even remotely like this! I have no idea how this will turn out so feedback is greatly appreciated! Intrulogical. 

Next part here!!

.

MESSAGES: To Remus Prince (Presentation)

Tuesday, 16:15

Hello. This is Logan Sanders from Prof. Smith’s seminar. Do you have any suggestions for how we should go about completing the upcoming assessment?

Remus Prince: who dis

I literally just stated it. Logan Sanders.

I wear the tie.

Remus Prince: OHHH

Remus Prince: Well 1stly

Remus Prince: What’s the best planet in the solar system?

Pardon?

Remus Prince: i LitERaLlY JuSt stAtED iT

That has nothing to do with anything, we just need to get through this project.

Remus Prince: if u want to work then u have to answer

Jupiter. 

Remus Prince: cool.

Remus Prince: You’ll do.

Remus Prince: My name is Remus.

I know. We did actually swap phone numbers. We in fact discussed which topic we would be doing for over fifteen minutes in the seminar. So we have indeed met. If you continue to be obnoxious then this will be a easier project. 

.

MESSAGES: To Remus Sanders (Presentation)

Tuesday, 16:22

Why did you ask that question?

 Remus Prince: I asked my brother that question and he answered earth

Remus Prince: I’ve had trust issues ever since

Roman’s favourite planet is Earth? 

 Remus Prince: HAH

Remus Prince: ye he’s an idiot

Remus Prince: I’ve gotta test everyone now.

Remus Prince: You passed btw

Remus Prince: WAIT!

Remus Prince: Do u know Ro?

Yes, he is my friend and roommate. 

Remus Prince: What was ur name again????????

You can literally scroll up and reread it. I refuse. You got into university for a reason and so you can manage my name.

Remus Prince: jk

Okay then. Do you want to discuss how we should go about creating this powerpoint?

Remus Prince: what’s there to ‘discuss’?

We can separately conduct our research however it is regrettably better to meet up in person to practise not only giving the presentation but also the construction of the presentation itself.

Remus Prince: man you just love sending essays huh

I have written out longer messages. I don’t understand the point of sending a sentence at a time and risk getting interrupted. Plus at least my texting doesn’t seem all like an assault of constant notifications. 

Remus Prince: fair

Shall we say that we should aim to get our presentation research finished by two weeks (15th). That leaves us another two weeks to construct the powerpoint, gather more research if necessary, then practise presenting. 

Remus Prince: k

GROUPCHAT: Goths, Emos, and Remus

Tuesday, 16:26

Octopussy: can I vent for a sec

Octopussy: So! I’m just sitting here. Y’know. Vibing. 

Octopussy: Then out of nowhere the nerd from my class starts messaging me about the group project that’s due a month away

Octopussy: like wtf

Octopussy: nice to know the nerd thing isn’t just appearance

Vigilant: help

Octopussy: he made a big deal about meeting up as well to do this!

Octopussy: No one in the class even cares!

Octopussy: No one is even remotely

Octopussy: Not even close

Octopussy: To thinking about that project right now!

Octopussy: We’ve got ages!

Vigilant: oh sweet jesus

Octopussy: Like! We’ve got a month!

Octopussy: AN ENTIRE MONTH

Octopussy: Like he also wants to meet up as well to practise

Octopus: Like ew.

Top-Hat-Gay: Are you done?

Octopussy: ye

Octopussy: he’s a dick

Vigilant: oh thank god

Top-Hat-Gay: Ha, as if you believe in god.

Vigilant: If it stops Re from not spamming us then I’ll believe whatever. 

Octopussy: rude

Vigilant: bitch

Top-Hat-Gay: On an actually important note, which one of you last used my nail bag?

Octopussy: me!

Octopussy: you need more green 

Top-Hat-Gay: No I fucking don’t!

Top-Hat-Gay: There was an entirely new bottle in there!

Octopussy: I said what I said.

Top-Hat-Gay: I hate you. 

Octopussy: Thank bby

Octopussy: ALSO!

Octopussy: I found out the nerd also lives with Ro.

Top-Hat-Gay: So?

Vigilant: hE’S FORBIDDEN

Top-Hat-Gay: Wait so the nerd is Logan?

Octopussy: He is!

Octopussy: not that it seems to be having any effect on Ro. he’s as dense as a brick.

Top-Hat-Gay: I saw him today going into Remy’s. 

Vigilant: Why are we even talking about him

Vigilant: Like who gives a shit.

Octopussy: dunno

Octopussy: just thought it was weird

Top-Hat-Gay: Maybe you should switch partners. Especially if he wants to meet up at some point.

Octopussy: nah

Octopussy: not worth it

Top-Hat-Gay: A teacher wouldn’t care. They only want to see good grades. They won’t mind moving stuff around for you.

Octopussy: He seems harmless. 

Vigilant: you literally called him a dick after one conversation.

Octopussy: he is a dick

Octopussy: he seems stuffy but just a nerd through and through. He’s not going to be a prick or anything.

Vigilant: This isn’t really about him. He already got you talking about you know who in your first ever conversation. Maybe you shouldn’t hang around him.

Octopussy: I just thought it was interesting

Octopussy: It doesn’t mean jack shit

Octopussy: Not everything I talk about has some grand meaning.

Octopussy: I just thought it was weird that this nerd I share my classes with also lives with my bro. 

Top-Hat-Gay: And that’s perfectly fine Re.

Octopussy: soz V

Octopussy: didn’t mean to blow up in your face

Octopussy: just annoying to feel psycho-analysed 

Vigilant: soz

Octopussy: okay! 

Octopussy: that’s proof enough!

Octopussy: we can behave to each other so ice cream plz!!!!!!!!!!!

Top-Hat-Gay: JESUS CHRIST I SAID THAT AS A JOKE LAST YEAR

Octopussy: I will eat V’s posters unless you give us reward good boy icecream

Vigilant: chocolate pls

Top-Hat-Gay: jesus do you lot know how long it takes for me to put on my cape to go shopping

Vigilant: yes

Vigilant: we are precisely aware of exactly how long it takes

Vigilant: that’s why we don’t go shopping with you

GROUPCHAT: THE FAM ILY

Tuesday, 16:38

Pat-on-the-back: Heya guys, are we all in for dinner tonight?

Logan.S: I am.

YourHopesandDreams: I will be in at 7. If you could be so compassionate to push your meal back until then, I would be truly indebted to you.

Pat-on-the-back:  Fine by me!

Logan.S: I am agreeable.

Pat-on-the-back: Also Lo! Are you finished with your work?

Logan.S: I have finished my to-do list so I am available if I’m needed. 

Pat-on-the-back: No, you’re all good! I just wanted to check. It sounded like you were doing work for like four hours straight.

Logan.S: It took three hours thank you very much. 

Logan.S: So what are we doing for dinner?

Pat-on-the-back: I was thinking lasagne! 

Pat-on-the-back: also! Don’t think I’ll notice that change in topic!

Pat-on-the-back: I thought we all agreed on two hour stretches of work with a 15 min break at least. I mean... it’s even written on our calendar! There’s no way you forgot, did you Mister! 

Logan.S: It’s fine Pat.

Logan.S: Just let it go

Logan.S: I needed to get it done

Logan.S: I don’t need to be babied. 

Logan.S: I’m taking a break now. I’m okay.

Pat-on-the-back: I know, I’m sorry. I just want to make sure. As long as you feel okay then everything’s alright! How was your work anyway?

Logan.S: Fairly ordinary actually. I had to go through some of my notes and rewrite a couple of pages then I had to organise a group project due the 2nd of March. 

Pat-on-the-back: Sounds productive!

Logan.S: Thank you.

YourHopesandDreams: Ew. Group project. Who’s your partner?

Logan.S: We are in entirely different courses, why do you think you would know them?

YourHopesandDreams: Everyone knows the drama students know everyone. 

Logan.S: I’m working with Remus.

YourHopesandDreams: You should ask to swap partners. 

Logan.S: I won’t do so unless I have a genuine reason. I’ve not had any interactions with him previously and while he did seem half-hearted and obnoxious in his messages, he seems harmless. If he messes everything around then I will but I won’t make a fuss unless I have reason to.

Pat-on-the-back: That’s fair but please make sure to tell us if he pulls anything.

YourHopesandDreams: Your loss. 

.

MESSAGES: To Nerd

Wednesday, 3:02

hey u awake

Nerd: What on earth are you doing up at 3am? 

Oh

Soz

Wrong number.

MESSAGES: To Nerd

Wednesday, 3:12

Nerd: What is your favourite planet?

wha

Nerd: I figured it would be fair to ask your test to you. For all I know you could be as uncultured as your brother.

can we not talk about him

I dunno really

I wanna say pluto because they deserve it

but I kinda like saturn best.

Nerd: Any reason why?

Just kinda interesting

Big, lots a moons, ring. 

It’s just a cool planet. 

Nerd: Fair enough.

Do you have a reason to like jupiter?

Nerd: If I’m being honest, my science teacher absolutely adored Jupiter. I don’t know why but that memory of him ranting about how cool it was just really stuck with me. I was only about 8 years old. But I found myself agreeing with him. Back then my fascination was a lot more childish. I thought it was fascinating that since Jupiter was a gas planet it hadn’t been blown away yet. I grew up from that view but the interest never left.

ew that was almost cute.

Nerd: I concur that was very unprofessional.

WAIT

WAIT

HOLD ON

Why hasn’t Jupiter blown away!?!?!?!?!??

Nerd: Excuse me?

8YR OLD YOU IS A GENUIS 

Nerd: There’s no atmosphere in space!

But there’s pressure and junk isn’t there? 

Nerd: The pressure is pulling the mass into the centre which keeps the planet whole.

Do you think we could step on Jupiter?

Nerd: I don’t know.

I thought you knew space!

Nerd: I do biology! To get into a biology degree, I did a bunch of biology based subjects! Why would I know anything about space?

I dunno.

I guess if you look like a nerd people just presume.

Nerd: I’ve personally found it’s the confidence. If you act confident enough then everyone presumes you know exactly what you’re doing and you’re in control, no matter how out of place you look. 

I’ll drink to that!

Wait, in what situation would you have learnt this!?!

Nerd: I have a bad habit of accidentally going to the wrong class and just going along with it rather than anything else. Although I should say I did fantastic in that architectural history class. But this habit has caused some awkward situations. I have also impersonated a store manager to explain why me and my friend were there when really he ran into the warehouse searching for a kitten. 

HAH

That’s brilliant

Using your nerdy powers to overthrow society.

Does this mean you’re a liar?

Nerd: I call it ‘managing life’. 

HAH

Sounds about right.

Why are you awake at this time?

Nerd: I could ask you that.

[residentanchor-writes]

Downside Ch. 2

Summary: Clyde tries his hand at ‘robbing’ a bank. << Chapter 1 Watch the animatic here. Check out the Downside au @robinsdownside! TW: Cursing, mental manipulation

Clyde was anxiously sitting in his trashy car in front of the bank. He wasn't too sure of the thing he was about to do. But he needed the money and he couldn’t crash at Remy’s place forever.

Checking his face in the rearview mirror again, he gladly noted that the makeup still hid his scales that seemed to like to appear more often on his face than anywhere else now. He also let his hair grow out quite a bit to hide them a little behind bangs that fell over the left side of his face. By now he nearly looked like an emo. Working with that style, he wore a gray scarf that hid the scales that had appeared on his neck as well.

Looking down on himself he wondered if his yellow shirt and black leather jacket were casual enough.

Yeah, probably. He was thinking too hard about this. Or not hard enough.

Breathing in through his nose and letting the air slowly out through slightly parted lips, he got out of his car. He could see his breath in the air in front of him. It has gotten pretty cold since he left his parents with the most valued things he had, including his pet snake, a few weeks ago.

With a faked confident walk as he squared his shoulders, he got closer to the glass door and stepped into the building.

He was extremely lucky, there were only three other people inside. Two women who worked there as the tellers and one man who was talking to the woman on the left, so Clyde went to the other teller on the right.

“Hello, sir. What can I help you with, today?” the brunette in the white blouse asked with a sweet smile.

Clyde put on as much charm as he could muster as he smiled back. “Hello there, I hope you're having a lovely day. I'm here to make a withdrawal.”

He was good at pretending to be a more likable person than he actually was. He always wanted to be an actor, but never went to any auditions for school plays because of his social status as one of the “cool kids” that smoked and drank alcohol behind the school. The entire thing was an act in his school days, but he was good at adapting to change.

“Very well, your name sir?”

“Oh, no.” He chuckled “I was under the impression that you just wanted to give it to me,” his smile widened a little.

The woman gave him an amused sound, taking it as a joke. Out of the corner of his eye, Clyde could see the other man leaving the bank. It was just him and the two tellers alone, now.

“Good one, sir, but this would be easier with a name,” The woman spoke with a chuckle. The other teller woman went into a back door and slipped away for the moment. Perfect.

“Well if you want to call me something, I think you could just go with Deceit,” He spoke with a calmness he wouldn’t have thought he could muster at this moment. He felt his hands shaking and start to sweat as he held down his nervousness.

The woman’s smile faltered a little. “Excuse me?”

Clyde looked back over her shoulder to make sure the other girl was really gone. Then, he looked back into the sweet face in front of him which got more confused by the second.

The perfect opportunity.

He looked in her deep blue eyes.

“You wanted to give me $50,000, right? That’s why I’m here.”

His left eye shimmered and glowed with a light yellow and he noticed the familiar sensation of an itch on his left forearm.

He still looked at the woman who stared back with a face he couldn’t quite put into place. It was nearly blank but still a little puzzled at his words.

That happened every time but he always felt the nervousness at that moment again and again. A million thoughts rushed into his head, like what if it didn’t work (again) or what if he phrased it wrong? Happens to the best, and this scenario was new to him.

This was the first time he did something really bad. Usually, he used his powers to get out of trouble for smaller things or to get free booze, but stealing $50,000 directly out of a bank, in bright daylight? That was insanity!

He had felt a weird sensation in his gut since he began ‘planning’ this. Honestly, this whole ‘rob a bank’ thing was an idea he and Remy had the night before while they were balls drunk in the basement of Rem’s parents. His parents that had no clue Clyde was even hiding there.

Rem was two years younger than him but was a pretty chill dude he had hung out with in school. He was the only one he could count on that wouldn’t snitch him out to anyone about his powers and where he was, because, well, he had powers too. Powers Remy’s parents weren’t very fond of, so they generally stayed away from the cellar.

The woman blinked as she awoke from a daze. The moment surely wasn’t longer than a second, but to Clyde, it felt like years.

The brunette locked eyes with him again and put her smile from the beginning back on.

“Of course, I remember now. It will only be a second, Mr. Deceit.”

--------

“Fuck! I did it!”

Clyde opened the basement door so fast he nearly broke it out of the old, rusty hinges. A very startled Remy, who looked like he had just been woken up, fought his way out of the blanket that had been lying on him.

He had been sleeping on his disgusting makeshift bed, which was made of just two stacked mattresses on top of the cold concrete ground. The basement looked like it should have been finished years ago but no one ever bothered to finish the job. At night, they took one of the mattresses off and slid it onto the floor next to the other so that Clyde didn’t have to sleep out on the bean bag. They had tried that the first night, but it resulted in a stiff back and a very grumpy Clyde in the morning.

Clyde-- er, Deceit moved a few steps forward, to click on the floor lamp that only had an old light bulb screwed on top and no lamp shade. The lightbulb was a normal, fluorescent bulb which somehow exclusively produced greenish light. Clyde had asked about that the second day he had stayed here but Remy too didn’t exactly know why either, not that he cared.

With the light, the messy room had become a little more visible. It was even dirtier than Clyde's old room had been, especially since he had moved in. They both didn’t really care enough to clean all the filthy clothes of the ground except when they ran out of fresh clothes, in which case Remy had to go upstairs with a decent sized pile that was unsuspicious to his parents since they didn’t have to know about Clyde’s existence in Remy’s room.

If they found out about the other kid with powers in their basement? That would mean massive trouble for both of them.

Remy’s guardians were already not on best terms with their son since he had intruded their dreams by accident on more than one occasion. They didn’t hate him but Remy had sometimes messed up their sleep so much that they were first confused what was happening, then they screamed at him to stop and at last, they started to get him out of the way.

He was ok with that. He was just in his basement room, enjoying his life without the worry that his parents would storm in.

But if they knew that he invited someone else to live at their house without their knowledge, they would be very mad. They would probably scream at him again and would call Clyde’s parents, even though he was actually old enough to live on his own, as a 19-year-old. Clyde just didn’t have the money to live on his own. He had been fired a few months ago from his job at the pet shop.

He had to leave his home weeks ago in order to hide his powers from his family as the scales became more and more obvious, so he came to the only one he knew that would at least understand.

It wasn’t much fun sleeping next to someone who had the ability to go into your dreams whenever both of them slept at the same time. Rem didn’t do it on purpose of course, the closer you sleep next to him the more likely it is that he just stumbles into your dream by accident. That's why he had to sleep in the basement, while his parents slept on the third floor. They simply wanted him as far away at night as possible.

What the two did all day now was lying around in the dirty cellar on the green bean bag and the mattresses and talked about everything and nothing. Somedays they played games on the old arcade machine Remy had or they had matches on his kicker, all while smoking pot or drinking beer Clyde brought back every time he went out.

But not this time. This time he brought something better. Money. And lots of it.

Remy tried focusing on the guy with the weird scales in front of him as he blinked the sleep from his eyes, “Wha-?”

Deceit ripped away the blanket and threw a full plastic bag him. It hit him in the chest, where you could read ‘Never SLEEP again’ on a gray shirt, and caused him to lay down again with the bag sitting on top of him.

“I said I did it! I actually did it, I stole the money!” Deceit stood proudly next to the ‘bed’, hands on his hips, with the broadest smile Remy had ever seen on the guy. It kinda creeped him out, to be honest.

Then the bank robber turned around into the direction of the old foosball table and lifted his arm triumphantly into the air and tilted his head back so he looked at the ceiling.

“Oh my god! I feel great! This was way better than drugs!” he screamed in euphoria.

Remy leaned up on his elbow and let the bag fall next to him on the bed.

“Flippin’ shut up, man! You're gonna wake the whole street shoutin’ like that.”

Deceit turned his head back to his friend, puzzled.

“It's 5 in the afternoon?”

“Oh really? I'm up early,” the sleepy head grinned.

Deceit made a face at him that could only have meant ‘you fu**king serious?’

Rem's eyes fell on the plastic bag next to him. With one hand he lifted a handle and looked inside. His eyes widened, only now had he realized what Deceit had actually done. He shot up straight on the mattress and put the bag on the ground so he could take a bundle of hundred dollar notes out. He ran a finger across the stop slowly as the reality of the situation began to sink in.

“Jesus Christ, you actually did it?!” he looked up shocked at the criminal who now faced him again. With the head movement, the green shade sunglasses that had apparently been lying on his purple dyed and messy hair the whole time he slept, fell onto his nose.

“Hell yeah, I did! And it was so easy too! Like stealing a lolly from a baby.”

The seventeen-year-old sitting on the mattresses gathered himself enough to get a little of his sass back.

“Cliché.” He looked back down to the pile of money. “Jeez, how much even is this?”

“50,000 bugs,” Dee’s eyes sparkled saying that.

“Holy shit. Holy shit, I can't believe it! I thought we were just joking around yesterday! We were drunk for fucks sake!”

Remy would have never thought that Clyde would actually do something this incredibly stupid. They just talked like idiots about how they could have anything they wanted if they used their powers more, not that he ever actually considered doing so.

“Come on, just imagine what we can do with that much money!” Deceit stepped closer to him, gesturing with his hands.

“With the stolen money.”

“No one knows that!”

“Babe, don't you think 50k will be missed? Where did you even get that from? The bank like we said?” he took his shades with his forefinger and thumb on the rim of the glasses and slid them down a bit so he could look into Deceit's eyes.

“Yeah and no, no one knows I took the money. I made sure the woman was the only one there and I just made her give it to me.”

“50k in cash. Someone will miss that! They’re going to notice that much missing! Did you think of the cameras?” Rem’s eyebrows furrowed as he put his shades back on properly.

“I do not like to repeat myself. She just handed it to me! It looks completely innocent on camera. And as far as she knows, that money belongs to me.”

Deceit got frustrated with his friend. Just the night before he also loved the idea and now he was lecturing him?!

“You can't keep the money here, babe. I'm not ok with that much stolen cash under my roof!”

“It will be gone soon anyway.” He tried again to reason. This was a good thing, why couldn’t he see it?

“You need to leave,” The voice sounded monotone.

Deceit’s shoulders fell. “What?”

“Clyde, sweetie, don’t get me wrong. I'm totally up for all kinds of stupid shit but that's a bit too far man and I really don't want to get in trouble because of you.”

“So, you're throwing me out?”

“You have enough money to rent a hotel room,” he said gesturing to the bag at his feet.

Deceit looked with disbelief into the green-tinted sunglasses that hid Remy’s emotions pretty well.

How could he just throw him out? He thought the other would be happy about the money. He would have even shared it with him for letting him stay here, but now…

He growled “Fine. I'll leave. I don't need you anymore anyway. I can do whatever I want without you. Just don't come crawling back to me when I'm ruling the city.”

“Sure thing rip-off Disney villain.”

“You've seen the last of me.”

With that Deceit took his luggage, bound the bag of money to it and lifted a small terrarium with Terrence in it under his arm and left the basement.

Remy let out a shaky breath into the stifling air of his room.

For a second there, he had been afraid that Clyde- no, Deceit would use his powers on him.

---- Chapter 3>>