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Bedroom Kids Room in DC Metro Ideas for a small, traditional boys' room renovation with blue walls

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FIENDSHIP IS MAGIC  (Part 47 of ?)  18+ readers only  (sex scenes)

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FIENDSHIP IS MAGIC

or

Making Fiends and Influencing Ponies

An Anthro *Tail* of the Mane Six

Part 47 of ? (Work in Progress)

by

De Writer

50320 words (story in progress)

© 2022 by Glen Ten-Eyck

All rights reserved.  This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.

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This story is age restricted to 18

years or older!

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may   reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical   compositions.

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

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New to the story?  Read from the start HERE

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The proceedings were briefly interrupted by the arrival of Pinkie Pie, pulling the Sugar Cube Corner's delivery wagon!  Cheerfully chirping, “Don't mind me!  Just delivering the NIGHT SHIFT donuts, coffee and other goodies!   Knew that this Court was in session, so I brought some for you hard working judges, too!  They are donated donuts for hungry judges!  Keep them out of the clutches of those gluttonous donut raiders over there if you want any for yourselves, that is!”

Unwisely, Priest Sunshine demanded, “What have you got against us?”

Pinkie instantly retorted, “Element of Laughter, remember?  You don't. Laugh I mean.  Everypony that runs into you stops being happy! Often, even a party can't help!  You poison everything you touch with misery.  To top it off, you steal from those who are happy and get others to steal as well!  

“It is trust, happiness and friendship that are the real victims of your so called Book of the Dawn!  I've read that garbage.  Over a third of it is directly plagiarized from Hortimer's old Holy Truth of Celestia! Pigs can swallow almost anything and that book of yours would make poor critters sick!”

She planted her hands on her hips and snarled, “What that book says in plain Equestrian kind of explains why you would attack the Palace of Friendship!”

Twilight, speaking around a cinnamon/apple fritter and coffee pointed out, “A lovely summation Pinkie, but out of place.  We are reading the charges and making sure that the accused know what they are.  Trial usually comes later.”

Reverend Afternoon spoke up, “In regard to Charge number six, I am the treasurer of the Dawnguard Church.  If we were to pay that whole sum off, could the Charge be reduced or eliminated?  We do have funds sufficient to do so, though it would be difficult.”

Twilight nodded thoughtfully, “Let me confer with my fellow judges.”

Quietly she snorted, “We need to let them produce the money!”

Both Luna and Judge Coldheart asked skeptically, “Why?”

“They were refused for tax exemption two years ago due to blatantly racist teachings in their Book of the Dawn, as Pinkie just pointed out. Between their land, buildings, fixtures and all reported accounts they are only worth 15,497 golden bits on their last tax report, made only a week ago!”

Judge Coldheart nodded sagely, “So, unless they go deeply into debit, they have committed tax evasion!”

“Exactly. If we demand a secure gold transfer, paid at once, we can reduce that charge to vandalism, and put Tax Evasion in its place!”

Luna looked up from the conference and asked politely, “Can you make that payment by Secure Gold Transfer and how long will it take to raise the funds?”

Reverend Tightcollar sat up confidently, “Reverend Afternoon can make the transfer as soon as he is given access to our books, which are in the Church Rectory.”

Twilight replied, “Not necessary.  In carrying out the Warrants of Search that you were served with, we now have the account books of your church here.

“Bailiff, please bring in the seized evidence items listed here.”  She handed him a note.  Shortly, he returned with three ledger books in hand.

Twilight requested, “Are these the books that you need or are there others?”

He examined the ledgers, including some folded pages stored in pockets in the backs of the books.  “No, your Highness.  These are what I need.  Will you be assessing any processing fees in addition to the principal sum mentioned in the Charge?  To whom should it be made?”

Twilight sat up straighter and snagged another coffee and a chocolate topped twist.  “Make it to Princess Twilight for distribution to the injured parties.”

Quickly, Afternoon offered the sheet with the SGT.  “To make the transfers, you will have to call the Magic Net codes on the Transfer.”

Princess Luna herself took the sheet.  “I will verify this and make the transfers for you, Twi.  They still have the balance of the charges to plea to.”

Reverend Tightcollar snorted, “Innocent to all.  We have done no wrong in law or ethics!”

Luna looked up from her Magic Net mirror and gestured to the Bailiff, “Please remand these seven to a cell.  After conferring with Princess Celestia, We have decided to make this a case under the Royal Wing.  In this we will include Princess Twilight as well as ourselves.  My Sister Ruler will be here in about an hour and we may then proceed.”

They heard Pinkie go, “UH OH!” from over by the donuts and coffee.

There was a clatter of hooves as she charged out to the Sugar Cube Corner delivery wagon!

Twilight looked askance at the others, “What was that all about?”

Princess Luna, licking the last of a nice yellow tan frosting from her lips, replied, “Butterscotch!  There are no butterscotch topped treats left!”

Settling quietly down from their busy evening and finally relaxing in each other's arms, Rarity and Kin were simply snuggling.  There was a sudden loud hammering at their door knocker!

Kin gave Rarity a goofy bit of grin as she snickered, “Has to be Pinkie Pie!  There is no chaos quite like hers!”

Rarity wrinkled her snout cutely as she patted Kin's bottom.  “You get the door, Love.  I will get the Running Wolf Range lit up!”

Rarity was pulling down some large mixing bowls as the Pink blur charged into the kitchen!  “Butterscotch!” Pinkie panted!  “We need to make up a LOT!  Princess Celestia will be here in just under an hour!

Rarity looked up from her mixing bowls and whisks!  “Butterscotch?  I don't know why, but I was making that up!  I have both topping and a whipped butterscotch crème filling.  I did some chocolate and chocolate buttercreme, too.  I am starting on cherry, which I know Twilight loves!”

Pinkie snickered as she reminded, “Gotta have the dough too, you know!”

Kin paused from pouring oil into a big flat bottomed pan to point to a large bowl set aside with a damp cloth over the top!  “Like that, Pinkie?  Check it out to be sure that it will do.”

Pinkie looked in awe at the huge fluffy lump of perfectly risen dough under the cloth.  Sampling it, she exclaimed, “Alfalfa tops ground into the flour!  Why didn't I think of that?”  She already had a lump out and was plying a rolling pin!  “We should make up rings first! Then swirls and twists!  If we have enough left, we will make up some for filling!”

That was when she noticed, “The oven is hot!  Whatcha cooking?” Peeking in cautiously, she exclaimed, “Popovers!  You got popovers almost ready to come out!  Bless you!”

It was actually all ready and neatly packed in boxes in less time than Pinkie expected!

They loaded the delivery cart, including another big urn of Rom black tea, and trotted away to the Ponyville Police Station!

Their way was blocked by a burly Royal Guard in Celestia's livery!

TO BE CONTINUED

<==PREVIOUS ~ NEXT==>

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Ævi - Frontlines

Hey again! This will be a continued series. The first Ævi series is in my masterlist and is only four parts. This is going to be a ongoing series, so there is going to be a lot more of Ævi to come. :)

Summary: Y/n or also known as Ævi has lived through varies of world events. Now it is 1941, she has excepted that some things cannot be changed so Loki has convinced Y/n to go to New York and live a normal life, a life Y/n always wanted. Or as normal it can be, because new introductions lead to events that didn’t go down in the history books.

Characters: Bucky Barnes x reader, Loki, Steve Rogers, OC Vera

Warnings: Violence, we’re officially in Captain America the First Avenger now... So I guess spoilers?

Part 9

“Steve?” I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was either him or someone that looked A LOT like him. “What the hell happened to you? And what are you wearing.” I wondered. He used to be slightly shorter than I was, but now I was looking up at him.

“It’s a long story and I’ll tell you all about it. But right now I am looking for Bucky and I’m assuming you are too.” He said. Bucky? “What? Is he here?” I asked trying to process everything that was going on right now. This was confusing. “What happened to Bucky?” Steve nodded. “The 107th got taken here and so was Bucky. He said as he moved on to the door next to him and I followed him. “Sergeant, three-two-five-five-seven.” I could hear coming from the room. It was Bucky’s voice. As I walked in further I saw him laying on the table. “Bucky?” Steve said as he rounded the table to stand next to him. I ran over to stand on the other side. “Are you ok?” I asked putting my hand on his cheek. He felt hot. “Oh my God.” Steve said as he unbuckled the straps holding Bucky into place. Bucky was just staring at the ceiling not meeting anyone’s eyes. “Bucky. Look here, come on.” I turned his face towards me and he finally met my gaze. “Y/n?” He asked confused. “We’re gonna get you out of here.” I told him. “We? Is- is that?” He turned his head towards Steve. “It’s Steve, yes, it’s me.” He answered back. “Come on. I thought you were dead.” Steve said as he pulled him up from the table. “I thought you were smaller.” Bucky said in wonder looking at Steve, just as confused as I still was about this. Bucky looked over at me. “How did you get here?” He asked as he slumped over. I quickly ran forward to catch him almost falling. “It’s a long-..” I started as Bucky planted a kiss on my lips. “I never thought to see you here.” He told me as he pulled back. I smiled at him. In all this chaos going on I didn’t know what to expect, but this was a really nice surprise. 

“Come one, we gotta go.” Steve said as he put Bucky’s arm around his shoulder to keep him up, I did the same on the other side. Bucky looked over to Steve again. “What happened to you?” He asked as we started moving out of the room. “I joined the army.” Steve said.

As we were walking through the hallway Bucky kept asking Steve questions about his height difference. Until the building started shaking. We came to a big storage area where bombs where exploding one by one. 

“Captain America! How exciting!” Someone said on the other side. It was a tall man and the small man I passed earlier in the hallway before seeing Steve. “I am a great fan of your films!” He continued. “Films?” Bucky and I asked at the same time. Steve just gave us a nod. Bucky looked at me seeing if I had any answers. I just shrugged. “So Dr. Erskine managed it after all. Not exactly an improvement, but still impressive.” Steve and the man started walking closer to each other. Until Steve hit him in the face, my eyebrows shot up at that not expecting that. It looked like he had a lot of power behind that punch without a lot of effort. The man hit back but hit Steve’s shield denting it.  Steve tried to reach for his gun until he got hit with another punch and flew back. Laying on his back Steve kicked his feet up which made the man fly back. Now the small man pulled a lever pulling the bridge apart that Steve was standing on. 

“I was Dr. Erskine’s greatest success. He said as he pulled on his face revealing his red skull. I looked on in shock, not expecting any of this to happen. Red skull gave some more threats before leaving in an elevator as more explosives went off around us. 

“Come on, let’s go up.” Steve said as he pulled Bucky and me with him. Bucky holding my hand tightly. We followed him up the stairs and in front of us there was a beam. “I’ll go first, one at a time.” Bucky said before letting go and climbing over the railing. The beam was wiggling from his weight and the explosives going off around us. Then the beam slightly snapped and moved down a little bit. “Bucky!” I yelled in fear. “I’m ok!” He yelled back. He continued on and got to the other side. As he climbed over he yelled. “Come on! This thing isn’t gonna hold.” I looked at Steve. “Come on your turn. Go to Bucky.” He said motioning for me to go. I climbed over the railing and started quickly but carefully walking on the beam. A bomb exploded underneath me and the whole beam was starting to shake and drop down more. I quickly ran forward and jumped, I caught myself on the railing by Bucky. He grabbed my arms tightly and pulled me up. As I stood next to him he took my hand again. “Gotta be a rope or something!” Bucky yelled at Steve. “Just go! Get out of here!” Steve yelled as he was waving his hands. “No! Not without you!” He yelled back tears in his eyes and holding my hand tighter.

Steve started to bend the railing and took a few steps back before running forward. Jumping as more explosives went off. He easily landed over to where we were without needing any help. That was a big jump I thought to myself. “Come on let’s go!” He said before he already started running for the exit. Bucky and I hurriedly following Steve. I had so many questions about what made him what he is now.

Steve kicked a door down and as we ran through there were more guards that probably hadn’t made it out yet. Buy one of the guards was wearing this big beefy suit, luckily there was only one of them and three regular guards, but behind the big guy there was Colonel Lohmer hiding. I looked at Bucky and he seemed scared by just getting a look from the Colonel. As I was turning back to the guards the big guy shot something at us which made us fly back.

I sprung in action immediately, I jumped up from the ground I was laying on and pulled Loki’s knifes from behind my back. I made a start towards the guards and as I came close enough I slid on the ground with me knees, cutting the two of the smaller guards legs along the way and they fell on the ground. The next small guards tried to make a start at me, because I was still down, but I quickly jumped up and made a cartwheel hitting him in the face with my feet. Now standing up I kicked both of the first guards in their head. Three down, two to go.

The big guy was pointing his weird big gun at me. I kicked at his arm and he fired, hitting a wall and rubble coming down. “What the hell is this?” I said more to myself. Distracted he got the opportunity to push me back and hard. I fell back near Steve. “You ok?” He asked as he got up and pulled me with him. I nodded ready to run back to the fight, but Steve was ahead of me. He ran towards the big guy and kicked him in his chest making him fly back and knocking him out along with the others. I turned towards Bucky who was still on the ground, probably trying to process what was happening. I gave him my hand and pulled him up. I tried to check him, looking for injuries. “I’m ok.” He said knowing what I was doing. But he didn’t look at me. He was looking at the Colonel who was cowardly running away from the fight. “Who is that?” I asked trying to understand why he was scarred. “He-..” His voice slightly shaking. It was uncomfortable for him to speak about it clearly. and that told me enough. “Lets go.” I said to Steve and Bucky. We probably didn’t have a lot of time left until the whole building would collapse. 

Running out of the building we saw people gathering that didn’t look like they belonged with Hydra. “Follow them. They were taken prisoner as well.” Steve told me answering the question I had. Looking around us this looked like a battlefield. People laying lifeless on the ground, weapons next to them. I walked closer to one of the guns I saw the big guy holding. It looked like something from the future. As I picked it up it didn’t feel as heavy as I expected. Maybe that was because it was shooting weird blue lasers. “What’s wrong?” Bucky asked as he came standing next to me. “I just have never seen anything like this before. It doesn’t make any sense.” I was inspecting it, trying to figure out how something like this can exist in the forties. 

In the distance buy the burning building I saw something move or better said someone. It was the Colonel. I ran towards him as quick as I could. “Stop right there?” I yelled as I pointed the gun up at him. He put his hands up and slowly turned towards me. “Taking me prisoner?” He asked. “Maybe. Depends with what kinda information you can give me.” He smirked. “Oh I see that you made friends with the test subject.” He said in a sinister tone as Bucky came standing next to me again. “You healed quite nicely, considering all the beating you received.” He continued smiling. He actually thought it was funny, how dare he. I came closer pointing the gun at his head. “How did you make these?” I asked trying to ignore what he just said about Bucky. “Little girl, your mind will not comprehend what we did and used to make that.” Trying to dismiss me. “Try me. What did you use to make these.” I demanded. Bucky put his hand on my shoulder. “Y/n, lets just go, he’ll get what he deserves.” Bucky said quietly. “Not yet. What did you use!?” I demanded again. “A magical cube.” He said mockingly. “Lets go. He’s not going to answer your question.” Bucky started to pull me away. But that answer, answered more than Bucky could understand. But I decided to listen to him anyway. “Cowards.” I heard to Colonel say under his breath. I turned around and pointed the gun at him and shot him. He turned into dust. “What the hell.” I said, looking at the damage of what I just did. I gave one look at the gun and dropped it out of my hands. What did I just do? Bucky grabbed my hand and pulled me towards where Steve was waiting for us.

-

As we got to camp I was walking between Steve and Bucky. He exchanged some words with, what I’m assuming to be the Colonel. When he left a woman walked up to Steve. “You’re late.” She said to Steve. “I couldn’t call my ride.” Steve said as he showed him his walkie. That made her give him a small smile. “Hey! Let’s hear it for Captain America!” Bucky yelled. He smiled down at me. Bucky looked so proud at him, yet a little sad. When people where still cheering Steve turned towards us. “Bucky, Y/n, this is Agent Peggy Carter. Peggy, this is Bucky and Y/n.” Peggy offered her hand to me first. “I’ve heard a lot about you two.” She said as she shook my hand and then Bucky’s. “Only good things I hope.” Bucky said awkwardly smiling. She nodded. 

“Well, Bucky needs to get checked out by a medic, where can he do that?” I asked Peggy. “I’m fine, doll don’t worry.” I shook my head. “No, you’ve been in there for God knows how long. You’re gonna get checked out.” He put his hands up, giving in, knowing I wouldn’t stop otherwise. “It’s that tent over there.” Peggy pointed to the direction that we needed to walk and I grabbed Bucky’s hand and pulled him with me. 

“You’re one of the soldiers that was taken past the frontlines?” One of the medics asked as we walked in. Bucky nodded and got quickly looked over. “You don’t seem like you’re injured?” The medic wondered. “It’s because I’m not. But this beautiful woman wants to be reassured.” He said as he nodded his head over to me. “Can I have a moment?” I asked the medic and he nodded and walked away. I closed the curtains around me for some privacy. “What are you doing?” I asked him. “What..? What do you mean?” He asked confused. “You could get discharged and go home.” I explained. This war is far from over and being in America was a lot safer than being here. “Why would I do that?” He asked not getting what I was saying. “You promised to not fight, you did anyway, which.. is fine, but now you’re done. You know what it is like to fight in a war now.. so you can go home.. Where it is safe.” He shook his head. “I can’t go home now.. Steve is here.. You’re here.” He said as he stepped closer putting his hand on my cheek. “I need you to be safe.” I told him as I put my hand on his. “And I need you to be safe. And what better way to do that by staying with you.” I shook my head. “It’s not safe here, Buck.” I said looking him in his eyes. “Would you come with me now then if I did go home?” I looked down. I couldn’t do that. Not yet. “I know you can’t. Cause whatever you were after in that facility, you don’t have yet what you were looking for. And you don’t need to tell me what it is that you are after, but let me help you, with whatever you need, doll.” He told me. It made me happy that he wanted to help, but him staying here made me fear what could happen to him. I nodded, confirming I want his help and I’ll give him my help with whatever he needs. He smiled at me and inched closer giving me a kiss. As he slowly pulled back he started to talk again. “Can I just ask one question?” He asked. “Sure.” I told him hoping it wasn’t something I couldn’t answer. “You’re not a spy or something are you? For what ever country that uniform is from.” That made me laugh.” No, I’m not a spy.” I shook my head at the absurdity of the question, even though I could understand why he would ask that. “And this is from Norway. They don’t exactly know I have this uniform.” Bucky started to laugh at that.

-

It took some convincing, but I was allowed to work with Steve and Bucky and the howling commandos. Peggy helped me out a lot, she is an amazing strong willed woman and I can see why Steve likes her. We had transferred to London to find more places where Hydra had facilities like that and plan. Steve had seen a map and gave them the places. Tonight we were celebrating and even though we were in the rubble in the middle of London, it felt like everything was normal.

“Wow!” Bucky exclaimed as I walked in the bar. “What did I do to deserve to even look at you? You look beautiful. It kinda looks like the same dress you wore when I first met you.” He continued on. It was a steel blue dress this one was a bit shorter and lower cut, but it did look similar. “I want to look good for you.” I told him as I walked over and planted a kiss on his lips. “I gotta find you a ring somewhere quick.” I smiled at that. “You don’t have too.” I told him honestly. I didn’t need a ring. Or anything really, I just needed Bucky. I turned towards Steve who was awkwardly looking on. “Hi Steve. Thank you for letting me fight with you.” Steve put his hand up. “Are you kiddin’ the way you where fighting at that facility? I would be a fool to not let you come with us.” He explained. I was happy that they weren’t asking me a lot of questions about why exactly I was there and how I was even able to fight. But if they’re not asking, I’m not explaining. “Thank you either way, Steve.” 

Then in walks Peggy and you could almost hear his heart racing. “Come on, Buck.” I said as I took Bucky’s hand and guided him away from Steve and Peggy. “I still have my beer.” He said as he tried to reach for it but failed. “I’ll get you a new one.” I dragged him to the other side of the bar. “Can I get two beers.” I said to the bartender. As I turned around Bucky was smiling at me. “What?” I asked. “Nothing. I just still can’t believe you’re here.. Right in front of me!” Bucky said happily pulling me close to him. “You’re such a dork.” I giggled. “I’m your dork.” He answered back. It did feel so nice having him close again. Especially in his arms, it felt warm and safe and.. normal. I felt like I was human, like every moment counted. 

So I decided to take it in. I laid my head down on his shoulder. “I didn’t know how much I missed you and needed you until I saw you again.” I told Bucky. I put my hand on his chest and started playing with his dog tags. “I missed you too. I missed you so much.” And he put his arms around me a little tighter. I looked at the dog tags inspecting them. “James B Barnes, 32557038, T41 42 O.” Bucky snorted. “If you lose these? Will you just get new ones?” I asked him looking up. “Yew, why?” I stood up getting slightly out of his grip. “This will be my engagement ring. And if you still want to give me a ring, you can give me one when we are married after the war.” I told him as I took of his dog tags and put them on me. The bartender came and gave us our drinks. 

“You wanna wait until after still?” He asked. “Well.. It’s not like we’re saving ourselves. And I want to marry you when things are more normal and not rushed.” He nodded at that. “This war better be over soon.” He said as he got his beer holding it up. “To my fiancé.” I grabbed my beer. “To my fiancé.”

...

..

.

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[star-lemonade]

Chapter 5: Casserole

Series rating: R  (AO3: E)

Warnings: polyamory, marking, mentions of pegging, smut

Word count: 5k

Genre: Smut, romance

Female Reader x A.C.E Byeongkwan, Female Reader x A.C.E Sehyoon

beta-ed! Thanks so much to @Alexing1061

Masterlist

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Chapter Index

Summary: You admit your crush on Sehyoon and after an apparent rejection, Sehyoon has to make a confession of his own.

If you don’t enjoy reading about relationships that involve more than two people, this story is not for you

Taglist: @multistan-net

The cafe was comfortably warm. While waiting in the queue you rubbed your hands. A cold had settled into the streets of the city and it would take some time inside before you could feel your fingers again.

You ordered two coffees and sat down at one of the small tables. No sooner had you settled down, the door opened and Sehyoon entered. You waved and he waved back, a little smile on his face.

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

He peck you on the lips and seated himself opposite you. The long, black coat matched his dark suit and white shirt in its professionalism. He looked like the hip CEO of a startup.

“So. How did it go?”

You were on the edge of your seat, wanting to know how the talk with his boss had gone. Before he could answer, a figure appeared next to you. The waitress smiled and set the mugs of coffee down. You thank her and she left. Sehyoon sipped on his coffee, lost in some thought, but you were still waiting.

“So?”

A smile broke on his face. He leaned forward, beaming and said:

“I got a raise.”

“Oh my god! Congrats!”

You took his hands and shook them violently to release your happiness. This was amazing news for him. Although he had been at his company for years they had underpaid him. If Sehyoon had gone somewhere else, he could have made more. That was why you and Byeongkwan had joined forces and persuaded him to talk to his boss.

In your celebration you had somehow landed in his lap. Some of the other customers, but especially the two young women at the table next to yours, glared disapprovingly.

“He matched the offer I got from that other company. So, let’s get something nice to eat after I get my salary.”

You nodded and kissed him. It ended too fast, but you were in a cafe. Sehyoon reluctantly let go of you and you sat back on your chair.

“Talking about fancy dinners. Someone from work invited me for dinner with her husband. Do you wanna go with me?”

Having to spend an evening alone with her and her husband did not seem like a good time. You needed backup there.

“Sure.”

He offered you his hand and you took it. Despite walking outside in the cold, his hands were warm.

“Oh, are you cold?”

Without waiting for an answer your hand was sandwiched between his. He rubbed your hand and slowly the cold faded.

“The other one is cold too.”

Pouting, you showed your other hand. He smiled and gave it that same treatment. What a good way to stay warm.

The weak sun hung deep in the blue sky and the cold was already lurking in the shadows. An almost magical feeling hung in the air. First Christmas decorations had appeared in the shop windows and some trees in the park had been hung with small lights. You stood at the entrance of the small park and waited. It was Friday late afternoon and the street was packed with shoppers. You scanned their faces but so far you had not seen him. For some reason you felt nervous. Even though Sehyoon had expressed his delight at the thought of you and Byeongkwan going on a date, it still felt odd. It would take time to get used to.

A figure waved. You saw him on the other side of the street waiting for the crosswalk. Byeongkwan wore a puffy jacket, loose fit work out pants and a beanie. The thick scarf hid half his face.

“Hey!”

“Hi!”

You threw your arms around him and he chuckled. When you pull back he would not let you get away. He pecked your lips once and as you were about to protest, he kissed you. You moved your lips against his. His lips were wonderful. They were warm and soft, exactly what you needed right now. For a moment you forgot that you were outside, on the street with people around you.

“… I’m really happy with how the students are doing, that choreography was pretty hard for them.”

You walked slowly along the path as joggers and shoppers passed. It felt nice to spend time with Byeongkwan again. You slipped your hand between his arm and his upper body. Walking arm in arm around the park felt like a scene from a movie.

Byeongkwan had come off work a little earlier so you could meet, when it was still daylight. The sun set earlier each day.

“Well, I’m sure it has nothing to do with you being a good teacher.”

A smile tucked at the corners of his mouth and he petted your hand on his arm.

“Thanks.”

The sun was disappearing behind the buildings and you shivered, snuggling closer to Byeongkwan.

A couple passed with some delicious smelling food. That reminded you …

“Do you wanna have dinner with me?”

Just as you asked, you walked past an entrance to the park. Byeongkwan and you had completed a round.

“I thought that’s what we were going to do anyways.”

You had not actually decided anything beforehand. It had just been a vague declaration of “we want to spend time together”. On your phone you had a short list of recipes you liked.

“What do you think about this?”

Byeongkwan checked the recipe on your phone and nodded.

“Sounds good but I don’t think there are any of that at the apartment.”

You went to the store to pick up the groceries. There were surprisingly few people around and you flew through the aisles, picking out all the ingredients. Because this was an unfamiliar supermarket it took a while to get everything. You had read somewhere that the layouts of stores were confusing on purpose to keep you there longer. While in the line for the checkout you and Byeongkwan held hands like it was the most normal thing. No one was paying any attention to this and smiled to yourself because you knew a secret they did not.

Outside the store it was freezing. Byeongkwan looked around before starting to walk.

“Where are we going?”

He headed in the direction of the next subway station.

“To Sehni’s place.”

The sun had made way for the biting cold of the night and your breath rose, puffs of fog. Each of you carried a bag with ingredients.

“Isn’t your apartment closer?”

He looked in both directions before crossing the small side street. A sign at the next corner marked the entrance to the subway.

“My apartment is … very practical.”

Byeongkwan pulled the zipper of his jacket higher. His scarf was also back in his face. You hurried to the stairs that promised escape from the cold.

“I basically use it for storage only at this point.”

Indeed the air got warmer as you descended underground. The glass doors at the bottom of the stairs released a stale, warm wind from inside the subway station.

“So you moved in with Sehni?”

Your voice echoed from the tiled walls of the hallway that lead to more stairs going down.

“I mean, It would be great to have an actual shared apartment, where I have all my stuff…”

This topic was dropped, when you saw that your train had arrived and you both ran to get to the door. Inside the car was packed with people and way too warm for your thick coat. Byeongkwan unzipped his jacket and you seized the opportunity to sneak your cold hands under it and around his chest. Compared to Sehni’s broad shoulders and massive chest, Byeongkwan seemed rather petite but his body felt solid and warm. Your head rested on his shoulder and he kissed your hair before burying his nose in it. In this position the ride with the subway could have lasted forever. You loved it.

Sehyoon‘s apartment was deserted and dark when you arrived. Its owner was currently spending his evening with some friends which was partially why you were with Byeongkwan on this day instead of him. Date night was date night, today just with someone else.

The small hallway with the built-in closet opened into the open kitchen and living room with the only other rooms being the bedroom and the bathroom. The kitchen was separated from the living room with a counter that also added more space for cutting and working. On the living room side of the counter stood a small table with two chairs where you had had breakfast with Byeongkwan last time.

For dinner you had opted for something simple to make, a casserole. While you made the sauce, Byeongkwan cut the vegetables into small cubes and you watched with half your attention. He had rolled up the sleeves of his black sweater so they would not get stained and the muscles in his forearms moved as he cut. His skin was very pale against the dark fabric and even to your surprise you found yourself thinking about leaving a hickey somewhere on him. How it would look when you sucked at the skin. It would turn red and you would have done that. The thought was exciting. Now where would you put one? The neck was an obvious answer but not one you liked. A bit tacky. On his chest maybe? Not as obvious but you would know it is there. Maybe if he wore a low cut shirt the mark would be visible. Everyone could see someone did that to him.

“What is it?”

He did not even look up from his vegetables and your brain needed a moment to register that he had addressed you.

“What?”

You echoed. I think I stared. Damn. I stared.

“What were you thinking while licking your lips like that?”

“Ehm…”

The cutting stopped and he looked at you expecting an answer, but you were a bit too embarrassed to tell him. He would think it’s weird that I want to essentially bruise his skin.

“Come on, spill.” He pressed and when you reverted your attention to the sauce, he put down the knife and wrapped you in a back hug. He kissed your neck and it tickled.

“Tell me!”

Perk. It tickled.

“No!”

You wound in his grap. Tickling.

“Come on!”

You ducked your head trying to limit his excess. Your face was hurting from laughing.

“Tell me!”

Breaking out from his grasp seemed impossible. You could hardly breath.

“Okay, okay. I will tell you.”

He let you go, gently turning you towards him, but you looked down, catching your breath. You had to tell him because you would not survive another assault like this.

“I was thinking about … how I wanted to … ehm … leave hickeys on you.”

Oh boy, I said it. He will think I’m weird.

“Okay.”

You looked up at that. Definitely not the reaction you had expected. Byeongkwan did not seem particularly distressed about this and went back to cutting the vegetables.

The sauce had thankfully not burned while you had almost died from laughing. You watched Byeongkwan from the corner of your eye. His reaction has been so odd, it bothered you. You wanted to know why he was so calm about this.

When he was done with the vegetables, you stacked the casserole. The oven was hot and you opened it.

“How long will it take?”

He asked with a slightly husky voice, when you placed the dish in the oven.

“About an hour.”

You started the timer set for 50 minutes. Then you would have to put the cheese on it and increase the temperature for a good finish.

“Good.”

Byeongkwan’s hand landed on your shoulder and turned you around. His eyes were dark and his hands wrapped around your middle. Okay, so that is where this will go.

He crashed your lips together and backed you up against the counter. The kiss was desperate and your stomach clenched as his hands slid into your hair. Secretly you had been thinking about him all week, since you had decided to meet.

You could feel him, half hard, pressing against you and moaned quietly. He used your weak moment and slipped his tongue into your mouth. The counter was pressing uncomfortably against you back but you could endure it for a bit longer if it meant having him kiss you like this. It made your knees like rubber. What ever cold had remained from outside was now driven out. You felt hot. Breathing would be nice though. You broke the kiss to get some air and saw the pupils of his eyes blown out with the want.

“Come.”

He took your hand and you followed him to the bedroom feeling like a lovesick teenager. Giddy and beaming from ear to ear. The bedroom was mostly unchanged from last time except the sheets on the bed were now a dark blue.

Byeongkwan sat down on the bed and pulled you into his lap, his arms secure around your waist. His soft lips moved slowly against yours as your fingers buried themselves in his silky hair, lightly pulling at it. He moaned, low and quiet, into your mouth and you rolled your hips in his lap for some friction. You were getting a bit worked up too.

He broke the kiss and pulled his sweater over his head leaving him in a dark, soft t-shirt. You took the hint and removed your pullover. His hands were under the hem of your t-shirt immediately, gently rubbing your lower back as you continued to kiss. The feeling of his lips was addicting, you did not want him to stop clouding your mind.

“So you want to leave a mark, hm?”

He purred into your ear before kissing down your neck that you presented willingly to him. An affirmative noise was all you could muster. Coherent sentences were not possible at the moment.

“I got a suggestion as to where.” He leaned back slightly and you looked at him, head spinning with the need of wanting him inside you. You got gently pushed off his lap and you stood up with shaky legs, watching as he pulled the t-shirt over his head and opened the button of his jeans. Okay, wow. You could not decide where to look first. He had beautifully defined muscles and his pale skin was begging for you to mark it. The fact that he wanted this too had alleviated all concerns and guilt you had felt.

Your hands flew to his abs like metal to a magnet and ran down towards the bulge in his pants but never reached it because he laid back on the bed. He pulled the jeans and the hem of his underwear down exposing more of his perfect stomach.

“What do you think about here?”

His finger ran over the area that was previously hidden just under the waistband of his jeans. The thought of putting a hickey there made your mouth water and you swallowed hard. The smile on his face was down right evil as you pulled down his pants and the underwear the rest of the way. He positioned himself in the middle of the bed. You ran your tongue over the area in question, earning shiver from him, before starting to suck and bite. The way he responded made you even more wet. The sucking in of air, was followed by a higher pitched moan and his hand landed on your head. He had a hard time keeping still and shifted slightly under you. His fingers were tangled in your hair. You pulled away to look at your work. The area was a deep red and Byeongkwan was panting audibly, he looked uncomfortably hard.

“Do you want to ride me?”

It sounded more like a plea than like a question.

“yes.”

You could not get out of your clothes fast enough. He got a condom from the bedside table, rolling it on. You straddled him and rocked your hips forward along the length of his hard penis before aligning it under you. You let yourself slide down on it until he was completely inside you and your hips met. As you had not even fingered yourself the stretch was almost painful, but so good at the same time. You rolled your hips and his hand caressed your thighs.

“You feel so good.”

His hips twitched a little under you, trying so hard not to thrust up. Your hand traveled up his body and landed on his chest that you proceeded to use as rest as you lifted your hips and pushed down into him again. His arms supported your motion. A sharp pain in your knee made you stop. _Okay, then I have to do it differently. _You opted for rolling and grinding against him instead.

With your hands on his thighs, slightly bent back was the perfect angle. The pressure on your clit and g spot was making you light headed. You felt your whole body tense and you held your breath. So good. His cute moans pushed you over the edge and you rode your orgasm out while looking into his eyes.

“Can you continue?”

His voice was tense, his face and neck flushed pink. Some hair stuck to his sweaty forehead. You nodded and rolled your hips into him again avoiding your oversensitive clit touching anything. He closed his eyes and moaned again. It motivated you to push through the uncomfortableness. You let his hands guide your hips. He looked beautiful, with his pink cheeks and half opened mouth. He came with a loud, half-suppressed moan.

Thankfully the casserole did not burn while you had been in the bedroom. You turned up the heat for the last 10 minutes to get a good crust and went to the bathroom to clean yourself up.

“Here.”

Byeongkwan handed you a sweater and some fluffy pants.

“Thanks.”

The clothes smelled of the detergent that they used. You sniffed at it as you walked back to the kitchen and turned off the oven. The casserole smelled delicious.

Byeongkwan joined you not long after in the kitchen. He set the table and you placed the hot dish on it.

“It smells amazing.”

You helped yourself to some food. It was very hot and despite your hunger, you forced yourself to eat slowly. Byeongkwan’s hair was still wet from the short shower. You wanted to hug him. I guess the sex made me soft for him.

Thankfully the kitchen had a dishwasher. Washing everything by hand would have been awful. You settled down on the couch after loading the dishwasher and Byeongkwan turned on the tv. The hoodie he was wearing was too big for him and made him look very cute. He laid down and you snuggled up against his chest.

You continued the series you had watched the last time. Despite the warmth coming from Byeongkwan your back felt cold and you shivered.

“Are you cold?”

“A bit.”

He pulled out a blanket from under his head and threw it over you.

“Thanks.”

You did not pay that much attention to the story unfolding on screen. The position you were in was too relaxing. You were surrounded by warmth, secure in Byeongkwan’s arms. He stroked your hair. It was so gentle that it made your heart arche.

“Kwanie…”

You did not know what you wanted to say, so you just snuggled closer to him, if that was possible. His breathing had become very steady and when you looked up you saw that he was asleep. It’s very nice laying like this, but it won’t be comfortable to sleep here all night.

“Kwanie!”

You shook him gently. He stirred and groaned.

“Let’s go to bed.”

The sun woke you up the next morning._ _Byeongkwan was next to you, still asleep. His hair was disheveled and you wanted to pet it. He however was not the only other person on the bed. Sehyoon laid half on top of him, also sleeping. You had not noticed when he had gotten home or had entered the bedroom. Either he had been very quiet or you had slept like a stone.

As quietly as possible you stood up and opened the door. It creaked. You went to the bathroom.

When you came back, Byeongkwan had turned around and they were facing each other. His eyes were open now and he listened to Sehyoon talking. His voice was too quiet for you to understand anything but it sounded a bit husky. One hand was drawing circles on Byeongkwan’s bare shoulder, but now Sehyoon pulled him into a hug. You felt like you were intruding. _Maybe I should go shower first and give them some space? But I still gotta get something to wear. _You decided to just announce your presence.

“Good morning.”

You said and they both perked up. For a very short moment Byeongkwan was surprised and Sehyoon confused. It was only a moment. Then Kwanie beamed at you and Sehni gave you a smile that could melt ice instantly. Sehyoon looked very tired and you wondered when he had actually come back.

“I will make breakfast!”

Byeongkwan peeled himself out of his boyfriend’s embrace and got up. He collected his hoodie and pants from the chair next to the bed. Before he could leave however Sehyoon half-shouted: “Wait! What’s that?!”

“Huh? What is what?”

Byeongkwan looked down and you followed the outstretched arm too. It pointed to the hem of Byeongkwan‘s underwear. There something red and blue was peeking out. The mark from yesterday evening. Your face was instantly hot and your heart hammered in your chest.

“Wow.” Sehyoon reached over and ran a finger over the skin. Byeongkwan bit his lip. _There are no other marks on him so I guess Sehni doesn’t do this. _Yesterday the thought of other people seeing the mark on Byeongkwan was a huge turn on but now that Sehyoon was examining it, you felt anxious. As if he had heard your thoughts, Sehyoon looked at you, then up at his boyfriend’s face.

He smiled softly. “You two? Huh?”

A pout replaced the smile as he sank down on the bed again. “And you didn’t even tell me?”

He looked back and forth from you to his boyfriend.

“Ugh.. I …”

You stammered.

“Don’t make her feel bad.”

Byeongkwan lightly slapped him.

“I’m not mad, just.. I wanna know things too. Come here!”

He spread his arms and you jumped on the bed, into his embrace.

“You smell like a liquid store.”

Sehyoon laughed and kissed the top of your head. Byeongkwan joined you on the bed, embracing both of you.

“My head hurts.”

“And whose fault is that?”

Byeongkwan pecked his lips and got up. He left for the kitchen and you got to enjoy a moment with Sehyoon. You wrapped your arms around him and snuggled against his chest.

“How was it yesterday? When did you come home?”

Your voice was muffled by his shirt. Sehyoon groaned and rubbed his eyes.

“3 am, I think?”

You had been asleep then for sure.

“A friend had a bad break up and I had to take care of him.”

He tightened his embrace as if he was afraid you would leave too. So that’s why he is this hungover. Usually he doesn’t really get drunk. You kissed his cheek. Poor Sehni, he needs some extra care today.

“I need to drink something and shower. Let’s get up.”

You got some clothes from your backpack that you had brought the day before and took a quick shower. The hot water was a blessing.

Sehyoon had made coffee and Byeongkwan set the small table. There was a problem though. The table was only for two. Two chairs.

“You two eat, I will have coffee first.”

The mug in Sehyoon’s hand steamed. He leaned against the kitchen counter and watched as you sat down opposite Byeongkwan.

“I need a bigger apartment.”

Friday had become your favorite day of the week. It was the day when you spent time with Sehyoon and Byeongkwan. Either with one of them or sometimes with both. You would have movie nights and clubbing with Byeongkwan, long talks and cuddling on the couch with Sehyoon.

On this particular Friday you went to their apartment for a game night. Three was a good number to play any number of games. It was not as boring as playing with two. You did not know what game they had in mind, just that it was a cooperative one.

You arrived at the building at about half past six with a backpack. They had told you not to worry about food and drinks, but you still needed something to wear. Secretly you loved wearing their clothes. You did not know whose clothes were actually in the closet. There was no indication of who owned what. Byeongkwan tended to wear a looser fit, so everything except the suits seemed to be comunal.

Sehyoon opened the door and you fell into his arms. The thick fabric of his sweater was perfect to just sink into. Sehyoon felt warm and solid in your arms. You let your weight rest on him. He held you up as if it was nothing.

“We’re gonna play something later. Are you sure you can play like this?”

Holding onto him tighter was the only answer you gave him and he chuckled.

“How about you give me some love too?”

The pout in Byeongkwan’s voice made you smile. Being left out was not something he liked. If there was cuddling while he was in the room, it had to involve him as well.

“Okay.”

You let go of Sehyoon and moved on to the next victim. Byeongkwan was almost drowning in his clothes. The fluffy tie-dye hoodie was the cutest thing.

“Hard week?”

His voice was soft against your hair. _Had _it been a hard week? One of your colleagues had been sick since Sunday which meant all their work had to be done by other people. So in addition to your own work you also had to do a bunch of other things that you were barely familiar with. To get everything done in time you had to work over time. You had even fought your boss to get off work so you could be there on time. It was not like your boyfriends would not understand and more like you did not live for your company. You had to have leisure time too.

“Yes…. I missed you.”

“Aww. We’ll have a nice relaxed evening, okay?”

He kissed the top of your head and patted your back.

On the couch table they had already set up a board game. The map vaguely reminded you of fantasy novels.

“Here.”

Byeongkwan handed you the manual. The game they had bought was like an easier version of dungeons and dragons. Each of you played a different character with a specific skill set. You had to work together to fulfill the mission and win the game.

The time constraints of the game were what made it interesting. Indeed you lost the round.

“Let’s order some food and try again.”

Sehyoon handled the actual ordering and you decided to prepare some plates. Eating out of the container was okay, but you prefer something that was not cardboard. Byeongkwan joined you in the kitchen.

“I think, if we spread out more next round we will do better. We waste too much time by trying to go long distances.”

He nodded absentmindedly and made himself a tea. I guess the game is not where his thoughts are.

Byeongkwan studied your face. Something he did when he wanted to say something but could not quite bring himself to say it.

“What is it?”

He pursed his lips and sized you up. Is something wrong with my outfit?

“What do you think about pegging?”

It was as if he had hit you between the eyes. You were dumbfounded. Byeongkwan took a sip from his drink without breaking eye contact. He just loved making you blush didn’t he?

“Ehm..”

You were not sure what to say really.

“You know what that means, do you?”

You nodded stiffly. Why am I this speechless?

“It’s just, I have never done that.”

Good, so you can speak.

His expression softened.

“That’s okay, but do you want to?”

His eyes glittered as he waited for your answer. Byeongkwan however was not the only one who was waiting. Sehyoon had sat down on the other side of the kitchen counter and watched with eyes wide open. He looked like someone who did not want to miss a single detail.

“Maybe she needs to … see some arguments for that.”

Sehyoon offered to Byeongkwan. Arguments? Why does that sound like code??

Byeongkwan had this evil glitter in his eyes. He had something in mind. You swallowed hard. In a motion so fluid it could only come from someone with a lot of body control, he leaned forward, his arms outstretched over the counter. The position showed off his firm ass. The way he arched his back made the air catch in your throat.

Sehyoon exhaled and the sound snapped you back to reality.

“This is too much tension for me.”

Byeongkwan straigthened again and looked at Sehyoon who walked away.

“How about you get to watch?”

Sehyoon froze mid step. He had voiced on several occasions that he wanted to watch, so this really got his attention.

“What do you say?”

Without thinking about it your hand landed on Byeongkwan’s ass. A triumphant smile appeared and your face burned. Maybe that had been a bit much.

“Yes and yes.”

Sehyoon whistled and Byeongkwan kissed you.

[thebmatt]

FFXIV Write 2021 Prompt #30: Abstracted

Abstracted – to have considered (something) theoretically or separately from something else.

I don’t like how I ended this one, but I was trying to wrap it up after midnight, so it’s a bit abrupt. I’ll likely work on it a bit more before I publish it in AO3 later.

“So those crystals, Aetherytes , you said? They allow you to teleport to any that you’ve previously attuned your aether to?”

Aleister Franks nodded. “Indeed. So long as your body has sufficient reserves of aether, of course. Tends to depend on how hearty you are, physically speaking, so adventurers and military folk may the most use of em.”

Gwenefyr Franks stared at the aetheryte. “Well…that’s pretty amazing. Something like this would have seriously cut into all those tips I made making portals back home.”

He laughed. “That it would. All right, now that you’re all attuned yourself, next stop on the tour, or perhaps the last stop, is right over there!”

Gwenefyr grabbed his hand and together, the pair walked eastward.

“Welcome to Bulwark Hall, the heart of the Mizzenmast, love. Originally built as a stronghold to protect the rest of the city from invasion. Elevators over there…” he pointed to the right of the central column of rock occupying the chamber “…will take us back up to the Drowning Wench once we’re done here, and further up to the airship landing we’ll be seeing tomorrow morning on our journey to the rest of the city-states. ” He pointed to the left. “Over there, that’s a direct lift to the Bridge, offices of Admiral Merlwyb and the rest of Limsa Lominsa’s governing officials. And sadly, much as I’d love to introduce you to the Admiral, the man guarding the lift there, his name’s Zanthael, and he’s a real stick-in-the-arse for only letting people with pressing official business in!”

Zanthael looked over to the couple, smiled, and tossed up a rude hand gesture.

Gwenefyr looked back to the doors to their right and left, both slightly behind them. “And what’re those doors for?”

“Um….storage I think? I’ve never been in, they’re always barred shut. Never even seen anyone guarding them, to be honest.”

“Then why is there a man waving at us from that one?“

Aleister looked to her, then followed her gaze to the door on their right, across from the Crow’s Lift. Sure enough, there was a roegadyn man there, clad in a Maelstrom soldier’s uniform. He was waving at the pair, and upon seeing he had both of their attention, gestured for them to follow. He then stepped inside the pair of doors and left one slightly ajar.

Gwen looked at her husband. “Do you know him?”

He shook his head. “No, but there’s a lot of people in the Maelstrom. Can’t imagine what he wants to talk about, though. Still, guess we’d better go see.”

“Lead the way, husband mine.”

The pair walked over and Aleister opened the door to let Gwen go through first, but as soon as it was ajar enough, the pair were both pulled into a shimmering blue portal by an unseen force. Their vision went white.

A few seconds later, both of them were able to open their eyes only to see that they were surrounded by what was definitely not the rock of the Mizzenmast, but instead a large chamber enclosed by what looked like ship bulkheads made of metal. Various technological devices, things that reminded Aleister of Allagan consoles and holographic displays were mounted all along every wall.

“Uh…where the hell are we?” Gwenefyr asked, sounding very concerned.

“I uh….I really don’t know, but unless the Admiral’s been keeping a secret treasure trove of Allagan technology concealed, I somehow doubt we’re in Limsa anymore.”

“We got pulled in, too. Just like I did when I found the portal that brought me here. Do you think that…”

He nodded. “It’s a logical conclusion. Let’s see if we can figure out where we are.”

“Or you could just ask”

Gwen and Aleister jumped, then quickly scanned the room. The voice had come from somewhere, but neither could immediately identify the source.

“Oops. Sorry for startling you. I’m actually not in there, though. I’m further in the….well, ship is probably the best way to describe this. I’m transmitting my voice from the bridge to you via a speaker. But enough about that. I suspect you want to know who I am and why I’ve brought you here, right?”

The pair looked at each other, then Aleister replied. “That would be correct. Assuming you don’t mean to do us harm.”

“Oh, no, not at all. But come, I’ll explain everything once we’re face to face. You should see some green lights on the floor, just follow them, it’ll take you on the most direct path here.”

Sure enough, a series of green lights illuminated the floor in an arrow pattern, which pointed to a section of the wall that slid down into the floor, revealing a hallway big enough for the pair to comfortably walk side by side. More green lighting illuminated the space within.

“You think this is on the level?” Gwen asked.

“I….think so. Whoever this is, this ‘ship’ of theres is packed full of technology more advanced than anything I’ve seen, now that I look more closely. This looks very different than anything I’ve ever seen from Allagan sites, and….I can’t explain it, but it just feels more powerful. Whoever this is, I think if they wanted us harmed, we’d never likely know it was coming. I suppose all we can do now is investigate.”

Gwen didn’t look entirely convinced, but nodded and grabbed his hand again.

The pair ventured down the hallway. As they continued to walk, more lights further up the path illuminated. Aleister noted that there were no other spaces in the floor for lights, nor did they have any kind of a path built into the deck that led any of the other doorways he noted as they walked.

He was intently studying them for the few minutes they’d been walking when Gwen held him fast. He stopped and looked to her, but she pointed ahead. He saw a shimmering transluscent field was obstructing the path, generated by some sort of emitters lining the walls and ceiling.

“Oh right. Hold on a second, lemme disable that. That’s one of the ship’s reality reset fields. You pass through that and….well, it’ll essentially reset your form to, ah, what it used to look like. Pretty sure you guys don’t want that, and I don’t want to do it to you.“

The field shimmered and then faded out of existence. The emitters retreated inside the wall, a series of flaps closing over them.

They continued along the illuminated path until it came to a doorway. The lights ran up the wall and illuminated the shape of a pointing hand that indicated the closed door. The door opened to reveal a large dome shaped room, dominated by a massive viewport that covered fully half of the dome, outside of which they could see an entire world just hanging in the blackness. Parked in the middle of the room were a series of those strange advanced consoles arranged in an arch around a single utilitarian chair seemingly bolted to the floor and facing away from the pair.

Aleister was dumbfounded by the sheer spectacle, but Gwenefyr found her voice. “This is….incredible. What is this??”

The chair spun to reveal a man sitting in it. He was a hyur, or at least resembled one. He looked somewhat stocky, wearing dark blue pants of what looked like a utilitarian fabric, made as a mix of durable and comfortable, and a red shirt with an image in white lines that neither of them recognized. His short hair and longer beard were both dark in color, but going grey at the edges. Excitement could be seen behind his black-rimmed spectacles as he stood to greet them. “Hey, hey, there they are! Been looking forward to meeting you two for quite some time!”

He extended a hand, and both of them tenatively shook it.

“Who…who are you? What even is this place?” Aleister asked, still not quite able to stop himself from looking around.

“Hah, right on to business I see. Well, can’t say I blame you, this is probably a lot to take in. Well, let me start. My name is Brandon. As to what this place is, we’ll get to that. And as to why I extended this invitation to you? Well, that’s a real long story, but it starts with me telling you this: Like you, I’m not from this, ah…what’s the term you guys use here…Star, that’s it! Not from this star.”

That got their attention. Both turned to look at him immediately. “Are you…are you an explorer of some kind?” Aleister asked, a mixture of awe and a little hope in his voice.”

Brandon shook his head. “Not exactly, no. But, perhaps I should start at the beginning.” He gestured to the massive viewport, at the round image that dominated it. “You recognize this, I take it?”

“That…that’s Hydaelyn, isn’t it? From far away, as if viewed in the firmament of the night sky” Aleister replied.

Brandon nodded. “Very good. And this?” He reached outword, hands splayed open. Small blue cubes of light appeared around his fingertips and be brought them closer together in front of him. As he did, the image in the viewport changed. Hydaelyn shrank and other spheres appeared, smaller copies forming a circle of which Hydaelyn was a part, but with gaps in multiple places.

“Wait, I recognize that pattern from one of the texts Urianger gave me! Is that supposed to be…the shards?” Gwenefyr asked.

“Indeed! But now comes the kicker.” Brandon brought his hands even closer, and the viewport shifted again. The circle of worlds shrank and moved to a side and a whole host of other illuminated spheres, each with is own ring of smaller spheres forming their own circles, appeared.

Franks just stared, mouth agape. There had to be well over a hundred of the circles. “What….what are those?”

Brandon smiled. “That, my friend, are other Hydaelyns.”

Gwenefyr gasped as Franks whirled to face him. “You…you did it! You figured out how to do it? What’s the secret, what have I been missing?”

Brandon’s expression shifted into a frown. “We’ll….get there. Still a lot I need to show you. But first…” He brought his hands together fully.

The viewport shifted again. All of the Hydaelyns shrank further, displaying as a wedge, barriered by a line of light, and adjacent to it…were even more worlds, each marked by a barrier of their own, arranged next to each other as though they were part of a large wheel that only a small section of could be seen.

Brandon raised his left hand, only two fingers extended, and made a swiping motion to the right. The display of the wheel shifted, the wedge of Hydaelyns moving to the right and a new wedge with its own series of white lights. An electronic chimed intoned and text appeared on the viewscreen below the wedge.

“Azeroth” Gwenefyr intoned, somewhat breathlessly.

Brandon nodded. “Inside there is your original home….along with with thirty-seven different versions of the universe of Azeroth. Each unique and distinct from each other in a myriad of ways”

“And that, my friends, is the tip of the iceberg of what we like to call the multiverse. A grouping of universes, mostly alike in structure and history, with different versions of a vast majority of the same people found on all of them, but each with certain ‘key differences’ that make them unique. Divergent points in history, different people in key positions of influence or power, things like that. All of them represented by a single one of these wedges. Swipe to another wedge, and you have a set of completely different universes with a different set of rules, history, people, entirely unrelated to anything in another wedge, with their own different universes with ‘key differences’, and yes thats a technical term by the way.”

He extended his hand again and continued swiping. That same chime played with each swipe, and another wedge moved to the center, text appearing that neither of the visitors managed to retain.

“Just to give you an idea of how many of these ‘universal clusters’ there are, I could sit here and swipe once every second, and it would be twelve hours before I even got halfway.”

Aleister turned back to him “I have so many questions…”

Brandon held up a hand to stop him. “I know. But first, you need to understand who I am, or more accurately, who I represent.

“Uncountable eons ago, there was a race of beings, the original name of which has long been lost, who were incredibly technologically advanced. They discovered the existence of other universes and before long, developed a way to generate gateways that crossed the metaphysical barrier that lie between them all. They found a universe similar to their own, but with seemingly small but impactful differences between them. But like them, their neighbors were peaceful, dedicated to knowledge and cooperation for the good of all, and so they established diplomatic relations with each other, working together to benefit both of their peoples.”

“This cooperation proved boonful, and so they did it again and again. A central citadel, home of a dozen different gateways to differing versions of their universe, was established over time, allowing the best minds to collaborate with each other and advance their civilizations together, for the good of all. The completion of a new gateway became a cultural holiday known as ‘Opening Day’, People from all over the varying universes would get together with their own counterparts and celebrate.”

“Unfortunately, they made an assumption. Every universe they’d traveled to, while having some cultural or political differences to overcome, ultimately was not terribly different. Their race was still the dominant one of the world, and they ultimately wanted the same thing, to be brought forward into their shared age of enlightenment and reason.”

“The very last gateway they ever opened was to a universe dominated by a predatory insectoid species that every other universe had destroyed early in their recorded histories. In this universe, however, the insectoids had won. And over time, they’d evolved into a vicious hiveminded swarm that had consumed nearly all other forms of life on their world. And they….were hungry”

Brandon’s face grew somber. “What followed, as you can imagine, was a cataclysm. The insectoids poured through the gateway in uncountable numbers, consuming all in their path. And since all the other gateways were centralized in the same spire, they soon expanded into every other universe. growing in vast numbers as they consumed more and more biomass. The race had no weapons to stop them, they had evolved past a need for them, and so they stood no chance against the insectoid’s single unified mind driving their massive vicious forms.”

“It took only a few months before the race was all but extinct. The insectoids had utterly consumed their entire civilization and culture. I say ‘all but’ because some two dozen did survive, boarding a small number of experimental craft meant to traverse the inter-universal space that separated them. What they found was that there were no other universes belonging to their people. They were all that remained. But as they explored the rift between worlds in their ships, they found others. Nothing like them, but full of live and people of varying kinds. But they also found others where forces of destructive power reigned as well, forces that would consume other universes if they were to learn of them”

“They vowed that they would never let the mistake they’d made happen again. The multiverse was glorious, yes, but also fragile. It needed to be kept safe from itself. And so they would become its Sentinels, watchful protectors and guardians.”

Brandon looked between them both. “And that’s who I work for. The Sentinels. They employ agents from across the multiverse to keep a close eye on individual sectors, a small group of universal clusters. I have the responsibility of keeping watch over the myriad versions of both Hydaelyn and Azeroth, among others. And that’s why we’re speaking today.”

Brandon brought up the images of the Hydaelyn wedge on the monitor. “Now, for nearly everyone, travel between universes is simply impossible. They can’t even fathom that it exists. There are powerful entities in some that might have the capability to tunnel through the inter-universal rift, but again, our best advantage is that they simply don’t know it exists. We keep a close eye on these entities, but most of the cross-universe incursions we have to deal with happen spontaneously and on small scales. Small portals between universes will spontaneously manifest, and sometimes living creatures will get caught up in them. WHen they’re dangerous, we intervene. Agents, like myself, are empowered to recruit beings from these universes to travel to a universe that something hazardous from their own has appeared in, and deal with the problem. They go home, we agents come in and wipe the memories of anyone who saw anything, and life goes on for everyone. These assets then go on with their own pursuits until such time as they are needed again, if ever. They are sworn to secrecy about the multiverse’s existence, but otherwise we ask no other obligations of them.”

“However, your case was a different one, Aleister. In your case, you not only didn’t threaten the universe you ended up in, you ended up actively working towards ending the threat of that universes versions of the Ascians, who as you might imagine are on our “shitlist” of potential problem entities. I decided to watch and see what you did, and you did not disappoint. You kept your origins secret, for the most part, and made yourself an even bigger threat to them. Normally, a cross universe incursion signals us to destroy a spontaneously generated portal, we keep them open for study until that happens, but yours we left open as a result of your choices.”

He looked over to Gwenefyr. “What I absolutely did not expect was that, in her tenacity to be reunited with you, your lady love would also find that portal and go through herself. And while I am a romantic at heart who is thrilled to see you reunited and happy, unfortunately, you’ve told your story to an increasing number of people on your Hydaelyn, which has forced me to act.

Aleister tensed. “Act? To what end?”

“As I said, secrecy is our prime directive. The more people know, the more danger the multiverse is in. You’ve not only told a fair number of people in your version of Hydaelyn, but thanks to the portal’s presence, your version of the Exarch managed to summon heroes to help you from other universes. In every other universe, he summoned people from that universe’s shards. Not in yours. The same thing happened when Rheika used Azem’s crystal against Elidibus. She brought allies from yet another universe. And in both of those instances, those Warriors of Light became aware of the multiverse, opening more avenues for the knowledge to spread. We cannot have that.”

Franks threw up his hands in frustration. “But look at the good we did! The final two unsundered Ascians, defeated! Who knows what other good we could accomplish if the Warriors of Light from all of the Hydaelyns came together? How many more universes could we save from their Ascians, and how quickly?”

Brandon pointed a finger at him. “And this is why I had to sabotage your experiments, you don’t comprehend the consequences of what you are doing. You forget the lesson of the Sentinel’s origins, already! If we do that, then everyone learns of the multiverse very quickly, and then they’ll start trying to enter it on their own. Look at this!”

WIth a series of gestures, Brandon brought a small number of differing Hydaelyn-and-Shards rings into view. He pointed to one of them. “That one? That’s your adopted home. Hydaelyn-83, by our numbering.” He pointed to the closest one. “This one is Hydaelyn-82, your ‘neighbor’ metaphysically speaking.” Four figures appeared on the viewport. “Recognize anyone?”

Aleister looked at the figures. One was a dark-haired midlander woman, another was a dark-skinned rava viera. He recognized neither of them, but the last two, a red-skinned xaela woman and a dark-skinned elezen with purple and red hair, he did remember. “Yes, those two. That’s Toragana and Veilette, they helped us defeat Hades!”

Brandon nodded. “Just so. On their world, these four are the Warriors of Light. Unlike you and yours, however, they allowed themselves to be almost wholly defined by the traumas of their past and elected to use their power to ensure that none would ever control them again. They would utterly destroy any who crossed them, in the name of dispensing justice, including Gaius van Baelsar, who did not escape the Praetorium alive as he did in your world. Their relationships with the Scions and the leaders of the city-states was extremely strained, but it was Gaius’ own death that proved to be their undoing. Without him, Valens van Varro’s WEAPON project went unopposed in secret, and he unleashed them in a devastating attack on Limsa Lominsa, utterly destroying the city and killing three of the four Warriors of Light.”

Toragana and the two unknown women disappeared from the viewport.

“With her sisters dead, Veilette went into hiding with what few followers she had. Though she had killed the Unsundered, no one was able to stop Fandaniel’s plans from moving forward. Now this Hydaelyn is a ravaged battlefield between Lunar Primals and Garlean warmachina, with the rest of the world caught in the middle, hiding in what few pockets of safety remain. Would you go to that world and potentially expose yours to that danger?”

Brandon pointed to another cluster. “Or perhaps this one? Hydaelyn-72. On this one, the Ascians miscalculated. They rejoined the First with the source, empowering the Black Rose gas with all of that Light aether from the First, but it was more potent than they imagined. The gas was extremely virulent, sweeping throughout the entire world, turning everything it touched into Sin Eaters. Now that Hydaelyn is a death world, a barren wasteland roamed by beasts of light and choked by toxic air, while the Ascians wonder how to salvage their grand plan. Would you see someone inadvertently open a portal to that universe and see that toxic air claim another entire star?”

Both Franks looked on in horror. Aleister spoke. “I….I see your point. But could the Sentinels not stop such things?”

Brandon laughed. “We don’t have the numbers or the tech to stop entire armies in a fight or to contain a virulent toxic gas from spreading. There’s a reason we try to keep universes contained, and that’s because if we don’t, once it progresses past a certain point, we don’t have a way to stop it. And so we work from the shadows, clipping small problems before they get big and erasing memories so no one remembers any of it that we don’t want to.”

Franks clasped his hands in front of his face, as Gwen placed a hand on his shoulder. “So, you said you had to act because I came here. What happens now?”

Brandon crossed his arms, his expression softening. “Well, per our protocol, I’ve got two choices for you. Choice one, I wipe both of your memories of all of your time on Hydaelyn-83, return you to your Azeroth, and wipe everyone’s memory of ever having met you. I don’t want to do that one, I really don’t. You’ve proven a net benefit to 83, you really have, but I have to contain this. So there’s my second option, you two, along with everyone else in the Scions that you’ve told, officially sign up as assets for us. If something from a Hydaelyn threatens people in another universe, I ask you to help me deal with it, you do so. I should stress that this is not a common occurrence and when it does happen, it’s even more rare that it’s a really difficult threat. Otherwise you live your lives with the knowledge you have of the multiverse with no other interference, from us at least, so long as you don’t spread what you know. Just know that if you take that option, the portal closes too. You never can go back to your original universe.”

Anger emerged on Gwen’s face. “You can’t possibly expect us to make that decision on our own. We have to talk to them, let them decide for themselves! They need to know what we’re asking of them!”

Brandon smiled. “Already did that. Told them all everything I told you yesterday. Every single one agreed to sign up and keep what they know secret, but only if you chose to stay. They didn’t want you to not have the choice to ‘go home’ as Dahkar put it.”

Aleister looked over at Gwen, who nodded to him. “It’s not our home anymore, we already came to terms with that. If our friends agreed to this, then it’s pretty clear how much they’re willing to do to let us stay, So, we accept.”

Brandon clapped his hands. “Great! I’ll take care of everything else. Just remember, absolutely no sharing this knowledge with anyone else, and no more cross-universe gateway experiments on your own, okay? Awesome. You guys can head out through that door, it’ll take you back where you came in. And don’t worry about being seen, I put up a small field around that doorway that basically makes people suddenly remember far more important things whenever they look at it. No one should bat an eye at you.” He gestured to a newly opened door that Aleister was fairly confident was not there before.

He extended a hand to Gwen, who took it. The pair smiled at each other and walked out of the ship, not looking back.

They emerged from the same doors they’d entered in Bulwark Hall. As Brandon had promised, no one even looked twice at them.

Aleister sighed. “Well, that was….a thing. I guess we better get back to the Rising Stones and tell the other Scions what happened here.”

Gwen nodded. “You think we made the right choice? I mean, I know we committed to this already, but this…it’s kinda final.”

Aleister smiled warmly at her. “Now that you’re here and staying with me? Yes, yes I do.”

“Then let’s head home, my love.”

“All right! Ready for your first aetheryte teleport?”

Gwen smirked and began casting the magick, rising into the air as she did. Franks smiled, and followed suit.

The pair winked out of existence, heading towards their future.

[fang-wolfsbane]

Transformers Generation One: A Seeker's Triangle: Chapter 02: Missing Memories

“Cover it!”

“Stabilise the thrusters!”

“Somebot come and help me with this!”

“Blade!”

“Star!”

Skywarp lurched upright. His servo resting on his chassis. Frag, he’d lost count of how many times he watched the asteroids slice into the side of the Autobot ship, tearing it open faster than a fine-tuned laser.

He remembered falling against the starboard side of the Ark, watching as both Autobots and Decepticons were yanked from the hole in the port side like dolls from a sparkling’s playhouse. One of them had been a recruit placed under his care. A femme.

No matter who he had asked after helping bring his fellows back online with th Autobots’ computerised assistant, Teletraan One, none had claimed to see her. After reporting his lack of information regarding the femme’s whereabouts to his father, Megatron, he had ended up with a visit to the medical bay and a mockery from his eldest brother, Starscream. He had made certain to repay his brother’s ‘kind advice’ with a fist to the faceplate. It had only been because of their younger brother, Thundercracker, interfering that they had broken up their fight.

All he remembered from the rest of that night was downing the little energon they had managed to steal from what the inhabitants of their prisoner planet, Earth, had called an oil rig. The inhabitants themselves had been disgusting little squiggly creatures that ran into the Autobots’ embrace the moment they showed up. He hadn’t bothered to stick around to hear what they were called, and frankly, he didn’t care.

Sighing, Skywarp sat up on his temporary berth. A pile of crates abandoned in a mineshaft that he had to fight his brothers and fellow comrades for. Megatron and Starscream had taken the deeper, cosier, corners of the mine for themselves.

It was times like this that he wished for a fellow companion beside him, if only to warm his protoform as it was freezing from the cold wind blowing in through the surprisingly large entrance. At this point he didn’t care if it was mech or femme. He hadn’t tried it voice his offer to any of his comrades. On his way to his ‘room’ the previous night, he had overheard Blitzwing mentioning to Astrotrain that he would have tried his luck with their only femme if she had still been around, even if he had to do so by force. He hadn’t known whether to reprimand or pity the mech. Blitzwing was certainly handsome, by Cybertronian standards, but the shapeshifting femme wasn’t one to toss away her armour at the mention of a pretty faceplate either.

Come to think of it, he’d never heard of the femme showing interest towards any of them, at least, not in the more private, intimate way. She had joined in on their mocking of each other about berthroom habits or situations but had never so much as mentioned taking a mech or even femme into hers. Each time one of the mechs tried their luck, she would simply shut them down, and if things got too intense after a cube or two of high grade, the femme, always sober, would put them in their place with a couple of manoeuvres he had personally taught her, along with a couple of others she claimed her frame simply remembered on its own despite not having any memory of it.

That part had always bothered him. One day he and his trine, Starscream and Thundercracker, had been going over a new strategy to try and raid an Autobot stockpile, when Megatron came in out of nowhere, a black and green coloured femme at his side, no older than somebot barely out of her teenage frame.

Starscream, ever his charming self, had resorted to taunting their father for taking an interest in the younger generation. A glare from the grey mech had shut him up with a push against the femme’s backplating, sending her stumbling into his brother’s blue arms with the order to train her to be one of them.

His brother had made a comment about having no interest in femmes that fell at his peds and shoved her over into Skywarp’s purple coloured arms instead. The femme had still wanted to make a retort when Starscream swaggered off with Thundercracker at his side, flashing a sympathetic smile towards the two of them.

Needless to say, neither had much to say to each other, which had made getting to know her strengths and weaknesses far harder than it needed to be, especially with her claim that she could remember nothing about how Megatron found her in the first place. She had claimed to already have been seen to by their resident – well, more like ex-resident at this point – head scientist, Shockwave, who had claimed that even he didn’t know how to fix her memory chips. Personally, he found it hard to believe but hadn’t pressed the matter. If Megatron didn’t need her memory chips intact, then neither did he.

He’d contemplated simply leaving her to her own devices and claiming ignorance when she messed up on her own, but the way she fidgeted had annoyed him enough to the point where he took her outside their old base and asked to see what she was capable of. And Primus, was she capable.

She asked for a couple of forms to scan, which, with some difficulty, he had provided for her. she had scanned them all one after another and changed into each and every one. Normally one bott could scan up to one form, with the rare exception of triplechangers, and be forced to stick with it for at least a decacycle, but there she had been, changing like it was nothing to her, even different types of alternate modes, sky, land and liquid-based. When he asked for her to switch in between, she hadn’t even needed to re-scan them. She claimed to be a shapeshifter, the first of her kind. How that had come to be, she claimed to not know either.

That night when he had asked Megatron for a smidge more information, his father had shrugged and claimed to not know either, only that Skywarp was to take her to Shockwave for further study whenever the scientist requested he do so. She hadn’t been too thrilled about the prospect of being poked and prodded like some lab experiment, but if there was one thing the cyclops bot did, it was staying professional. He had asked her to remove her armour multiple times, but it had always been in Skywarp’s presence, and not once did he go near her chassis or undercover plating. He even let her attach the diodes to measure certain function waves herself, only telling her where to place them and how to lock them in so that they didn’t slip during their sessions.

He had to hand it to the scientist. If it had been him, he’d have insisted on doing it himself with the claim that she would be too ignorant to handle the process. Each time she caught him staring for a little too long, one of Shockwave’s more blunt tools would find a target on the side of his helm. Whenever Skywarp scowled and demanded Shockwave restrain the femme, the scientist had simply ignored him with a comment about her being in the right to defend her dignity from his pervasive optics. Those sessions had usually ended with her demanding that Skywarp wait outside until they were done. Shockwave was inclined to agree each time.

He hadn’t realised that he’d been smirking to himself over the memories until Thundercracker came up behind him and placed a servo on his shoulder plating, yanking him from the thought of that feisty femme’s glare.

“Good recharge?” his younger brother asked, sliding into step beside him.

Skywarp huffed. “If only. It’s so fragging cold down here, I swear I’ve lost all feeling below my cod piece.”

Thundercracker merely chuckled, regaining his brother’s smile. Out of his multitude of brothers, Thundercracker was the only one that Skywarp ever felt he could really confide in. The others had their moments, but most of the time it seemed like too much of a chore to even attempt a form of conversation with them.

Their father hadn’t made it any easier either, always pitting them up against one another to see who would have the honour of taking over his throne one day. So far, whether he was deserving of it or not, Starscream had his greedy little servos flexing for the opportunity. They all knew it was only because Starscream was the first Decepticon prince that he wasn’t tossed out into the cold permanently.

The two of them reached their miniature energon storage, each taking a cube to try and quell the hunger grumbling in their abdomens. The bitter aftertaste didn’t help either. If it weren’t for their short supply or the difficulty in attaining it, he would have tossed it aside and led a raid on the inhabitant of this planet until they found something a bit more to their liking.

Megatron had forbidden any attacks on their own, especially after Starscream’s usual blunder that had ensured the Autobots knew they were still online, but he had also given them the mission to find their fellows wherever they could and to return them back to their mine base so that they could replenish their forces, if nothing else. It meant a tighter restraint on their supply, but with more bots on their side, the higher their chances were of increasing their supply. And if they just so happened to run into a potential energon supply along the way… well, there was no way they’d get into bigger trouble than Starscream would.

Tossing the rest of the pink-coloured fuel down his throat, Skywarp slung his arm around his brother’s neck, nearly causing him to spill his portion. Frankly, he’d be saving him the disgust.

“What do you say we go out and stretch our wings a little?” Skywarp asked, his lips pulling into a cunning smirk he’d had eons to perfect. Thundercracker only eyed his older brother, holding onto his cube a little tighter.

He nodded.

[enigma-im]

Vice Versa

Rating: Mature Relationship: Alien X Female!Human Warning: Dirty talk, strong language, Alien/human relationship, Body swapping, Extreme fluff

Word Count:4846

An Alien and his girlfriend screw around with some mysterious tech on an abandoned ship and end up switching bodies.

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"What a shit hole," I kick a wet napkin away. I tighten my hold on my toolbox as I step over the pile of damp trash.

"Probably why its abandoned, maids stopped showing up," Sander laughs to himself. I glance over my shoulder at his calm demeanor. His bottom set of hands are in the pockets of his jumper, the others are crossed over his chest. He looks around at the dark ship, stretching his neck as he looks behind him. His muscle tee is loose over his shoulders, tucked into the tied-up mechanic's jumper. Something falls from the ceiling, dusting his head with debris. He raises one hand and swipes it off his crew cut.

"well at least it looks better than my first apartment," I look around, "perhaps this place has actual running water too."

"You humans and your subpar living spaces," he shakes his head.

We walk through the hallway, searching each room we pass for any residents. The place seems truly abandoned. Trash and debris litter the walkway. No tracks or signs of the previous life is available. No one has been here for a while, which is fine by us. We are just here to see if we can’t kick start the engine. Then guide it to the U.S. Marsh to be dismantled for parts.

Working on a scavenger ship isn't a good life but it’s simple. Especially when you are a valuable asset, get better meals then. I've been working for a little over two years, having been mentored by Sander a few weeks after showing up. We both hit it off and one thing led to another. Now he is my partner in more ways than one. After a year we became inseparable, taking work together. Everyone on board knows by now that if they want something done right, it was sander and me to call.

As I’m distracted looking at the holo-map I jump when I feel something run up my leg. I jump and take a quick step back. Sander begins to laugh, watching me as I investigate my leg. I look up and see his tail flicking lazily around where I stood.

"Fucking asshole," I sneer. He laughs a little louder at my dismay.

"What," he shrugs, "You know I have no say in what that thing does."

I look down at his tail again, "Thing is just as perverted as you are."

He simply shrugs again, "at least the thing has its priorities in check, always finds its way to you."

I fight back the smile creeping on my face, "Flattery will get you nowhere." Sander walks over to me, grabbing at my arm. I playfully jerk away from him, making him fight for it. He gets a firm hold on my forearm and pulls me close to his chest. His bottom pair of arms grab onto my waist. His top plays with my hand, the other petting my hair back.

"Are you sure about that," he grins. I roll my eyes and he pecks me on the nose, "So damn cute."

I can’t stop the smile this time. I push him away and bring up the map again, "Alright, we need to get to the elevator and the engine is on the bottom floor."

"Lead the way mistress," he flourishes his hand. Sliding his bottom pair back into his pockets.

I guide us both to the elevator at the end of the hall. Making our way to the bottom floor. As the doors open, we are both hit by a rancid smell.

"God, that’s like a punch in the nose ain't it," Sander winces.

"yea, smells like damn spoiled eggs," I grimace. We both reluctantly walk out of the lift. Looking around at the complete disarray of the room. The walls are rusted, and the metal sheets are prying away. The floor is covered in an oily sheen and more garbage. Carcasses of rodents litter the corners.

"Put on your mask, I think there is a gas leak," Sander warns. I reach into my tool kit and find the small gas mask. I take it out and strap it to my face. I look over and give him a thumbs up. He copies the gesture. He doesn’t adorn a mask, having a better capacity at rejecting toxins in the air. One of the many reasons he is normally chosen for tasks like this.

We make it to the end of the hall, the door opening at our nearness. Inside the next room is what we came for. The large hydrogen-powered engine. This was an out of date ship it seems. Everyone is all about nuclear or solar-powered ships, not needing great power if you never intend to land on a planet. Just using it for long travel and orbiting.

Looking the engine over it seems a bit off. There are lines of green all around it, giving it a stereotypical alien vibe. Having some bits and pieces beaten out of the sides, leaving chunks missing. Looks like someone attacked this engine.

"Someone shut it off," Sander says from behind the machine. I follow around and see the large switch turned down.

"explains why it took the jaws of life to rip the door open," my voice coming out in echo around the mask. Getting into this disastrous beast was strangely difficult. Like someone made sure the doors were welded shut. Sander shrugs and goes to flip the switch. When it clicked there is a soft whirling then nothing.

"Can never be that easy," He sighs. He switches it off again and looks around the engine. Pulling out a flashlight to look inside the bits that are removed. I walk over to a table aside from the wall, setting down my case. I lean against the wall letting him figure out what's wrong.

Stopping at the front he squints his eyes to get a better look. I can’t help but admire the focus. Sander is amazing at his job, having done it since he was a kid. He loves doing this, this kind of stuff just makes sense to him.

"Seems to be missing a very large part right here," he mumbles to himself. I walk over and look with him. He steps aside, keeping the light still. Looking into the compartment I see what he is talking about. A bunch of wires connected to a splice lay haphazardly at the bottom of the empty space. Looks like someone yanked something out of here, ripping the cords from the connector.

"Well that’s a problem," I sigh. I lean back and look up at Sander, "What now?"

He looks around the room," Maybe it’s in here? Doubt it, but its worth a shot." I nod as we both part to investigate the room.

The tables around are littered with garbage and torn apart machines. Boxes are filled underneath the stands. We search through each one, picking any machine we find. After some time I find a large cube. In the back there are some wire protruding, seeming unnaturally welding to it.

"Hey, I found something," I shout. Turning the machine over I hear sander's footsteps. He crouches down next to me, watching as I fiddle with the wires. Feeling a soft buzz in my hand.

"Looks right," he mumbles," hand it over."

I turn and pass him the machine. As his fingers touch there is a loud pop then a pulse going up my arm then blinding my eyes. I drop the machine and lose my footing, falling against the hard floor. I faintly hear the box drop along with Sander. My eyes can’t focus, blurring and swarming with black dots. The last thing I see is sander passed out on the floor.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

With a jolt, I snap my eyes open. I sit upright, wincing when I see the light ahead. My torso is heavy, and my feet feel sensitive. I raise my hand to my head, jumping when I see two hands raised. I stare down shocked at the dark green skin and clawed hand.

"Wha-," I start. I grip my fist, watching as both hands do so. I try to raise one but they both follow. There is something familiar about this arm like I’ve seen it a hundred times. I look down at my chest, noticing immediately my lacking parts. I’m covered by a black muscle tee. My lower half covered by a blanket. I throw the sheet back and look down at the all too familiar jumper tied around my waist.

"No," I whisper. I jump out of bed, catching vertigo as I stand. My top feeling heavy and a large weight down my spine. I turn around and catch sight of a very familiar tail. "No," I say louder. I spin in a circle, following the- my - tail. "No," I shout.

Across the room, I hear a groan, looking up I see someone lying in bed. Feeling the familiarity but not placing it I walk over. I stumble a bit, not use to having such long legs. I catch myself with my two left hands at the end of the bed. I look down at the human. She has an all too familiar look, something I know I’ve seen a thousand times. Seeing that face every day in the mirror.

I’m looking at myself in bed.

"No," I shout, stumbling away from the bed.

"God, I’m trying to fucking sleep. Shut up," I- they - say from the bed. It’s very strange to hear my own voice, it's higher than I realized.

"Jesus, do I sound like that," I wince. My voice sounding extremely deep. I cough and grip my throat, "God, I sound weird."

My body sits up from the bed in a jolt. They look at me immediately, giving a once over. Their eyes widen, pointing at me before covering their mouth.

"Wha- wait, Fuck," she says. She looks down at her hands, flipping them over multiple times. She rubs her eyes then repeats. She jerks her hands to her side, feeling along her ribs. "Where are my arms," she whimpers. I watch in shock as this person controls my body.

She jerks her head to me, "Who are you?"

"Uh, you," I wince. They look down at their body.

"Who am I," she asks. Turning towards the side table she grabs the metal bowl. Checking her reflection, turning the item this way and that. "no," they whisper. Dropping the bowl she turns to me, "Baby girl?"

"Sander," I ask back.

"No fucking way," she-he- shouts. Sander- I- jump out of bed, falling immediately onto the floor. I see his hand-my hand- slap onto the bed. Pulling himself up he glares at me. "Where did we meet?"

I stare confused, "What?"

He stands up, staring at me cryptically, "How do I know that you are who you suggest, where did we meet?"

"Uh, I worked beside Larkin in Storages. You caught me fixing the lift and offered to mentor me," I rush out.

He squints at me, "Anyone could know that, where did we first have sex?"

"That’s appropriate," I drop my hands to my hip. I wince when I see the multiple arms. It’s easy to forget.

"Answer me, where did we first make love," he snaps.

"You considered our first time as making love," I blush. He slaps his hand onto the bed.

"Answer the damn question," he shouts. It’s very strange to hear my voice yell at me.

"Was my room because yours was a shoebox compared to mine, on the living room couch" I answer. His posture relaxes and he stares concernedly at me.

"Doll, what happened," he sounds so small. Which I guess for the time he is small. My voice not helping at all, making my heart break a little.

"I have no idea; I woke up and now I have two sets of arms. Then a fucking tail," I manage to lift my tail. I stare down confused as I shift it either way. Flexing it and twirling it. "You fucking liar, you have full control of your tail," I snap at him.

"Yep, it really is you," he smiles. I have a cute smile, I notice. He walks around the bed, stumbling as he goes. He stops in front of me, giving me a once over. "Damn, you make me look good," he chuckles.

"I don’t think right now is a good time for jokes," I scold. I try to lift my hand but still manage to lift both at the same time. "Also how the fuck do you control these damn things," I wave my arms around. I lift both sides and try to drop just the bottom set. I strain with the effort and manage to drop them to my sides.

"Takes practice, Doll," he plays around with his new hands, "Also your voice is very strange to hear coming out of my mouth. Well, I guess your mouth."

"Yea, your voice vibrates through my chest," I rub a hand down my torso.

As we investigate our new bodies someone walks in. we both turn and see a nurse.

"Oh you both seem to be up and at em," the woman smiles. She is a Krattin, or Kraxin. I'm not familiar with the name but she just reminds me of my Aunt's cat, Phillip.

"Do you know what happened," Sander tries to walk around me. He stumbles still, scolding himself. "How the hell is it so hard to walk with your legs," he barks over his shoulder. The nurse stares at him confused.

"Are you having weakness in your legs miss," the nurse asks.

Sander sneers at her, "Do not call my miss. She is miss, I'm Sander." he points back at me then to himself. The nurse is more confused.

"No, that’s Sander," she points to me.

"No, I’m Sander. That’s my Girlfriend," He clarifies. I can’t help but chuckle at the situation. Sander glares which makes me laugh more. Glared at by my own face isn't that intimidating

The nurse steps closer to Sander," Perhaps you hit your head a bit too hard, lay down and ill check you out."

As the nurse reaches over, sander bats her hand away, "Babe, your help would be divine right now."

"Yea alright," I laugh, "miss, there seems to have been a mishap because I’m not who I’m supposed to be." the nurse looks up at me with her head tilted.

"What do you mean," she asks.

"Well, I’m in the wrong body for starters. I generally don’t have four arms or a pointless tail," I gesture to my tail.

"It’s not pointless, I’m hella top-heavy. It balances me out," sander scolds.

"I’ve seen plenty of men with huge torsos that don’t require a tail," I snap back.

He folds his arms," I have four arms, that’s pretty top-heavy. Your human men hardly count at such with their pathetic muscles."

"Pathetic? How would you know, you have a swimmer's body," I gesture to myself.

"Don’t give me that bullshit, you know you love my slender physique," he tries to purr. It just comes out awkward.

"It’s too weird to be hit on by yourself," I shake my head.

He looks down at his body," Yea, it weird to talk to myself as well."

The nurse stands by watching the exchange with pure confusion," OK, now I’m lost."

We both turn to her, "Right, I’m sorry. I hope that explains it. We seemed to have body swapped."

"Ugh, don’t say it like that. This isn’t that stupid movie you made me watch," Sander winces.

"Which movie? There is a bunch like that," I turn to him.

"The uh," he flips his hand about, "the two women. Switches with the mom."

"Freaky Friday?"

"Yes, that one. Fucking stupid," he goes back to crossing his arms. We turn back to the nurse who looks on the verge of calling security.

"Well, I'm going to check your vitals. Perhaps order for a scan of your brains," she says slowly.

"We aren’t crazy," Sander snaps.

"I never said you are, just sometimes in a tragic situation like near-death that people can make up things," she tries to explain.

"Do you think we are making this up," I ask.

"No, I think you honestly believe that you have swapped but most likely just mimicking their actions and believe such thing as mental swap actually happened,” she makes an excuse. It would be a solid excuse if I wasn’t the one dealing with it. I know I’m not who I should be. The ground is way too far away from my head. I have way too many arms, and I have a prehensile tail.

"Here, how bout we answer some question that only we would know," Sander suggests. He was always the one to try to quickly face a problem. "call Peter and Macy. They know more about us than anyone," he waves his hand.

With that suggested the nurse leaves the room. We both assume to collect our friends, but more likely to talk with someone about the situation. We converse amongst ourselves, admiring our new bodies while we wait.

Around an hour later the room is filled with people. Peter and Macy stand in front of us. A few nurses are poking and prodding our heads as a small group of people are surrounding us. It seems word got out fast about our predicament and a few brave souls have shown up for the freak show.

"Alright, sander," Peter starts," Last Christmas I got super hammered. What was the favor I asked you the next day?"

Sander bats the hands of the nurse away, "Easy, you asked that I don’t tell Katy about that Huxst you were hitting on." a few people around the room chuckle. A Huxst is a species of Lethargic creatures. They are very intelligent but very slow, keeping weight like no one's business.

"I should have picked a less embarrassing question," peter winces, "But she could have guessed that"

"Then why pick that question, rule was that you pick one only I would know. That only Sander would know," He corrects himself.

"Fine, give me a second," Peter thinks," ok, last week you asked me to pick up something for your girl. You wanted it to be a surprise, so I know she has no idea about it." I look over at sander, curiosity peaked.

Sander glanced up at me blushing," Different question."

"No, answer that one," Peter scolds. Sander looks up at me then back at the floor.

"Fine," He hisses, "it’s a signed copy of her favorite vinyl. It was in mint condition so I know she could use it whenever she wanted. The sleeve was worn but you could clearly see the signature from everyone in the band." I’m a bit floored by his revelation. It’s a very considerate gift. I have an old beat-up record player I got from my dad when he passed. It has fond memories every time I play one of his records. I know exactly what band he is talking about. It was a very old rock band. The fact that he didn’t just find one but one that was signed it beyond me.

"Really," I ask. I set my hand on his arm. Feeling strange touching my own skin with his.

He looks up at me," yea, it was meant for your birthday next month." I smile down at him, pressing my hand to my heart.

"I'd kiss you but I rather not kiss myself," I laugh. I get a chuckle out of him as well.

"I guess that answers it," Peter claps his hands, "They switched bodies." a few people around the room grumble as some exchange funds. I guess in that short time there were already bets.

Macy steps forward with her arms out," Wait. We have to make sure they are switched with each other. He could be anyone" She gestures to me.

"Well then Macy, ask me a question that only id know," I fold my top set of arms over my chest. Copying Sander's signature pose by putting my lower arms in my pockets.

Macy gives me a once over as she thinks, "When you first met Sander's do you remember what you told me?"

"That he is an ass," I chuckle. Sander flicks me in the arm.

"No, well yes but not what I meant," She smiles, "We sat in your room after y'alls first time. You were all gushy and giddy, hugging the pillow he slept on." I remember that day clearly. It was the afternoon after we first had sex. He stayed the night but left the next morning to work. I met up with Macy, needing to talk to her. I couldn’t stop smiling as I gave her the details of our date. I looked at her said -

"I think he is the one."

There were a few awes from the crowd, but I was too embarrassed to look up. I hid my face in my hand, not wanting anyone to see the blush on my cheeks. I felt a hand on mine, pushing it aside. I look upon my own face, filled with admiration.

"You really knew by then," He whispers. Keeping his voice down so no one can hear our private moment.

"Of course, you were wonderful," I can’t help but smile. He smiles back, bumping his head into mine.

"God you are such a softie," He has a wide smile, "I think I have to kiss you"

I lean back," No, I’m not going to kiss myself."

He grabs my face," Too bad, that was too adorable. I have to kiss you, its law." I fight against his hands, finding it easier now that I’m the stronger one. "Nope, don’t fight it," He laughs. I give in, letting him peck me on the lips. I drop my head to his shoulder.

"Fuck, I wish these people weren't here," I grumble. I feel Sander turn his head and regards the group.

"Proof enough," He asks the crowd," Now someone fix this, please. I’d like to kiss my girlfriend with my own mouth."

Everyone left the room besides the nurses who are still trying to poke and prod. We gave up trying to fight them a while ago. As we sat in relative silence we jump when the door opens. A few people roll in some machines on a dolly cart. One of the machines caught our eye immediately.

"that one," Sander shouts. He jumps out of bed, getting used to his new legs, and stops in front of the box. "this little fucker," He growls.

I hope out of bed and stop behind him. He leans down to pick it up but thinks better of it.

"Do we know what this is," He asks the workers in the room. I look around to see they are his workers. The mechanics that do more of the tinkering and fixing of the place.

"No, but it does emit a strong power. Rodney assumes it’s a battery of some kind," one of them that I recognize as Krait says.

"A battery," Sander rolls his eyes, "The thing is some magic body swapper device and you assume it’s a fucking battery."

"Chill out, they know as much as we do," I rest my hand on his shoulder.

"Excuse me for being a bit tense," He scolds over his shoulder," Fuck, I can’t even scold you properly. When did I get so damn tall!"

"Sucks being short doesn’t it," I laugh.

He sneers up at me," We better figure out how to switch back soon because I will have you on your back in seconds."

"promises, promises," I shake my head.

"Damn straight it’s a promise," he snorts. He looks down at the box, using his covered foot to nudge it a bit.

"How did you two switch to begin with," Krait asks.

"Well I found the thing and handed it to him," I point to Sander," and then there was a flash and we woke up here."

"You feel the weird buzzing up your arm and to your head first," Sander looks up at me.

"Yea, it was like being shocked," I rub my arm.

"Then let’s do that again," Krait suggests, "She picks up the box and hand it so Sander."

"I guess it’s worth a shot," Sander shrugs, "Can’t imagine we can get more fucked up."

"Hey, watch yourself. That my body you are 'fucked up' in," I nudge him.

He pets his hands down his chest, groping himself as he does so." and what a lovely body it is too." I kick him in the back of the knee, making him buckle. "Fucking ow," he winces. He rubs his knee as he eyes the box. He glances up at me next, "Ladies first?"

"According to the genitals in the room, I'm afraid to say that it’s you who is the lady," I smirk.

"On your back, screaming my name. that will happen even if we aren't switched back," He glares at me.

"Then let’s hope we can switch back because If we don’t I will be the one topping you," I laugh. He continues glaring but with a bit of mirth.

"Guys, please touch the creepy alien box before I vomit," Krait cringes. We both smile at each other at Krait's expense.

Sander reaches out first and grabs the box. Without my command, my tail wraps around his ankle. He looks down and grins.

"Told you I don’t have control over it," he glances back up. I shake my head as I tighten the tail's grip. Sander lifts the box from the dolly and turns to face me. "If you are in any pain, I want you to say so, I know how stubborn you are," he demands.

"I promise, it’s going to be ok," I console. I timidly reach out my top arms. Hovering my hands over the box, feeling the electric pulsing already. With a quick breath, I slap my hands to it.

Just like before I feel the current run up my arms and into my head. This time I feel like my skull is going to burst. I feel the heat behind my eyes and all I see is white. Then in a second, my legs buckle, and I fall to the floor. My head bouncing as it cracks against the tiles.

<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>

I wake up with déjà vu. I'm sprawled over a hospital bed but this time I’m not wrapped in a blanket. I squint at the ceiling lights, making a note to tell the nurse to dim them for anyone who has been knocked out. I rub my eyes, feeling the softness of my own skin. I run my fingers through my long hair, brushing it away from my face.

"You are damn slow to the catch," I hear a deep voice beside me. I look over and see Sander sitting up in bed, watching me with a smile. I squint at him confused before it clicks. I jolt up in bed, "there she is. Hi, doll."

"It worked," I twist off the bed. He does the same, planting his- HIS- feet on the floor.

"Yes it did, lovely to see you again," he laughs as he walks over to me. I grab his bottom arms and pull him close. He kneels and wraps both sets around me. "God it feels so good to touch you with my own hands," He rubs his face on my head. I can’t stop the choked laugh that escapes me. It really worked, it fucking worked.

I lean back and grab his face. Pulling him down and taking his lips to mine. He gives no fight, tilting my head with his hand. His other hands petting me, memorizing everything. Perhaps having a new admiration for touching with his own skin when he lost it before. I reach up and grab his hair. Tugging on the short strands the way I know he likes. He groans into my mouth, grounding his hips into the bed.

"I’ll take it that it worked," I hear a voice call. We part and I turn to see Peter and Macy.

"Yea," I answer softly. Sander brushes his nose around my ear, still groping and petting me.

"I guess we should leave you two alone," Macy says. She grabs peter and drags him out of the room.

I turn back to Sander, resting my forehead on his.

"Hi," I smile.

"Hi," he answers back.

"What should we do now?"

"Fulfill a promise," he lifts me from the bed. His lower arms hold my thighs around his waist while his top ones hold my hips. He walks me towards the door, opening it to a nurse.

"Where are you two going," the nurse asks as she steps aside. we walk past her.

Halfway down the hallway, Sander yells out, "I'm going to make love to my girlfriend."

I laugh while peppering his face with kisses.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Refrenced the only two body swap movies i know. Vice versa and Freaky Friday. This was meant to have more to it but it was already getting long so it's cut short. still reads well in my opinion. Check out my archive

[awhitehead17]

Universal Signs

Chapter Eight / Previous Chapter

Also on AO3

A/N: The rating has changed! It was general but is now teen. There is a bit violence and hints of blood towards the end of this chapter. Its nothing too graphic but just in case here's the warning if that makes you uncomfortable. 

Enjoy! :D

Tim wasn’t sulking. He wasn’t! He was just pouting in the common room on his own as he thinks through recent events. That’s all. No sulking involved whatsoever.

Okay so maybe he was sulking.  

His arm was irritating him. Underneath the bandage his skin itches and he has to forcibly stop himself from scratching at the wound. He scowls at the ceiling as he slumps back into the plush couch he was sat on. He can’t believe a cat spat at him and burnt his arm. Out of everything he’s encountered so far, that cat-like creature is probably the strangest things he’s yet to see. 

The aliens did tell him to not get too close, but in his defence they neglected to mention that the creature could spit over seven feet away! How was Tim supposed to know that? He saw the creature, it looked cute and fluffy and he wanted to pet it, then Kon-el found him and dragged him away. The alien’s reaction to the creature just made Tim more curious about it.

After grabbing food Tim found the cat again but kept his distance. It looked harmless and it even resembled his brother’s cat back home. However things went wrong when something spooked the creature and caused it to get nasty. In a matter of seconds it went from cute and cuddly to vicious and evil. It hissed and then spat at Tim before darting away and disappearing into the trees.

Thankfully he had quick reflexes and was able to cover his face with his arm before getting hit with the creature’s acid-like spit. His arm instantly flared up with pain which caused him to cry out. That’s when Kon-el appeared.

At least it was his arm that got burnt and not his face. Who knows what kind of damaged that would have caused if that was the outcome. Curiosity killed the cat. Tim snorts. Yeah, his curiosity did almost kill him this time.

“Are you okay?”

Tim jumps at the sudden voice. He turns around to look at them and follows them with his eyes as they walk over to the couch and sit opposite him.

“What’s funny?”

Cassie looks at him with slightly narrowed eyes, as if she’s suspicious of his behaviour. Tim eyes her up momentarily, even now after he’s been with them for a few weeks he still gets the odd feeling around Cassie. She’s warmed up to him a little in that time, as if she’s getting used to his presence now but there was still that underlying mistrust of him hanging around in the air.

Tim shrugs it off. There wasn’t a lot he could do about it in that moment. He averts his gaze from her and waves a dismissive hand. “Oh nothing, just some human crap.”

That was another thing Tim had learnt. Half of the time they have no idea what he’s saying, common phrases and sayings go right over their heads. Any abbreviations he makes gets him blanks stares. Movie and TV show references get him a raised eyebrow in question.

Of course this was to be expected considering where he is, but every time it happens the ache inside his chest of where he’s missing home just grows that bit heavier at the reminder.

Tim’s missing his friends and family. He doesn’t know how long it’s been since he was taken from earth as he was unable to track time while he was captured and he only has a vague idea of how long he’s been with these guys on this ship.

It sucks and Tim absolutely hates it. Unfortunately he doesn’t have much of a choice but to suck it up and get on with it.

“Sure...” Cassie drawls giving him that look that says you humans are strange. “I wanted to update you on some stuff. First off, our next stop will be in a few days’ time to collect the next item we need. There isn’t much to do between now and then, so basically get comfy and relax. Second thing, how would you like your own room on the ship? We were speaking and it’s only fair that you get your own space like the rest of us have.”

Tim nods taking in the information before pausing and shooting her a surprised look. He had been expecting the next stop details, however the room news did surprise him.

“Really? I didn’t think there would be any room for me to have my own space?” He questions her. “I don’t want to put any of you out or make any trouble.”

“We can clear out one of the storage rooms and place a bed in there. It wouldn’t be much but it’s somewhere other than in the common room for you.”

Tim smiles gratefully, “Yeah, that would be great. Thank you.”

Having his own space would be nice. As comfy as the couch in the common room was, having his own space would definitely be preferred.

She nods. “Okay, I can let the others know and we can get started on that. Third thing, how’s your arm?”

Tim lets out a breath and shrugs. “Irritating. The wound is still fresh so it’s going to be annoying for a little while yet. If I keep it clean and stuff it should hopefully heal up within a week or two. Thankfully it’s not anywhere where it would really be a nuisance.”

She stays quiet as he watches him. Tim glances at her but looks away again. He has no clue to what she’s thinking, he probably doesn’t want to know either.

When the silence drags on, Tim decides to fill it. “So what’s the plan until the next stop? Got any ideas or no?”

She shakes her head. “No. As I said there’s not much we can do now until we reach the next destination. Try to keep yourself occupied until then. I’m sure one of the others can help entertain you if you get bored.”

After that apparently Cassie was done with the conversation because she stands up and leaves the room without another word. Tim blinks at her vacated spot, wrapping his head around the conversation. Right, so now he has to entertain himself for the time being.

He sighs and starts deciding what he’s going to do with himself. As he looks around the room for inspiration, his eyes land on the Rubik’s cube on the table in front of him.

Figuring that’ll do for the time being, Tim reaches over and grabs it. Two of the sides were already solved and Tim’s going to assume that Bart was the one to do it. He wonders how many more he can complete until their next destination.

 In the time it took to travel to the next planet, Tim simply plotted around the ship looking for things to do. One of the main things to be achieved within that time was that his room Cassie had mentioned has now been set up. It’s a storage room turned into a bedroom so it’s pretty small but they manage to get a bed in there along with a small wardrobe and a small chest of draws. It wasn’t a lot but it’s not like Tim had a lot of belongings anyway.

While it was nice to have his own private space sometimes it felt wrong. At times the room felt too small and it made him feel claustrophobic, especially since there were no windows. The bed sometimes felt to hard and he would just be tossing and turning on it. It made him miss his own bedroom back home. Like his pillow, god he misses his pillow, and his own blanket. Just the little things that he once took for granted.

He gets by though. It’s nice that they’ve created the room for him and he appreciates it.

To pass the time, they would occasionally play a few games, have the entertainment night that Bart got to decide what they do, work and chat.

Tim’s arm was still healing and from what he could tell it was healing nicely. Another couple of days and it should hopefully be back to normal. He’s been keeping an eye on it and treating it to the best of his abilities.

Eventually they enter the next planet’s atmosphere and Tim observes the descent from the window in the common room. The planet was filled with what looked like trees, well, at least if trees had dark blue leaves and purple trunks. By this point he wasn’t even surprised any more. The amount of crazy, beyond imaginable, things he’s seen and discovered while in space, things like this just don’t really shock him anymore. Though the idea of telling his family about all of this is rather amusing. They wouldn’t believe a single thing of it.

The ship descends down to the ground and lands with a thump. Once everything was stable Tim leaves the common room and heads for the cockpit where the others were gathered. He enters the room to find Cassie at the dashboard and Kon and Bart together at the table. He walks overs and claims one of the free seats for himself.

They both look at him as he settles.

“Tim, just to get you up to speed. We’re on the planet Tordar and we’re here because we need to gather up 50 pieces of Pingon,” Kon tells him.

Tim nods his understanding and straightens up when Kon slides a piece of paper across the table to him. He picks the page up and scans it. There was an image of what Tim is assuming they need to collect. It was a golden cylinder shape with what looked like pink coloured spikes sprouting out from the main body and there were large dark blue leaves appearing from one end of it.

It reminded Tim of a pineapple. At least if they were skinner, pink and had blue leaves.

Kon continues speaking, glancing at his team as well as Tim as he does so. “The picture is what we need to collect from this planet. Pingon’s are found hanging low off the trees. So hopefully we can simply grab and go.”

Tim puts the paper down and rubs a hand over his forehead. He sighs and looks up at the alien. “There’s more to it than that isn’t there? It’s never a simple grab and go. So what is it?”

The alien looks uneasy, shifting from foot to foot as he glances at Tim before sharing a look with the other two like he’s reluctant to tell Tim the information.

“Kon.” He presses.

In the end it wasn’t Kon who shares the information with him, it was Bart. Tim whips his head around to look at the speedster.

“A species called Galavent live on this planet and they are dangerous. They’re ferociously territorial, will maim and kill in an instant. They are not fun to be around at all.” He was staring at Tim with an intense expression, this alone was telling Tim Bart wasn’t joking around and this was the truth.

“Right,” Tim drawls, “Avoid killer… Galavents? No problem.”

He starts getting up from the table only to be stopped by Kon speaking up. “Tim, maybe you should stay on the ship for the time being.”

Tim grits his teeth and tries to hide his annoyance. “Why? Because I’m human? Because I don’t have powers like the rest of you?”

Kon open his mouth to say something but seems to reconsider his words. “No. Not because you’re human Tim but because your hurt. It’ll be safe for you on here than out there.”

Tim snorts in disbelief. It was only a matter of time before they would start treating him like he was a delicate piece of glass unable to do anything. He continues standing and pins Kon with a look.

“I’m fine. I have a minor injury, nothing that’ll stop me from doing regular things. I’m going to help you whether you like it or not.” When the alien stays silent, Tim takes that as a win. “I’ll meet you by the door.”

He leaves the room in a tense silent and heads for his own bedroom. If the planet did have dangerous creatures on it, it may be best that he has some sort of weapon. He grabs the metal pole from his room before heading down to the main door of the ship.

About a minute later the three others show up. As he approaches, Kon scowls at him, clearly not happy with this arrangement of Tim joining them out on the planet. Tim fakes a sweet smile, like he was completely innocent in the ordeal. He smiles for real when the only reaction he gets is Kon’s scowl deepening on his face.

As they walk, Tim notices that each of them was carrying something that resembled a large picnic basket. He doesn’t question them about it, figuring that they must be for carrying the pingon’s back to the ship.

The four of them soon leave the ship and step foot onto the planet. Tim was surprised to find it warmer than he expected. With all the trees around them (even though they’re purple) it reminds him of a jungle or forest back home. It was surprisingly light on the planet too, despite all of the leaves blocking the sky, everything was still visible to Tim’s human eyes.

Moving away from the ship, which was parked in the middle of a large clearing, they all enter the tree line and start hunting for the pingon’s they need to collect.

Thankfully the hunt doesn’t take too long for them to find the first bunch of pingon’s. They were indeed hanging low off the branches towards the ground, basically in perfect height for picking.

Tim walks over to one of the trees and studies the fruit. The colours were more vibrant in real life than what they were on paper. It looked like an exotic fruit someone would find in the Caribbean or something. He reaches out and gingerly touches the spikes of the fruit, not knowing what to expect. They were sharp but didn’t feel like they would pierce his skin, once again reminding him of a pineapple.

He grabs the fruit with a hand, pulls it off the branch in one swift movement and weighs the thing in his hands. It didn’t feel heavy like a pineapple does, in fact it was fairly light which was surprising. He wonders over to where Bart was picking a few from off another tree and puts his in Bart’s basket.

Between the four of them they clear that area of fruit fairly quickly and decide to move onto the next area. As he picks the fruit, Tim was half tempted to eat it. Maybe split one open to see what it looked like on the inside and try some of it.

He fiddles with the one in his hands as he glances around to where the others are. They were all too busy with their jobs to pay attention to him. Tim turns back to the fruit and positions his hands where the leaves were and braces himself to pull them off when –

“Tim what are you doing?”

When Cassie’s voice makes him pause. Annoyed he’s been caught, he sighs and turns around. He puts on his best innocent looking expression and shakes his head. “Nothing. Why what’s up?”

Cassie narrows her eyes at him in disbelief. “I’m going to say this now, but don’t eat the pingon’s. If consumed like this,” she holds up the pingon in her hand as demonstration, “unprepped, they can burn your insides. So listen to me and don’t eat the pingon’s. Understand?”

Tim blinks in horror at the fruit. Okay, apparently this is fruit that can burn your insides. This is just another thing to add to the mental ‘what the fuck?’ list Tim has currently running inside his head.

“Right, not eating the pingon raw. Got ya.”

He was still tempted to try the fruit of course but Tim’s going to listen because he likes his insides functioning and wants to keep it that way. Shaking the thoughts of burning insides out of his head, Tim continues with the task at hand. The quicker they finish the better.

They spend a little over an hour collecting all the fruit they need and gather a few more for themselves to have a treat at a later date. Once finished they begin to head back to the ship. The aliens were carrying the baskets while Tim walked behind them, lazily swinging his pole around with each step.

He doesn’t know when it started, but he knows when he first recognised the feeling. All the hair on the back of his neck suddenly stands up and goose bumps appear on his skin as he shivers. An uneasy feeling washes over him as he travels behind the aliens. It went on for a little while and the feeling wouldn’t go away.

Tim was sure something was watching him.

He stops walking to observe his surroundings, looking for anything unusual (or something that looked out of place at least) however all he could see were the thick trunks of the trees, hanging fruit and the dark blue leaves.

Tim takes a deep breath and lets it out before shaking his head. He’s just being paranoid, that’s all. Overthinking things and letting his imagination get the better of him.

Turning back around, Tim continues walking now picking up his speed to catch up with the others who were further up ahead and hadn’t noticed he stopped. Tim only travelled several meters when the growling started. It was a low sound that shook him right through his core, something that made him freeze on the spot.

He tries to control his breathing in order to stop himself from panicking, his heart starts pounding inside of his chest and all of his muscles in his body were frozen and tense.

The growling’s coming from behind him and it felt like it was getting louder by the second. His brain was screaming two different things at him. One was to run. Run and don’t look back. The second, was to turn around to see what was there.

Ever the curious human, Tim goes with the second option and stupidly turns around. He keeps his movements slow and steady so he doesn’t startle whatever is behind him.

Tim’s breath catches inside of his throat when he finally faces what was behind him. Hanging from a tree there was a huge monkey-like creature. It was staring at Tim with two black orbs for eyes, its long razer teeth were borne in a snarl as it growls at him.

For a moment Tim thought it was a baboon. The colour of the fur was the same and its body was similar. The main differences however was the size and the fact this thing was eyeing Tim up like he was candy.

Tim didn’t know what to do. He’s sure if he makes a move the monkey will pounce and after getting a glimpse of its claws Tim would rather not chance it.

Swallowing thickly Tim decides to take a cautious step back away from the animal. His eyes never leave the thing as he starts slowly backing away. If he doesn’t startle or aggravate it, fingers crossed, he’ll come out of this alive.

Tim’s method appeared to be working. The monkey doesn’t make a move against him as he backs away.

“Tim? Where are you?”

The sudden shout makes him jump and he holds his breath as the monkey seems to stiffen up in front of him and the growling increases in volume. Tim doesn’t dare look behind him though. He feels like if he moves his attention away from the creature then the animal will make a move. Almost like a spider you’re trying to capture, you keep watching it so you don’t lose it.

“I’m here.” Tim calls back carefully. Not too loud so he doesn’t startle the thing. “Um, something’s come up.”

“What do you me -oh.”

Now Tim could feel another presence behind him. However unlike before this one doesn’t feel threatening or put him on edge.

“Tim remember what we said on the ship. That’s a Galavent.”

Tim huffs, because of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be?

“What do we do?” He asks the alien. He can make a few guesses himself but he’s out of his element here and does not want to do anything wrong.

Before Kon could reply even more growling echoes around them. From above, the leaves all rustle and a glance up shows more monkeys – Galavents – appearing. Tim’s eyes widen at the realisation that they’re surrounded.

The animal in front of Tim finally moves. It drops down to the ground with a thump, and starts stalking towards Tim. It snarls and growls at him as it gets closer. With fear Tim starts backing up, no longer caring about careful movements. The animal in front just takes that as an invitation to move quicker, letting out a roar as it starts speeding towards him.

After that, it was like hell all broke loose.

As the Galavent charged towards him, Tim let out a yell and turned tail and ran, almost falling over as he does so. Kon, who was standing behind him, shouted and also ran with him. From behind, the monkeys all followed, letting out their roars, snarls and growls as they chased them.

“Get to the ship!” He hears Kon scream at him but Tim wasn’t really paying attention.

Sprinting through the trees, they scramble to get away from the animals pursuing them. Together they somehow make it to the clearing where the ship was but only to be stopped short. Next to him, Kon goes flying as a Galavent lands on his back and tackles him to the ground.

“Kon!”

Tim doesn’t get a chance to dwell on Kon being attacked because suddenly he was thrown to the side. When he hits the ground he rolls a few times before landing on his back, he barely gets the chance to react before a monkey was coming at him from above. Letting out a scream Tim uses the pole he still had to block the monkey’s attack as it lands on him.

Large fangs were snapping at him and sharp claws trying to rip him to shreds. Tim uses all of his might to keep it away from him.

Just as his arms were about to give out, the weight of the monkey disappears. Tim blinks in surprise at the sudden change of events and again as Bart materializes out of nowhere above him. He smirks down at Tim before darting off again.

Swallowing Tim scrambles up onto his feet and swings with the metal pole as one of the monkeys jump up at him. The pole hits it clean in the head and knocks it down. Tim swings a second time to knock another down which comes from above. He knocks it down to the ground and hits it again to try and knock it out. When it no longer moves Tim stops his motions and straightens back up looking for the next immediate threat.

A yell from his right gets his attention. It was Cassie wrestling one of the creatures on the floor. Her hands were locked around it’s jaw in attempts to keep it from biting her head off. Without even thinking about it, Tim’s moving. He sprints over to Cassie and bodily tackles the animal off her.

Because of his momentum, the two of them go sprawling over the ground. Tim loses track of the animal as he rolls several times before coming to a stop on his front. He shakes his head and tries to get past the dizziness that’s currently taken over.

His luck seems to run out there because unfortunately something lands on his back before he could get his head together. The impact winds him, leaving him breathless and then there’s the piercing pain that erupts in his shoulder. He lets out a curdling scream and thrashes wildly in an attempt to buck the thing off his back.

The pain somehow worsens as it seems to travel down from his shoulder to the middle of his back. Tim lets out another sound as he feels his skin split open and warmth spread across his back. Tears were forming in his eyes and there nothing else but pain.

From there it becomes a blur. Things just all mould into one. At some point the weight disappears off his back, there were shouts of what he thinks was his name but all that registered in Tim’s mind was the pain coming from his shoulder and back.

When something else touches him, he weakly fights it off, however that something was persistent and easily bats away Tim’s sluggish strikes. He screams again when more pain explodes inside of him.

He must have blacked out or something because the next thing he knows it that his face was being pushed into something soft underneath him. Unknown things were still touching him, there was a noise which sounded like a voice surrounding him but he couldn’t make it out and the main thing was there was still overwhelming pain coming from his back.

He yells again when something touches his back, causing another jolt to go through him. He tries to get away, tries to escape from what was hurting but he’s forced to stay still by a force. With his pain-fogged mind, Tim couldn’t work out what it was, but he didn’t actually care, he just wanted to get away from it.

After futile attempts to wiggle free, he whimpers. The whimper turns into a hoarse scream when it somehow gets worse. Tim’s never felt anything like this before. It must have been too much for him to handle because the last thing he remembers is letting out that scream and then nothing.

[snakeboistan]

Based off of this post I made a while back. I would like to thank @nyagisa for helping me come up with some ideas for the plot

The Tokyo sun shone brightly through the windows of the 3-E building, rays of golden washing over the wooden down desks and chairs. The students in the classroom were spending their morning before homeroom as they always did: by chatting away to one another or just minding their own business. The atmosphere of the room was quickly burst when they heard thundering footsteps making their way towards the doorway. Every single head turned towards the classroom’s entrance to find a panting Okuda appear under it, braids swaying and glasses slightly askew.

“I did it,” she announced, “it took me all weekend but I did it.”

“Uhh, what?” Okajima asked, scratching his head.

“Wait,” Fuwa paused, head perking up as if realisation dawned on her. With a widening smile, she asked, “you mean the thing.”

Okuda nodded her head and Fuwa beamed. She raced towards the bespectacled girl and glomped her in a hug, “Oh, Okuda, you scientific genius.”

Okuda turned red and smiled shyly at the praise. Around her, everyone else had no idea what on Earth was going on.

“Hey, mind filling the rest of us in?” Maehara inquired.

“I came up with a brilliant idea for an assassination attempt and asked Okuda to cook something up that would make all of our lives far more easier,” Fuwa explained with a smug grin, “Let history say, children, that being an otaku saved the planet.”

“What did you make, Okuda?” Kurahashi asked, head tilted in confusion.

“Yeah, come on Okuda, tell them,” Fuwa nudged her.

“I-well-I made a truth serum,” she mumbled, cheeks dusted with pink.

“WHAT!”

“Are-are you serious?” Kimura asked in disbelief.

Mimura’s eyes were wide, “like an actual, real-life truth serum?”

Okuda nodded timidly as she pushed her glasses up her nose.

“That-that’s awesome,” Maehara stated, “like seriously, that’s so unbelievably awesome.”

“Can we see it? Can we see it?” Okajima begged, rushing towards her and jumping up and down like an overeager puppy greeting its owner.

“Sure,” she replied. She opened up her bag to procure a box. Clicking up the lid, she reached in and then held up a test tube that was half-way filled with a shimmering emerald liquid liquid. The entire class looked at it with awe.

“How the hell did you manage to make that?” Yoshida asked, still unable to believe what he was hearing.

“Well all I did was mix a few centimeters cubed of ethanol, scopolamine, 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, midazolam, flunitrazepam, sodium thiopental, amobarbital and a few other chemicals.”

Everyone just stared at her.

“So, is no one going to comment on how she just happens to have all of those chemicals?” Sugaya said.

Maehara shrugged, “Eh, she’s Okuda.”

“Yeah, she carries around actual chloroform with her at all times,” Mimura nodded, “at this point, it’s best to not question it.”

“But seriously, guys this is awesome,” Okano grinned, “imagine if we slipped that into some of his favourite sweets. We could make him tell us anything. Unless he’d manage to sniff it out.” She turned to Okuda, “he won’t be able to, right?”

Okuda shook her head, “he shouldn’t. I made sure that the serum is completely odourless.”

“Haha, yes,” Okajima fistbumped the air, “by the end of the day he’ll be telling us everything we need to know about how to assassinate him. That ten billion yen bounty is OURS.”

As the class cheered, celebrated and praised Okuda for her genius, a certain blonde troublemaker sat at her desk and was watching the commotion in thought, leaning her cheek on the back of her fingers. Slowly, a sly smirk crawled onto her mouth.

….

Karma was in the forest when Nakamura approached him. He spotted her from a mile away from where he was perched on a tree branch, blonde hair bouncing with every leaping bound she took, that ever-present Cheshire cat grin on her face. He watched with amusement and intrigue as she made her way towards him, immediately getting hit with the idea that the two of them were going to have a very interesting day today.

“Yo, Nakamura,” he called, “aren’t you a long way from class?”

“It’s break,” she supplied from her position at the base of the tree, “besides I can say the same to you, mister.”

“As if the octopus could teach me more about algebra than I already know,” he said haughtily as he jumped, landing gracefully on his feet in front of her, “at this point I only show up for the assassinations. Actually going to class would be a waste.”

“Ohohoho,” Nakamura smirked, “betcha I can change that thought.”

“What do you mean?”

It was then that Nakamura held out a hand that she had hidden behind her back, opening it up to reveal a familiar looking test tube.

“Is that…?”

“Uh hu.”

“How did you get it.”

“I have my ways.”

“No kidding.”

“So, Karma,” Nakamura smirked, blue eyes alight with mischief, “what do you say to a bit of fun?”

Karma grinned, horns and tail appearing out of nowhere as the satanic aura around him intensified, “what do you mean?”

“Ohh, you know,” she hummed, her voice had an ‘innocent’ lilt as she shook a vial that contained the green liquid with her thumb and index finger, “just giving this bad boy to our favourite prank victim. Can you imagine all of the dirt we could get out of him? Who he likes, embarrassing secrets, all of the tea he has - it’ll be a goldmine.”

“Ha, perfect,” Karma laughed, “God, could you imagine what we could make him spill? We’ll make that little mouse squeak like there’s no tomorrow.”

The two of them burst into ungodly snickers, doubling over as woodland creatures ran for their lives, as far away from them as possible. Giving each other looks filled with perversity that would make a necromancer faint, they set their plan into motion.

Shiota Nagisa had no idea what was coming for him.

…

As soon as the bell rang, signalling that class was over and lunch break had begun, the students rushed towards the door, most of them practically shoving each other as they piled out of the classroom and towards the wooden lunch tables that were situated outside of the building. Nagisa, as usual, was the last to leave due to him being the slowest packer in the class. Plus, he had a tendency to talk to his desk neighbours, Sugino and Kayano, as he put his things away, which slowed him down as well. However, for some reason, Nakamura had decided to stay behind with him, telling him that she wanted to speak to him in private. So before he could sling his bag over his shoulder, he was dragged out by the golden-haired girl into a secluded storage room, where they kept all of the unused Science and Home Ec equipment. There she proceeded to drill him about whether he had a crush on anyone or not, stating that she had a bet going on with Karma. He tried to tell her that he currently wasn’t interested in dating anyone and that he held no romantic attraction towards any of his classmates but she wouldn’t let up until he managed to stealthily push his way past her and back to the classroom so that he could retrieve his school bag and make his way towards the building’s exterior. Once he reached his destination, he was met with Sugino waving an arm to catch his attention.

“Hey, Nagisa,” he called, “I saved you a seat.” When the blue-haired boy sat down beside him, he asked, “so what was that all about?”

“Oh you know,” Nagisa rolled his eyes, “Nakamura being Nakamura.”

“I see.”

With that, he took out his bento box and opened the lid but before he could grab a piece of his hand-made lunch, he paused. Something inside Nagisa felt weird as a sense of foreboding fell over him. He had no idea why but it felt like his senses were warning him of something, that something was wrong. However, he had no idea what. Scanning the environment, he observed that everyone was acting normal: Fuwa was recounting the latest chapter of her current manga obsession to anyone that would listen, the Terasaka gang were debating whether or not cereal counts as a soup, Hayami and Chiba were doing that thing they do where they communicate with their eyes and the slightest movements of their heads, Maehara and Okajima were engaged in an arm wrestling competition that would determine who would be given Yada’s spare wagashi and Karma and Nakamura were huddled together laughing about something. To be honest something about that felt off, especially since they seemed to be stealing glances in between smirks and snickers, but those two working together always filled him with dread since he was the main casualty of whatever prank they’ve cooked up - but there was something about their current behavior that felt more off than normal, their conscious wavelengths held a form of threat that made him feel apprehensive...

“Hey, Nagisa?” Sugino asked, concern evident in his eyes and in the furrow of his eyebrows, “you alright, man? You seem to be on edge.”

Mentally shaking off that strange feeling, Nagisa gave his best ‘I’m-okay-please-believe-me’ smile, “ye-yeah, I am. I just - just got lost in thought, you know?”

To ease the baseball lover’s worries, he pinched one of his pieces of shrimp tempura sushis with his chopsticks and brought it to his mouth, before chewing slowly and swallowing. It was at that moment he knew that something was definitely wrong. As soon as he felt his food go down the oesophagus and land in his stomach, he knew that there was something very very wrong. His body froze, chopsticks slipping through his paralysed fingers and landing on the grass, as he lost awareness of his surroundings. Dread was crawling up his spine and rushed through his nerves, sending them ablaze with this feeling of numbness. The last thing he registered was his stomach dropping before his surroundings blurred and all of his thoughts turned to mush, leaving him unaware of the way Sugino’s eyes widened with fear when he watched Nagisa’s face slacken into an emotionless stare, bangs falling forward as head hung itself over his bento box.

“Nagisa,” he shoved his shoulder, “HOLY C***, NAGISA!”

His shouting had alerted the rest of his classmates, each of them immediately turning their heads to face the pair. 

“Did he eat it?” Nakamura crowed from her seat, face split into a beaming grin. Beside her, Karma gave Nagisa a cocky smirk, as he regarded the used chopsticks in the blunette’s hand “did he actually eat it?”

“What do you mean?” Sugino asked desperately, frantically shaking his head as he looked at his best friend and the blonde, “what did you do?”

“Karma, Nakamura, what’s the meaning of this?” Kataoka demanded. Everyone had no idea what to do; no matter how many times Sugino shook him or Kayano tapped him on the shoulder, his face remained expressionless as his body swayed like a ragdoll. All of the light and energy that inhibited his eyes, the warm emotions that screamed ‘Nagisa’, had vacated, leaving only desolate orbs of blue nothing. For someone like Nagisa, who was always observing, always hyper-alert of his surroundings, to start acting like a lifeless marionette was troubling to say the least. Nonetheless, there seemed to be two students who were hardly concerned.

“Chill, guys. He’s alright. Cool it, would ya?” Karma said easily as he waved a hand up and down in a careless manner. 

“What did you do?” Kataoka asked sternly.

“We just wanted to test if Okuda’s little serum actually works.” Nakamura shrugged with a mischievous smirk, “you know, just to be sure. What’s the harm in doing a little science experiment?”

“You-you did what?” Okuda asked shakily, horror-struck at the revelation. She made that serum for an assassination attempt, so that she could help save the Earth, yet Nakamura and Karma decided to give an untested concoction to her classmate just to get a few laughs. As confident as she was in her abilities as a chemist, she was aware that she’s not perfect and four times out of ten her experiments end up in a complete disaster. At least, if her serum wasn’t made correctly, Koro-Sensei would’ve been able to handle it the same way he can handle all of the other poisons she made that could make a sumo wrestler drop to his knees in a second. She warned the class that she wasn’t sure that it would work, yet these two pranksters took her work as another way they could have a laugh - and on Nagisa as well. Nagisa, who was sweet and kind and always smiled and made her feel included, who always praises her when she does something right and doesn’t laugh when others make mistakes, who never complains about anything. Koro-Sensei told her that being unable to communicate properly means that people will take advantage of you, yet Nagisa, who always seems to know what to say, somehow appears to be the person who is exploited the most. She felt- she felt tricked. Like that time where Koro-Sensei smiled at her and gave her instructions so that she could make a poison that could actually work for him but she ended up enhancing his abilities instead. However, at least then it was all with good intentions, so that she could learn how important it is to communicate, unlike now where her skills were used to poke fun at someone else. Science is all about progression, it’s about working hard to ensure that the world becomes a better place so that people can be happier, healthier and have a better way of life. That’s why she pursues it because if she can’t help people with her words, then she can at least help them with her chemicals. Her voice came out high as she whispered, “Why would you do that?”

“Oh, come on, Okuda,” Nakamura waved her off, “it was just a little prank.”

“A-A prank?” Okuda repeated, unable to comprehend how on Earth these two could be so callous, “you used my formula for a prank?”

“Alright, guys, I think that you two have gone too far,” Maehara tore his eyes away from the petite boy in pigtails and glared at the two smirking devils with his arms crossed.

“Yeah, guys,” Okano said, “I mean your usual pranks are one thing but drugging your classmate so that he could spill his secrets? Not cool.”

Kayano had moved from trying to gain Nagisa's attention to comforting Okuda, who seemed to have fallen into a well of guilt. Her plaits hung limply as she held her head down, her back was shaking with shuddering breaths and her hands were bunching up the pleated grey material of her school skirt. Meanwhile, Sugino’s shaking seemed to have awoken Nagisa from whatever daze he was in and his head snapped up. He blinked at them sporadically as he shook his head - it almost seemed as if he was rebooting. The light didn’t return to his eyes but he seemed to be more aware of everyone. Then, out of nowhere, he smiled. Not one of his usual soft smiles, filled with care. It was just a smile, plain and simple. It was lazy and devoid of any real emotions and it looked so so so wrong on the boy that was the epitome of helpful. 

“Hey, Nagisa,” Sugino said slowly. Everyone else was watching and waiting with bated breath.

The blunette turned to him and the baseball lover almost flinched at the expression on his face. This wasn’t Nagisa, this was some fraud, an unappealing copy failing miserably at impersonating his best friend. He didn’t know whether to scream or cry or throw up but he did know that he wanted Nagisa back, pronto, “hey, Sugino. What’s the matter?”

“Me?” he blinked in confusion, “I feel great. Well, honestly I’m kind of ticked off that I got drugged but, you know, not the worst thing that’s happened to me. I’ve hidden tons of things that are far worse than this but I guess since it’s normal for me to suck things up, I don’t really much. I mean I know I always say that I’m okay when I’m really not but that’s just because I don’t want to burden you guys with something as insignificant as me.” He could feel something in the back of his mind telling him to say that he was fine but why should he do that? What’s the point in lying when he could just free the chains that held him down and just blurt out everything that came to mind. “But I never say anything because I know that no matter what I say or how uncomfortable I am, it won’t really stop anything in the long run, so what’s the point, you know?” 

Everyone looked at him in shock; most of his classmates' faces were covered in expressions of horror and sadness but why were they upset? He was just being honest and, truthfully, he wasn’t upset one bit. How could he be when every word that left his mouth made him feel even more euphoric than he’s ever felt before? His head was flying up high in cloud nine and he never wanted to go down. Unbeknownst to him, the majority of his classmates didn’t share his newfound state of elation.

“Holy s***,” Terasaka whispered as he stared at Nagisa as if he suddenly grew four heads and was breathing fire.

“It-it worked,” Kimura stated dumbly, “the truth serum - it actually worked.”

“The dude’s got no filter whatsoever,” Maehara observed.

Karma and Nakamura’s eyes widened as they looked at each other before snapping their gazes back towards the blunette, who was still smiling away as if he hadn’t said more words in the past minute than he had over the past few hours.

“This. Is. Brilliant,” Nakamura squealed, “Oh my god, this is too good.”

“Nakamura, that’s enough,” Isogai reproached. He turned to Okuda, “Okuda, how long will this serum last for?”

Okuda bit her lip, eyes glistening, “about an hour. Isogai, I swear I didn’t do anything. If I knew that the serum was going to be used on Nagisa-”

“It’s okay, Okuda,” Yada smiled at her reassuringly, “you were only trying to help us assassinate Koro-Sensei.”

“Yeah, you have no part to play,” Okano was still glaring at the pranking duo, “they’re the ones who thought it would be funny to give Nagisa a goddamn truth-serum.”

“What’s the big idea? I don’t see why you guys are all p***ed off,” Nakamura said defensively.

“Yeah, we’re just having fun,” Karma said, “we always prank Nagisa and he’s fine with it.”

“You guys seriously don’t think that you did anything wrong,” Sugino frowned, “you really think that this is just another harmless prank. Although, to be honest, most of the things you do to Nagisa aren’t exactly harmless.”

“What do you mean by that, Sugino?” Karma narrowed his eyes at the baseball lover, giving the black-haired boy a sneer, “He’s never complained that he doesn’t like what we do.”

“Yeah, come on,” Nakamura scoffed, “he’s alright with us dressing him up, right Nagisa?”

“I hate it,” Nagisa said, still smiling with compliance, “I hate everything about it. Whenever I see the two of you come up to me with whatever new idea you’ve come up with, I get physically sick to my stomach with dread because I know what will happen next. You guys will dress me up and make jokes about how pretty I look and how I should ‘cut it off’ even when I tell you that stuff makes me uncomfortable. Of course, me being uncomfortable is never an issue with you lot so why do I even bother. I know that I’m always smiling and laughing when you all make fun of my looks and laugh at my insecurities but I hate it. I hate it so much and whenever I’m forced to crossdress all I can think about is my home life because, guess what, you’re not the only one who thinks I look good in girl clothes. I’ve been forced to wear them since I was six and I’ve learned that speaking up about it only ends in trouble. In hindsight, I’ve got to say that you guys calling something that causes me to get slapped and shouted at by my own mother ‘comic relief’ is kind of a s****y move but, hey, nevermind I get it - my feelings are a joke to you anyway.” He just blinked at his classmates, who were all staring at him with their mouths open and eyes wide with horror. Yada and Kurahashi had hands slapped over their mouths and looked near tears. He had no idea why they were looking at him like that - all he did was answer a question. Was he not supposed to? He didn’t see why he couldn’t divulge that information. Nagisa shouldn’t have secrets. What’s so great about hiding things anyway? He noticed that the delinquent smirks were wiped off of Karma and Nakamura’s faces and were replaced by uncomfortable squirming. He tilted his head in confusion, “why aren’t you laughing? You always laugh when it comes to my appearance. Don’t look so upset, that’s so unlike you. Go ahead and laugh and joke like you normally do - nothing I’ve said has stopped you before, why should it stop you now?”

“Nagisa,” Sugino breathed out, aghast, “what-I-what?”

“You’re mum does what?” Okano whimpered.

“Oh yeah, she hits me,” Nagisa replied as if he was just discussing the weather. His legs were swinging back and forth as he continued, “and starves me, or locks me in my room if I don’t listen to her. Sometimes she throws things at me. I mean, last week she aimed a frying pan at my head but luckily I managed to dodge. Living in my house for fourteen years really enhances your reflexes, you know. She basically wanted a daughter and hates the fact that I’m a boy so she pretends that I’m a girl so that she can live in her perfect world with her perfect daughter that she always wanted. It sucks, but hey, that’s life, you know.”

“The hell?” Maehara said to himself, “what the hell?”

“That’s awful,” Kurahashi said, tears streaming down her face, “why would - why would anybody?”

“Holy c**p,” Kimura’s head was leaning against the palm of his hand.

“Karma, Nakamura,” Isogai’s eyes held fire, “why on earth would you think that giving him a truth serum is okay?”

“How the hell were we meant to know that he was going to spill all of that?” Nakamura yelled at the onslaught of glares, “we just wanted to find out if he liked anyone or something.”

“Guys, I think that we should stop asking Nagisa questions,” Sugino said wearily, “he can’t control what he’s saying and if he had any willpower there’s no way he’d be comfortable in spilling all of this stuff.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Nagisa asked.

“What?” 

“What’s wrong with me being uncomfortable?”

“Listen Nagisa, I know that we messed up,” Kataoka said, “seriously seriously messed up. But trust us when we say that making you uncomfortable is not something that we want to do.”

“Of course not,” Yada cried, “you’re our friend. We love you.”

Nagisa laughed, it was sweet yet sounded artificial, “no one loves me. All I do is drive people away. You can ask my dad or Karma about that. Trust me, whatever it is you think I am, I’m not. I’m just a burden that only causes trouble. No one would want to be friends with me. Even when they say that they are.” He turned to Karma, “‘cause you know Karma, sometimes you really confuse me. You act like my friend now but you pretended like I didn’t exist back at the main campus. Like I get why you don’t like me - not even my own parents do. I guess you do need me around because I’m the guy that collects information on Koro-Sensei but if you’re just going to get bored with me and abandon me again can you atleast do it now instead of getting my hopes up that you actually care about my feelings. Like seriously, between you and dad, I have a ton of abandonment issues. I guess it’s only a matter of time before everyone else leaves me too, huh. Don’t look so upset Sugino, I wouldn’t blame you for wanting to not be around a loser like me.”

“Nagisa,” Sugino’s eyes were brimming with unshed tears, “I would never. You’re my best friend, dude.”

“Please tell me that the hour is nearly up,” Okajima begged to the heavens, “I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

“We’d never leave you, Nagisa, never,” Kayano cried as she hugged Nagisa from behind. He could feel her shaking in her embrace, “you’re the best friend I could ever ask for.”

“We don’t just have you around because you’re useful or anything,” Maehara said, “bro, you’re an amazing person.”

“I just can’t believe this,” Yoshida said, deeply troubled, “like seriously, what other things are there about you that we don’t know about.”

“YOSHIDA, NO!”

“YOU IDIOT-”

“I’ve tried killing myself,” Nagisa said brightly, cutting into their shouts like a knife and dropping the temperature of their surroundings, “back during the whole grenade incident. I didn’t know that the grenade was fake and was a hundred percent ready to blow myself up and end everything right then and there. I mean, I was actually kind of happy to finally get an escape from everything and it’s not like anyone would’ve missed me or anything. So I would’ve saved the world and done something I’ve been meaning to do. You can understand my disappointment when Koro-Sensei saved me. Now I have two failed attempts - man, I’m so good at failing, I can’t even kill myself right.”

“Wait,” Okano’s face was white, “did you just say ‘two’?”

“Hmm, yeah, I tried once when I was ten. My parents were getting divorced and were fighting more and more and I knew that it was all because of me and I hated myself for driving them apart so I decided that it would be in everyone's best interest if I wasn’t around anymore so I overdosed on some of my dad’s sleeping pills. Unfortunately, it didn't work as you can tell but -”

He was then cut off by Maehara, who had decked him in the head, knocking him clean out.

“MAEHARA!”

The golden-haired boy was shaking, “I-I’m sorry, guys. It’s just that - I couldn’t take it anymore. I just wanted it to stop.”

Isogai placed a hand on his shoulder, giving his best friend a weak smile, “it’s alright, Maehara. I understand. Come on, let’s lay him down in the teacher’s lounge so that he can sleep this off.”

“We are going to speak to him about this, right?” Okano asked.

“I think that we should,” Kataoka replied solemnly.

“Well, I think that we ought to give Nakamura and Karma a few words as well,” Kayano said, “seeing as this is all their fault.”

Everyone watched as Isogai picked Nagisa up in a bridal carry. The tense silence had made them all lose their appetite.

[between-two-fandoms]

The Lion Roars Destiny

CHAPTER ONE

Summary: Jaskier has spent the better part of the decade avoiding his past. Now, as the Aslan roars he can’t resist the Lion’s call to bring him home.

Notes: Chapter two will not be posted until after Geraskier Week 2020. Also, I’m pretty sure I’ve got everybody in the tag list but if I missed you let me know :)

Tag List: @g-e-r-a-s-k-i-e-r @buttercuppedwitchers @andyet-here-we-are @thewanderingwritersandco @slectivegeekswithstandards @Jaskier-royale @innocentbi-stander @hannadants123 @joeybateydaily​ @witchersjaskier​

“Sing the song of the Lion’s roar,” an audience member requested. The crowd fell into an uneasy silence, Jaskier looked up surprised. The last time he performed any songs from his time in Narnia was years ago. The person stepped forward to reveal a child, barely the same age as the princess, holding a sword. The patrons grumbled as Jaskier declared his performance over for the evening. Kneeling down he beckoned the child forward. 

“Who told you of that song?” Jaskier asked the boy. The child offered him the blade and he took it, running his thumb over Aslan’s mane engraved in the hilt. 

Memories flooded back to him, fields of emerald grass, dancing trees, the coast littered with colored sea glass and an ocean as far as one could see. The boy pointed to the back door,

“The person said you’d know who he is. He said he couldn’t come inside.” The boy responded, then turned around leaving Jaskier holding Rhindon in the center of the tavern. Jaskier frowned, it wasn’t like his brother to part with the sword. When one receives a gift from Father Christmas, you tend to treat it with the utmost respect. The bard glanced across the room at his witcher, the man seemed to be enthralled in Ciri, who was moving her arms about wildly. No doubt she was recounting her journey she took trying to find Geralt. Borrowing some paper from the bartender Jaskier wrote a short letter which he hoped explained his sudden silence. Sliding the folded letter between his lute strings Jaskier left his beloved instrument behind, making the bartender promise he would deliver it to Geralt. He turned back to Geralt and the princess. The witcher was smiling wider than Jaskier could ever get him to smile. Jaskier knew he didn’t have a hand in Geralt’s destiny, he just hoped the two of them would have a little bit more time together. Turning, the fifth king of Narnia left the witcher and his Child Surprise in destiny’s hands.

“Hello?” Jaskier whispered. Behind the tavern stood four stalls, two of which were occupied. An uneasy feeling began to bubble in the pit of his stomach as he approached them. One held Roach while another held a horse Jaskier hadn’t seen in a very long time. Bypassing Roach’s stall the bard reached his arm forward and Phillip bowed his head. Jaskier ran his left hand down the horse’s nose, “what’s going on Phil?” Jaksier asked the mare. The horse bowed his head in greeting,

“My king. Narnia is in troubled times.” The bard frowned as Phillip’s eyes looked past Jaskier to the treeline. Jaskier turned his head to the trees as he asked, 

“there’s something wrong isn’t there?” Though he had no witcher powers to his name Jaskier could still make out the outlines of four shapes just beyond the treeline. Jaskier dropped his hand then turned to Roach. “If you say anything to him I’ll stop sneaking you sugar cubes.” The bard whispered to Geralt’s horse. Just as he was about to walk towards the trees he paused. It wasn’t really fair of him to leave the witcher so abruptly, and Jaskier didn’t know if they’ll ever reunite. “Got it?” He asked Roach, the horse nickered in response. Adjusting his grip on Rhindon’s handle Jaskier stepped into the dense woods standing before them.

Once he got through the fog Jaskier could see the shapes more clearly, four humans sat on logs surrounding a small fire. There were no tents pitched, at least none Jaskier could see. Three horses were tied to trees surrounding the camp. He crept silently closer to the four people shrouded in hoods.

“Let’s play hide seek!” Lucy requested, as always Jaskier caved to her wish. He began counting as his siblings raced around the Professor’s house trying to find a hiding spot. It was barely one-hundred seconds later when Lucy sprinted down the hallway telling tales of a faun stuck in a land of eternal winter.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts Jaskier expertly swing Rhindon around his wrist. He turned the sword onto the shortest person, she screamed as he pressed the steel to her throat. The others stood up, one drew a sword, while the other had an arrow drawn to their cheek. “Who are you?” Jaskier asked the people, he prayed to Aslan they weren’t his siblings. The four rulers would rather die before they let something  happen to their country. The tallest man stepped between the archer and swordsman, hands up as though he was placating an attacking animal.

“We don’t need any attention brought to us. Give Rhindon to me and we can talk.” Jaskier tensed, then the girl in his arms spoke.

“Julian please, let me go,” she begged. It was enough to make Jaskier loosen his grip just enough for her to slip through his grasp. When she walked to the others she tripped over a log and fell to her knees. As she hit the ground her hood fell off and Jaskier dropped the sword.

“Come on,” Edmund said poking him awake. “Let’s go see if Narnia is real.” Julian blinked the crust out of his eyes then grabbed a candle to follow his baby brother. The two of them crept down the hall, skipping the planks they knew would creak, and entered the room with the wardrobe. The light from their candles was enough for Julian to see the wardrobe’s cover was still lying discarded on the floor amongst the other storage boxes.

“Edmund!” Julian hissed as his brother reached up to twist the doorknob. The door swung open on its own accord, a gust of wind knocked Edmund onto his arse. Julian stared at the wardrobe in disbelief, then followed his little brother. Wind blew out their candles as they stepped into a winter wonderland. Julian laughed with glee then threw a snowball at Edmund’s face, his brother glared back at him. “Oh come on, at least have some fun while we’re here!” Julian goaded. The sound of something breaking through the trees quickly caused Julian to shove Edmund behind him. The sleigh stopped suddenly, pushing them into the snow. Julian exchanged a glance with his brother. Edmund seemed to be enchanted by the intricate designs on the wood grains.

“Lucy?” He asked the girl. She turned around and nodded, then used a drop of her elixir to heal the wounds Jaskier gave her. Jaskier looked back at the others, who now had their hoods pulled down. Peter was young when Jaskier left Narnia, but now… now his eyes were those of a king who saw too much. Edmund’s face was sunken into his skull, a blank expression seemed to be forever etched into it. Susan, as always, looked calm and collected, but Jaskier could see the hurt and worry deep in her eyes. “What happened?” Jaskier asked as Aslan’s roar shook the Darkling Woods.

-------

Geralt cursed when he realized Jaskier wasn’t playing anymore. Ciri must’ve noticed his mood change because she threw up her hood and followed his gaze across the tavern. “Where is he?” Geralt asked Ciri. The princess, of course, didn’t have an answer. His eyes scanned each patron carefully, perhaps his bard changed his shirt. The witcher ordered his Child Surprise to stay in her seat while he walked to the bar counter. “my bard,” Geralt said to the bartender. The man, to his benefit, didn’t look afraid. He simply reached behind the counter and pulled out Jaskier’s lute. Geralt tensed, his bard refused to go anywhere without his instrument. Now that he was able to get a closer look at it, Geralt could feel the gentle hum of magic flowing through the strings.

“That’s all he left, some kid came in and gave him a sword. The bard said you wouldn’t understand so he wrote you a note.” The bartender informed him. Geralt grunted in response, then Ciri pulled at his sleeve,

“Geralt? We should get going.” She spoke softly, and of course she was right. They had already spent three nights in this town so were planning on leaving by the fourth day.

“Hmm…” Geralt said running a hand down the neck of the lute. He noticed the piece of paper folded into the strings. Taking the slip of paper he gave the instrument to Ciri for safekeeping. He slid a finger under the paper’s crease and began to read the letter.

Geralt of Rivia,

You have your child surprise. Soon you’ll be much too busy to track me down when I get into trouble. Something I’ve learned over the years is how to know when I’ve overstayed my welcome. By Aslan’s mane I ask of you to not try to track me, once I reach my destination you won’t be able to.

My family needs me Geralt, they always come first. My home always comes first.

With love,

Jaskier

Something fell to the pit of Geralt’s stomach as he crumpled the letter in his fist. Turning back to the bartender he asked, “Where did my bard go?” The bartender wordlessly pointed to the backdoor leading to the stables. Geralt pulled out a sword as Ciri slung Jaskier’s lute across her back. Then they both walked out the back of the tavern. Once he realized there was no immediate threat the witcher returned his blade to its place on his back. Geralt sniffing at the air he frowned, there used to be two horses in the stables. Geralt walked past Roach, patting her side as he did so. “Who used to be here?” He wondered out loud. To his surprise Ciri bent down and began to dig through the mud where the second horse used to stand.

“Geralt, look,” she said pulling up a medallion covered in dirt and grime. Ciri rubbed it against her cloak, cleaning it off. When she did the moonlight sky caused the silver to shimmer. The medallion itself was ruby with details of silver and gold. In the center of it all was the image of a lion proudly roaring as its mane fell down its back. Near the top of the coin Geralt could just make out an engraving.

For Narnia and for Aslan. 

Geralt watched Ciri’s eyes lit up in excitement when she read it. “Narnia is a land of freedom and magic!” Ciri exclaimed, “grandmother used to tell me stories about it.” Geralt took the medallion from her and ran a thumb over the lion’s shape. He frowned,

“But why is the coin here?” Geralt asked out loud. He turned to Roach, his trusty steed seemed to be apprehensive about something. “Roach, what is it?” He asked running a calming hand down her mane. The mare neighed then nudged Jaskier’s lute with her nose, then she pointed her head in the direction of the Darkling Woods. Geralt looked where his horse was then swore when the sound of a lion’s cry could be heard in the distance.

“Fuck,” he cursed. Suddenly there was a swirling portal in front of them and Yennefer stepped through it. Geralt tensed, but she didn’t seem to be in the mood for a fight.

“Enough Geralt, you think louder than Jaskier sings,” she said. Geralt grunted, but still kept a safe distance between her and Ciri. “I need your help…” she said slowly then she turned her attention to the Child Surprise.

“Yennefer, no questions asked,” Geralt grumbled. Yennefer’s focus turned back to Geralt’s before she said,

“One of my sisters came back to life.” Ciri spoke up from behind him,

“Isn’t that a good thing?” She asked, and Geralt couldn’t help but agree. To his surprise; however, the mage shook her head.

“Not this one,” she said, “the evils of Nilfgaard are nothing compared to the powers of the White Witch.” Geralt grunted then helped Ciri mount Roach. Once she was secured he followed suit, climbing on behind her. As they traveled away Yennefer shouted, “I know where your bard is!” Geralt stopped Roach then turned around. The mage looked desperate as she pleaded, “please. If you help me you can have your bard back.” Geralt narrowed his eyes,

“How did you know Jaskier was missing?” The mage seemed to have an inner debate before answering.

“Because Geralt of Rivia. Every decent mage knows what Aslan’s roar means.” Yennefer formed a new portal then stepped through it, disappearing in a wave of magic. Ciri took a hesitant step forward, then followed Yennefer. Geralt turned to Roach then ordered,

“Stay here.” The witcher stepped into the portal tripped into a frozen wasteland brimming with magic.

A woman dressed like a queen stepped out of the sleigh. Julian quickly scampered to his feet and bowed, luckily Edmund followed his lead. Something about the woman in white felt off to Julian, but Edmund was easily entranced by her magical powers and ability to summon Turkish Delight out of thin air. “Are you children of Adam?” She asked them, Julian frowned. Edmund was the one who answered,

“We’re humans if that’s what you mean.” Julian poked Edmund in his side then took over.

“Your Highness, we must be taking leave.” He said trying to get his brother away from the woman. The Snow Queen chuckled,

“Humans, you never learn to appreciate the nice things in life.” The sled reached the peaks of the mountains to reveal a beautiful castle of ice. Perhaps a night or two wouldn’t hurt, Julian thought as his thoughts slowly became muddled and fuzzy.

[halfhumanscribe]

Hollow Out

Synopsis:  Hex, Sia, and Novan (a door mouse, garden skink, and a mosquito) must infiltrate one of the temples of the silhouettes, to find something for an eccentric client.  It doesn’t go well. RATING: T (Teen) ORIGINAL PUBLISHING DATE: 2020

WORD COUNT:  4777

Forgive any formatting issues.  Reviews and critiques are appreciated.

Hollow Out by Inganno

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

In a hollowed-out tree, among the stumps and greenery of the woods by the stream, there was a bulletin board.  Much as every board scattered around the surface of the kingdom, it contained the usual mishmash by the citizens of the surrounding areas: recipes for families, news from the neighboring lands, warnings of the black silhouettes, as well as requests.

Requests usually came in the acquisition of food, usually by a family with no scavenging skills or those taking care of the ill.  Hoarders happily took these requests, sometimes auctioning their services to those who needed them.  Once a request was taken, it was usually completed within the day, culminating with the exchange of goods and currency.

Hex, Sia, and Novan were desperate for both.  Too many jobs gone south had emptied their coffers and given them a bad reputation.  This was a shame, considering Hex’s rather well-known pedigree.

“Shit!” he snapped, kicking at the towering wooden door for what felt like the twentieth time the past hour.  The door-mouse knew it wouldn’t do anything, but it at least got some of his frustration out.

He, nor the others were expecting the door to have a small silhouette installed lock.  Sneaking into the temple and making it to their destination seemed easy enough, until they snuck into the high up storage room only to find the door lock tight behind them.

“At least we know why the door was cracked open already,” Sia groaned as they leaned against a large cylindrical container of corn.  “They were probably expecting us.”

Hex looked over at the mosquito, trying to give them a sour expression, but it was difficult to see considering how little light was coming.

“I doubt it,” Hex tried to argue.  “These locks are to protect the small silhouette’s from getting in. Don’t know why though, considering they can’t even reach this far up.”

He chocked it up to overprotectiveness – something silhouettes seemed to have for their young, at least the one’s he observed.

He sat down and scooched himself against the wall.  His frustration was keeping him from thinking soundly, and without a level head, he knew none of them would get out.  He observed Sia, being the ever-peppy ray of cynicism, just standing there in near stillness.  Meanwhile, Novan paced back and forth – a nervous habit the garden skink had when she was too deep in thought.  Hex hated watching it, but it usually meant she was trying to think up a plan.

What Novan was doing was retracing their steps.  Afterall, having a grasp of the situation meant having to understand how one got there.  That was how she saw it.  And the first conclusion she made was that if their reputation hadn’t gone to shit, then they wouldn’t have gotten into that mess.

Hoarders with bad rep tended to have trouble getting requests and were usually dismissed from any bidding wars.  True, they could have easily done some requests pro bono, but that didn’t put food on the table or pay the rent.  No, Hoarders who lost their reputation usually had to take higher value requests – the ones that nobody wanted to take.

These requests were usually put out by those with more than they needed: larger animals, usually higher on the food chain that could simply take what they couldn’t have, including other living creatures.  They were still susceptible to boredom, however, and were quick to post on the local bulletin boards in order to alleviate it.  It wasn’t about trying to survive to them; it’s was about entertainment.

Requests from them were usually very vague and confusing.  The only things that were spelled out, clear as day, was the amount of Hoarders necessary and the time allotted to complete the task.  The ambiguous nature of these requests usually put many Hoarders off.  But those with bad rep tended to be more desperate than others.  Aside from the need for a job, helping someone much higher up socially could also be a big boon for them… if they survived.

Candis Hollif: a blue jay of rather known regard during the Spring months, had put out the request the three had decided to take on.  A stoutly and puffed out avian, his wealth was only matched by his peculiarly tastes, treating the opposite gender as little more than playthings in his bid to keep himself from going mad from boredom.  In his youth, he was seen as something of a playboy among the women of flight.  But as he aged, his tastes had began to branch outside of genus and species. Though this wasn’t anything uncommon within animal society, it was his penchant for smaller, “weaker” creatures that had many raising an eyebrow.

Novan remembered having to take in a deep breath, clenching her fists, as the blue jay’s tail feathers playfully danced along her tail.  She was the only one who had the displeasure of being uncomfortably circled by the giant.

“100 seed, 400 currency, and your names dropped into the Oubliette Newsletter, which I have connections with,” he boasted, passing Novan to present himself to all three.  “That should give you a month or two of income and food, and enough time for your name to get out there again.  Do we have a deal?”

Hex stood there nursing a glass of brown booze – a drink even the most prestigious of animals couldn’t afford.  It spoke volumes the amount of wealth Hollif possessed and made the three Hoarders uncomfortable just being close to him.

Novan and Sia couldn’t stand to be there either.  They were only there because Hex had convinced them to be.  Sia was sure they could find someone who would allow them to take their request.  Novan, while agreeing somewhat, thought it better to move to one of the neighboring towns.  It wasn’t like the digs they lived in were any good either.  The threat of the stream flooding over to their home was always a possibility during the Spring months.

“Look, it’s not that we don’t trust you,” Sia lied, “but we can’t agree to anything if you don’t tell us what the job is, you know?”

Candis had been as playfully vague with the details as his bulletin board request had been.

“Not one to enjoy the mystery, are we?” he chuckled, perching himself onto a nest made of cotton wool and dried grass.  “Alright then, I’ll be straight to the point.  I assume everyone knows what green is?”

Color blindness, double vision, as well as a malady of other sight issues were common among the animals.  Hex was the former, only able to decipher certain shades in bright light, and Sia could see bright colors too well, often becoming enamored by them.  Novan was the only one of the bunch to see colors clearly without a handicap.

“I can point it out,” she explained.

“Good.  You’ll probably need to work with your team then to find it,” Candis continued.  “The job I want you to do will be a scavenger trip into a silhouette temple – nothing I’m sure you all aren’t used to.”

Fairly common jobs, but coming from someone like Candis, there must have been a catch.

“In one of the storage rooms of the temple, there’s a green object, maybe about as big as a sugar cube.  I need you three to go in and retrieve a piece of that for me.  That is all.”

In most cases, the group would agree to the conditions, requesting the location of the temple and moving on from there.  But again, this was one of those eccentrics that so often loved to play with anyone who even fancied a glance toward the bulletin boards.

“It can’t be that simple,” Sia spoke up.

Hex nodded in agreement, adding, “What’s so special about this green cube?”

“It’s not of your concern,” Candis pointed out.  “I’ve explained as much of the job as you need to know.  It’s up to you if you’d like to take it.  What do you say?”

They wanted more info.  Candis wouldn’t budge though, outside of the temple location and the general direction of where the green object was.  They all sensed trouble, but they also sensed poverty if they didn’t take the job.

They agreed to his terms of three days, signing their hands onto the contract that he had written up, as per animal law.  He handed it to them to be turned into the closest local Hoarder representative. Once they had finished with the paperwork, they were on their way.

Silhouettes resided in large, shadowing temples that connected to each other. Each temple was self-contained and housed a different group of silhouettes inside, adorned with various artifacts and trinkets.  Some silhouettes were by themselves, and others lived together.  Sometimes they would come out of their temples too, which made the element of stealth very important.  Sometimes they would have guards:  cats and dogs who often times would attack first before asking any questions.

Their job was at a temple that housed about four silhouettes, and two small dogs.  That usually spelled suicide mission, even when they had decided to go at night. However, the silhouettes and their guards had disappeared, going on holiday to somewhere, as Candis had put it. This meant that the temple was empty and rife for the pickings.

Finding a tear in the screen of a window that had been left open just slightly, they entered the temple.

“I guess I can see it,” Sia sighed looking around their dimly lit prison.

“See what?” Hex asked.

“We call these things storage rooms, but I guess to a silhouette, they’d be something like a pantry, you know?”

“And what brought this up?”

Sia shrugged their wings.  “I don’t know.  Bored and thirsty I guess.”

They had been trapped inside that room for about day.  Light poured in through the cracks more gracefully during the day, giving them a better chance to get a look at their surroundings. Canned goods mostly, at least on that level.  Most storage rooms were made up of two or three floors.

“Well, keep it to yourself unless you have something to contribute, okay?” Hex chastised.  He wasn’t in the best of moods.  His attention was focused on a slightly larger crack between the door and the second floor.

He was trying to formulate some sort of plan to get up there.  From the cracks in the door, he could see the shadow of something just outside the second floor of the storage room.  He assumed that maybe it was the lock. Perhaps they could get up there and unlock it?

“Sia or I could probably get up there better than you,” Novan informed him when he put the plan past them.  She had a point.

Novan could climb on most surfaces with relative ease, and Sia could fly, if a bit erratically.  However, both of them missed a very important detail.  One detail that guaranteed a rodent of some sort on every Hoarding team.

Hex held up his claws.  Claws that gave him the ability to grip and hold objects tightly.  Something that Sia couldn’t do with anything that wasn’t a solid surface, and that Novan could only do with a limited number of objects. If there was indeed a lock up there, Hex would be the better choice to undo it.

Neither Sia or Novan were strong enough to lift him or help him climb, so they had to think of something else.  After some minor arguments, they decided what was best was to move some of the canned goods over to the door and go from there.  They worked with what they got, spending the rest of the day pushing what they could to create enough of a staircase for Hex to get high enough to scuttle along the wood of the door.  It worked well enough, and he was able to just barely squeeze through.

“So is it, or isn’t it?” Novan asked from the first floor.  “I can be right up if you need help.”  Honestly, why she didn’t stop check the area out first was beyond her.  Probably because of the hunger that was eating away at her belly, making sound judgment difficult.

“I think it is!” Hex yelled down.  “My claws can just barely reach it though.  But I think if I can get my hand underneath this little bump…”

There was a crash, a yelp, and suddenly, the light from the cracks was almost completely gone.

Sia flew up, checking to see if they could squeeze in to check on their friend. Sadly, what little opening was there originally was gone.

“Hex!  Are you okay, what happened?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine!  But I think the lock was caught on something.  I think I ended up loosening it or something.  Is everything alright down there?”

Of course, everything wasn’t alright.  They had less light than before, and the door was locked even tighter. What words could be said?

“This has been a real shit job, you know?” Sia groaned.  “Can you see anything up there?”

“Not really.  I might have to feel around for a little bit.  There isn’t as much light coming in now.”

“We can see that!” Sia called backed.

There wasn’t going to be much light soon regardless.  The sun was setting, and they were trapped worse than before. Thirst was quickly catching up to them too, and if they couldn’t figure something out, they’d likely die of dehydration within the next day.  Sia was able to manage, at least.

“Just take a little, okay?” Novan winced as the barb like mouth pierced her leg.

Sia drank only a couple of sips.  Enough to get them through the following day.  At the very least, if the door somehow miraculously opened again, Sia could get out.  Novan and Hex’s fates were up in the air.

“You doing alright up there Hex?” Novan called out above her.

“As well as ever.  There’s a lot of soft things up here, but I can’t quite break through them with my teeth. I hate these thick storage bags!”

Silhouettes weren’t dumb.  They took precautions to protect their cache of food and wealth.

“I’m so hungry!” Hex bellowed, sounding like a pouting child.

“Then get this door open!” Sia yelled.

The loss of blood was quickly catching up to Novan as she leaned against a large cylinder of sealed food.  She didn’t feel like sticking around to listen to the two of them argue anyways.  She was just about to doze off when…

“Holy crap, I found something to eat!”

That shot her awake, at least enough to listen.  Sia had already flown up to the ceiling to get more info.

“What did you find!?” they yelled.  “Can you pass any of it down to us?”

“I don’t know,” Hex replied as he felt around his surroundings.  “I still can’t see very well!  I think it’s some sort of chunk that fell out of its bag.  It’s kind of sweet?  It’s hard to break a piece off though.”

“Well, hurry up and try!  Novan needs some of the good stuff down here!”

“I’m trying!  I’m trying!”

“Try harder!”

Novan would have added some commentary, but felt like there wasn’t anything to add.  Sleep felt like the better use of her time, so she drifted off to sleep, and tried to let her dreams calm her nerves.  Sadly, neither her hunger nor her thirst would let her have a full night.

She rustled a bit as her eyes slowly opened, her body quickly reminding her of its needs.  On top of that, she really needed to relieve herself.

Finding her balance, she looked around, noticing the tiniest of glows coming in through the little cracks of the door.  Dawn perhaps?  Sia was perched right there, her outline just barely visible.

“Morning,” Novan yawned.  “I hope I didn’t miss much while I was out.”

Sia said nothing, looking out into the cracks of the door.

After finding a back corner to take care of business, Novan found herself wide awake, though in considerable abdominal pain.  She approached the door and rested next to Sia.

“So, what was the food he found?” she asked.

“Shut up,” Sia snapped quietly.

Rude.

“Rude, but not surprising,” Novan chuckled.

“Novan, just shut up for a second.”

Their voice was low and serious.  Novan complied, trying to see what it was that Sia was so curious about. And then Novan heard them.

Footsteps.  Large, hulking footsteps.  The footsteps of a behemoth.

“Okay, Novan, I need you to listen to me,” Sia began as they grabbed the lizard and got close to them.  “I’m gonna make as much sound as I possibly can and try to attract the silhouettes. When they open the door, I need you to run.  Don’t ask questions.  Just run and get back home.”

Something was wrong; more wrong than what was already happening.  True, they were already trapped, and getting out of there was top priority, but there was something else in Sia’s voice.  It was serious, yes, but also dry, hoarse, and above all else, desperate.  Something else was going on.

Novan then realized that they were missing a voice in their escape plan.

“Hex?” Novan yelled up.

Sia quick grabbed her head and brought it back to attention.

“Focus on me right now, Novan.  I’m going to get you out of here, and you’re going to go home.  Okay?”

You and you’re.  Not we or us.

What was happening?  Where was this panic and desperation coming from?  And where was Hex?  He was usually the first one to volunteer for these gung-ho sort of missions.  All of a sudden, he was quiet.  Was he going to be doing something else?

“Sia, you’re scaring me.”

“Good.  I need you to be scared so you can get out of here.  When the doors open, run like hell.  Just run and don’t stop until you get home.  Okay?”

“Sia, please.”

Sia took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly to keep themselves calm.

“I really had a lot of fun working with you two.”

They let go of Novan and took flight, beating their wings as hard as they could, sending a ghastly buzzing sound all around the room.  Novan winced at the velocity of it, watching Sia fly around the cracks to try and attract the silhouettes attention.

A moment later, the light disappeared.  Something had appeared to block it out.  For a moment, there was only total darkness all around them. Then came a click, and the door swung open with ease.

It all happened so quickly.  Time must have slowed down for Novan just for a second.  But within that second, a ragdoll fell from the floor above them. It must have been leaning against the door the whole time.  But it only took Novan a moment to recognize that tiny, limp thing.  It fell right in front of her, disappearing onto the countertop below, hitting it with a thud that spilled the tiniest amount of red that had already been dripping from its lip.

“Hex!” Novan screamed.

“Get going!” Sia demanded before rushing for the silhouette’s face.

So much suddenly happened.  Novan’s mind froze, but her arms and legs began to pump nonstop, not giving into panic for a moment.  Another silhouette had yelped from behind the bigger one, jumping back in surprise and pointing to Hex’s body.  It then pointed to Novan, who had crawled over Hex, as if to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

The door-mouse was dead.  Bits of red trickled out of his mouth, while bit of green clung to his teeth.  In his hands, he clutched a sizeable chunk of a green rock.  Novan didn’t need to guess what happened.  Hex had succeeded in finding what they were looking for, and all the pieces had begun to come together in Novan’s mind.

“Don’t lick!  Don’t swallow!” she told herself as she grabbed the piece of green with her mouth and sprinted toward the tear in the screen.

The sheer insanity of it all allowed her to get there without any problem, squeezing herself and their objective through without any damage. Once on the other side, she turned back toward the madness.

Sia did everything in their power to annoy and distract the behemoth.  They buzzed, they hissed, they stabbed.  But alas, it wasn’t enough.  In a split second, they felt the lashing hand of the silhouette slam into them, with so much strength, it knocked the air clean out of them.  They soared. A wing fell off.  They hit the side of something, and everything went black. Their body fell between the counter and the humming cold tower the silhouettes used to keep some food things in.

Once the body had vanished from sight, Novan made a mad dash away from that terrible place, still keeping the green safe in her mouth, making sure not to lick and not to swallow.  Eventually, she disappeared quietly into the brush of the forest.

The world passed by her in a blur as her head filled with hideous images of her friends meeting their ends.  She zoomed past other animals, pushing her way into the hollowed-out stump of a tree, passing the bulletin board and taking a left when a fork in the road came up. Going right would have taken her home. But something else was calling her amongst the angry noises that deafened and blinded her.

“Please, madam, drink this!”

A small bowl was placed in front of her by one of Candis’ servants.  She quickly lapped up the entire dish of water as her heart continued to beat a mile a minute.  Once she had been hydrated, her body went limp and she shut down, allowing her a moment to calm herself.

Candis’ servant rushed out of the room to get her more water and something to eat, bringing along a torn piece of cloth in case she began to feel cold or anything.  They stayed with Novan as her breathing slowed to a crawl, before she passed out.

“Yes, sir, I can confirm she brought some sort of green block back.”

The servant looked down, trying not to meet eye contact with his employer. There was something in his eyes they didn’t like.  This suited Candis just fine.  He barely paid attention to the staff as it was.  He was happy to listen this time though, returning home to good news a few hours after Novan had arrived in her state.

“You’re dismissed,” he happily said to the roach.  “Please collect the pouch of goods I left in my secret hideaway for Ms. Novan.  We won’t be long.  You did say she was awake, yes?”

“About a half an hour ago, yes.”

“Happy to hear it.  Now then. Off you go!”

The servant made his way out of the blue jay’s home, toward an unmarked area some few trees away.  Candis waited till they were gone before going into his study to meet with the sole survivor.  He found her awake, sipping on brown booze in a bowl.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Novan rasped as she noticed Candis enter the room. The tiny thimble of liquor that Candis kept up high for special occasions was out.

It was difficult to come about that booze, but he wouldn’t deny it was a time for celebration.

“I see you’ve started the party without the host,” he chuckled.  “I’ll let it pass though.  A lovely woman such as yourself deserves to enjoy the finer things, after all.”

She shivered.  This man really thought himself something special, didn’t he?  Hex was a far more attractive and far more charismatic individual, and Hex was, admittedly, bad at both those things.  Still, the small time the two were together was a cherished memory, even when they decided to remain friends.

But now Hex was dead.

“So, where is it?” Candis asked, wanting to get to the point.

She nudged her head over to a small table on the far end of the room.  The blue jay trotted over in elation, looking happily upon the small chunk of green.  Though, it was less than what he had hoped for.

“Couldn’t you have procured more?” he asked, sounding slightly indignant.

“My partners died just so I could get whatever that stuff is back to you,” she snapped unhappily, lapping at the booze.

“My condolences,” he said, sounding less sympathetic than Novan expected.

“What is that stuff anyways?” she followed up, wanting to move away from the subject of her friends.

Candis chuckled and shook his head.

“Sadly, that is for me to know, my sweet.  Your moment in this little story has come and gone.  When my servant returns with your reward, we will have to say our goodbyes.”  He pauses to see the utter annoyance and anger stretched across her face.  “I hope you don’t blame me for the death of your teammates.”

She did, but that was beyond the point.

“I’d rather not talk about them right now, if you don’t mind.  I’m still processing everything.”

“Completely understandable!” he replied.  “It’s a terrible thing.  May I join you in a drink?  We can toast your fallen comrades together.”

Sure, why not?  She had lost most of the will to live, so why not enjoy a drink with a filthy lecher who sent her and her friends off to suffer.  Bring on the booze!

Candis happily poured himself a bowl of the brown booze from the thimble and sipped on it, trying in vain to start some sort of conversation with Novan. She ignored his advances and waited.

Meanwhile, the roach servant had hid a minor roadblock on the way there. A pesky thief had made their way into Candis’ secret area, where our intrepid servant had to come face to face with them.  Only to stop and hear a harrowing tale.

“This belongs to us,” the thief informed the servant.

The roach refused to confront them, instead inviting them back to his employer’s humble abode.  They informed the thief that they would find all the answers they were looking for there. The thief begrudgingly went along, limping behind, readying themselves in case things took a turn for the worse. But the servant promised them that they would not tell Candis that they had tried to steal a bag of seed and currency.

In fact, upon hearing the thief’s tale, the servant was elated.  He couldn’t think of a better way to end this story.  It may not have been the perfect fairytale ending, but stories such as those were rarer than gold.

The two entered the home, making their way to the study, to which the servant and the thief had privy knowledge of how to get there.  They opened the door, expecting a joyful reunion. Instead, they stopped to find the freshly poisoned corpse of Candis Hollif, having only departed the mortal coil only ten minutes prior.

Novan just sat there, looking at his corpse, unaware of the visitors in the room.

It didn’t take a genius to know what the green chunks were.  If Hex’s corpse wasn’t enough of a clue, the numbness in her mouth and general pain in parts of her body were.  She hadn’t swallowed any when she had transported it there, but bits of dust and crust still manage to dislodge themselves.  She would survive though.

Candis would not.

She grinded a small portion of the chunk into as fine a powder as she could with the bottom of the thimble, before pouring herself a bowl of brown booze, and putting the poison in the remainder of the thimble.  If he hadn’t asked to join her in a drink, she would have offered. And if he refused, then at some point, he would have drank it, probably after dismissing whomever it was he had the intent on using the poison on.

Feeling a small sense of ease come over her, she walked over to the thimble, and pushed it back into the high up pantry, closing the wooden doors behind it.

Would anyone mourn Candis’ passing, she wondered?  No one was sure to mourn Hex or Sia.  Or maybe it was just Hex they would mourn, together.

“Novan?” Sia the thief muttered, catching the lizard’s attention.

They voice felt like a warm bath, making her wonder if the skink was losing her mind. She turned to see the wounded mosquito, limping with one less leg and one less wing.  They looked like utter hell.

Novan smiled, unsurprised.  Mosquitos don’t die so easily.

[redstone-sun]

The Dead Sun - Redstoner Sad Ending AU

The Dead Sun- Redstoner Au AU

Takes place right after the ending of the Sad Ending and based on that one ask about Grian respawning when Mumbo dies.

(hoo boy here we go)

It had been nearly a week since Iskall made the decision of seal off the obsidian box and progress from moving his base away from it was slow but steady. Both Stress and Ren promised to assist him in rebuilding it and seeing just how much stuff needed to be transfered, he was glad for the help.

Iskall sighed and glanced up at the black cube floating in the sky.

“A tome” his mind supplemented.

The one-eyed swede grit his teeth and turned away. He was glad he was moving. Having the box constantly hanging over his head was too much for him. A constant reminder of what happened to his two dead friends.

“One dead friend. The other is still alive. He’s still up there. Starving. Hoping you’ll come help him. Save him”

It was true. Mumbo was still alive up there. His death message had yet to appear but knowing how long its been, the message would be due any day now. Iskall bit his lip to keep from crying. He dreaded the day the message would arrives. Every notification he got on his communicator put him on edge. Iskall shook his head to clear his mind. He had to leave. He can’t deal with the stress and guilt today.

Quickly packing up all his shulker boxes, Iskall sent a message to Ren and Stress saying that he’s gonna call it quits for today.

RentheDog: Yea no prob buddy. Im almost done with my section anyway

Stressmonster101: Same here! Do you want to go check out the shopping district after? I heard there might a new shop opening soon

Iskall85: maybe, I wanna stop by X’s base first thou

Stressmonster101: Ah okay, say hi to Xisuma for me yea? Take care Iskall

RentheDog: Yeah dude, if you need us we’ll be here

Iskall85: thanks guys

A small smile formed on Iskall’s lips as he read through the messages his friends had sent him. They had done so much for him in the past few weeks. He wanted to give them a gift for all of their help. The shopping district always had interesting stuff to buy, he could easily find them some gifts there after he was done at Xisuma’s.

With that plan in mind, Iskall took off towards Xisuma’s base, never once glancing back at the obsidian box.

—–

“Good afternoon Iskall, how have you been?” Xisuma said as Iskall landed by his door.

Iskall shrugged his shoulders and quickly scribbled out, “I’ve been better” in his book and showed it to X. X nodded sadly before gesturing Iskall to follow him. Xisuma knew why Iskall was here and rightfully so, they’ve done this routine many times in the past weeks.

The room that Xisuma lead Iskall to was small and bare, save for a few chairs at the side and a shelf on the back wall. Sitting on the shelf stood a lone shulker box. Grian’s shulker box.

“Hey,” Xisuma placed a hand on Iskall’s shoulder before continuing. “Me and the other hermits were thinking of pooling our resources together to create a funeral for him. For both of them.”

Iskall looked at X, even covered with the visor, Iskall could tell his eyes were sorrowful.

X gave his shoulder a small squeeze. “Mumbo was my friend too. He was friends with everyone here. He least deserves some sort of funeral, regardless of what happened. I think it’ll be beneficial for everyone if we have their funerals soon. Of course, we won’t move or do anything yet without your approval.”

“Mumbo’s not dead yet. We can still save him. Break him out of the box and set up a new respawn point for him!” A small voice spoke up in the back Iskall’s mind.

Iskall ignored that voice and nodded solemnly. Xisuma gave his friend a small smile before giving his shoulder one last squeeze.

“Think about it okay? I’ll be in the other room if you need me. Take as much time as you need”

With that, he left the room, closing the door behind him and leaving Iskall alone with the Grian’s shulker box.

Iskall stared at the box. He’s been here so many times now but everytime it feels like the first. Knowing that his was dead and a dusty bottle and some stone was all that remains always made him choke up.

Sighing, Iskall opened up the shulker box.

Only to find it completely empty.

Iskall dropped the box in shock. There was no way. Iskall rubbed his eye and looked inside the box once again.

Still empty with absolutely no traces of any sort of dust being there.

Anger replaced his shock.

How dare someone do this. How dare they mess with Grian’s remains. Iskall was going to kill whoever did this 3 times over.

“Xisuma would know what happened" Iskall thought.

With righteous anger, Iskall kicked down the door and made a beeline to Xisuma’s figure on the far side of the room.

"Oh hey Iskall, that was quick, how are you doin-!” With one arm, Iskall slammed Xisuma’s frame against the wall, effectively pinning him in place.

“Iskall! What are you doing?!” Xisuma cried out, trying to break out of the swede’s grip.

Iskall didn’t reply, instead with this free hand he brought out his book and wrote out his message before he shoved it in X’s face.

“WHERE IS HE" was scrawled across the page.

Xisuma clawed at the arm holding him in place.

"Iskall! I swear I don’t know what you’re talking about! Please, let me go!”

With a grunt, Iska dropped Xisuma to the floor and furiously started writing in his book. Xisuma stared up at the man before slowly lifting himself to his feet. Iskall’s eyes snapped to Xisuma’s and Xisuma put his hands up in a peaceful manner.

“Iskall, I don’t understand what’s going on,” Xisuma said in a slow calm voice. “I swear. I don’t mean you any harm, okay? Let’s all just calm down.”

Iskall huffed and shoved his book at X to read.

“The shulker is empty. Grian’s dust is gone and I swear if you have anything to do with this I end you”

Xisuma’s eyes widened in shock.

“That… That makes no sense! No one has been in that room recently but you and me! And last time I checked everything was still there!”

“Then where did he go!" Iskall wrote.

Xisuma put a hand to his chin before mumbling to himself,

"This is absolutely bonkers. The only way Grain’s remains could have left is if someone had snuck in here when I wasn’t looking, or …”

Xisuma gasped before his body went ridgid. Iskall watched as his friend’s eyes glazed over and numbers and symbols that Iskall himself couldn’t comprehend filled X’s helmet visor.

Being the guardian of this world had its perks and downfalls. One perk being able to access and change the “code” as Xisuma liked to call it, of the world, though the downside was the enormous amount of energy it took. Xisuma rarely ever used this power unless absolutely necessary. In fact, the last time Iskall remembered X using this was went he destroyed all of Mumbo’s spawn points in order to ensure the moustached man’s death would be permanent.

Iskall shivered at that memory as he paced the room. There wasn’t much Iskall could do when Xisuma was like this. He would just have to wait for his friend to come back.

Nearly 15 minutes passed before Iskall heard a sharp inhale and turned to see Xisuma stumble. Iskall rushed over and put arm across the helmeted man’s chest to help support him.

X gripped Iskall’s arm like a lifeline.

“Iskall, Iskall! He’s okay! He’s alive! His code is good!” Xisuma’s voice was laced with disbelief. Iskall stared at his rambling friend in hopes of gleaming any sort of context. Iskall gently shook the man to get him to focus, pleading with his eyes for Xisuma to explain.

The grip on his arm tightened as Xisuma pulled Iskall closer,

“It’s Grain. His code is alive! He’s respawning. Oh my gosh, Iskall I don’t know how or why but he’s coming back! I saw it Iskall! His code is in its respawn stage. Oh my gosh he’s okay…”

Iskall was shocked. Could Xisuma really be telling the truth? Shaking the rambling hermit more, Iskall tried to get Xisuma to focus more and hopefully get more information. But Xisuma’s ramblings had quieted down and he seems completely out of it. Iskall carefully placed X on the floor of his base and just for good measure, place a couple of golden, carrots on top of him.

If Xisuma won’t tell him, then he’ll figure it out for himself. Running at top speed, Iskall took to the skies. His destination, Grian’s base.

—–

Cutting through the Shopping District was the fastest way to get to Grian’s base and Iskall refused to stop for anything.

As he sped through the air over the various shops, he vaguely recalled hearing his name being called from down below by two people, before his focus shifted back to Grian’s base coming over the horizon.

Swooping down to the bottom layer of the tower, Iskall scanned the area hoping for any signs of life. As far as Iskall remembered, Grian’s last respawn bed had been in his base but from his viewpoint, the bed was being obscured behind some of Grian’s cluttered storage. Rushing into the storage area, Iskall peeked into the center.

If Iskall could use his voice he would have yelled for joy.

Laying on the bed was a slightly burnt but very much alive Grian.

Before Iskall could move further into the storage, the sounds of two people landing alerted him.

“ISKALL? ISKALL BUDDY? WHERE ARE YOU?” Ren’s voice echoed across the room.

“ISKALL, LOVE? ARE YOU OKAY?” Stress’s voice soon joined Ren’s in calling for their friend.

From his vantage point, Iskall could see Grian groan from the sudden noise and slightly turn on his left side before a flash of pain streaked his face. Iskall had to check up on him but first he had to get Ren and Stress to quiet down.

Iskall poked his head out of storage and waved his arms to get their attention. Ren was first to notice.

“Iskall! There you are! What’s got you so worked up man?” Ren said as he and Stress made their way to the storage. Iskall quickly placed a finger to his lips to shush them and beckoned them over. Quietly they followed him into the storage.

“Oh my gosh?!” Stress whispered, lifting a hand to cover her mouth when she spotted Grian lying in his bed.

The three hermits hurriedly made their way to the resting hermit. Kneeling down next to the bed, Iskall gently shook Grian awake.

“Uuuggh, why does it feel like I got compacted in an oven.” Grian hoarsely called out. Grian moved his hands up to rub at his eyes before a horrified look crossed his face and he shot up in bed.

“Love?” Stress called out. “Are you okay?”

“My… my ARM?! WHERE’S MY ARM?!” Grian yelled, wiggling his left shoulder and grasping at the empty space with his right hand.

“Grian?! Oh my goodness!” “Dude you gotta calm down!”

It took a good few minutes of combined comforting from the three hermits to get Grian calm enough to talk.

Iskall locked eyes with Ren before tapping his throat and then pointing at Grian’s missing arm.

Ren nodded sadly, “Yea, it’s probably something similar.”

Noticing this interaction, Grian asked, “Iskall, are you okay? You haven’t made a peep this entire time. Normally you’d be non-stop talking.”

Iskall held up a hand and brought out his book. Grian watched as the one eyed swede began to write.

Once Iskall finished writing, he held up his book for Grian to read.

“I can’t talk. Something about dying in that red world messed with my respawn. I think that’s why you don’t have your arm anymore. We’ll have to check up with Xisuma. That’s later. I’m so glad you’re back buddy! You’ve been gone almost a month.”

Grian slowly nodded, taking all of this new information in.

“Yeah, yeah… I guess that makes sense…” Grian gripped his stump with his remaining hand before turning towards Iskall. “Iskall, where is Mumbo anyways?”

A sharp DING rang out into the silent room.

MumboJumbo has died from starvation.

Iskall suddenly felt his breath stop and sucked in sharply. Next to him he heard Stress choke back a sob and Ren let out a low shaky breath. And Grian?

Grian was just confused.

“Guys? What’s wrong? Mumbo’s just being a spoon,” Grian tried to joke and lighten the mood. “He probably just ran out of chicken and golden carrots and then tried to run all the way back to his base. What a silly spoon man.” Grian chuckled and used the edge of his bed as support to stand up.

“Heh, we should probably go meet him at his base. He’s gonna be so surprised when he see me! Ah man, he probably feels so guilty! We gotta tell him right now!” Grian said excitedly before glancing down at his missing arm. “Though, I’m probably gonna need some help flying there, what with me being down an arm. You guys can help me though right?”

The rest of the room was silent save for the quiet sobs coming from Stress. Grian looked around the room. Stress was turned away from him, her shoulder hunched over. Ren refused to look Grian in the eyes and Iskall looked as though he was lost in a different world.

Grian waved a hand at his fellow hermits, “Guys? Seriously, what’s wrong with all of you? Mumbo dying isn’t anything special.” Grian quirked an eyebrow when all three of his friends visibly flinched at his statement. “If it’s about my arm, I’m fine! I swear! It’ll just take some time getting used to it, that’s all!”

“Grian love, that’s not why… That’s not what we…” Stress tried to say between sobs. “Mumbo, he-”

“Mumbo what? What’s wrong with Mumbo?!” Grian was starting to panic. Judging by his friend’s expressions, something very wrong happened in the month he was gone. So why wasn’t anyone telling him what the hell’s going on?

“Mumbo’s gone. He’s dead, permanently. He’s not going to respawn,” Ren finished Stress’s sentence sorrowfully. “Xisuma destroyed all of his spawn points.”

Grian took a step back in shock.

“No, no way. You’re lying. Why? Why would you do something like this?” Grian asked.

“Grian sweetie, please! Let us explain!” Stress reached out an arm trying to comfort the panicking hermit.

“Explain what!? That you let our friend die? I can’t wait to hear how you explain that!” Grian yelled, slapping Stress’s hand away.

Ren stepped in between them. “You don’t understand man! Mumbo was acting insane! Something about that world we saved him from messed him up really bad! He killed Iskall! And we thought he killed you permanently!”

“So? I’m alive aren’t I? I’m here now and guess what? Now Mumbo isn’t!” Grian shouted, venom lacing his voice. “Did you even try to help him?!”

“We tried to help him! Iskall spent almost every day with him but it wasn’t enough. Iskall tried his hardest and Mumbo wasn’t getting better! We… we all did what we thought was best. We couldn’t stand seeing him suffer like that,” Ren explained desperately hoping Grian would understand. Grian shook his head and turned towards Iskall.  

"Iskall, Iskall please! Please tell me this isn’t true. Tell me you didn’t actually kill him!” Grian pleaded towards the kneeling hermit. Iskall bowed his head, refusing to meet Grian’s eyes.

With Iskall confirming his worst fears, Grian bit his lip to suppress the cry that was forming in his throat.

The silence between the hermits was deafening before Grian spoke up again.

“Get out”

“What?

“GET OUT!” He growled. The fury and anguish in Grian’s eyes were evident and Iskall flinched at the sight of them.

“GET OUT GETOUTGEOUTGETOUTGETOUT-” Grain screamed at them. Tears were streaming down the builder’s face and Iskall could feel his own face wet with tears.

With one swift step, Iskall turned around and ran. This had all gone horribly wrong. Guilt and pain swarmed in his heart as he took off into the sky. All of this was too much.

Glancing back, he saw Grian collapse against his bed while Stress and Ren frantically tried to comfort him.

Iskall should be happy. His friend was alive. But the aching in his chest told him otherwise.

—–

Mumbo’s funeral was held at the garden in Mumbo’s base and was later buried underneath the garden’s tree. Nearly all of the hermits that could make it attended and those who couldn’t promised to visit the grave when they had a chance. The precession itself was nice. Various hermits came up to share stories of Mumbo and lament on how they wished things could have ended up differently.

“In a different life, in a different story, these anguishes that have consumed you, Mumbo, that have consumed all of gathered here today, wouldn’t be for naught and together as a community would could have helped to create the beautiful future we all deserve. But that is not our story today. We are on a different path and as such we can’t change what’s already happened. Together, we all must traverse this challenging times and look out for one another for the good of everyone still with us.”

Joehills turned from the audience towards the casket laid under the tree. “My dear friend Mumbo Jumbo, these past months have not been kind to you and I wish from the bottom of my heart that you can finally find peace in that eternal rest.”

As the funeral came to a close and the casket was lowered into the ground, Grian made it clear to the rest of the hermits that he would be taking over Mumbo’s base despite the protests that he himself still need help. Along with this, Grian announced he would be closing both his and Mumbo’s base off from the other hermits.

“Just a break. Not forever. I just want to keep to resort myself okay?” Grian reassured their questions and with that, the one armed hermit was off.

One week later and Iskall’s new base was complete.

Seating by a window in his base that overlooked the ice landscape down below, Iskall couldn’t help but feel the weight of the obsidian box still floating above his head. A constant reminder. Moving bases did nothing to help ease the guilt, so Iskall did the only thing he could do.

He closed his eyes and wished for things to be different.

 —————————————————————————————

aH, This took much longer and ended up way longer than I anticipated and I went off the fuckin SHITS with this. 

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed your fic!!

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HOLY FUCKING SHIT OH MY GOD this is amazing and omg. omg omg omg. it’s so much worse than the original sad ending oh my GOD im in pain

[luverofsupernatural]

Sweet Dreams (Chapter 11)

A JSE egos fic, centered around JJ. (First: Chapter 1. Previous: Chapter 10, Next: Chapter 12)

Maybe once, once, he would sleep.

Content Warning: violence, death, nightmares

_____________________

Jamie nodded, comforted slightly by having company. As he laid down though, he worried about what would happen in the coming hours. What he would inevitably end up doing, or saying. Closing his eyes, he turned his face away from Anti towards the wall. Drifting off, he felt a single tear roll off his cheek. It dripped from his face onto the catcher, releasing a lavender scent. It was soothing, almost intoxicating. Losing consciousness, he hoped he was going to a better world, for once. Watched over by his guardian demon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anti waited until Jamie’s breathing became slow and more even. Until his movements were small twitches and his face was calm. The dreamcatcher would work, but not because it was magic. No, not because it was magic. Because it wasn’t. The black twinkles an illusion, a little powder to give it a believable appearance. In reality, it was basically just a regular dreamcatcher without all the drapings and color. Just the most basic backbone of it. Anti was the thing that made it magic. It was a portal for him to step into Jamie’s dreams to get to the root of his problem.

Laying his hand on the edge of the twine, Anti gathered himself, closed his eyes, and traveled into Jamie’s subconscious. He had to be careful of where he ended up though. If Jamie had started dreaming already, he would need to be sure that he wasn’t seen. Because unlike with his green powers, where he chose the path, he was using black magic to get into the subconscious, where he had to follow predetermined paths. Even if green magic was faster, he wasn’t trying to manipulate Jamie, just see what was going.

Anti landed in their living room. It was dark, but there was a light centered around the kitchen, encompassing a small area outside of it that, realistically, could not be lit. Staying out of the residual light, Anti moved around the room to get a better visual. Henrik, Jamie, and Jackie were together, Jamie sandwiched between his other two brothers in the kitchen. Jamie seemed to be glowing, as if he was the center of the light. For now though, he was safe.

Looking around, Anti tried to find a doorway, but not just a regular door. A door to the subconscious. There was movement in the shadows. A vine seemed to start growing and slithering towards the light. It was blacker than the shadows and emitted malice. Anti stomped his foot down on the vine and bent down. Grabbing the venom on either side of his foot, he scorched it with his red powers, the energy he used to make things bleed. It struggled in his hands before finally falling limp. His hands started glowing red while the vine became a lighter grey. Anti looked back at Jamie. He was still there, unaware, and still safe.

Lifting the vine from the floor, he gathered it up and followed it back to its source. The toxin couldn’t be left there, and most likely it would lead Anti where he wanted to go. There, the doorway to the basement. Opening the door, Anti felt a small chill coming from an empty void. No stairs, no walls, just a constantly morphing screen. What a bubble might look like if it were black. He stepped into the portal, and onto what felt like ground.

Taking in his surroundings, he knew this was the place he needed to be. It looked like an infinite storage room, littered with bubbles and watery rectangles. The bubbles were perfect spheres. Some had a sort of shine and radiancy to them while others looked covered in dust and dim. Each one of them playing something that happened to Jamie. Then there were the watery squares. They were in fluid motion, but had constantly waving edges. Some were merely a thin screen, some fully developed cubes. The screens simply had a picture displayed on them, while the cubes had moving video. Sometimes different things were displayed on each side. Wires connected some of these objects to each other. Pulsing white with rounded edges, straight purple ones, winding green ones. Enough to illuminate the entire space, and too many to count. Everything seemed to be linked in one way or another. Strings that were various vibrancy, colors, flow, thickness, flourish...

Anti looked behind him for a now vanished doorway. Stepping away from it, he realized that he was near a bubble. Bright, shiny bubble. It started floating up towards the top of this place, or maybe infinitely away. Jamie was safe. The vine in his hand started to disintegrate and fade away. The entire thing dissolved into dust that disappeared before it hit the ground.

Along the floor, there were more vines. Not black like Anti had thought, but a dark maroon. Flowing and glowing. Gazing down at his hands, they started to glow red too. A brighter red, more like light than this poison. He was sickened by their mere presence.

The vines were all connected to screens. Most of them were fleshed out cubes with multiple perspectives, each a subtle variation of one of the other sides. One cube was a frozen wasteland with someone that looked to be Henrik. Another scene where Jackie was in an alleyway, beating up someone. There was a pit that was shrinking, Marvin standing over it, using a dark purple energy with red spheres interlaced. An empty decrepit house that Anti watched ignite and burst into flames, smoke starting to cloud the vision... and hands trying to call out. Nightmares. These were his nightmares. And from the looks of things, Anti was just at the edge of these nightmares, the more recent ones. Further ahead there was a faint red glow.

Choosing a vine, Anti started to follow it back to its source. The roots got thicker, and started glowing more. As did he. The scenes he passed got darker, more violent, more chilling, more demonic. Until there was a wall, spanning into the infinite sky and out to either side of him. It was bricked up and strong as concrete. The roots coalesced into a giant mass that came up to Anti’s waist. It looked like it had burst out of the wall, sending cracks out from the invasion site. Little bits of rubble started falling as the cracks progressed a bit further. Anti needed to do something. Now.

He had to know what was on the other side of the wall. But, he couldn’t just go knocking the barricade down either. So, he created a little looking glass on its edge. There were fewer layers of stone than there should have been, but the spell worked and allowed Anti to see into the space behind. It was a bubble. It had dust gathered all around its base, but it was just as shiny as the bubble Anti stepped out of. Anti started to put some pieces together in his mind, but he wasn’t sure of himself. He needed to be absolutely sure. And that meant seeing that bubble in full. Even though it was risky, Anti had to go to the other side of the wall.

First, stabilize the looking glass. Second, go into glitch form. He would have a few minutes to work before everything became unstable. But he needed to get a closer look, know exactly what was causing this. Because if he was wrong about his theory, he could shatter Jamie’s mind.

Phasing himself, he moved through his doorway to the bubble and hovered just at its edge. This bubble showed Jamie, the only one Anti had seen do so. Jamie was surrounded by his brothers. Their red eyes looked down upon Jamie’s body. And then Anti came into frame. Nothing could be heard outside the bubble, but Anti knew what words were being spoken. They were burned into his mind. 

“P̷̢̢̱̠̯͗̆̍͊̓͜͝Ȕ̷̺̪͉̟̺̙P̸̜̒̑̏̕͝P̸̜͒̍̊̔Ę̴͖̩̩͘T̷͇̪̻̗̠͓̒̇ͅS̴͍̔̅̐̅͂͂̈́ ŵ̛̳̠h͖̰̿̌a̢̫̅̍ţ̭͊̈́ ̯̱̐̚á̲̘͌ŗ̥̍̀e̞̍̀ͅ ͍͔̽̃y̘̱̾̉o̮̘̊̉ȗ̝̩̾-” And that’s when he saw Jamie. His footsteps left flames on the bathroom’s tile floor. “ Ý̟̈͜ȏ̭̼̃ǔ̻͕́ ͈̫̏͑Ȉ̢̜̾Ḏ̤̅̌Ḭ͙̂̚O̜͓̎̈T̡̝̽̉S͕̱̾͝!̧͕̈́͘ ͙̺̓̐W̡͇̔͑ḣ͍͇̒ȁ̙̈́͜t̛͈̪̽ ̧͈̈́̊h͚̲́̉a̤̳͌́v̛̳͋͜ẹ̱͗͋ ̩͎̋̄y̨̼̅̿o͉̳̓͂u̩̘͆͆ ̢̰̃͝d̖̟̀̀o̢̅̕͜n̯̱̈́́e̩͉͗͋!”

Chase answered, “You told us to make him suffer, so we did.” Chase grinned brightly, proud of their work.

“J̢̰̓͗A̝̰̔͝C̺͈͛̈K̺͖̆͝! Ņ̙̑͝Ỗ̩͔T̠̪̑͝ J͇̥̉̍Ȃ̢̟̚M̟̺͗̾Ë͖̦̽Ŝ̩̹̍O̟̟̾̈́N̠̣̒͝!!” Anti placed the small, fragile body on the floor and started letting his stolen bit of white power flow through him into Jamie.

“We thought you’d be proud,” Jackie mentioned.

“P̮̲͒̔R̙̯̓̓Ó͈̠̊Ů̟̩̃Ḏ͓́͝?̈! J̄͗ẳ̟ḿ̩͙͠é̻̰̈́s̤̜̅̕o͍̻͋̉n͈̆̄ͅ ̨̜͂͝h͑͝a͚̪͆̚s͚̟̈́͂ ͖̥͝͝d̠̙͛̾ö̠̮́̚n̝̜̿̊e̯̟͐͘ ̭͇̀͒N̖͖̋̋Ỏ̢͖͝T̮̗̄͂Ḣ̛̰̬Ǐ̥̰̈́N̪̪̐̈́G͕̭͌̋.”

Marvin piped up, “But neither did-”

“Y̼͈̐̈́e̤̊̃ͅs̨͕̏͆,̂̚ y̢̛̠̾o̹̣̒͝u̱̤͛̍ ̹͐̄d̻̳̂͒i̹̯͑̈́d̝̪͒͌! A̲̳͊̊n͈̘̏̕d̗̯͗̆ ̈́͐ỹ͓͍̊ȍ̡̪͌u̘͈͛̃ ̤̖̈́͘d̟̦͐̊ī̠̯͛ḍ͎̄̕ t͓̞̓̀h͍̖͆́ẹ̢̊́m̬̘̾͝ ̹̃͌B̛͓͈̑E̲̮͊̈C͔̝̈́̐Á̲̩̔U̙̗͆̒Ş̗̃̿Ẽ̮͝ͅ ͐̌o͓̽̈́ͅf̼̟͒͘ ̆̉J͎̖͐̌A̡͛͛͜C̬̼͆̊K̪̓͠ͅ.̌͂ ” Anti’s hair was fiery red, maybe even on fire, but his face was growing dimmer. “H̺̭́͝E̲̤͑̀ ̞̲́̍i̠͔͗͝s̱̟̈̏ ̙̰̅͊ẗ͚̹̓h̠̥͒̓e͈̝̔̕ ̩̥͑͘p̯̫̂͘ȓ̙̞̐o̪͍͌̕b̭͚̈̄l̛̟̬̚ȩ̞̂̈ṁ̱̰̄.́͂”

“Exactly, which is why we did this. This will hurt him more than anything else we could ever do,” Chase reiterated himself.

“ N̳̿͒ͅö̡̠̉,͑͗ ̃ţ̃̄ḫ̇͛a͑͠ẗ͕́̌ͅ'̗͒̑s̔̋ n̜̖̈́̈́ǒ̠̲̆t̛̻͖̋ ̃́w̞̬̌̚ḧ͖́͗ȁ̢̫̔ẗ'̽s g̐̋ó̲̓ǹ͌ͅň̨̍ä̧̕ h͙́̇a̩̎̓p̗͐̓p̠̈́́e̛̜͠ň͙͝` ..͕̌̀. ..́. .͐͌.́.̖̃̎ ͙͆͘.͕̌̀.͎̇͋.̫̌́ ̼̂̍Ȳ̻̌ő̩͌u̮͆̂ ͎̓̆ạ̿̕r̘̆͑ḙ̊̔ ͍̆̐t͕͋́h̨̊̎ë̡́̌ ̗́̅p̢̈̾ü͇͑p̯͌͛ṕ̨͛e͖͂͝t̫̿̄š̭̓,̫̊̊ ̼̅͝a̯͋̅ń̹͝d̨̄̀ y̜̑̔ơ̯͠ư̼͊ do͆ ̗̀́w͔̓́h͈̀͝a̛͛t̎ Ï s͇̀́ay.̓̃ Y͘ơ̢͠ṳ̒͘ ̾d̼͗́ö͛n't ̂in͗t́ë̩͠rp̌ŕḙ͑͘t̫̂̒ for̬̄̅ s͓̾̕h͉̍̽i͐t̓.̛͙͋ ̠̀̀Y͐̕ou̚ ̒̐j̓u͎͗̑s̭̍̇ṫ̹̉ ̋li̅s̖̄́t̞͊̆e͉͊͘n͕͆͘! Ḡ̪͊o̗͐̒t̝̑̆ ͗͂i͊t̊͝!͍̭́́ ” They all nodded shamefully.

“So what do we do now, master?” Jackie asked.

“ F̦̚u͝c͑kĩng̪͗.̹̔.́͜. ” This was taking far too long. Something was wrong. “h̳e̳l̖p͙ ̖m͖ḙ.”

“How?” They all said in unison.

“J̙ụs̘t̡,̟ ̩h̖e̥l̯p̫ ̯m̰e̤.” Anti was staring up at them in desperation. His color was fading. They just stared back at him quizzically, their beady red eyes searing right through him. He didn’t need puppets for this, he needed people. “H͓̕E͖̹LP ME!!!”

Their eyes reverted back to their normal colors. “HENRIK!!” Anti yelled, leaning back from Jamie. He was drained and looked as if he would faint. Henrik took a few moments to get his bearings, but then he realized why Anti was calling him. As Henrik started working on Jamie, Anti turned to Jackie. “Jackie, get help.” The bubble turned black.

It was a few moments before it started back up again, before he had entered the room, but Anti didn’t need to see that. Pulling himself back through the wall, he materialized again. He dropped his portal and then dropped down to the floor. Jamie was not supposed to have been able to remember that. Henrik had said he was too young, and that he showed no signs of remembering. If Anti had just checked all those years ago, he could have stopped this. Manipulated it so that he wouldn’t be feeling this pain, just like he did for all the others.

But now, now he couldn’t truly get to it. And even if he did, that would make Jamie just relive everything, and with any luck, go through every single thing it had spawned. That would surely destroy Jamie. Jamie didn’t deserve to suffer. He didn’t deserve this.

_________________________________

Well, bet you didn’t see that one coming. Did you?

Tag list: @theblackphoebe, @thebluehearted, @aether-mae, @neo-ophelian, @odysseus-is-best-boi, @alvie-ashgrove, @snikkr, @evyptids, @c0re0psis, @ninja-girl2846, @sadcat5555, @way-ward-soul, @septic-strawberry, @it-is-i-jamie, @maybekatie

[juniper-rose-blower]

In the Uldum Sun

June was sitting in the hammock on the porch, watching Matin playing outside with Ham - tossing cubes of basilisk steak into the air for the very large scarab to catch. His hair was already growing out again, but she and Sif were doing their best to keep it as controlled as possible. The time he’d been spending in the heat had started making it curl slightly.

The Botanist, meanwhile, had gained quite the tan, her normally pale skin finally getting used to the exposure to the Uldum sun. Her platinum blonde hair was very long now, down to her waist, with a wind-blown look thanks to her outdoor runs that she regularly took.

Light jade eyes shifted about gently, taking in the expansive desert, the boy and his scarab, the buildings of Ramkahen and its inhabitants milling about. It wasn’t until Sif’s voice broke her out of her reverie that she blinked:

“Mail for you, Miss Juniper.” At the moniker, June’s nose wrinkled a little and she offered the woman a small smile.

“You know, you don’t have to be so formal. June is fine. Or Lark. Or even Rose,” she chuckled as she took the envelope from the Ulduni woman, “but please… please don’t call me Miss.” Sif’s return grin was a bit mischievous.

“Remind you of someone you don’t like?”

Platinum locks swayed as June shook her head, “Reminds me of a time I’d rather forget.” she replied. Sif gave a nod in return.

“Fair enough. Is that from Adinah?”

June’s gaze shifted from the woman to the envelope in her hands. She felt of it gently, curious as to the heavy object within. Her expression turned to a more somber one as she examined the writing on it and an exhale left her nose in a rush. Quai’s handwriting. She’d recognize it anywhere. As she shook her head to Sif, she flipped the envelope and broke the seal; a key fell into her hand. She held it tightly, smoothing the paper and reading its contents:

June,

I hope this finds you well. The included key is to a storage facility in Stormwind, where you will find your possessions from the Wetlands base, the Boralus house, the Stormwind base, and the boat. If I’ve forgotten anything, please write me care of Andrew Mason, general delivery, Stormwind. I won’t be around for a while.

Should you wish to harvest anything growing at the Wetlands property, the land is no longer warded, so you should have no issues accessing your garden. Gwen wishes for me to let you know that her house in the Wetlands is open to you as well, as a fellow herbalist. It is located north of Greenwarden’s Grove— look for the only Oak in the area, and a low, stone wall. There are bay laurels around the perimeter of the property.

On a more personal note, it was truly a genuine pleasure to have you as part of our team. You grew so much over the past few years, and I am— and will always be— proud of the work you’ve done. I only wish it had not ended as suddenly as it did. Please write if you have questions, or simply for the sake of conversation. I will respond when I am able.

Additionally, you will be receiving a small stipend for the next ten years from the military. It will be deposited into your account on the first of every month. It isn’t much, but it’s what I was able to bargain for upon my release.

I do not have a contact for Malodar, so I have included a few things of his along with yours. I would be grateful if you could let him know, should you see him again in your travels.

Your friend,

Quai

June sighed again. At least she knew now that Quai was out of Stormwind’s Stockades. She flipped the envelope back over. It was date-stamped nearly two weeks ago when it was mailed out. That honestly didn’t surprise her. The only ones who knew where she’d gone after Arathi were Ky and Alanna. The Post had likely had to hunt down where to send it. Pale eyes looked back up to Sif.

“Do the city’s mages still have portal stones for Stormwind?” Sif gave a nod.

“I’m certain they do. Will you be going today, or do you need to plan?”

A soft inhale sounded from June as her gaze moved back to Matin. She had told Ky she’d stay and keep an eye on him while she was gone on her mission. Instantly her thoughts were tinged with worry. But Ky was far more resilient than her. She was certain she was fine. Sif’s hand moved to rub June’s arm softly.

“Don’t worry so much - you of all people know she’s been through worse than dealing with a group like the Venture Company.”

June nodded and sighed, looking back to Sif, “I won’t go to the city just yet - I’ll wait for Ky to get back home.”

As Sif nodded and walked back toward the city’s center, June watched Matin patting Ham’s head. A number of things were on her mind, but for now she had to see to lunch for herself and Matin.

(( mentions / allusions: @killerkyara @quai-mason @malodarstarstrike @gwen-oconnell @andrew-mason @blackbay-wra ))

[averagedoctor]

Hi! Could you do a doctor (11th) x reader where he meets (y/n) and they become very close and they fool around the tardis and stuff? (after Ponds and before clara maybe?)

Heck yeah I can anon!! I’m gonna combine this and the other one I got from a different anon,, cuz they’re like the same thing,,, I swear you guys gotta be conspiring or something. I’m not too sure what you meant with this one, at least how they fooled around in the TARDIS so,, basically it’s just exploring and cleaning haha

Other anon: hi could you do a 11th doctor x reader where doctor and (y/n) just go fooling around in the tardis or something? P.s. love your writing!! (thank you!!!)

11th doctor x reader

Pronouns: gender neutral

Word count: 2,487

TWs: none

Tagging: @evyiione (if you’d like to be added to this list, shoot me a message! i also keep forgetting about this oops)

Summary: How you meet the Doctor and subsequently having to clean the TARDIS with him one day

[A/N]: Currently unedited cuz I’m tired :)

The air was brisk on your skin as you enjoyed the view in front of you, jacket tied around your waist. You were sat on a bench at your local park, and it just so happened to look over a small pond. Ducks and geese were common and you loved coming to feed them. A few turtles also lived in the lake, so there were plenty animals to feed with the bread you brought. You tossed a small bit over to the couple of ducks that had gathered and they excitedly quacked at the food landing before them. You threw out a couple more chunks towards them and made sure to aim some near the turtles too. There were no geese there today, which was a bit of a disappointment. Still, you soaked in all the time there that you could. It was calming, with the breeze rustling through the trees and the sounds of birds chirping, ducks quacking, squirrels rushing around, turtles splashing, and much more. If you had to put a name to it, you would say this was your happy place. A small smile snuck its way onto your face as you watched the animals around you. As you watched the surrounding area peacefully, a shadow fell over your still form. Turning around, you saw a man with kind, green eyes and a warm smile on his face.

“Oh, hi!” You said cheerfully, a little confused. Normally, no one bothered to approach you at the park, simply because no one was interested in interaction.

“Hello.” He nodded his head, fixing his eyes on the pond. “Ducks, huh?”

“Yeah, and turtles. There should be geese, but not today.” You chatted politely, looking over your shoulder at him. He was well dressed, with a tweed jacket, white button up,dress pants, a red bow tie, and even suspenders.

“Mind if I sit?”

“Er, not at all.” You said shifting over to the left so he could come over. He plopped down on the bench, staring intently at the ducks as they milled around.

“I’m  the Doctor, by the way.” He said, tearing his eyes away long enough to catch your eyes and extended his hand. His hands were warm and calloused and he had a firm grip at that.

“Y/N. Just the Doctor?”

“Good name, and yes, chose it myself.” He said proudly, turning his focus back to the lake. You chose not to comment on his choice of name. “You know, bread really isn’t healthy for them.”

“Well, they enjoy it. Why deprive them of that? It’s not like people will just stop.” You laughed, but oddly felt defensive. These ducks and turtles were the place you could escape to and you weren’t going to let one man ruin it for you.

“Fair point.” He held up his hands in surrender, eyes glimmering with mirth.

“Thank you.” The two of you lapsed into a silence, the Doctor clasping his hands together. He seemed flighty, as if part of him wanted to stay but the other part wanted to leave as fast as possible. His leg jittered up and down, the rustling of his pants disrupting the ducks that were treading closer to you, bread on their mind. You threw them the last piece and watched as they happily gobbled it up. He let out a small chuckle through his nose as they waddled away.

A few more minutes passed of neither of you saying anything and it was making you anxious. Gathering up the empty bread package, you crumpled it into a ball and shrugged your jacket back on.

“It was nice to meet you, Doctor.”

“Oh, yes, yes, it was nice to meet you too.” He startled, words jumbled up in his mouth. You nodded slowly, turning to walk away.

“Actually, Y/N, I have a question. Have you ever wished to go somewhere beyond your imagination?” You paused in your steps, revolving cautiously back around to face him.

“I… suppose so.” You finished after a pause. “Why?”

“Would you like to travel with me? Anywhere?” He blurted out, heat rising to his face.

“Uh, I’m not sure that’s so smart… that is how people get kidnapped.” You laughed halfheartedly, tugging on your sleeve. He was taken aback by your statement, as if that had never occurred to him.

“No! Oh no, I’m– it’s not–” He floundered, getting up. “Please, come with me, just for a moment.” He grasped your wrist, eyes pleading. Against your better judgement, you did follow him, and you weren’t sure why. He led you to a small blue police box that barely looked like it could hold him, let alone another person. “Come on.” He gestured as you lagged behind.

“Are- are you sure? I don’t think we’ll…” You were cut off by him tugging you and you squeezed your eyes tight, expecting to hit a wall. However, when that didn’t happen, you blinked and found yourself in a enormous room.

“I… woah… it’s…”

“Yep, bigger on the inside, I know.” He winked, straightening his bow tie. Star-struck, you spun in circles trying to take in the majesty of the situation. Wherever he had pulled you into was stunning and impossibly large.

“How?” Was all you could manage to get out when you looked back at him, questions in your eyes.

“TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. Quite a beauty.” He said fondly, strolling up to the console. You trailed behind him, mouth agape. “This, however, is the real magic.” He grinned, pulling a lever and some knobs. The TARDIS began to shake and emit strange warbling sounds and soon the Doctor was grabbing your hand and pulling you outside. It couldn’t have been possible, but you were in a totally different place. You were at a loss for words, your hand covering your open mouth.

“1920s New Jersey. I haven’t been here before, that’s fun.” He said offhandedly, sticking his hands in his pockets and looking around.

“This  is… this is amazing.” You breathed, recovering from your shock. “Anywhere, yeah? You said anywhere?”

“I did.” The Doctor beamed. “Would you like to join me?”

“Yes.” You let out a laugh, gazing at the skyline before you.

That was how you met the Doctor. The start of the greatest chapter in your life. Everyday a new adventure, a new place, an entirely different time. It was thrilling and nothing like how you thought your life was going to go. This man saved your life on multiple occasions, just like you saved his. You were the perfect team, a match made in heaven, a match literally written in the stars. He was your best friend.

Stretching, you walked into the console room to see the Doctor staring intently at something that had popped up on his screen.

“What’s up for today?” You asked, bouncing around to his side. He started at your sudden movement, your head resting on his shoulder.

“Oh, the TARDIS just needs some maintenance done, no big deal. I can get that done quick and we’ll be on our way.” He smiled, knocking his head gently on yours.

“Ooooh, can we explore then? Since you already have to hunt around for maintenance?” Your eyes glimmered with excitement, hoping the answer was yes. You wanted nothing more than to get to venture into her deep areas, having only had the time to see a few specific areas between traveling and home.

“Alright, fine.” The Doctor caved, rather fast, sighing. He understood your want to go and see what other rooms she held, and your unrelenting requests to were finally getting to be annoying. He spun around, coattails flapping, and pointed at the far left corridor. “This way.” He said confidently, his mop of hair leading the way.

Soon after you entered, hallways began to twist and turn as you went further and further.

“Maintenance should be around here somewhere.” The Doctor called back as you lagged to look at the rooms you passed. You saw rooms full of souvenirs, rooms of pictures, paintings, a secondary library (you knew it wasn’t the main one due to lack of a pool), and one full of assorted lights. It was like the Doctor’s storage area. Some that you passed were empty or piled high with unused furniture. Guessing by the amount, you judged each companion got their own new set of furniture and didn’t even know it. As you walked, you drifted a hand along the walls, feeling the coolness and rivet bumps. The hallways seemed dim and bright at the same time, and you couldn’t figure out why it seemed like that.

“Hey, Doctor, how many rooms are there?” You asked after going by one that held a singular cube. “And why does this one only hold a cube?” You stopped and point at the window in the door that revealed its contents.

“I have no idea. There’s always just… more.” He chuckled, striding over to the cube room, gazing in. “Ah, yes, well, some things should remain unknown. Now, we’re almost there.” He winked, taking the lead again as you caught up to his side.

“You own a lot of things, have you ever thought of cleaning it all out?” You joked, poking his side.

“Oi! Don’t do that,” he grumbled, sticking his tongue out at you, “and sure, I’ve thought of it. Being alive for over a thousand years will get you in those moods sometimes. There’s just too much to fully go through… and some memories that I’d rather leave alone…” He trailed off, eyes drifting towards the ground. Mouth twitching into a frown, you coughed awkwardly and stared at the ground. You knew he had lost people close to him recently, ones that he traveled with, but you were never sure how many he’s had in the past. Based on this, you guessed a fair amount.

“I’m  sorry.” You said softly, bumping his elbow with yours in an attempt to lighten things up.

“No, no, it’s fine.” He smiled tightly and the two of you continued in relative silence until you reached the area needing maintenance.

The Doctor took a sharp right turn after traveling straight for so long, walking right up to a solid metal door.

“Where is this?” You asked as he used his sonic to open to door.

“Maintenance.” He said vaguely, pushing his way into the room. Inside, it was all steel with cords hanging from every possible edge in the wall and covering every inch on the floor.

“What the–”

“Think of these as… extension cords. Cords get tangled, so we’re here to untangle them.”

“Wha- untangle these? Where do they even come from? Why are they here?”

“These have all been a part of her in the past. Scraps from other TARDIS forms. Like, this.” He rummaged around in the pile of cords and pulled out a white sphere. “Blimey, this one is quite old. Anyway, she gets clogged up. This is like her overflow room where all the spare parts that can be used later go to. She’s not so great at keeping them clean though, so here we are.” He finished with a grand flourish and you bit your lip in worry.

“How are we supposed to clean this?”

“All we have to do, really, is relocate some parts. The problem isn’t so much the cords, it’s what’s under them that matters.”

“Ah.” You said dryly, wading over cautiously to the Doctor. “What happens if we just… don’t clean it?”

‘If we don’t, she’ll overheat, or become irritated, or both. Either way, that throws off her flying and that would be quite disastrous. I’ll grab what needs to be sorted and your job will be to take it out to the hall. We’ll deal with it there later.”

“Okay…” You said, swaying, taking the white orb from him and kicking a path to the hall. This process continued for about another hour after the Doctor found all the extra parts he could fish up.

“That’s all of it.” He grunted, placing the last piece unceremoniously on the floor.

“Now what?” You asked, hands on your hips as you looked over the pile at your feet.

“And now, we move it.” He smiled while you groaned, hanging your head before shuffling over. It took another thirty minutes until you got them all moved to another room. Lucky for you, there was an empty room a couple rooms past where you currently were. Having that there made life a lot easier.

“Thanks for dragging me along for that. Wasn’t as much exploring as I hoped, and didn’t think it would be cleaning.” You glanced over at him to see him shrugging.

“You never know with the TARDIS. Come on, I’ll show you something to make up for all that work.” He led you out the way you came in, somehow finding his way out of that maze and you couldn’t even remember what the previous corridor looked like. Blinking, your eyes adjusted to the lighting being thrown in the main console room, a stark difference from whatever dim-bright landscape you’d just been in. You were about to ask what he was leading you to when he took you down the middle hall towards the main library. Once in, he skirted around the edge and browsed the books, a finger trailing along each spine. Just when it seemed like  he wouldn’t be able to find it, he let out a satisfied exhale and plucked a book off the shelf.

“I know you’ve been curious about the people I’ve traveled with in the past. So, as a reward for helping me, here’s some pictures.” He flipped through the rather thick book to reveal all sorts of different pictures, even some in black and white. It was mainly women that filled the book, but there were some men sprinkled in.

“You really have a type, huh?” You laughed as the Doctor gave you a frustrated look.

“I most certainly do not.” He said, indignant, before nodding back at the book. You could tell he was getting to a more current time period when the pictures steadily became clearer and clearer. You caught a glimpse of a woman with red hair and a man beside her, but he promptly flipped the book shut.

“I think that’s enough for today, yeah?” He said quickly, exiting the library. You followed him, as always.

“Thank you, Doctor.” You called out as he stepped up to the console.

“Just a favor for a favor.” He smiled warmly, but you could detect a hint of sadness in his eyes. “Well, now that’s taken care of, off we go!” He sprung up, perky again. You climbed the stairs up to him, a smile on your face.

“Off we go indeed.” You placed a hand on top of his and you both pulled the lever down together, grinning as the TARDIS took flight.

[geekymoviemom]

Sins of the Fathers Chapter 5 Preview

Behind?  Catch up on FFN/ AO3 :) An eager knock on the glass door startled Tony from his thoughts, and he looked up to find Peter, bouncing up and down on his feet and sporting a cheeky grin.

“Mr. Stark, Mr. Stark!” the boy exclaimed, rushing into the garage once JARVIS unlocked the door.  “Ms Toddie said that I can start on the tall balance beam next week!  She’s gonna bring one for me to try!”

“Really?” Tony said, his lips curling into a smirk.  “That's great!  Now you’ll make even more noise when you land.  And I wish you could time your jumps better with my music, because the beats never seem to line up correctly.  It really throws me off when I’m trying to work.”

Tony had meant the comment to be lighthearted, and so was alarmed when Peter’s face fell and his shoulders hunched forward.  “Hey!” he said, reaching to ruffle Peter’s sweaty curls.  “I only meant that I’m proud of you, kid, that's all.  I know how much fun you have jumping around upstairs everyday.”

“Ms Toddie says I’m good at it,” Peter mumbled.

“And Ms Tatiana is correct,” Tony stated firmly, gripping Peter’s shoulder.  “I was just giving you a hard time, kid.  I know you're good at it, and I know you love it.”

Peter drew his shoulders back, nodding at Tony as he tried to smile.  “I do love it.  I’m gonna miss it when we have to leave here.”

“Well, maybe we can find a gym for you to practice at after school?” Tony suggested.  “You can get your Lego-builder friend to join you too, if you want.”

“I don't think so,” Peter said, shaking his head.  “Ned can't do gymnastics like me.”

“Okay, we don't have to decide now,” said Tony.  With a final twist of his screwdriver, he removed the knee joint and placed it carefully onto its stand.  “Wanna try out your new boots for a few minutes?”

It was as if Tony had flipped a switch with the way Peter’s eyes widened and the smile stretched across his face.  “Can I?”

“I wouldn’t have asked otherwise,” Tony replied with a wink.  Lifting Peter onto the counter, he retrieved the mini Iron Man boots he’d just yesterday finished building from their locked storage cube and slid them onto the kid’s socked feet.  “So.  Whaddya think?”

“Whoa,” Peter breathed, clinking the toes of the bright red and gold boots together.  “They look just like yours!”

“They are just like mine,” Tony said proudly.  “Just a bit smaller.  And non-flyable, of course.”

“Aww, but I wanna fly too!” Peter whined as he jumped off the counter, dropping down in a perfect imitation of Tony’s signature Iron Man landing.  “Why can’t I fly?”

“You’re still a bit young for that, I think,” said Tony with a chuckle.  “Besides, I don't think Ms Wilson would be too happy if she thought I had you flying around the garage.”

“But I wouldn’t tell her!” exclaimed Peter.  “Just like I didn’t tell her that you let me stay up watching movies when I can't sleep!”

Tony grimaced.  He didn’t like being reminded that the poor kid had trouble sleeping from time to time.  “I know, Peter.  But watching Star Wars for the eightieth time because you had a nightmare at three in the morning and flying around a garage in homemade rocket boots are two pretty different things.  Don’t you think?”

“They’re repulsor boots.  Not rocket boots,” Peter corrected.  “Right?  You told me that you don't build rockets anymore.”

Grinning, Tony nodded.  “Yeah, that’s right.  But I highly doubt Ms Wilson would care too much about that particular distinction.”

“Yeah, I guess not,” Peter muttered.  He took a step, grinning as the boot made a loud clanking noise against the garage floor.  “They're still pretty cool boots though, Mr. Stark.  Thank you.”

“Tony,” Tony said suddenly, tapping his fingers on the counter.  He glanced sheepishly down at Peter.  “You can call me Tony, you know.  Mr. Stark was my father’s name; it’s not mine.”

The full chapter will post on Monday, July 23rd. :)

@muggle-who-lived here’s the preview! ❤️