#lmao don't get me wrong i wanna see my brother

[tintinology]

Can’t wait to go visit my brother who lives 7 hours away next weekend because it means I’ll finally have time to listen to this in its entirety:

[mvrkieboo]

Old Bloodhounds

SYNOPSIS

You and Mark go all the way back to your childhood years, getting to know each other through your older brother. When you were both just 15 years old, you made a choice that broke your brother's heart, and you were dead to Mark Lee ever since. You never got to reconcile with him as you moved away.

Now, you meet again in your college years, and Mark is noticing there's some weird things about you. First of all, are you a sugar baby?

TWs : gore, violence, y/n hides a lot of things and it's driving people crazy (slight purposeful miscommunication)

GENRE : crack, romance, angst with a happy ending, fluff

STATUS : ongoing

A/N : inspired by the k-drama BLOODHOUNDS on netflix and featuring its main characters too !

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P1 should've worn butt plug then

P2 NOW CHOP CHOP LITTLE GERMAN BOY

P3 catch me outside, how bout that!?

P4 you can't just say perchance

P5 jokes on you i have a vasectomy kink

P6 you cheeky little shit

P7 hungry hungry hippo calling the pigs fat

P8 i don't trust that hehe

P9 mark better keep an eye out for selenerrr

P10 you have negative pull anyways

P11 damn do i miss my man

P12 THAT'S NOT LEGAL???

P13 WE JUMPING MARK LEE LMAO 😂

P14 act like it

P15 hungry hungry hippo over here

P16 lEts g3t shït f ace d!!!!!!!!!!

P17 rip mark lee aka lee minhyung

P18 not tonight please 🩷

P19 🧚🏻‍♀️ GET 🧚🏻‍♀️ YOUR 🧚🏻‍♀️ ASS 🧚🏻‍♀️ INTO 🧚🏻‍♀️ THE 🧚🏻‍♀️ GC 🧚🏻‍♀️

P20 mark lee alcoholic era incoming 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

P21 no need to get all biblical babe

P22 you shut up

P23 i realised that day that she in fact had two

P24 be honest have you slept today

P25 fuck you and fuck no

P26 straight people i tell you

P27 that's common sense i fear...

P28 lmao was i wrong tho

P29 i cant ty9e clearly wheñ ím çrying

P30 jesus please take the wheel rn

P31 the first steps ahead

P32 i am now a proud uchinaga 🫶🏻

P33 you just gotta dissociate at one point

P34 that is my full blooded older brother

P35 i knew it. i knew it!

P36 hm that's what i thought

P37 this is the push back, not the step back

P38 work wifey where are yewwwwwww

P39 ooooouu too bad idgaf

P40 i see the end

P41 i just miss my daily bedrotting

P42 nobody wants to see that hyuck

P43 listen, don't wanna be that bitch, but...

P44 how romantic

P45 me and my bro (we're targaryens)

P46 he's going to pay

P47 this is me holding on, okay?

P48 damn 😭 still not over her huh

P49 then don't fucking go

P50 screw the rebellious teenage phase

P51 jeong y/n

...

[ratcash-wasgud]

Lmao hey arcane fandom

I'm going to spew my two cents and try to get yall to see why I will defend Cait with my WHOLE LIFE IF NEEDED

I love Vi too btw, don't get me wrong, they both need their foreheads kissed

EDIT: Also, I'm gonna put this here since ppl thought othervise: This is not a post against Vi, she's my goat, she needs to retire from bad shit happening to her. This is a post defending Cait, since she's the character getting the most hate rn, and I will defend basically every arcane character with my whole chest (exepct Heimerdinger, fuck that hoe)

Spoilers

Ok, let me start with the whole breakup scene and the things that led to it, since that's basically one of the biggest points in this argument. I'm going to be honest, I kinda feel like Vi was a little af fault there. Because now, because Caitlyn couldn't kill Jinx, even when she could've, she will have to do the whole hunt again. AGAIN. And we know Cait is only hurting Zaun because she WILL comb through an entire city just to find Jinx, and nothing else. She doesn't hate the people of Zaun. And it could've stopped at that one incident with the grey IF she killed Jinx. But she didn't, because Vi stopped her. Again.

And let me tell you, if I went through all that shit, WITH the support of my bae, just to be stopped at the last moment I'd be pissed too.

"Oh, but Caitlyn didn't care if she accidentally killed the kid," let me remind yall of that moment when Jayce accidently killed a kid in season one with the hextech weapons, and wanted to stop using them, but Vi was like, "hey, it happens a bunch here, let's not stop using these things for fighting!" And literally said "He knew what he was signing up for." But now she suddenly cares about one kid? Plus what's the chance of Cait ACTUALLY missing? And even if she did, and killed Isha...Jinx killed multiple people yall, probably even kids (including her brothers) but yall love her (me too but that's besides the point).

Cait is now driven by revenge. And let's not pretend we didn't see this change coming. The whole bullet board thing she had on the floor in season one, the dedication to free a random prisoner just to get clues about Silco...she was always dedicated to her craft. And the raige started to appear in her even in the final episode, where she got KIDNAPPED BY JINX, let me remind yall, and she had to literally free herself. Just imagine how traumatic that shit was for her. Then, when she could've shot her abductor, her bae stops her, letting Jinx slip away and go on to kill her mother. But, she's still not blaming Vi, and wants her on her team, just to be stopped at the last moment again.

Next thing is the fact that she becomes a dictator...well, she could've said no when Ambessa said her name, right? Yeah, no. That's not how it works. She couldn't have been like "yeah, no, I don't wanna do allat, I'm still kinda liking the enemy after they keep attacking us, so ima pass on this one", for some reason. Ambessa literally made sure that she can't pass this up. Plus she caught her almost right after she returned from Zaun, and leaving Vi. She was in a vulnerable, revenge hungry state.

Ok, yap session over, I'm writing this at 1 am, and I have work tomorrow at 6, so I'm cooked, but Cait Cait Cait Cait Cait Cait Cait

[jellazticious]

Meet this chucklefuck

His name is Pascal Short for Giuseppe Pascallis Jaleppino Edvard Stefano Dimitri Jaloro Pepperman-Spaghetti

That's right, you read the surnames correctly. He is a Pepperino fankid

ramble and more drawings under the cut if you managed to survive the first part

If I had a nickel for everytime I made fankids, I would have two. Which isn't a lot but it is weird that it happened twice.

And brother? I'm happy about it jsrgksrb

Pascal is a jaloro pepper and since his parents are so shit at naming him, they straight up put his pepper type as a name. but yes, they're a real thing and they're so cute. Jaloros are just yellow jalapenos

I also tried to make him simultaneously look like a pepper and a mango to complement how Pepperman looks like an apple. but also while drawing the sprite mock ups, I realized that at a certain pose he sorta looks like a pizza slice. I win either way bfsjbgksjr

He does not want to be an artist or a chef but he does have the inherited naturality of both which landed him a job as a barista. and of course, he could only work for one place which is the Noisette Cafe. It kinda gave him a little trouble getting hired cuz 1.) Peppino does not like how his son is about to work for his rival's girlfriend and 2.) Noisette is fucking terrified of Pepperman. You think she's gonna let his son who is one foot taller work for her 😭

But still, Noisette is way too kind that Peppino forgets why he has a problem with her and Pascal is way softer than both his dads surprisingly. It's ironic how Peppino and Pepperman are these barbarians of people and their kid ended up being the forestcore aestethic. He is never beating the allegations lmao, he's gonna be THAT softboy

But don't get me wrong, he can be a combination brutal and berserk when pissed off. He still has the same strength as his dads, mind you. Mostly Pepperman's brute and Peppino's street smarts

And their patience too.

People expect him to be as manly lol but like nahh he just wanna chill and be a nerd dork

And if anyone's wondering, it was obviously Pepperman who spawned him. In the human au tho? I have a perfect answer for that lmao. ahem

My Pepperman has and always been intersex lmao. That is it, that is all you need to know how Pascal can theoretically be made

Plants being plants man, they're really weird. Pepper is simultaneously mom, dad, uncle, and aunt lmao. Tho Pas calls him both mom and dad because it would be so fucking funny and he calls Peppino papi

He's very tender mostly cuz he did not inherit Pepperman's narcissism but he did inherit that kindness that Pepperman tries so hard to hide. And of course, Peppino's anxiety and impulses.

As a kid, Peppino is the brooding hen between him and Phil. He'd be the one who double checks triple checks if it's safe to let baby Pascal do his thing.

Pepperman on the other hand, he holds baby Pas like a rubber ball. Peppino tries not to get his kid killed because of how his wife holds it 😭

Oh also in a few of em, you can see little interactions with @beefy-the-stronk's Jude. They're simultaneously cousins and siblings. Also don't question it. Just imagine there's two Peppermans gbsjbgrksj

Also Gustavo is the godfather. I only had Pascal for three days but I would die for him

Anyway, if you made it this far, I thank you but alas. That is all for now bgjsbgjksr

[sessakag]

Now all I can think about is Prey!Papa-Naruto because it would be the wildest funniest thing ever! Poor Hinata is probably trying to make sure her kids grow up to be good morally upstanding people and Naruto is just….Yeah 😬. Funnily enough this Naruto probably wouldn’t have as much of a contentious relationship with Boruto because there’s no way he’s putting work above spending time how he wants 😭. And as a Kawaki hater I’m pleased to say I don’t see this Naruto being altruistic enough to take in some random abused kid so really we’ve got my ideal version of the Uzumaki family 🫢. Anyway, I bet parent-teacher conferences and kiddy playdates and birthday parties are gonna be fun times 🤣. Speaking of bday parties happy early birthday! I hope it’ll be a fun one.

Daddy Prey!Naruto is the funniest thing ever, lol.

For sure, Naruto would spend time with his little mini-me. Who would stop him?

I feel like Boruto would be very aware that his father is a homicidal nutjob and spend his time trying to keep innocents out of harms way, but he does it in ways that are just as bad as his father, because of course, the apple doesn't fall that far from the tree, and that he has this huge blind spot to when his own inner crazy is starting to show, lol. And of course, mess with his mom or baby sister, well then, you'll have a hard time telling Naruto and Boruto apart at all🤭he'd justify his violence and the bodies in his closet because Prey!Narupapa taught him that delusion is just another way to say correct, and there's nothing wrong with customizing your own reality when it's convenient. He'd also spend so much time trying to undo Hima's worst tendencies their dad is teaching her in an effort to help his mom out, but ends up making it worse by teaching her "alternative" tendencies that are just as bad but much more slicker than his father's open bluntness, which ultimately, makes Hinata's job harder, lol. Poor lady, I can see her trying to explain the situation to her crazy husband. Hinata: I'm trying to make sure the kids have a moral compass, Naruto Naruto: The fuck they need that for?

I'll be honest, I really don't know all that much about Kawaki since I don't watch the show, but his design is very cool, and the clips I've seen of him on youtube I vibe with🤭but Naruto being altruistic and adopting a poor orphan? Not fuckin likely at all, lol. Prey!Naruto wouldn't care about any kids but his own🤷🏽‍♀️so you're all set for sure, lol.

Parent-teacher conferences would be lit af😂imagine Naruto's big buff tatted up self sitting in one of those itty bitty chairs at a table lower than his knees while the teacher tries to get him to understand that it's not a good thing that his little girl is drawing her classmates with their heads somewhere other than on their shoulders🤣he would be so insulted and have a very scary diatribe about why Hima's work is "art" not a "red flag". The teacher would resign the next day by the time he was done. Omg birthdays🙈One word: Pinata. Take that as you will, lmao!

And omg, I wanna write Prey!Naruto at a PTA meeting, lmao! And you'd think Hinata was the one that dragged him to it, but NO, he'd go on his own because he's a super paranoid bastard that needs to know what is going on in his orbit and that includes his hellspawns, and if he doesn't like what he hears he'll have to retire a few folks to ensure things are being run for the benefit of his offspring😂

Hima's not doing a kiddy playdate, study date, pretend date, any date. Over somebody else's dead body would Naruto allow his baby girl to do any sorta dating🤣hell naw, and don't @ him about it. End of discussion. Why? Because Naruto knows how guys are, and considering the things he does to Hima's mother on a regular basis, he's dead set on not letting any guy near his daughter until she's at least 80 years old, if she's lucky. Teen!Hima good luck trying to date or get a boyfriend😅especially since big brother's not gonna be too keen on the idea either, lol. And thank you for the early birthday wishes!!💕

I feel like this SOL Prey!Naruto family is set in stone to be a thing at this point, lmao. I'm certainly sold on it. I won't say whether or not I plan on Hinata getting knocked up in Prey, ya'll will have to wait and find out but I definitely think this should be a full SOL fic at this point, lol. It's just too good to pass up🤭

[anystalker707]

Infatuation

Pairing: Gerard x Reader Word count: ~ 5 100 Genre: Fluff / Comfort Summary: Mikey's quiet brother catches (y/n)'s attention, and they're up to doing anything to have him fall for them with the help of their friends, Mikey, Ray, and Frank. A/n: another venting fic, tbh, lmao. not proofread.

I was Mikey’s friend. Of course, I had gone to his place a few times, even spent the weekend, but even so, I hardly saw Gerard come out of his room in the basement. He would rarely make an appearance, only showing up when Donna or Elena asked him to do something for her, mainly to bring things from the store down the street.

I could remember clearly the first time I had seen him. After seeing Mikey through the window of the school's restaurant, my interest immediately sparkled at the sight of one of the other alt kids who roamed the school's campus, so I was quick to ask Pete who he was. Mikey happened to be walking by with his brother when Pete and I hung out by the parking lot.

"The Ways?" Pete raised an eyebrow, scratching the back of his head with his gaze on the two males in the distance, talking beside a gray car. "You wanna know who they are? Mikey and his brother?"

A brother. My eyes went past Mikey to observe the pale figure with dark hair. He looked at Mikey mostly expressionless while the younger one moved around frantically, sometimes motioning inside the car, past the open passenger door. He seemed as if he had come out of a romance by Lord Byron, Poe, Shelley, or Stoker, but bathed in the last century's pop culture. Untouchable, in a way because, after all, how was one supposed to approach him? His eyes judged his brother coldly, already, but something made me want to be close to him, someone who would walk into his room uninvited and have him over just because I don't want to be home alone.

"I mean..." I shrugged—what did he mean by that? "Are they nice people?"

Pete hummed. "Very nice! They are from New Jersey, actually. Gerard moved here so he could study in art school and decided to bring Mikey along with him so he can get used to it since Mikey is also looking for a college around the area."

With a quiet hum, I nodded. "I see."

Mikey seemed hard to be friends with, in the beginning, but things ran by quite smoothly. It started with a simple exchange of assignments that slowly turned into sending each other songs then daily talking before Mikey invited me over to his place because he was having a small Halloween gathering. That's when Ray and Frank came around.

That day, Gerard had only left his basement once. Still, even with small appearances like this, it was enough for the small infatuation in my chest to grow each time.

“What does your brother do, Mikey?” I furrowed my eyebrows. Gerard had walked into the house and shortly went to the kitchen, where Mikey and I did our homework, before going down the stairs to the basement with a seemingly heavy box in his hands. The silence had echoed in the room before I questioned him.

Mikey didn’t even look away from his notebook. “Art school.” And he didn’t say anything further.

Gerard had a quiet nature that was quite noticeable, but it also seemed hard to break. The most I had interacted with him was resumed down to asking him for Donna’s phone number so I could message her something regarding Mikey, as she had asked. It earned me a few murmured words before he held his phone out with the contact's profile.

Ray probably noticed my thoughtful form—things barely went unnoticed by him, after all; Ray had quite a talent for knowing everyone in the group to a base level, which had already shown just after a few weeks of friendship. “So, (n/n),” he said as he moved closer, arm wrapping around my shoulders, “what’s in that little mind of yours?”

My cheeks immediately heated up and my eyes averted away because, after all, thinking about this felt so wrong. It didn’t seem like Gerard wanted to be perceived. I gulped, staring at my shoes, my feet hanging from the short wall contouring the square’s flower bed that I sat on top of. Mikey and Frank preferred the bench beside it. It was a quiet afternoon we had decided to hang out, with the rare occurrence of Mikey and I having our afternoon schedules free after the teachers sent us dismissal emails, so Ray decided to take the afternoon off while Frank... just skipped classes.

“I... It’s nothing.” I shook my head, reaching for Frank’s can of Monster so I could take a sip of it, quickly giving it back to him. “I swear, there’s nothing.”

Ray raised an eyebrow, leaning back on the concrete, next to me. “Are you sure? Doesn’t it have anything to do with the sudden curiosity towards Gerard lately?”

Fuck. My face felt even hotter and I struggled to move away with the way he leaned in until he finally pulled away with a chuckle.

“If you’re afraid I’m going to find anything,” Mikey grumbles, “I’m, at minimum, gonna be happy because Gerard isn’t going to be such a sulking fuck all the time. Maybe he and his bedroom would smell less like mold. I mean, not to discourage you, but Gerard—”

“Mikey!” Ray clicked his tongue, rolling his eyes. “Y’know, (y/n), it’s more about... knowing how to deal with someone who got depression and some traumas on his back. I’m not trying to discourage you, it’s just that you might feel intimidated at first, but Gerard is actually a lovely person. You gotta break that first barrier he puts between himself and everything new, but it might be easy since you’re always around and stuff.” He finished with a wide smile. “I believe in you.”

Ray’s words somehow made me feel more flustered but in a good sense. He had such a way to change perspectives of situations—he would often help us sort things out whenever we had any problem. He was sort of an ideal being; he didn’t seem to have any problems, despite the hard times he occasionally went through just like everyone else. There were uncountable times in which he had spontaneously introduced himself to our issues so he could solve them because, according to him, it was his obligation as a friend. Of course, it can be concerning sometimes since he will blame himself for things he has nothing to do with, so we also do our best to help Ray out, and at least try to return a little bit of what he does for us.

His words didn’t discourage me. They had some use when I first grew the courage to walk up to Gerard and talk with him.

“That shirt you have,” I mumbled to Gerard. We were in the kitchen late at night, with the (maybe) fortunate occurrence of having met each other when getting out of bed motivated by thirst. “Is it themed after a movie or a show? Y’know, the one with a helmet. Reminds me of Star Wars.”

I was almost certain Gerard wouldn’t answer, that he would just put his glass in the sink and leave, leaving me in the thick night silence because I was too pathetic.

“The Mandalorian,” Gerard’s soft voice echoed through the room. “It’s a Star Wars spin-off. Do you like Star Wars?”

Something in my chest immediately warmed up as I looked at him for a second, still wondering if I was imagining stuff. “Um, yeah! Mikey and I watch a lot of movies when I’m over... Never got to watch The Mandalorian, though, since we end up mostly rewatching stuff.”

Part of me hoped Gerard would invite me to watch it with him, but of course, it was a step that was too wide yet. Instead, his eyes just fell to the ground before he nodded shortly. “It’s worth it.” His lips pressed into a soft smile at the moment his gaze met mine and the bottom of his glass met the sink in a quiet clicking. “Well, good night.” He walked out of the kitchen in swift steps.

Not surprisingly, Ray was quick to catch onto what was going on.

“What was going on?” He had asked, approaching me after I went silent for a little too long while he and Frank chatted while we hung out at his place. Frank was sitting weirdly on the armchair of the small dorm room while Ray sat next to me on the couch, where I comfortably had my legs tucked close to support my phone. I didn’t hear the question at first, humming confused as my eyes averted to watch Ray leaning closer to glance at my phone’s screen. “Oh, The Mandalorian?” The corner of his lips tugged up, his gaze already making me want to shrink and disappear. “Well, do you know who really likes The Mandalorian? Gerard even has a Din Djarin shirt!”

“Oh, really?” I tried, even if I could already feel my face burning hot. I really didn’t have a single second of peace.

Frank giggled. “Imagine humiliating yourself for a submissive!”

“I’m not humiliating myself!” I paused the episode so I could put my phone down and glared at Frank. “I’m just—” My thoughts just didn’t come up with anything coherent. It must have been so much fun for them.

“You’re troubling yourself with watching that boring stuff just because the submissive you like is a fan! Dunno...” Frank shrugged. “Sounds a little like humiliation, to me. Do you need a dick that bad, (y/n)?” His question was met with silence, of course. Because, like, what was I supposed to say? What could I possibly use as an argument that wouldn’t have Frank dropping sarcastic remarks? He muffled his laughter with his hand, head falling back against the armchair’s cushion.

Hell. It made me feel breathless, in a sort of bad sense. I wanted to escape that, but at the same time, I felt just like a goddamn puddle, unable even to look at anything other than the weird stain at the corner of the screen of Ray’s TV. It had been a while since I had been with someone or at least genuinely attracted to someone, so Gerard was sort of a game-changer. Something important, in two senses. If I did something wrong, it could affect Ray, Mikey, and Frank. On the other hand, it would also break me a little. Liking him so much while knowing so little about him felt so wrong. I sought anything that would get me closer to him.

“Why don’t you text him?” Ray raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t have his phone number,” I mumbled. I wanted to hide, but also for it to go further, for any hint or help that would get me closer to Gerard. “Nor any reason to do so.”

Ray leaned back against the couch with a thoughtful hum, scratching the back of his head ever so carefully so he wouldn’t ruin his curls. “You do. I’ll send you his number and you’ll send him a text, you see. You could ask him to send you the college’s application rules and calendar, telling him I told you to ask him for them since I don’t have the files. Then,” Ray said as he moved closer, his arm over the couch’s backrest, “you can tell him how much you’ve been liking The Mandalorian. Maybe share theories and stuff. He likes that. Thing is, Gerard is really introverted. You gotta talk to him first and all if you want anything."

As much as Ray was a good problem solver and peacemaker, his advice tended to suck, so we would always think twice before doing anything. I couldn’t even think once at the moment; thankfully, Ray wasn’t wrong this time.

Dealing with Gerard was... difficult at first, though it didn’t take me long to catch on how he had the same texting habits as Mikey, extraordinarily. They didn’t answer all of the texts you’d send them nor did they have the read receipts turned on, so it was a little hard to determine whether they did or not read your messages, at first. It was just like talking to a wall, even if he tended to be more extroverted over texts. That's why I didn't know whether Gerard was okay with the idea of hanging out with me while Mikey was out for a couple of hours.

In the first place, Gerard knew Mikey would leave shortly for a job interview, and later got aware that I'd be at his place since the morning. Those couple of hours of Mikey’s absence wouldn't exactly be awkward—I'd been at his place enough times not to feel awkward in his absence, even more considering how Donna was so sweet—, but it would be nice to hang out with Gerard. Plus, away from Mikey. Not that Mikey would do anything inconvenient; it was more about my sanity.

"You look good," I reassured Mikey from my place on the couch as he stood in the middle of the living room, adjusting his button-up shirt. Donna seemed as if she would die of pride, with a wide smile behind her hands that rested intertwined under her nose. "You're gonna do well, also."

"Of course!" Donna nodded. "Just remember everything we told you, alright? Ask about the workplace and the relationship between the other employees, don't subject yourself to a job that isn’t worth it!"

Mikey hummed with a nod. "Of course."

"Good luck, honey!" She hugged him tightly for a moment. "Go! You can't be late!"

"Right, thank you." He kissed her cheek and proceeded to hug me as well.

"You'll do fine!" I smiled, compelling him to do the same.

Mikey patted his pockets until he recognized the shapes of his phone and keys through the fabric, then left with another quick exchange of words. Donna and I were left staring at the door for a second before she disappeared inside the kitchen again.

The silence was almost deafening while the anxiety threatened to consume me from the inside out. What face would I put on if Gerard came out of his room and saw me sitting there pathetically, with false hope because he didn't even bother to answer me? It was the first time in a while that I felt out of place in the Way household.

"What episode of The Mandalorian did you stop in, again?" The sudden voice almost had me jumping in my place, turning around to see Gerard standing there behind the couch before he made his way around it, taking a seat about a foot away from me. When did he get there, in the first place? It always amused me how quiet he can be, just appearing and disappearing randomly. Mikey can be just like that when he decided not to be chaotic.

A sigh escaped my lips before I nodded, clearing my throat. "Sixth, first season."

Gerard raised his eyebrows with a hum. "We can finish the season."

It's awkward at first. I sat there not knowing what to do, or where to put my hands at. I rolled my shoulders back, trying to let out the breath I had been holding as slowly as possible while resting against the couch before my back started hurting.

Gerard, on the other hand, didn't seem nervous at all, to the point it almost put me to shame. His eyes watched the TV from behind his messy dark bangs with the same amusement as if watching it for the first time. He was still in his Star Wars-themed pajamas, with a loose black shirt that rode up a little with how he had his legs up on the couch.

His index finger rested over his lips, elbow over one of his knees. Sometimes his eyebrows would furrow and his lips would purse according to what happened, and—

His eyes met mine. Fuck.

Thankfully, all he did was look back at the TV the moment I looked away. Maybe I was just overthinking.

"Damn, that’s when he—" Gerard paused, looking at me. "Fuck, sorry. Are you okay with spoilers?"

At first, I pondered saying no because I wanted to be surprised and intrigued as things happened, but was it worth not hearing his excited little comments about something he liked so much?

"No, not really," I chuckle softly, "you can comment all you want."

Gerard’s lips curl up into a cute smile. "Okay."

I don't know at what point it happened, exactly, but Gerard was sitting right next to me. It was nice how happy he looked, moving his hand around while explaining stuff, sometimes pointing at the screen or just moving around to follow what he said.

"And— Din, you know who portrays him, right?" He raised an eyebrow at me. He was so close. Cute, though.

"Impossible not to know, with all the current repercussions on The Last of Us, y'know."

"Right," Gerard hummed with a nod, and whatever he said sounded like gibberish because, as he shifted, I could feel his arm right behind my back. "What do you think?"

"Huh? Sorry, I—"

"Sorry, am I bothering you?" He twists his lips a little. "Do you want me to let you watch it in peace or..."

It almost hurt a little that I had made him think that. "No! I like your comments! They're nice, I like the way you see it all and stuff."

Gerard pressed his lips together in a shy smile as his gaze fell to the ground at the same moment a red tone tinted his cheeks. "Well, thank you," he mumbled, scratching the side of his face.

Soon, the episode finished and the preview of the show was displayed on the screen instead, but it wasn't like we would watch anything else.

"—the character designs, you know? I think that's what really gets me! They're well built not just regarding their story, but also their visual, y'know? It's something that inspires me a lot!"

"Oh, Mikey did tell me you go to art school!" I grinned, watching his eyes lighten up. "I guess I have seen one of your works. Was it you who drew Ray, Mikey, and yourself in a cartoon sort of style? With blood and all?"

"Yes!" He nodded frantically. "I decided to make a little something for us because it completed around 10 years that we've been friends! What did you think of it!"

"Loved it! It looked very nice! 'Would love to see more of your works, even." My cheeks heated up a little with how I was advancing, but I still had confidence in myself. After all, Ray said he would like me and Ray knew both of us well.

Gerard’s lips twisted into something between his shy smile and a proud grin as his eyes wandered around the room for a moment. "Well," he mumbled, pulling the strands of hair away from his face, "I can show them to you, anytime."

"That’d be lovely—"

I interrupted myself at the sound of the door being opened, and Gerard and I turned to see Mikey walking in with a sigh. He closes the door behind himself and stands there in silence for a moment as if grounding himself. Only when he opens his eyes again that I dare to speak.

"Hey, Mikes! How did it go?"

Mikey raised his eyebrows a little as he saw Gerard and me on the couch. "Um, went well, I believe! They said they're going to call me in one week in case I'm hired."

"Congrats!" Gerard extended a hand, which Mikey high-fived with a wide grin. "Barnes 'n Nobles?"

"Yeah!" Mikey nodded. "It seems nice, will give me some extra money and the shifts are flexible." He paused and leaned back, glancing past the kitchen's doorway. "Where's mom?"

"She— Isn't she in the kitchen?" Gerard furrowed his eyebrows. "We didn't see her leave. I mean, I didn't. Did you?" He asked me, but I shook my head.

Mikey raised his eyebrows a little and glanced back at the TV before slowly nodding. "Right. (Y/n), I—"

Gerard interrupted his brother by clearing his throat as he slowly put himself up to his feet. The cold air embraced me, making me already miss his closeness. "Well, I got some stuff to work on. See you guys later." He nodded at Mikey and me, his gaze lingering over mine before he disappeared once again.

It was like a trigger. Just the sound of the door to the basement closing already had my cheeks flaring up, which quickly attracted Mikey’s attention.

"Spill it up, you whore," he joked. "C'mon, I'm hungry. I'll grab something then we can go to my room." He remained silent while we got some snacks from the kitchen then rushed upstairs into his room, closing the door behind us. "Tell."

My cheeks start burning again, and I can't meet Mikey's gaze. "There's nothing to tell." I put what I had brought on the desk, and pulled the chair to take a seat.

"Suuure..." He rolled his eyes. "Gerard was looking at you as if you were a brand new Star Wars action figure."

"What kind of comparison is that?" I scoffed, trying to think what it would look like.

"Don't you dare say I didn't warn you when he starts spending more time taking care of his collections than with you." Mikey hummed with a glare while opening a can of Coke, and I can't help but chuckle.

"Yeah, yeah! But Mikey— He's so cute," I groan, burying my face into my hands. I would give anything to spend more time with him like that again.

It was a couple of days later that Ray decided to call for a group hang out again, this time breakfast at a neat café downtown. Mikey didn’t lose time before spilling everything on the gc, so he was curious, being nosy as he was.

The café he chose was something near the dorms, which Ray liked to visit once in a while between lectures because both the price and quality were good. Soft colors took the place while some nice pictures hung from the wall, all of them contributing to a nice atmosphere that was completed by the ambient song.

"Tell me," Ray whined with a pout. "What did you two talk about?"

"I told you!" I widened my eyes a little, playing with the paper around the coffee cup. "We, um, finished watching the first season of The Mandalorian while talking about it then started talking about character design, drawings, and stuff. He even said he could show me more of his drawings if I was interested."

Ray's pout turned into a grin as he clapped lightly. "Wow, that's some good advancement! I can't wait for you two to get together! We can go out Christa and me along with you two!"

"Yeah, right?" I couldn't help but grin as well. "That would be cool."

"Have you two talked ever since?" Frank asked before taking a sip from the straw.

"No, no." I shook my head and pulled my phone from my pocket, getting to Gerard's chat. The last message was me asking to hang out while Mikey was on his job interview. It wouldn't hurt to text him now. It was a wild idea, maybe, but I ended up just typing it. 'Good morning, beautiful,' the message displayed on the screen without being sent yet. "Frank, what if I..." I showed him the screen. "What if I, hm?"

Frank furrowed his eyebrows as he read the message before giggling. "Yeah, yeah, do it!"

"Careful," Mikey hummed. "You don’t wanna die and have Frank advice as the cause on your gravestone!" Words that went ignored by Frank, who just giggled more.

Ray was pouting yet again. "What? What is it?" I showed him the screen as well, watching his eyes widen a little. "Oh, bold!" He chuckled, but it stopped the moment I sent the message. "Wait— You sent it?"

"What?" I almost feel my heart drop inside my chest. Shit, am I rushing things? "C'mon, you all were so positive about it!"

"Ironically!"

"Not me!" Frank shook his head.

"Nooo..." I groaned, burying my face in my hands.

"Well, at least you can know it's 50/50," Ray tried, "either he replies in the same level or... maybe a block."

"Don't exaggerate!" Mikey clicked his tongue. "Not a block, but maybe ignore you, I don't know."

My heart seemed to beat faster at the same proportion it sunk deeper into my chest. "You're not helping—"

Ding. A notification. Everyone fell silent, eyes focused on the phone. A message from Gerard.

Gerard<3:

Good morniiing!!!☀️

"My God," I cried out softly with a hand over my mouth. "He's so cute!" I ended up just letting Ray take my phone from my hand as I continued to freak out both in relief and also at how cute he genuinely was.

"Genuinely pathetically humiliating yourself for a submissive," Frank said in a reprehensible tone, clicking his tongue. "You're freaking out over a good morning with three i's!"

"But Frank!" I groaned, taking my phone back. "I like him so much it hurts..."

Ray hummed, touching my shoulder. "Maybe you should let him know. Like, there's nothing to lose. He is a chill guy, wouldn't be awkward or anything if you like him and all. Unless it affects you a lot, of course."

These three have some sort of power, sometimes, but nothing good. The way they encouraged me always had me acting by fucking impulse. It had its advantages, of course, though sometimes I would be left wondering how easily I could let these three get into my brain.

"Okay." I hummed with a nod. "It's worth a shot, right? And—"

"Me!" Frank raised a hand. "Let me be the one to tell him, please! I'll be like, 'Gee, hear me out, (y/n) wants your ass!' What do you think?"

I stared at him for a moment. "And I really trust you, Ray! I'm counting on you!"

That night, I didn't rethink my choices when I went home. Maybe it was me trying to avoid problems—or what I considered to be problems—, but my mind was troubled with other things when it hit the pillow before sleep took over.

In the morning, Ray had only sent me one message. Done. And there was no coming back.

Gerard hadn't messaged me after the previous day's conversation, and part of me also hope he wouldn't, even if I kept checking my phone every two minutes during classes. Part of it was increased due to how Mikey didn’t go to class that day, just sending me a 'crash by after class' during the lunch break.

I stepped into the Way household like a scared cat, even if the chances of seeing Gerard were small. Donna welcomed me warmly as always, so I just went up to Mikey’s room after she told me where he was.

"Why didn't you go today?"

"Wasn't feeling like it." He twisted his mouth. Mikey was sprawled across the bed.

"Right." I sighed and pulled my notebook from my bag, leaving it over the desk. "In case you need it."

He nodded as a quiet thank you. "Wanna watch The Last Of Us?"

"Can't watch it alone?" I smirked, chuckling at his grimace.

"Fuck you!" Mikey clicked his tongue and reached under his bed to get his laptop. "Be useful and go get us something from the fridge, c'mon!"

I rolled my eyes, sighing as I left my bag hanging from the desk's chair. "I didn't even sit down yet and I'm already being treated as a slave! Fuck you," I said as I exited the room, leaving him snickering behind.

Donna had already disappeared again when I reached downstairs, so I just walked into the kitchen, looking for something Mikey wanted before I grabbed myself something to eat and to drink as well.

"Hey." The quiet voice almost gave me a heart attack. Gerard stood there in the middle of the kitchen, just like a goddamn ghost.

"Hiii..." I said a little breathless, letting the cans of soda and juice on the counter before I closed the fridge.

"So..." Gerard played with his hands a little, eyes wandering around the room. "I, um, I don't want to beat around the bush because it would be harder for me, but... Uh, Ray told me, um, something, and I was wondering if it was true. Maybe not just regarding him, but also regarding you, because..." He ran out of air and cleared his throat, wetting his lips. "I'm sorry for rambling, but..."

The silence felt so thick. As if I was underwater, given how difficult to breathe and to move it felt.

"I..." My mouth felt so dry. "It's true, Gerard. I already had my eye on you a while ago, and I sort of just..." I shrugged a little.

"For real?" He blinked, but his eyes never met mine. "Isn't it some sort of dare or something? I mean, you must be nice if Ray considers you to be one of his best friends, but I wouldn't be able to handle it if it were a dare. I'm so sorry."

"No, no! It not a dare!" I shook my head. I didn’t know what to to with my hands, so I held them together in front of my chest. "I genuinely think you're nice, and cute, and pretty! I wouldn’t lie! Mikey is like, my best friend, I wouldn't dare to hurt you! Well, not just because of him, but also because of you!"

Gerard’s cheeks quickly gained the red tone that adorned them so many times. His hands weren't fidgeting so much. "For real?"

"For real." I smiled softly, and extended my arms in an inviting manner. "Um, a hug?"

Gerard was hesitant at first. He took a small step towards me, though then soon throwing himself in my arms and hiding his face in my shoulder. "Sorry, it's just... no one ever had interest in me or anything, I am always much like a shadow, so..."

"Don't worry about it!" I patted his back softly. "I think you glow, actually. You're so pretty, I— Sorry, I don't want to scare you away."

"It's fine," he almost chuckled. A smile adorned his lips when he pulled away a little, remaining close. "I... Um, I'm wondering if I can..." His eyes drew to my lips a couple of times. Fuck. He's adorable.

"Yeah, go on!" I grinned for a second before I let my lips rest proper, soon meeting his in a sweet kiss that made something stir in my chest in the best way possible. "Was that good!"

"Can I do it again?"

__________________________________________

Check out the masterlist

[blubun0309]

I was thinking about Dandy's 'IMBI' fanfic suddenly, when a thought hit me: Why are the brother's given the senses that they are? Why is Mikey sight, Raph hearing, and Donnie touch?

I think it's subjective, and you can interpret it in any way you deem right, I just wanna put my two cents in. Of course, there's no way of me knowing if this is accurate to Dandy's vision or not, but let me know your own thoughts!

Let's go in order, shall we?

MIKEY

I think Mikey may have been the most difficult to crack, simply because I had no idea what it could represent for his and Leo's relationship. But then I realized, it's not about him and Leo, it's about him and everyone else.

Mikey's the youngest, he's the "baby", the little one, the happy go lucky 'everything's gonna be okay!' guy. His personality paired with his age makes his family baby him or chalk up his reactions to certain situations as him being naive.

But not Leo. Leo treated him like an equal, he's the annoying older brother Mikey looks up to and admires and wants to be like. To Mikey, Leo is his badass, awesome big brother, the only one who he feels doesn't baby him.

So with Leo out of the picture, who's gonna believe him when he says he's seeing the ghost of his presumably dead brother? No one. Because he's "naive".

And they don't believe him, so he and Leo have to PROVE that Leo's alive. And only THEN do they believe it. And, as happy as he is that they can now work on fixing Leo, it still hurts. Because they don't trust him, even though he's so strong as so capable and always razzes his tazz in the coolest ways, they don't trust him, because he's young and "in denial".

Also, Mikey and Leo are probably the most chaotic duo, so them being together so much due to everything previously stated is SO fun. Their interactions are immaculate.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Raph and Donnie are fully at fault here. Considering Leo's circumstances, Mikey was very reckless during the car chase scene, and it made Leo's situation get worse a bit. However, they need Mikey. And Mikey and Leo have an undeniable advantage with Leo being able to walk through walls and warn them for any danger through Mikey. They want a second chance, to make things right, but Donnie and Raph still said no.

I don't blame anyone though, because it's more that their circumstance is difficult and no one knows what to do, what is right or wrong.

Mikey was given that second chance, though. His brother's recognized they needed him. They wanted to bench only Leo, but that blue boy wasn't staying behind no matter what lmao. Which leads us to...

RAPH

Raph's was a bit tricky but also incredibly obvious (I don't know how that works, just roll with it).

Raph and Leo aren't the best at communicating. They end up yelling at each other most of the time. Even with the curse, they still argued through Mikey.

And Leo breaking his promise to Raph on staying behind made Raph even MORE upset. Leo could have dissapeared, he could've been GONE forever, all because he was reckless and followed them despite promising he wouldn't.

But, Raph has to admit, without Leo, they would've been SO lost in that cave, and it was ultimately a good thing that he joined them, but it was still so scary. Who knows what could have gone wrong. He isn't mad at Leo, per se, he's just mad at the circumstances. He wants to keep Leo safe, because Leo is his brother. He's almost lost Leo TWICE, he wasn't going to risk actually losing him again. He didn't WANT to risk it. It's hard to keep Leo, hell, all his brother's safe when what's safe and what's right don't align.

As the eldest, he has to make that call, and it scares him. Leo keeps putting his own well-being down, he keeps putting himself in danger for them, and it scares Raph. It scares all of them.

Raph is frustrated, he lashes out, he hurts his brother's feelings when he only wants to keep him safe. He cares so much for Leo, and he wants what's best for him more than anything, but when Leo doesn't cooperate, it frustrates him.

They have a well needed talk about it, though, and it's very beautiful. Because Leo had just had a talk with Mikey about the exact same thing, about putting oneself in danger without thinking of the consequences, and he understands how Raph feels about it now. Regardless, Raph says he's proud of him, for doing the right thing, and he is.

Raph wants Leo to understand his perspective, how he feels, and once Leo does, it makes things so much easier.

DONNIE

Donnie's is pretty straight forward and DEFINITELY the easiest to understand (at least for me) but, basically...yeah it's because Donnie doesn't like touch, but I have more!

But yes, Donnie is touch repulsed. The best indicator of such is in the movie when Raph has to make it clear that he wasn't giving a hug, it was a rescue. There's more examples but you get the gist. However, there are plenty of times in the show when Donnie is shown being physically affectionate, which leads me to believe it's something that depends on his feelings during any given moment. If he feels like it, he'll be affectionate. And, you know, having his brother almost die and now be a ghost of sorts...yeah, he's not feeling great. Which is why I LOVE him being given touch. Throughout this whole fic, Leo is HEAVILY touch-starved. Bro's a GHOST, of course he is. And now Donnie is placed in a position in which he is quite literally his touch-starved brother's ONLY source of physical affection.

He and Leo had been very distant up until that point due to being unable to, you know, interact at all, and adding the fact that Donnie, in an emotionally bad state, doesn’t like physical affection when it's sudden or in general, it's incredibly interesting to give Donnie the one sense that he's uncomfortable with. He feels bad, because Leo wants to FEEL him and hug him, but he's not in a mental state to reciprocate. He shuts down when he's stressed. That scene where he shakes off Leo's hand after threatening the fire element. Augh, chills, literal chills.

Also. I dunno, but if my ghost brother who I've only known is a ghost for a little while, was suddenly able to touch me without me being able to see it coming...yeah I would be pretty freaked out too.

Also, I think the scene where Raph hugs Donnie is very interesting, because to Leo, it means that Donnie is okay with physical touch, as long as it's not HIM. Now, both feel bad. Donnie for not being able to reciprocate Leo's...(I don't want to say 'adances' because it sound weird but I've got nothing else), and Leo for, in his mind, being 'selfish' for wanting Donnie's affection.

This whole time, Leo was gone for Donnie. Mikey could see him, Raph could hear him, but him and Leo had no way of communicating by themselves.

Which makes that scene where they finally communicate and hug SO much more impactful. When Leo hugs him first, it showed Donnie that Leo wasn't gone, he was here, with him, and he wasn't mad at him. And then Leo got a hug back, he finally, FINALLY got one after two weeks of not being able to touch anything or anyone.

And now, Donnie isn't uncomfortable with Leo's touch. Because now he not only understands that Leo desperately needs affection and he's his only way of getting it, but also Leo isn't gone. He's here, and Donnie will hold him if it means he won't dissapear again. Gosh, I love me some Disaster Twins.

I think IMBI does an incredible job at really laying out all the brother's feelings and relationships with each other in such a beautiful way. Oh my god I love fanfiction.

[oh-three]

TBB S3E5:

Omg, Echo's in the thumbnail. Yay!

It's so satisfying to see Omega sleeping with Lula in her arms at long last.

Not Omega looking after Crosshair and trying to help him adjust 😭

Ayyy, AZI.

The familiarcy in which Crosshair's talking to Omega. The way he trusts her enough to tell her that he knows the others don't trust him, and the way she knows him well enough to know it bothers him 😭

Echo !!

"What? No hug for me?" Lmao. Echo made him smile, omg.

WHY DIDN'T WE GET TO SEE CROSS FIND OUT ABOUT TECH.

WE'RE GOING BACK TO BARTON IV.

"Don't hold it against him. He's only worried about you." Damn, never thought I'd hear Crosshair say that.

SHE CALLED HIM LITTLE BROTHER.

Barton IV 😭

Crosshair looking good in his old armor 😭 ❤

STOP INTERROGATING CROSS ABOUT BARTON IV.

"He started it." Lmao. True though.

The helmets are all still there 😭😭

Ice vulture theme reprise. I hear you.

Hunter backing off when he realizes Crosshair's behavior is grief is everything to me. Our man misses Mayday as much as the rest of us.

Something tells me they shouldn't have powered down those censors.

Avalanche?

HUNTER, CALM DOWN.

"I tried to warn you, Hunter. I risked everything to send you that message. You ignored it. You let Omega be taken to Tantiss. She went through what she did because you failed. You're angry because she escaped with my help, not yours." Honestly, if Hunter's gonna go at him, Crosshair deserved to get a couple jabs in there himself. Even if he is wrong.

Oooh, a checks notes wyrm.

Hunter still agreeing to work with Crosshair on getting the wyrm out despite the argument they just had. My man's already taken it all personally (because there's no way he's not blamed himself before) and shoved it aside.

All those posts about Batcher following Crosshair around were so right.

Wrecker is giving me Jurassic Park vibes restoring the power the way he is. Been a while since I've watched JP.

"You'll try?" / "Glad you heard me properly." 😂

JUMP.

Whoever built that outpost, whether it be Republic or Empire, knew what they were doing with those perimeter beacons Lmao. I wonder if Mayday knew about the wyrm.

The way Hunter looked at Crosshair after realizing that he saved his life without qualm. The way he's realized that Crosshair really did come back to them.

"And I don't even see any blood this time?" Damnnn, do they usually get into fights???? Checks out.

Echo praising Omega and telling her exactly what she needed to hear. That he, who's been saving all the clones, doesn't blame her for getting out while she could. That he doesn't blame her for leaving them.

"All we can do is keep trying to be better." 😭

The episode ending on the ice vulture music makes me wanna cry.

[duchess-kyuupid]

hi there

can you write idia’s reaction to his fem or gn s/o singing “good riddance” from Hades (the video game) pls? this song and idia both live rent free in my head rn lmao

have a nice day 😸

OMG You literally made my day with this ask, darling <333 I love Hades, and the first time I heard Eurydice singing it I was nearly brought to tears ToT Of course, I'll be more than happy to fulfill your request, and I hope that you enjoy!! For anyone who hasn't played Hades or just wants to listen to the song anon is referring to, here it is! (The audio comes out too loud for me, so I'd recommend lowering your volume a touch just in case! When I was testing it, the sound was just blaring into my ears and I don't know how to make it quieter;;)

~~~

~Idia Hears Fem! Reader Singing~

[Tw: Soft angst to comfort] *Don't need to know/play Hades to read*

To say that today has been a bad day for Idia Shroud would be an understatement. It's been one thing after another, each terrible thing piling up on his shoulders heavier than the last. They say that when it rains, it pours- and Idia feels that this statement could not be closer to the truth. He feels exhausted just thinking about how long this day has been, and it's barely even 3 pm! But he's had enough social interaction in all of today to make up for a lifetime of self-isolation. He's tired, his battery has run out- there's no chance that anyone's going to be seeing him leaving his room at least for the next week, and even when he does leave it'll be with his floating tablet.

At last he makes it back to his room, but he's far too tired to do anything but to crawl into his bed and lie there, doing nothing but hope to start feeling better. He doesn't want to see anyone, doesn't want to hear anyone, he just wants some peace and quiet, away from everything that's making him anxious. But apparently he can't even have that, as a sudden knock on his door pulls him away from his sulking. "Big brother, big brother! I have something to show you!" Ortho says excitedly, "I know you'll just love it! Can I come in?"

'I can't have Ortho seeing me like this,' Idia thinks, 'I'm just a useless Housewarden who can't do anything... Ortho doesn't need to see his brother being so cowardly, so utterly worthless that it'd be better if I'd just go back home to the underworld and never see this place again...'

"If you don't wanna open the door, I'll just play it for you from out here!" Ortho exclaims, and suddenly Idia is pulled from his gloomy thoughts when he hears a golden tune ring out from behind the door.

'Farewell, to all the earthly remains,' wait, Idia knows that voice... 'No burdens, No further debts to be paid,' that's the voice of the one person who could make his day even slightly better.

'Atlas, Can rest his weary bones, The weight of the world, All falls away, In time,' That's right, it's you. You're singing. To him.

'Goodbye, To all the plans that we made,' Wait, are you actually outside of the door with Ortho? You're actually here? To see him?

'No contracts, I’m free to do as I may,' Idia heard your voice continue to sing, to ring out beautifully as if your voice was weaving gold through a spindle.

And he couldn't take it any longer. He wanted to hear your singing, not through the door of his room, but right next to him, and he wanted to hold you and have all of his worries from today melt away with you in his arms. He rushes out of his bed and opens the door, his eyes glimmering with hope of seeing you behind it, only for the small smile that was invisibly growing on his face to extinguish when he realizes that Ortho was the only one there.

Ah, and now he feels even worse. His disappointment was so apparent, he didn't even try to hide it when his eyes met Ortho's big, bright, and innocent ones. He felt bad that he was so disappointed that it was his baby brother, because don't get him wrong, he absolutely adores Ortho, it's just-

It's just that today's been really long. He already felt shitty enough. But he should have known that you weren't going to actually be there, after all you were travelling outside of the college for once to see the world of Twisted Wonderland. You had told him before you left that you were going to be gone for a while, which makes him even more miserable, knowing that he won't be able to be with you when he's already so stressed out.

But is it really so bad that he had even a glimmer of hope? The hope that maybe, just maybe, you had decided to come back early and surprise him with a visit?

"There you are, big brother!" Ortho says, unaffected by Idia's visible disappointment in seeing him, "I know that you've been missing miss (Name) a lot recently, so I've got this recording of her singing for you!"

"U-uhm, thank you, Ortho...Where did you even get this recording from?" Idia asks timidly.

"I came across her one day when she was singing on her own in the woods! So I used the recording feature you installed in my programming so that I could show it to you," Ortho states, and even though his mouth was covered, you could basically hear his radiating smile. Idia smiles softly and his eyes soften as he replies,

"Thanks Ortho, would you mind sending me the file? I wanna listen to it through my headphones for a while."

"Of course, big brother! I've already sent it to your phone." Ortho 'smiles' brightly as Idia thanks him and closes the door. And without a second thought, Idia pulls up his phone, finds the recording file and starts to play it through his headphones, drowning out the rests of the world in preference to the sound of your voice.

'No hunger, No sleep except to dream, Mild and warm, Safe from all harm, Calm....' As you sing these lyrics in particular, Idia feels pounds of his anxiety and stress wash off of him in waves. As if your voice itself was a spell, Idia was in a trance. And he feels mild, and warm...He feels safe from all harm...and calm.

'Good riddance, To all the thieves, To all the fools that stifled me, They’ve come and gone, And passed me by, Good riddance, To all...' 'Farewell To all the earthly remains...' 'No burdens No further debts to be paid,'

'Atlas, Can rest his weary bones, The weight of the world, All falls away, In time...' And by the time your lovely song is over, he's already manually repeating the recording. It looked like there was probably an extra two or three minutes of empty sound at the end of the recording, and Idia wanted- no, needed to hear your voice right now, he didn't want to wait like 3 minutes before the song automatically looped, after all he could have listened to your whole song again in that timeframe!

It came to no surprise to him that he accidentally fell asleep listening to you sing. Again, it's been a really, really, long day, and just,, being able to listen to you like this was just what he needed to begin to relax and calm down.

What did come to him as a surprise though, was when he woke up early the next morning and your song was still playing through his headphones. And he felt good, he never knew that this is how feeling truly rested feels like. So as he's lounging on his bed, staring at his ceiling as your song continues to ring through his head like silk, and he figures that he'd listen to the rest of your song one last time, and then he'd get up and get something to eat, or perhaps he'd go take a shower or something.

So the song ends, and he's left with the empty sound at the end of the recording. He sighs and stretches out languidly, and then he starts to move to take off the headphones before he's surprised to hear a startled gasp, followed by the sound of you talking.

"Ortho! Geez, you nearly gave me a heart attack there! How long have you been there for?" "Sorry miss (Name)! I heard you singing and I wanted to come and listen!" "My singing? Oh, it's not that good, really." "I disagree! I heard your whole song, your voice is so pretty!" "Why thank you."

Idia hears you chuckle breathlessly. 'Your laugh is beautiful' he thinks.

"Actually miss (Name), do you mind if I keep your song as a recording? I'm sure that big brother would be ecstatic to hear you sing!" "I don't mind. As a matter of fact, I was thinking of him when I was singing it anyway, so it would be nice if you did show it to him. I don't know if I'd be able to sing it in front of him perfectly like that without knowing what his reaction would be.. Oh, but are you going to keep this conversation in?" "Don't worry, I'm not going to!" "Actually, do you think you can leave this in? I wanna leave a message for him, if you don't mind." "Okay, sure thing! I'll make sure that he listens to it."

He hears you walk closer to Ortho, and he's holding his breath as if he wouldn't be able to hear your message if he took even a single breath of air. But what you say, though, knocks the wind right out of him, because he realizes that he's been asleep listening to you talking to his beloved younger brother (and he's so, so happy that you care for Ortho as if he was your own brother too), and that he's been asleep listening to you say these last few words saved for the very end of the recording.

"Idia, I love you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

LITERALLY this was so cute to write TwT I think this might be my favorite so far.... Eurydice is my comfort character ngl and I spent like this whole morning listening to her sing (even singing along myself to get a feel for what kinds of emotions she's trying to convey) and just generally I had so, so much fun with this prompt. Thank you anon for the request, and I hope that you all enjoyed reading!

[nardos-primetime]

what's the most fucked up thing/AU/whatever you made? I wanna desensitize myself to your work before diving in.

Starting out with saying I wouldn't condone any of the bad shit within my stories, often times these are just what ifs I find interesting to look into. I wouldn't look at an actual murderer irl and go "Awesome" but I'll joke around with my villain Mikey like "He hasn't done a thing wrong heart emoji" when he has actively killed and enjoyed the murder of multiple people.

A lot of my aus are more toned down from my regular more personal works, solely because I can't help but go a bit easier on the turtles since they are a comfort for me and I wouldn't find my more personal topics appropriate for the turtles.

Overall, I'd say body horror, disease, self harm, suicide, murder, and mental/physical abuse/child abuse/neglect is something to look out for in a lot of my works, along with gore and injury in general. I also have a tendency to write cannibalism (an interesting motif to me, I would not condone it irl, obviously) and/or autocannibalism (to cope with personal issues I am not comfortable elaborating on, it's some Mental health stuff.) Overall I like putting the turtles through it, lmao.

(Forgot to add animal abuse/death)

I will never directly delve into the topic of sex within my works (as in you'll never see me write any of them doing such acts), but I have a handful of somewhat older Leo's who specifically deal with unhealthy romance, one of these is within my magical boys au where all four experience some level of inappropriateness due to their fame, not once is this a good thing, and this is meant to be a bad thing within the story. The other has a Leo who dates around a lot but always falls short due to his anxieties and commitment issues. He never goes through with it, though he likes to joke about more sexual topics. (He's crude.)

The magical boys au, priorly mentioned, contains underage drinking and smoking, mental health issues, self-harm, and the boys being mistreated and abused within their own workplace, one way or another.

One of my oneshots currently has a younger child get murdered in it, though I've deliberately made the death surrounding it not as detailed, as even if younger children die in my stories it makes me uncomfortable to focus on it the same I would other characters, unless it's an injury a child survives, then it's a 50/50. This is a situation that is conflicting for the main character, but is done out of survival's sake. (In his eyes.)

Viral.Donnie has evolved into a character that focuses on addiction later on, and I do tend to give the turtles addictions depending on the story.

Million Dollar Box/Villain Mikey has hallucinations, vivid, probably not 100% accurate, but these are not his real brothers. Story wise, they are a way to delve into his mental state and look at his conflicting feelings about his family.

Villain Raph is less developed, but he actively is mentally (and physically) abusive to his brothers in his own way.

A lot of the time, my writing style mixes with the thoughts and personality of the main focus, and a lot of these times, the characters are not rational nor moral. Untrustworthy narrators are fun.

You will see I don't like actively splitting up the turtles entirely very much. Normally, I'd be able to do it easily, but I have a soft spot for them. Hell, Viral Donnie, Villain Raph, and Million Dollar Box Mikey's follow-up story gives them a family after losing theirs. Most of the time, if one turtle falls, I take the others, or at least one others with them. For fun.

I try to not go for just shock value, even if I like describing the horrors I like having a reasoning, whether it be some insane deeper meaning I made up, it fitting a character/their personality, or just being interesting for me. I do my best to tag all potentially triggering topics within my works, but I may slip up at times. Apologies for that.

Horror is my main fixation overall outside of TMNT, and I like various types of it. The Nonsense Apocalypse AU is supposed to be a mixture of slice of life and horror, resulting in a world that just doesn't make sense, with some more... serious aspects on top.

I hope this helps, I kinda went on a ramble, but I didn't want too much confusion since most of my actual aus aren't fully out yet in any way.

Hope it helps again, Anon.

[kyojurismo]

Can I have an emergency request? I don't want to seem like I'm venting, but recently I feel like somethings wrong with my family. My mom works midnights by herself to support all of us, my dad has a breathing condition and cant work and lately they've been fighting so much more than they used to and bringing me and my brothers into it. They've been cursing each other out and my parents have always or at least for a long time been very Cristian so hearing them do that scares me. On top of that my mom is verbally abusive to me and my dad loves to guilt trip me and my brothers and they except me to pick sides and honestly I just can't wait till I've saved a enough and learned the language to move to another country. Today I was trying to catch up on some things and my parents where fighting and my mom stormed out of the house and drove off which she has never done and im just really scared and stressed now and I just want some comfort maybe with Giyuu, Sanemi, or Hantengus' clones (platonic or romantic) who get home and reader / S/O is just crying and struggling to breath because they're parents are constantly trying to bring reader into they're own problems and reader feels like everything is always their responsibility and they just break down

# sanemi shinazugawa & hantengu clones (sekido & aizetsu)

tags : gn!reader, soft sanemi, i’ve never written for the hantengu clones so if they seem ooc just ignore it lmao, angst, comfort, not proofread.

a/n : alright since the clones are a lot i decided to write for only two of them 😭 i hope that’s fine anyway… i’m sending you a big hug and i hope everything gets better <3

SANEMI SHINAZUGAWA

sanemi would help you calm down and invite you to breathe with him

that way you would feel a tiny bit better

then he would wipe your cheeks and fill you with sweet words, trying his best to get you to relax

then he would hold you close to his chest and ask you if you want to talk about it

he won’t judge you, just be there to comfort you the best he can

sanemi would caress your hair, your back, your face, peppering your face with kisses

“it’s gonna be okay, i promise,” he would whisper into your ear, holding you to his chest

SEKIDO

man would see red (lol) the moment he notices you crying

would get close to you and help you calm down

“yeah, breathe in and out like this.”

once you’re calm enough he would try his best to comfort you

reluctant but would hug you and caress your head slowly

“wanna talk about it?” his tone would be gentle even if he’s annoyed that someone or something made you cry

once you open up, he would lowkey think about murdering your parents ngl

he would hold you until you’re completely calmed and feel a bit better

AIZETSU

would probably cry with you while holding you into his arms

of course he would help you calm your breathing, as he doesn’t want to make you feel suffocated

he needs to make sure you’re comfortable with him holding you

“i’m so sorry darling, so sorry,” his voice is soft but full of sorrow (well)

i hc him to be super touchy so he would surely hold you close and keep his head close to yours

sometimes he would kiss your cheeks and look at you with tears in his eyes as you open up to him

“oh darling . . . i pity you,” he genuinely feels bad for your situation, “but i promise you it will be okay.”

reblogs & comments are super appreciated! thank you for taking your time reading it, i hope you enjoyed it. have a good day / night <3

[book--wyrm]

Pengu Ep 7 liveblog time!!

Oh boy.

Oh we are starting strong with a flashback huh

Oh no we are starting strong with some brotherly jealousy. Two minutes in and I am already leaning towards Oz killing his siblings to monopolize his mom's attention

"Is [Rex's car] made of real gold?" "It's just paint"

Not Jack smarter at 15 than Oz is at 50

NOT THE "PARENT NOT BEING PAID ENOUGH" COMING BACK

Also I was wrong Oz is the middle child it seems.

Oz such a lil cheater lol

Oh my god.

Ohhhh my god. That's almost worse than anything I could have expected.

I should have realized. I should have realized. A single moment of stupid, thoughtless, selfish cruelty is all it takes. And an unwillingness to ever face the reality of what he did.

And this makes his snapping at Vic for the Jack thing so much worse. Jack was the son who got shit done. And Oz killed him.

THE TAPPING AND THE BANGING AND THE TAPPING AND THE BANGING AND I CANNOT DEAL WITH THIS FUCKIGN SHOW OH MY GOD I CANNOT DEAL WITH THIS FUCKING SHOW HOW IS IT SUCH A BANGER EVEN WHEN IT MAKES ME WANNA DIE

Oh shit Vic's here lmao.

Why is there a gap between Sofia nabbing Francis and Sal showing up. Did sofia go it alone. I bet she did.

Fuck the guilt get me results

Love Sofia sending one of her boys to make sure Sal doesn't kill Oz. Sofia doesn't trust Sal, and Sal refutes the idea of Sofia leashing him. In any other show this would telegraph a late episode betrayal between them but with this show i really don't know

Love the scraping noise coming in before the visual

do you feel better ahhhhh

i need more sal and sofia

Sofia why cant you bring me breakfast too. i'll eat a singular toast for u

I love Francis ngl. She's so caustic even in the face of danger.

They didnt' have their umbrellas

Hahaha ngl sofia deserved that

oh my god i legit thought she was gonna brain julian with the kettle lmaoooo i love the way they do diegetic sound design

I kinda hope francis gets to kill julian ngl. i love julian but i just think its what francis deserves

"The Gigante and the Maroni families" not sal putting sofia's name first. this feels too prominent. i am scared

Oh boy oh boy oh boy if this wasn't a penguin show this would feel like a perfect place for Sal to twoface his opponent

Wow is sal dying of a heart attack. Right now? Bro. Timing.

Huh. I see what they're doing, with the stolen valor and the robbed victory. But I wish they'd set up the heart condition earlier.

Oh boy is this where Sofia breaks bad and kills a kiddo. Oh my god wait Gia is in a kid's psychiatric hospital Sofia literally reenacting her own trauma on this preteen she is so full of problems

SOFIA TURNING INTO HER DAD AND ALSO JULIAN HAHAHAHA

THIS IS A GIFT SOFIA BABY YOU NUTCASE

god i am glad she confessed though. like it was in the worst way possible to say that to a child but.

this is the only time we have seen sofia cry. not even when she found alberto.

DR SUBDROP DOING RAVE SHIT

sofia speedrunning self awareness in the penultimate episode

i am slightly afraid again that julian is gonna lobotomize sofia

sofia you were so close baby. you could have just walked away with your boy toy and a bag of cash and gone to metropolis

she should have gotten free wahhhhhhhhhh

we all know it's not gonna happen

we all know its not gonna happen

my heart is fucking palpatating rn

i need to pause my fucking blood pressure

IS SOFIA RUNNING FOR MAYOR. I WANT SOFIA TO RUN FOR MAYOR

AHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

OH MY GOD BOMB SHELTERING IN HIS BROTHERS GRAVES

HAHHAHAAH my prediction of Oz blowing it all to block sofia + sal was the wrong way around oh my god i love her so much

Oh wow. Wooowwwwww. Young Oz really breaking his mother and making her into the woman who makes him a monster.

is it bad i want him to find his brothers skulls down here. is that bad.

boo it didnt happen.

Wow mr cop actually came back huh.

well i was totally off base on everything!!! i am so happy

[yourlocalstranger123]

Hey! I was wondering if you could do obey me datebles with a yoimiya from genshin impact? She loves fireworks and has a child like way of looking at things and great with kids.

I love her so much🥰

Sorry if its to much or you not taking ask's. So just ignore if so😅 this way my first time so sorry.

《Summary》: You were quite the cheerful human to them. Being literally everyone's therapy as they enjoyed your cheerfulness and the warmth you give out. You were good with children too!

(Maybe they should start a family with you—)

Reader can be read as a girl or boy. Idk

A/N: I do not remember the lessons well so if I get some details wrong, apologies. Also Beel and Mammon has the same end color, sorry!!

ALSO!!! THERE WILL BE PART 2 FOR THE REST OF THE BROTHERS AND MAYBE PART 3

Easter egg: Did you notice I did a little something about the brothers? Y'know, what demon they are. EXCEPT for asmodeus, instead of "lust," it's "attraction/attract" bc I don't really wanna use the word lust for this....❌️ Also, with Satan, too. I put in multiple words that can equal like some wrath in a friendly way? For ex: his heart felt tortured but felt in a good way or etc. (Love definitely lmao)

(No. I do not have a favorite just because I gave levi a sticker. I can't find a good one for his symbol, so...AND BECAUSE I DEFINITELY CAN SEE HIM TRYING TO DO PICK UP LINES WHILE CONFESSING HIS LOVE TO YOU LMAO—)

(SAME WITH SATAN, I JUST DID FIRE...AND YOU'LL KNOW WHY)

Warning: Slight Angst, AND SORRY FOR THE CRINGEY CONFESSIONS. I TRIED OKAY 😭🤧

♤♡~《Obey me•°××× ×××°•Brothers》~◇♧

Lucifer

(Both should be from obey me game official art)

× he always ignored you. Never really interacting with you unless necessary. You gained quite the popularity of being such a sweet, kind girl.

× But when you defended Luke and took responsibility when he accidentally took the grimoire as you and Beel were simply trying to hide him, he felt his heart ache. Why?

♤ He wanted to apologize to you for yelling at you and almost killing you, but his pride was overthrowing it. But....you...you still welcome him. Asking him if he wanted to join you and his brothers seeing your fireworks. Of course, he declined. Saying it's not worth his time and he's busy as the brothers complained at him for being so mean!

♤he secretly watched you out of the window of his office. Clenching his hands as he saw you all enjoying your fireworks. Heart thumping when he saw your beautiful and warm smile....how could you smile like that? Especially to demons...so freely..

♤ he decided to maybe try interacting with you. Only saying it's for business and only trying to make you comfortable. (He just wanted to spend time with you)

♤ seeing how busy he was, eyes drooping as his hair was messy while he was still doing papers. You decided to convince him to go outside, not letting him know something,,

♤ he went outside with a small blanket you wrapped around him. He sat down on a bench next to you as he looked where you pointed. His eyes shined, filling with bright colors as he saw fireworks firing beautiful into the night sky. He tried covering his face with his arm as he starting tearing up.

♤ he felt a warm hand wiping of his tears as you looked at him, patting his back. It wasn't out of pity, just pure warmth and concern. He finally lets himself rest. Leaning onto your shoulder as he listened to the popping of the fireworks....

♤ everyone was shocked when him, the work-alcoholic getting out of his office to spend some time outside?! He glared at the staring eyes but soften when you happily walked around. So cheerful as you played with the children approaching you. No wonder his brothers and other people had such a liking and attraction towards you.

♤ he was so proud and prideful that he had you on his side and in his life too.

"You're like the peace between heaven and hell. Bring warmth to both sides.....[name], I love you"

(When you kissed him, you could see him smiling as if he wasn't nervously blushing while doing it. And giving him an extra kiss on the cheek? You would make his day better)

Mammon

(1st is wedding art from obey me game) (2nd is from @angyefdez in Twitter)

× he did really care about you. Only after money, of course, but he didn't know why you kept cheering him up when he's precious Goldie, the credit card was taken away. Always trying to cheer him up with your fireworks and being playful in a random park, which he somehow enjoys a lot and always hopes it every time his precious credit card is taken away.

× the way you laughed but still respected him as the great mammon made a tug on his heart. Clenching on his chest as he thought about you. Whenever he goes shopping and sees something you like, he imagines how happy you would be. Then poof, he suddenly bought it.

$ blushing furiously as he just shoves the gift into your arms and says, "You're w- welcome!" And just walks away. But you can feel the stare burning a hole through your back behind a wall as you open it. Chuckling as you hugged the gift onto your chest. Keeping it near your heart as you smiled. Suddenly, his heart suddenly goes wild! And as he clutched onto his chest, he looks away and blushes.

$ now he buys you gifts every time he goes shopping. Small, big, cute, fancy, you always seem to appreciate it. Praising him and thanking him every time. He sometimes pouts when you hang out with some weak old demon. He's the avatar of greed?! Why hang out with them?!

$ but every time you ask him if he wants to hang out with you and watch your fireworks, always forget about it and willingly follow you. Sitting on the grass, he smiles when you light up a firework and see the usual big warm grin as you run to him and carelessly flop down and wait.

$ he felt quite greedy over you, wanting more of your attention and being more spoiled with your love and affection. (Like who wouldn't)

$ As he watches the fireworks burning brightly, giving light to the dark of the sky. As if the stars are shining even brighter and reflecting off your figure, he looks at you. Smiling as his hand scoots over and comes over yours.

"You're my treasure. I will put you on top of everything, my daimond. [Name], please become my everything, I love you"

(HE WOULD BLUSH SO MUCH THAT STEAM WOULD COME OFF HIS HEAD IF YOU KISSED HIM! and on the lips? You definitely would make him pass out)

Asmodeus

(Both are official art of obey me game)

× he enjoys fireworks, as it burns brightly and beautifully. He was surprised when he found you slightly messy and with your hair tied up as you're making fireworks. You noticed that he just stood there near the door of your room, watching you.

× You didn't touch him without washing your hands first, and he liked that. He liked that you respected his personal space and boundaries (even though he would love for you to touch him)

× Oh, how he loved to style your hair. It doesn't matter if it takes hours. He'll still do it. He watches you when you would play around with the children and twirl them around. He almost squealed when he felt you pick him up (even if you're shorter than him) and also twirl him around (like a pretty little princess fr. Just like the baby girl he is lmao-)

♡ His face goes slightly pink whenever he sits down as you show him some small fireworks for him to use. Every night, he lays down in bed, thinking about you and what you were gonna plan for him tomorrow. He giggles like a girl teenager in love as he drifts off to sleep, smiling.

♡ He walks along with you as you cover his eyes with a blindfold. He felt you stop and taking off his blindfold. Opening his eyes, he slightly gasped when he found himself near a lake as the night was a full moon. Hearing you chuckle and setting up the fireworks, he watches in awe. It was so beautiful.......

♡but the thing that most attracts his attention was you

"You are the one that shines brightly and beautifully in my eyes. You never wither away like a flower and always stay tall and strong, [name], I love you so much"

(He would kiss you first, definitely. Wrapping his arms around your neck or waist as he kisses you. You would take him aback if you kiss him back, and you could see him blushing as he grins. He'll definitely enjoy it if you picked him up and held him like a pretty little princess again and smothering his face with kisses)

Leviathan

(Both from obey me game)

× He never really gave any thoughts about you. He always sees you playing games with children, either outside games, inside games, or even video games. Although your style of making up games was interesting, he still didn't pay much attention....Until you caught him wearing Ruri-Chan merch and her dress..... (You thought he enjoys cross-dressing or like wearing feminine clothing until he corrected you.....you may or may have not bought him more Ruri-Chan merch and dress)

× he was sooo embarrassed!!! He avoided you as much as he could and locked himself in his room for days!! Not until you knocked on the door, asking about Ruri-Chan and Anime. Saying that you were interested. Which made him hesitant but thrilled to show you the world of it. He squealed when he finally had someone to watch Ruri-Chan and Anime with him!

🎮 And when you asked him to play some video games with you, oh, you could see the excitement in his eyes. He made you come to his room every night and play with him [Don't let your dirty minds go wild >:( ] He would hog you so much that even the Brothers got jealous and tried taking you away from him for their own time with you.

🎮 He always envy those who captured your attention as if he doesn't already hog your attention. (Every brother would, especially Mammon since he is the demon of greed)

🎮 He would hesitate about going outside and spending time instead of staying in his room watching Ruri-Chan and playing video games. But he still followed you. He watches you play games with the children as you drag him over to join you and them. He never felt so active in physical activity. But it was worth it seeing the smile you had.

🎮 He found you making fireworks as you were excited to show him it. He quickly tried putting a blanket on the ground and patted the spot near him. You set off the fireworks as you ran back and laughed. Pointing at the sky, he saw fireworks blooming into a figure. It was Ruri-Chan! He was so excited and watched it as Ruri-Chan made different poses for each fireworks. He really loved spending time with you.....and he loves you

"U- uh, ahaha...." He flips the pages of a book as you stand there and chuckle. "A- are you Wi-fi? Because I can feel a connection!" Or "Are you my phone(life) charger? Because without you, I'd die!"

(Here's the real confession after those pick-up lines and he definitely still is stuttering hehe)

"[Name]...I- I uhm....I would love to spend my life with you...I love you!"

(He'll become redder than red itself if you kiss him anywhere, and he'll explode like a volcano if you kiss him on the lips.)

Satan

(Both from game)

× he was interested in your fireworks. After you got closer with him, he actually asked for a custom firework. (The fireworks were like klee bombs on safety mode as fireworks) Amazed how it can burn so brightly without burning the near surrounding things since it was on fire....literally.....you kinda had to have a bucket of water ready since it was so hot that it actually burned something.(his heart) the plants ahhaah....

× his heart softly bounded against his chest lately. Did you put a spell on him? He grumbles for the whole day but soon lit up like a cat who sees their favorite person with a treat when he sees you. As soon as he realized, he blushed and quickly walked away. Leaving you behind cunfused.

🔥 this feeling felt painful, torturing, but felt so good. But it felt way worse when he wasn't with you for a while. And even WORSER when he sees you with some random demon. He just felt like ripping that demon to shreds, making them regret and wish they were dead.

🔥He starts to miss you, slightly pouting a bit. But he heard a meow outside his door, checking on it he sees you holding a cat as you have fireworks in a bag.

🔥 he happily held the cat in his arms as he excitedly followed you. Standing under a tree, he watches the fireworks with you. Leaning softly over to your shoulder. And he even invited himself to lay his head on your lap when you let him!

"You set my heart ablaze. It feels so hot but feels so good. But it hurts me to see you with someone else. You have my soul in your hands as it is on a firely blaze.....[name], I love you"

[rottmnt-residuum]

Idk why, but Donnie looks more like he’s holding off, almost protecting, Leo and Mikey from the blonde bitch (I forgot the name sorry :c)

Like, yeah he’s resisting, futile in the end, she essentially lobotomized him in arc ONE. But I really hope this is not the end of “Donnie” in your comic. Like, even if just in spirit, he helps his brothers in other ways.

Also, GOD, you are very brave, you’re capable of pulling a trigger against characters and that takes guts. “Sometimes, you have to kill your baby” well, this time it was just lobotomy and one, no-two, wait. Uh. Fuck does mantis and his fucked up cat count? Idk.

Anyway, because you’re capable of pulling the trigger on characters, you scare me really bad. Teach me your ways please.

( •̀ᄇ• ́)ﻭ✧

Also, how you made Draxum death just, I just. Praise you while crying, goat man didn’t deserve to be just a “oh shit, I shot the wrong animal, anyhow, wanna go for lunch?” Like

Wow that was CASUAL FOR THOSE TWO FUCKERS. I never wanted to break someone neck slowly so much. Besides the blonde bitch.

Oh! And where is Cassandra and Junior? Are they not in your comic or you took Junior out of the picture by using the discarded finale of the movie?

Sorry for this looooong ass ask. Didn’t sleep :p

you're meant to feel like that lmao, don't worry you're just picking up my vibes. Yeah, donnies a big part of the plot, always has been. He's just kinda on the back burner in the second arc.

Oh, repo is fine- well, as fine as someone in his situation can be, but the cat.... uh. Anyway. I don't really see what I'm doing as brave? I just kinda... don't get emotional about my own stuff? (unless i find it funny i mean) Death is just a story telling tool to me, so im not sure how i could teach you my ways lmao

Casey and Cass are... technically in the comic? I've never heard of a discarded final of the movie, but if it is what i think it is... maybe in the first iteration of the comic? I'm making that possibility its own comic on my side blog.

Anyway, I'll make a bonus comic for where they are in Residuum... they are very busy lmao

[satoruxx]

RHEYAAA MY LOVE <333333 i am here with a cup of tea and a bunch of treats for you 🍵🍰🍦🍮

…. and some selfship questions :3c

OK SOOOOOOO I HAVE TO ASK . ABOUT KAEYA AND DILUC . I LOVE THEM SO BAD I LOVE YOU SO BAD……. i’d love to know about your love languages!! for both ships!!!!! how do you show them you care, and how do they show you they care? <33 also, what is your relationship with their brother like in each respective selfship?? do you get along? :3

and then . gojo ….. (idk if you selfship with shoko at all but this question absolutely goes for her too if so!!) what do you do for each other when you’re having a rough day?? :’)

ily rheya <333 take as much time as you need with this i got . a little carried away with the questions 😭 BUT I’D LOVE TO HEAR ABT ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING YOU WANNA SHARE <33333 sending you so many kisses and hugs!!!!!!

ARIIII HI AGAIN !!!! gratefully accepting all the treats pls come sit with me so we can share them and cuddle <333

giggling and kicking my feet at all these questions i love you so so much !!!! buckle in bc this got much longer than i expected it to...

OKAY FIRST MY FAV TRAGIC BROTHER DUO

me n kaeya....bicker a lot lmao !! but that's how we show affection :33 i think both of us would be very big on quality time !! kaeya would also lean towards a lot of physical touch bc he's a silly lil guy that can't keep his hands to himself <33

as for me n diluc...i think diluc is a very acts of service type of guy !! he doesn't say a lot but he shows affection by doing things for me which is so sweet :33 as for me i think i'd be a big physical touch girlie with him (i won't let go of him he's probably so tired of me LMAO)

i can't see myself being on truly bad terms with either brother since both selfships are a childhood friends to lovers trope hehe !! so i wouldn't be able to hate either of them <///3 when i'm with kaeya i would be on courteous terms with diluc, mostly a hello how are you type thing (which makes me a lil sad since we were all close when we were kids) but diluc has chosen to remain distant.

but when i'm with diluc i'd be on really good terms with kaeya since he's always hanging around angel's share and stuff (and i think kaeya would be more eager to talk to me than diluc would be) !! hopefully that makes sense i feel like i just rambled....

NOW ONTO JJK

i won't lie me n satoru have the most thought out relationship out of all my selfships bc i've quite literally been thinking about him for four years now. when i'm having a rough day satoru is on a mission to cheer me up, but won't ever admit it. he'll subtly do things to make me happy like playfully annoy me or take me to do things i enjoy !!

as for if he's in a bad mood, i'd just get him things he likes (like sweets) and tease him until he's grinning and teasing back. i think we'd have a very bickering heavy relationship so i know he's all better when he's got that dynamic back (a couple of hugs and kisses here and there wouldn't hurt either) <33

this might sound weird but we don't necessarily talk about our bad days/things we struggle with. it's more so a type of thing where we can just tell that smth is wrong, and the best way to deal with that is just be present. so basically actions over words and we never bring it up again lmao...

shoko and i are very different. i am 100% more clingy with her so if i'm having a bad day she will let me cuddle with her or just stay attached to her hip until i'm better. she'll probably act all teasy and semi exasperated but i'd like to think she doesn't mind :33

and if she's having a bad day she usually won't admit it so i'll do my best to make her laugh. find me ripping the cigarettes away from her and smothering her with a whole bunch of kisses <////3

i'm so sorry ari bby i ended up ranting a lot but this was so much fun to talk about !! tysm for sending them in i'm smooching you until you're tired of me :33

also pls pls pls tell me about your selfships i'm so curious !! who do you selfship with ari ?? tell me all about them <33333

[chr0macide]

Break In 2: The Novelette (Fanfic)

PART 1

got damn I finally finished this. Writers block was wilding on my ass so I hope this didn't turn out like shit lol. I drew a lil bit of art for this fanfic (I say "drew" but a lot of it is just textures from google edited together into a picture lmao). Just 3 pics but yeah I got bored and wanted to draw. Might make a separate post for them sometime so people who don't wanna read or scroll through this can see them.

I recommend reading part 1, there are some references and callbacks that you might not get if you haven't read it already.

Again if you see any grammar/spelling errors please tell me. don't let me just leave that shit in because that's hella embarrassing 🙃

oh also for those who don’t know, the premise of this fanfic is basically just me turning the game into a short story

TW implied sexual violence (not involving any main characters, relatively short section, but its there)

This one is about 16,000 words, alright lets do this

Chapter I – Unsafe Haven

A fork of lightning illuminated the woods as Prince drove down the trail at a snail’s pace. The deluge was so heavy that it was almost impossible to see through the windshield, even with the wipers on. He brought the car to a standstill and let the engine idle.

“We’re gonna have to wait the storm out,” Prince told the kids. “Can’t keep driving like this.”

Stephanie kicked the back of Prince’s seat. “Worst camping trip ever,” she grumbled with her tiny voice.

“Relax. We’ll get there,” the elder brother said, but the truth was that he may or may not have taken a wrong turn through the thick fog.

It had been almost a year since the four kids had butted heads with their not-so-friendly neighborhood mafia. Well, three kids and one adult; Prince had turned 18 a few months ago. They’d been holed up in their house for too long, paranoid that Larry and his mobsters might show up for a little payback. It didn’t help that there had been a string of missing person reports in the area. To their dismay, their own uncle had disappeared, not to mention that the mob boss himself had vanished soon after they’d deactivated him. He hadn’t been sighted since, though, so Prince and Monica thought an outing would help take their minds off of everything.

They had everything they needed. The weather report had been favorable, yet rain was battering their windows. Prince folded his arms as he heard another clash of thunder. His boredom was replaced with panic as the subsequent flash of lightning struck the tree closest to them.

“Everyone out! Now!” he yelled as the trunk splintered and started to topple towards them. The kids tumbled out of the car and ran off as the tree smashed into the hood. The car alarm screamed.

“Could this trip get any worse?” Monica huffed as she walked around their totaled coupé. She popped the trunk and rummaged around inside.

Prince reached out and pulled her away. “Monica, wait, the engine-”

He was cut off as the crushed engine spat out a plume of smoke and exploded.

The kids stared at their flaming car.

“Shit,” said Hadrian.

Prince sighed. “Yeah.”

They looked around. They thought they’d reach the campsite early in the evening, but the storm had stalled them for so long that night had already come. Prince could hardly see the path ahead of them. “You didn’t happen to pull a flashlight out of there before it blew up, right?” he asked Monica.

Monica looked at the first aid kit she’d rescued. “No.”

“Damn. Well… we shouldn’t just stand around, I guess. Come on,” Prince said to the others. They climbed over the fallen tree and set off down the trail on foot.

The muddy path squelched under their shoes and thorns snagged their clothes as they trudged forward. Prince knew they should hurry, but shrubs and tree roots obscured by the shadows threatened to trip them up and send them face first into the dirt if they walked too fast.

Prince pulled out his cellphone as they moved, grumbling in frustration as the rain impaired the touchscreen. He tried to dial emergency services. No signal. He almost bumped into a traffic barricade in front of him while he was shoving the phone back into his damp pocket. “The hell? What is this doing here?”

He felt Monica tug on his sleeve.

“Do you see that?” Monica asked, pointing into the trees. It took Prince a few seconds to figure out what she was talking about, but he spied a yellow light blinking in the distance.

“What is it?” he wondered.

“I don’t know… but look.” Monica gestured downwards. There was a gravel path leading away from the barricaded trail. It looked like they’d be taking a detour.

“Let’s see if there’s a building there,” Monica suggested. Prince was apprehensive about veering off the main path, but he had no clue how far the campground was, if they were even going in the right direction. Maybe this was a better option. He and the other kids followed her.

It didn’t take long for them to reach the origin of the light. Steel walls stretched into the trees. The faint beams of moonlight that made it through the leaves glinted on the razor wire resting atop the fortifications.

A control panel was affixed to the wall next to the heavy-duty vertical lift door. There was the light source: a yellow diode, flashing on and off in the dark.

Prince peered through the doorway. It was already open. “What is this? A military base?”

Monica knitted her brow. “Maybe, but why would they leave the door like this?”

“I don’t see anyone.” The place gave him an unpleasant feeling in the pit of his stomach, but it was freezing, and his clothes were soaked all the way through. He stepped inside.

The dwelling had evidently been abandoned for a long time. One ceiling light persevered, shining weakly in the darkness. The floor was littered with trash and a sticky layer of dust coated the tiles. Corroded storage lockers lined one of the walls. The other was plastered with crappy graffiti.

Prince didn’t see anyone else. He beckoned the others inside. However, right as the last kid stepped through, there was another flash of lightning. The panel next to the door sparked and short circuited. Everyone flinched as the door slammed down with a loud bang.

“What the hell!” Prince exclaimed as he turned around. He gave the door a kick. It didn’t budge. The unlocking mechanism had failed. He tried tinkering with the control panel, but all he got was an electric shock. “Ow.”

Prince knew he wasn’t about to break through solid metal. The kids glanced around the room nervously. “Look for another way out,” Prince told everyone.

There was only one other door on the opposite wall. Monica made her way over and gently pushed it open, but it was just a stairwell leading even deeper down into the building. She shook her head at Prince. “Nothing here.”

Hadrian started to open the old lockers, searching for something that might be useful. He grimaced as he came upon one that wasn’t empty.

“Guys. Look,” Hadrian called out. The others crowded around. It was an all too familiar comedy mask that they’d hoped they would never have to see again. “I don’t think we’re in a military base.”

Prince’s stomach churned at the thought of running into Larry a second time. If he was uneasy before, he was on high alert now. In fact, he was so anxious that he nearly leapt out of his skin when something prodded the back of his leg.

The dog whined and sprang away as well before it ran away and cowered beneath a rotting wooden table. Its fur was patchy and matted. Muddy water was still dripping from it, but it looked like it might have been white underneath all that grime. It must have taken refuge here from the torrential downpour too before they arrived.

“A doggie!” Stephanie squealed in delight. She ran to pet it, but it growled and barked at her when she got close. “Mean doggie,” she pouted.

Prince paid no more attention to the dog. If there was a chance that there were gangsters prowling, he and the kids had to arm themselves. He didn’t see anything of use except a broken rack with a few rusty crowbars on it. He picked one up.

“Guess these will have to do.”

He tossed a couple to Monica and Hadrian.

“Hold up, you want us to go further inside?” Hadrian questioned as he caught the weapon.

“You got a better idea?”

Hadrian looked at the metal door, locked tight. “No,” he mumbled.

The group stood at the stairs. It was pitch black. A sense of déjà vu crept over Prince; it reminded him of the creepy basement back in his house. He dug through his pocket for his lighter and flicked it on, casting enough light down the steps for them to descend. The dog padded after them, though it still recoiled as Stephanie tried to touch it again.

They reached the base of the stairwell. Iron bars lined the walls on either side of them. It was some sort of jail. Prince thought the cells were all empty until someone stood up in the one right next to him.

Everyone yelped in alarm at the figure. Prince held his crowbar up defensively, even though the man was caged, but he looked familiar. He held his lighter up to illuminate his face.

“Uncle Pete?” Prince said, bewildered.

Pete waved. He grabbed the whiteboard attached to his belt. Hi Prince! Open the cell? he wrote.

“But I don’t have the key… oh, wait,” Prince said as he remembered that he was holding a crowbar. He jammed it in between the lock and the doorframe and broke the gate open. “But how did you get here?”

Mafia wanted some of my properties. Locked me up here alone when I wouldn’t transfer ownership, Pete scrawled as he stepped out of the cell.

“Oh, man. We were really worried,” Prince said as everyone wrapped Pete up in a group hug. “Wait a second. Does that mean there are mobsters nearby?”

No. Upper levels of the base are abandoned. Everyone is in lower levels.

Prince’s brow furrowed. Pete looked at him quizzically.

“The entrance malfunctioned. We can’t get out the way we came in,” Prince explained. Pete looked pensive now.

Only other way out is elevator on lowest level. Leads to south exit. Don’t know exactly where it is, but we would have to keep going down. Pete pointed at the other end of the jailhouse. More stairs. They were going to be seeing a lot of those.

The last thing Prince wanted to do was to delve into a criminal hideout, but they didn’t have any other choice. “How deep before we start running into mobsters?” he asked Pete as they walked to the staircase and descended further.

Pretty deep. Not sure about the exact level. I don’t th

Pete stopped writing as they reached the next area and looked around warily. It was some kind of common area, just as derelict as the previous rooms, but something felt off. Prince squinted through the dim lighting. The coffee table was caked with dust, but one handprint-shaped patch was clean.

Someone was in there with them.

Chapter II – Hackerman

Monica guarded herself with her first aid kit as a masked mafioso stood up from behind the couch and swung his crowbar at her. The plastic case cracked, but she retaliated with a jab to his gut with her own weapon. He clutched his abdomen in pain as Monica brought her weapon down on his head, knocking him out.

The guy wasn’t alone. Four of his buddies emerged from hiding while Monica was fending off the first, and they rushed the kids all at once. Pete hastily grabbed the crowbar that the downed mobster had dropped. He attacked one who was coming up on Prince’s side. He and Hadrian were kept busy by a couple of other mafiosos from the front. There was a brief scuffle before Pete managed to land a headshot and knock him unconscious as well.

Hadrian tried to lunge at one of his attackers, but the mobster hooked his crowbar around Hadrian’s own weapon and yanked it out of his hands. With nothing to defend himself, all he could do was shield his face with his arms. There was a crunch as the mobster’s crowbar met his forearm. He cried out in pain. “Fuck! Not again!”

The group withdrew further into the room as the remaining mobsters closed in on them. As their aggressors engaged them again, Prince fumbled and dropped his still-burning lighter amidst the chaos. The dust on the plush carpet ignited instantly. A blockade of smoke and fire materialized surprisingly quickly between him and the mafiosos.

“Come on!” urged Prince retreated through the next door. The dog darted ahead of him, spooked by the flames. Pete and the kids followed, but the mobsters had to fall back to the jailhouse to escape the inferno. It had been a quick fight, but Prince was shaking from the adrenaline. He turned to Pete.

“You said the upper levels were abandoned!”

Pete shrugged his shoulders and shook his head cluelessly. They are! I don’t know what they’re doing here, he wrote.

The blaze cast a flickering orange glow into the hallway they’d ended up in. At least this place looked empty. Monica made Hadrian sit on the ground and started fixing a splint to his arm. He sighed in defeat. They’d only just got here, and he was already out of the fight.

Prince cautiously opened the door next to them. A janitorial closet. He’d lost his lighter in the last room. They weren’t going to be able to see a thing once they left the fire behind, so he went inside and investigated the shelves.

He picked up a flashlight and brushed the dust off. “Lucky us.”

“See if it turns on first,” said Monica skeptically.

Prince flipped the switch. He smacked the flashlight into the palm of his hand a few times when it didn’t turn on. Nothing happened. “Damn it.”

He shoved the flashlight under his coat. Maybe they would come across some batteries later. As Monica finished patching up Hadrian’s arm, the group continued to the elevator on the other end of the hallway. Prince pushed the call button. “I don’t suppose this thing will take us out of here?”

Pete shook his head as the doors slid open. The control panel only contained deeper floors. His finger hovered over the button that would take them the lowest. They didn’t know precisely how far down the inhabited levels were, and he didn’t want to be jumped again as soon as the elevator reopened. He decided to select one of the higher ones. Better safe than sorry, Prince thought.

They said nothing as the elevator closed and took them downwards. They couldn’t see anything except the red LED display above the door. The floor number ticked into the negatives until it ground to a halt unexpectedly.

“Hold up. That’s not the level I chose,” Prince whispered. He could hear everyone shifting around in the dark as they prepared for the worst.

The doors opened. The person outside the elevator screamed and fumbled with his phone, almost dropping it. He clearly hadn’t been expecting to see anyone. Prince had his crowbar at the ready, but the guy was clad in a hoodie and jeans instead of one of the tailored suits that the mob usually wore.

“Uh… hi,” said Prince.

“Hey? You guys don’t look like mobsters,” the young man replied as he straightened his sunglasses.

“You don’t, either.”

“’Cause I’m not. What are you doing here if you aren’t one of them?” the stranger asked shiftily.

Prince shrugged. “We ran in here during a thunderstorm. Door malfunctioned. Now we’re trapped.”

The stranger buried his hands in his dark hair. “Are you fucking kidding me? The north exit is jammed? I snuck all the way up here for nothing!”

“You’re sneaking out? Were you a prisoner?” Monica probed.

“Ugh. Yeah, yeah, I was,” mumbled the man, who was now pacing around outside the elevator. “Name’s Helios-”

Hadrian snickered. Helios shot him a look.

“What? It’s a code name! I work for the government. I’m not supposed to tell people my real one.”

Hadrian rolled his eyes. “Sure, dude. Whatever.”

“OK, Helios… why were they keeping you down here?” asked Prince.

“I got abducted during the killing purge last year. They’ve been making me work for them. I’m a hacker,” Helios explained. “I managed to slip away from my station a while ago. They went batshit looking for me. It was a nightmare getting up here, and now I have to go all the way back down,” he groaned.

“Really? So you know where the south exit is,” Prince surmised.

Helios held up his phone. “Yeah. I got a blueprint of this place.” He stepped into the elevator with them, but he pursed his lips when he saw which level they had been heading towards. “Nah. That’s the first populated level. The guards would’ve rocked your shit. Get outta this thing,” he urged, gesturing for them to follow him into the floor they were at: a computer room. Most of the computers were powered off and missing keyboards, save for one, which had been plugged into one of the power outlets. Helios must have been using it.

“Any chance you can fix the door upstairs? I think it short circuited,” Monica inquired.

“No shot. I’m a hacker. Not an electrician. But like I said, I know exactly where the south exit is,” Helios responded. The group looked at his phone as he pulled up his map of the base. He marked the spot where the exit was. This place had a lot more floors than Prince had expected.

“This is going to suck,” he murmured.

“Tell me about it. We gotta go on foot, too, ‘cause this elevator won’t take us to the right place,” said Helios as he beckoned them out of the computer lab.

The corridors here were tight and winding. Their footsteps echoed through the metal walls, rough with oxidization and lined with rusty pipes. Stagnant water still dripped from some of them.

Prince grew anxious as he followed Helios. They’d been walking for a while without reaching any stairs or elevators. “Helios, where are you taking us? We’re still on the same floor,” he questioned.

“Relax. We’re making a pit stop,” Helios replied, waving Prince’s concern away.

“Dude, we don’t have time-“

Helios shushed him. They were in front of a door with a round window. Prince peered over Helios’s shoulder to see inside. He’d taken them to a kitchen, and Prince realized that they did, in fact, need to eat.

“How do you know there’s still food in here?” he asked the hacker.

Helios shushed him again. “I came here while I was on the way to the top level. Lower your damn voice. There’s someone inside,” he hissed.

Prince took a closer look through the round window. The oven was on. There was a mobster leaning against the countertop, facing away from them. Only one. “What is that guy doing all the way up here?” he whispered.

“No idea, but he’s alone. Just go bonk him,” Helios encouraged.

Prince moved forward Helios stepped out of the way. He put a hand on the door and gradually eased it open. Thankfully, the hinges didn’t squeak, so he crept inside until he was right behind the mafioso. Prince raised his crowbar.

The door clicked shut. The mobster whirled around at the noise. Prince faltered. His mouth hung open slightly in disbelief as he recognized the mafioso.

“Isaiah?”

Isaiah was scrambling for his own crowbar, but he paused when he heard his name. “Prince?”

Prince let his arm fall to his side. “What the actual shit? You’re still working for the mob?” he exclaimed.

“Why the hell are you in the base?” Isaiah blurted out in an equally baffled tone.

The door creaked as Helios edged it open. “Prince? You good?”

Hadrian pushed him out of the way with his good arm. “Nice to see a familiar face,” he said.

Isaiah looked even more confounded as Pete and the kids emerged. “Seriously, what are you doing here?”

Prince was beginning to get tired of recounting that. “There’s a storm outside. Ran in here. North entrance short circuited. Stuck. Explain why you’re here,” he demanded.

“Because I work here, dumbass,” Isaiah snapped. “You can���t just leave the mafia. They hunt deserters down… not to mention that I got fired from Builder Brothers. The owner found out I had ties to the mob, and now this is the only job I can get,” he muttered bitterly.

Prince scowled, but he supposed Isaiah had a point. “OK, I get it, but why is Larry still letting you work here? You helped us deactivate him.”

“He’s not in charge anymore. Haven’t seen him since that sewer brawl, actually. Someone else took over his duties,” Isaiah revealed.

Prince’s eyebrows shot up. “But a bunch of mobsters ran off with his body. It was on the news. They must have reactivated him, right?”

“Nope. He didn’t show up here, as far as I know. No idea what happened to him.”

The kids glanced at each other uneasily. “Who’s in charge now, then?” said Prince.

“Never met her, but her name is Mary Gearwise.”

“Gearwise? Let me guess, another automaton? Where are all these killer robots coming from?”

Isaiah shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I’m just a grunt… wait, aren’t you the hacker that escaped a while ago?” he realized, pointing at Helios.

The hacker looked at him warily. “Maybe. Your friend isn’t gonna turn me in, right?” he asked Prince.

“I ain’t no snitch,” laughed Isaiah.

“Then will you help us get out of the base?” Prince implored.

Isaiah’s smile faded. “Man, do you have any idea what they’ll do to me if I get caught with you guys?”

“Come on, at least help us until we start running into goons. You can wear your mask. They won’t know who you are.”

The mobster picked up his mask from the counter. He mulled Prince’s words over as he looked at it. “I guess so.”

The oven dinged. “On a lighter note… pizza’s done.” Isaiah grabbed an old mitt and pulled the serving board out and placed it on the countertop.

Prince had forgotten about the oven. “Why the hell are you making a pizza all the way up here?” Helios questioned incredulously, gesturing around at the soiled kitchen.

Isiah scratched his neck. “I got hungry, and I didn’t wanna share it with the other guys, OK? So I took a frozen pizza up here.”

“You were gonna eat a whole pizza?”

“Shut up. You guys can have some if you want. You probably aren’t gonna get your hands on food again until you make it out of here,” Isaiah told everyone.

As they ate, the dog nudged the door open with his nose and squeezed through. He’d stayed outside, but it seemed that the smell of cooking had enticed him. Stephanie held out a slice of pizza and tried to coax him closer. The dog gingerly took the slice in his mouth and devoured it ravenously.

Stephanie giggled. The dog let her pet him this time. She read the name tag on his collar. “Twado!” she squeaked. Twado wagged his tail.

The dog chewed on the empty pizza box as Isaiah looked at his watch. He pulled a flashlight out from under his jacket. “We gotta go. I better get you guys out of here while most of the base is asleep,” he said as he motioned for the group to follow him.

They reached a crossroad after a while. “Dude, the map says the closest stairwell is that way,” Helios contested, jabbing a thumb at the right passageway as Isaiah turned left.

“Your map is old. We never update those things. I know a short-”

Isaiah stopped talking mid-sentence as a rusty pipe on the ceiling ruptured in front of him. Scalding hot water hissed as it splashed against the cold metal floor and turned to steam. He didn’t fancy third-degree burns. “Damn. Guess we’re taking the long way around.”

They trailed through the narrow corridors behind the mobster in silence until Prince’s soles started to get sore. Too many stairs, but they eventually ran into a door.

Isaiah reached for the handle. “I think—SHIT!”

He jerked his hand back as the pipe next to the door burst as well, but it wasn’t water that erupted. Isaiah ripped his glove off and threw it to the ground as the substance ate through it.

“What the hell is that?” Price exclaimed.

“It’s the stuff we poured into the sewers last purge. Thought we shut off all the valves already. I need to quit coming up here,” muttered the mafioso. “Nevermind. There’s another way in this room.” He turned to the door on the opposite wall and pushed it open.

They were in an old dormitory. The entrance to the stairwell was on the other side of the room. “As I was saying, I think the next level down is… uh…”

Isaiah stopped in the middle of the room and went silent. He looked up at the entresol. More than a few doors were slightly ajar.

“Isaiah? Something wrong?” Prince whispered.

“The doors were shut last time I was here,” he whispered back.

It was another ambush. The mafiosos threw the dormitory doors open and jumped down from the entresol. Prince cried out as one of them landed on him. He lost his weapon as he wrestled on the floor with the aggressor and grunted in pain when he felt something sharp pierce his side. Twado ran over and clamped his fangs around the mafioso’s leg.

Isaiah hurriedly pulled his mask over his face as more mobsters jumped down and confronted him.

“Is that you, Isa-”

He silenced his colleague with a crowbar to the face before he could get his name out. The other two elected to simply charge at him and Helios without any pleasantries. He dropped his flashlight as they clashed.

Prince felt around for his crowbar in the dark as Twado dragged his attacker away. He heard a yelp Monica clocked the mobster on the head.

Pete stood in front of Hadrian and Stephanie as two more advanced on them. They laughed as they brandished their weapons. “Why don’t you put that crowbar down before you hurt yourself, old man?” one of them snickered. Hadrian covered his sister’s eyes.

Prince found his weapon as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. He looked over at his uncle as one mobster seized his crowbar while the other delivered a strike to his head, but they turned around as he and Monica came up behind them. Prince tore the blade out of his side and drove it into one of the unsuspecting mobsters’ eyes. She screamed and reeled as Monica aimed a blow at the other mafioso, who sidestepped the hit, but now Prince was coming at him as well.

The mobster made a dash for the stairs, only to run into Isaiah. The two mobsters who’d been accosting him lay in a pile. Isaiah promptly sliced his associate’s throat open using a switchblade of his own. He clutched at the wound and gasped for air, but he could only cough and choke on his blood.

Isaiah scowled beneath his mask at all the noise his victim was making and shut him up with a sharp blow to the skull. He crumpled to the ground, still wheezing and spluttering while unconscious.

That was the last of them. Hadrian picked up Pete’s fallen sunglasses for him. He put them back on as Monica pulled Prince’s bloodied coat off.

“How bad is it?” Prince asked.

Monica grabbed the flashlight from the ground at held it up to inspect Prince’s wound. “Well, since you’re still standing, it’s probably not that deep. I’d put you on bed rest, but…”

She didn’t bother finishing. There was no time for bed rest in this place, of course. There was nothing she could do except clean it and stitch it up.

“They were waiting for us. How did they know you were here?” Isaiah wondered.

Prince shrugged. “We were attacked earlier as well on one of the top levels. I don’t suppose you have security cameras around here?”

“No. Not since…” Isaiah gestured at Helios.

“I knocked them offline while I was trying to escape,” the hacker said. “I know for a fact they’re still down. They couldn’t have seen you.”

Isaiah paced around the dormitory wordlessly as Monica sutured Prince’s wound shut, deep in thought. He sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know what’s going on. We have to-”

He stopped talking as the mobster next to him stirred. There was a crunch as Isaiah stomped on his neck, killing him. Everyone else winced.

“What the hell, Isaiah? That’s not necessary,” Prince admonished.

“Yes, it was. He saw my face earlier. I told you I’m fucked if one of these assholes reports me.”

“He was already unconscious!”

Isaiah got up in Prince’s face, but Helios interrupted their spat before he could say anything. “You two better start getting along, ‘cause we need to make a plan,” he said as he nudged Isaiah away and planted himself between them. He gestured all around at the fallen mafiosos. “We’re gonna be running into plenty of these guys when we reach the bottom of those stairs.”

“Oh. Right. That’s what I was trying to tell you guys earlier. It’s a good thing we ended up in here, actually,” Isaiah said as he disappeared into one of the dorms. They heard him rooting around inside until he came out with a bunch of suits and masks slung over his shoulder, a little faded with age, but still wearable. He dumped them in a pile on the ground. “Ol’ reliable. Everyone put one of these things on.”

Prince pulled a duffel bag out of the pile while he was looking for something his size. “What’s this for?”

“That’s for Twado,” said Isaiah.

Twado gave him the side-eye.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that. The boss doesn’t allow dogs in here. You’ll blow our cover if anyone sees you.”

The dog allowed Isaiah to lower him into the bag, but then the group encountered the same problem as last time. Stephanie was sticking out like a sore thumb.

“Maybe we can hide her in the middle of the group again?” Prince suggested.

Isaiah shook his head. “It’s not gonna work. The hallways aren’t wide enough.”

The mafioso drummed his fingers on the strap of the duffel bag. Nobody else was offering up any ideas.

“I know what we can do,” he spoke hesitantly. Everyone looked at him.

Prince blinked. “Well? Spit it out.”

Isaiah held up a hand. “Don’t get mad at me for it.”

Prince’s eyes narrowed.

“First of all, this base is part of a sex trafficking ring,” said Isaiah.

“You better not be about to say any dumb shit.”

Isaiah held up both hands now. “Just listen! We pretend,” he continued, enunciating the ‘pretend’ very clearly, “that Stephanie is one of the girls we abducted—”

“You guys take little girls for that?” Hadrian admonished.

“Look, man, I just work in the canteen. This place didn’t even have a human trafficking branch when I got here. As I was saying, we pretend she’s a…”

Isaiah trailed off as Prince stared daggers.

“Prisoner,” the mobster said slowly. When the elder brother didn’t throttle him, he kept talking. “The shortest path to the exit involves one of the, uh, filming areas, so that’ll be her excuse to be there.”

Helios looked at his blueprint. “He’s right. There’s gonna be another elevator at the end of the filming area’s hallway.” He zoomed in on the location.

Isaiah leaned over to inspect the map as well. “We can ride it to that detention level and act like we’re taking her to a holding cell,” he said as he pointed out a floor below the filming area, “but we can veer away towards the west edge of the base. That place is as deserted as the upper levels. We’ll make our way through there until we reach the lowest level. After that… it gets more difficult.”

“No kidding,” Helios agreed. “That’s where the boss lives. The whole floor is teeming with goons, but the ventilation shafts that far underground are so big that we can fit through them. So, we sneak over to where the elevator is. Get out of the vents while nobody’s looking. Ride it all the way up to the south exit. No sweat,” he schemed as he drew a path with his finger from their location to the exit.

Prince still looked vaguely pissed off, but he nodded. “OK. Fine. Sounds like a plan.”

Chapter III – Incident Report

Prince squinted as his troupe reached the bottom of the stairwell. The fluorescent lights were harsh on his eyes after they’d wandered around in the dark for hours. He scrunched up his face in revulsion as the smell hit him. The filming area reeked of stale sweat and perhaps other fluids that he preferred not to think about.

“There,” Isaiah whispered to Prince, pointing at the elevator on the other end of the corridor. “Hold onto Stephanie and walk in front of us.”

Prince took Stephanie gently by the hand and followed Isaiah down the corridor.

They were alone at first, but Prince was startled as a door next to them opened. A pair of mobsters shoved a girl into the hall with nothing but a worn-out blanket around her shoulders. She stared through Prince with dead eyes as the mafiosos forced her onwards.

The two groups didn’t speak as they passed each other, but one of the mafiosos brushed a lock of dark hair out of Stephanie’s face and leered at her with yellowed teeth as he strolled by. Prince’s hand tightened around his crowbar until his knuckles were white.

Time felt like it was passing agonizingly slowly as they walked. Prince’s face darkened as they passed another door. He could hear the sounds of a struggle inside. A scream pierced the air. He came to a halt as he unwillingly recalled the purge he’d endured. He felt a hand on his shoulder and glanced back at Isaiah. His face was concealed, but Prince could tell the mobster was stone-faced from his eyes. So was his family, staring back at him through their masks. The sight was unnerving, even though he knew it was only them.

“Keep going. There’s nothing you can do for her now,” whispered Isaiah.

Prince turned stiffly and continued on their path.

There were no more disturbances. They made it to the elevator without any resistance. Isaiah punched in the access code and pressed the button for the detention level.

Helios sighed deeply as the doors closed. “That was unpleasant.”

Nobody was in the mood to respond.

Isaiah spoke up as they neared their destination floor. “We have to get the Warden to open the entrance for us. There’s a one-way exit in the holding area that leads to the west edge. No one is allowed to use it, but the cams are off, so who cares. Just let me do the talking. And one more thing: the audio feed is still running, so keep quiet until we get out of there,” he told everyone as the elevator reopened. The mafioso took the lead this time.

The Warden was resting his elbow on the desk with his face in his palm. He’d been looking at his reflection in his dimmed computer screen as he styled his fiery orange mohawk with a free hand, but his lidded eyes followed Isaiah as he approached. He stared at the newcomers, uninterested in initiating a conversation with them.

“Markus. New inmate,” Isaiah said.

Markus turned his eyes to the computer on his table. “The boss didn’t tell me of any new arrivals today,” he replied flatly.

“We haven’t notified her about this one yet. You’re the first to know. Good for you. Open up,” demanded Isaiah.

The Warden lifted his head from his hand. He narrowed his eyes again, now in skepticism instead of tiredness. Prince put himself in front of Hadrian, hopefully obscuring the boy’s splint. “Why did a little girl need five people escorting her here?”

“What the hell am I being interrogated for? This is the rest of my patrol group. We just got back. Quit wasting my time and open the fucking door,” Isaiah snapped.

Markus sighed. “Whatever. Cell 047,” he told the mobster as he stood up. The guy was even taller than Isaiah, Prince realized, and he was wide enough that he had to leave his too-small tuxedo jacket unbuttoned. He entered a string of numbers into the keypad next to the entrance. The blast door screeched open. “Get out of my face,” said the Warden as he waved them inside.

Prince looked straight ahead. Whatever was behind all the steel doors lining the passageway, he didn’t want to see. Markus closed the entrance behind them as they walked away.

Everyone did as Isaiah had said and kept silent until they reached the exit. A lone spider was busy spinning a web on the doorframe. Tough luck for him. The door squealed as Isaiah opened it and beckoned everyone through.

“Alright, we’re in the clear,” he said after he shut the exit.

The concrete corridor ahead looked strangely sterile at first, but a thin film of dust had settled on the ground upon closer inspection. Nobody had been here in a while.

“Where are we?” Prince asked.

Isaiah took off his mask and looked back at him as they made their way through the hall. “It used to be the chem sector when Larry was in charge. Miss Gearwise decommissioned it after she took over. She’s more interested in biotech and cybernetics, apparently. Most of her stuff is on the bottom floor, though.”

Prince peered through the windowpanes in the doors as Isaiah let Twado out of the duffel bag. Glassware and machinery were set up on the tables as if the users had left in a hurry. Binders full of notes and documents were still open on the desks. Even the lights were still on.

“Looks like she couldn’t wait to shut this place down,” Prince remarked.

Isaiah didn’t look at him now. He just shrugged.

Prince wished the mafioso would talk a little more, because the silence here was even more eerie than it had been in the derelict upper levels. The laboratory looked too clean and orderly. It felt wrong for it to be deserted. He was almost glad when the blindingly white walls gave way to rough stone and steel floors as they moved yet deeper into the base.

They were surrounded by a mess of tubing and shafts as they walked. There were no walls here at all to hide the plumbing and ventilation systems.

“Where are we now?” Prince wondered out loud.

“Still in the chem lab. Larry wasn’t one for frills. He didn’t bother with dressing the place up when he expanded it downwards,” Isaiah answered.

“You know a lot about that guy. Didn’t you only know him for a few days before we took him out?” Hadrian remarked. Isaiah shot him a glare over his shoulder, but not before Monica elbowed her little brother. The last thing they needed was to piss their guide off, even if he might be keeping secrets.

The mobster’s dark irises looked black in the low lighting. “You know I hate it when people ask too many questions, right? I hear the other mafiosos talking about him sometimes, is all,” he claimed as he turned away.

Maybe it was for the best that he and the rest of the group didn’t talk much. The sound of dripping water and air flowing through the vents suited Prince just fine now, but after a while, his ears picked up something that was neither of those. Thumping? It wasn’t quite loud enough for him to tell.

“Do you guys hear that?”

Isaiah paused. “Hear what?”

They all listened, but whatever noise Prince heard had stopped now. “Nevermind. It’s gone.”

Isaiah pursed his lips in annoyance at the interruption and continued forward. Prince didn’t notice any more strange sounds, and he’d started to think he’d been imagining it until he heard it again, much louder this time. Everyone stopped in their tracks and looked up. The rusted ventilation panel above them was starting to buckle. “Get back!” Isaiah whispered harshly.

The old screws snapped apart and the vent gave way. Out tumbled a stout man in a trench coat. He grunted in discomfort as he landed in a heap in front of the group. He scrambled to his feet after he glanced up and realized he wasn’t alone, but his panic was short-lived as he beheld the bizarre caravan in front of him. They stared back, equally perplexed. The guy looked like he’d been ripped straight out of a generic mystery film.

Isaiah had pulled his mask over his face once more, but he cautiously removed it again when he saw that it wasn’t one of his own associates who had shown up. “Who the hell are you?”

The man hesitated, seemingly reluctant to reveal that, but Pete pushed his way to the front of the gathering. The stranger’s face lit up.

“Peter! It’s been too long!” he exclaimed as he slapped his hand on Pete’s shoulder. “But what are you doing here?”

Pete scribbled a few sentences on his whiteboard. Kidnapped. My nieces and nephews are trapped here as well. North exit broke down. Looking for the other one.

“The north exit malfunctioned? How odd,” the stranger pondered.

Pete turned back towards the group and wrote again.

“Detective Bradley Beans,” Prince read out loud.

Bradley snapped out of his musings. “Hm? Oh, yes, that’s me. I was assigned to spy on the mob’s activities here. I’ve been using the ventilation system to stay out of sight, but…”

He eyed the broken vent.

“Perhaps I ought to lose a few pounds. Very fortunate that I was in the west edge.” Bradley picked his fallen umbrella up from the ground. “Anyway, Pete here was a coworker of mine before he retired. Good to see you again, old man,” said the Detective, patting the old man on the back.

“Wow. How long have you been hiding here?” Prince asked.

“Almost a year. I arrived soon after the last purge. I heard all about your battle with Mr. Clockturn. Very remarkable, though I wish the national guard would have moved in a bit quicker… kids shouldn’t have to wrangle crime lords,” grumbled Bradley, shaking his head. His gaze shifted to Isaiah. “Who is your, er, companion?”

“This is Isaiah. He helped us during the purge. And now he’s helping us find our way out of here,” Prince explained.

“I see. Well, there’s no use in dallying here, then. I was actually on my way out as well. Care to lead the way, Isaiah?” Bradley invited, motioning for the mobster to go on ahead of him. He did.

Maybe he shouldn’t pry, but Prince was curious. “So… you’ve been investigating the mob? What did you see?” he asked as they walked.

The Detective’s face grew serious. “One of the reasons I was sent here was to find out what happened to Mr. Clockturn after his body was taken. I already had a hunch that Miss Gearwise had a hand in his disappearance. The evidence I’ve compiled confirmed it. He’s in here somewhere.”

Trepidation rippled through the group.

“I haven’t seen him, but I overheard the personnel in the cybernetics sector speaking of him. The papers I managed to nick suggest Miss Gearwise has been performing experiments on him, and it doesn’t seem that he’s a willing participant.”

“What kind of experiments?” Prince questioned.

Bradley’s brow was crumpled in worry. “The documents didn’t detail their nature or purpose, I’m afraid. I went looking for some that did, but I came up empty handed… Miss Gearwise has put a lot of effort into keeping her activities secret. I suspect he’s being held in the bottommost level, but it was too risky to go poking around there.”

Hadrian rolled his eyes. “Sucks to be him, but what is he? Who is making these freaks?”

Bradley opened his mouth to answer, but then he frowned, stopping himself. “It’s classified info. I assure you that law enforcement has it handled.”

There was a door in their way, but it refused to open when Isaiah put his hand on the push bar. Prince looked at the keypad next to it. “Please tell me you know the code.”

“No need for that.” Isaiah dug through his pocket for his keycard and inserted it into the side of the pad. The door unlocked with a click, and he shoved it open with unneeded force. The mobster had been quiet, but Prince observed that he was becoming more and more vexed as Bradley recounted his findings. Cops and gangsters weren’t exactly friends, of course, but he thought Isaiah’s reactions were still a little over the top.

Isaiah went ahead, but everyone else was reluctant to enter the new area. A metal bridge was suspended over a wide pool of roiling red liquid.

Prince stepped onto the crossing uncertainly. The fumes stung his eyes. “Isaiah? What is that?”

The mafioso turned around. “This is where we made the chemical we emptied into the sewers.” His shoes clanked softly against the bridge’s metal lattices as he continued across. “We’ll be fine. Just don’t fall in,” he reminded Prince. He seemed pretty sure of himself, so everybody followed.

They heard heavy footsteps approaching long before they could reach the other side. Isaiah redonned his mask. “This is the worst possible time.” He looked back at the door they’d entered from.

The Warden’s huge shadow approached. He kicked the entrance open and stepped onto the bridge, followed closely by four of his pals. “I knew you guys were up to some bullshit,” he muttered as he motioned for the other mafiosos to charge.

Markus looked like he could drop all of them on his own, but Prince knew they wouldn’t make it to the exit before their assailants reached them. His fist clenched around his weapon. He might be able to shove the big guy off the bridge if he was deft enough…

Isaiah had different plans. He jammed his crowbar through a joint in the bridge and gritted his teeth as he strained to pry the two sections apart. Realizing what the mobster was doing, Prince knelt down to help out. They jumped back as soon as they heard the rusty screws break.

Markus held out his arm to stop his cronies from going any further. The bridge section in front of him slanted dangerously towards the corrosive liquid far below.

The Warden shook his head. “Back up. I have a better idea,” he said as he ushered the other mobsters back into the hallway.

Isaiah’s eyes widened. “MOVE!” he shouted as he bolted towards the exit.

Too slow. The lock engaged right before he touched the door. He punched it in frustration. “Damn it!” he roared as an alarm bell rang through the chamber.

“Isaiah? What does that mean?” Prince asked as the hazard lights on the walls blinked on. He looked at Monica as she tapped his shoulder and saw that she was staring at the red liquid under them. It was rising. He looked up at Isaiah again.

“The doors seal automatically when someone brings the liquid level up.” Isaiah pointed at the console attached to the wall. “We have to reactivate the drawdown system, but I don’t know the passcode,” he explained hastily.

Prince’s gaze darted between Isaiah and the keypad. “Won’t your keycard work?”

“Fucking look, man! There’s no slot for the keycard here!”

Helios pushed him out of the way. “Let me see what I can do,” he said as he fished a USB drive out of his sling bag and inserted it into one of the console’s ports. Prince heard him typing as fast as he could while the caustic chemicals hissed and simmered against the bridge’s supports.

“Uh, Isaiah? Aren’t the beams corrosion resistant?” Hadrian asked, his voice quivering.

Isaiah kept his eyes on the framework beneath them as it sizzled. “Yeah…? But we were never allowed to bring the liquid level this high back when the chem lab was-”

He stopped speaking abruptly as the scaffolds creaked and the bridge started to tilt. Everyone shuffled around anxiously, inching towards the locked door. Twado ran back and forth across the bridge frenetically, but there was nowhere to go.

“Quit bunching up like sardines! You guys are gonna collapse this thing faster,” Monica warned. “Helios? How much longer?”

“Chill. I almost got it,” the hacker replied as the bridge continued to waver.

Prince heard something snap below them as the console beeped and the alarms shut off. They all let out a collective sigh of relief as the liquid began receding, but the support beams were already done for. Helios was nearly flattened as everyone barreled through the exit. They heard the bridge splash into the chemicals behind them.

Markus had been watching them through the window on the other door. He slammed his fist against the wall as he saw the intruders escape before moving out of sight.

“That was a bit too close for comfort,” Bradley breathed.

Isaiah glared at him. “Yeah. It was. The vent you guys are looking for is right at the end of the tunnel.” He said, jabbing a thumb behind him. “Find the elevator yourselves. I’m outta here.”

“What? Come on, man,” Prince implored, reaching out to stop him. “At least point out the right shaft-“

The mobster shrugged him off. “No! You guys have dragged me too far into your shit,” he spat. “And Markus saw your faces, you know. He’s probably on his way to tell Miss Gearwise all about you, so get going,” he finished, waving them off. Isaiah turned away into a connecting corridor and left them alone.

Chapter IV – Interlude

The apertures of Larry’s optical sensors contracted in discomfort as the lights switched on. He heard Mary’s high heels clicking softly against the floor as she stepped into his view, a lab coat thrown over her viridian dress. The disgraced crime boss struggled in his restraints, but that hadn’t worked before, and it wasn’t working now. Mary tittered at his efforts as Larry sighed and went limp on the operating table.

“Good evening, Larry. Or morning, rather. I think it’s past midnight,” she laughed, her tone maddeningly cavalier in contrast to what she was about to do. A glower was Larry’s only response.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that.” Mary walked out of his field of vision and opened one of the cabinets in the operating room. Larry could only listen to her preparing the necessary apparatus, her tools clinking against the steel tray. “All I’ve done is try to help you, and all I get in return is insults and vitriol.”

A few wisps of steam seeped from the ventilation slits on Larry’s face. He’d heard Mary voice her false concern for him too many times. “Who do you think you’re fooling?” he growled.

Larry heard the flames roar indignantly in Mary’s firebox. The tools on her tray rattled as she set it down on the stand next to the surgical table forcefully. She wasn’t smiling any more as she walked to the head of the table. She placed her hands on either side of him and leaned in.

“Stop behaving as if you don’t understand me, Larry. You were deactivated by a pack of children and allowed the purge to end early. You are worthless to this organization as you are. You were weak and I fixed you, whether you and your overblown ego can admit it or not,” she hissed, her breath blisteringly hot against his metallic skin. It would have been painful back when he’d still had flesh to melt… but that was a long time ago.

Larry clenched his fists at her words. His claws grated against the palms of his hands. “Overblown ego? You’re the one who painted your casing,” he spat, sneering at the Mary’s conceit.

Mary smirked, her moodiness fading as abruptly as it had appeared. “Ha! Am I vain for taking care of myself? You look like you haven’t been polished in years,” she taunted. The bright lights glinted on her pearly white coating as she stood up straight and returned to her tray of implements. “But I think that’s enough small talk.”

She reached out and loosened the buttons on his shirt. Larry snapped his metal jaws at her hand, but she pulled away before he could catch her fingers in his teeth.

He heard Mary pick up one of her tools. A mechanical buzzing filled the operating theater. He strained against his fetters again. This was the moment he’d been dreading for so long.

Mary loomed over him, the ghost of a smile on her lime green lips. The surgical lamp formed a halo of harsh fluorescent light around her as she brought the metal cutter to his chest.

Chapter V – Judgement Hall

Prince let his arm fall limply to his side as he watched Isaiah disappear around the bend. Helios patted him on the shoulder once the mobster was out of earshot. “We’ll be fine without him. I told you I know where the elevator is. Let’s go,” he said, gently urging Prince to start down the other hallway.

Helios led them now, and he walked fast. There was no telling how long they had before Markus tipped the boss off to their whereabouts. They didn’t have any trouble finding the vent, but Helios didn’t have anything to open it with. “Anyone got a screwdriver handy? I, uh, left mine in my hoodie when we got changed,” he admitted.

Bradley searched his overcoat for his screwdriver, but he gave Helios an odd look as he did. “Agent Helios? Is that you?”

The hacker’s jaw tightened. “Just get the vent open, old man.”

Prince cocked an eyebrow. “You guys know each other?”

Helios looked at Bradley disdainfully as the Detective knelt down and unscrewed the panel. “This asshole was one of the guys who arrested me a few years back. I used to be a part of Anonymous.”

Bradley’s face grew sour at the hacker’s enmity, but he ignored him.

Oblivious to the tension, Hadrian’s eyes lit up. “Whoa! You were in Anonymous? That’s cool as fuck!”

“But you work for the government now,” Prince pointed out. “How did that happen?”

“They gave me a choice when they brought me in. Work for them or go to the slammer. I think it’s pretty obvious which one I chose.”

The last screw clinked to the ground. Bradley moved the vent cover aside and gestured wordlessly for Helios to enter first.

Stephanie faltered in front of the opening, her face blank. She’d been growing quieter and quieter as they ventured further into the base, retreating into herself, but Prince didn’t know what he could do except keep her close. He crouched down to her level and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Monica and I will go in front of you, OK? Just follow us. We’ll be…”

He stopped himself. He didn’t know when they were going to be home.

“We’ll be out of here soon. I promise.”

She nodded silently. The eldest siblings went first. Stephanie slowly clambered into the duct after them.

The passage was wide enough that they didn’t have to crawl, but they were almost bent double as they wormed through the cramped shaft. Prince almost thought he could discern distant screams, but maybe it was only the air rustling in his ears as it rushed through the tunnel around them.

He followed close behind Helios, whose nose was buried in his phone, examining the map as he walked. Prince could see the rooms they were passing through the narrow slots in the vent panels. Dorms. Armories. Warehouses. Computer labs. Workshops and laboratories. He paused as they passed an office.

Monica nearly bumped into him. “Prince? What’s the hold up?” she whispered. Helios halted and glanced back to look at him quizzically as well when he heard him stop walking.

Prince peered through the ventilation slits. “It’s an office. I see Markus.”

Helios and Monica crowded in next to Prince to take a look for themselves. Markus wasn’t alone. They couldn’t make out the conversation, but the Warden was speaking to a woman noticeably taller than him. Her hair, tied into a bun, was unnaturally reflective, and so was her pale opaline skin.

“It’s the boss,” Helios murmured.

Bradley piped up from the back of the lineup, careful to keep his voice low. “We don’t have time to dawdle here, then. We’ve got to get to the elevator before they figure out where we are.”

Prince lingered for a moment longer. Mary didn’t look too pleased with whatever the Warden was telling her. She glanced towards the vent. Her emerald LED eyes met with his for a instant. Prince’s blood froze in his veins.

Mary’s eyes flitted back to Markus before he could react, though, and there was no change in her hard visage. Maybe he was mistaken. She hadn’t seen him. He told himself so, at least.

“Dude? You okay?”

Prince was brought out of his thoughts by Helios’s voice. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good. Uh, Bradley is right. Let’s hurry up,” he stammered, suddenly very eager to get moving again.

Helios didn’t delay. They weren’t far from their target now, and it wasn’t long before he spied their exit elevator from behind a vent.

“There!” he whispered, but he hesitated. “I don’t see anyone, though. Is this place always so empty?”

The hall was dark and devoid of mobsters. Nobody could answer Helios’s question, of course. Prince wished Isaiah was here to tell them whether it was shady or not. Either way, this simplified things. They didn’t have to figure out how to get out of the ventilation system without looking suspicious.

They couldn’t reach the screws from the inside of the vent, so Helios stuck his crowbar in between the wall and the panel and pried until the cover snapped open. Everyone squeezed out, but when they stood before the elevator, they saw that none of the buttons or indicators were lit. Prince pushed one. Nothing happened.

There was a shrill bout of audio feedback as the intercoms in the hall switched on. The corridor reverberated with a woman’s bitter, derisive laughter. “Don’t bother. I already disabled it. You won’t be going anywhere, boy. You and your friends have broken into my base and caused me a lot of trouble.”

Prince was too cowed to respond. Monica spoke instead.

“We didn’t break in! Your shitty door malfunctioned and trapped us inside. We don’t even want to be here. Let us leave,” Monica demanded.

“I don’t think so. After all, how many of my guards have you massacred?” Mary reminded them.

“Oh, please. You talk like these kids were the instigators,” Bradley rebuked.

“Detective Beans! I knew there was an informant in here. And now I don’t even need to hunt you down,” Mary gloated. “You came here looking for Larry, didn’t you? You can forget about that. I doubt you’ll be living long enough to see him.”

The blast door at the other end of the hallway opened up. The lights blinked on. The group realized that they weren’t as alone as they thought. They could see the silhouettes of mobsters through the windows lining the corridor, glaring at them through their uncanny purge masks.

“This should be fun,” quipped Mary. The intercom switched off with a thunk.

With no other choice, the group hesitantly made their way to the door. Heat radiated from the adjoining room, though it turned out that calling it a room was an understatement. The cavern was gigantesque. The walls on either side were thick metal. The jagged granite on the opposite side of the entrance was left unrefined, save for the wall of the control room and the mezzanine that Mary was standing upon, glowering down at them from high above. Molten lava churned below the metal platform ahead of them, linked to their door by nothing except a rickety rope bridge. Prince was reluctant to walk across. The thing didn’t look like it would hold their combined weight.

There were footsteps from their rear. The mafiosos were skulking towards them now, brandishing their weapons, compelling them forward.

They were boxed in, so Prince took a tentative step onto the bridge. The boards creaked as he walked onto the platform. The bridge gave way and fell into the lava after everyone had crossed—one of the mobsters had severed the ropes with his knife behind them. Prince looked up at Mary, wondering what her plan was. He couldn’t see much more than her glowing eyes in the darkness overhead.

“Ah, we meet at last… though it seems that some of your allies have deserted you,” Mary laughed. Her voice was shrill and tinny compared to Larry’s baritone, but it echoed through the cave all the same.

They glanced around at each other. She was right. Prince hadn’t been paying attention, but Helios and Uncle Pete had not followed them in.

“No matter. My subordinates will deal with them,” she continued. With that out of the way, Mary looked the gathering up and down as she leaned on her crowbar. “You’re aware there were firearms in the supply depots, right? I know you passed a few of those on your way here,” she told them, quirking an eyebrow.

Prince wasn’t too sad that they’d missed the guns—the rounds would probably ricochet right off Mary’s casing anyway—but Mary’s jeering was making him more annoyed than afraid. “Did you bring us in here for a fight or to talk shit at us?”

Mary narrowed her eyes at his provocation. She beckoned one of the operatives inside the control room. Markus came out and handed her violin to her. She placed it beneath her chin and drew her crowbar across the strings, producing a poignant melody, and Prince immediately heard burbling from the pipeline at the edge of the platform. There was a thin scraping noise as the valve’s handwheel turned on its own.

Everyone retreated towards the other end of the platform as lava spilled out of the pipe, but it streamed until they were backed up to the very edge. Any closer and the heat would start to sear them.

However, as they teetered on the edge, the valve screeched shut and the lava flow spluttered out. The group glanced around at each other, both relieved and confused.

There was a discordant twang Mary’s music faltered. Bewilderment crossed her sharp features. It appeared that she didn’t know what was happening, either. She started to play again after a moment, but the valve made a stubborn scraping noise, refusing to reopen.

Mary scowled deeply. She played a different tune this time. The lava started to drain, but their respite was short-lived as she thrust her violin back into Markus’s hands and jumped down from the mezzanine. There was a resounding bang as her high heels met steel, sending a tremor across the platform.

“Let’s dance.”

Chapter VI – Gearwise

Clang. Whirr. Prince had heard that once before, but now he was ready for it as Mary bolted at him, buzzsaws unsheathed. The blades whined in his ear as he rolled out of the way. He managed to keep all his blood inside him this time, at least for the moment.

Prince didn’t waste time in retaliating, lunging at Mary with his crowbar as she retracted her saws. She didn’t look as tough as Larry. He thought he might be able to take her down the old-fashioned way, but he was quickly disillusioned as his weapon bounced off of her casing harmlessly, barely even chipping her paint.

Mary responded in kind, and her blow sent him off the edge of the platform, but he managed to grab onto the rim, narrowly avoiding a fiery death. Winded, he wheezed and gasp for air as he gingerly dragged himself back to safety… well, relative safety. His ribs were aching like hell.

Hadrian started towards the automaton, but Bradley held an arm out to stop him. “Don’t be reckless. Your arm is injured. Stay out of this and keep your sister safe,” the Detective told him, nodding at Stephanie. The girl held onto her brother’s leg tightly.

Twado rushed at Mary instead, gnashing his teeth, evidently furious at her for striking Prince. She must not have wanted her gilded crowbar to touch the mangy thing, because her lip curled in disgust as she delivered a swift kick to his side. A few of the kids winced as they heard a crack. The dog yelped as he slid across the platform and lay still. Bradley hurried over to check on him.

The dog had diverted Mary’s attention. Maybe Monica had the chance to turn her wind-up key. She tried to edge around the automaton while she was occupied with Twado and reached up to grab it, but she’d barely touched her fingertip to the key before Mary turned abruptly and snatched Monica by the wrist in a crushing grip. She flung the girl at Prince as if she were as light as a ragdoll, and Prince had only just climbed back onto the platform when Monica collided with him, sending both of them off the edge again.

Prince caught the rim of the stage again. Monica could only grab hold of the cuff of Prince’s jeans. He tried to pull himself up, but it was impossible this time with the added weight.

Bradley stood up from where Twado was—the dog seemed fine now—and ran towards them as they dangled from the rim, but Mary sauntered into his path.

Mary opened her mouth, probably to expound another snide remark, but she was cut off before she got so much as a word out. Bradley wasted no time in striking out with his umbrella. Prince thought the guy was about to get knocked out cold, but he must have been even stronger than he looked, because Mary staggered marginally as she blocked the hit with her crowbar.

“That’s another charge of resisting arrest, Miss Gearwise,” said Bradley through gritted teeth. She just laughed wryly.

While Bradley engaged the automaton, Twado bounded to the edge of the platform and grabbed Prince’s sleeve with his teeth, slowly and steadily towing him and Monica up.

Bradley tried to bring his umbrella down onto Mary’s head, but she caught it in her hand. The Detective tried to yank it out of her grasp. She held on.

He recognized too late that he had no way to parry her crowbar now. Mary swung for Bradley’s skull. He reacted quick and tried to evade the blow, but it still clipped the side of his head, knocking his hat askew. He stumbled backwards and clutched his temple, dazed.

Mary grinned viciously and raised her weapon to finish him off, but the look was wiped off her face as someone wrenched her wind-up key. She hissed in displeasure and froze up for a moment as her gears seized, but her disorientation didn’t last long.

The automaton spun around with her smirk replaced with a look of acute loathing. She lashed out and raked Prince across the face with her sharp fingernails before he could respond, leaving several long, bloody gashes behind. A guttural snarl escaped from Mary’s lips as she did, as if it was gravely insulting that the boy would even try to lay his filthy fingers on her key.

She didn’t have time to assault Prince any further, though. Bradley had already come to his senses. He adjusted his hat. Mary glanced over her shoulder as she heard the Detective’s footsteps on the steel stage. She saw movement from the corner of her mechanical eye. Monica and Twado were flanking her from both sides. Even the injured Hadrian had grown tired of being sidelined and was now advancing towards Mary as well.

The automaton whirled around and feinted at Bradley, just to keep him away. She must have realized that at least one of them would get their hands on her wind-up key if she tried to fight them all at once. The mechanisms in Mary’s legs clicked as they engaged. She leapt onto one of the tall stone pillars surrounding the platform, perching on it gracefully.

The group stared up at her. Prince spread his arms in a challenge. “Get the fuck back down here, you bitch!” he roared, his face still bleeding. Mary said nothing. She simply smirked and licked a few drops of blood off her manicured nails.

Monica pulled some gauze out of her first aid kit. Prince irritably tried to shrug her off—“I’m fine”—but she managed to press it onto his face and stem the flow of blood.

Bradley pointed at Mary with his umbrella. “Mary Gearwise, I have reason to believe that you were involved in the disappearance of Larry Clockturn. I demand you reveal his whereabouts at once!”

Mary threw her head back and cackled. “You want to know what happened to Larry? Fine. I’ll show you.” She looked over at the control room and nodded at Markus. He pulled a lever on one of the panels.

There was a harsh grinding sound as the wall to their left slowly parted. They hadn’t noticed it when they came in here, but it was actually an enormous sliding gate.

Everyone backed away as it opened. It might have been some sort of depot, though it was hard to tell though the darkness. The light from a pair of LED eyes pierced through the shadows.

Big ones.

Raucous metallic scraping filled the air as the goliath activated and hauled itself from the ground, exposed gears and levers ticking loudly. Its rugged plating caught the orange glow of the lava beneath.

“What the Hell is that?” cried Prince as the clockwork behemoth took a step forward, making the entire cavern quake.

“It’s the new and improved Larry Clockturn, of course,” Mary declared. Markus emerged from the control room and tossed her violin to her. She started to play again. At the sound of her music, the aperture of the machine’s eye dilated and blazed brightly. Its gaze zeroed in on Prince.

Bradley understood what was happening first. “Prince! Get out of the way!” he hollered.

Crimson light flooded the room as Larry discharged his laser. Prince dived out of the way just in time, but he could still feel the scorching heat against his back as the beam passed him by.

It melted through the steel flooring like butter. The scaffolds holding it up groaned as they started to bend. Prince scrambled to his feet and stared up at Larry as his laser fizzled out. The automaton’s optical receptors contracted to the size of pinpricks and darted around frantically. He seemed almost afraid, but the look vanished almost as soon as it had shown up.

Prince didn’t have time to think about what that meant. The two halves of the stage were dipping away from each other.

The group was separated. Twado leapt across the gap before it became too wide and grabbed the back of Stephanie’s shirt in his mouth, who was slipping down the incline, and lugged her over to Prince and Hadrian. The eldest brother pulled Stephanie into his arms as their half of the platform swayed dangerously above the lava.

Bradley and Monica were trapped on the other side. They looked across at them helplessly. The columns holding them up had thankfully stopped buckling, but there was nowhere to run.

Mary grinned in morbid anticipation as Larry prepared to bisect the platform a second time. His eye dilated again. However, the LED flickered as his laser failed to charge up all the way. Bradley retreated as the beam struck the ground in front of him, but it wasn’t hot enough to melt through the metal.

Mary’s smile faded slightly. “My apologies… I thought I had already disabled his free will. He appears to be resisting my commands. How cute,” she crooned as she drew her crowbar over the strings of her instrument once more.

Larry’s components creaked and juddered as he tried to move, but his gears had locked up. His eye flashed on and off, refusing to even begin charging this time.

Now Mary was scowling. She glared into the control room. Markus shrugged and shook his head at her. She turned towards Larry again just in time to see a masked mafioso clamber onto his shoulder. Mary’s eyes widened in outrage as he thrust his crowbar through a gap in the giant automaton’s casing and triggered his emergency shutdown mechanism.

Chapter VII – AWOL

“Helios.”

Helios frowned. He looked around, but there was no one else in the hallway with him and his troupe. Just the mobsters staring at them through the windows.

“Helios!” the voice hissed again. Oh. It was coming from behind him. Helios slowed his pace and glanced back discreetly, lagging behind the rest of the group. Isaiah was peeking out of the vent they’d come in here from. He beckoned the hacker over.

Helios peered around again. The mobsters seemed to be fixated on the others. He slipped away and reentered the vent before anyone noticed.

“Isaiah? I thought you were done with us,” Helios whispered.

“I changed my mind. We have to move,” Isaiah replied. Helios trailed him cautiously.

“Why? Where are we going?”

“Mary called almost everyone in the base to the primary control room. Her lab is pretty much unguarded, so I decided to snoop around a little bit. I found Larry. Deactivated. Chassis ripped wide open,” Isaiah recounted, knitting his brow as he recalled the scene. “I found the blueprints for his new body.”

“New body? What are you saying?”

“I’m getting to that part! Mary cut his heart out. She made him a new body that she could control. The thing is giant. She’s using his heart as the energy source, and the heart is him, so his original body isn’t gonna wake up without it. She’s going to use the new one on your pals. They have no chance.”

“And we’re just letting them walk into the trap?”

“I need them to stall her, and she was going to lock the base down and have her lackeys kill them anyway if they didn’t show up. I have a plan. Larry’s new body has computerized parts, not just clockwork ones. It helps her control him, but it also means he can be hacked. I’m taking you to the lab. There’s a console there that she used to test him out. It’s got the blueprints in it and everything. I think you can use it to access his network, but you have to deactivate the lava pipeline system first… we don’t want your buddies getting their legs burnt to a crisp before they even see the big guy. I need you to get him to stay still long enough for me to reach him and trip his e-stop. Got it?”

“Yeah, I think I can do that.”

“Good.” Isaiah stopped in front of the spot where a ventilation panel used to be, but he must have broken it open already while he’d been sneaking around. He climbed out and showed Helios the console. “This is the place. Try to do this quietly. There are still a couple guards outside the door,” he whispered to Helios. The mobster thrust a two-way radio into his hands. “Use that to tell me when Larry is immobilized.”

Helios nodded, but Isaiah was already reentering the vent, leaving him on his own. The hacker cracked his knuckles and got to work.

Chapter VIII – System Reboot

Prince watched as Larry shut down and toppled backwards. It reminded the boy of when he’d beaten the automaton in the sewers, but the ensuing impact was much, much louder this time when he hit the ground.

Mary threw her violin at Markus. “Deal with that traitor!” she thundered at him. The Warden reentered the control room and sent some of the operators away. They ran through the door, heading for Larry’s depot. The masked mobster was standing on Larry’s chest now, trying to pry one of the plates open. It had to be Isaiah.

“What are you doing, man? Mind getting us off of this platform?” Prince called out.

Isaiah glanced up at him and held up a finger. Wait.

Prince turned around as a mechanical hum filled the cave. He’d expected Mary to jump down and confront the group, but she was still glowering down at them from the stone pillar. The noise had to be coming from her.

The temperature in the formerly stifling cavern was dropping fast. Prince looked up as a raindrop hit his face. Were those clouds?

“She’s got a weather machine built into her!” Bradley realized as lightning struck the ground right in front of him. An indoor tempest was brewing.

Isaiah got Larry’s chassis open and heaved the metal plate away until the gap was large enough for him to fit inside. His gaze scanned the internal hardware until he spotted the automaton’s clockwork heart. It was strangely amusing how such a comparatively small gadget had been powering a giant robot. He lowered himself through the gears and circuitry until it was within reach and gingerly disconnected the tubes and cables holding it in place. The ticking of the mechanism’s gears slowed down as he removed it. An iridescent mystery liquid sloshed around inside the heart’s windowed ventricles as Isaiah climbed back out of the chassis.

The lava sizzled as rain pattered against it. Prince could feel the electricity in the air before lightning hit the spot where he’d been standing moments before. “Dude! What’s the situation?” he yelled at Isaiah.

Isaiah was too absorbed in his task to respond. He’d already dragged Larry’s real body into the depot before he’d gone to fetch Helios, but he didn’t have a lot of time. He was screwed if the other mafiosos made it here before he had Larry operational. Isaiah sprinted to the corner where he’d left the automaton with the heart in his hands and stooped down to set it back in Larry’s chest cavity. It clicked into place.

The mobster stuck his hand under his suit and felt around for the brazing torch and rod he’d brought with him. He fumbled with the hose for a second before he inserted it into the fuel cylinders on the ground and lit the torch, carefully soldering Larry’s tubes and pipes back onto his heart.

A gale was beginning to pick up. Bradley rolled out of the way as a fork of lightning targeted him again. The wind buffeted him, but perhaps that was a good thing.

The Detective opened his umbrella. The motor inside it began to rumble. He held it up and let a gust carry him towards Mary. She took a swipe at him with her crowbar as he neared, but he veered out of the way and landed behind her. He grabbed her key and twisted it counterclockwise a second time before Mary could do anything about it.

Mary winced as she turned and swung her crowbar wide, striking Bradley in the side. He grunted in discomfort and tumbled from the pillar as the vent cover above Mary popped off and smacked against her head. Pete jumped through and landed on her, casting her down from the pillar as well before he reentered the ventilation shaft and vanished again.

Bradley drifted to the floor with his umbrella and gently touched his feet to the ground next to Monica. Mary hit the ground on the other end of the platform with a crash. She groaned in discomfort as she heaved herself to her feet, but her grousing quickly became a snarl as she stalked towards the Detective.

Pete soon emerged from a vent in the depot. He hastily scrawled something across his whiteboard as he rushed to Isaiah: HURRY THEY ARE ALMOST HERE

Larry’s golden eyes blinked on as Isaiah made the last connection. He sat up immediately and wrapped his huge hand around the mobster’s throat. Isaiah dropped his brazing torch to pry the automaton’s fingers away.

“Get your hands off of me, you asshole! I’m trying to help you!” Isaiah snapped.

Larry’s eyes widened slightly, as if he was surprised to hear Isaiah’s voice coming from behind that mask. The automaton glanced down at his chassis, still wide open. He reluctantly released Isaiah and lay down again. “Get on with it, then,” he spat, still glaring.

Isaiah picked up the sheet of metal that Mary had cleaved away from Larry’s casing and placed it over his chest. He picked up the torch again and slowly ran it along the seams. The automaton tensed up at the searing heat, but he held still.

Isaiah had barely finished when Larry shoved the mobster away and got to his feet. He’d secured the plate just in time, too, because the mafiosos that Markus had sent came charging through the depot doors as Larry buttoned up his shirt and picked up his crowbar.

The mafiosos skidded to a standstill when they saw the reactivated Larry standing before them, tall and terrible. He swung his crowbar into the closest one’s abdomen with quite a bit more strength than necessary, burying the curved end in his innards. There was a nauseating squelch and a strangled yelp from the mobster. A section of his viscera came out with Larry’s crowbar as the automaton pulled it free. The others turned tail and ran back the way they’d came as their comrade collapsed into a convulsing heap, too afraid to even try to fight him.

Isaiah made a disgusted noise. “Ugh. That was overkill,” he mumbled as he kicked the whimpering mafioso into the lava. Larry paid him no mind. He turned to the platform. Mary wasn’t the only one who could leap high. He cleared the gap easily and landed right behind her.

The platform shook as his shoes met the steel platform. The scaffolds finally buckled, sending his end of the stage plunging. He was prepared for that. Mary wasn’t. She lost her balance as the platform sank slowly into the molten rock.

Larry grabbed his tormentor with both hands and hurled her into the lava.

Chapter IX – Exit Path

The mafiosos could only watch as Mary disappeared into the molten rock. Markus stared in disbelief until there was a stir in the control room. The mobsters began quarrelling… then they drew weapons on each other. A brawl broke out.

They were fighting amongst themselves. Prince realized as a splatter of blood hit the windowpane that Larry’s old goons must have wanted him back in charge.

Bradley unfurled his umbrella again before the gale storm died down completely. He took Monica’s hand. They both glided into the depot.

The Detective grabbed hold of the metal plate that Isaiah had removed from the behemoth earlier. “Help me move this thing,” he called out to the others.

They lugged the plate towards the edge of the pit and pushed it outwards until it met Prince’s half of the platform. It wobbled precariously, but they held it down as Prince crossed the improvised bridge with Stephanie in his arms. Hadrian and Twado followed from behind. Larry jumped back into the depot as well, landing disconcertingly close to the group. The kids shrank away as Bradley stepped in front of them protectively and pointed at the automaton. Larry raised an artificial eyebrow.

“Larry Clockturn, you are under arrest for-”

Pete bonked the Detective on the head with his whiteboard.

“Ow. What? He’s wanted for hundreds of felonies.”

The elevator is still disabled. We need his help finding our way out, Pete wrote.

“Yeah, I know a different exit,” Larry muttered, but he nonetheless looked mildly annoyed when the group started following him.

They trailed behind the crime boss—well, ex-crime boss—hesitantly. “We still need to get Helios,” Isaiah mentioned. Before they reached the door, however, they heard the sound of metal scraping against metal. Larry turned back towards the platform.

Mary was clawing her way back up, her pearlescent façade burnt away by the lava, revealing her brassy gold casing. Patches of paint still clung to her, scorched black. She glanced back at Larry warily as she climbed high enough to jump back onto the pillar, then onto the mezzanine. The mobsters had already fled the control room, but she ran inside and disappeared from sight. Fury flared in Larry’s golden eyes as he barreled through the depot doors to pursue her.

Everyone ran out the doorway after him. They were back in the corridor with the disabled elevator, but Larry ran in a different direction.

“Where are you going?” Prince yelled. The automaton didn’t reply.

“There’s an old mineshaft leading to the surface in this direction,” Isaiah answered instead. “It’s always been sealed, but Mary must’ve opened it to escape. There’s no other way.”

They came upon the control room where Isaiah had left Helios, but Larry didn’t wait up as they pushed the doors open to find him.

“Helios, we have to…”

Isaiah trailed off. The room was empty.

“Helios?” the mobster called out. There was no reply. He tried contacting him with his radio, but the hacker didn’t respond to that either.

“We have to move before we lose Larry. Maybe Helios escaped already. Come on,” Bradley said as he ran back outside.

They caught up with Larry as he arrived at the gate to the mine. The blast doors were already open. Mary was on the other side of the decaying tunnel, hovering over Helios, watching him as he knelt in front of the keypad next to the elevator and desperately tried to crack the activation code. She seized the hacker in a chokehold and turned towards the group as she heard Larry’s heavy footsteps approaching.

“Come any closer and he dies!” Mary screeched at them. Larry didn’t seem too worried about that, but Bradley grabbed his arm to stop him from advancing.

“Let him go, Miss Gearwise. We just want to leave this place,” Bradley tried to reason.

Mary laughed, her eyes wide and manic. “Leave? You’re the ones who intruded upon my base in the first place. Slaughtered dozens of my agents. Do you know how much time I spent working on Larry? You brats have ruined everything,” she hissed as she tightened her grip around Helios’s throat. He scrabbled uselessly as her arm, eyes bulging as Mary crushed his windpipe.

Prince gritted his teeth. Mary’s words sent his thoughts racing. The gang of mobsters they’d encountered in the upper levels, even though there was no surveillance there. The door that had malfunctioned and trapped them. The lightning storm outside that had driven them here in the first place, even though the weather forecast had predicted clear skies. Mary’s weather machine…

“No. You lured us in here,” Prince murmured.

Mary narrowed her eyes. “What are you talking about?” she snapped.

“That’s why you knew we were here when the cameras were offline. You caused that storm outside. You took that tree down with your lightning. You had that barricade set up on the trail, so we’d come here for shelter,” Prince spoke louder. “You made the door short circuit with your lightning instead of shutting it remotely so we wouldn’t get suspicious…  and rigged those pipes to blow and cut us off in the upper levels, so we’d walk right into those mobsters. You knew we were here the whole time. You set us up!” he finished, jabbing an accusing finger at Mary.

Mary’s lips slowly curved into a smirk as Prince spoke. “Clever boy.”

“Why?” he demanded.

“I needed someone to test my creation on, and you are the ones who deactivated Larry. I couldn’t leave you alive,” Mary stated. Helios wheezed for breath as she loosened her grip ever so slightly.

Bradley shook his head. “Rubbish. I know for a fact you never cared for Larry. It was the Headmaster who ordered their deaths, wasn’t it?”

Mary’s eyelid twitched at the mention of her superior. She ignored the Detective. “Larry, tell me the elevator’s code and I’ll let Helios go,” she said as she nodded at the dilapidated cage elevator and tightened her stranglehold on the young man.

Larry sneered and tried to press forward. Bradley held him back. The automaton’s gears clanked in frustration as he lifted his crowbar to beat the Detective away, but Isaiah elbowed his way to the forefront of the group before a fight could break out. “How about you think about someone other than your fucking self for once?” the mobster whispered harshly as he shook Larry’s shoulder. The automaton griped inaudibly and hardly budged as Isaiah jostled him, but he got the point.

“0625,” he begrudgingly told Mary.

Helios gasped for air as Mary finally removed one arm from his neck and punched the code into the keypad. The rusty elevator doors squealed as they parted. He tried to break away from her grasp, but he yelped as she grabbed the collar of his jacket and yanked him into the elevator after her. “Oh, no, you’re coming with me,” Mary muttered venomously.

“Hey! You said you’d let him go!” Prince yelled angrily from the other side of the tunnel.

Mary just flashed a grin at him and waved at him as the doors shut. The elevator creaked and rumbled up the mineshaft.

She was gone.

Epilogue

There was nothing to do except wait in morose silence for the elevator to return underground. Prince kept starting at the entrance to the mine, worried that some of Mary’s loyalists might show up, but none did.

The mood relaxed a little bit as Twado stood on his hindquarters and pawed Larry’s legs, whining for attention. He’d been too preoccupied to pay attention earlier, but now the automaton reached down and ruffled the fur on the dog’s head. “Glad to see you too, Twado.”

“He knows you?” Prince asked, surprised.

“He was my guard dog when I ran this place. But he looks like Mary had him thrown outside,” he muttered, shaking his head at Twado’s grubby coat.

The elevator doors squeaked open as the carriage arrived. Prince picked up Helios’s sunglasses from the floor. One of the lenses was cracked. He slipped them in his pocket as the elevator closed and started to carry everyone to the surface. Maybe he’d get to return them eventually if the hacker was still alive.

Isaiah went to sit on an old crate, but Larry pushed him aside. “Is that coal? Finally,” said the automaton as he ripped the lid off and shoved a handful of the stuff into his jaws. The kids watched with profound bewilderment.

“What? You didn’t think I was actually spring powered, did you?” he chuckled. The wind-up key on his back rotated ever so slightly. “This is just a kill switch. I have a steam engine.”

I thought your heart was your energy supply? wrote Pete.

There was a whoosh as the fuel caught aflame in Larry’s firebox. “It’s for emergencies. When I run out of real fuel.”

“It seemed like it was working fine before,” Prince remarked.

“You people ask too many damn questions.”

“No kidding,” Isaiah muttered.

Bradley answered instead. “The heart works too well. It will grind his gears to dust if he relies on it forever.” Larry scowled at him, but the Detective didn’t seem phased. “What are you going to do now?”

Larry was caught off guard by the question. “What do you mean?”

“I thought you’d retake control of the base. Why didn’t you?” Bradley added.

The automaton laughed bitterly. “Give me a break. Do you have any idea what they’ve been doing to me down here? They can fuck themselves.”

“You’re just now realizing that? You were just fine with their shit before you were the one getting tortured,” Isaiah scoffed, but his temper dissolved into a sulk as soon as Larry shot him a look.

“OK, time for you guys to tell us what your problem is. You said you joined the mafia during the last purge,” Prince cut in, pointing a finger at Isaiah, “but you keep acting like you’ve been here a lot longer than that. What’s the deal?”

Neither Larry nor Isaiah answered, but Bradley looked back and forth between the two of them a few times. “Isaiah is your son?” he surmised.

Isaiah grimaced as the Detective said it. Larry punched the wall next to Bradley’s head, rocking the entire carriage and leaving a dent in the metal. Stephanie clung to Prince. Twado barked and scurried around as the lonely light bulb flickered and swayed on its wire above them. Bradley was looking pissed, but he didn’t retaliate—this was neither the time nor place for a fight, and Isaiah surely felt the same, because he walked between them and stared Larry down until he backed off.

“Guess that was a yes,” said Hadrian. Monica thumped him on the side of the head.

The mood was somehow even more sullen now. Larry had withdrawn to the corner of the elevator. He looked lost in his thoughts, but they couldn’t stay silent forever.

“What do we do?” Prince asked.

“I would call in a raid on this base right now, but we’d have to find some cell signal for that,” Bradley said.

“It’s not a good time,” Larry argued. “The next purge is in eight days.”

Hadrian groaned. “The next purge? You guys do that every year?”

“Shut it. I’m not finished. We need to get somewhere safe. You’re all in even more danger than last time if the Headmaster put a hit on you.”

That name again. “Who the hell is the Headmaster?” Prince questioned.

“He’s the one pulling the strings in all this. It was him who turned Larry and Mary into these,” Bradley responded, motioning to the automaton. “And those two aren’t the only ones who have been subjected to the procedure. I don’t suppose you were privy to his ultimate plans, were you?” he asked Larry.

 Larry scowled at the question, but there was a hint of melancholy on his metallic features. “No, I wasn’t. But that’s not important right now. I know where a safehouse is,” he said as the elevator finally reached the surface. Everyone stepped out as the sun peeked over the horizon. The storm had died out into a light sprinkling of rain.

A couple of miscreants crouched in the dense trees and vegetation, concealed from view. One of them observed the new arrivals through his binoculars as they exited the carriage.

“Well, what do ya know?” said one of them.

“What? Luke, what do you see?”

“Mr. Clockturn made it out… but he looks to be defecting. What a shame, what a shame,” replied Luke, though he didn’t sound very saddened with that.

Brooke laughed. “Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me. Are we gonna take him down or what?”

“Don’t be rash, Brooke. He’s not alone. The meddlers are with him, and there’s gonna be a better opportunity soon. The next purge is coming right up.” the boy said as he stood up. Brooke snatched his binoculars and took a look at the group for herself.

“Come on. Those shrimps have nothing! We can take them,” she protested.

Luke shook his head and started walking away. “No. Last thing we need is to blow our first major assignment.”

Brooke grumbled in discontent, but she acquiesced and followed her brother deeper into the woods.

“Fine. Let them think they’re safe… for now.”