#its like hearing weird noises at night and finding some raccoons getting up to the wildest shit you ever saw

[rockeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy]

old guys

[sdv-mostly-shane]

not sure if this has been asked or written before, but what a about a 'sort of cryptid like farmer' and shane? a farmer that's just a little bit more on the non human side kinda thing, if thats alright

A special Spooktember treat for you guys- I hope you enjoy. Been saving this one until it was appropriately close enough to spooky season. Also- TIL that goblincore is a quite delightful aesthetic-read til the end to get the full ✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:* vibes *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ they’re feral AND charming.

Just Goblin Things

Summary: There’s something sinister in Cindersnap Forest, and Shane is the one to come face to face with the creature. What he finds is a more than just a little magical, and he can’t wait to discover more.

Trigger warning : very brief, vague insinuations of alcohol; general spookyness.

“Seb, how many more until we can go back to my house?’

“Just a minute, Sam. I can hear one croaking just over there…“

“Yoba, what was that!-look, there in the bush!” A flash of green had caught Abigails eye, followed by a loud scrambling noise. She pushed herself off the ground, using Sam’s shoulder as a boost, and leaped toward the sound, searching for its maker.

“What kind of frog was that?”

“I didn’t even see anything. Probably just some raccoon or something.” They watched Abby crawl around a small thicket of bushes, peeking in between branches as she went. “Leave it alone, Abby, you don’t want to catch rabies.”

“Raccoons don’t have green eyes, Seb,” she said, as she perked her head up to listen to a faint crinkling of leaves. “Listen, do you hear that? It almost sounds like.. hissing?”

“What, like a snake?”

“No, like a-AH!” Abby shrieked, and fell back. The two boys ran towards her. “No, get back, it might see you!” She was referencing the massive pair of green speckled eyes that were now accompanied with a gnarly, toothy grimace emerging from the bush. From it, came an ungodly snarling and hissing.

“Alright, time to go,” Seb yanked the two teenagers away from the creature, and they started to run. Once they had made it inside Sam’s house, the trio slammed his bedroom door and jumped on the bed. They sat for a moment in silence, listening to each other’s panting breath. Abby began to say something, but Sebastian interrupted, “we’re not gonna talk about it. Just don’t-nothing happened. We didn’t see anything. Got it?” Abby huffed in frustration, and protested with him, arguing that they needed to get back out there and figure it out. All Sam could do was stare at his floor, stunned at what had just happened.

The next day, Sam went to start his shift at the Joja Mart on edge from the night before. Shane was working the freezer when he spotted him-he had picked up a packaged of individually sealed pancakes seven minutes ago and was still staring at it, unmoving. “Uh, you alright, bud?”

“I’ve never seen anything like it…” His voice seemed far away, but he managed to finally move, making to put away the product. He turned to him, “Shane, you live in Cindersnap Forest. Have you ever seen anything… weird… there?”

“You mean besides Mayor Lewis sneaking out the back window and crawling around the house, thinking I can’t see him?”

“What?”

“No, never seen anything.”

“Well we did, Abby, Seb, and I, last night.”

“And?”

“Well, nothing really actually happened-it just scared us, really. Made a really ugly sound and showed it’s teeth to us. It must have just been some animal… but the thing is… gah, I can’t even say it.”

Shane tossed a bag of multipurpose detergent at him, demanding, “C’mon, say it.”

“Ouch, Yoba, alright. I didn’t tell the others, but when we were running away, I looked back and.. and well, I saw it run away and it was on two legs like a person.”

“Hah, okay you got me. There’s nothing in that forest, kid, don’t think about it too much.” Shane slapped the back of Sam’s shoulder, bidding him to just do his work, and went about finishing the stocking. He’d look over, occasionally, to see the golden-haired teen zoned into space again, but he didn’t have the mental capacity to really care at that point; he just needed to get through his shift.

______________________________________________

Shane looked at his phone-11:26 PM. He’d gone out, not able to sleep, and forced himself to take a cold walk through the woods to avoid the saloon. Shivering, not just from the cold, he made his way over to the edge of the lake. He enjoyed watching the little sparkling fish swim, their silver scales glisten underneath the shallow water… Swishing and splashing and crashing-crashing? He flipped his body around to see the source of the crash-in front of the big tree, in a disheveled pile, sat the farmer. They were brushing the leaves out of their hair and dusting off their knees.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh! Goodness, Shane, you scared me.”

“You’re the one who fell out of the tree.”

The farmer finger-gunned, “You got me there,” and stood up, gathering the belongings that tumbled from their satchel.

Shane watched them, and smirked at seeing them covered in Earth matter-leaves, moss, dirt-it all seemed to have managed to stick to them as they tumbled down the tree. “You’re covered in dirt.”

“Oh, yeah I am.” The farmer brushed off their apron and body. Dirt, rocks, and leaves fell from their arms, but the moss stayed firmly attached.

Now with a clear view, Shane could see that their skin wasn’t quite right. It looked jaundiced from their shoulders down, where the color faded to a sickly vibrant green down to their finger tips. The moss had attached itself to their elbows and seemed to grow down to their fingertips. As the farmer moved about, their arms coming in and out of scattered streaks of moonlight, he could almost see it blinking at him. Was it growing on their arm? He blinked trying to make sense of it, “No, no I meant your arms have-“

“Oh, Hey Franklin.”

Shane’s jaw hung open on his words. Emerging from the Farmers.. arm moss?.. emerged a little frog. It opened and closed its mouth a few times before letting out a tiny ‘ribbit’.

“Yeah, I found this little guy a few weeks ago and he just didn’t want to leave. He likes to come with me on our nightly mushroom hunts.” Franklin went cross eyed as he focus on a little bug flittering past before catching it with a satisfying crunch. “Oh, that was a good one, Frankie.”

“Okay I’m gonna go now,” Shane regained control of his jaw, resolutely shoved his hands in his pockets, and started to turn away.

“Wait! You’re not gonna tell anyone my secret are you?”

“Tell them what, that you keep a secret frog hidden somewhere in your arm?”

“No, everyone should know about Franklin, he’s precious. I meant-you know what, can I just show you?” The farmer reached out their hand in an offer for Shane to grab.

He hesitated-he only barely knew the farmer, having really only seen them run past him at full speed with a pick axe held high above their head-but he was in desperate need of a distraction tonight.

The farmer, seeing his reservation, offered up, “come sit down with me, I’ll make us some tea.”

“I don’t drink tea.”

“Well I’ll tell you some of my other secrets?”

He was in too deep now, his curiosity overtaking his tentativeness, “Alright.” He accepted their hand; his fingertips flexed atop their hand, cushioned by the lush, damp covering of green.

Holding his hand, they led him to their crash-landing zone under the tree, where they sat down. As the farmer sat, legs tucked into each other, Shane thought he saw their body hesitate mid-air for half a second. He then was sure that he saw a little fairy ring of mushrooms pop out of the ground with a glimmering puff of orange dust as the farmers body finally made contact with the ground.

“Please, sit.” Shane pretended to not be concerned, but the farmer smiled to themselves as they spotted him cautiously glancing down to the ground as he gingerly lowered himself to sit. Satisfied, the farmer opened up their satchel and pulled out their trinkets for tea-two wooden cups, a shiny silver teapot with a mismatched spoon, and a box of vials and jars. Opening, smelling, taking, and closing the little jars, they began to make the tea. The beautiful earthy colors of the roots, grasses, and leaves peeled out over the edge of the cups. Craning their body, they reached over to the other circle of mushrooms where they crashed, and plucked a purple one.

As they filled the teacups, Shane watched in horror as the they grasped a moth straight out of the air, ripped a wing off, and shredded it into the two cups. He hoped to Yoba the ‘tea’ was done, but they pulled out one final vial. Swallowing, he asked, “Who’s hair is that?”

“Don’t worry about it.” The farmer pick up the teapot, cradling it in their palms. As the silver started to glow red hot, the farmers hair flew up, standing straight when the teapot began to steam. They poured the hot water into the cups.

“Okay, I get it, I know what this is.”

“What is?”

“I just had a few too many today, and I’m actually just super hammered right now and it’s making me see things. I’m gonna go to bed, now”

“But I didn’t see you at the saloon today?”

“Well, no, but if I think about it too much I’m gonna freak out a little bit,” he pushed his hands off to stand, “so I’m just gonna say that this isn’t real and-“

The farmer reached out their hand to him once more. He stood, frozen, as he watched twigs emerge from their fingertips, growing into branches, followed by leaves, and finishing with a delicate flower unfurling inches away from where he stood.

“It’s beautiful.”

“Take it.”

“Take it? But it’s.. attached.”

“Just take it,” the farmer smiled.

He picked it, cupping it in his palms, and brought it to his chest. He watched in awe as the flower petals began to sway, and tiny white fairies sprouted from the pollen. Transfixed, he stood holding his breath as the hazy creatures danced around the petals.

While he watched, eyes big and lit up, the farmer quietly pulled out from their satchel a little carved wooden chair. While Franklin hopped down and plopped onto the chair, the farmer plucked another tiny mushroom, removing the stalk, and tipped a mini-portion of tea from their cup into the cap. They handed it to Franklin who busied himself with dunking his head in and out of the tea and screaming into it.

Shane, remembering his need to breathe, finally gasped and attempted to sputter something intelligible out, but just as he thought of a semi-formed sentence, the dancing fairies suddenly burst into a frenzy of colorful fire. They continued their elaborate dance until the last of them fizzled out, and there was nothing left of the dancing flower except misty smoke and white ash.

“You can keep that-here, pour it into here,” they handed an empty vial to Shane, “sprinkle it on your doorstep and it’ll protect you and your loved ones.”

He did as he was told, not even questioning it at this point-he wanted to know more and how and why and what. Finished, he sat back down, facing the farmer, watching them lift the teacup to their lips. “So uh, does the tree thing happen a lot, or just at night, because I’ve seen you during the day and it doesn’t look like that.”

“No, you’re right, see the thing is, it’s when I- HHREEEEEEEEEK!”

Shane tumbled back in shock, catching himself with his elbows and hands. The farmer had let out an awful screech, showing their (formerly enchanting smile) now fanged row of gnarly teeth. In an instant, their eyes grew and melted into dinner plate-sized puddles of green. Shane yanked his head to match the direction of the farmers leer, where he saw a scruffy-looking opossum attempting to sneak their grubby hands around Franklin. The caught-and foiled-thief returned the farmers screech with a feral ‘hiss’ of its own, before it clambered back into dark bushes.

As quickly as the transformation happened, the farmer returned to normal just the same, meeting Shane’s stunned eyes with their own-now regular sized-smiling eyes. “Can’t be letting Franklin become someone’s snack, now can we?” They laughed and smiled to themselves, giving Franklin a little finger pat.

He was stunned, again. He blinked his way around the farmers face and body, searching for something that would make sense of his feelings. Was it repulsion? Fascination? Perhaps even a little attraction? The farmers little twinkling laugh would normally be very charming to him, but the circumstances of it were overwhelmingly frightening… if not still partially alluring. He settled his searching to focus on their smile-they offered it up so freely to him.

The farmer had waited for him to get settled back into a relaxed position before they continued, “Now what was it you were asking me, dear?”

“I was asking about your arms, that they normally aren’t literal trees,” he stoped, “dear?”

“Well, yeah. We’re friends now, aren’t we? Would you prefer me to call you something else?”

“… no, that’s fine.”

They sat together for a few moments in silence while the farmer drank their tea, and Shane gathered the courage to at least sip the leafy moth water. (It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad. He swished his tongue around his mouth to feel for any fuzzy winged remains, but couldn’t find any. It was smooth, and still hot. While he pondered, Franklin made a few flighty hops over to where his foot was resting, and jumped up onto his sneaker-he was trying to bite the laced up shoestrings.

He let out a little laugh-what a strange little animal. He looked up at the farmer and thought ‘what a strange little.. goblin.’ He let himself stare a bit-they didn’t seem to mind. They had taken off their hat by now, and revealed a pair of little pronged antlers that were hidden underneath. They were encrusted with clusters of crystals, which glittered with every turn and tilt of the farmers head. He continued to drink his tea, getting more accustomed to it with each sip, and watched the scattered moonlight refract off the crystals onto the ground. There, where the prismatic light met earth, a misting of teeny white flowers sprouted and bloomed. Shane had always been appreciative of the wonders of nature, but he had never seen it this beautiful. The farmer seemed connected to the earth, each breathing life into the other. It was humbling. And it-they-were beautiful.

The farmer finally caught his eye, and looked down, now a bit embarrassed. They didn’t mind the scrutiny-it wasn’t out of judgement, they knew, just curiosity. Truth be told, the feeling was more of self consciousness than anything. It was always daunting to show anyone their true selves, but to Shane? His gaze was so honest and searching that it was intimidating. Still feeling his eyes on them, the farmer briefly looked up through their lashes to give him a shy smile, and then turned their attention to the lake.

Shane broke the silence, “Any other goblins in their you wanna tell me about,” he motioned to the lake.

“Nah, that lake is occupied already.”

“Ah, I was just playing. Of course, it’s occupied with fish.”

The farmer was silent

He turned to them, only slightly panicky, “With fish right?”

“Mmhmm yeah fish, lots of fish.” They pursed their lips tight and took a nervous sip of their already empty tea.

Shane squinted to the water, studying it, and caught a glimpse of some bubbles rupturing on the distant surface. He scooted closer to the farmer.

With the shoulders pressed up against each other, the farmer reassured him, “Don’t worry, I got you,” and took hold of his hand.

Shane eased his body deeper against their shoulder with a sigh. He took a peek at the farmer’s face just in time to see an attractive blush warm their cheeks. He smiled, and rubbed his thumb over the tops of their knuckles. They sat together, watching the lake, while the moon rose higher in the sky.

“Did you call me a goblin?�� The farmer broke the trance.

Shane let out a hearty laugh, “What other kind of magical creature sneaks around in the dark and scares neighborhood children?”

The farmer returned the laugh, and finger gunned once more, “you know what, you got me there again, Shane.” The pair filled the foggy air with the sound of their laughter, pushing their bodies still even closer together.

“If you don’t want your cover blown, you should probably stop doing that, you know, screeching at teenagers.”

“No, I don’t think I will,” the farmer said with a small growl and a wink.

It was Shane’s turn to blush, now. He looked down at their hands, still cupped together, and smiled. “What other magic secrets do you have?”

“ ✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:* Let me show you.*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ “

[squeiky]

STORY PROMPT IDEA:

A dude named: Average Man Joe (That's his full name)

Lives a completly normal, mundane life where he wakes up, cooks himself eggs and toast for breakfast (might spice it up with something new once and while) and goes to work as a barista in a coffee shop. (The store is called: "Coffee-Here" beacuse coffee is there.)

He lives in a place called "Barren Town"

Its like a similar place to where courage the cowardly dog lives, except there's more "town" to it that one random house in the middle of nowhere and a bunch of weirdos. It's like the most average, boring town you could think of at first glance.

Then after a long day of work, he goes home and plays the flute sometimes.

The catch is, absolutely everything in his life is incredibly abnormal and supernatural, Joe just treats it like its "just a Monday again" BUT like- everyday is a Monday. Joe just never checks the calendar, which always resets everytime you write something on it.

Joe's coworker and montone voiced freind, Alice Smith, another average human in Barrentown has a "naturally born eye color" with is black. She says it "a rare condition" and "no Joe, it does not give me laser eyes" as she continues to consume a entire roasted chicken, with her bare hands. Her hand are a tad bit sharper than Joe's, so are her teeth, which are a little pointer, but still human. And her shoes don't full fit her feet. But she just says "I can't find the kids aisle. I was born with very tiny feet." Though Joe doesn't mind the tiny "clip clop" noises Alice makes when she walks.

Sometimes the customers are always somewhat to pale, or wears clothing that covers their facial features a bit too much, but you can't tell where their faces are. You hear is sound. Joe thinks they are very shy, and is very polite and extra patient for them.. While Alice is off doing something in the back. Joe's never been in the back, mostly beacuse there's always weird nusky red paint that in constantly near door. It tends tends stinks, but atleast Alice always comes out with the proper cleaning tools. Since the last janitor they had disapeared into the walls after staring at a corner for too long. Joe thinks he got fired. Alice agrees.

Everytime at night, when Joe gets back from work, he plays his favorite flute. He sucks at playing it, but he sits on his little chair on the porch and starts going at it. Everytime he always manages to get the attention of what he calls "THOSE DARN UGLY CATS AGAIN" Or "THE RACCOONS ARE BACK" and then tries to shoo them away with a rake, throwing a slipper, or if needed his uncle's old shotgun. Since it's dark and you can only see their bright, glowing eyes, you can't really make out their giant, melting, spider-like bodies, their antlers and razor sharp teeth. Not only is he completly unaware that they are attracted to sound, but that they extremely fast. When you shine a light on then, they look really furry or have a pattern similar to that of a raccoon. Easy to mistake for one, dispite their size being that of a large tiger. They also chirp. The problem is, they eat birds. So anytime Joe goes on a camping trip with Alice or his ma, he ever notices that the birds are no where to bee seen, but they're chirping. So clearly Joe thinks, they must be out of sight or camouflaged. Joe is wrong.

Joe's next door neighbor, the Oatsons family, are gardeners that only go outside in the day time. You will never see them at night. They never stay up late, and always go to sleep the minute the sun goes down. Heck, you could be talking to one of them, look away for one second and poof! They're gone. For some reason, they also seem really good knowing exactly what the other is thinking. And their pet dog named Buster doesn't move when you're looking at him, actually.. he doesn't even breathe when you look at him. Hes always moving though, the Oatsons always know where he is. He's very dirty, so you could mistake him for an old, stitched up toy with all of the weird stitches he has. By the Oatsons just say "he's been in a lot of fights lately. Doctor helped Buster get better. Doctor is gone for today. But when Doctor comes again, Buster will be fed again."

No matter how you ask them, every Oatsons says the same thing.

Joe assumes Buster must have a really bad doctor. Atleast they feed him treats, but they don't ask where the doctor comes from. Or where the treats are, since they only sell cat food in the grocery market.

Also, the family is a nuclear family. Consists of one working man, 2 twins sisters, a baby brother and one stay at home mom. Joe's certain she wears a wig, and her hair looks like plastic/fake doll hair always seems to have bugs in it. He assumes she's not great at taking care of it. The father goes to work everyday, but you never see him outside. Though, on rare occasions, you can see him staring at the sun with his breifcase and suit on their staircase. Joe's ma says not to approach him, as he is busy working. Joe doesn't understand, but believes his ma means to respect his privacy. Perhaps he is doing some sort of prayer, Joe believes. He is not, the father does not pray. He is working.

Joe's mother also has a fascination with bones. Joe believes she is an archeologist retired. So he always goes to buy some nice bones st their local bone market. Joe assumes there's a lot of archeologists in his town, or people who love researching/ learning about bone anatomy of a animal or specie.

Joe knows nothing about bone research, or DNA. He just likes listening to his ma talk about how adding a mix of a ladybugs exoskeleton, a horses legbone, the breast of a rooster and a roasted bat wing (which she is her favorite thing to eat) you can creature a sludge capable of killing those pesky raccoons outside. Joe thinks she hates them, beacuse she's the one who always reccomends getting the shotgun. Which was lent by his uncle, who apperently worked as a plumber. She says he forgot to bring his gun one night, and the punger wasn't enough to strangle to toilet. Joe thinks this a metaphor for his untimely death. Thanksgiving.

Again, it is not. (Toilets are very dangerous if left unchecked, and keeping one alive may reek havoc in the homes if many in Barrentown. That is why his uncle is so rich, and why Joe never has plumbing issues. As all his toilets are dead, and their insides a carved out much like taking out the guts of a turkey for thanksgiving.)

Also. Average Man Joe's father lives in the basement. Only Joe's ma goes in there to bring his a birthday cake when a year goes by. She always wears a wedding gown when she goes down. His ma is short and fat, and her wedding gown fits her curves perfectly. Joe always loved seeing his ma look so pretty. His ma always brings a luggage with her and a dagger coated in the blood of what ever animal she had hunted yesterday. Usually it's a bat.

Joe thinks his ma likes collecting knives and daggers. He's right, she does.

Before going to the basement, she says "going to the wine cellar dear, I'll be back when I get a carcass or two. Those grapes ain't pickin' themselves yknow."

Joe thinks she's making wine, as she always comes out covered in red wind with a bottle of some kind of newly colored, rapid tasting wine. Joe took a sip before, he was fine but he ended up seeing more colors than he usually did. He assumes he was colorblind, I mean-he is. He's got Deuteranopia. But imagine being color blind, taking a sip of yer ma's wine and then seeing the world in the eye of someone who has no colorblindness- but is simultaneously high.

His ma told him he drank the wine, which has copious amounts of drug like substances in it. To which I say, to you, the reader, do not drink rainbow colored, mushroom scented, rancid wine that comes from a dark basement, that is simultaneously a catacombs where your ma goes down to kill your undead father, so he doesn't come back and destroy the entire town. Beacuse living in eternal agony under intense supernatural forces might just do that to ya.

Also she wears the wedding gown beacuse she needs Joe's dad to think it's still their wedding day, and also beacuse his ma enjoys dressing up nice and pretty for her 20th birthday wedding killing. (They got married on his birthday :> she kills him every anniversary. Happiest couple on the block, they are relationship goals. Also she uses his left over blood to concoct another elixir. Which she uses to make more weird sludge from her kitchen in the attic.

They also have a cat, and their name is Mittens. This is the most normal cat you will ever see in your entire life. It sleeps, it eats, it stretchs and scratches your furniture. When your asleep I falls asleep ontop of ontop of you. It had a cute meow and purrs. It has the softess fur, it's has a greysih- dark brown like color. Sometimes with patches of white and blue fur on it's face.

It also smells like candy, after an accident involving perfume. It has the cutest button pipils and it's adorable little paws. It's weird habit of eating yarn, and it's fluffy tail. They're tiny hard shiny nose and it's soft cotton inner ear...💗Literally the most normal, cutest cat in the area.

(Might add more description later. I love making stories like this :> )

[charliedawn]

Imagine you're another being with the "shinning" and hunted by Rose Hat and her gang. Part 1.(my version of Doctor Sleep. Warning : gore. Horror movie. Also, you're a bad a**. 😉😂)

Little Danny loved to explore the hotel, he liked to think that it was an adventure. This is why that when the door of room 374 mysteriously opened on its own, he found himself inside before he could think about the consequences of his action. He looked around, it didn't seem any different from any other room, besides the fact that there was a huge mirror in the center of it. He approaches it and, finding his reflection funny, started making weird faces in front of it. However, his reflection quickly distorted, showing a little girl who was crying instead. Danny was a very curious little boy, and like many little boys as curious as him, he wanted to investigate. He sat on the ground and stared at the girl that hadn't noticed him yet and couldn't help but find her pretty. When she raised her eyes, they immediately made contact with the ones of Danny that smiled sympathetically at her.

" Why are you crying?"

He asked and she sniffled.

" My sister..She's done some terrible things..But I don't know what to do.."

He stared at the mirror for a moment before raising his index to his ear and whispered.

" What should I do, Tony ? She seems scared.."

The little girl raises an eyebrow at his strange gesture, but didn't interrupt him as he replied in another voice.

" I think she needs a friend.."

The boy smiled and nodded vividly in agreement before turning towards the girl again.

" Tony says I should probably be your friend. My name is Danny. What's yours ?"

The girl laughed a little before replying.

" Y/N..Where are you right now ?"

You asked, looking around him with a small frown. He seemed to be in some sort hotel..But, something felt off.

" I'm with my mom and my dad. We came here for his job.."

But, Danny didn't seem too happy about it and you decided to step a little closer to the mirror.

" You see bad things too.."

You said knowingly and Danny nodded frantically.

" I see them too.."

His eyes widened at your confession and he quickly asked.

" Really ? What do you see ?"

You seemed to look around, making sure that no one could hear you before leaning in and whispering.

" My sister..She has someone else with her, someone bad and that tells her what she has to do. This morning, she killed our dog..This is why I'm sad. The more the bad lady stays, the more my sister seems to change..I'm afraid that she will do something awful to my parents.."

Danny listened and put his thumb in his mouth, the only this that seemed to calm him down when he was worried or upset about something. He was afraid that you would find his odd behavior strange, but you only smiled before putting a strand of your hair in your mouth: your own calming process. He slowly took his thumb out and shared his own struggles.

" My father wanted to come here..but the hotel is bad. There are very bad things happening around and I'm afraid that he is going to hurt us.."

In a way, you both understood each other's struggles..But before you could talk more about it, you heard the voice of your sister calling you and freezed. She entered the room and her eyes were immediately drawn to the mirror. She smiled maliciously before standing in front of the glass.

" And who might you be, huh ?"

She asked, but Danny was too scared to speak..He had seen the old woman standing above her and her face suddenly distorted at the realization. She grimaced in anger and screamed.

" Get out of my house !"

The force of the scream was such that it send Danny flying against a wall. The connection stopped and Danny was on the verge of crying when he suddenly heard a door creak. He slowly turned his head towards the bathroom and his eyes widened as he saw someone in the bathtub. He stood up and seemed to be drawn in by the bathroom. He wanted to get out, but couldn't help walking forward, the door closing behind him..

A few years later :

You are walking towards the nearby cinema, unaware that you are being followed. You step in the cinema and buy a ticket before sitting down in one of the comfortable chairs of the dark room. There are other people, a blond girl and a man in his forties. You don't have to wonder about their relationship as the man puts his hand on the girl's thigh. You grimace and try to take a better look at the girl that seemed awfully young..You sigh loudly before looking up at the screen. They had entered together..maybe you were reading too much into this ? However, when you hear the small noises of pain, you stand up, ready to take the girl's hand and run..But imagine your surprise when you see that the moans of pain were coming from the man. You stay speechless, but quickly sit back down, looking at the girl that is whispering things in his ear, things that make the man physically shake. You look around, wondering if anyone else had noticed. Nobody seems to notice what's unfolding, only two people that seem to fix the girl with envy and..something else. You shiver as the eyes of the woman seem to stare straight at you. However, you pretend being as oblivious as everyone else by stuffing yourself with popcorn, making her grimace in disgust and look away promptly. At the end of the movie, you nearly run out of the cinema and enter the bus quickly. You see the two persons following..the blond girl from the cinema. She seems scared and you take multiple shaky breaths before running out of the bus. You curse yourself as you run past the two creeps to take the arm of the girl and put on your best fake smile.

" Hi girl ! The movie was sooo good, don't you think ?!"

The blond one frowns in incomprehension, but quickly understands when you significantly tilt your head backwards. She nods and smiles even wider before playing the game.

" I know ! I'm so sorry to have left you, but I really thought my date would show up !"

You glance backwards and see that the two have disappeared..But you don't feel like leaving the girl alone and whisper.

" My house is a few blocks away..You can hide there for a bit, just to make sure the two weirdos are truly gone.."

She looks back as well and finally nods in agreement. You arrive and lock the door behind you. You then turn towards the blond that is looking around curiously. You smile and look through the window to observe the street.

" Do you have any friends or family around here that you can stay at for the night ?"

You ask and the girl looks at her shoes sheepishly and shakes her head.

" No..I'm alone."

You feel her uneasiness and gaze back at her with a small reassuring smile.

" Don't worry, you can stay the night if you want. But, as I'm supposed to leave tomorrow..I need to know if you have anywhere to go ? A shelter maybe ? Do you want me to call child services ?"

At the mention of the latter, the girl looks up at you with frightened eyes and shakes her head negatively.

" No ! You won't take me there ! You'll allow me to stay here !"

The way she says it almost sounds like an order and you can see that she is trying to use the same trick on you than she did with the older man..but it doesn't work and you only sigh loudly.

" Fine. As I said, you can stay the night. But, tomorrow, I will be going to New Hampshire, so you better find something until then."

She slowly nods and you then make a sign for her to follow you. You open the guest room and she enters. She sits on the bed and seems happy enough. You smile and are about to tell her goodnight when she surprises you by telling you her name:

" Andi. My name is Andi."

You just realize now that you hadn't even asked for her name..You smile and respond.

" I'm Y/N."

Then you close the door and go to your own room.

The next day :

You wake up and get ready before preparing your breakfast. You enter Andi's room, but only find a neatly made bed. You feel a bit sad at the fact that she didn't even say goodbye..but that quickly goes away when you see that you are missing 20 dollars.

" Son of a..!"

You curse and sigh again..Well, it could have been worse. You take your car keys and get inside your car. You start driving towards New Hampshire while following a map. You are supposed to have an interview for the local newspaper and also..You kinda want to get away from the city for a while, too many entities there. You only stop halfway to get your sandwiches out of your bag. You search for through your stuff, but suddenly feel something moving on the backseat. You freeze and your brain starts gathering all the possible explanations..A raccoon ? A spirit ?..You wait and finally, a familiar fair-haired head peeks out from underneath a blanket.

"...Hey."

She greets you with an awkward smile and a small wave of her hand. You can't believe that she 1) actually slept through more than half of the road and 2) that she followed you ! Your shock passed6, you pinch the bridge of your nose in exasperation and ask on an intransigent tone.

" Andi. What are you doing here ?"

She doesn't answer, she just looks ahead with widened eyes and you grit your teeths..Is she actually ignoring you right now ?! You are about to start yelling when she points towards the road ahead. You sigh, but still look and your eyes widen as well when you see who is driving the small van ahead of you..the guys who was following Andi yesterday ! He seems to be following a young boy now. Your blood boils in your veins at the prospect that they were now actually attacking small children.

" Andi. Seat belt."

You say warningly, your hand gripping the steering wheel with such intensity that your knuckles turn white. Andi doesn't wait for you to ask twice and quickly buckles her seat belt. You see that the boy is about to get inside the car and suddenly hit the gas. You had a feeling, a feeling that this boy would never see the light of day again if you didn't stop them. You drive straight ahead and collide with van full force, continuing advancing even afterwards. You make them drive backwards and you glare straight into the other driver's eyes. He seems shocked at first, but when he recognizes you, he smiles. You grit your teeths and yell while raising your middle finger.

" Yeah ! Keep smiling, a**h*le !"

The boy is far away now. He will be able to get back to his parents safely. Andi doesn't scream, but can feel the anger radiating from you. The van drives away as well, and the front of your car may be in a disastrous state, but you don't care. When you're calm enough, you lean back against your seat and look back at Andi, making sure that she is alright.

" Everything's fine ?"

She nods affirmatively before looking at you with concern written all over her features.

" I know that they are creeps but..Wasn't it a bit too much ?"

You close your eyes and remember the screams of agony of a little girl that you had heard a few months ago..You don't know why, but the screams had suddenly reappeared in your head as you had seen the two individuals following Andi yesterday, and even louder with this kid. It is now your alarm when bad thing are about to happen. You hear the screams of this girl that seemed in such pain when she died..You had ran to get to her, but by the time you had arrived, she had disappeared completely. This is another one of the reasons why you had decided to leave your old town. You take a big breath before driving forward.

" You have to trust me on this. They deserved it."

You say confidently and Andi doesn't add anything. She only looks out the window silently for the rest of the way. When you finally arrive, you stop in front of a weird-looking house with dark-tinted windows and a bright red door. You had already seen it of course, but Andi hadn't. She pouts when she sees it and whines.

"Is that really where you're going to live ?"

You ark an eyebrow at the pronoun she uses and cough loudly for her to turn her attention towards you.

" Where WE are going to live, you mean ? You really think I'm going to let you go with those people out there ? Not in a million years. You stay with me, Missy. That you like it or not.."

Her eyes widen, but she quickly smiles excitedly.

" You mean it ?! I promise that I won't steal money from you again ! And I'll even give your watch back !"

" Yeah yeah..Don't get used to it though, as soon as the creeps are definitely off our backs, I'm finding you someone else to take care of you..Wait, what do you mean by giving my watch back ?!"

She smiles awkwardly and you look at your naked wrist and roll your eyes before extending your hand.

" Come on. Give it."

She immediately gets it out and gives it back to you with an apologetic smile. You both get out, and she even helps you with the luggage.

" No more stealing. I'll have a job and I'm sure it'll pay enough for the both of us."

She doesn't answer right away, but you suddenly turn around and wait with your arms crossed expectantly. She finally rolls her eyes and replies with her gaze lowered to the floor.

" Yes, "mom"."

You gasp in fake offense at her insinuation and she looks up at you with a small smirk.

" That's it, young lady. Come on. Get inside and tomorrow, I'll be sure to walk around and see if any schools can accept you. There is no way I'm leaving a fifteen-year old roam the street."

She seems to disapprove and says on an authorative tone, crossing her arms as well.

" I'm not going. In fact, you'll forget ever asking me to do so.."

She tries to use her powers on you again, but you resist her and sigh before entering the house. You don't answer her and she frowns, upset. However, she still enters after you and is agreeably surprised by the interior that is a lot prettier than the outside. You smile at her awed expression, however, you aren't that pleased to be back in this house..

" Home sweet home.."

You still remember how you thought that the walls were full of secrets and that the seemed to be whispering in your ears..They had warned you of what would happen, but you were only a child..What could you have done ? Andi gets you out of your thoughts by groaning loudly.

" I'm hungry.."

You sigh, of course she is..

" Okay, the money you stole from my wallet ? It was supposed to be used for buying groceries once here."

She looks at her shoes almost guiltily before admitting.

" I was hungry this morning..I used it to by a box of donuts and a milkshake.."

You want to be mad..but you can't. You only take out your wallet and open the door. She quickly follows you and you start walking, searching for a shop. You soon find one at the corner of a nearby street and enter. You start looking around for decent prices while Andy starts piling up sugary sweets upon sugary sweet in the...You turn in the soups alley and Andi grimaces in disgust at nearly every single soup on the shelves. You finally take some, ignoring Andi's complaining. You see that the last tomato soup is on sale and are about to take it when another hand shots up to get it. You turn towards the owner of the hand and see an Indian man with a nice smile. He gives you the soup while apologizing.

" My bad, you spot it first."

You smile back politely and take it. You are about to turn around and go when the man introduces himself while extending your hand towards you.

" I'm Billy. Billy Freeman."

You finally shake his hand with a small smile and nod in acknowledgement before replying.

" I'm Y/N. And this girl here is Andi."

However, the man frowns in confusion before looking behind you.

" Hum..Andi ?"

You turn around and see that Andi is gone. You sigh loudly before groaning.

" This girl I swear.."

You then flash your best apology smile towards Billy.

" It was a pleasure, Billy. But, I need to go."

You start walking towards the cashier, but Billy follows you before adding.

" Wait. I'll search with you."

You are about to refuse, but finally nod in agreement. You need all the help you can get to find the girl, hoping that one of those creepy guys didn't get to her first..You shiver just as the thought and feel the adrenaline rushing through your veins as you start yelling.

" Andi ! Andi ! Where are you ?!"

Billy calls her as well, but you finally have to go through the cashier.

" Please, I lost my...sister. Her name is Andi. Can you call her ?"

The lady only nods before making the call. You stay here, biting your nails out of frustration. One minute, and Andi had disappeared. You don't want admit it, but you like the blond midget. You don't want anything to happen to her until you find her a family or help in any case..Suddenly, the woman smiles and tilts her head towards one of the aisles where two individuals had just gotten out of. One is Andi, munching grumpily on a handful of crisps while the other person, a man, drags her forward. You sigh in relief before running towards them.

" Thank God ! Andi ! I was worried !"

She only rolls her eye dramatically before continuing eating, but you can see that she feels guilty when she whispers.

" Yeah..Sorry.."

You look up to thank the man that had found her and freeze on thee spot when your eyes meet. Somehow, you have this feeling to have already seen him somewhere.. However, he doesn't seem to feel the same way as he only smiles before tilting his head towards Andi.

" You're the sister of the little demon ?"

He asks with a small smile and you nod with a slight smile as well. He extends his hand towards you and you shake it accordingly. However, the moment your hand is in his, you feel as if electricity is coursing through your entire body. He seems to feel it too this time as he immediately steps away with a small frown of incomprehension. However, before you could say anything, Billy appears and takes him by the shoulders in a friendly way.

" Hey, Danny ! I see that you've met the new members !"

Danny ? The name is as familiar as the face, but Danny only shakes his head with a shy smile.

" Yeah. Just found the girl and decided to do a good deed..But, I have to come back to work. I'll see you around."

You don't know who he is addressing those last words too, but you still reply.

" I hope so.."

He looks one last time at you before leaving and suddenly, memories flash in your brain that makes you scream in agony in front of everyone. Andi is by your side in and instant and tries to calm you down, but you feel a painful pang in your chest. You open your eyes wide and feel as if you can't breathe..You thought you had locked her up..But, one glance at Danny, and your old demon got out of his prison. You feel cold arms around your neck as she whispers in your ear.

" hello, sister.."

End of part 1! Tell me what you think!

[everlarkbirthdaygifts]

Happy Birthday, everybirdfellsilent!

Happy belated Birthday, @everybirdfellsilent​! Apologies once again for all the mix-ups and confusion with your gift! I hope you had a truly wonderful day back when it actually was your birthday, and that it was much more orderly than this! To bring the party feels back, @ally147writes​ has emerged from everlark retirement to write a birthday gift just for you!

AN: Let me tell you, @everybirdfellsilent​, I agonised over the ending. This was the neatest and tidiest I could make it without writing you a novel. I hope it makes you chuckle a little.

Also a good time to let the audience know that I cannot write horror, or ghost stories, but dang it, I can write borderline crack, and I wanted to write Buzzfeed Unsolved-inspired ghosthunter!everlark so damn much.

Unbeta’d, because that’s how I roll.

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

The old Undersee mansion doesn’t look haunted.

 Not that that really means anything. Most of the houses they’ve visited over the years haven’t looked haunted. They’ve been completely normal — except for that one in District Ten that had some kind of summoning circle in the basement (Peeta will die hoping it was drawn with red paint, a super weird kid’s project, but he’s got a feeling he’ll be dying disappointed. And extremely terrified) — with completely normal gardens in completely normal streets.

 So, no. Like most, the old Undersee mansion doesn’t look haunted, but it definitely feels haunted.

Peeta pauses at the bottom of the winding path. At its end, atop a small hill, the innocuous house sits empty, Madge and her family out for the next few nights while he and Katniss investigate. It’s as normal looking as any of the other exorbitantly large mansions on the street, but the longer Peeta stares down the deceptively cheerful, sunshine-yellow door, a deep, intense foreboding settles in his gut and ferments there.

 He swallows. “Uh, Kat?”

 Katniss sighs and stops at the first step to the porch, and Peeta swears he can hear her eyes rolling. Hard. “What is it, Peeta?”

  “I just�� I got a real bad feeling about this one.”

 “Peeta,” she starts, mounting the first step, “you’ve had real bad feelings about all of them so far. And you’ve been wrong every time.”

 “No,” he replies quickly, following behind in the relative safety of her shadow. “You’ve just chosen to deny whatever proof we do find.”

 “A battery running out in our flashlight does not mean ghosts were playing with it.”

 “It ran out at the exact moment I told the spirits to turn it off!”

 “I don’t know how else to tell you that was a coincidence. The flashlight had been on for a good two hours by that point.”

 “A little convenient, don’t you think? Come on, Katniss. Plus, it turned right back on again when we were done, so the battery can’t have been that damn flat.”

 “I can’t understand why you’re so eager for this all to be the work of ghosts when it scares you shitless every single time.”

 “What about the time the spirit box said your name?”

 “Peeta,” she says with a strained laugh. “It said, Can’t Miss. As in, the District 12 Mockingjays Can’t Miss. It was a snippet of a goddamn basketball ad. It’s on the radio all the time on game days.”

 “Yeah, and the spirit box allows ghosts to use radio waves to communicate. Of course it wasn’t going to find Katniss — who the hell’s advertising katniss? — so it picked the next best thing.”

 “I’ll just sit here and wait for them to use a snippet of a pita bread company ad to talk to you, then.”

 He glares at the back of her head. “I’m sure they would, if there was a pita factory nearby that advertised.”

 She rolls her eyes. “Come on, Peeta. Let’s go find you a ghost.” She lifts a camera to her eyes and kicks the heavy mahogany door open and flicks on the gently swinging chandelier light.

 “Ghosts, spirits, urban legends and other assorted demonic entities, how are we all this evening?”

 “Katniss,” he hisses as he closes the door. “Some respect, maybe?”

 “What part was disrespectful? I covered, well, maybe not the full the spectrum of possible occupants, but definitely most of them, and asked how they were. Honestly if they’re not going to reply, they’re the disrespectful ones, not me.”

 The light flickers out. Katniss snorts. Peeta lets out a squeak he’s not proud of.

 “She doesn’t mean it,” Peeta calls frantically. “For the love of God, she doesn’t mean it. I’m sure you’re all lovely and polite.”

 The light flickers weakly and comes back on. The chandelier fitting swings like a pendulum, casting stretching and receding shadows over the white-sheet covered lounges and a thick, dark coffee table.

 “What the hell do you call that, Katniss?”

 “Shoddy wiring?” She shrugs. “Peeta, this house is about a century old. Probably more, actually.”

 “Madge said it was renovated and rewired two years ago.”

 She shrugs again. “Rats? Raccoons, maybe? That would explain the supposedly unexplainable shuffling sounds Madge thinks she hears.”

 Now he rolls his eyes. “Why am I married to you, again?”

 “Because divorce is costly and time consuming,” she says, kissing his cheek. “Besides, my logic goes well with your fatalistic romanticism.”

 “None of that’s going to matter when this house goes all Poltergeist and swallows us.”

 “Then what a good thing it is that that’s never going to happen.” She plonks herself down on one of the lounges and sets a pair of small motion-sensing cameras pointing at each entrance. Peeta swallows and hitches a thumb towards the kitchen.

 “I’m… uh, gonna look around for a bit.”

 “All right,” Katniss says absently. “Scream if you need me.”

 “Will do.”

 That dread in his stomach recedes and grows with each room he enters. He doesn’t feel anything wrong with the kitchen, or the dining room, but as he ventures up the staircase to the bedrooms, he swears he can feel something weighty on his shoulders.

 A sound like a dry, rattling whisper like nails on paper echoes through the long hall leading to the attic entrance. Peeta gulps. “Hello?” He thumbs open the recording app on his phone and turns it on. “Is anyone there?”

 The whispering sound grows. It doesn’t sound like words, exactly. At least, not words that he knows. They race up and along his spine until it sounds like they’re shouting in his ear.

 Peeta squeaks, jumps about a foot in the air, and something skitters past, too fast to see. A wave of cold washes over him, settling in icicles on his bones, and for a moment he stands stock still, not even breathing…

 Another whisper, one that sounds very, unnervingly close to hello, and he sprints back down the stairs to the living room, triggering the motion sensors into a high-pitched beeping sound.

 Katniss bolts upright. “What the hell is going on?”

 “Kat, were you… God, were you sleeping?” he asks, aghast.

 “What? It’s boring down here.” She blinks blearily up at him. “Are you okay?”

 “There… there’s something up there.”

 “Something as in actually something? Or something like your imagination run wild?”

 “Something like… it was making the strangest whispery, scratchy noises. I thought they were words, but… and then, something just… ran right past me. I didn’t see, but it was so so fast, and I —”

 “Peeta, it’s probably vermin. And the wind. And just… a bit of everything coming together to make you think it’s ghosts when it’s… just, not.”

 But his hands are shaking, and his pulse is more like one long thud instead of lots of little ones. “I just… I don’t…”

 She rolls her eyes. “Would it make you feel better if I went and checked? You can stay here with these stupid motion sensors; they’re only picking up bugs, anyway.”

 “No. No, I’ll go with you,” he says, setting a fist against his chest like that’ll do any good against his heart’s very valiant escape attempt. “Just in case.”

 “Right,” she drawls, “just in case the wind gets me.”

 He follows a step behind her, through the kitchen, down the corridor, and up the stairs. He doesn’t feel quite as heavy this, time, either. She cracks open every door they pass, six unused bedrooms, three bathrooms, two studys, and a small library, all silent. They’re left with one room at the very end. As she opens the final door, the whispering starts again, and a low moan like racing wind echoes.

 She steps in, and he turns on the light. The room is huge, but full. A writing desk sits in the far corner, and a neatly-made four-poster bed occupies the other corner. Beside the door, a seated vanity with a wide, oval mirror wiped free of dust. On its table, a collection of large and small hairbrushes, and an open box filled with tangled threads and needles and buttons and snippets of fabric. But none of those things holds Peeta’s focus for long.

 Instead, he stares at a wide cabinet spanning nearly the whole length of the back wall, covered so densely in dolls of every conceivable material, fabric and wool, porcelain and plastic. The whispering is almost deafening, and every time Peeta turns his head to look somewhere else, he could swear the dolls are twitching, blinking, watching.

 “Did, uh, Madge ever mention the doll collection?”

 Katniss scowls at the dolls. “She might’ve? I don’t really remember.”

 “Oh, I don’t think you would have forgotten something like this,” Peeta retorts.

 “I… well, yeah, this is definitely weird, but I don’t think we can call it haunted, or otherworldly.”

 “What the hell else would you call it?”

 “Any number of perfectly reasonable and logical things, Peeta. Mrs. Undersee likes weird, creepy dolls; what more can you say?”

 “Don’t call them weird and creepy.” He sets a finger against her lips. “I’ve read about haunted dolls. If you’re not respectful, they might curse you.”

 She rolls her eyes, but nods all the same. He doesn’t take his eyes off hers as he lowers his finger and shoves his hands in his pockets.

 He turns back to the dolls, and clears his throat. “Uh, we mean no harm or anything. It’s just… you’ve kind of been terrifying my friend and her parents, and we’d like you to please stop. Please.”

 Katniss whispers, “You already said please.”

 “Can’t hurt to say it twice.”

 “Did you bring the, uh… the thing? You know, the thing that reads the waves or whatever it was?”

 He shoots her a dour look. “You mean the EMF?”

 “Yeah, that. Do you have it?”

 “No, I don’t.” He sighs. “It would have been in the pack with the motion sensors, so it’s still downstairs.”

 “Spirit box?”

 “In the pack, too.”

 She surveys him strangely, arms crossed over her chest. “You really didn’t come prepared, did you?”

 “I was prepared! I just… didn’t think I’d be accosted in the very first hallway I went into.”

 She snorts. “Yeah, well, maybe next time you’ll think —” She stops, freezes, eyes riveted on something Peeta can’t see. His heart thumps harder and louder than he’s ever felt before.

 “Uh, Katniss? Is something wrong.”

 “Peeta,” she says, deadpan.

 “What?”

 “Look over there, in the gap between the cabinet and the desk. See that?”

 He does see that. He backs up so hard he’s going to have a massive bruise on his ass from the vanity he’s just about knocked over. “Holy shi — Are those… are those eyes?”

 “Yeah, they’re eyes. You wanna know what kind of eyes?” She picks up a hairbrush from the vanity stand next to them and hurls it at the gap.

 “Goddamn raccoon eyes, Peeta,” she says as the small pack of raccoons scatter. “There’s probably holes in the drywall or something, hence your scratchy whispers.”

 “I… oh.”

 “Yeah, oh. Raccoons, Peeta. Ninety-five percent of the time, it’s probably rats or raccoons.”

 “It wasn’t rats or raccoons in that place in District 10.”

 “That… was an outlier of a house, I’ll give you that, but it was probably still just people. Very strange, very creepy people.” She nudges him gently with her elbow and cocks her head to the door. “Come on, we should try and see if we can find the holes they were coming in through.”

 “You want to do home repairs?”

 “Hey, we promised Madge an exorcism, didn’t we? This is just a different kind of exorcism.”

 She hooks her arm in his, and they leave the doll room together. A sound like bye follows them out, but this time he can ignore it. Raccoons. Obviously.

 “Why do you come with me to these things?” he asks when they reach the bottom of the stairs.

 “Peeta,” she says seriously. “Know that I say this with all the love in my heart… you would die if I didn’t come with you.”

 “If I did die, I would so mercilessly haunt your ass.”

 She pats his arm, shakes her head. “No, you wouldn’t, Peeta. Ghosts aren’t real.”

[raccoonpoptart]

wanted to share this scenario idea bcs it's adorable ;; it's where the reader accidentally made a mistake in casting a spell, ehich resulted in them turning into an animal! i'm wondering how the characters would react to them huhu

YESSS THIS IS SO CUTE THANKYOU 🌸✨ this is so funny to think about honestly could you imagine suddenly turning into an animal? personally if i turned into a raccoon i would never want to be human again 🦝🦝🦝

☼

that’s not how that goes...

warnings: none! wholesome times tonight <3

some of the animal choices are obvious but others are...just for giggles 🐝 hope you like it! ✨

Earlier at the market y/n got some new ingredients to use in a spell, but had to substitute a few obscure things with more easily accesible items. With nothing but hope in their heart (that they wouldn’t absolutely ruin anything important), they made their way home.

It wasn’t until about halfway through the spell that y/n realized something was a bit...off. The smell just seemed a bit more potent, and the color was a little more unexpected than usual. Magic was strange like that, so they shrugged and threw the last ingredient in the bowl. Poof! Smoke went everywhere and y/n was covered in green dust.

Suddenly, everything grew so much bigger in the shop and y/n began to panic. Asra wouldn’t be home for a few hours! What were they supposed to do? Their heart raced as they walked to the nearest mirror. They realized that it wasn’t the shop that got bigger, it was them who got smaller. Uh oh...

alright gamers lets do this

Asra

when he came home he looked everywhere for you and when he saw the mess you made he started to panic a little

he had no idea what you were trying to do but the fact that you weren’t around was...really unsettling

“mc?? where are you? please come back...”

suddenly he felt something slip up his arm and squeeze...

“oh, hi, faust...did you s-”

what looked back at him wasn’t those red eyes he was used to but instead it was two big purple eyes

he was about to scream (because who wouldn’t freak out over a random snake) when he heard your voice in his head

i think i messed up the spell :(

he laughed softly and placed a soft kiss on your head and assured you if he couldn’t fix it, it would probably wear off anyway

spoiler alert it took almost a whole day for it to wear off but he enjoyed having you wrap around him whenever he went anywhere

faust thought it was the best thing ever, she would wrap around asra’s left arm and you would be on his right

Bite the goat!

(i was so tempted to do a fox but i thought it would be cute to sorta be like a chimes and flamel moment)

Nadia

when she was told that a lynx had been spotted sneaking around the palace she was a little worried

lynx are not common, so of course she wanted to see! but when the lynx ran up to her and started to rub against her and purr?? she was very confused

it wasn’t until she saw your eyes that she realized it was you! but didn’t really know how she knew...it was just her intuition she guessed

she just assumed something magical happened and hugged you

loved when you followed her around the palace because everyone was so afraid, or just had a puzzled look on their face

when you would meowl (or, yell for lack of a better word) she would smile and kiss your head then laugh if anyone around her got scared

would talk to you like normal even if you couldn’t properly answer, she just assumed any noise you’d make was a response

complimented your ears and thick coat then offered to brush your fur (she wanted to hear you purr again)

she enjoyed having you around all day and once you were back to normal she asked so many questions

Julian

another damn raven had taken a liking to him and he was ready to leave vesuvia again

he facepalmed as malak and this new bird had started messing with his hair and squawking

meanwhile you found it pretty funny how he accepted it so quickly and waited a while before having malak tell julian

you and malak had continued to bother julian for a few hours but once he got annoyed you had malak explain and julian just laughed and asked if malak had run into a window again

when you softly pecked his nose and rubbed against his face he blushed softly

“ah, well...at least it’s temporary. it is temporary, right? please tell me it won’t last forever!”

boi was a bit stressed because now he felt like he had to look after you but malak told him to *ahem* buzz off we’ll say cause he was having so much fun

found the looks he got a bit funny because of course having two ravens follow you everywhere would look strange (CAN I MAKE A NORSE MYTHOLOGY JOKE PLS.....TWO RAVENS = ODIN LMAO)

once the spell wore off he held you close and let out a sigh of relief,,, “darling, you make a beautiful bird but please don’t scare me like that again <3”

Muriel

ignore the part where it says the shop got bigger, for this it got smaller ok thanks <3

inanna had been gone a while so he went out to find her

instead found her outside playing with a......bear?

he closed his eyes and exhaled then turned to go back inside to avoid dealing with another unexplainable thing

but inanna dragged him over to the bear and he just stared as the bear stared back

woof! “inanna that makes no sense, it’s not mc”

then the bear hugged him and he blushed but didn’t pull away because why else would a bear have silver fur and pink eyes

you couldn’t exactly fit in his hut so he decided to just sit outside with you. he assumed that a spell went wrong because the same thing had happened to asra before

“so, mc... do you think this is permanent?” you grunted in response and placed a paw on his head

it was a bit awkward but he laughed softly and placed a hand on your head (wholesome mountain man :( i would die for him...)

watching you catch fish was hilarious to him considering you couldn’t do it by yourself a few months ago, but made sure to keep an eye on you anyway

he liked that you were taller than him for a bit and felt safe when you would hug him, even if the sight of it would seem strange but was happy when you were back to normal (now he can kiss the top of your head and hold your hands properly)

Portia

walked into her cottage and stopped in her tracks

she was face to face a puma and her heart started racing, she was about to run until she saw pepi run up onto the bigger cat’s head and headbutt her

“pepi.....can you please explain who this is quickly” she was trying not to freak out in case the giant cat would attack her

in response pepi started to purr and rubbed against the cat and was surprised when the big cat started to purr too

she thought that maybe pepi had somehow made a new friend? and just was grateful that it didn’t eat her

you had to lead her back to the shop and show her the mess as well as the pile of your clothes on the ground for her to understand

“mc :3 does that mean you’re technically naked?~” she poked your side and laughed when you made a slightly annoyed noise

absolutely loved how everyone ran at the sight of her with a puma and walked with a bit more confidence “i feel like the main character in a story! strong, beautiful woman with her most trusted cats at her side!”

you wished you could laugh but you loved how adorable she was and also you were amazed at how even though you were walking, pepi stayed asleep on your back

after work the next day she found you asleep in her bed wearing some of her clothes and she smiled so big as she hugged you tight

Lucio

“can somebody please explain why the hell a damn PEACOCK IS IN MY ROOM???”

as he raised his voice, the bird puffed up its feathers and started to squawk which freaked him out but it just walked up to him and stared

he was so confused but was thankful the bird wasn’t attacking him so he tried talking to it

“uhhhh- hello there, aren’t you beautiful? are you an albino? your white feathers are gorgeous” you puffed up your chest at the compliments and expanded your tail feathers

he smiled and tried to pet your tail feathers “you aren’t so scary now, how’d you get in here?” he didn’t really think to ask anyone because the only person he could think of was asra and he didn’t want to talk to him

mercedes and melchior liked the bird so why shouldn’t he? he shrugged and just let you follow him around all day, talking to you like you were another one of his pets (which was annoying but you liked the compliments althought they were new, obviously you didn’t normally have feathers)

the spell wore off in the middle of the night he went from having two dogs and a bird in his bed to having two dogs....and YOU!! just when he thought being with you couldn’t have brought more surprises and weird stories

he gave you his shirt and laughed as you explained what happened ,, “well, it’s good it was temporary! if i never saw you as a human again i don’t know what i would do”

☼

that was so fun!! omg i love writing weird stuff like this 🍓 anyway, i hope you liked it! i’m thinking about writing a story where mc can turn into animals on the regular but we’ll see ✨✨ now i wish i could turn into an animal for a day lmao

[dem-animebois]

Tenshi’s story part 1

Welcome to the villains world!

This will be a combination of the first few prologues with a bit extra to do with my oc.

*Rustle. Bang. Squeak.*

‘What was that noise....?’ The girl though to herself. It sounded like someone was hitting wood. Wait, was she asleep. She tried to wake up but her eyesight remained black. Was her eyes closed? No she could blink. The girl could also hear herself breath, feel the walls on her back . She wasn’t dreaming. Then what was stopping her from seeing? It was a good thing she no longer had a fear of the dark, their was no light to be seen at all.

Her back was against something hard, a wall mabye? It was hard and felt rough, like wood. She could feel the wall in front of her touching her chest while the sides touched her. Moving her hands up to the wall in front she pushed with as much might as she could, trying to move it. It was no use.she felt something asleep in her arms. It was an animal of some sort. Feathers? So a bird. Oh wait. It was yukino. The girls eagle owl she had raised. Guess he got caught with her.

Her hand was still resting on the wood board in front of of her, when she heard yelling from outside. It was coming from outside, muffled by the layer of thick oak.

“Crap. People are coming. Got to find a uniform while...” The voice was croaky with a accent. She couldn’t pinpoint how, but it sounded familiar.She felt slight bangs from the wood in front. Almost like someone trying to open it.

“Grrrr!!! The lid is too heavy.” The creature sounded out of breath and upset. Whining loudly. The banging continued whoever was outside was stubborn. She will give them that.

“ Time for...*heavy breath* my secret move!” A tiny bit of light was starting to expand in one of the corners. It was blinding:“Guwwaahuuh~~~~ There!”

‘F-fire?!’ She cries out in her head. For a split second she swore blue flames had appeared in front of her. Was she hallucinating? No. Her brain couldn’t be that good especially since her own name had slipped her mind.

The slab of oak had been removed from her box and she could see again. She was in some sort of room? There were coffins floating around the room much like her own. The dark blue pillars had lamps on them shining a dingy green. In the center of the room was a mirror. The black surface was surrounded by silver vines.

“Ok, ok. Gotta get... Whaaaaaaa!!!!” Ow. Her ears. “Why are you up!?” The sound awoke the bird in her arms as he went flying down the hallway. It’s fine yukino can take care of himself. She will call him back if she needs him, it’s best to let him calm down though. Looking down to the floor she saw where the voice was coming from. A grey.... raccoon? Was screaming, eyes widened with shock. Wait a second, raccoons don’t talk!

“A talking r-raccoon?!” The red-head screams, not believing what she is seeing.

The tiny animal huffed and puffed out its chest. Stomping its foot and pouting it shouted“I’m the Great Grim!” Uh-oh. She seems to have got a nerve. “Well, whatever. Hey,human! Hurry up and gimme those clothes!”Smirking he put his hand out, beckoning for her to undress. When she didn’t start to hand over the clothing, his smirk grew wider. “Otherwise.... I’ll roast ya!” He lifted up his hand- paws. Blue flames appeared again taller than before dangerously close to her face. As if to ask to eat her layers of skin and burn her. She didn’t know why but seeing those flames didn’t scare her. Mabye it was the colour or maybe it was the fact she was still quite numb. Her feet stayed in place. “Dreaming about getting roasted by a raccoon, that’s a new one!” she said while staring blankly at the culprit of the flames. “I said I’m not a freaking raccoon!” The creature started trying to attack her.

Knowing it’s probably best not to let this angry furball hit her she started running. She run down hallways with lockers, through classrooms with blackboards and all the way to some sort of library. Massive bookshelf up to the ceiling were lining the walls. Some books were even hovering about. Weird.

“Where the heck am I?” She asked nobody while running into the darkness to hide.

“Did you really think you’d get away from my nose? Dumb human!”The angry raccoon said after running through the entrance. Great. He started walking towards a table. Looking for her. The same smirk plastered on his face. “If you don’t wanna get roasted, better hand over-”*Smack* “Buwah!? Ow! What’s with this cord?!” A black cord had rapped around its waist keeping it in place.

“It’s no mere cord. It is a lash of love!”

The owner of the whip corrected. He was a tall man with yellow eyes. He was wearing a blouse, with a vest and tie. Over the top of that he had some sort of cape. He wore a black top gap with a blue ribbon tied around it. On its side was a smaller version of the mirror in the first room.

“Ah, found you at last. Are you one of the new students?” He questioned. Closing his eyes he spoke again. It seems he couldn’t see the girl because he was yet to comment on her gender and appearance. “You shouldn’t do things like that. Leaving the Gate on your own!” He crossed his arms why sighing, reopening his eyes. “Not only that, you have yet to tame your familiar which has broken a number of school rules.”

“I’m not her freakin’ familiar!” Cried grim while trying to escape.

It seems once again the gender has gone over his head. “Sure, sure. The rebellious ones always say things like that. Now just quiet down for a moment.” He places a hand over grims mouth. Telling him to shut up. “My goodness. It’s unprecedented that a student leave the Gate on their own.” *sigh* “How impatient could you be? The entrance ceremony is well underway. Let’s head to the hall of mirrors.”

“Gate?” The girl asked stepping out of the shadow. Gasps could be heard from Grim. Grim new she was a girl, of course but he didn’t take time to look at the burn scar covering the left side of her face. Not quite reaching past her eye but traveling all the way down to her back as far as he could see.

“It’s the room you woke up in with all the doors. All students who wish to attend the academy must pass through one of those doors to arrive here.” He looked up to see her. His face was shocked for a few seconds. “Normally., students wake up only after the door is opened with a special key but...”

“The fire must of blown the lid off.” She stated. Personally she hated the suspicious look he was giving her.

Unfazed by her he spoke. “So in the end the culprit appears to be this familiar.If you are gonna bring it with you you have to take responsibility and properly take care of it.” He looked up at the girl and finally seemed to of noticed their scars and gender. “....Oh my! Now isn’t the time to be long winded. The entrance ceremony will soon come to a close. Let’s get a move on.” He started walking to the entrance, expectingher to follow.

“Just a second.” The girl asked,still confused. “Who exactly are you?” She may be in a different place but she knew better than to follow strange men she had only just met.

“What’s this? Are you still dazed?” The man retorted with a questioning tone. The raccoon still tight in his grasp. “It appears the magic teleportation has left you disoriented.... well it’s fine. It happens often enough.” Turning to face her, smile on face, he continued. “I will explain to you on the way there. For I am gracious.” Feeling as if she had no choice, the red-head followed him. This seems like the only way she was gonna get answers.

He led her to a courtyard. A fountain stood in the center with paths coming of it from all sides. Patches on grass say in the corners one containing a apple tree. “This is Night Raven College. Those magicians blessed with a unique apitude for magic father here from all over the world, here at the most prestigious magical academy in Twisted Wonderland.” Magicians? What is this crazy old look talking about? Does he mean the people who sit on stage on wow you with some tricks. Like pulling a rabbit out of a hat. She had never heard of a country called ‘Twisted Wonderland’ mabye she didn’t pay enough attention in geography. You would of thought she’d remember a place with a strange name like that. “And I am the principal, appointed to take care of this academy by the board of chairmen, Dire Crowley.” Wait, that surname.... THEY HAVE THE SAME ONE?! Of course someone has the same surname as you but she didn’t expect it to be this crazy old man! Good thing she doesn’t use her surname at all. The thing that bothered her is how come she is able to remember her surname and geography class but not her NAME? The headmaster didn’t seem bothered by her internal struggle and continued. “Only those magicians seen worthy by the dark mirror can attend this school. Chosen ones use the Gate and are summoned here from around the world.” He looked at the small human. “An ebony carriage carrying a gate should have gone to meet you as well.”

An ebony carriage? She doesn’t remember stepping into one but.... “I think i remember a horse with a terrifying face....” Yes, its dark, beady eyes where engraved in her memory. How they were void and empty yet beautiful at the same time. How it stared at here empty of emotions.

“The ebony carriage goes to welcome new students chosen by the Dark Mirror.They are special carriages that carry the doors to the academy.” He sounded dull like this was something she should already know. He then continued speaking. “The market decided years ago that carriages are used to welcome people on special days.” It was odd to say the least. Why a carriage? There are plenty of good buses you could of used. Carriages went out of style during the 1900’s“So your saying a carriage just brought me here? On its own?”

Grim yelled in anger but it came out muffled due to the gloves hand covering his mouth. The raccoons hands and legs flailing about, trying to escape the headmasters tight grasp.

“Come let’s go to the entrance ceremony.”

The trio travelled back to the room with the mirror as the center. It was filled with students, all different shapes and sizes. She could see a small boy with lilac hair and a tall boy with blue hair. In the corner she could see a tanned person with white hair and... are those animal ears? Wait, where they real?

“Is that all for the new dorm assignments?” A loud voice boomed. The girl looked over to see a fellow red-head yelling at some people. “Listen up new students. Here in Heartslaybul I am the rules. Break them and it’s of with your head.” Wow, bit extreme.

“....Uuugghh.The stuffy ceremony is finally over. We are going back to the dorm. Savanaclaws follow me.” A dark haired male yawned. He had animal ears poking out the top of his robes.

“To the new students, congratulations on entering this academy. Enjoy your life here to the fullest.” Who was this? “As the dormitory leader of Octovinelle I will support you to the best of my ability.” Just hearing his voice and actions made the small girl uneasy. It may sound nice to the untrained ear but she could hear the undertone of a shady schemer. She made a mental note to stay clear of that one.

“By the way, where did the dean go? He flew right out in the middle of the ceremony...” A taller figure spoke.

“Abandoning his post...” Where was this voice coming from? Perhaps the person was short?

“Did he get a stomachache or something?”

“Not at all!” The headmaster exclaimed.

The younger students jumped, startled by the sudden bang. The Leaders however ,did not flinch, it must be normal for them.

“Ah, he’s here.”

“I cannot believe you all. We were missing one new student so I went to find them.” The crow says crossing his arms and pouting. He turns and looks at her emerald eyes. “You are the only one yet to be assigned a dormitory. I shall watch over the raccoon, step in front of the Dark Mirror.”

Sounds of protest were made from Grimm still with the headmasters hand around his mouth.

Looking around the room, she noticed a massive, dark mirror. It was floating, somehow. She made her way towards it, pulling her hood down more. As her high heels clicked against the floor boards she felt all eyes on her and she hated the attention. “Wait, is that a girl?” “What is a girl doing here?” Here the whispers come. She was shocked at the fact they commented on her gender ; not her appearance. It must be the hood she was wearing. The garment that adorned her was a black and purple robe with the details being in gold. It was odd and probably made for a special occasion. She didn’t remember putting them on, she doesn’t remember stepping into the coffin- the thing which she awoke from.

Stepping in front of the supposed ‘magic’ mirror , her breath was hitched. Nervousness flooded her body ;the only thing she could do was stand and wait.

All of a sudden, when she thought nothing was gonna happen, the mirror spoke up. It’s face watching her, judging her every move.

“Child of man, burnt by flames. The shape of your soul is.....”

You could hear a pin drop it was that quiet. The atmosphere was tense and hushed.

“I do not know.”

Huh?

[jaxl-road]

The League of Extraordinary Rockstars, ch.4

Summary: LA is a hub for music and mutants, making it the perfect place for Motley Crue, Guns N’ Roses, and countless other mutant musicians to call home. But it’s not all easy, especially when it comes to finding a decent place to live. So what better solution than moving in together in the mansion of an immortal? Love, drama, and super powers. If nothing else, it’ll be interesting.

Chapter Warnings: Language, genderswap!Steven

AN: This is a collaboration between myself and @the–blackdahlia​! It combines elements from her fic “It’s So Easy (And Other Lies)” (specifically her genderswapped!Steven) and my super powered GnR series. It is completely AU and ignores timelines like Woah, but hopefully you’ll have as much fun reading it as we’re having writing it! Let us know what you think!

~~~~~~~~~

Stevie had gotten so used to yelling waking her up, that when she woke up and the room was silent, she was a little confused. But a smile soon spread on her face as she stretched and rolled over on her mattress. She had so many plans for the room. Paint, rug, furniture, an actual bed, and more. And they were going to get a bunch of that today, plus groceries. A wholesale store had just opened up a month ago, and they actually had the money to buy a membership. They had a busy day today.

And it was cloudy outside.

But as she stood to get dressed, she didn’t think much of it. Stevie never stopped absorbing sunlight- she simply couldn’t shut her mutation off- and especially being in southern California, she usually had an excess of light in her. It was the reason she was always glowing at least a little. If it was overcast for more than a few days it was certainly not a fun time, but ever since she met Duff she was able to simply ask him for some clear skies if it had been too long and she’d be good to go.

Yesterday had been sunny though, so she figured she could let nature do its thing for now. No biggie. Throwing on some jeans and her least dirty shirt, she wandered out into the hallway of her new home. Axl and Sebastian’s door was shut, but Duff’s was open and empty. Continuing into the living room, she heard a frantic voice.

“Dude, I’m telling you, it was right there!”

Turning the corner, she found Tommy waving his arms dramatically in front of an unconvinced looking Duff.

“Well, if you’re so sure, why didn’t you chase after it?”

“I tried! But it was just gone! It probably burrowed under the floorboards or something!”

“What did?” Stevie piped up, getting their attention.

Duff rolled his eyes, “Tommy is still going on about that “raccoon” from yesterday,” he explained, disbelief heavy in his voice.

“It’s true though!” Tommy defended himself, “I saw it again this morning!”

“Are you sure you’re not just, like, super hungover?” Stevie tried to reason. So far, Tommy was the only one to have seen the supposed critter, so she tried to find another explanation, “I mean, I’ve had some mornings where I think the fucking walls are moving, y’know?”

“No! It’s real, I swear!”

Stevie and Duff exchanged looks, even as Tommy continued to ramble. They nodded along politely, wandering into the kitchen when the Motley Crue drummer finally gave up. Throwing open a cabinet, Stevie snatched a bag of chips for her breakfast. Along with their take out, they had grabbed some snacks the night before. The mansion didn’t have a fridge, only an old school ice box that was sorely lacking in ice. Oh well. They’d have that taken care of by the end of the day, Stevie thought happily.

“So, Kelly and I are going shopping today,” She told them as she shoved chips into her mouth. “I thought we could split and have half of you guys clean while half went shopping?”

“You know I hate shopping,” Duff groaned. “I guess I’ll stay here and clean.”

“T, I think you better come with me,” Stevie told the other drummer.

“What? Why?” Tommy asked.

“Well, if you made a flamethrower to melt roaches, imagine what you’ll do when you see your supposed raccoon.”

“Is he still going on about that?” Mick asked, shuffling down the stairs, “Why the fuck isn’t there a coffee maker? I need my caffeine.”

“We’ll get one,” Stevie told him, “Don’t worry. It’s on the list.”

“The delivery guys aren’t gonna be happy having to bring all the things you want to buy to the house,” Nikki pointed out as he appeared as well, leaning against the counter, “We give Kelly shit about the “commute”, but we actually are a decent ways away from the strip.”

“Why are we still complaining about the commute?” Baz inquired, wandering into the kitchen with a still mostly-asleep Axl draped across his back.

“Oh, you know,” Stevie sighed dramatically, “We were just talking about how much trouble getting all the new furniture and stuff here will be. If only there was a big, strong mutant who could get things home for us,” she batted her eyelashes at the tall singer.

“Aw, dude you know I’m your guy!” Baz laughed heartily, earning him a mumbled scolding from the redhead on his back that he was quick to ignore, “It’ll probably take me a few trips, I still have trouble jumping large shit so I might have to take things one at a time, but otherwise it’s no problem!”

“Baz, I love you,” Stevie kissed his cheek.

“Back off, he’s mine,” Axl grumbled from where his face was still pressed into his back. Stevie smiled and shook her head.

“He dyes his hair black and we might have to fight for him,” Stevie told Axl. At that moment, Izzy made his way in and Stevie’s smile got bigger. “Iz!”

“God, how are you so cheerful so early in the morning?” He asked, rubbing his eyes.

“I’m just excited!” She told him, “And you’re going shopping with me and Kelly!”

“What?” Izzy asked. “Who decided that?”

“I did,” Stevie said proudly, “We have a lot to do to get this house in livable shape!” There was a chorus of groans. “I don’t want to hear it. Or I’ll kick everyone except Kelly out.”

The grumbling continued, but none of them put up any real fight. They quickly got the groups sorted out. Stevie, Kelly, Izzy, Tommy, Nikki, and Sebastian would be hitting the stores for the various supplies and furniture the house needed to be livable. Meanwhile, Vince, Mick, Slash, Duff, and Axl would be staying to clean the place and make it less of a health hazard.

Baz dropped Axl unceremoniously onto the beat up couch in the living room. “He’ll wake up once he realizes everyone is doing their cleaning “wrong”,” he assured them.

“Excuse me for having fucking standards,” the redhead mumbled into the dusty cushions, receiving one last kiss on his cheek before the groups split up. The shopping team got ready, Kelly deciding that they should deposit the money instead of paying with cash, so they headed out to the bank.

“Okay, so let’s start with the floor?” Duff suggested. Axl, who’s head had been resting on the couch, popped up suddenly.

“I think the fuck not!”

****

They split the money and each put it in their separate accounts. After fixing overdraft and bank fees, they were all good to go. Stevie was smiling still as she settled in Kelly’s car. She stared out the window as he drove towards the various furniture and home decor stores. Stevie had plans, and one of those plans included a new bed without a spring poking her back.

“You okay over there Glowstick?” Kelly asked. “You’re kinda quiet.”

“I’m good,” She smiled at him, “Just must need some more sleep, y'know?”

Shrugging, Kelly accepted her answer. He hadn’t slept great either, being in a house as old as his meant a lot of weird noises, not to mention they all still had shitty mattresses, so he was sure the blonde drummer would be fine soon enough.

Pulling up to Sears, Stevie clapped her hands excitedly while the poor boys shoved in the back seat of Kelly’s car practically fell out.

“Fuck, Sebastian why do you have so much leg??” Nikki complained, stretching as he stood on the sidewalk, “I thought Tommy was long…”

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” Izzy practically screeched, having ghosted out of the car the second the wheels had stopped, “All three of you are over six feet of dumbass! I almost slipped out on the freeway just to end my misery!”

“Aw, poor little guy,” Kelly tried to ruffle Izzy’s hair, though he wasn’t surprised when his hand fell right through.

Izzy glared, “You’re like, an inch taller than me!”

“Okay guys, stop posturing,” Stevie rolled her eyes, “This is supposed to be the fun part! We can get some kickass stuff to make the house the most rockin place in Hollywood!”

They all headed inside. Stevie immediately headed towards the furniture, but Nikki spotted the power tools and looked at Tommy.

“We’ll need a drill and stuff right?” He asked. “And, like, a screwdriver?”

“Shiny torture devices,” Tommy laughed. “Let’s go look.”

“You know if you don’t go with Stevie, she’ll pick your furniture out for you, right?” Izzy told them. They just shrugged. Kelly and Baz were distracted by the video game display, so Izzy sighed, and then realized something. He would be alone with Stevie until they got bored with their toys.

This was his chance.

Following after Stevie, he found the drummer giggling as she hopped onto different mattresses, grinning at the feel of a bed that wasn’t dragged out of a dumpster.

“Having fun?” Izzy smirked.

“Oh, lots,” Stevie replied. Looking over at him, her brows furrowed, suddenly glancing around, “Hey, where’d the other guys go?”

Izzy shrugged, “Baz and Kelly were looking at some game or something, and the terror twins were playing with power tools.”

Stevie huffed, “I swear, I’m going to get those boys bunk beds.”

“Knowing them they’d be thrilled.”

“Come try this mattress out with me!” Stevie told Izzy. He sat on the edge and she pulled him back to lay on it.

“Oh, this is nice,” Izzy mumbled. “I could get used to this.”

“Let’s rebel and take a nap at Sears,” Stevie laughed. Right then, a salesperson came up.

“Do you and your boyfriend like it?” She asked with a giggle. Stevie smiled.

“It’s great but we have a few more to try out,” She told her. Izzy noticed that she didn’t say “he’s not my boyfriend”.

“Well, if you need anything, I’ll be over there,” She told them before walking away. Stevie rolled onto her side.

“Wanna go try out another one?” She asked. “Or should we just order however many in this style?”

Looking into her eyes, Izzy felt his mind racing. He wanted to say “let's try all of them” or maybe “let’s lay here forever” or maybe “oh my God do you have any idea how much I love you?”

But when he opened his mouth, all that came was a choked, “This one seems good.”

“Well, okay then,” Stevie smiled and got up. “I’m gonna go look at some bedding now. I think they have those sets that have everything all in one. Do you wanna come with me?” She bit her lip slightly. She wanted to take the reins and ask Izzy or Duff out, but most of the people she talked to said that they should make the first move. So Stevie was left waiting for someone, who wasn’t Kelly, to flirt with her orsomething.

“Yeah, as long as I can have something in black,” Izzy smirked. Stevie headed over to the bedding, writing on a little notebook what the furniture they needed would be. There were shelves upon shelves of bedding and Stevie just stared at them. Her head was starting to hurt and she felt really tired.

“So, uh, see anything you like?” Stevie asked, gravitating to a purple set. Izzy watched her for a moment before finding his own set in black

“Here,” He told her, “You feeling okay?”

“I’m great. Just tired,” She told him, grinning. “Why don’t we pick out for everyone else?”

“Yeah, sure,” Izzy replied. His eyes almost immediately fell on what had to be child’s bedding, green with bright, cartoonish flowers all over it. Grinning mischievously, he pointed at the garish pattern.

“Oh, we’re definitely getting that one for Vince.”

~~~~~~~

“No, no, no!” Axl yelled, “You’re doing it wrong!”

“I’m just bagging up the trash! How am I doing it wrong?” Vince asked, glaring at the redhead.

“Well, for starters, you’re not in the bag,” Axl shot back. Duff groaned.

“Can you two be civil for like five minutes?” Duff asked.

“He started it!” Both yelled at the same time. Mick pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Where the hell is Slash?” He asked, “Why isn’t he here trying to help us?”

“Because he’s probably sleeping,” Duff rolled his eyes, “Or trying to find more snakes around the garden.”

“I swear, we need to put a bell on him,” Axl muttered.

“Whatever, I’m sure I’ll fucking trip over him soon enough,” Duff grumbled bitterly, sweeping a pile of debris into a small pan.

Given how large the house was, they were making good progress. They’d gotten rid of the cobwebs and layers of dust, and the decades old trash and bottles were cleared away.

"I see we've made progress even with all the screeching," Vince muttered.

"I'll show you screeching," Axl growled, "Baz isn't here and he's like 85% of my self control."

"Chill out," Mick stood between the frontmen, "We're lucky we got this place. Don't fuck it up."

"Guys! There's more buildings out here!" Slash called from outside.

"That's great but you're supposed to be helping us clean this one!" Duff told him.

“But we’re barely even seen the whole place!” Slash whined.

“You know we gotta have this done before Stevie gets home and cuts off all of our balls,” Vince told him.

“Yeah, I saw the way you were looking at Kelly,” Mick told Vince, “You might need them.” Slash glared slightly at Vince under his hair before he huffed and went to get a mop. Axl was about to say something when there was a noise at the front door.

“Hey guys! Let me in!” Baz called. Axl went to the door to find Baz with a cart that had three mattresses on it.

“What’s this?” Axl asked.

“Beds babe!” Baz gave him a kiss, “Oh, the cart? I just thought it would be handy. And it was just sitting outside of Sears.”

“You just stole a cart from Sears?” Mick asked, arms crossed.

“Well yeah. They’re good for it. They’re loaded,” Baz smirked as he brought in the mattresses. “Here’s the first three. I gotta get the rest of them.”

As the teleporter popped away for the second haul, Slash merely shrugged, “Hey, we’ve stolen worse.” He and Duff got to work dragging the mattresses into various bedrooms as Sebastian brought the rest of their haul. By the time he had brought all the mattresses and bedding, the Skid Row singer was panting, collapsing face down onto the mattresses still on the cart.

“You alive, man?” Vince questioned, poking his shoulder only to have his hand slapped away by Axl.

“Yeah, yeah, no, I’m good,” Baz mumbled, “Just… Just need a minute.”

As they waited for Sebastian to recover so they could move the rest of the mattresses, Duff tilted his head and squinted at the singer, a thought from earlier returning to him.

“Slash,” he asked, voice serious, “should I dye my hair black?”

“I swear to god, I will never escape this bullshit,” Slash sighed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Duff asked.

“Nothing,” Slash grumbled, “God, I can’t wait to sleep on a brand new mattress.”

“Stevie’s getting bed frames delivered,” Baz mumbled, “Said it wouldn’t be fair for me to keep having to teleport everything.”

“Good call,” Axl nodded, draping himself casually across the other singer’s back, “This is a lot for one day.”

“She told me not to do all these but I was like, challenge accepted!” Baz laughed, “I’m starting to feel better. I wanna go to the grocery store. The one we’re going to is the one that gives out all the samples!”

“Man, he gets free samples while we’re stuck here cleaning?” Slash pouted.

“They’ll bring back food for all of us, you big baby,” Axl rolled his eyes, hopping to his feet as Sebastian stood, stretching his arms over his head.

“Alright, see you guys in a bit!” And with one last ‘pop’, he was gone again.

“God, he bounces back fast,” Vince announced. Axl smirked.

“You should see him at night,” Axl winked, “Now come on, let’s get these mattresses into the rooms and ready for the rest of the stuff!”

With only minimal complaining, the group got back to work setting up their new home.

~~~~~~~

Sebastian stumbled just slightly as he materialized in front of the wholesale store Kelly had said they’d be going to next. Sure enough, the group was out front waiting for him, having managed to beat him there while he was taking his break.

Grinning widely, he jogged over to the cluster of musicians, “Alright, everything’s back at the house! Now let’s get some grub, I’ve been looking forward to this part all day!”

“It’s just the grocery store,” Kelly shook his head. They headed inside, signing up for their membership cards, before starting to walk around the store. Stevie was doing fine, but by the third sample station, she stopped accepting it, and by the time they filled up the second cart with bulk goods, she was so tired she could’ve slept on one of the display models.

“Guys?” She asked, “Will someone walk out with me to the car please?”

“I got it! You guys keep going,” Tommy told them, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and heading back out through the store.

“What’s that about?” Kelly asked Nikki, who shrugged. Izzy came back from grabbing a big thing of paper towel, frowning when he saw Stevie gone.

“Where’d Stevie go?” he asked, throwing the paper towels into the cart.

“She went out to the car with Tommy,” Nikki explained.

“She’d been kind of off all day,” Kelly chimed in, “Maybe she’s sick or something.”

Izzy hummed, glancing towards the exit in concern, but following after the other two boys regardless. Maybe Stevie just needed to sit down.

Meanwhile, Stevie had thought the same thing, but sitting wasn’t helping at all. She felt drained, like she wanted to sleep for a week, and she had to lean heavily on Tommy, barely able to keep herself sitting upright.

“Hey, you okay?” Tommy asked as he held her up.

“Mmmm,” Was all Stevie answered. Tommy had climbed inside the back of the car with her in his arms. It was only in the shaded interior of the car that Tommy could see that she was glowing a pale green.

What the fuck?

“Stevie? What’s going on?” Tommy asked. He knew she would glow consistently, but it was usually more golden, or yellow, sometimes orange. But never green. She looked like a glow in the dark star that was fading out. But Stevie was already asleep, her head resting on his chest, and didn’t answer.

“Stevie?” He asked again, shaking her lightly. She murmured a little, but otherwise stayed quiet. Okay, Tommy was officially freaked out. His head darted around, as if he could find a solution within the beat up vehicle. He didn’t want to leave her, but he didn’t know how much longer the guys would be, and he was super fucking worried. Maneuvering himself slowly, he gently laid the other drummer down across the backseat, closing the door softly before sprinting back into the store in a gust of wind.

“I’m just saying, just cause we have money doesn’t mean everything needs to be name brand!” Kelly was arguing with Nikki, each holding a bag of chips that were nearly identical.

Izzy pinched the bridge of his nose, “I swear, if you two don’t get your shit together, I’m gonna-”

“Guyssomethingiswrongwithstevieshe’sgreenlikeliterallygreenIdon’tknowwhat’swrong!”

The three men were nearly blown back as Tommy skid to a stop in front of them, a frantic look on his face as he spit out what was probably supposed to be words, but instead just sounded like gibberish.

“Woah, babe, slow down,” Nikki frowned in concern, tossing the chips to the side as he put his hands on Tommy’s shoulders, “What’s wrong?”

“Stevie!” The speedster forced himself to speak at human speeds, “I don’t know what’s wrong, but she’s super out of it and she’s glowing, like, green!”

“Shit,” Izzy groaned, “Just hurry up and get some fucking chips!” Izzy hurried outside, leaving everyone confused. They hurried up their shopping as Izzy headed out to the car. Sure enough, she was laying in the backseat, glowing slightly green. Izzy opened the back door and gently pulled Stevie to him.

“I-Iz?” Stevie asked weakly before falling back asleep. Izzy held onto her. The one time he needed Duff and he wasn’t around. He glared at the overcast sky as if he could stare it into submission.

The driver’s door suddenly opened, Kelly sticking his head in and practically throwing bags of food into the front seat. He could hear the trunk opening as well.

“Alright dude,” Kelly asked seriously, “What’s going on?” He bit his lip anxiously as he saw the muted green glow of the Guns drummer.

“This happens when she doesn’t get enough sun,” Izzy explained, “It makes her really sick. It’s Hell for her,” he pet her hair softly as he spoke, “We need to get back to the house so Duff can clear the fucking clouds.”

“I’ll teleport and take some of this stuff with me,” Baz told them.

“I can run home,” Tommy shrugged.

“And leave me here? I’ll piggyback.” Nikki added.

“We’ll meet you there,” Kelly nodded and started the car, taking off. Baz grabbed the leftover things and teleported home while Nikki climbed on Tommy’s back.

“I deserve a backrub after this,” Tommy groaned.

“I’ll do that and more. Let’s just get home,” Nikki promised. Tommy smirked and took off.

In the backseat of the car, Izzy held onto Stevie, focusing on staying solid. This wasn’t the first time he had seen her sick like this, but it was still scary. There was always the “what if”. What if she didn’t stop glowing green? What if they’re someplace where they can’t get sun? What if…

Izzy shook his head and focused on Stevie.

There was no good in focusing on the what ifs- Stevie had always bounced back, and she would do so again this time. She was strong as Hell, and no weather would get her down for long. Without even thinking about it, he gave the drummer a soft kiss on her hair. She’d be fine.

In the front seat, Kelly furrowed his brow as he looked up at the long road leading up to their neighborhood before snorting loudly. Ahead of the car in the distance, he saw a few bolts of lightning before the clouds started retreating from the same spot, the sun slowly spreading as the sky cleared. Kelly shook his head.

“I swear, Duff should have been a theater kid.”

~~~~~~~~

"I'm back!" Baz announced as he teleported into the living room and dropped the bags, "Duff, man!"

"What?" Duff came down the stairs having dropped the last mattress off.

"We need you Mr. Wizard," Baz told him. "Our little Starshine is sun sick."

“What?!” Duff shrieked, a few flashes of lighting coming through the window, “How? It’s been sunny all week, this is the first overcast day in a fuckin while!” Even as he ranted though, his irises and pupils faded as his eyes slowly turned a clear, bright white, and the yard outside was soon bathed in sunshine, the clouds spiraling into a rapidly expanding circle of clear sky.

“I dunno man, that’s just what Izzy said,” Sebastian shrugged, glancing away. He always thought Duff’s eyes were kind of creepy when he did more intense weather manipulation, “She was like, this dull green color.”

Frowning, Duff hummed in concern, “Weird…” His white eyes narrowed slightly as he focused on clearing the clouds from as much of the city as he could. Just a few minutes later the car pulled up. Kelly started carrying food in as Izzy carried Stevie in.

"What happened?" Duff asked.

"Remember how excited she was yesterday and was glowing a shit ton?" Izzy pointed out, "This is the result."

“Fuck, I didn’t even think of that,” Duff looked at the sleeping blonde sadly, “Goddammit, girl, why you always gotta be so excited about everything.”

“Aw, poor Glowstick,” Vince cooed, “I feel bad for complaining about all the times she blinded me yesterday.”

“As you should,” Axl huffed, though he shared the worried gaze of the rest of the house.

“She’ll be fine, guys,” Slash reassured the non-Guns members, who had never witnessed this sort of malady with Stevie before, “She just needs to sleep it off and soak in some sun.”

"I'll take her to her room," Izzy told them, carrying her down the hall. When he looked behind him, the rest of the housemates were following. "Guys, she's fine. Chill out."

"I just, I've been around her a lot and never seen her like that…" Kelly admitted.

Izzy softened, nodding sympathetically, “Yeah, I know.” He let them continue to follow him without comment, the group crowded around the doorway as Izzy set Stevie down gently on the new mattress in the corner of her room. Sighing contentedly, the drummer murmured unintelligibly as she rolled over to spread out on the bed like a starfish, sleepily soaking in the sun shining through the large, numerous windows. It was hard to see in the bright room, but they liked to think she looked a little less green.

Tugging her boots off and tossing them aside, Izzy nodded at the crowd, shooing them away, “Alright guys, let’s go,” he said softly, “let’s let her rest.” Begrudgingly, they all shuffled back into the living room where piles of bedding and food still sat abandoned on the floor.

“Right, so,” Kelly shook his head to clear his thoughts, “The fridge is supposed to be delivered tomorrow, so we mostly got nonperishable shit.”

"Oh chips! Yes!" Vince called out, "You guys are the best."

"Who picked out the bedding?" Axl quizzed.

"Mainly Stevie but I helped," Izzy told them, "Why, got a problem with it?"

"I mean...there's pink stuff…" the frontman grumbled.

“Check it out, there’s also some black sheets too!” Sebastian pointed out.

“Hands off!” Izzy snapped, snatching the bundle of black fabric away, “That one’s mine!”

“Ooooh, so it’s a first come, first serve situation?” Sebastian questioned.

There were a few beats of silence as they all stared at the pile in front of them. Then, chaos erupted as they all leapt forward, elbowing, wrestling, and shouting as they all fought over the different patterns, designs, and colors.

Izzy shook his head in horror, clutching his plain bedding to his chest tighter as he backed away from the madness.

Eventually, two sets of sheets remained- a soft purple one (which Slash had reluctantly relinquished when Izzy told him it was Stevie’s), and a bright pink one with little stars printed across it.

"Look what the twins get," Kelly chuckled. Just then, Tommy walked in, dragging his feet in exhaustion, with Nikki beside him, "Oh, speak of the devils!"

"What's up?" Nikki asked.

"Here's your bedding!" Mick grinned.

"No. No way." Nikki shook his head, "No."

“Sorry, dudes,” Vince snickered, “You were just too slow.”

“I hate all of you,” Tommy whined, laying down directly on the floor, “You’re the worst roommates ever.”

“Suck it up, buttercup,” Mick smirked.

As Tommy and Nikki tried to bribe different people to switch sheets with them, Kelly finally got a chance to really look around him. The house still definitely needed work, what with all the loose floorboards and peeling wallpaper and such, but the lack of dust and grime actually did make a big difference.

“This place is sprucing up pretty nice,” Duff commented, clutching his polka dot bedding protectively as he stood next to Kelly, “Give it a couple weeks and the property value will probably skyrocket,” he grinned, elbowing the other bassist teasingly.

Kelly snorted, “Yeah, yeah. It’s definitely not as bad as I thought it’d be.”

“Wow, tone down the enthusiasm there, Nickels, you’re shining brighter than Stevie.”

“Shut up.”

Chuckling, Duff made his way back to his room to set up his things. While his stuff had been moved over the day before, he hadn’t taken the time to actually put the room together. He figured now was as good a time as any to put up some posters and get shit organized.

The hours passed steadily as the room came together. Books, records, and various pig themed knick knacks filled the tall bookcases lining the walls. His new bed was shoved into a corner by the lone window in the room and piled with both the new bed sheets as well as the blankets he had brought with him, and his bass was placed carefully on its stand. Before he knew it, the sun was setting and his stomach was growling angrily.

He reluctantly headed downstairs where everyone was digging through the food. Duff grabbed an apple and started to snack on it when he looked around.

“Stevie come out yet?” He asked.

“No. I think she’s still sleeping,” Slash told him. Duff nodded and grabbed some different foods and drinks and headed up towards Stevie’s bedroom. She was pretty much laying the same way she had been when Izzy dropped her off, although now she was cuddling a blanket someone had left for her. Duff couldn’t help but smile.

As much as he hated to wake her, food and water would help her feel better just as much as the rest would. Sitting next to the mattress, he shook her shoulder gently.

“Stevie,” he whispered, chuckling when her only response was a soft grumble as she buried her face into her pillow, “Stevie, come on, wake up. I brought you some food.” The grumbling continued, and Duff shook his head fondly. Grabbing a bag of Cheetos from the pile he had brought with him, he pulled the bag open and held it open by the drummer’s face.

“Come ooooon,” he said teasingly, “I got your favorite!”

As expected, the scent of the snack had Stevie blinking awake, turning towards Duff and blindly snatching the bag from him as he laughed.

“My favorite,” She mumbled, eating the Cheetos lazily.

“You’re going to turn into Chester if you keep eating those the way you are,” He chuckled. Stevie just shrugged.

“I’m not the super fast one in this house,” She told him. Duff laughed and went to stand up. “Where are you going?”

“Back downstairs so you can eat in peace?” He shrugged. “I got you a Sprite too, and some other snacks and-”

“Can...can you stay?” Stevie asked.

The request caught Duff off guard, and he felt his heart beat just a little faster. “Are you sure?” he asked, “I don’t want to disturb your rest.”

But Stevie shook her head, “No, I…” she trailed off, “I dunno. I’m feeling better but I just… don’t want to be alone right now.” She clutched the bag of Cheetos to her chest and burrowed down into her blankets, “Never mind, it’s stupid…”

“No, no, no!” Duff practically shouted, “You’re fine, Sunshine,” he carefully laid down next to her, self-consciousness causing him to leave a few inches of space between them.

But it only took a moment for Stevie to scoot over and press herself next to the bassist, resting her head on his shoulder, “Thanks, Duff.”

“Anytime,” he smiled, putting an arm around her to pull her just a little closer. Then, after a moment, he grinned, “You are going to have to share the snacks though.”

“Mmmmm, maybe,” She laughed. “I don’t know if I should though.”

“Why not?” Duff asked.

“Oh, I dunno,” She snuggled closer to him and his heart was racing as fast as Tommy running to the liquor store. God, he wanted to just kiss her so bad, he wanted to ask her out, he wanted to tell her how he had loved her for so long but he didn’t even know how to start. He ran his fingers through her hair, trying to talk himself into doing something. Anything. Was it punk rock for his hands to be this sweaty over a crush?

“Hey Duff,” Stevie bit her lip and looked up at him, “C-can I tell you something?”

“Of course!” Duff turned to look down at her, suddenly concerned, “You know you can tell me anything.”

“I, uh, I might kinda have a crush on someone. He’s tall, with blond hair, and he’s really sweet,” She looked down, suddenly shy.

Furrowing his brows, Duff mentally listed all of their friends, trying to think of who matched that description. It took him longer than he cared to admit to finally click on what she meant, his face flushing, “Wait… really?” He was afraid to get his hopes up. Maybe she was describing someone Duff just hadn’t met before. He was sure there were lots of tall blondes in LA. Oh God, what if she had run into his brother? He might die.

“Yeah,” She admitted, “I...Duff, I like you…” She smiled a little, waiting for rejection.

Duff didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t find the words to express how light he felt hearing her say that, the weight of all his stress and longing suddenly gone in a fraction of a second. He didn’t think any words existed to explain how happy and disbelieving and relieved and overjoyed he was. How could he possibly explain it?

So he settled for kissing her instead.

Stevie froze. Was she still asleep and dreaming? She felt Duff start to pull back, so she followed him, returning the kiss. Duff wrapped his arms around her and held her close as he kissed her. They both smiled into the kiss, eyes closed as they got lost in each other.

Meanwhile, Izzy decided to check on Stevie, having not seen her since carrying her to her room. Not wanting to wake her if she was still resting, he stuck his head through the door quietly to make sure she was alright.

But what he found was her and Duff in a liplock, and he felt his heart sink.

He pulled himself back into the hallway rapidly, staring at the door between him and the two blondes. It took him a minute to make his legs work, to carry him back to his room, ignoring any attempts made by his many roommates to talk to him along the way. When he was finally safely in the confines of his own room, he sat heavily on his bed.

He shouldn’t be upset, he thought to himself. Had he really thought he had a chance with her? He was the quiet, dark, brooding one, and she was sunshine and joy. Her and Duff made more sense.

It still hurt though. He laid back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling, letting his eyes drift shut.

Downstairs, Duff and Stevie slowly separated, both with smiles on their faces. Duff cupped her cheek, but he noticed that her eyes were heavy.

“Why don’t we lay down?” He suggested.

“That sounds great,” She yawned. They moved the snacks off her bed and Duff grabbed the blanket to cover them up. He wrapped his arms around Stevie, placing one last kiss on the crown of her head before they both drifted off to sleep.

[elsaclack]

ben x leslie and 20, 38, 63, 78... honestly whatever you wanna do literally any number on the entire list

HONESTLY GOD BLESS YA MALLORY

20. “It’s three in the morning…”38. “That wasn’t what I asked.”63. “You’re amazing, did you know that?”78. “Well, it didn’t seem important at the time.”

Ben, for the record, doesn’t put much stock in the idea of a mystical cosmos.  He’s a hard facts kind of guy - a proof-is-in-the-pudding kind of guy - and despite the fact that Donna has spent many (many) hours forcing him to listen to her read through his various horoscope predictions, Ben remains firmly rooted in reality.

But if he did believe - if there was a mystical invisible force influencing the world around him - he’d guess the early morning hours of a random Wednesday in March would be his cosmic penance for every stupid decision he’s ever made in his life (namely, Ice Town).

He’s not sure, initially, what rouses him from sleep - one moment he’s adrift in inky black unconsciousness, the next he’s blinking up at the erratic shadows cast across his bedroom ceiling by the ceiling fan whirring on its highest setting.  And despite the fact that he’s suitably disoriented, he immediately knows two things:

First, it’s extremely early in the morning.

Second, he’s alone in his bed.

The second is the more pressing fact at present, given that he was definitely not alone when he fell asleep some time earlier.  He lets out a quiet groan as his fingers stretch across empty space to his left, searching for the soft body he already knows is not there.  He turns his head to blink blearily at the empty pillow, and just as his eyes focus on the rumpled sheets, he hears a noise out in the kitchen.

Adrenaline floods his veins and all at once, he’s awake, kicking his comforter and sheets down to the foot of the bed and stumbling to his feet.  It’s not an altogether uncommon phenomenon to hear a loud noise in the middle of the night as of late considering he lives with Andy and April, resident king and queen of weird, but he worries all the same - there is such a thing as crime, and raccoons, and crime raccoons, probably.

The master bedroom door is cracked open when he makes it out into the hall, April’s pale face illuminated in the scant light.  She glares at him when he emerges, dark eyes darting between his face and the kitchen at the end of the hall.  “Is that a burglar?” she hisses.

“I dunno,” Ben whispers over his shoulder, stalking down the hallway on the balls of his feet.  He hears another noise - a pan hitting a hard surface - and then a quiet curse in a familiar voice.  The tension leaves his shoulders automatically, before he’s even fully processed what he’s heard.

Leslie’s in the kitchen, only her torso visible through the space between the counter and the upper cabinets, and Ben isn’t sure if he wants to throw something (something soft, of course) at her for scaring him or just curl up right there on the floor until she’s finished.  He pauses at the end of the hallway, watching her move around the kitchen, wondering if she’s ignoring him or if she’s completely oblivious to his presence.  Behind him, he feels April craning around his shoulder to get a look - she scoffs a half-second later, loud enough that Leslie starts, crouching down to stare at them with owlish eyes wide with surprise.

“Are you serious?” April deadpans, voice just barely hoarse with sleep.  “What the hell are you doing?”

Leslie blinks glancing down at the carton of eggs in her left hand.  “Making breakfast?” she mumbles.

“Leslie, it’s…” he squints at the clock mounted to the wall beside the doorway and immediately digs his fingertips into his temple.  “It’s three in the morning, is - is now really the best time to make breakfast?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” she shrugs, and April releases a quiet, menacing growl behind him.  “Might as well do something useful with my time, right?  Can’t just lay around doing nothing all day -”

“You’re right,” he gently interrupts, waving a hand behind his back at April.  “But it’s the middle of the night, aren’t you tired?”

“Breakfast isn’t gonna make itself, Ben, and JJ’s doesn’t open until seven, so that’s four hours to kill and I’m gonna kill them making pre-waffle eggs and bacon.”

She sets about working again, resolutely ignoring them both, and with a long sigh, Ben half-turns back toward April.  “I’ll take care of this,” he murmurs quietly.

“You’d better,” April mutters.  “I keep a machete in the hall closet, I will kill you both if she wakes Andy up.”

She retreats back down the hall before he can think of a response, only turning back to shoot her middle finger at him just before her bedroom door closes once more; with one last steadying sigh, he turns back toward the kitchen and slowly makes his way toward Leslie.

Her energy is borderline manic - once again, not unfamiliar, but certainly unsettling.  She ignores him as he pushes himself up to perch on an empty stretch of counter space, ignores him clearing his throat, even ignores him gently bumping his heels against the cabinet doors below him in a repetitive hollow thunk.

“Leslie,” he tries, and she shakes her head - quick, almost imperceptive, like the beat of a hummingbird’s wings mid-flight.  “Leslie, honey, what’s going on?”

“I told you, I’m making breakfast.  Should I make French toast?”

“Leslie,” he says again, firmer than before, and she pauses.  “That wasn’t what I asked.  What’s going on?”

In the moonlight spilling through the kitchen windows, he can clearly see how stiff and tense her back and shoulders are.  She turns her head a degree - not toward him, perse, but at an upward angle - and she lets out a slow, quiet sigh.  “My - my campaign managers pulled out earlier,” she says softly.

His heart drops - he thought she’d seemed off before bed, but he’d chalked it up to the crappy narration on that World War II documentary they’d watched together after she came over and the whole not being allowed to go to work thing.  She turns to face him, hands planted on the edge of the counter, and he’s fairly certain the flat grimace on her face is meant to be something like a brave smile.  He shakes his head, and she drops her gaze to the kitchen floor.  “I’m so sorry,” he says softly.

She purses her lips and shrugs.  “Probably shouldn’t be surprised,” she says after a moment, and now her voice has that razor-thin quality it always takes on before she starts crying.  “They want a safe bet, and - I’m not that anymore.  I’d never take it back,” she adds, and he would be lying if he said he didn’t feel at least a little relieved.  “I just - I don’t know.  I didn’t think it would be this hard.”

He nods, gaze fixated on his knees, trying and failing to pretend like he can’t hear Leslie hiding her sniffle with a cough, briefly wondering why he ever thought the days after his impeachment would be the worst he would ever feel.  “Leslie…” he trails, slowly running the palms of his hands over his thighs.  There are words, there must be words, and if he finds the exact right words and says them in the exact right order, he can make everything okay again.  She sniffles again - louder than before - and all the air in his lungs escapes in a long, slow breath.  “You’re amazing.  Did you know that?”

He sees her rear back a little, confusion written across her features.  “Huh?”

“You’re amazing.”  he repeats with a little more conviction than before.  “You’re an amazing human being.  I’ve never met anyone as smart, as kind, as passionate as you.  You are the best candidate that will run for that position,” he says seriously.  “If they can’t see that - it’s their loss.  You are amazing.”

She pushes off the counter and quickly stalks toward him, fitting herself in the space between his knees with ease.  He curves his spine to meet her, lifting both hands to cup her face, letting his fingers sift through the soft hairs at the base of her skull.  Her kiss is slower than her usual speed, but it’s no less ardent; despite the heaviness still clinging to the air around them, he feels her lips curving up into a smile against him and her hands sliding up his legs and around his sides to touch the small portion of his butt that isn’t against the countertop.

He pecks the end of her nose when she pulls away, and then her forehead, smiling at the quiet giggle she muffles with her hand.  She falls into his embrace easily, her head slotted into the curve of his neck, and he thinks - not for the first time - that he could probably stay exactly like this forever and be the happiest man who ever lived.  He reaches up to touch the back of her head, slowly, gently combing his fingers through her hair, and she releases a contented sigh.  “I’m sorry that I’ve been complete poison to your campaign,” he murmurs.

She stiffens a little, but doesn’t pull away.  “You’re not poison,” she mutters, fingers flexing against him.

“I am to your campaign.”

She’s quiet a moment, considering it.  “Okay, maybe.  Maybe to my campaign.  But only to my campaign.  You’re amazing, too, Wyatt.”

He plants his lips against the side of her head, hiding his smile in her hair, and she gently pats his lower back.  “This is gonna work out,” he says after a beat of comfortable silence.

She breathes against him for a minute, no other sound passing between them.  “How do you know?”

Her voice is quiet, uncertain, and it ignites something deep and primal in the pit of his belly.  “Because I know you,” he says with a shrug, and she laughs when the movement jostles her head.  “You’re too tenacious to take things lying down.  You fight, and because you fight, things work out in the end.  This is no different.”

She pulls back, a genuine smile lighting the delicate features of her face, and he’s struck with bone-deep adoration.  “I love you,” she says - quietly, marveling, like she’s the one who can’t quite believe they have this back.

“I love you more,” he says back, grinning at the quiet laughter it elicits from her.  She pushes up to the balls of her feet, still laughing when she kisses him, and he swears he can feel the vibrations all the way down in his toes.  She falls back to her heels, hands finally sliding away from his butt to halfway down his thighs; she leans against him a moment, studying the small disaster frozen in time around the sink.  “You know most of that stuff expired last month, right?”  he asks quietly.

“Really?  I didn’t even think to check the expiration dates -”

“This is Andy and April’s house, you should always check expiration dates.”

She laughs again, and it tapers off into a sigh.  “Well, it didn’t seem important at the time,” she admits with a shrug.

He snorts and slides off the counter, stepping up behind her to wrap his arms around her waist and plant his chin against her shoulder.  “Come back to bed,” he murmurs, brushing his lips against the exposed skin of her neck.  She shivers and tilts her head to the side, granting him better access.  “You don’t have to sleep…”

“Oh…do you want to -”

“We can, but mostly April threatened us both with the machete she apparently keeps in the hall closet if we wake Andy up while we’re out here.”

Leslie straightens up, head turned just enough that she meets his gaze.  “We should go.” she says very seriously.

“You think she has an actual machete in the house?”

“Oh, without a doubt.  We should go.  Quietly.”

[ladyofwisteria]

Prologue pt1: Welcome to the Villains' world

 Darkness all I see is darkness I can not tell if my eyes are open or not, nor if it was a just dream wait, did I even fall asleep It's dark and it feels like I'm floating so maybe this is a dream, and as to confirm what I was thinking I then hear a voice speak up.

     "Ah...My lovely lord. My glorious, beautiful flower of evil.  

     You are the fairest in all the land.  

     Mirror, Mirror, pray tell. Who is the most..."  

 I then begin to hear the sound of a horse galloping and finally, I see something light up in front of me revealing a decorative framed mirror with a hand reaching out to me.

     "You, who has been summoned by the Mirror of Darkness.  

     Listen to your heart's desire and take the hand of the one reflected in the mirror.  

 Feeling my body move on my own I reached out towards the mirror once I touched it the rippled and I get a flashing pain in my head and I received a vision of a battle between a giant feline beast covered in blue flames and Seven figures, and by the look of things the beast is winning and ready to unleased it's final attack. And just as quickly the vision appeared it vanished and I was back in darkness.

     "Flames that can turn the moon to ashes,  

     Ice that can freeze time,  

     Earth that can swallow the sky,  

     Show no fear to the power of Darkness"  

 A new bright light appears blinding you till you noticed an unknown hand reach out towards you becoming you to take it.

     "Come now, show me your power. We only have a little bit of time left.  

     At all cost, do not let go of that hand."  

 And thus, you take the hand and once more everything falls to black

 ~ Å ~

     Prologue: Welcome to the Villains' world  

     Part 1: Welcome to Night Raven  

 'Where am I' I open my eyes once again to darkness but I felt like I was trapped inside a cramped box I desperately tried to find some way to open the box but to no avail but after a while, I've begun to hear something

 "What's that noise"

 I moved as close as I could and put my ear to the surface to listen better.

 "I need to find a cloak and quickly," said a childish like voice I was about to call out for help until I heard what sounded like someone trying to push off the lid of my container.

 "Grrr! The lid is heavy. Time for my... secret move! Guwaahuhh!

 I didn't know what the person outside at first until I started to feel hot and not just me but the box as well, I started panicking until I heard the sound of wood snapping in front of me which is when I realize I now have an opportunity to escape so with a few hard pushes I finally got them off an threw myself forward.

 "Gyaaaaa!?!?"

 Not realizing that where I was held was elevated and fell face-first onto the floor. It took a few seconds for me to recover and picking myself up from the floor to have a look at my surroundings and my jaw drop.

 The room was around gothic with floating coffins and in the middle of the room over a fountain of bright green water was the same mirror I saw in my dream or probably still am, what made me convinced about even more was when I turned around and saw who it was that got me off the coffin

         "Ok, Gotta get..." The floating cat? looked inside the coffin only to find it empty but turns around to find me. "Whaaaaaaaaa! Why are you up!?"

 "Ok, this has to be a dream, I'm in a room full of floating coffins and a talking Raccoon" I exasperated

 "Just who are you calling a raccoon, I'm the great Grimm!" he yelled angrily "Anyway hurry up and give me those clothes!"

 "What no way" I grab the sleeves of my outfit now taking a look at it realizes that it was not my pajamas but a black cloak with gold trims and purple inner layer.

 "Give me those clothes or I'll roast ya!"

 The floating raccoon let out a breath of blue fire, panicked I noticed a slightly open door and ran towards it.

 "Forget it, I'm not going to have a dream about getting roasted by a freakin raccoon."

 "I said I'm not a freakin raccoon!"

 "Somebody help me" I yelled as I ran as fast as could through a long dark hallway and garden until I ran out of breath in what looked like a Library I took a quick look around to see if the flying raccoon was still flowing me.... they're gone I dropped to the floor to catch my breath.

 "Please let this just be a bad dream, I just really want to wake up."

 "Did you really think you'd get away from my nose? Dumb human!"

 'Shit' I quickly turned to see the floating raccoon dog had caught up to me and blocking the only exit and I'm still trying to recover my breath 'I'm fucked'.

 "If you don't wanna get roasted, better hand over-" before he could finish a cord came out of nowhere and bided the creature.

 "Buwah? What's with this cord?

 "This is no mere cord. This is the lash of love!"

 Out from behind the creature was a tall sharply dressed man with a half raven themed mask, a black and white suit, over that is a black overcoat and top hat decorated black feathers, and mirror-like accessories on his hat and hip but what stood out the most was his glowing gold eyes.

         'What the hell kind of dream is this?'

 "Ah, found you at last. Are you one of the new students?"

 'Wait, what'

 "You shouldn't do things like that. Leaving the Gate on your own! Not only that, but you also have yet to tame your familiar which has broken a number of school rules."

 "Um, sir he's not-."

 "Let me go! I'm not their freakin' familiar!"

 "Sure, sure. The rebellious ones always say things like that." He then summons more cord a tie it around Grim's moth. "Just quiet down for a moment"

 "Mmmmmmghmmm!" Grim struggled to get out but with his arms a mouth cover it was made impossible.

 "Um sir"

 "My goodness. It's unprecedented for a new student to leave the Gate on their own. Ugh......How impatient can you be? The entrance ceremony is already well underway. Let's head to the Hall of Mirrors."

 "Wait, what do you mean New Student? And what Gate?"

 "It's the room you woke up in with all of the doors. All students who wish to attend this academy must pass through one of those doors to arrive here. Normally, students wake up only after the door is opened with a special key but"

 "Well, his fire kind of blow the lid off" I point to Grim.

 "So, in the end, the culprit appears to be this familiar. If you're going to bring it with you have the responsibility and properly take care of it."

 "But sir he's not! "

 "Oh my! Now isn't the time to be long-winded. The entrance ceremony will soon come to a close. Let's get a move on."

 "Wait! " I yelled causing the man in front of me to halt. "Just who are you, and where exactly am I?"

 The man looked at me confused

 "What's this? Are you still dazed? It appears the teleportation magic has left you disoriented... Well, it's fine. It happens often enough. I shall give you an explanation as we make our way there. Since I am gracious."

 After a few minutes, we began walking again I silent until we reached the courtyard since I was not distracted I was able to get a clear view of where I was.

 "Wow this looks like a magic castle"

 "That's because it is. This is 'Night Raven Collage'. Those magicians blessed with a unique aptitude for magic gather from all over the world, here at the most prestigious magical academy in Twisted Wonderland.

 'Twisted Wonderland?' I sware the more crazy stuff that comes out of this guy's mouth the more convinced I am that this is just one weird dream.

 "And I'm the principal, appointed to take care of this academy by the board chairman Dire Crowley."

 "Wait, magicians?"

 "Only those magicians seen as worthy by the Dark Mirror can attend this school. Chosen ones use the Gate and are summoned here from around the world. An Ebony carriage carrying a Gate should have gone to meet you as well"

 Think back I then remembered something from my earlier dream.

 "I think I remember hearing a horse and carriage"

 "The Ebony Carriage goes to welcome new students chosen by the Dark Mirror. They are special carriages that carry the doors. The market decided long ago that carriages are used to welcome people on special days."

 "So, you're saying that the carriage just brought me here on its own!?"

 He continued explaining a bit more about the academy all the while Grim was trying to get our, before long we were back to set of doors which lead to a room that I ran out of earlier.

 "Come. Let's go to the entrance ceremony."

[alphateampilot]

Memories || September 30, 1998 || The Fourth Survivor

Slipping by the USS air traffic before they knew he’d gotten the better of them, Nighthawk flew the MEDEVAC helicopter to Raccoon City. A no-fly zone had been declared over the city- but the US Military forces that were there were pulling out. They couldn’t risk being caught in the city when the missile strike was ordered.

Which also meant that there was no one there to enforce the order.

He flew low, and under the cover of darkness, scanning the last known channels of Alpha team and Delta team, going by each zone that had been determined at drop off.

“Delta team. This is Nighthawk. Come in, Delta. Delta do you read?”

Silence.

He flipped over to Alpha’s frequency: “Alpha team, this is Nighthawk. Come in, Alpha. Alpha do you read?“ Silence again.

Hovering, he changed position, quickly heading over to a different zone within the city. He had to be mindful of his position- the t-infected were absolutely swarming down below, and they were super aggressive, piling and clawing over each other trying to get up to him... albeit, futile.

He rose again, holding a pheromone canister close. If he found any survivors, that canister would give them a small reprieve getting in- it was designed to draw the zombies’ attention to a particular area. Crowd control.

Nighthawk continued his sweep over the city. His stomach churned at the burning buildings and destruction that had swept across the town. Umbrella had no contingency management for this, and it was coming to bite them. 

He called for Delta, he called for Alpha. And every time it was met with silence. They... aren’t really dead, are they?

“Goddammit,“ he muttered, “Someone please, just... pick up, will ya?“

He took the mic, and dialed again, heading over to Section K. “This is Nighthawk. Delta team, come in. Delta team, do you read?“

Gut-clenching silence.

He looked at the readings on his fuel. The chopper was going through a gallon a minute. If someone didn’t get to him in the next ten, there was no guarantee that they’d be able to make it in time- to get out of the range of the missile.

One more try...

"This is Nighthawk. Come in, Alpha. Alpha, do you read?"

Click.

"Nighthawk, this is Hunk from Alpha Team."

Relief washed over Nighthawk,  "Man, I thought you were all wiped out. I've been trying to—"

"I'm at Point K12. Need info on my extraction."

K12- the sewers underneath the Police Department, and above the entrance to the Umbrella Facility- NEST... Hawk couldn’t help but notice that Hunk had said, ‘my’, though. Him. No one else.

He’d take it.

"Guess there's no keeping down the Grim Reaper, huh?"

"My extraction point!"

He could hear the noises of something in the background... moaning? Hunk had pursuers- infected.

"Relax, Mr. Reaper,” he said, flying upward and getting sight on the zone, “ I'm headed towards the front gate of R.P.D. Pick you up there."

“Got it.“

Nighthawk nodded to himself and flew up to the Raccoon City Police Station.

Holy shit.

If he thought the rest of the city was bad, it was peaceful compared to this place. He got sight on creatures he hadn’t seen before. He was familiar with the t-infected. Things they called zombies, but these were some creatures he had no experience with.

Mutated masses with reptilian features and bulging eyeballs in weird places.

Is that the result of G? He wasn’t so sure the canister would be effective, but he had it on the ready.

He kept track of his time. They had maybe eight minutes before they needed to scram. It should only take Hunk five of those minutes to get to front gate...

Something skittered up the side of the R.P.D with a hiss, flashing its flayed appendages, and sporting a large brain resting atop a jaw full of fanged teeth. The hell?

It lashed out with a long tongue like a frog and latched on to the landing skids of his chopper. “Fuck off!” Hawk drew his gun and shot the tongue squarely. It let go and bellowed a raspy scream... and then more of them crawled out the windows, flashing their tongues. Hawk pulled up suddenly, maneuvering away from the creatures. 

Five minutes. Hunk wasn’t at the gate.

He reached for the mic in frustration, "What the hell, Hunk? You're late for extraction."

Gunfire and Hunk’s voice came through, "Front door's blocked. Gotta find another way out."

"Heads up,” Nighhtawk stated bluntly, “guys at the top just ordered a full clean up on Raccoon City. So move fast, or you can kiss your ass goodbye."

“Got it.“

He looked at his fuel. Half a tank... they’d be pushing it. Three more minutes. Three more minutes. More hissing. Goddammit. No choice but to circle back around and get the licky-things away from him.

Buildings crumbled around him. Small explosions popped off in the distance. So many, many monsters... he wasn’t certain there were many survivors here. And there wouldn’t be any once morning came. What happened to Delta?

Small beeps alerted him to his time. He circled back around-

Hunk still wasn’t there.

"Hunk!” he called, “Time's up!"

"Go, Nighthawk. Get out."

Hunk sounded almost resigned. Gunfire and groans fed through the background of the comm.

He’s crazy.

"I'm not gonna just leave you—" he cried indignantly.

"This is war...survival's your responsibility. "

“Goddammit...“

Heart racing, Nighthawk had to make a decision. Leave behind the only survivor- or save his own ass? It didn’t sit right with him. Making quick calculations, he sighed. He’d give three more minutes. Hover above, and keep eyes below. He could push three more minutes but they would absolutely have to land to refuel. He could hopefully get outside of the blast range by then.

Hopefully.

Circling back around- the sound of explosions were startlingly nearby-

Hunk. He saw that tell-tale helmet and red lenses even from his height. Hunk was tossing grenades to rush by swarms of zombies... and they were following him. Hawk dived down low, and popped off one of the pheromone canisters.

At the very least he could keep the mass of them off his tail for thirty seconds. A cloud of red spilled out from the canister as it fell on the ground, zombies pausing briefly as if confused by the smell of it.  Good enough. Nighthawk wheeled around to the front, lowering himself in front of the man who’d just breached the gate.

Hunk’s voice came over the comm as he paused.

"Why'd you come back?"

Hawk smiled underneath his helmet. “I wanted to meet the Grim Reaper.“

Heavy footsteps lingered not too far behind Hunk- and Hawk could see what it was-

A Tyrant.

“Shit! Get in, go, go, go!“

Hunk didn’t need to be told twice. He sprinted and hopped over the skids into the interior of the chopper. Hawk pulled up sharply, pressing the control to close the sliding door.

“Buckle up back there!“ “Got it!“

He heard Hunk strap himself in, clinging to the safety rails- he was breathing hard. But they weren’t out of it yet. The lickers jumped off the side of the R.P. D.- one of them grabbed onto the landing skid. Pulling the weight unevenly. An alarm blared a warning. “Hunk, I’m gonna shakem!“ He got only a grunt in response. Pulling up hard and leaning to counterbalance, Hawk scanned- A billboard- advertising Umbrella’s own drug: Adravil. A picture of a woman smiling, holding up the drug, captioned: Quick and easy relief.

“Quick and easy relief- I’ll take it,“ he mused, pulling up the chopper. If I angle it this way, at this speed... “Ok, heads up, gotta scrape this bug off- may be bumpy...“ “Mhm,“ another tired grunt.

Thwack. There was a small scream and scraping as the chopper brushed the top of the billboard. The blaring stopped. And the chopper picked up speed. Once they cleared the skyscraper lines, Hawk sighed.

“Once again, only you survived Mr. Death...“ he breathed, hitting hard that they were leaving the rest of Raccoon to die.

“Always. Only you survive...“ Delta, the Wolfpack was gone. All of Alpha. “Death cannot die...“ Hunk’s voice was barely a whisper.

Something bugged him- bothered him in the way Hunk was talking. “Hey, man, you alright?“

No response.

“... Hunk?“

No response.

Shit. “Ok, hold on, buddy.“

Hawk flew a clear distance from the city, and landed in the open fields. He unbuckled, and hopped to the back. Hunk was shallow breathing underneath the mask... blood still seeping through the fatigues... holding on to a vial- radiating purple. G.

Hawk took out first aid spray and folded up the fatigues to reach the bloody parts, spraying Umbrella’s own manufactured quick healing aerosol. It supposedly had some genetic coding from the t-virus, specifically, the regenerative properties.

Wounds stitched themselves, he wouldn’t lose anymore blood, but he was wet and cold... Hawk was reluctant to take off the stuff he was wearing in the brisk night... The shock could kill him. He took a foil blanket and wrapped it around him instead. It’d have to do. He hopped back up and went on the USS West Frequency. “USS West, this is Nighthawk-“

A terse male voice answered, “Nighthawk, you better-“ “I’ve extracted Special Agent Hunk from Raccoon City. He has a sample of the G virus. He’s all that remains of Alpha Team.“

A beat of silence, then: “What’s the status?“ “In bad shape,“ Hawk admitted, “He needs immediate medical attention. I am refueling now. Have a team on standby at the Umbrella West Medical Center. I’ll be there within the hour.“

“Acknowledged. Nighthawk, prepare yourself for quarantine as well.“

Hawk sighed, “Affirmed.“

The operator cut out, and he hauled the extra fuel containers out,  filling the chopper with half a tank. “Alright, Mr. Reaper...“ he sighed, ready to start flying again, “We gotta job to do, let’s go.“

[getreadytosmash]

][All questions for otp meme for Samuel + Rhys][

@blind-mutant

Coffee shop AU: Who is the barista, and who frequents the coffee shop?

Rhys is a barista trying to pay bills and a rundown coffee shop and it SUCKS until Samuel walks in and asks for enough coffee to kill every loving human on earth. Well. Ok. It definitely weirds Rhys out with how Samuel goes into lengthy speeches about his inventions or incredibly depressing talk about hell.

But god he's cute and Rhys loves how Samuel purrs when he gets coffee and the amount of cash Rhys gets when he leaves. It gets better when Samuel mostly comes at night and stutters and walks into a wall thr first time Rhys flirts with him.

Highschool/College AU: Who is the straight-A student, and who’s the backrow slacker?

Samuel is that prick who always reminds the teacher of due homework. Yeah sure, that history paper was only three pages but who cares if he did ten? He wants to do well so that Phil isn't the one who his father is most proud of in the family. He wants to be noticed, needs to be noticed for what he could be one day.

Rhys hates him. God, is there nothing worse than a know it all? The only thing that makes it worse is the fact that Samuel is a cute nerd that makes Rhys wanna bully or kiss him. They get assigned a project together and its hell until Samuel starts to realise why Rhys hates school, the pressure of being a mutant and being seen as stupid. Similarly Rhys sees the pressure Samuel puts himself under to be good enough and well...at least there's a chance of finally being able to shit the nerd up in a kiss.

Rivals to loves AU: Who takes their rivalry seriously, and who is half in it just to push the other’s buttons? 

Rhys thinks that the Leader is just an undersized loser who tries too hard. Yes he's brilliant but he ain't tough shit, Rhys has seen Leader without his heeled shoes before. Of course, Rhys knows that he isn't that impressive either, but it's still funny to tease Leader and to hear the other man squawk in offence.

Leader....oh boy he is determined to show Rhys that he is the true superior mastermind, not Magneto or Mystique. Rhys is a fool who should recognise the fact that Samuel is a very impressive villain and therefore should stop teasing and flirting with him! They're enemies! Can Rhys stop smiling so sweetly and making innuendos of everything??? God, he makes Samuel want to press the absolute dolt to a wall and make him see that Leader clearly someone to not mess around and flirt carelessly with.

Enemies to lovers AU: Which one switches sides? 

Hitting it a bit different here!! Rhys is a master thief, someone trained to use his shadows and cute face to get anything he wants. Samuel is a hard cracking detective who is determined to work long nights and to finally figure out who this apprentice thief is. Little does he know that said thief often likes to come and visit the agency, doing some filework and essentially being the reason that Samuel still lives thanks to coffee and the occasional healthy meal.

Of course, Rhys knows that Samuel is both highly intelligent and....a dumbass. Which shouldn't be as cute or appealing as it is, but Rhys finds himself...actually wanting to be helpful when Samuel has a migraine or blushing when Samuel says that he's going to marry Rhys for bringing him coffee. And maybe Rhys sends Samuel a mysterious bouquet that's from the "Midnight Stealer" and perhaps he lives to hear the flustered shriek when Samuel finds them.

Soulmate AU: Who is eager to meet their soulmate? Who absolutely does not want to meet their soulmate? 

It sounds a bit silly to say that Rhys held out onto the idea of a soulmate, more so when Blue died and she hadn't been his soulmate. Fuck fate and all that, but it's still something that runs on his brain when he's alone. Honestly, I think it would be really neat if it was one of those soulmate aus where you can feel your soulmate die and Rhys is the lucky ass who gets a soulmate that dies multiple times.

Anyway, Samuel sees the flaws in soulmates. He's been to hell and back and he rules it with a green fists. Soulmates are for the living and he lost that a long time ago. It doesn't stop fate from giving him Rhys though and Samuel now spends most of his time panicked and staying away from the other man, less Rhys somehow picks up that they're meant to be together as nature has decreed. He does a pretty good job of it until Rhys, stubborn beloved brat, decides that enough is enough and he will confront Samuel on why he always seems to avoid him.

Samuel wishes deprately he wasn't attracted to such stubbornness.

Single parent AU: Which one is the single parent? (Alt. if they’re both single parents: Which one is open to starting a new relationship from the start? Which one is never planning on finding love again… Until they meet the other and are instantly smitten?)

Rhys really isn't...prepared for the little mute girl to start following him about but. Ok. In his defense he does try to loose her but then the worry of a lost child sets in, especially when said little girl opens her mouth and a small noise of surprise is enough to almost make the windows shatter. Rhys is an early father at the age of meeting his new daughter for five seconds.

Of course, Samuel comes running, out pf breath and now seriously considering doing some of those exercises Red keeps telling him about. He isn't even suspicious of Rhys at first because...well, the man looks like a human Daisy and he can smell the intentions off him. Rhys gasps in offense and Coral is just having a wonderful time right now until she gets grounded for wondering off from her uncle.

Samuel is rather smitten by the man who handled a mute 8 year old rather well and...coffee is always a good way to repay people. Rhys is more than happy to get to know the cute man who is still slightly wheezing, especially when he learn that this isn't the first time his niece Coral has wondered away from him. Samuel is cute and more than willing to do anything reasonable to repay Rhys for looking after someone so precious to him and of course Rhys wants dinner with Samuel because he isn't a clown much and knows not to resist a cute guy who wears leather pants in his free time?

Doctor AU: Which one is the longsuffering doctor? Which one is the patient? 

People in the institute aren't well. Rhys knows that so far it has been the doctors, ever since the new guy has shown up, deadly quiet but malice practically written into the air. People get sick and they die and only a few patients have suffered this fate but almost every doctor has gotten ill. He keeps hearing about how they need to use stronger collars or medicines to keep Sterns calm but nothing seems to work. The only time he sees Sterns is when they roll past a body bag that has the man's shape and even then it couldnt have been him, Sterns was walked past Rhys's cell later that night!

They eventually get out. Rhys's own doctor can't lay a single finger on him before he starts vomiting and dies after Rhys kills him for all the previous pain he was forced to be induced to. Everyone is free and Blue dies but then Sterns is there, keeping the collar and bracelets and anklets on for whatever reason and he's telling Rhys he can bring her back. He isn't sure if he believes Samuel but then when the other man starts muttering about how he's going to have to travel and blow himself up again, Rhys needs to come with him.

He isn't quite sure what Samuel is yet. But he definitely isn't human and he isn't good for anyone involved. Which is why Rhys deems him the best choice to tag along with. Samuel seems to know what he's doing and when Rhys let's loose the raccoon eyes...well, he kinda likes the way Samuel suddenly stutters and looks away while letting Rhys do what he wants. He's already been charmed for weeks now.

Bodyguard AU: Who is the bodyguard? Who are they protecting? Which one is secretly pining for the other? 

Samuel disagrees with the idea that he needs a bodyguard. His body gives off enough radiation and be can come back from the dead! But apparently that isn't good enough for being left alone in an entire X-men college isn't acceptable. Cue Rhys being left with Samuel since he's nocturnal and now he's faced with someone he might not see or hear for three hours and then find out that Samuel was fast asleep in the lab where he's helping develop Krakoa flowers.

Samuel on the other hand? Holy shit. Cute man they told was to protect him or to make sure that he doesn't do anything shady. He doesn't seem to get weirded out when Samuel purrs or falls asleep midway through work, only concerned. That's why it comes to his attention that obviously Rhys perhaps needs to be charmed or convinced that Samuel, everthe brilliant light he is, should try and get Rhys to come to Vista Verde with him, where the beautiful man would be muh more appeared there!

Pirate AU: Who is the pirate? Who is the member of the royal family who did not sign up for this? 

The plan that ends with prince Rhys being kidnapped is brilliant and some of Samuel's best work alongside Red. The only thing he didn't account for was how thrilled Rhys actually is once the other man realises that he was on a pirate ship. Freedom! Adventure! Pretty men in beautiful pirate clothes! Its every horny prince's dream and Rhys makes quick work of letting Samuel know that.

God help Samuel when Rhys gets something more befitting of a pirate when they all realise that his family aren't going to pay the fees. He looks so cute AND hot in tight pants and bellowy shirts and know Samuel is going to wheeze over the ship, but not long before Rhys starts wanting sword fighting lessons from Samuel....personal close lessons.

Childhood best friends AU: Which one was super obviously in love with the other the whole time? Who was oblivious until they were older?

Rhys was very adoring of Samuel as a kid. He didn't seem to care about what Rhys is and he was just thrilled that he had someone close to his own age that he could sit down with and share animal facts. They were close friends for years before Samuel's mother went "missing" and he moved back to Hawaii for his father's work.

And it isn't years later that Rhys tuns into a short green man who is seemingly delighted to see him for whatever reason. Samuel on the other hand can't stop purring as he rambles because Rhys is beautiful and he smells wonderful and Samuel only snort-purrs harder when it finally clicks and his face lights up at his only childhood friend.

Red chucks a pillow and tells them to get a room while Leader shrieks and Rhys giggles.

[spazzbunn]

Christmas With Friends

Today was pretty big. It was Christmas Day in Zootopia! The kids were opening their presents, the adults went out to get some items thanks to the gift cards they got, it was even snowing. Overall, this Christmas was really starting to feel jolly. Especially for a house full of mammals. The home had its two owners inside the warm comfortable shelter that kept them cozy from the snow and cold wind outside. Michael and Katrice, the rabbit and red panda couple. They both were huddled close with their paws holding looking over at their fully decorated Christmas tree they made together. It was full of lights and ornaments and had a big bright yellow gold star on top. It truly looked breathtaking for the two of them. Amongst the noise that surrounded them was the television and the voices of their good friends. One other sound was able to catch their attention. A click with a sound of a flash. They turned around to witness what was behind them. It was a tall and slim figure with yellow and white and little bits of black spots and areas around this body. It was Hammy the cheetah. Having to wear his suit being of cranberry red and pine tree green tie to fit the Holidays. He had with him his camera, taking a moment to take pretty good looking pictures on whatever he saw as stunning. It was his passion. “Sorry, just that felt like a postcard moment.” Hammy said as he turned his camera around to show the small screen to have the two witness his very professional photography. “Dang Hammy. This looks good.” Michael told him as Hammy was happy with his work being liked by all. “Thanks. I’ll try to have this be in a postcard for next year. Just hope I don’t forget.” Hammy rubbed the back of his neck with Katrice patting him on his back. “No worries. Just send it to us. I know Michael won’t forget Christmas moments.” Katrice smirked at her rabbit who blushed slightly but nodded. Hammy went into the kitchen to lay down his camera by the counter since the table was full of different types of food to snack on. Michael went over to one side of the living room as Katrice went another. Both of them wanting to be good hosts for their guests, who also were their friends. Michael went over to a group of mammals on the couch. Watching television as it is playing some videos on a tabby cats phone. Next to the male tabby was a male coyote, a male african wild dog, and even a male silver fox. The bunny walked around and sat down next to the tabby. “Hey Jake.” Jake looked over. “Oh hey dude! I’m just showing the guys some videos about this crazy show in Japan.” Milo, the african wild dog, took a sip of water from his red cup. “Yeah. It is very odd. Who the heck would even think of stuff like this?” “Maybe odd mammals?” Shadow the silver fox stated. Having to have no red contacts or any red or purple on his fur. He wanted to look clean for his friends. Mainly, because his girlfriend otter Karen got him to be cleaning the dye off. “That, or the show itself knows its audience?” Evan Coywise, the coyote, told the guys as they all pretty much agreed with his theory. “Eh. Hey, thanks for inviting us, by the way.” Milo said to Michael with the rabbit feeling happy to hear that. “Yeah. This Christmas get together is pretty sweet.” Shadow says as he looks around to see Tod coming back with a plate of food. Having mac n cheese, some turkey, and corn on it. “Oh hey Michael!” Tod the reddish orange fox went over to sit down at the last empty seat of it as he takes a bite of the mac n cheese with the fork he had. “I was kinda surprised everyone showed up early.” Michael says as he looked to see everyone was accounted for. “Well it is rare for us to hang out together. We all are different, but we still care for each other.” Milo points out as he takes another sip of his drink. Tod looked over at Milo. “You must have drank the philosophy juice or something.” Shadow laughed from Tod’s joke as Michael and Jake watch a bit of the weird game show as they questioned about if they both could ever compete with getting a show like this. The answer seemed like a ‘no’ to the tabby and bunny. Katrice in the meanwhile went over to the side of the house where the chairs from the kitchen were moved as a couple of mammals used them to sit down and starting to draw. One pig, the other a rabbit, and the last a raccoon with blue fur where its black should be. All three of them were female and another common thing was they were artists. Katrice raised a brow. “Hey you three. What are you all doing?” The gray rabbit with brown ears and brown stylish hair looked up at the red panda. “Oh sorry! We are doing a sort of challenge here.” “Oh?” The red panda seemed curious to know. Helena looked up as she fixed her glasses. “Yeah! We are trying to draw the tree you guys have and post our artworks on our tweets. The most liked picture wins” “Ah cool!” Said Katrice. “What would the winner get?” “Bragging rights.” The raccoon said as she took a sip of Dr.Pepper as she kept drawing with a smirk. “Oh, after we finish up, we wanna know if you wanna chat and eat with us in the kitchen.” “Awww. I’d love to. The kitchen seems a bit crowded though.” Katrice saw that inside were Hammy, Diana, Karen, and the brown bear Lou and the other rabbit Gerry. All of them talking and laughing and cracking jokes. “We can slip in fine.” Helena says to Katrice. “Besides, I am about to call quits before my paw breaks.” She sets her paper down on an empty chair they had. “Ehh. Same.” Fever and Trish said in unison as they gave their artworks to Hel as she puts them on top of hers. “I think I am gonna get something to eat as well.” Katrice said to her friends as the girls got up and the four of them started to head into the kitchen. Michael gets up as well, his stomach growling since he had to skip breakfast along with Katrice since they were busy cleaning and setting up the food. “Sorry guys, but I gotta get something to eat.” “It’s cool dude.” Evan says to him. “Hey, could you get me a bread roll? I want to finish this crazy show with the guys before I eat.” Michael obliged as he went around the couch and started to head towards the kitchen where he witnessed his girlfriend and their friends having fun. He walks in to go find a roll as Katrice comes up to him and smiles. “Well, everyone seems to be having fun here.” “Heh. I know. We did great Katrice.” Michael says with him smiling back at her. This got the attention of the skunk who saw the two being cute together and calls out to them. “Awwwe~ You guys having a little date over there?!~” Diana jokingly said with a smug grin. Her glasses even added more smugness to it. Michael and Katrice blushed and were trying to act cool with Diana laughing softly. “I’m just joking you guys.” Karen sipped her cup of tea. “Diana is a jokester I found out. She looks so sweet but yet can act like a spice at times.” “Eh. I just am Yin and Yang really. Both inside and out.” Diana ate a cracker as Lou thought about her sentence and snickers.. “Ok, that’s pretty funny. Especially since you are black and white.” Lou laughed as he was eating some cheese and grapes on his plate with Diana looking at herself but then smirking and trying not to laugh as well. She really walked into that one. Karen smiled along with Michael and Katrice while the mammals then hear that familiar click. Hammy had his camera out and took another picture to treasure. “Sorry again. Just, this whole gives off good vibes. I wanna cherish these you know?” Hammy put the camera down back on the counter as everyone was telling him it was fine. “Yeah dude. Nothing wrong with taking good pictures with friends.” Lou said with Karen and Diana agreeing. Michael looks at the roll in his paw. Then he remembered what he went in here for. “Oh! I almost forgot!” “Forgot about what?” A mammal came into the room with everyone looking over to who said that. It was Daniel the weasel. He was a pretty chill friend of Michael so of course he had to come and celebrate with him and his girlfriend and his friends. He was in the bathroom having to have to take a phone call from his parents. He was finished so he came down to see what was happening. “Oh nothing Daniel. I just gotta give Evan this roll. Also I planned on eating as well.” Michael tells Daniel as the weasel goes to the fridge to pull out a bottle of water. Michael looks around with his mind wanting to get a bowl of Katrice’s mac n cheese. She always makes the best food ever. Before the bunny could get started with getting a bowl, Gerry comes over and gives a big hug to both Michael and the red panda. “Jeez your hugs are pretty strong” Katrice said as he lets go with Michael holding on to the roll for dear life. “Hey I give bigger hugs too.” Lou stated with him going to get some sugar cookies. “Sorry, but I was just about ready to head out. My family is gonna head on over to my other family for dinner as well.” Gerry explains as he took a sugar cookie and started to eat one. “Awww. Sucks you gotta go.” Fever said with her and Trish eating some ham as Gerry sighed. “Well, the Holidays are pretty busy this time for year after all.” The light brown rabbit said as he took another bite. “You was pretty chill to hang around.” Daniel tells Gerry who took that compliment. “You gotta hang out with Michael and some of us at ‘Boys Night’” Gerry rubbed his chin. “I think I got time this weekend. So yeah!” He finished his cookie. “Besides, I am gonna throw a New Years Eve party so we can spend more time together!” “Wooo! Boys night!” Jake shouted as he and the rest of the guys came over. Evan seeing the roll and thanking Michael as he takes it and begins to eat it. Fever looked at the whole group that was in the big clean kitchen. Full of laughs and full of cheer. She was there when Hammy took that picture of Michael, Katrice, Lou and Karen with Diana as well. It was starting to give her an idea. She poked on the shoulders of Michael and Katrice as the two looked over and she whispered something into their ears. Both the bunny and the red panda’s ears stood up and had the same smile as their friend. “Hey Hammy.” Katrice says with the cheetah looking over to her. “Got enough space for one more picture?” “Of course!” Hammy said with pride. “What you got in mind?” Michael then spoke up. “We want to take a Christmas picture. Together with all of us here.” Everyone looked at each other. Quickly, they all pretty much agreed to that idea. “Alrighty. Been a rarity since I done one of these.” Trish said as she finished her plate. “Same here.” Jake said as he sipped his drink of cola. “Where would we take the pic at?” Milo questioned with Evan looking over at the tree. “Hmm. What about the Christmas Tree?” Evan points out. “Sure!” Michael and Katrice said together. “Alright!” Tod says as he went over to pick up a chair and carry it in the living room with everyone starting to follow. Karen and Shadow held each other close in front of the tree. Same with Michael and Katrice. Tod sets down the chair far away from the group so the photo can get the whole view of the mammals, the tree and decorations, even a glimpse of the snow outside. The group starts to form big with Lou being perfectly in place of the camera. The same goes for everyone. Hammy would be the last as Tod goes to join in the photo. He sets the camera down onto the chair and sets up the camera to be timed as it begins to beep. Quickly he runs in and fills in the last spot. “Oh! We should say Merry Christmas.” Katrice tells everyone with Michael loving the idea. “Sounds good my pumpkin spice raccoon. But why?” Michael asked in confusion. “Idk. Seems holly and jolly.” The red panda says with the camera starting to beep more, saying it was close to take the photo. “MERRY CHRISTMAS!” The group all shouted at the same time as the photo flashed and clicked, the picture being taken. Everyone would pretty much agree. This Christmas was the best one yet. Maybe, even the best one ever. They were glad to spend it together. Merry Christmas to all of Zootopia, and to the people that mean a lot to me.           - Spazzie Bunnie Katrice belongs to @msitubeatz Fever belongs to @feverwildehopps Trish belongs to @trashasaurusrex Helena belongs to @helthehatter Diana belongs to @skeletonguys-and-ragdolls Gerry belongs to @androace-bunny Evan belongs to @wartoxdude Hammy belongs to @hammytotherescue Jake belongs to @kingdomofkitten Shadow belongs to @n-p-wilde Karen belongs to @azshade Lou belongs to @firecracker-art-lounge Milo belongs to @juantriforce042 Tod belongs to @thefoxninja17 Daniel belongs to @owningsuperset7

[gremlin-man-bastard-child]

day 7 - listen, we’re the same you and me. sort of. uh, its what i had in mind when writing but the line never makes it in /shrug @deniigi 

Peter slunk into his apartment at some ungodly hour of the morning, flopping limply on his couch, facedown. Matt was awake, obviously, because sleep was for the weak, and also he’d ingested too much coffee. Truly, his one soft spot. 

“You good, kid?” 

Peter screamed into the pillow. Matt rolled his eyes. 

“Not helping, bud. I need to know if you’re injured.” Peter flopped his arm vaguely. 

“All right, well. You know where the first aid kit is, I guess, and if you’re too injured to move just yell. Quietly. I have superhearing and neighbors, so.” 

He received no response, but he hadn’t been expecting one. It’s not their first rodeo. 

He slinks back to bed, laying down. He can’t sleep, however, so he sits up and crosses his legs, closing his eyes and focusing on his breathing. 

His alarm goes off. What the fuck. He closed his eyes for like, three seconds. There’s no fucking way it’s 6 AM. 

Except it is. He slinks out of bed, feels for the tags on his suits and ties and matches a horrible red one with slate gray to fuck with Foggy, then checks on Peter. 

Still passed out. Aight, then. He dredges up some paper and writes a note, hoping his handwriting is somewhat close to legible. He doesn’t often have to actually write things, but he’s never let himself fall out of the knowledge. Just in case. 

He gets to the office last, Foggy and Karen already setting up an array of cheap breakfast food and burnt coffee. He will refrain. If he eats too early, he’ll throw up later. 

“Good morning, fellow fools-at-law,” he greets, tapping his way through the office with the air of someone who got more than 2 hours of sleep. 

“Good morning, our scheming leader,” Foggy agrees, mouth full of bagel. Karen wasn’t a heathen and waited until her mouth was empty to respond. 

“Good morning, Matt,” she says, beaming in his direction. “I brought you a coffee from the cafe you tolerate.” 

He points at her. “This is why you’re my favorite, Miss Page,” he says, smiling. Foggy makes a displeased noise and swallows. 

“No fair! I was busy, uh, fighting off a raccoon! From our, uh, bagels… in an alley. No, yeah. I lost it.” 

“Anyway,” Karen carefully sidesteps Foggy’s story. “You seem well-rested this morning, Matt.” 

“I’m not, but thank you!” He says cheerfully. “Spider-Man crawled in my window at 3 in the morning and passed out on my couch!” 

“Oh,” Foggy and Karen say in unison which, wow, that sounds weird. Usually there’s a slight delay he can pick up on, but wow. 

“Is he okay?” Foggy says, leaning back on his desk. 

“I mean, I learned my lesson when he dislocated my shoulder that one time so I didn’t check him over, but I didn’t hear any broken bones or anything. He knows where the first aid kit is, anyway.” 

“Huh,” Karen said, deep in thought. 

The day moves quickly, a few new clients, a few old. Some more fruit baskets, a pie, and - what luck! - a 30 dollar check. 

After work, he goes out for drinks with Foggy and Karen at Josie’s, then home with Foggy. They snake together on the couch, watching cheesy movies and laughing late into the night.

The next morning, they trade ties and slink to the office, pretending Matt had actually gone home and changed his suit or slept or something weird like that. 

That day blurs past Matt, leaving him to wander home after the office door has been locked. 

Matt meanders through the city vaguely in the direction of his apartment, listening carefully. It’s quiet tonight, he’s lucky. Something about Mondays, he’d guess. Not even criminals feel up to shenanigans. 

When he arrives home, he’s a little surprised to find a familiar heartbeat still in his apartment. 

“Oh, Peter,” He calls loud, jovial. The lump on his couch groans, curls up tighter and sighs. He feels on top of the counter for the note, satisfied to find it missing. At least the other masked menace got off the couch once today. 

“Alright, kid, I gotta check you over for injuries, whether you like it or not.” He approaches, feeling around the couch with his stick until he finds a limb he can poke. 

“‘M fine, D,” the mound of blankets and stress groans, shifting. 

“Oh yeah? Then why are you still on my couch? It’s been at least a day, kiddo.” 

He’s silent for a while, before, “I don’t know. I don’t want to get up. I can’t… I can’t do it.” 

Oh. 

Well. 

Hm. 

Matt sits on the arm of the couch, swinging his legs up to tuck his feet under Peter’s shins. 

“Yeah. Okay. I get that. You’ll have to get up eventually, but… you can stay here for now.” 

[mikes-on-prometheus]

The Hollow Men

This is how the world ends. Not with a bang but with a whimper. To Patton it sounds like a gunshot.

platonic lamp

Wordcount: about 1000

Warning: injury, crying, mourning, major character death!

Prequel to this

This is how the world ends.

He was on his way home from work. The rain was beating down on him and the few other pedestrians, making their way through the darkness of the evening. He came to a stop by a pedestrian stoplight.

Red.

Of course.

But at that point it didn’t matter. He was soaked to the bones already. An extra few minutes of standing, waiting by the light wouldn’t make much difference. He had another fifteen minutes to walk anyways.

Once home he could get changed into dry clothes, wrap himself in his fluffiest blanket and ask Patton to make him some tea.

He could warm up and talk to his best friend and laugh at Roman once he came home, complaining about how he looked like a drowned rat.

He’d get to admire the stripes of red, purple and blues that Patton had painted onto the wall over the TV. They had wanted to do something to personalize the living room for a while and Patton had finally found a compromise that would make everyone happy.

But before Virgil could do any of that he had to get home in the first place. I

The stoplight turned green. He looked both ways before crossing.

Better safe than sorry.

This is how the world ends. Not with a bang-

‘The car came out of nowhere’ the only witness would say.

Virgil had barely stepped onto the road when the car came barreling towards him.

The headlights weren’t turned on and the rain was drumming a loud song into the pavement. By the time he noticed the car it was too late for him to move out of its way. It kept speeding towards him, not slowing in the slightest.

The witness screamed as the car continued, disappearing behind the next corner, leaving Virgil broken and bleeding on the ground.

The rain was beating on his face now, doubtlessly ruining his makeup. Roman would have a field day teasing him about it.

It was quite fitting actually, in a morbid twist of irony. Roman had called him a raccoon countless times and now here he was, dying in the street like roadkill.

He could hear sirens coming closer.

Above him was the blurry image of a person. They looked scared. Had something happened to scare them?

The red and blue flashing from the ambulance’s roof looked really pretty the way it reflected off the wet pavement, he noticed.

But why was it getting dimmer? Were the light bulbs burning out? Were light bars even lighted by light bulbs? He couldn’t remember.

And the sirens were growing softer too. Good. His head hurt. Did he hit his head somewhere?

Why was he hurting all over? Why was he on the ground? Why couldn’t he remember what had happened?

Why couldn’t he keep his eyes open?

The next time he woke up was in a darkened room. He could barely make out a weird smell.

What was that? It seemed familiar.

Antiseptic a distant thought informed him.

Had Roman gotten hurt again? And why was the smell coming into his room- oh wait.

This wasn’t his room. Maybe he should have been a little worried about waking up in an unfamiliar room but he wasn’t.

How peculiar. He couldn’t even move. He barely managed to tilt his head until he could see the iv stand next to his bed and a moment later he noticed Logan’s slumped over form.

Why would Logan of all people be sleeping in a chair? He was very peculiar about his sleeping habits. And those habits did not include sleeping in an uncomfortable plastic chair in a hospital.

Virgil didn’t dwell on it any further. He must have been awake for a few minutes and his body was beginning to scream out at him. Everything hurt.

What happened? Why was he at a hospital? Why couldn’t he move?

Why was everything growing dim again?

This is how the world ends. Not with a bang but with a whisper.

Patton, Roman amd Logan had taken to taking turns spending the nights at Virgil’s bedside.

Patton had cried for hours on end after the call from the hospital. He had been called since he was Virgil’s oldest friend and as such was his emergency contact.

Roman had been angry for a long time. Even now, almost a week after Virgil was hit, he was still silently seething. With the lone witness’s help the authorities had been able to find the driver who had done it. Legal action was being taken but it couldn’t calm Roman down. His best friend was in the hospital. Virgil had gone through several surgeries to stabilize him and even though he seemed relatively stable he was still in the icu. Even though he seemed relatively stable he hadn’t woken up even once.

Though Logan tried to seem unbothered he mostly felt regret. Virgil had sent him a text message that evening, asking to be picked up due to the horrible weather. Logan had decided to stay at the library longer, not even answering his friend’s message before turning back to his books. Oh how he wished to be able to turn back time and make things right.

How he wished to be able to convince Virgil to one more debate. But debates would have to wait until Virgil woke up and healed. Debating someone while they were injured would be unfair.

They were at the hospital whenever they could. If they could they would have stayed by Virgil’s bedside at all times, all three of them but they had to make due. Just because a vital part of their world had stopped didn’t mean the actual world would stop as well.

They were all there that afternoon. It was nice out and they had opened the window to let in some sunshine. Virgil hated it but maybe it would annoy him enough to wake up.

They were all there when it happened, keeping watch over their best friend.

Keeping watch over their protector.

Keeping watch.

Virgil breathed in. He breathed out with a whisper soft sound. He didn’t breathe in.

The heart monitor began making that horrible noise that nobody ever wanted to hear and nurses were making their way into the room, forcing them out, pulling in a cart to revive him just as a doctor arrived.

Time of Death: 15:23.

Virgil Sanders’ last breath had been near silent but the sound still rang loud in patton’s ears as he wailed, clinging to Roman and Logan as the feeling of devastating loss set it.

Their world had ended with a whisper but to Patton it sounded more like a gunshot.

taglist:  @3-has-charm @cityofholytaxaccountants  @ilovereadingandilovebreathing @stormcrawler75 @treehouseart

[vitanes]

it’s you i’ve been waiting to find

Lucas doesn’t know what he is; a creature, a ghost, a shadow. A boy.

(What he does know, though, is that he wants to chase Eliott’s light no matter what it takes.)

Lucas awakens when he feels someone entering the park.

He emerges from the shadows, filled with the foreign energy the person emits. He desperately wants to see them.

There’s light seeping through the cracks, though so Lucas needs to be patient. Wait for the night time to come.

He wanders around the tunnel for the next few hours, excitement buzzing under his skin. It’s been so long since he’s talked or even seen someone new. God, last time he was awake must have been ages ago.

Lucas nearly trips over his own feet, leaving the tunnel once the sun finally sets. He walks through the bushes, touches the familiar trees and walks down the paths he’s taken thousand times before.  He’s so giddy he doesn’t register the lack of energy at first.

Only after he walks through the whole park twice and doesn’t meet anyone, does he feel the absence. It makes it hard to breathe, especially that the traces of energy are still prominent all over the place.

He goes back to the tunnel minutes before the sunrise, filled with crushing disappointment and ready to fall asleep for another god knows how many years.

A few hours pass and the person is back. Lucas snaps out of his daze immediately and keeps fidgeting, this time hoping they will be there when he can step out of the tunnel again.

Much to his dismay, the scenario from the day before repeats. And the next day, and then again. The whole thing goes for a whole week.

The person always disappears before all the light is gone.

 ***

 They say curiosity killed the cat, but Lucas is too tired of playing hide and seek with the newcomer. That’s why, when the person gets close to his tunnel one day, Lucas teeters at the edge of the shadows. Still in darkness so he can’t be seen but he can see and it takes his breath away.

From where he’s standing, he notices a mop of messy hair and a broad back. Not much, sure, but it’s blinding all the same. There’s enough light in them to kill Lucas, probably.

He craves to stride towards them.

He doesn’t, though, stepping back into the darkness, where he feels safe; where there are no risks.

 ***

 Lucas doesn’t know how he came to life. One day he just was in this forest-turned-park. At some point there were people preaching to him, seeking him out, giving him energy to be awake. Then, they disappeared and with them so did he.

He doesn’t know if he’d ever been a regular human. There are no memories of friends or family in his mind, darkness being his only home. Too scared of light and the outside world, he’s never stepped out of the park. Never basked in sunlight; consumed by fear at the mere thought of it.

Being born from shadows, he’s sure he’d disappear the second he’d be surrounded by light. And there’d be nothing left of him. That thoughts saddens him more than the prospect of being kept in the dark forever.

 ***

 That person never stays long enough for Lucas to meet them, that much he’s gathered. But they’ve been spending their time by the tunnel more often than not. He doesn’t complain, it almost feels like they are hanging out together in these moments.

They seem just as lonely as Lucas is and it squeezes at his heart. He wants to reach out.

 ***

 Lucas doesn’t feel the passage of time after he’s awake for longer than a few days, but it must be around two weeks when someone calls out for him.

He’s spooked.

“I know someone’s here,” the voice echoes thorough the tunnel and Lucas gulps. “I just want to say hi!”

Well, it’s an opportunity Lucas has been waiting for isn’t it? He still hesitates before opening his mouth and letting out a shaky, “Hello.”

He’s thankful for the acoustics in the tunnel. Otherwise he doubts he’d be heard.

“Why are you hiding?”

He wants to say I’m not, but it’d be a lie. And something tells him the person would see right through him.

“I’m scared,” he says.

“Hi, Scared, I’m Eliott,” the stranger says and Lucas feels puzzled for a long moment before he snorts.

“Very funny.” Lucas rolls his eyes. “Why do you never come into the tunnel?” he asks, something he’s been wondering for days. Eliott seems to have covered the whole park countless times, but not even once has he come near stepping into Lucas’ place.

That would make things easier.

Eliott stays quiet for a few seconds, leaving Lucas burning in anticipation.

“I guess I’m scared, too,” he finally says. “I’m glad I’m not the only one,” Eliott admits softly and Lucas’ lips stretch out in a smile.

He nods to himself and exhales. “Yeah. Me too.”

 ***

 They create a routine, Eliott comes in the afternoons and sits by the tunnel for the next few hours before the sun starts setting. Lucas sits on the other side of the wall and they talk. They talk so much that by the time Eliott is gone, Lucas’ throat feels sore. It seems like the topics never stop coming and even when they feel tired of talking, just sitting close to each other feels nice.

Lucas is overflowing with joy.

 ***

 “So what does the twenty first century offer?” Lucas asks one day and hears Eliott snicker.

Few beats pass and then the weirdest sound comes from Eliott’s side. And the noise just keeps on coming.

“What is that? Are you okay?” Lucas asks, indignant.

“It’s dubstep. Music,” Eliott answers, his voice full of glee. Lucas ignores how warm it makes him feel.

“That’s music? Things sure have changed,” Lucas says, scowling. He remembers the locals playing him music once upon a time. It was far from this.

“It’s one of the genres, Lucas. Not many appreciate its beauty.” He sighs and stops the music soon enough. “When was the last time you were awake?”

Lucas shrugs and then remembers that Eliott can’t see him. “I don’t know. Long time ago. It’s blurry.”

Eliott hums.

“Are you immortal? You don’t eat or anything. I’ve read that this park was haunted. Are you a ghost?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t been awake long enough to find out. And I can eat, people brought me food in the past. I just don’t feel hunger? But I’m definitely not a ghost. I have a body,” Lucas explains to him. It’s hard to have a talk like that when you know nothing about yourself, though. He’s got no idea what’s his purpose, what kind of being he is. He wishes he had the answers.

“What happens to you when you are asleep? You lay around in the tunnel?” Eliott prods which makes Lucas’ gut churn. This makes him realise just how different their realities are and he doesn’t like it.

“The shadows take me back,” he says since it’s the only thing he’s sure of. And even with that, he doesn’t know the whole truth. “I’m just some weird creature that gets awoken by other people’s energy entering my surroundings.”

Kind of like he was a parasite. That thought doesn’t make him feel any better. He looks down on his lap. He’s nervously tugging at the hem of his shirt.

“Nah. I think that you are a boy trapped in the darkness. Not some sinister monster,” Eliott utters, completely convinced. He has no idea how much hearing this means to Lucas.

 ***

 A small box appears on his left side and Lucas stares at it, curious. He pokes it with his foot, but nothing happens.

“Eliott?”

“Hmm?”

“What’s that?”

“Things that make up the twenty first century that aren’t dubstep.”

Lucas crouches and comes closer to the box. He opens the lid and notices how it’s full with newspapers, books and… snacks? And on top of it lies a little device with wires connected to it.

Music device, Lucas figures out.

He stays gaping at all the things in the box, frozen in place. His heart is beating frantically in his chest and he can’t swallow around the lump that’s formed in his throat.

“Lu?” Eliott asks, uncertain.

Lucas sniffs, snapping out of it. “I’m here, I’m here,” he clutches on the sides of the box, his knuckles turning white.

“Did I overstep? It is too much?” Eliott sounds scared and it’s the last thing Lucas wants him to be.

“No, it’s… It means so much to me,” he admits, feeling choked up. “Really, thank you.”

He hopes the shadows won’t take it away from him.

 ***

 Lucas devours the contents of the box in no time. Gets sucked in the world’s affairs, in the plots of the books. Falls in love with certain songs and dislikes other ones. Spends his nights eating the things that Eliott claims have changed the humanity. Lucas discusses the things he reads with Eliott. He finds himself getting excited when he hears Eliott’s opinion. It’s like for the first time he’s truly alive.

He hasn’t realised how empty his world was before. Eliott gave Lucas an opportunity to taste what’s outside his tunnel, his park.

It’s ecstatic and makes him want more. Experience more. Lucas wants to hear, to see, to feel.

The fact he’s too scared hurts like hell. If only he knew whether stepping into the light would kill him or not. God, but how else is he supposed to find out?

 ***

 “Why do you come here every day?” Lucas asks Eliott one afternoon.

He’s bound to this place, but Eliott isn’t. He can’t understand why he’d spend all his days here if there’s a whole world at his fingertips.

“I feel safe here,” Eliott says, his tone sincere. “The world scares me.”

“Doesn’t it feel lonely?”

“It feels lonely out there,” Eliott whispers. Lucan can’t quite grasp it, but he doesn’t say anything. Sometimes silence is the best answer. “And you’re here,” Eliott adds softly.

Lucas wishes he could touch him.

 ***

 Eliott starts leaving him little drawings each time he goes home. They feature a raccoon and a hedgehog doing mundane things, like watching the stars or eating something together. It doesn’t take a genius to get that they represent the two of them.

They make Lucas feel warm and he knows what that means.

He carefully puts each of the drawings into the box.

 ***

 “Do you ever want to step into the light?”

Lucas does, oh God, Eliott has no idea how much. He has no chance to say it, though.

“Because I really want to step into the darkness, you know. Overcome my fear of it. See you. I should do it. I mean what’s stopping me?” Eliott blurts out and Lucas hears him standing up.

His heart jumps to his throat. But then comes big nothing. Eliott doesn’t step into the tunnel. He seems frozen in place and then, a moment later, he runs away from the tunnel.

Lucas falls back against the wall, confused and kind of disappointed.

He’s sure that Eliott will come back soon, but minutes pass, then hours and he’s nowhere to be heard by the time the sun sets.

 ***

 Eliott doesn’t come back the next day, or the day after that.

Lucas is worried by the time it’s been over a week. Worried and feeling himself slipping back into the shadows. He’s scared he’ll never talk with Eliott if he falls asleep now.

It breaks his heart and he revisits all of the things in the box, hoping to at least feel the ghost of Eliott in that.

 ***

 Lucas is drifting off when he feels it again. The energy that he knows like the back of his hand. It’s less powerful than before, but undoubtedly, it’s Eliott and he stirs awake.

Eliott doesn’t come to him immediately. Lucas is fully conscious when Eliott plops down on the other side of the wall.

They keep quiet, Lucas too terrified to speak up and scare Eliott off. He was sure Eliott left for good, he doesn’t feel like risking it.

The silence doesn’t bother him as long as Eliott is there, alive and with him.

 ***

 Eliott leaves without uttering a single word, but there’s a drawing showing a raccoon. All alone, in the darkness. The animal looks terrified and feral.

Something sinks in the pit of Lucas’ stomach.

 ***

 The next few days are spent in silence as well. Lucas tells himself he isn’t bothered by it, but a part of him wants things to be like before. Unfortunately, it’s not up to him to make them like that.

What if Eliott doesn’t want it? He’s said before that he feels safe in the park. Maybe sitting against the tunnel has nothing to do with spending time with Lucas. Maybe it’s just convenient but in reality, Eliott doesn’t want him there.

That hurts.

Raccoon is afraid of the darkness. Lucas’ whole world is darkness. He is darkness. Eliott probably hates him.

Lucas stands up on shaky legs, desperate to move away. To not make Eliott feel horrible.

He takes exactly two steps when he hears a panicked, “Where are you going?”

Lucas exhales sharply. “Don’t want to make you feel bad,” he explains, his voice barely above a whisper.

“What? Lucas, you’re the only one keeping me grounded,” Eliott says, sounding small.

“But the darkness and I–“ he says dumbly and Eliott sighs.

“It’s… Lucas. Yes, I’m scared of the darkness but it has more to do with my brain than could ever with you.” He seems really tired and all Lucas wants to do is hold him. It pains him that he’s so close yet so far away. “I had an episode. That’s why I didn’t come. Now I’m just feeling low. But I want you here. Otherwise I’d have stayed at home.” Eliott sounds out of breath by the time he’s finished.

Lucas sits back down, feeling stupid for jumping to conclusions.

“Let’s just listen to music together then,” he offers meekly, reaching out for his MP3 and the earphones that Eliott gave him. He puts one of them in his ear and then places the other one along with the device on the line where the light meets the shadows.

Once he knows Eliott took the earphone, he presses play and in what feels like ages, exhales.

 ***

 Following an origami tutorial by only sound is hard. Especially when you have clumsy fingers like Lucas. But they decided to have some fun. For the record, though, Eliott isn’t watching the video either. Fair play, he claimed.

Which, isn’t that true because Eliott said he has some experience with origami already. His ex-girlfriend taught him or something like that. Lucas tuned out a little when Eliott talked about her. No hard feelings, though.

“I’m excited for what you are going to make,” Eliott says, a smile audible in his voice and Lucas grins despite himself.

“Don’t get too excited, though. It looks awful.” Lucas grimaces and folds the corner of something that’s supposed to be a wing of a bird.

“It doesn’t matter. It’ll be something from you. It’ll have a meaning.”

Oh yeah, because they are giving these to each other.

Lucas feels himself blush and he says, “Kind of like the drawings you leave me.”

“Yeah.”

“You’ve been drawing me love letters.” Lucas closes his eyes, ready to be rejected.

A beat of silence. Then:

“And you’re finally giving me one back.”

 ***

 “I see something green,” Eliott says and Lucas sighs with exasperation.

“A tree.”

“Yes!” Eliott answers, for some reason giddy, even though they’ve been playing this game for the past twenty minutes.

“I see… something pointy.”

“A stone.”

“Yes, Eliott.”

“I see something with feathers.”

“A bird.”

Eliott hums which makes Lucas roll his eyes.

“I see something grey,” Lucas drawls out, his tone bored.

“Another stone. Come on, Lu. Get creative,” Eliott teases.

“Can’t really get creative in here.”

“Doesn’t it ever get sad? Not seeing other things, I mean.”

“I go outside, you know,” Lucas says, frowning. He’s sure he must have mentioned it to Eliott at some point. The gasp he hears on the other side means otherwise, though.

“You do?” There’s hurt in Eliott’s voice and Lucas doesn’t understand why.

“Yeah, I wander around the park at night.”

“Oh. Of course. It’s so ironic. The only time you come out, it’s when I can’t be here,” Eliott mutters bitterly.

“The first few nights, before you came up to me, I’d walk around, tracing your energy. You were still here in a way,” Lucas assures him.  “But. It does get sad. Even outside. Ever since you’ve shown me all these things. I’ve never wanted to step out this much as I do now. See the world. Be with you.” He gnaws on his bottom lip, annoyed. He hates how human Eliott’s made him feel to the point he’s longing for more day by day.

He’s become so greedy.

 ***

 Now, every time Eliott comes, he brings printed out pictures from his everyday life and when he leaves, Lucas collects yet another drawing of a raccoon and a hedgehog being together.

Lucas starts giving Eliott stones with hearts carved in them, because that’s all he has to offer.

One day Eliott brings him a bouquet of colourful flowers; says they made him think of Lucas.

The same night Lucas creates a bouquet of leaves and flowers he finds in the park.

Lucas’ tunnel reminds more of a home than of a scary place full of shadows. It becomes filled with Eliott. In the end, someone so full of light was bound to make the darkest place shine.

Lucas longs for him.

 ***

 “Why do you never ask me for a picture of myself?” Eliott asks, curious.

“Because it’d only make me want more.”

 ***

 It’s a quiet day and Lucas is rereading one of the books when he hears Eliott sigh deeply. He stops reading for a second, waiting for something to come out, but nothing does. He gets back to the book, but then Eliott clears his throat. He seems to be struggling with something.

“Everything alright?” Lucas asks him.

“Do you remember when I disappeared for a few days?”

“Yeah?”

“I told you I had an episode, but I didn’t explain more. And if we– if we have something going on. If we are something, I want you to know. I’m mentally ill,” Eliott admits, sounding worn out.

And Lucas kind of connects the dots. There’s a book concerning mental health amongst the ones Eliott has given him. Makes sense.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Lucas asks, wary. He doesn’t want to cross any boundaries.

“I just want you to know that sometimes I get too happy or too sad. And it’s not easy,” Eliott mumbles.

Lucas turns a little, so he’s partly facing the wall and he presses his palm against it. The closest he can get to touching Eliott.

“Nothing about us is easy. It’s okay, I got you,” he whispers, his fingers twitching.

 ***

 Lucas is sitting in the place Eliott usually takes up; his energy is crawling all over Lucas’ skin. Overflowing.

It’s night and the stars are exceptionally bright. And Lucas wonders.

He’s known that Eliott and he are Something. However, he didn’t know what to do about it since they are both stuck in different places. Now, he isn’t so certain anymore. After all, the stars and the moon emit light and it doesn’t kill Lucas.

Perhaps, the fact he was born from shadows doesn’t mean he’s tied to them forever. What if his fear is unreasonable, he ponders, reaching out his palm towards the sky. Watching how the moonlight seeps through the spaces between his fingers and he’s still there.

He could be with Eliott and see the outside world. Stop being hidden. Live.

If it’s the reality he could have had all along and the only thing that’s been stopping Lucas is fear, would that make him pathetic?

With this way of thinking, Eliott would be pathetic as well. He doesn’t have the risk of dying if he steps into complete darkness, yet he still stays away.

Concluding, Lucas can’t say he’s pathetic. That would mean he thinks the same about Eliott when he’s far from it.

Their reasons are valid. It just sucks that he’s been holding himself back all this time.

Maybe the moment to fight for what he craves the most has finally come.

 ***

 It’s pouring outside the tunnel the next day and it’s ironic, given what Lucas is going to do. It’s as if shadows were mourning him. And he isn’t sure if he wants to know whether it’s because of him leaving or dying.

Lucas can’t wait to find out. Although, he can’t lie and feel anxious about the possibility of Eliott not coming in such weather.

He’s about to resign and leave his plan for another day when he feels it, the familiar energy entering the park.

He breathes out and comes close to the place the tunnel ends. He looks up and sees the outside. The rain falling down. Lucas braces himself. His heart is about to beat out of his chest and his palms are sweating.

Then, he sees Eliott getting closer to the tunnel and stopping in his tracks once he notices Lucas.

That’s all he needs to take the first step towards what can be.

Despite the fact it’s raining, the sun is still shining through the clouds, making everything glow. And Lucas is scared, but he’s already outside the tunnel. His legs are taking him forward, to Eliott.

And he doesn’t wither away.

Upon being meters away from Eliott, Lucas notes how beautiful he is. Dreamlike.

He stops in front of him and looks at him in awe. He’s been trying to imagine him for so long, but none of the things Lucas came up with do Eliott justice.

Lucas reaches out his hands and at first there’s reluctance painted all over Eliott’s face. Then, his hands grab Lucas’ and their fingers entwine.

“You are here,” Eliott whispers, bewildered. He squeezes Lucas’ palms, as if to make sure he’s real.

Lucas nods and smiles up at him.

A few seconds pass and their lips collide in a kiss so hungry, Lucas might actually pass out from how dizzy it makes him feel.

They kiss until their lips are sore, holding onto each other like a lifeline, and then they kiss some more. They only stop to look into each other’s eyes. Eliott presses his forehead against Lucas’, cupping Lucas’ face in his palms.

They breathe each other in and grin.

Lucas is alive.