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queen-of-writing-bad-things · 10 months ago

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Henry Danger Reader Insert | Captain Man x Reader: SEASON 1

Episode 26: Jasper's Real Girlfriend

~Swellview Junior High~

It was another typical day at Henry's school. Sydney Birnbaum, Oliver Pook, Jasper and two other of the school's...more unusual boys were complaining about their girlfriends. Sydney was moaning and groaning about his was always annoyed at how he responded to texts late, which seemed petty, but everything was petty in high school. The other boys agreed, thinking that their girlfriends did nothing but give them a hard time, apart from Jasper who for once, was in a relationship. Not that anyone believed him.

"Well, my girlfriend is awesome." He told his friends, who just stared at him, believing that he was just trying to make himself look cool.

"What?" he asked after they fell silent.

"You ain't got no woman," Oliver said, making the other boys laugh at Jasper. Henry and Jasper watched the sad scene, feeling sorry for their friend. It wasn't his fault that he so rarely had a girlfriend that when he did have someone special, it seemed hilariously untrue.

"I do too, she just lives outta town." He told them, but they just scoffed.

"Psh. Yeah, right." Sydney laughed, and the other boys followed suit.

"Oh, sure, just exit laughing!" He called after them, as they moved on to their next class. Jerks.

"Hey."

"How you doing, Jasp?" Henry and Charlotte walked up to the downcast boy, hoping they could raise his spirits.

"I'm doing mad. Can you believe those guys think I'm lying about having a girlfriend?" He asked his friends, but honestly, they thought he was fibbing too.

"Yeahhhh." They answered together, trying not to upset him further.

"Wh--You guys don't believe me either?" He asked them with a betrayed look on his face.

"Well, we believe..." Henry started, not knowing how to phrase it.

"...That you're lying." Charlotte finished for him, preferring to just say what they meant without pussyfooting around.

"Yeah." Henry agreed, much to Jasper's annoyance.

"But I've been telling you guys about Courtney ever since I got back from summer camp." He told them and they sighed at how worked up he was getting.

"Jasper, you don't have to make things up to impress us." Charlotte comforted him, but Jasper felt like he didn't need to be comforted. He was telling the complete and honest truth!

"I'd never make up a lie just to impress you guys." He said, hating how they saw him as a pathetic, lying loser.

"Really? Third grade. You. pulled a bag of dirt out of your pocket and told me it came from Jupiter." Henry recalled his younger self who thought that the dirt was some mystical space dust.

"I thought it did. Back then I didn't know you can't trust guys in vans who sell space dirt." Jasper stressed. He was too little at the time to realise that dirt can't come from a planet that's made from gas and nothing else.

"Dude, you'll get a girlfriend someday," Henry told his best friend, whose head rolled in frustration.

"But if not, you can get a pet." Charlotte smiled, trying to encourage Jasper that in theory, he'd never be lonely, just a bit weird.

"You can get a rabbit for, like, 20 bucks," Henry informed them, to which Charlotte nodded enthusiastically.

"I don't need a rabbit! I got a girl and her name is Courtney, whether you believe it or not." Jasper emphasised his words, but his message still didn't get through.

"And what's Courtney's last name?" Henry asked, thinking that Jasper would look all shifty and nervous as he came up with an answer.

"Sham." The curly-haired boy replied, making his friends giggle. It was an unfortunate coincidence for him that his girlfriend's last name suggested that she was fake.

"And what city is she from?" Charlotte asked too.

"Fibberton." He answered, making Henry and Charlotte sigh and roll their eyes. With a name like that and being from a place called 'Fibberton', it's no wonder they wouldn't believe him.

"All right, why don't you invite Courtney Sham from Fibberton here to Swellview so we can all meet her," Henry suggested, thinking that you can't meet someone if they don't exist.

"Yeah. Tell her she can stay at my house." Charlotte told him, not realising that she'd be rueing her words in a couple of days.

"Maybe I will." Jasper snapped, wanting to prove them wrong.

"Bye!" He said to them, leaving them to think about how angry he was. Could he be telling the truth?

~The Man Cave, later that day~

It had been slightly tense in the Man Cave for the past couple of weeks. The whole Ray lying about Henry turning evil hadn't gone down well with (y/n) and she had felt a little awkward around him since it seemed like he didn't trust her. Still, they were working through their grievances and like always, any tear in their complex relationship had slowly healed up.

Everything was back to normal, well, whatever normal was in the Man Cave. Currently, Henry and Ray were trying to outmatch each other in a ping-pong tournament. (y/n) watched from the steps behind them, intrigued at how Ray's shirt allowed her to see every movement of muscles beneath the material, but she couldn't give a fig about the dumb competition.

"Here it comes!" Henry told his boss as they beat the small, white ball back and forth across the table.

"Bring it, son. Ha, you got nothing." Ray taunted him, trying to show off in front of his best friend so he could hear her adoring praises. After feeling like he was treading on eggshells around her for the past two weeks, he was eager to be in her good books again.

"What do you call this?" Henry asked as he swung his paddle with all his strength.

"Lame!" Ray jumped up to return the ball with equal force, not hearing the small gasp fall from (y/n)'s lips as she saw a small portion of his back be exposed as he lept in the air.

"Hey, guys, Harrison Ford just crash-landed his aeroplane in the Jandy River!" Schwoz yelled as he held his hand over the phone's speaker.

"Again?" Henry frowned, too invested in his ping gong game to care if the celeb had ditched his place in the river.

"Isn't this, like, his third plane crash?" Ray added, focusing on the game too. All (y/n) could focus on was the way his biceps looked like tree trunks from how he'd been working out recently.

Ray saw an opening and exploited it, beating Henry as the ball went out of bounds. The boy groaned, frustrated that he had been beaten after putting so much effort in.

"21 to 19! I win again!" Ray smiled and threw down his paddle in celebration as (y/n) squealed and ran over to him, planting a kiss on his cheek to congratulate him.

"Dang it, dang it! Frigid diphthong kumquat dang, dang it!" Henry yelled as Ray embrace his best friend, ignoring how his ears were burning from her lips on his skin.

"Good game." The boy calmly shook hands with his opponent after the man had released (y/n) from his arms.

"Thanks." Ray accepted the praise, feeling pretty special at how everyone was complimenting him.

"Now...let's blow a bubble and get Harrison Ford out of trouble." He instructed the boy, not wanting to leave the man in the freezing waters. Schwoz looked at them as he stayed on the phone, waiting to see if there'd be any updates.

"Can't we just send Chewbacca to fish him out?" (y/n) joked, not wanting him to go even though she'd never keep him from his job.

"No, silly girl!" Ray laughed, giving her one last hug before he went. For once, he didn't want to go either, but he had no choice, Swellview needed him and he had to go. He'd returned to her, always.

"Let's go." He said to Henry, having missed the knowing look the kid had shared with Schwoz.

They ran over to the tubes and slapped their belts so they would come down. Only, as Henry's came down in was covered in some kind of gross, gooey gunge stuff.

"What the..." (y/n) breathed out as she gagged at how filthy the tube was. She had several questions, namely who had done and why hadn't they cleaned it up.

"What is all over your tube?" Ray looked at the filth, feeling a bit squeamish at the sight of it. They raised their tubes as (y/n) walked over to them, demanding an answer. She was scary when it came to someone leaving a big mess in the Man Cave, particularly when they didn't clean up after themselves.

"Okay." Henry sighed when she looked at the boy with raised eyebrows. She couldn't think of when Ray could have done it since they had been together since the last time that tube had been used, leaving only Henry and Schwoz as possible suspects. The little man was on the phone looked extremely panicked as Henry started his confession, hinting that he'd had something to do with it.

"Yesterday, Schwoz told me to go up the tube with a hot nacho platter and the suckage made the cheese and refried beans go everywhere," Henry explained guilty, his strong moral conscience not allowing him to lie to his friends.

"Schwoz?" Ray scolded his employee when (y/n) looked at him to tell the little man off since he was his boss.

"My sister is in town and she wanted a taste of Mexico." He whined, but (y/n) wasn't happy, not in the slightest.

"Well, both of you are gonna clean that damn tube." She told the with a stern voice. She wanted to get it done herself, but she wasn't going to fall into the habit of cleaning up all the messes they couldn't be bothered to do themselves.

"Oh, come on." Schwoz frowned like a child.

"The tube is, like 100 feet tall," Henry added, looking to Ray for help but he wouldn't find any. The man didn't want her cleaning the nacho goop either, she was his helper, she helped him, not them.

"Well, you should've thought of that before you tried to fly up it with a hot sloppy snack," Ray told them firmly, but Schwoz received more info from the person on the phone, so his attention was quickly taken away.

"Wait, wait, what? Okay, Harrison Ford's aeroplane just sank." He told the superheroes who sighed. More work.

"You guys should go save him." (y/n) told them, but they looked a bit hesitant.

"We will...after one more quick game?" Henry looked at his boss as the young woman blanched at his words.

"We can't ju--my serve." Ray threw his sense of duty out of the window as he and Henry ran to pick up their paddles again. The same tapping of the ball against the table filled the room again as they resumed play, Schwoz and (y/n) gobsmacked at them.

"Oi, assholes. Harrison Ford, danger, go!" (y/n) pointed to the tubes. They could take one tube or if necessary, they could use the elevator and sneak out of the store. Either way, they had to go help the city.

"Yeah, yeah, in a bit, sweetheart," Ray mumbled back, his mind too focused on the game to realise what he had called her so casually or how she stopped breathing as she practically had an out-of-body experience. Sweetheart? Yes, please.

~Swellview Junior High, the next day~

Henry stood by his locker as Charlotte wandered through the halls, looking for her friend.

"Hey. How can come Jasper wasn't in class last period?" She asked the blond boy, curious as to why her other friend had been absent.

"I don't know. He asked Miss Shapen if he could skip class, and she said, "Yeah, sure, just leave me like every man does."" Henry quoted, but his attention was redirected as Jasper and a very pretty girl with a suitcase came through the school's entrance.

"Wow. Cool school." The girl said as Jasper showed her around.

"Thanks. Oh, Charlotte, Henry. I didn't expect to see you two here." The curly-haired boy gloated at his friends, ready to rub the fact he wasn't lying in their faces.

"Why? We go to school here every day." Charlotte frowned at him.

"And this is where our lockers are," Henry added, but Jasper swiftly moved on.

"Ha, ha, too true. Too true." Jasper stretched his arm around the girl next to him, making his friends frown at the gesture.

"So, I'd like you to meet my girl, Courtney." He introduced his girlfriend, who smiled brightly.

"Hi. It's so great to meet you guys. Jasper's told me so much about you." She greeted them politely, giggling at how their mouths dropped.

"Oka, did he find you at a bus stop?" Charlotte asked, feeling flabbergasted.

"And did he pay you 50 cents to come here and pretend to be his girlfriend?" Henry added, offending his best friend with the low price.

"50 cents? Look at her." Jasper gestured to Courtney, who just grinned and blushed.

"He's your boyfriend?" Charlotte asked her, still in disbelief.

"Well, I sure hope so. I just rode a bus 300 miles from Fibberton to see him." The pretty girl sighed dreamily, as Jasper smirked with pride.

"I paid 20% of her bus ticket." He bragged.

"How come this is the first time she's been to Swellview?" Henry asked the boy.

"'Cause, I don't have a guest room in my house. So when Charlotte said she could stay at her place, I invited her to come here." Jasper revealed as Charlotte's eyes bugged out at his words. Yep, she regretted saying that.

"But, I didn't know she was real." She stammered.

"Well, she is. Wanna feel her face?" The boy asked, putting his hands on his girlfriend's elbows and pushing her towards Charlotte a bit, but neither girl wanted to do the suggestion.

"I guess I'll call my mom and let her know you're coming over." Charlotte smiled at the other girl, who was about to be her roommate for the night couple of nights.

"Great."

"Super." The couple giggled together as Charlotte went to call her mom.

"Hey, wait here. I'mma go get the guys and bring them here to show them that you really exist!" Jasper squealed excitedly, running off early so he could prove Oliver and Sydney wrong.

"Wow, you seem awesome. Jasper's a lucky guy." Henry smiled at Courtney, trying to break the ice.

"Thanks. He says really nice things about you and Charlotte." The girl smiled back.

"Well, Jasper's been my best friend for a long time and he loves Charlotte." He told her, but his words seemed to upset Courtney.

"Yeah, what do you mean?" She asked with a scowl now etched onto her pretty features.

"Huh?" Henry couldn't think of what he had said wrong.

"You said Jasper loves Charlotte." She reiterated, a sting of raging jealously going through her heart.

"Yeah, you know, they like...oh, no, no, no, wait, wait. I didn't mean like he loves her." Henry panicked as Courtney went into a meltdown.

"Are there any other girls around here that Jasper is in love with?" she screeched, freaking out at the thought of Jasper with another girl.

"No, no, no. Just Charlotte." Henry tried to correct himself, but it just made things worse.

"Oh great, so he is in love with her." Courtney growled, a deep hatred for Charlotte taking root in her mind.

" No, they just, they're just really close and it's like--" The boy stuttered, but the teen girl was too lost in her jealousy.

" Oh my god! " She shouted as Charlotte returned, not knowing about the shit show she just walked

"Hi. So, I talked to my mom and she said it's no problem." She smiled, but it quickly fell when all Courtney did was scowl at her. The dark-haired girl looked at Henry for help, but he just held his hands to his face, thinking about how he'd really screwed everything. Well, tonight was going to be a blast.

~The next day, at Junk-N-Stuff~

Ray and Henry were continuing their ping pong tournament and it was just as heated as it had been before.

"You're going down! " Henry growled as an enthralled (y/n) watched their every movement. Ray was wearing another tight T-shirt and she couldn't take her eyes off of him.

"I'm coming up."Ray quipped, as he tried to keep his focus on the game and not on his beautiful cheerleader.

"Here it comes !" Henry yelled as he basked the ball with his ping pong paddle.

"It's coming back! " Ray was desperate to win, after all, he had someone to impress.

"I'm the king of Ping. "Henry commented, as their banter went back and forth with the ball.

"I'm the master of pong! " Ray replied as the elevator doors opened and Schwoz came out with a trumpet. He blew it loudly, resulting in Henry and (y/n) jumping out of their skins. Ray, on the other hand, had planned the attack so he could scare Henry into losing. He laughed and smirked in victory when the ball hit the floor as his friends, clutched their hearts in fear.

"And I win again!" He bragged to her, who frowned at how his boss had cheated.

"No!" Henry cried, annoyed at how he'd lost to that sucker again.

"Yes!" Ray smiled, but it fell when (y|n) punched him on the arm.

"Asshole! You scared me half to death!" She glared at both him and Schwoz. He gave her an apologetic look, not wanting to ruin his victory by losing his girl's support.

"And that means I win the ping pong championship belt." Ray gloated and held up what looked like a WWE belt, only it had a load of ping pong balls stuck to it. Henry whimpered as (y/n) begrudgingly helped him put in on.

"Hoo, hoo, hoo! " Ray chanted as he paraded around the Man cave, but Henry wasn't going to let the hollow victory slide.

"Schwoz distracted me... And scared (y/n)!" The boy pointed out, making Ray turn around and look at the kid and his best friend.

"Hey. (Y/n)'s fine. And ping pong's about three things, paddles, staying focused, and small plastic balls." Ray told his sidekick.

"Oh yeah, mid-afternoon cardio is my favourite thing." The young woman looked at her best friend sarcastically, so he put an arm around her shoulder and showed her his new belt.

"Why'd you walk in here and blow that thing?" Henry asked Schwoz, who tried to look innocent.

"I found it in a dumpster." He told the kid, causing his friends to grimace as a tube came down, and much to (y/n) 's annoyance, it was still covered in nacho cheese.

"Why haven't you two cleaned that damn tube yet?!" She yelled, looking at the pipe in disgust. Poor Charlotte had to travel through the gunk which had now started to crust over and smelt really, really bad.

"Hello." "Hey, Char." Henry and Schwoz greeted the miserable girl. She'd had a terrible night with Courtney and she was certain that the girl was trying to kill her. The others looked at her in confusion as she moodily plodded past them.

"Charlotte, sweetie, are you all right?" (y/n) asked the teen carefully when she noticed how out of it she was.

"No, thanks. I just ate a taco," she replied, not even listening to what she had been asked. She wandered over to the supercomputer and sat down, completely ignoring her friend's concern.

"What's up with her?" Henry said to the adults, but they couldn't give an answer. This was completely unlike the girl's normal behaviour.

"Worry about her later. Right now, you and Schwoz are gonna clean that tube." Ray scolded Henry and Schwoz, sharing his best friend's anger at how his equipment was still disgustingly dirty.

"Or...I challenge you."Henry suggested, making (y/n) groan in frustration. At this rate, she'd be the one cleaning it just so she didn't go insane.

"To what? "Ray asked, always up for some competition to prove he was the best.

"To another game of Ping pong." The boy answered, piquing Ray's interest. (Y/n) sorely didn't want them to battle it out just to decide who would clean the stupid tube.

"If l lose, me and Schwoz clean the tube. If you lose, you and (y/n) have to clean it." The boy set down the rules.

"While wearing ducky pyjamas." Ray upped the ante, confident that he and the young woman next to him would be fine.

"Why am I getting dragged into this? This is your testosterone freak fest." she groaned, not wanting to bet on something so stupid.

'It's a bet." Henry shook Ray's hand in agreement, sealing the deal. Schwoz and (y/n) groaned as they were sworn in too, despite their protests.

Charlotte was too busy scrolling through Courtney's Twitflash to realise that any bet had been made. She wanted to find out more about this girl since she had done nothing but try to assassinate her during the night by using her ceiling fan as a weapon.

"Hey, Char." Henry approached her, wondering what she was doing that was so important it meant that she hadn't spoken one word to him since she'd arrived.

"Charlotte." He reiterated when she failed to answer. He tapped her on the shoulder gently, causing her to turn around angrily.

"WHAT?! What's what, what?!" She snapped, scaring Henry a little.

"Why are you looking at pics of Jasper's girlfriend?" He asked, recognising the girl on the monitor.

"Because she's trying to kill me." She revealed, sounding insane to Henry.

"What?"

"Last night. I think she loosened some bolts in my ceiling fan. Because it fell and almost took my head off." She told her friend her theory, but Henry just looked at her like she'd gone crazy.

"Why would Courtney want to hurt you?" The boy sighed.

"I don't know. But she's acting all jealous, why would she be jealous of me? " Charlotte mentioned, making everything fall into place for him. Oh, shit.

"Uh..." Henry struggled to say anything, which made the other teen highly suspicious.

"What do you mean...uh?" She asked.

"Y'see, at school, I might have kind of made Courtney think that Jasper kind of...loves you." He told her, freaking the girl out.

"Well, why would you say that?" Charlotte snapped at him, thinking about how he'd really screwed her over.

"Because he does love you. As a friend. But she didn't get that." He sighed. What a mess.

"Yeah, all she got was a reason to kill me." The girl stressed.

"Well, what do you want me to do?" Henry asked, ready to sort out the mess he had made.

"Help me tell Jasper that his girlfriend is a crazy, jealous lunatic." Charlotte proposed, but the boy wasn't sure.

"He'll never believe us." He replied so the two teens thought about their predicament for a moment.

"Okay, then we're gonna tell him, and we're gonna show him." She smirked, her devious plan forming in her head.

"How?"

"You and Jasper are going to hide in my room tonight, and he'll see for himself now coo-coo his girlfriend is." The dark-haired girl explained.

"Ah, I don't know." Henry hesitated. Did he really want to take away the first girlfriend Jasper had had in ages?

"Please?" Charlotte begged him, knowing she'd need his help to pull this off.

"Do you still keep that dish of gummy bears by your closet door?" Henry wanted there to be something in it for him.

"Yeah," she groaned; she'd have to buy another packet after Henry had visited.

"Okay, I'll do it "Henry agreed, the temptation of gummy bears being too much for him to resist. Their plotting was halted as (y/n) came down the stairs from the sprocket. She had grown tired of watching Ray stroke and coo at his belt, so she had strolled from his bedroom to the living area.

"Hey, guys." She smiled at the kids, wondering what they were talking about in the middle of the room.

"Hey, Ray starting to annoy ya?" Henry asked, knowing now Ray was loving flaunting his ping pong belt.

"Oh my god, yes. He keeps kissing the damn thing." She groaned, making the kids laugh.

"What? You want him to kiss you instead?" Charlotte smirked and the woman blushed, frantically looking to see if Ray had followed and heard them. God, she'd be mortified.

"Hey! I don't want to kiss him!" (y/n) screeched quickly, but the kids knew her far too well to believe her.

"Yeah, sure!" Henry giggled at her red face, knowing that some of the things she had thought about Ray were downright sinful.

"What were you guys even talking about?" the young woman asked, trying to steer the conversation away from her yearning.

"Me and Henry are gonna show Jasper how much of a psycho his girlfriend is. Charlotte explained and the older girl raised an eyebrow at her words.

"The bucket kid has a girlfriend?" She asked in an amused voice.

"Yeah, and she's totally insane, she tried to kill me last night 'cause she thinks Jasper's in love with me," Charlotte told her, shocking (y/n) to her core. Kids weren't this crazy when she was younger.

"Jesus. She does sound crazy. Are you sure you'll be okay?" She looked at the teens. If anything happened to them because some silly teenage girl got too jealous for her own good, she'd be heartbroken.

"Actually, we could use an adult on our side to back us up," Henry mentioned, knowing he'd feel a lot safer if he had a calm, rational adult, like (y/n), with them.

"Yeah, could you come to my house tonight and hide with Jasper and Henry?" Charlotte asked her, but the woman wasn't sure. She didn't make a habit of staking out children's bedrooms.

"You won't have to listen to Ray and watch his belt-kissing." Henry pointed out.

"Done." She agreed. At least it would get her out of the Man Cave for the night, after all, adventure is good for the soul.

~ Later that night, Charlotte's house~

Charlotte and Courtney had gone to bed like everything was normal, only it wasn't since she was sleeping with a baseball bat and Henry and (y/n) were hiding in her closet. Pecking out from behind the door, the two could see Charlotte pretending to be asleep as Jasper opened the trunk at the bottom of her bed and looked around. They all gave each other a thumbs up signalling that they were all in position for whatever Courtney would do.

Henry went to flick the light on, but the psycho teen moved and mumbled in her sleep, causing him to back off. The girl got out of bed, which made Charlotte shoot up too.

"Hi, how are you? Why did you get out of bed?" She asked quickly, thinking that Courtney was about to murder her or something.

"Oh, I just need to use the bathroom." She said, getting up and walking over to the ensuite.

"Wait." Charlotte stopped her and got out of bed too.

"Yeah?" the other girl smiled.

"Listen. I know Henry told you that Jasper loves me." Charlotte started as (y/n) carefully opened the closet door so she and Henry could listen.

"Oh, well, yeah. He did." Courtney said carefully. Seeing his chance, Henry started shoving as many gummy bears in his mouth as possible.

"Right. But I want you to understand he meant just as friends." Charlotte told her, running over to her gummy bear bowl so Henry would stop eating them.

"I promise I'm not trying to take Jasper away from you or anything like that," she added, jumping on her trunk so Jasper would stop opening it.

"Oh. Well, thanks. I really appreciate you telling me." Courtney smiled, but it had a sinister element to it. The girl opened the bathroom door and walked inside, but the weird thing was that she took her suitcase with her.

Finally, alone, the guys in the trunk and closet came out of their hiding places.

"See? She's not insane. You both owe me an apology." Jasper told his friends sternly as Henry and (y/n) ate some gummy bears.

"No, she may be acting nice now, but I'm telling you she needs help. That's why (y/n) is here." Charlotte insisted.

"I think she seems pretty nice," Henry said, his voice garbled from all the gummy bears he had eaten.

"Yeah, I've met a lot of bitches in my life and she's not one of them." (y/n) added, popping another piece of squishy candy into her mouth.

"Then explain the ceiling fan almost falling on here," Charlotte said, pointing to where the fan had previously hung.

"Aah!!!" No one had any time to respond as Courtney burst out of the bathroom, wearing a Vikings helmet and carrying a chainsaw crusher thing.

"STAY AWAY FROM MY MAN!!!" She screamed, firing up her weapon as (y/n) pushed Henry further into the closet. They all cried in pure terror as Courtney tried to attack them.

"Holy shit! She is crazy!" The woman screamed as Henry and she ran out of the closet. They didn't want to trap themselves in there if crazy Courtney forced her way in.

Tackling her to the ground, Henry gave (y/n) the chance to keep Charlotte and Jasper away from the psychopath. The dark-haired girl grabbed her baseball bat as Courtney got back of her feet and tried to turn him into mincemeat. They ran over Charlotte's bed and dodged her lethal machine. They threw pillows, lotions, deodorants, anything that would keep her back, but it seemed like her rage was endless.

"Get the silver pillow cushion seat thing!" (y/n) instructed Henry. This wasn't now she had expected the night to go. She could've been at home with pay right now, but, noo000. She had volunteered to go up against Fibberton's biggest nutter.

Following the woman's instructions, Henry picked up the shiny cushion and when Courtney charged at him, he used it to push her back, forcing her through the window.

"I'll get you for that! I'll get you!" She screamed from outside, demonstrating that she really was insane.

"Okay, maybe she needs help," Jasper admitted as the only adult in the room called the cops. Henry and Charlotte rolled their eyes and blew out their cheeks. That was a massive understatement; Courtney needed serious, psychiatric care, stat.

~The next day, in the Man Cave~

Another stupid ping pong competition. Henry needed a stress reliever after the whole Courtney-near-death experience. He really didn't want to clean that damn tube and finally beating Ray sounded pretty good in his mind. The smug man was even wearing the ping pong belt to assert his previous victory.

The males were pulling out every trick they had, from spins to under the leg shots, they were sparing no expense. (y/n) was watching like always, her support going to Ray since if he lost it meant she was cleaning the foul-smelling tube and she loved watching him move. She felt like a teenager again; obsessing over a football player on the field, silently giving him her love.

Eventually, they hit it so hard that the ball became a white blur in the air, not even touching the table. They shouted from the effort it took it to keep the ball in the air, but Ray was ultimately victorious, using his superior strength to hit the ball into Henry's eye.

"Whoo!" Ray smirked, tossing his paddle in his hand as (y/n) ran over to him and jumped on him in elation. He laughed with her as they span around, ecstatic to have won the bet. He buried his nose into her hair as her smile warmed his heart. He had won for her.

"Ha, ha, yeah. That's 17 to 20. One more point and I win." Ray said, his hand resting on (y/n)'s hip, which at this point, was where it belonged.

"I know how ping pong scoring works." Henry hissed, not happy at how badly he was losing.

"Your serve," Ray told him, letting the kid go first.

"Wait, wait, wait." (y/n) interrupted an idea coming into her mind.

"What?" Henry and Ray asked, confused as to why she was stopping the play.

"Can I play this round? I mean, we are a team, right?" She asked Ray, who looked at her in disbelief. She wanted to play?

"What? But you never play ping pong, even with me." He said to her as Henry shrugged. He didn't care who he played, to be honest.

"Yeah, and now I want to play since I'm cleaning the tube too. So give me the paddle." She gave him a pointed look and he regretfully gave her the ping pong bat. Looks like he'd be the one watching from the sidelines. Slipping off her zip-up hoodie, (y/n) stretched her arms and hips a little bit, Ray blushing as her black tank top stretched over her...features. Now, he'd be in her position, dreaming sinfully about the way her flesh jiggled and bounced as she dived for the ball.

"Your serve, Henry." She reiterated what Ray had said to the boy, getting her gaming head on. All her skill from her years of playing ping pong in college was ready and waiting to be used. However, Henry just stood there and bounced the ball in a bored manner. What was his plan?

"Are you stalling?" Ray asked the boy who just looked around the Man Cave, ignoring how (y/n) was studied his every move. Her muscles were poised and tensed for action and she was expecting a surprise move any minute now.

"No. It's just Schwoz is supposed to be here and he's late, so..." Henry excused, trying to prolong the wait.

"Kid, it's game point. Just serve." (y/n) told him, eager to get cracking.

"Lose, and get to scrubbing the filthy tube," Ray added, also desperate for the match to start so he could see his girl kick his ass. But, they were interrupted by Schwoz as he came into the room with a large, weird-looking man.

"Hey guys, Ray, this is Larry." He introduced the guy, as Ray stood up angrily.

"What are you crazy?" He looked at the genius with wide eyes.

"You can't just bring people down to the Man Cave." (y/n) said too, thinking that Schwoz should've known the rules by now since he had worked with Ray for longer than she had.

"Larry is family, you said I could bring anyone in my family down here except for my sister." Schwoz reminded him.

"Who looks like a horse," (y/n) giggled, making the little man roll his eyes.

"Oh, all right. But (y/n)'s just about to beat Henry at ping pong so if you guys—" The superhero was cut off as Henry smiled at Larry.

"Just a sec. Larry, right there." Henry instructed the man, who walked over to the tube and took his shirt off, which he then threw to Schwoz.

"Uh, I'm flattered but he's not my type?" (y/n) joked, wondering what the hell they were doing. Larry definitely wasn't her type, namely because he wasn't a brown-haired, ripped superhero with a goofy personality.

"You said that ping pong is all about staying focused," Henry said to Ray, who recalled what he had said the day before.

"Yeah, but what's the—" Ray didn't have the chance to finished his sentence as Henry used his remote control to play some music. Larry started dancing and it was pretty funny, to say the least. 'So that's their play, huh.' (y/n) thought to herself, knowing that it would take more than a boogieing weirdo to break her focus.

"Just hit the damn ball." She said to Henry, who at last served the ball. She returned it easily, and they fell into a tense battle. Larry danced his heart out, but it distracted Ray more than it distracted her. She really should've told him to be quiet, because his cute laughter caused her to miss the ball. Twice.

"Raymond, will you stop laughing?" She hissed at him as he giggled at the man's dancing. Henry and Schwoz knew that Ray wouldn't have been able to ignore a fat guy dancing and they knew that (y/n) wouldn't have been blue to ignore him being adorable. It was a very sneaky plan.

"Aha! 19-20!" Henry and Schwoz celebrated, as (y/n) gulped. It was all to play, for now, no room for error. Larry grabbed a lime-green bikini top to up the ante, making Ray chuckle again. He even had a skipping rope to add to the laugh factor, which took (y/n)'s anxiety to the next level. Things were getting tense, Henry only needed a couple more points to win.

"Seriously, please stop laughing or I will kill you." She made Ray look her in the eye, her glowing skin stealing his breath away. He nodded dumbly, her radiant beauty making his tongue useless.

"Okay, let's do this thing." She nodded at Henry, desperate to win the competition, not because she'd have to scrub the tube if she didn't, (she didn't care about that), she just wanted to make him proud.

After another intense round, with Henry scoring yet another two points, making to score 21- 20, everyone was on edge. Larry had a siren on his head and a space hopper in an attempt to make Ray laugh, but the man was biting down on his thumb to keep in his giggles. He chose to focus on her hips instead, loving the way her feminine curves moved and bounced as she dived for the ball.

"Henry, one more point and we won't have to wear the pyjamas," Schwoz told the boy excitedly. Larry decided to move on to the next stage of his plan, so he brought out a King Charles cavalier spaniel and started to eat spaghetti and meatballs with it, like in Lady and the Tramp. Okay, this was getting ridiculous.

"Okay, okay, that's it, I'll clean the damn tube. Stop feeding the dog." She snapped, slamming her paddle on the table. It was just easier for her to get on with it, rather than carry on this bloody charade.

"You forfeit?" Henry gasped at her, not believing that she'd give up so easily. Didn't she want to flaunt her assets at Ray anymore?

"(y/n/n), we're so close," Ray whined, as she walked past him so she could change into the stupid duck pyjamas.

"I know, but I can smell that thing from here and this is just...dumb! I'll clean it, you play the game. Loser cleans with me." She sighed, failure stung like a bitch.

She left them to finish the game, quickly returning when she had put on her PJ's. In all honesty, she often cleaned in pyjamas since she always got in a cleaning groove late at night when Captain Man was out fighting criminals. And they were pretty cute in her opinion, so she didn't mind too much.

She walked down from the sprocket only to see Henry dancing around the room with Ray's belt. Oh shit, they won. Ray looked dumbfounded that he'd lost to a kid. Now he had to spend his night chiselling cheese off the tube.

"Let me guess? The dog got to you?" She gave Ray a sympathetic smile and he groaned in sadness. He hated losing, but at least he wouldn't have to scrub the tube alone. She patted his arm and he shuffled off to put his red duck pyjamas on. Schwoz, Larry and Henry laughed at his disappointed face, but little did they know that their victory came with a bonus for Ray...

~15 minutes later~

"You're doing great. Keep scrubbing that tube, guys!" Henry called to the friends who were now both in the tube. Whilst the three winners got to munch on Chinese takeout, Ray and (y/n) had to chip the hardened cheese off of the strong glass. It sounded like a pretty crappy job, but it did come with a small perk.

The confined space in the pipe meant they were pressed up against each other, and boy, were they secretly loving it. He felt like a giant behind her, his muscly arms wrapping around her so he could wipe the wall. Not to mention the fact that the thin pyjamas meant that every contour of his body was pressing into her from head to toe, and I mean, every contour. She blushed as she cleaned, trying to ignore his breath on her neck, his muscles rippling against her skin, his lower half pressing into her from behind. It was an overload of sensations for her, but she didn't want it to stop.

Ray was the same. His head was spinning from how small she felt next to him. He was her protector, so why did she feel like prey? He wanted to claim her, to mark her in a way that would tell other men she was his and only his, but he daren't, even when the curve of her neck was exposed to his lips. He just basked in her presence, glad that he could just take a moment to appreciate the way she pressed into him in a sinfully delicious way. God, this was torturous, but he liked it.

"Keep it up, guys!" Schwoz yelled as they kept scrubbing, his noodles and spring rolls distracting him and the others from the steamy moment in the tube. They weren't in a hurry. They had all the time in the world to savour their love, which was growing stronger by the day, giving them the strength to keep going like always. Ray Manchester and (y/n) (y/l/n) against the world.

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blackthornprime · 4 months ago

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June should have known immediately that something was wrong. She should have known when she pulled in to see a strange motorcycle in the garage. Should have known when he couldn't give a straight answer on where he'd gotten it. Should have known the tiny shakes in his hands were from something far more nerve-wracking than the threat of being caught out in a lie.

She knew the signs. But she trusted him when he said not to worry. The problem was, Jack was generally very good at staying out of trouble. And it have been quite awhile since she'd had any reason to believe he was in a situation where he couldn't look after himself.

So when she got a call early the next day that he hadn't shown up to school, the part of her mind that was unsurprised immediately brought up the tremors from the night before. Cursing herself for not paying more attention, June convinced the ward manager to let her leave early to go check on her sick son. Thankfully, all her extra hours put in earned her leeway. Driving straight home, June parked the car on the road. She didn't want to waste any time if it was as bad as she feared.

But upon stepping out, she heard an unfamiliar voice in the garage. June paused, wondering if maybe she had misjudged, before striding forward and yanking the door up. A metal giant stared at her with a startled look on it's face. The woman stared back. That was not what she was expecting.

Tall but thin, the giant's armor was the same shade of blue as Jack's bike. No, it was his bike. It had to be.

With a frown at the giant, June turned sharply away. Jack sat on the two rough concrete steps that connected the garage to the house. Huddled in the doorway under a thick jacket, her son gazed blankly into empty space. A shiver briefly ran over him.

"How long has he been like this?" She asked, turning her head a bit to address the giant while keeping her eyes trained on the teenager.

"Since this morning? I think." the giant's voice was feminine and very concerned, "When he didn't come down for school, I tried calling his phone. Eventually he came down but...he's been speaking gibberish. He's not broken, is he?"

June sighed, "No." Moving slowly and carefully, she knelt in front of Jack and tried to put herself in his line of sight. "Hey sweetie, can you hear me?"

He hummed, barely perceptible, but didn't answer. Hands clenching into fists, the mother tried again. "Jack? Jackson Darby, you need to listen to me, okay? You're on Earth, North America, United States, Nevada, Jasper, Home. Can you hear me?"

Very far away, Jack could hear her. His mother's voice was a constant and familiar presence that called him back from the-

static/static/void

01010101010101010101

don't answer that

Electric pulses sending data, sending numbers, mixed with the synapses in his brain

01010101010101010101

Voice. Someone was talking, in words, not numbers, not whistles and clicks and the spaces between the numbers and the time it took to send information from one processor to another-

words

-rth...ada, Jasp-

Nevada

-Nevada. Yes, he knew that. That was...Jasper, Home. Earth, America, U.S., Nevada, Jasper and Home. Home, he was at home, in the …... garage?

A face blurred into focus before him. He knew her. Jack struggled to get the words out of his throat, wrapped tightly as they were because his voice was shattered, broken/static...-wait, no. That was... gold? Not him though. Not Jack.

"Summer Lady." he rasped with a small smile. He was so happy to see her.

"Hi sweetie," June brushed his hair from his face and smiled back, even as he saw the worry in her eyes become dark pools below broken buildings. Oil dripped off leaking pipes and shattered concrete in slow metronome off cadence to the swift predatory flick of fins on the strange metal monsters with sharp teeth that bowed to the five-faced judge upon a lying throne-

"I need you to focus, alright?" A pause as she waited for him to nod. "Do you remember what set you off? It's very important."

Of course he remembered. He couldn't forget the-

brightness

a thousand suns radiating waves of energy and power, a field of diamonds,

sharp crystalline edges fracturing into tens of thousands of possibilities and dimensions

breaking, cutting, the glass cracked and fell, wind chimes lost to fire and sirens as towers collapsed

-must destroy the Omega Lock.

Stand coward, and face your ending-

"Matrix." Barely a breath to hiss the word that burned the inside of his mind like an afterimage.

Outside of this, June pulled back, uncertain of what that meant. The giant shifting behind her made the woman turn. Beyond confused, Arcee hesitantly admitted, "The Matrix... is a relic that belongs to our leader. But Jack shouldn't know about it. None of us brought it up yesterday."

"It talked too much."

The two adults looked at him and then each other for clarification. Jack continued. "It was so loud. And now there's too much in my head,..." He blinked slowly, eyes looking in the general vicinity of the others but not quite focused. "It's broken. The star map..."

Rubbing the space between her brows, June sighed and looked at the giant desperately, "I don't suppose you understood that?"

"No." Arcee tilted her helm to study the human better, "Is this...common?"

"For Jack? It happens every once in awhile. But he usually pulls back to the present after a few minutes. And he's been like this all morning?"

The question was rhetorical, as Arcee had already answered it. But June was worried and frustrated. She could usually call him back and he'd snap out of it...

"Where's Hot Rod?" Jack suddenly jolted, looking around as if the individual was hiding from him. "He was just here...with you and Springer..."

Arcee leaned back in surprise, "How do you know those names?!"

"..." he blinked slowly at her again, obviously confused. Or he'd already forgotten the question. The latter was more likely as his gaze turned away a bit and down to the floor. Jack swayed.

Leaning forward to pull him against her before he fell over, June held her son tight and looked over her shoulder. "I think we need to go see your leader. I don't know what else to do. Usually I can get him to snap out of it but I've never seen him stuck in a vision so badly..."

A grimace. Arcee was definitely not looking forward to a reprimand from bringing another human to the base, right after yesterday, but something was wrong with Jack and it had something to do with them. "The ground bridge- No, that might hurt him right now and I don't want to make things worse. I'll carry you there."

They ignored Jacks muttering. "...bridge. Sounds like screaming spaces. Inverse doors to parallel plains-"

Transforming back into a bike, Arcee waited as June maneuvered Jack on and then climbed on behind him. With a loud engine rev, the bot fled out of Jasper and towards the base.

Optimus looked up sharply at Arcee's unannounced arrival. With Bulkhead and Bumblebee on patrol, she was supposed to be at the children' school to keep an optic on things. Ratchet's groan of "Not again, Arcee!" dragged his attention towards the two humans on her back.

Sliding to a halt, she let them off before transforming. "Jack needs help."

"Help? What kind of help does he expect-"

June cut the medic off, desperation obvious, "Jack has visions. I don't know what the Matrix is but it set him off worse than I've ever seen. And now he's in either a vision loop or- or a vision cascade and I can't snap him out of it."

Having a hard time believing all this, Ratchet started in on Arcee, lecturing on believing human nonsense while June shrilled back that he didn't know what he was talking about. Optimus ignored them, kneeling down to get a better look at Jack.

He hadn't moved since he'd gotten off Arcee, merely standing there with his eyes closed. Optimus spoke up softly, "Why are your eyes closed Jack?"

"It's bright."

A rasp answered him, and the Prime nodded in agreement. He knew well how bright the Matrix could be. And if Jack truly was a seer... he wasn't sure what the boy could be seeing but it was no doubt uncomfortable. "Can you look at me Jack?"

Even with his eyes closed, Jack could see the Matrix. It burned.

Bright bright bright bright

Jack had felt the visions, when he'd first seen the Autobots. The flicker of colors in the corners of his eyes, the whispers in his ears, were fairly common when it came to new things and new people. Even more so with an alien species it seemed. He'd known that he would have some visions once he was alone and let his guards down.

Then Optimus had walked into the room, and the star in his chest reached out blinding fingers of light and power directly into Jack's mind. A roar of voices and screaming and words words words-

Only years of practice ignoring the noise, picking apart what was real and what wasn't, kept him from succumbing right there and then. He'd struggled, to keep it together. Enough that he was pretty sure he came off as suspiciously nervous but that was better then letting the visions overtake him in their presence. Jack was very much not a fan of everyone thinking him crazy.

In it's glow once more, Jack cracked his eyelids open. He slowly looked up at the Prime.

Overlays of different sets of armor, different builds and faces, kept shifting the edges of the Prime. His optics stayed the same though. Always the same optics. Jack stared up into the glowing lights, looking for an anchor to hold against the static/noise/color surrounding them.

Optimus gazed into twin shards of blue and was dragged down, into radio static and lost transmissions, into empty space in the largest room he'd ever seen so far down below Iacon's surface-

"Focus."

The rumbled word drew the attention of the others, turning to see Jack and Optimus staring silently at each other. They may not have been able to see whatever the pair saw, but they certainly felt the unfurling of an EM field. Not their Prime's, no. It extended from Jack, stitched together from experiences that were not his, memories that had not yet happened.

Battlefield smoke and energon stained ground

Bodies scattered like toys

Were they small? Or was he? He couldn't remember

'I'm ninety percent secret compartments' an amused voice said

Arcee and Ratchet flinched back from the noise and jangling against their sensors. As a human, June only felt a slight static in the air but knew it had to be coming from her son.

The seer whispered a demand, "Make it stop."

"Jack." Optimus quietly thundered, "Focus."

Been here before

The sudden thought/feeling of déjàvu from Jack flooded the Prime's sensors. 'Here before and here again and what if this isn't even real?'

"This is real Jack." The bot reached to lay a comforting servos on the boy's back as the rising wave of

Layers collapsed, buckling from beneath

Their supports crumpled under fire, under the weight of a war that never ended

Towers and cities disintegrated into dust and powdered memories that could never be put back in place

Cybertron roared in anguish

Keep your helm down kid!

"Here. Focus on me." Optimus thrust out his own EM field to shield the seer. "Not the Matrix, though I know it's bright. But on me." He noticed the turmoil as the seer's gaze flinched from the star in his chest, skipping away from the Prime's own bright echoes to desperately stay in the present.

"There was a library, on Cybertron." he started. Optimus may not have been a seer, and may not have ever had visions like the rising tide that kept tugging and trying to sweep them down into places that were impossible to escape from. But he did have millenia of not letting the Matrix pull him around. There was a trick he knew, that helped him when the Matrix became absolutely insistent on something and wouldn't let him focus on the real world.

"And in it, there was this little reading nook tucked up by a window..."

Prime continued softly, drawing the seer's gaze toward a tiny, harmless and soft place and time, a comforting pearl in the chaotic ocean of visions. Jack's EM field slowly soothed, drawn away from the chaos and pulled into something he could more easily handle. It filled with the touch of datapads and old stories.

Eventually, the visions ceded to the ghostly echoes he was far more used to handling and Jack pulled himself completely out of the visions. With a deep shuddering breath, he broke eye contact with Optimus and looked around. For the first time since he'd gone to sleep the night before, he was absolutely awake and present. Optimus drew back his servo while Jack turned back to him.

He cleared his throat awkwardly, "Um... thank you. And um, I should probably tell you, sometimes I get visions."

His mother sighed in relief as the big mech chuckled and sat back. "Thank you for telling me Jack."

Arcee groaned and took a seat while Ratchet shook his helm in mild disbelief. Looking up at them all, June suddenly cleared her throat. When everyone glanced over at her, she gave a hesitant smile. "Hi. I believe we had a rushed sort of introduction, but I'm June. It's nice to meet you."

Optimus nodded gravely and began to explain once more who they were and where they were from. All the while, Jack kept a wary eye on the Matrix. It still burned in his sight, although not as bright. He could even make it disappear entirely from his vision if he focused on the present enough.

It seemed the worst had passed.

#transformers #fanfiction

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d-amore · 1 year ago

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anyways..... jasp asked "🎁 for a gift f/o has given s/i (or vice versa)." for all three of them but i fucking deleted it 🤡 i'll answer it anyways out of spite of myself

Leon to Mari: he has definetely given her drumsticks with both of their initials, at first he thought it'd be cheeky but she loves it to death

Senku to Suri: he wouldn't reaaaally go out of his way to buy her a gift without meaning (not that he doesn't care, he just... doesn't think about it), but he's big on acts of service. everything she has ever mention of needing (even if just passing) he has given or maked to her. the most recent ones were hairpins bc she needed for her bangs (also he isn't gonna say it, but he bought especifically the pink cutesy ones)!

Nasir to Clara: he bought the "open/closed" sun sign for her pizzeria, as a thank you for her helping in the Big Data Pizza case (and also bc he thought she'd like it, and he was right)!

#senku's one is really big but. i felt like i needed to explain everything jgjfjjf #i could just say cutesy hairpins but No. Explanation time #leon ❤🤍#senku 🤍💚#answered!#it'll go in the tag #nasir 💙🩵

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hypnossys · 1 year ago

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for the system ask game!

🌙💫💐

We started answering these the other day and then completely forgot we had it as a draft oops. Gonna do these a bit out of order for it to make a bit more sense!

questions from here

🌙- Who is the oldest?

I am taking this as meaning age wise, and not like. who's been around the longest, so this one is easy but also a little complicated. A few of us have sources that were immortal, and of that group I believe Jonny would be the oldest. -Jasp

💐-Do you like being a system?

This one is also complicated. Overall? Yeah I like being part of a system.

That isn't to say some stuff isn't bad or hard, some parts of being a system are horrible and I could certainly do without. However this is something that our brain did to protect us, and its allowed us to keep living through the trauma we went through, so I don't think I could ever hate it.

That got a little deep there, sorry about that lol -Jasp

💫-Does anyone want to share something from their source?

I am brainmade/don't have a source so I'm gonna pass this off to someone who does. When others are fronting and want to talk about their sources they might make separate posts with this same question, some of them like to talk about their sources. -Jasp

Something about my source, huh? Hmm. In my source the place we lived has these things called octokittens. Cats with tentacles, in basic terms. We have a few cats and they are actually surprisingly similar. Real cats are much less bloodthirsty than octokittens, however. -Nastya

#ask game #ask #system asks #endos dni

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rysela · 2 years ago

Text

Juniper Backstory, Part two; Let's Start At The Beginning

“Come on, Juni!” Jasper laughed, taking his little sister’s hand and leading her towards the woods behind their muddy shack, “I found something; it’s a secret, just for your birthday, okay?” he continued.

“Too fast!” she protested, her toddler legs too short to keep up with him.

Jasper chuckled again, and squatted down in front of her, “Here, I’ll give you a piggyback there.”

She locked her arms around his neck, and Jasper hoisted her up easily. When his parents first told him they were having another child, he hadn’t been looking forward to being an older sibling – and yes, sometimes his baby sister was horribly annoying – but she was also his best friend. He watched her during the days when their father was in the plant, and their mother did the daily chores and worked to earn a few copper here and there for the other members of their processing community.

It wasn’t a terribly long hike through the woods, though the thick underbrush likely meant any larger creatures would struggle to find the path that Jasper had memorized over the last few weeks. Over a small creek, through some thorny bushes, and they had arrived. A tree that looked like it had been struck by lightning – half broken and burnt out – stood like a gnarled omen in the center of a mushroom circle. At its base, carved into the roots, was a small shrine littered with old offerings. Much more exciting, the clearing was lined with raspberry and blackberry bushes, ripe and hanging heavy on their branches.

Jasper sat her down and handed her one of the baskets he’d been carrying, “Look, see, fresh berries,” he grinned.

Her eyes were wide as she took it all in, “Berries?”

“You haven’t had them fresh before, have you? Mom only gets a can of jam at the end of harvest as a treat. Here,” He walked over to one of the bushes and picked a few black berries, and put one in her small hand, “They’re good.” Jasper showed her by popping one into his own mouth. “Yum!”

She eyed the blackberry suspiciously for a moment, then stuck out her tongue to lick it, before deciding it was safe to consume and mimicking him, “Yum!”

“You like them?”

“Yeah!”

“Alright, we’re going to pick a bunch and take them home so mom can make you a pie for your birthday. So just fill up your basket but be careful of the thorns.”

Looking back on it, he probably should have been watching her a little closer, but he was excited to fill up his own basket. She was too little to maneuver fat fingers away from sharp thorns, and after only about fifteen minutes of picking, he was startled out of his thoughts by a sharp cry, followed shortly by Juniper’s wails.

He dropped his basket and ran over to her, “What’s wrong, Juni?” he asked quickly, dropping down to his knees in front of her. She was holding her hand up to him, and there was a drop of blood running down her finger. “Oh, you pricked yourself. You’re okay,” Jasper said gently, tearing off a bit of cloth from his shirt and wrapping it around her finger, then pulling her into a hug and rocking her, “It’s alright June-bug, it’s just a little owie.”

She was inconsolable, and Jasper looked around the clearing for something – anything – he could use to soothe her. In the shrine at the base of the dead tree was what looked like an old corn-husk doll. Jasper didn’t figure anyone would mind if he borrowed it, and so he went and picked it up, bringing it back to Juniper. “Look, Juni,” he said, making the little doll dance in front of her, bouncing it up and down until he’d earned a little giggle for his efforts, and his sister took the doll with both hands and hugged it.

“There we go, all bet–“ he’d started to answer when there was a sudden crash as lightning struck the dead tree beside them. When the light faded and he could see again, Jasper noticed there was a man sitting atop of the tall, burned trunk.

For a moment, the kitsune thought he was looking at a tall human, but it was looking at Jasper with pupilless eyes that glowed a bright, unsettling yellow against the evening sun from beneath its wide-brimmed hat, and Jasper knew it nothing so simple as that. He was so preoccupied by the stranger’s imposing stature – and its hair-raising aura – that Jasper almost didn’t notice the two large black wolves slink out from behind the tree on either side of it, hackles raised as they circled the clearing and the two young foxes.

Juniper had started crying again, and it looked down at her with open disdain. “What is that racket?” it asked, voice slow and deep.

“I – I’m sorry, she’s just scared,” Jasper stammered, quickly picking her up in his arms and shielding her protectively.

“A pair of little thieves,” the thing that was not a man ignored him.

“…what?”

“You stole from me,” it pointed down at the little shrine, littered with trinkets offered to it in deference. “You took something that belongs to me, boy.”

“I was just – I was just borrowing it,” Jasper protested, “She’s just a baby, and she was crying – it’s just a toy and I didn’t think anyone would mind! We’ll put it back, honest!”

“You think your sister needs a toy?” it asked, its head cocking, almost canine, but unnaturally quick.

“I – We’ll put it back,” Jasper repeated, eyeing the wolves that were circling them nervously and holding Juniper a little closer.

“A child should have a trinket. I will give her one, since you have failed to, little thief,” it remarked, smiling a wide, fanged smile that sent chills running down Jasper’s spine.

Juniper hit the ground with a yelp. Jasper had never dropped her before, but as she looked up where her brother had just been holding her, she saw a sickly green light envelop him, lifting him off the ground while the predator watched. He was screaming, the sound soon joined by Juniper’s terrified wails as she watched Jasper’s body contort and shrink with a chorus of grotesque and violent cracks, his features twisted in fear and agony. To Juniper, mere moments felt like an eternity; when it was over, Jasper fell to the ground before her. Nothing remained but a crocheted doll, silent, and still as a corpse.

“Be silent,” the creature that had just taken her brother from her commanded, but Juniper didn’t – couldn’t – stop the petrified sobs that wracked her unwilling form, both hands clamped over her mouth as she sat staring at Jasper where he had dropped her when the magic took hold of him.

“Enough,” it seethed, its voice as cold as ice. “You have outstayed your welcome.”

All at once, the wolves lunged at her, teeth snapping inches from her face – close enough that Juniper could feel their breath hot against her skin. She screamed, scrambling to her feet, and took off running as hard as she could, back toward their home.

She ran, clumsy on fat little legs, as the wolves chased her, always just a hair’s breadth behind her. Their teeth snapped at her heels, tore the fabric of her clothes, snagged her scarf, pulled her braids, but never quite caught her. Thorns and branches whipped her skin as she scrambled through the underbrush, but nothing could stop Juniper from running. When she broke out of the forest and their house came into view, the wolves broke away, stopping at the edge of the forest, snarling, their jaws dripping saliva onto the ground at their feet. They stayed there, watching, even as Juniper ran into the house, crying and babbling hysterically as she tried to explain to her mother what happened, until they knew that they had driven the girl from their master’s woods for good.

#rysela #juniper #juniper writes #character backstory #dnd #pathfinder

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