#oc minus form

[kaiju-wolfdragon]

Minus hope

[tblsomedoodles]

Doodle udea hut what do tbe boys (+ Clara) look like when wearing Cloaking Brooches?

I've never actually thought of what they'd look like with cloaking broaches (except for once for a fic with Mikey). So i kinda just came up with these on the fly lol.

But yeah, here's a few basic sketches of them in plain clothes and ninja attire (i wanted to see them both with and without masks. Some of them look better in masks than others lol.) If i ever end up using them they'll probably change depending on the au, but yeah. here yah go.

and a bonus Clara

i may go back and ink/color these. but i'm leaving for a weekend trip very soon so i don't have the time right now.

Thank you!

[the-dragon-girl-27]

🎉i'm one year closer to my inevitable demise 🎉

[xxfan-fixx]

Tbh I really like the idea of Demi Alastor and the idea of an older sister Morningstar OC/reader who is a lot like Charlie and Lucifer.

She has natural dark blonde hair and slightly more wavy, has Lilith’s eye shape and teeth, Charlie’s nose, height, and eye colors, and Lucifer’s face minus the red cheeks. Unfortunately she feels self conscious that she looks more like Lilith than Lucifer so she uses make up to make it look like she has them; she grew up not having a great relationship with Lilith but she adores Charlie and Lucifer always tried to make her feel loved.

Even though she never really liked having her photo taken there’s a small handful of photos and portraits of her (she would try to bleach her hair to look like she’s more a part of the family; she has a random genetic from her other Angel relatives who have darker hair but since two blondes don’t make anything but blonde, she has dark blonde *gotta give her some kind of alienation*) Since they’ve been close since childhood, Charlie eventually tried to make her feel better about her natural looks but she still doesn’t like her absence of red cheeks. She tries to avoid being seen without them (make up) as much as possible.

She loves learning about earthly life. She’s really passionate about human history details like style, activities, food, dances, songs.. She acts as the hotel’s chef. (Another part of my thoughts on is inspired by a fanfic based on Alastor and Older sister Reader who admitted their feelings during a ball. *heart bursting*)

~*~(AND)~*~

I have an ‘in-the-works’ sinner OC who is kind of a secret Overlord (I think), who grew up with Alastor (best-friends who had hidden feelings for each other) and when Alastor died she took it out on his killer with her signature style of unaliving people; death by food poisoning. Except that she missed him so much that she decided to go join him by poisoning herself and making sure she went to sleep before the effects took over because she was afraid of the possible pain.

In hell they met up by Alastor “catching” her with his body. He was on his way to find his second victim, and she just so happened to fall out of nowhere on top of him. She didn’t look too different from her human form, so they had a nice reunion and they’d figure out their way together in hell, growing more powerful as a duo. Eventually becoming a couple before the events of Hazbin hotel.

She’d join him at the hotel (post pilot) and become a mother figure for the crew. She’d also be some sort of confidant like Husker, but by having people sit in the kitchen while she cooks or bakes and having them be taste testers or she’d make a batch just for them or a cup of whatever drink/shake (she doesn’t poison the food because she genuinely cares for people unless they give her a reason to be weary/ like Charlie she looks for the good in others). She’d also be the only one who Husker is ok with who’s a part of Alastor’s life. With Nifty she leaves her be but Nifty loves her and likes to help clean the kitchen.

She keeps souls under her similar to Alastor but they work at her restaurant in the cannibal colony district. It’s an ever changing restaurant style she uses her magic to turn into whatever she’s deciding for that week or month. With Mimzy she’s cordial but annoyed. On the other hand, with Rosie she adores her and helps her with whatever she needs. They go shopping and have lunches together either just the two of them or with Alastor as well. In the case of Alastor’s and Vox’s rivalry, she leaves them be.

Everyone knows she’s Alastor’s girl but they don’t dare to try anything. Just incase though; when she looked over at Charlie’s phone one day when she was showing her new recipes she likes it made her want to find more, so she received a modified smart phone from Charlie who somehow has Voxtech protection (a headcanon that I have is that Vox has tried to infiltrate Lucifer’s or Charlie’s phone before but they found a way to block him). Alastor is bummed she has modern technology but the only thing she really uses it is for her restaurant and recipes. She’s like a grandma in a 30 year old’s body; having to ask the younger ones for help on the phone. It’s adorable.

(Both OC ideas are based on working as the hotel’s chef) *lol thinking about the part in episode 5 with Lucifer singing “-now that you’ve got the chef” referencing himself but a quick pan to OC/reader with a half wtf/half whatever face* (also both inserts I named in my head Genevieve “Jenny” for short- I have no clue what the sinner OC’s last name would be tho-)

Genevieve “Jenny” Morningstar is such a cute name I think for an older sister insert *im squealing*

[mantisgodsart]

@bug-oc... round ONE! Finally! Still counting this as "round one" of transmutations because of the blog round numbers despite the fact that we've already done a round of like two bugs! We... didn't realize how many of these characters were yellow until it was actually time to draw them. It's like we went in with a theme, and then stuck to it. Except for with Holly, who presumably lost the dress code along with their head. Please vote for our cool dune cricket in the handful of hours before this round ends, and thank you!

Individual characters and transmutation notes below cut.

[...though I briefly considered another form, limiting surface area relative to the size of the entity is crucial for stability in ectoplasmic entities, and I don't currently intend to attempt to form a "swarm", as similar entities often form in the wild - a more simple, and thus more stable, form is better. The energy pack in the subject's possession upon intake appears to be either nearly or fully impossible to reclaim, unfortunately - ghosts can be hard to separate from things with sentimental value, so it's likely a lost cause. I'll continue obsevation...]

Beera by @longeth-dayv. An actual design, this time, rather than our fucking-around-with-maybes! This one, we think, does a lot more for the actual character, though from our understanding of Luigi's Mansion the species choice might be slightly more "generic". We particularly enjoyed tinkering with the wire of the power pack - ghosts and transparent things are VERY fun to draw, and we liked working out where that wire would go in the areas normally hidden by the body. Long, winding lines are very fun to draw sometimes. Hopefully this one works better for you, too!

[...successful partial isolation of the fungal element proves both that it can be isolated and that transmutation of cordyceps symbiotes may be less of a barrier than previously thought. Results appear similar to "Moka" back in the first year of experiments, where the cordyceps remains untransmuted within the new body - is this a quirk unique to vertebrate physiology? The failed transmutation with Fulminis pulled from a largely bug pool, whilst both successful cordyceps transmutations have been with beasts.]

[The avian physiology doesn't seem to have produced much difference from reptilian, minus some differences in visible fungal growth, but the subjects started with varying quantities of visible fungal growth to begin with, and the magic present in both of the previous round's subjects presents an additional variable... at the very least, I know that the fungus on its own is either resistant or immune to conventional transmutation, considering Mop, though I still need to work out how the host-symbiote synthesis alters things...]

[I'll have to do further testing- I dearly wish that these subjects were easier to get my hands on, but I don't know where I would be able to source them in my own universe, much less if they even exist there, since I'm no longer certain if the time portal event through which I met Holly Holiyxeiul was from the past of my universe, the past of another universe, or the present of somewhere else. Omelette's successful transmutation proves that I can manufacture them, but I won't be certain as to the limits of this until I can collect samples...]

Butterscotch from @w-krajobrazie-zapomnienia. The wings on this took... FOREVER. Deciding to make Butterscotch a bird with individual "charring" on the feathers was an act of monumental hubris, and EASILY the most labor-intensive part of this page. Doing this in watercolor would have been easier, probably. Alas, if we want to be capable of using a marker, we must put effort into marker drawing. At the very least, we think the effect came out fairly well! We like the sort of "scorched" effect that Butterscotch's base design has, and though difficult to recreate in marker form, we think we pulled it off! Hope this works decently well for you.

[...expanding lizard experiments from the ones found in the former grounds of Five Pebbles to their closest resemblances in the fleshbeasts of our world, I found quite a few points of similarity. Though for obvious reasons, I haven't had the opportunity to observe any specimens of the original species, given that most vertebrate beasts have been extinct since before I was hatched, the underlying biology is similar enough that I could carry through a significant amount of understanding forward.]

[Though majority of traits seem typical for what I can observe from preserved specimens, I am noting some minor divergences - typical for the lizards of RW9089-1, but not, as far as I know, typical for the reptiles that once roamed the wastes. The subject has developed sensory whiskers, narrower than those observed on Black Lizards but seeming to serve a similar function of detecting scent and motion in the air.]

[Additionally, the subject has developed a short coat of setae across the back, with a similar texture to the subject's former ruff - some surface-level similarities have been found to the hair on the pelts of Northern Moths, particularly those found in areas where significant quantities of water make leviathans a dietary staple. Though fur "coats" can be found in RW-9089-1 specimens such as Strawberry Lizards, this trait is, as far as I can tell, unique to this specimen.]

[When following up, I'll want to examine the dorsal frills to be certain that former shape's traits are not overwriting the end shape's traits to too significant of a degree - this is not an unknown trait in salamanders, but I'll need to be certain the structure isn't too similar to insect wing structure, as this many traits carrying over may indicate mid-point speciesation, which will mean any parts harvested will have wholly different traits from the originally sourced...]

Lote from @fallenvoidhere! We went through a handful of design iterations on this, mostly trying to home in on making it clear that it's the character - we sort of underestimated how much blue we'd need to add, but when you're turning into a lizard several times your normal size, it's probably understandable to lose a lot of your accessories…? Since the black on the design, respectively, is mostly accessories, most of these markings are improvised - we based our placement at least partially off of an orca whale, after going through a lot of markings from IRL salamanders. Originally, we planned to make the wing further in to the body a bit more transparent, but… well, as it turns out, we're probably a bit too used to watercolors for our own good, and working with markers is a bit of a different beast. We still think it came out pretty decent!

[...previously noted properties of fireflies appear to ease the rougher edges of this, though it will still need some refining before it's ready to go to market. A working prototype is better than I've gotten with previous generations of this recipe. I'll have to spend some time going over the readings to work out how to route things on anything that isn't a firefly.]

[With the way that most of these particular transmutations have gone, forming a "chamber" for the light before the light-producing compound itself is produced appears to be key for the survivablity of the subject. I suspect that there's a reason that the gas compound found in the component-introduction artefact hasn't been found in natural beings; despite the multitude of uses it has in charmcraft, mercury tends to be quite toxic with continual exposure, and mercury vapor in particular can be deadly. Another reason to stick to proper PPE..]

Nox from @erijuice! This one's quite a dramatic modification to the body plan. We may have gotten a bit carried away with things here, but... okay listen we will be fully honest with you this is just an elaborate plan on "glow wyrm". We based this one heavily off of tatzulwurms and similar creatures, and from there mostly just went into "having fun with it". The wings might grow in more later, or they might not - this was one of our personal favorite designs to draw, and though we sort of wish we tinkered with the pose a bit more, it's a bit hard to do here without running into issues with... space. Such is the consequence of making a big page o' transmuted bugs.

[...more experimental brews have their pros and cons, and with this one, it's a bit hard to define which is more present. On the plus side, the resulting form seems stable; lack of mandibles aside, it's standing and walking, and seems in fine health from the readings that I can see. Subject is alert and appears to have either full or very close to full former cognitive capacity, as shown by the multiple attempts at escape via manipulating the lock. It's just that I don't have the slightest clue what it is, or how its biology... works.]

[I intend to collect samples once the transmutation settles enough for properties to solidify. From initial testing, I think that its digestive system may rely partially on the fur-like... appendages, on its ventral side, but it's presently somewhat unclear. Upon coming into contact with some spare biological waste (see: Vessel project, Voidless transmutation attempts), the material appeared to "tangle" in the ventral fur, and was gradually dissolved over the course of about eighteen hours. From what I can gather of the data, this appears to have given off similar readings to a more conventional being having eaten a large meal? Will test with other forms of biological material once I can gather enough material to recreate the end organism if existing subject is lost.]

Yasmine from @darth-moth - and this is one that was very fun to do! The lines in this were very, VERY fun to work with, and we had quite a lot of fun just banging this out! - the design here is, probably fairly obviously, based heavily on Rain World's Rain Deer, as well as the multitude of "creepy deer" type stories that are practically everywhere on the internet. We were tinkering, if vaguely, with the concept of something like a terrestrial filter feeder, or similar - did you know that some whales have begun hunting behavior of pretending to be shelter so that fish will hide in their mouths and, thus, be eaten?

We'd picture that this, whatever it is, wanders places and passively snags prey with the dangling "fur", avoiding any sort of need for energy-intensive chases while keeping itself fed on whatever it walks over. A passive scavenger, probably with not a lot in terms of personal self defense. The vents on the sides, though they might be slightly unclear as is, are just about the only active method of offense - releasing toxic gas or something similar in an attempt to choke out predators. Our greatest desire in life is to design enemies for a soulslike poison swamp and we think that Yasmine is an excellent poison swamp candidate. We hope that this is a normal and usual motivation and ambition to have, we had a lot of fun with it.

[...uncontrolled crystal growth took over before the transmutation had completed, at roughly 4 days, 8 hours after the initial administration of the formula. I was lucky to be awake at the time - the remote monitor that I imbedded appears to have been consumed by the same phenomenon shortly before my arrival. I can only assume that this is due to pre-existing contamination - if not accounted for, Crystals can react very unpredictably to transmutations, and I didn't account for contamination of this assumed level.]

[Though I've observed this sort of effect before, it's been years since I've experienced a bloom of nearly this extent. What really surprises me is that the subject appears to still be moving, despite the extensive damage to... everything. The head appeared to have been fully destroyed at the time of arrival, and the crystals sprouting from the back have to have gone right through the ganglia - the weave of the transmutation has been fully destroyed, so it can't be sustaining itself on the former body's imprint, so I can only assume that the crystals captured some of the host body's mind during the overgrowth event and are attempting to continue to run the same old patterns of behavior.]

[I am currently unclear on how much of the former bug remains. What scans that I've taken suggest that the new crystals may have linked up with their companion Warden, though to what degree is still unclear. If I want to properly analyze this, I'll need to take it back to the lab. From there... diagnosis work, and maybe trying to work out how poor Snakemouth Den's lab security is, really.]

Holly from @thetroupemaster! Our first transmutation failure of the tournament! Holly, unfortunately, fell victim to poor lab safety - a more open-ended formula intended to gather a form from environmental factors, combined with some unfortunate lab contamination. This actually links in to a few personal headcanons on how Crystals work, though we don't think we've posted them before.

A crystal is a colonial organism, much like coral, storing both data and magical energy. Generally gathering energy from the sun to power itself, it grows so slowly as to be unnoticeable to the bug eye, but it does grow, and when exposed to, say, a charm engineered to allow for rapid change of a physical form, it has the potential to rapidly grow and consume that energy, stopping its growth either when it grows out of magical energy or when the handful of elements present in the original weave to let it change and grow are consumed.

Some people in external kingdoms do this to avoid having to constantly ship in Crystals from Bugaria, but it's not particularly common, as this method of growing Crystals tends to consume things like your other projects, or the lab shielding you probably want to keep intact, or yourself if you have the poor foresight to not properly protect yourself against contamination. Under control conditions, the chances of this happening are nearly zero! Under these conditions... well.

Crystals are very, very good at preserving memories. The rest of Holly's body, on the other hand, might be a bit of a lost cause at this point. You can work in a lab without seeing things, right...?

...yeah, we aren't counting on it, either.

Bonus: for those who scrolled down this far, a quick compilation of labels. As well as, of course, a teaser for what's yet to come.

[...the most complimentary thing that I can say about Mal, I think, is that Hobbes would get along well with xir. Terrible lab safety protocols. AWFUL cross-contamination protocols. Just looking at this bug's methodology is giving me hives. Venus give me strength. I suspect that any brew that I attempt to use will suffer from enough unknown, uncontrollable outside variables that none of the data I get will be even remotely applicable to any other situation. "Edge case" is generous - I struggle to call this sort of tampering anything less than an utter abomination of science.]

[I will be using one of the more heavily conceptual brews for this. The REMW-19 formula is reasonably stable enough that the weave shouldn't just collapse in on itself, but it has been remarkably poor at producing organisms capable of surviving on their own once the transformation has set enough that they don't have enough former anatomy to "fall back" on - I suspect, currently, that the survival of targets afflicted with the effect I am attempting to recreate relies the support on some sort of internal magic system, and if so, the sheer amount of lingering cross-contamination likely seeped into every ounce of aer chitin might actually boost survivability. I have no positive expectations for this, however.]

In spending ingredients on this, I hope to assemble an encyclopedic list of all of the ways that a charm's effects can go stupidly, horribly wrong. Venus willing, it will not double as a list of ways that my lab can be destroyed, or a list of ways that tampering with Charmcraft can go wrong. I have had enough recent trouble with repairing the lab's seals after the Vessel experiments - I have no particular desire to replace anything else now.]

[eriscary]

Hewo!! I rlly love your sans, Tear!! He's such a creative and inspirational character! Just curious, what were some of your inspirations, when designing him?

-vibrates in excitement- I will use this chance to yap A LOT about Tear's overall creation, story and visuals. I'm sorry for this essay…

______

I returned to the Undertale fandom super recently. It’s 8-9 years after the game was released I think. I started to joke with a friend how I will make an OC only now. 3 days later it was not a joke anymore and Tear came to be.

I think what influenced the story I created is the fact that I adore isekai, reincarnation and reliving same life kind of stories. I love the feeling of being able to experience what being a specific character is like, be it through my own eyes or another character's. Because a lot of people enjoy superpowers, want to feel cool, want to become important in something/story, want to see characters deal with this type of confusion etc.... Yes, I read Sans variant reincarnation/isekai stories too. I thought, who wouldn't be interested into experiencing an exciting life (minus the stress and trauma that comes with it, but that makes it a fun read).

In the moment of me joking about creating an OC, I was trying to come up with funny scenarios that would make me laugh from how absolutely ridiculous it is. It was only to have a few laughs with a friend. Revisiting the utmv fandom, it is pretty clear it's legit ruled by Sanses and barely anything else. Somehow the idea of using my favorite character, Napstablook, just clicked with my reincarnation/isekai addiction. A character that, just like all the people consuming the same content I liked, wishes to experience what they consider exciting. That is, the life all these Sanses have. They only ever saw Sanses be 'special'. I hoped it would make Tear relatable. That Tear would be a character which is entertaining to follow, because we know what the multiverse is like as viewers, but they do not. Someone who could be cheered on because of it (just like in the game wow -cough cough- sorry). And then the idea with ripping Error's plushies hit me. I was so overly entertained by it, that it was basically the point where the whole thing stopped being a joke.

After I had the basis of the story to work with, I moved to designing their look. I pulled up a picture of every. single. popular. sans. variant. that I could remember from utmv early days. I wanted Tear to be able to legit fit in so well among them, because their wish was to be like them, blend with them in such a way. To be a Sans, a cool traveler to meet many others, be loved etc etc. For this plan, the design had to have not too much detail or too little. Most utmv designs aren't that complex. Napstablook only has a few visually distinctive features, so I tried to keep them in mind. Those being their line between the eyes and the sheet waves/frills at the end of their body. So the only initial plan was... sketch a normal sans, slap the usual shorts and shirt that all these OC variants barely change and figure it out from there. A lot of mainstream characters still wore a kind of a hoodie/jacket, so a hoodie was a must for me. I added the waves at the bottom of it, to resemble Napstablook's body, and that forehead line in the form of stitches. It still didn't feel enough. I wanted it to be extremely obvious who they are visually at first glance, with 0 prior knowledge (Napstablook Sans variant). Headphones were my biggest cherry on the top, because I don't think it gets more clear than that if I shape them to look like Blooky themselves. I later on decided I want some design references to Blooky crying too. So I added a scarf, made it drop it's ends approximately in the center of the character, as well as made the edges rounded slightly. All so it would resemble -drum rolls- a tear. Very, very subtly. The tear heart in the back was also a not so subtle tribute to it too. Because Blooky is fully paper white, Tear had to be mostly in the same colors. I admit I wanted to make their purples blue instead (to match their house colors) but I'm a sucker for the purple color and there is an inside joke with another friend how everything I ever design has some sort of purple tint to it. It's something I stopped fighting long ago and just embraced it as my little art quirk. At this point I adopt it on purpose if I catch myself doing it subconsciously. So my blue became purple instead. This was all inspired by OG Blooky and no one specific directly.

Once the design was already settled, I actually did end up taking inspiration from Dust Sans. This is the only character I directly took inspo from. I loved the idea of dramatic shadows being cast by his hood and it was perfect for what I have in store. So I expanded my ref sheet with such a drawing. I wanted the usual Tear to have a completely different vibe visually from the one that could be fought. I wanted to kill some of Tear's overall softness by making their gaze feel off. Wide eyed stare, with drastic shadows and glowing eyes. Tho they cannot and do not glow for the same reasons as Classic Sans. I recently mentioned it HERE. There is another inspiration I took from Dust, not connected to the design, but as of now I cannot mention it. It will be revealed soon if all works out.

After that, I just started writing the character info on the google doc and polishing it. The story just kept coming and consuming my brain. I never planned to make a comic out of this little idea. I was only gonna post Tear’s info sheet, maybe draw Tear 2-3 more times and move on. It was an impulse decision. All because I couldn’t stop chuckling about the Error bit and the consequences of it. Now Tear became somewhat of a comfort character and gave me a hyperfixation of a truck

[tip-top-cloud-surfer]

The Ironies of Life (Part 3) - Rooster

Pairing: Rooster/ Fem!OC (Naomi)

Word Count: 2.9k

Warnings: (Unplanned) Pregnancy; Exes; Emotional Angst; Named Female OC (Naomi), but No Physical Descriptions

This work, all of my other works, and my entire blog are 18+ Only.

Naomi is referenced as being a woman and she was previously an officer in the Navy. But otherwise there is no description of her physical features or her surname, so fill in as you wish.

Summary: Rooster flies in for Naomi's baby shower. They struggle to communicate normally.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 4

Master List

Having nightmares wasn’t odd for Rooster. Having nightmares about the uranium facility mission specifically wasn’t odd for Rooster. He relived those seconds where he thought that he was going to die countless times. The first time that he was shot out of the sky. The second time that he was nearly shot out of the sky with Maverick as the pilot. Getting caught at the enemy base. All of it.

But this time, it was different.

It started out the same. He and Mav were flying through the sky and the fifth-generation fighter had a lock on them. The missile was coming straight for them and Rooster had been down this particular nightmare path enough times to know that Hangman wasn’t going to arrive in time. The missile hit and everything flashed to black, just like it usually did in his nightmares.

But this time, it didn’t end there.

He didn’t wake up. He didn’t sit up immediately and gasp for breath while he sat in practically a pool of his own sweat. He didn’t stumble out of bed and scramble out of his soaked shirt as he crawled for the shower or something else to try and calm himself down.

No, the nightmare continued. But not in the direction that Rooster was expecting.

After the flash of light, Rooster found himself staring up at a house. And not just any house. It was the house that he used to live in with Naomi. The house that they moved into together about a year and a half into their relationship. The house that he promptly moved out of the night that she broke up with him. It was the center of their relationship. And it looked just like how Rooster remembered it.

Minus the fact that Phoenix was standing on the front porch in her dress whites.

She stood rigid, but there was an added shakiness to her form when she raised her fist. Phoenix knocked on the door three times in a short staccato fashion before taking a step back. She let out a breath, trying to steady herself, before she straightened up even further.

Naomi answered the door, slowly pulling it back. She must have seen Phoenix from the window because looked like she was in the middle of mentally preparing herself for this conversation. But, for whatever reason, Naomi wasn’t pregnant in this nightmare. Or maybe she was, but she didn’t look it. She looked exactly like she did the day that she dumped him.

Naomi gripped the door tightly and held a hand over her mouth as tears sprung to her eyes. Phoenix opened her mouth to speak, but no words seemed to come out. She simply shook her head as she fought her own tears. Phoenix cleared her throat and opened her mouth again, but she was cut off by a distinct cry from inside the house.

A cry that caused a new wave of fear to flow through Rooster’s soul.

Naomi tried to dry her tears and turned inside the house, leaving the door ajar for Phoenix to come inside. Rooster watched as Naomi headed into the living room and over to a little white crib. she leaned over the crib and carefully scooped up a little baby—his little baby, Rooster realized with absolute horror—and held them to her chest.

“It’s okay,” Naomi cried softly. She pressed a kiss to her baby’s head and rested her head over their own as tears openly streamed down her cheeks. “It’s okay, sweetheart.”

~~~~~

Rooster shot up in bed, gasping for breath. Sweat dripped down his chest and forehead, making Rooster feel too hot and too cold at the same time. He leaned over his bed, feeling his stomach run through somersaults as anxiety and adrenaline took over. Gagging and gasping, Rooster held a hand to his face and tried to calm down.

It was just a nightmare, he repeated to himself. It was just a nightmare.

Rubbing his face, Rooster reached for his phone and checked the time. 2:19 AM. Rooster let out another sigh and kicked the blanket off of him. Eventually padding out of his room in Maverick’s house, Rooster headed towards the kitchen. He planned to sit on the back porch or go for a run.

But when he saw Maverick sitting at the kitchen table, flipping through a newspaper, Rooster stopped in the entryway. Maverick slowly looked up at Rooster with a knowing look in his eye. Rooster did not comment on Maverick’s stare and simply walked over to take his seat. Grabbing a banana, Rooster started to mindlessly peel it while Maverick finally opened his mouth to speak.

“The same one?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah,” was all Rooster offered.

“Are you all packed?” Maverick questioned, changing the subject.

“Yeah. I’m only going for the weekend,” Rooster stated softly, glancing up at Maverick.

It was a little over a month since Rooster found out that Naomi was pregnant with his child. She was now over seven months pregnant and this weekend was her baby shower, which her mom and sister put together for her. Naomi gave Rooster an invitation before she left Miramar, but Rooster was still worried that he was unwelcome there.

After all, he was the jackass who refused to talk to her for six months about the baby.

And Rooster didn’t doubt that Naomi’s sister Sydney was going to make his weekend a living hell as punishment for that. Sydney wasn’t always Rooster’s biggest fan. And she wasn’t exactly subtle. But they were in a good place for the last four years or so of Naomi and Rooster’s relationship. And then he blocked her when she tried to reach out to him on Naomi’s behalf.

So, yeah, she was going to make his weekend a living hell.

“You’ll be fine,” Maverick insisted calmly, offering him a supportive expression. “You’re flying up for the weekend for this. If you were really a complete deadbeat, you wouldn’t drive ten minutes down the road for this baby shower. They’ll recognize that. And Naomi already knows that.”

“I know,” Rooster sighed, holding his head in his hands. He let out another sigh before picking his head up. “But I can’t fuck this up, Mav. I can’t.”

“It’s pretty hard to fuck up attending a baby shower,” Maverick pointed out softly.

“Oh, I’ll find a way,” Rooster muttered, shaking his head.

~~~~~

Rooster did find a way to fuck it up. Or rather, American Airlines found a way.

Delayed three hours. His flight, which was barely long enough for the flight attendant to walk around and hand out in-flight service, was delayed three hours. And that meant that all of Rooster’s planning went completely out the window.

Well, if Sydney didn’t hate him before, she definitely did now.

Rooster hurried up to the venue and simply hoped that the first person that he ran into was not Sydney, but maybe Naomi’s mom instead. But, of course, the second that he pushed the door open, the first set of eyes that he locked with belonged to one very annoyed Sydney.

“God-fucking-dammit,” Rooster muttered under his breath before forcing a smile. “Hey, Sydney.”

“Brad Brad,” she greeted him coldly, folding her arms over her chest. “Get lost on your way up?”

“Flight got delayed,” Rooster explained, knowing that it wasn’t going to help his cause either way. “I texted Naomi about it.”

“I know,” Sydney replied calmly. She stared him down for a bit, letting Rooster squirm for a little bit, before she finally put him out of his misery. “My sister is out back. Try to not disappoint her any more than you already have, Brad Brad.”

“Thank you, Sydney,” Rooster grunted out, quickly making his way past her.

Keeping his head down as he maneuvered through the few guests that remained, Rooster made his way out to the back patio. Stepping outside, Rooster took a quick glance around before spotting Naomi over on a patio couch with her mom. He cleared his throat, straightened up a bit, and made his way over to her. Naomi’s mom was the first to spot him and offered him a small smile.

“Hi, Bradley,” she called, getting up from her seat. “How was your flight?”

“Very late,” Rooster replied apologetically.

“Well, nothing you can do about that,” Naomi’s mom assured him, giving him a quick squeeze. “Did you eat lunch?”

“No, I was—”

“—I’ll grab you some then. You two just stay out here for a bit,” Naomi’s mom interjected, earning a look from Naomi, who was still sitting on the couch. “I’ll bring it out to you.”

“You don’t have—”

“—No, no, no, I insist. And some cake too,” Naomi’s mom stated before hurrying off.

Rooster watched her go before turning to Naomi, who now sat on the edge of the couch. She offered him a small smile and gestured to the seat across from her.

“You know that you’ll never win against her.”

“I’m remembering very quickly,” Rooster replied, walking around to sit on the couch.

He set his bag down and awkwardly cleared his throat. Turning to Naomi again, Rooster opened his mouth to apologize, but Naomi waved her hand before he could even speak.

“I was checking your flight status. You don’t have to apologize,” she stated softly. “It wasn’t your fault that you were late.”

This time, Rooster added on his own accord.

“Did you get the gifts that Penny and Mav sent up?” Rooster asked quietly, forcing a smile.

“Yes, I opened them earlier. Thank everyone for all of it,” Naomi replied kindly, nodding along with a wide, genuine smile. “I appreciate it, really. Especially the little mobile with all the birds. I’m assuming that Penny helped Mav pick out.”

“I picked it out, actually,” Rooster added softly.

“Oh, sorry,” Naomi quickly correctly herself, “well, thanks for picking it out. It looks beautiful.”

“Of course,” Rooster mumbled out, trying to relax just a little bit. “How’s . . . everything? Your health and all of that.”

“Healthy. We’re both healthy,” Naomi assured Rooster with an encouraging look. “Everything’s normal and progressing as it should be.”

“Good. That’s . . . good.”

“Yeah,” Naomi breathed out, looking like she was forcing confidence as well.

“I grabbed you a little bit of everything,” Naomi’s mom called, breaking up the unresolved tension. “I hope that’s enough for you.”

“No, no, that’s plenty,” Rooster assured Naomi’s mom, taking the plate from her hands. “Thank you.”

“Anytime. And I was going to bring you some cake, but it’s color coded, so . . .” Naomi’s mom trailed off, sharing a look with Naomi.

Rooster turned to Naomi, who straightened up a bit when she realized what her mom was referencing. Naomi turned to Rooster with nervous smile. Fiddling a bit with her fingers, Naomi smoothed down her dress and rubbed her bump.

“Well, um . . .” Naomi took a moment to compose herself before meeting Rooster’s curious gaze again. “I decided to learn the gender of the baby. And Sydney had a cake made for it and . . . I was going to tell you about it when you got here and so, if you want to wait some more, that’s fine.”

“Oh,” Rooster realized, nodding slowly. “I’ll, uh . . .”

Rooster trailed off, looking away from Naomi as he tried to piece together his thoughts. Did he want to know the gender of the baby? Did it really matter if he found out now or if he found out later? He didn’t think so. But there was also the nagging little voice deep in the back of his mind, the part that tended to bring out his more avoidant personality traits, flashed a giant warning sign in front of his eyes.

“. . . I’ll just wait the few more weeks,” Rooster finally decided, picking his head up.

“That’s fine,” Naomi immediately assured him. “Sorry for throwing that decision at you.”

“Don’t apologize,” Rooster told her. “It was your decision to make.”

Naomi seemed a little surprised at his particular phrasing, but she quickly pulled on a smile. Shuffling a bit in her seat, she turned back to Rooster.

“Oh, well, then no cake. Don’t want to ruin the surprise.”

~~~~~

Rooster knew that he had some making up to do to Naomi and her family.

And if there was any way to try and make it up to Naomi, turning himself into a pack mule was probably a good start. Grabbing all of the huge, heavy boxes from the car and dragging them upstairs to the nursery without any help had to win him a couple points.

He hoped, at least.  

After she entered her third trimester of her pregnancy, Naomi moved back in with her mom into her childhood home. Her one-bedroom apartment in the city just didn’t seem like the right place to raise a baby, so she moved home. It took a sizeable dent out of her pride, but this wasn’t about her anymore. The baby deserved a backyard to run around in and a driveway to ride their bike.

And, well, Rooster quietly agreed with her. And he wanted to appear supportive, so if he had to act like a pack mule for a bit, he would act like a pack mule for a bit.

“You didn’t have to carry all of that,” Naomi assured Rooster, walking into the nursery. “We could have helped you.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Rooster insisted, straightening up. “It’s the least that I can do.”

Naomi nodded with a small smile, glancing around the nursery. She licked her lips nervously before straightening up and folding her arms over her bump. Turning back to Rooster, Naomi offered him a gentle expression.

“Did you want to help set up the nursery? While you’re here?” Naomi offered to him quietly.

“You want my help with that?” Rooster asked, a little surprised at her offer. “I would have thought that you wanted your mom and Sydney to help you out with that.”

“Well, they already helped me pick most of this out for the registry,” Naomi replied, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly. “And you didn’t get to do any of that. So, if you want, if you’re not too tired, we can do it together.”

“Okay,” Rooster agreed, nodding along slowly. “I, uh, I’d like that.”

“Okay,” Naomi returned with a small smile.

They worked together, reminding Rooster of the happier times between them. When they felt like a team. When he felt like there was nothing that they couldn’t have solved together. When he thought that he finally found the one person that he was going to spend every last breath with.

But it was hard to remember that that was months ago and wasn’t his reality anymore.

Rooster still did most of the heavy lifting, but Naomi was very much an active participant. But it didn’t take long for Rooster to notice how she was shifting uncomfortably on her feet. Her ankles were swollen and with the baby shower earlier that day, Rooster had to assume that Naomi was exhausted. And, so, when they finished up with the crib, he started on the chair.

“Here,” Rooster called, gesturing to the chair.

“No, no, I’m fine,” Naomi insisted, going back to folding blankets.

“Naomi,” Rooster called again, “you’ve been shifting on your feet ever since we started.”

Naomi shot him a look of protest that Rooster had seen about a thousand times before, but eventually when the pain in her feet became just a bit too much, she begrudgingly switched over to the chair. Rooster moved to put the bassinet together while Naomi arranged and sorted through the various miscellaneous gifts that she received.

“Alright, that’s all set. Where did you . . .” Rooster trailed off, glancing back at Naomi.

In the minute between her handing him some pieces and him finishing up the bassinet, Naomi seemed to have fallen asleep on her chair. She was curled up a bit with her head resting on the edge of it and her lips slightly parted. It looked like an awkward position but given the day that Naomi had and third trimester exhaustion, she probably could have fallen asleep anywhere.

Slowly standing up, Rooster quietly walked over to Naomi. He waited a few moments, just to make sure that she was, in fact, asleep. Glancing at the open door, Rooster bent his knees. Rooster carefully slid his arm underneath Naomi’s knees and back to slowly lift her up. She barely even stirred as he shifted her head to his shoulder.

Carefully walking out of the room, Rooster turned the corner and headed for Naomi’s childhood bedroom. The door was open, so Rooster carried her inside. Laying her down on her bed, Rooster adjusted Naomi’s pillows and blankets for her, trying to get her as comfortable as possible given her large baby bump.

Straightening up again, Rooster couldn’t help but stare down at Naomi’s bump. It was larger than it was the last time that he saw her, and Rooster found himself searching for any sign of the baby—their baby—moving around in there. He reached out a hand, about to brush his fingers along Naomi’s bump, when he caught himself.

Immediately reaching back, Rooster cleared his throat and turned for the door, leaving Naomi to sleep peacefully in her bed.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 4

Tag List:

@gxlden-honey @caidi-paris @xoxabs88xox @badasspizzalover @rosiahills22 @midnightmagpiemama @indigomaegrimm @pinkpantheris @itsmytimetoodream @appledressing

[stellarbat]

So, I ended up writing a fanfic in my spare time, hehe. It's called Spacecataz Origins, and Ynitial is the main character. I also went ahead and redesigned Err and Ignignokt in my style!

Along with those two are more oc's! Altrack, Opalite, Ulysseus, and Killscreen! They're quite the wacky crew.

Below the cut is their alternate forms (Minus Killscreen and Ulysseus because of image limits)

[pokemonxhyperfixation]

Happy Cirno day lads/lass/more conversationally gender neutral form of lad (which i use gender neutrally normally but I recognize that is probably odd)!

I don’t really put much thought into Cirno ever, so instead I’ll be posting a headcanon for all of EoSD's cast (minus Meiling, I've run out of head canons about her to share), and also include the shit head idiot OC fairies of mine for fun. Actual post bellow cut.

Rumia: In my head, Rumia is a super spacey girly. Like, you (assuming you're someone she'd converse with) are having a conversation with her, and like half-way through, she just zones out and starts blankly staring off into space. She's also a fair bit smarter than she presents, but she may or may not be concussed like half the time due to blindly flying into trees and buildings. These two were not meant to be related, but might actually be in heinsight...

Daiyousei: I established in an earlier post that I believe Dai to be deaf and mute (can't hear or talk, I really hope mute isn't an offensive term...), but I actually have more thoughts on Dai (and other great fairies). Starting with actual Great Fairy HCs, all great fairies are larger, smarter, and have more developed brains (hovering around late teen to young adult stages of development, with Dai being on the lower end of that scale). Despite all this however, great fairies are typically still largely the same in behavior to normal fairies, and are not necissarily more powerful either. Oh, and as for Dai specific headcanons, she's chummy with Rumia and Mystia (despite neither actually knowing sign language), and is unfortunately usually the one to take responsibility for Cirno's fuckery.

CIRNO: It is her day, so I'll be sharing more for her than anyone else. For one thing, In my head Cirno is actually on the higher end of height when compared to other normal fairies (Hell and Great Fairies are larger than normal). She's also HELLA protective of Dai (which I think I said before, but it bares repeating), and WILL attack you if you make Dai feel any even remotely negative emotion. In my head, Cirno is somehow both a social butterfly who revels in the company of others, and is COMPLETELY socially inept. Like, to the point of starting fights on accident by mispeaking, or saying some right HEINOUS shit and not realizing how bad it is. She considers both Letty and Yuuka equally her mom, despite basically being completely unrelated to either. Both are quite fond of this, tho Letty more so just due to her enjoying the company more.

Koakuma: she's french.

Patchouli: Patchi has basically dumb lucked herself into a weird polycule adjacent thing with Alice (who she's like, actually dating) and Koakuma (who is super affectionate and wanting of affection). How someone who smells of mold and shitty beer can pull not one but TWO ladies, IDK. (Also Patchi is somehow immune to the affects of alcohol. So she's the SDM's designated driver.)

Sakuya: I subscibe to the fan theory that Sakuya was a Vampire hunter before the SDM. Short version of my HC Sakuya backstory is basically that she's of japanese blood but somehow became an English (Remi and Flan are Scottish in my head, blame Slayyer Guilty Gear) orphan. She was then taken in by vampire hunters, sent to deal with "vampire in south scottland" and failed misserably. Only survived because Remi is soft.

Remilia: As said prior, Remi is from Scottland in my head (again, blame Slayyer). While Remi is an adult in my mind, she's not a super mature adult (think early to mid 20s and brought up in a stupidly upper class family). While she does have a childish streak, she's pretty good at covering for it. While her staple outfit in the games and such is her prefered outfit, she'll switch into a suit if she has to do hand to hand combat.

Flandre: Flan is also Scottish, tho unlike Remi she's mostly lost the accent. I remember seeing a Headcanon somewhere that Flan's wings are the way they are because she accidentally destroyed them in the past and then bejeweled what remained, and I subscibe to that idea. Flan doesn't do much, but she did manage to smuggle a TV, cable, and a PS 1 into Gensokyo with her! She's since upgraded to a fire TV and a PS 2. She also got a Playstation 3 specifically to play Uncharted 3 (no, she has not played the first 2).

I have 5 Fairy OCs, all of which work for the SDM, but have only really characterized two of them, so you're only getting three.

Silver: She's the reason I said three. Haven't characterized her too much but there is enough to say. First up, she's a great fairy. Black Hair with glasses. She's the closest thing to a responsible fairy maid, though that really isn't saying much. She originates from Mystia's Izakaya actually, with this being the name I gave to the Fairy Maid Shopkeeper at the Hakurei Shrine. She's a Sakuya simp. That's all I have for her.

Here she is in MC, doesn't have the glasses but Fairy Maids don't have a skin with glasses so this is as close as it gets. Let's just assume Kiwi broke them or something.

Kiwi: A green haired fairy maid. She originates from my Zooge world in minecraft actually, being one of the fairy maids I have in an "exhibit" (it's just a big house people can walk into). She's a little clumsy lass, who's prone to making mistakes. She's trying her best tho. Would you believe if I said that, despite her name, she is deathly allergic to kiwis? Because she is.

Here she is in MC! Not the hair she's meant to have, but I had a peaceful mode incident (fairies are hostile mobs) and couldn't get the right hair style, which I forgot what as at this point. Ignore the blue bitch in the BG, she's one of the one's I'm not talking about.

Finally Frilly! A fairy maid with long, light brown hair. Just like Silver, her origins lie in Mystia's with her being the fairy that sells you alcohol outside the SDM in that game (I named Frilly before Silver btw). She's a relatively quiet type, not super chatty or sociable but will hold up a conversation. She's also really good at sneaking out. The catch is that she's super injury prone. She get's herself hurt alot.

Here she is in MC. Like Silver, not super accurate but I'm pretty sure the mod she's from doesn't even have fairies with the right hair color so oh well.

[kaiju-wolfdragon]

Minus willy

[emma-is-swaggy-and-epic]

A collection of some of my OCs as pokemon trainers :3

CHEAT SHEET/ EXPLANATION FOR EACH CHARACTERS' TEAMS UNDER THE CUT

Let's start with yuriko, her team consists of a gallade, a combee, a bisharp, a rookidee, a gothitelle and her beloved furfrou. Since chess is a BIG theme to yuriko's character, i wanted each pokemon to sorta reflect each piece in a game of chess (minus the king bc i ran out of room). Combee is the pawn because in chess: pawns are the weakest piece and are kinda there to protect the queen in a way, similarly to how worker bees in a beehive tend to do stuff for the queen (not to mention that pawns actually CAN become queens in a game of chess, similarly to how normal bee larvae can grow up to become a queen if fed enough). Bisharp and rookidee are the bishop and the rook for obvious reasons, gallade is the knight and gothitelle is the queen (though tbh i also partially chose those two bc in yuriko's usual form, she is a danganronpa fan character, specifically a celesgami fankid and i kinda associate those two characters with those pokemon...albeit with celeste it's more or less the gothitelle line IN GENERAL) lastly i chose a furfrou bc that's the closest i can get to yuriko's goofy ass dog, gambit.....there are no borzoi pokemon i'm afraid

Also ngl whenever i hear gothitelle's name, my mind immediantly goes to cottonelle and i can't help but think of emo toilet paper...

Next with makeighlyn: her team consists of a sylveon, a galarian ponyta, an indeedee, a porygon, a spiritomb and an absol. I imagine that since makeighlyn's whole lore is that she's a flash game mascot turned demon slayer, she was probably given a sylveon, ponyta and indeedee by her creators (the sylveon representing her pet cat, angie) but ended up finding and catching a porygon after she gained sentience; when she became a demon slayer, the souls of all the demons she killed formed into a spiritomb and she caught that too and lastly she caught an absol to sorta let the demons know she's coming since y'know.....absol is said to be a bad omen....also yes, makeighlyn IS wearing may's contest outfit, it was easier than just thinking up an original pokemon universe design for her

For myrtle: her team consists of a zorua, a cubone, a banette, jirachi, a duskull and a zubat. Tbh i didn't really put that much thought into her team, i just picked the edgiest pokemon i could find....though with cubone and banette i just picked them bc they're infamous for having really dark pokedex entries and are a common sight in the more horror-oriented side of the fandom, and also i picked zubat bc it's the first pokemon i think of when i think of team rocket (aside from meowth, obviously) typically i prefer not to include legendary/mythical pokemon whenever i give a character a pokemon team for the sake of believablity though i just couldn't resist giving myrtle jirachi considering how much it fits with her backstory (normally, myrtle's story is that she randomly discovered she had reality-bending powers one day and abused her power so much it caused a dimensional merge; though since this is pokemon and humans don't have powers, i feel it makes more sense if she caught jirachi and abused it's wish granting powers)

Lastly for renée: her team consists of an altaria, a castform, a smeargle, a snom, a munchlax and a bruxish. Tbh i only really gave her an altaria and a castform as a sort of callback to the fact that renée is a bird (though i had to make her human for the sake of this challenge), specifically a pigeon-cloud nymph hybrid; so i gave her a cloud bird and a weather creature! Since renée is more or less a 2014 tumblr-esque hipster (a bit millenialcore i daresay), i gave her a bruxish bc i've literally never seen a single person who likes bruxish (i personally don't really care for it either way but like....LOOK AT THIS THING!!! IT LOOKS LIKE IT SHOULD BE HANGING OUT WITH THE BEATLES IN PEPPERLAND OR SOME SHIT)

Anyway, i also gave renée a munchlax bc tbh that pokemon SCREAMS millenials in 2014 tbh (like....fr you'd be hard-pressed NOT to find a millenial on the internet from that era making jokes about how much pizza and avocado toast they eat) i also gave her a smeargle to reference renée's love for painting and a snom bc....tbh i think snom is kinda overrated and i feel like renée would be the type of person to make that damn thing her entire personality so yea (also renée likes bugs so i had in incorporate that SOMEHOW)

[heartfullofleeches]

Which of your OCS has zero ass to the point they are making Minecraft skeleton noises when throwing it back

I've literally made this joke about V before and the statement still stands. I was gonna say Jeremiah, but I think it'd be funny if priest man had a little something under his robes. It's with a heavy heart that I say Maddox has no ass but my reaper baby doesn't need it with how big their heart is. Licorice is somehow flatter than Eggnog mainly because I like bullying him. Honestly not too many in this category. I like my OCS having ass dont @ me

On the opposite side of the spectrum - All of the cow hybrids minus Licorice, Scream, Eggnog and Cherry are thicker than Snickers. Best ass out of that group is probably Peach or maybe RootBeer but don't tell her that. It's already stated that C.C and Damsel have bakeries, but Amyas has really nice thighs and I want to bite them but he'd like that way too much for me to do it. Fem Host can suffocate me with her thighs. My husband wife Liu could destroy me with theirs. Calliope wears baggy clothing, but girl's got meat on her too. All of the Hart boys have pretty nice asses. I could keep going but I'm gonna stop at Alasdair originally has no ass, but if his/her darling mentions liking certain attributes they will put in the effort... or simply modify their human form,

[youreobsessedwithtoomanyfandoms]

Don't Let Me Go

Words: 10,245

Warnings: language, talk of alcohol/alcohol consumption, regret, Leon being a dick but for a kinda good reason, people may be mad at reader cause of what she does but whatever idc this is my fucking story, maybe ooc characters and probably bad writing

Resident Evil Masterlist Main Masterlist Join My Taglist

This also was originally written for my OC Tiffany (Whose info on her/original story will eventually be available on this account @imnotobsessedwfictionalchracters )

Leon and Hunnigan are PROBABLY OOC (as I suck at not being able to keep them from being OOC)

Actually find it fucking insane how long this thing is all together

This is it in multi-part form: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Reader and Leon are partners with their job (have been since 2004/2005) and is insinuated to be around the same height as Leon

Y/N/N/N means the nickname of your nickname (or just another nickname)

Not Proof-read and I think it can be seen every once and a while (I know you can see where my brain couldn't function how to write the scene so I just guessed and hoped for the best)

Can be read as its own story or as a sequel to You’re About To Lose The Best Damn Thing You’ve Ever Had

Losely has themes from the songs Never Say Never by The Fray, No Surprises by Radiohead, Afterglow by Taylor Swift, and Look After You by The Fray

Anywho, enjoy

Love Z <3

January 21st of 2009

Y/N sat in front of the computer with Hunnigan as they went over the assignment before she was supposed to leave in 2 hours. Usually, she would be sitting with Leon on Hunnigan’s other side, but this wasn’t a usual case. They were working with a mix of BSAA Agents and STRATCOM agents. 3 of each, minus Y/N who was the leader of it. So in all, it was a team of 7. Overkill in her eyes. But that wasn’t her job. Her job was to get the assignment done and come back alive. 

The only reason the two organizations were forced to work together was because they both had interest in this case and decided that they needed to use both intels for it to work. Over in the Rockies in Northern Canada, parts where there were little inhabitants, people had gone missing before showing up with remnants of a strand of the T-Virus in them. BSAA had found the base back 2 weeks ago while STRATCOM had been keeping a close eye on Dr. Taylor Lewis. Someone who used to have ties with Umbrella in their Europe branch.

So when it was proposed that the two organizations team up, everyone was skeptical. Truly, the only people in the BSAA that got along with them at STRATCOM was Chris. Of course, she was sure that Jill did, but she died back 2 and a halfish years ago. But eventually they all agreed and started working on the team. 3 of the BSAA best people (minus Chris because he was already on an assignment) and 3 of STRATCOMs best (minus Leon because...well she didn’t know why he wasn’t), plus Y/N as the leader. BSAA wasn’t happy that they weren’t leading it and she knew they only tolerated it since it was the President's order for her to be the lead. She wasn’t sure how to feel about the new guy. He wasn’t Graham, the one she had grown accustomed to the past 4ish years. Hell, she never could remember his name, she just knew that Benford was the Vice and he was one of Leon’s friends.

Leon.

She hadn’t seen him much since the start of the year. Since the...break up. And she hadn’t even been avoiding him this time. It just was as if he was never in the office the past 20 days. Not that she had been keeping count! Because she definitely hadn’t been! She just did the math in her head at the moment.

“So, we have some time to spare, want to tell me why Leon sent in a new partner request? You finally ran him away?”

Y/N sighed and flicked a random small balled up piece of paper off the desk. “I don’t even know what happened. Everything was good one second then the next it just...” She trailed off, unsure as to what to say.

“Wasn’t?”

She nodded at Hunnigan’s word. “Yeah. I don’t know what happened.”

“Did someone find out?”

“Find what out?” She looked at the FOS Agent, who gave her a ‘don’t-lie-to-me’ look and Y/N sighed again. “I genuinely don’t know. We were training one day, and I had knocked him down, so he had pulled me with him, which led to us making out. But we were the only ones in the training room and even if someone did walk in, we were hidden by some equipment. The only thing that would have been heard would be our kissing. But that could be any two agents! So I don’t know why it would have knocked him so out of sorts!”

“Cameras?”

“That one corner that isn’t covered by them is where we were. We always trained in the corner.”

“That could be it then. Someone put two and two together and threatened to expose it.”

The slightly younger girl groaned and laid her head on the desk in front of her. “Why couldn’t he have told me? It’s not like I would have freaked! Him doing what he did caused more damage anyways.” She sat back up and ran a hand through her hair, “Where the hell has he been anyways? Haven't seen him since he broke it off and requested a new partner.”

“His own mission. One that I actually can’t tell you about, unfortunately since it’s a gray area on you two being partners.”

“Is he at least okay? Concerning that he’s been gone so long.”

“He called me yesterday saying everything was fine, but he still wasn’t sure when he would return. But it could be a concern as he mentioned he wasn’t sure when he’d be able to call again. He’d try to ping a location, but if we get nothing, wait a week before extraction.”

“Back to the partner comment you made, I just don’t get why he broke up with me and requested a new partner. All he had to do was one and I would have been just fine.” Y/N laid her head in her hand, “I honestly just wish there was a way that we could’ve stayed together and be partners. That would be my ideal situation.”

“Hm, I think, the keyword really is think, there might be a loophole.”

Y/N perked up at that, “Whaddya mean?”

“I think there’s some rule that says you can if you meet certain requirements. I can always look for you, it’ll give me something else to do than make sure my two favorite humans don’t die on different missions.”

Y/N smiled, “If you wanna, I’m fine either way. Leon will do what Leon wants to do and I won’t stop him.”

“Whatever you say.” Hunnigan glanced at the clock on her computer before continuing, “Better let you get ready. Don’t want to keep the BSAA guys waiting.”

Y/N laughed as she stood, “What can they do? Mission won’t start without me there.”

Hunnigan gave her a smile, “I’ll look that up for you and update you on what I find. Don’t die before I get you an answer.”

Y/N smiled, “No promises darling.”

--------

February 18th of 2009

Y/N wrapped the jacket closer around her and made sure the mask was tucked in so she wouldn’t freeze her face. Her shotgun was drawn as she looked out the scope, still no heat signatures could be found. They had been there for 4 weeks now and still nothing.

But, what had happened in those four weeks since the mission had started, 3 of the men had died. One of her own and two from BSAA. She felt bad about the last BSAA kid because even though he was one of the best they had available, he was a rookie. She believed he had only been there for a year, a year and a half tops. So he was the only one out there for the BSAA and had little experience. He was just an excellent fucking shot and took directions well (literally what his file said). And she had found it to be true. Even in the snow, he could find the target and shoot them down. 

He was the only reason they hadn’t all died that night.

Since they had gotten there, more and more sunlight was available, but it still didn’t last half a day. And while temperatures were warming up, they still were freezing their asses off. Plus, it didn’t help that Hunnigan had just warned them a snow storm was possibly on its way in. 

2 weeks in, she was happy that they were almost done with their trek through the mountain. She was really starting to hate those snow-mobiles. And then around 3 days later, when they came into contact with their agent that had been giving the intel, the remaining 5 members of the team began the stake out to find where the Doctor was and how the people were being infected. But now here they were, around 10 days later and still nothing. No sight of Lewis or of any habitants of the small village that if she was to be honest, she had no clue existed before this. 

That was, until she moved her scope to face more towards the West. She adjusted the sight and zoomed in where she thought that she saw movement. And when she was able to focus her sight, she saw that there was a group of bodies standing in one of the buildings. She switched over to night vision and saw that they were just barely too far off for her to make out who it was. She carefully snuck closer, jumping to the top of the abandoned building by her. 

She looked again and was able to see that it was Lewis with 2 other people. She didn’t recognize either of them, but one of them looked eerily familiar. But she was sure whoever the two were, they had been gathering the people to be injected with the virus. 

She grabbed her walkie from her side pocket and pressed the button to call for her team. “Dream Team, come in this is Condor 2. Over.” Dream Team was something that one of the BSAA Agents had suggested for them to call themselves rather than the boring Snow Squad that they had originally been assigned. And while she was technically Flake 1, she was used to always being referred to as Condor 2, so she asked for when it was just to them or to Hunnigan, say Condor 2. Otherwise she was sure that she and Hunnigan would get thrown off.

“This is Flake 2. I have the rest of the team with me. What do you need? Over.”

“Lewis and two men are in a building three down from my location. A house down from the original spot. I see them talking, but no one else is there. Over.”

“What do you want us to do? Over.”

“Start the plan into motion. I’ll follow and see where Lewis and her men head. Do nothing until I say so, unless you get under attack. Understand? Over.”

“Is that a direct order, Flake 1? Over.”

She sighed, Stacey hated this. She knew he did. Hated that someone who had been there for less time than him was the leader. He was the only one who refused to call her Condor 2 and kept Flake 1 and made sure everyone went by their actual callsign and not the one that they wanted.  “Yes, Flake 2. It is. Now do you all understand? Over.” She heard a range of everyone, including Stacey, say they understood. “Good. I’m contacting HQ. This is Condor 2 over and out.”

She reclipped the talkie and grabbed the other one that was specific for Hunnigan. She looked back in the scope and saw that Lewis and the 2 men were exiting the building. She quickly pulled the gun away to follow behind them. When Hunnigan answered, she heard the lady’s voice in her ear piece.

“This is Hunnigan, Condor 1 is here with me.”

Y/N internally groaned. Why was Leon there? Was he even allowed to be? So many questions ran through her head, but she didn’t ask them. She just nodded and ran towards the direction she saw them heading. “Fine. Lewis has been found. I’m following behind on foot. The rest of what remains of the team are getting ready for my word to follow. And--fuck.”

She ended the call before Hunnigan could say anything and made sure Hunnigan couldn’t immediately call back after she had turned a corner to see a fairly large group of military looking people. She turned back and jumped into the house that had an opened window. She snuck over to another before she looked out the window to try and count how many were there. But she was stopped before she finished when someone looked in. She quickly slipped down, trying desperately not to be seen. 

And she was sure she got away with it. That was, until her walkie went off and the BSAA kid could be heard practically yelling through it. And when she heard the words he was saying, the blood that was barely not cold already, went frozen in her body.

The kid was freaking and she could hear the guns in the background. Apparently Lewis and the men knew they were there. They knew she was watching. It had been a trap to get her away. She wondered how it was possible, until it registered to her that it was the electronics. And then she realized who the other guy was. She had dealt with him a few months ago with Leon. The two had been separated and had to pray that they would make it back to the other without any guidance from anyone as to where to go because the man could track any electronic waves.

But unfortunately for her, the man outside the window heard it too and had slammed it in. She gave them no chance and immediately grabbed her gun and shot them. Thankfully she was able to get a headshot, even with him moving and her shaking, gloved hand. But it only gave her enough time to disconnect her electronics and toss everything but the small remote that gave her the ability to ping a quick location. She ran up the stairs, trying to find an alternate way out, but realized she was blocked in. her chest tightened as she realized how badly this could end for her.

She grabbed her submachine gun and aimed it at the stairs, getting ready for anyone who was going to come up. She let out a shaky breath as she heard the door being broken down and the sound of someone running up the stairs. She never had been so thankful that she never fucking used these fuckers so she was loaded on bullets for it as it felt for each guy she killed, double the amount came back. 

And unfortunately, she was so focused on the stairs, she hadn’t noticed the sound of someone taking apart the roof and jumping down. Her mind had barely registered the sharp pain in her neck before she was surprised when they grabbed her from the back and her mind just blanked. Forgot how to fight back, forgetting almost every piece of training she had. She didn’t know what to do and wasn’t used to this. Whenever her fight or fright kicked in, it was always fight. She never got scared. But for some reason, she did this time.

As they pulled her to the ground, her body felt incapable of fighting back. As if someone had left her out in the freezing cold with not enough clothes. She wasn’t able to move or even scream when she felt the knife stab into the top of her sternum and start to drag down. The man on top of her only stopped when the sound of a whistle was heard through the air. It was as if the second that went off, every man and woman there were called to go somewhere else. The knife was pulled from her as she walked away and she slowly regained the feeling in her body.

But as she regained that feeling, she felt how deep the knife had gone. She felt the blood falling. She slowly moved to grab the bandages from her side pocket. They weren’t much but she knew it was all that she had. She grabbed it and tried to remove her clothing, not caring that her entire body was freezing from the temperature outside. She didn’t care that her bandaging was horribly done and that it wouldn’t do much.

All that she did was grab her clothes and quickly layer them back on. All she did was wobbly get up and leave the scene. Trying to get further and find out where all those people had gone. And she prayed that it wasn’t fucking bingo.

----

Leon’s POV

Leon, who had only been there because he was going over a report with Hunnigan, head snapped over towards Hunnigan the moment that Y/N ended the call. Worry spread through his body as they were unable to contact her back. He felt his knee unconsciously bouncing up and down as the computer kept beeping. He knew that he technically had no reason to be worried. Now, thanks to his own doing, all she was to him was another Agent. Not his partner. Not his girlfriend. Not even his friend. (Of course he didn’t know that the last part was all on his own)

“Why is it doing that? Why can’t you get back to her?”

“She blocked me from calling. Which means one of two things; she needed no distractions or she had to go semi-dark. I’m trying the other 4 members of her team and if they don’t respond, it means that they had to go dark too.”

Leon bit the inside of his cheek. He knew that the team originally consisted of 7 plus Y/N/N. The original 3 BSAA and 3 STRATCOM had been reduced to 1 BSAA and 2 of their own. 

If he was going to be honest, Leon didn’t care about the team, he just cared about Y/N and if she was okay. He hadn’t meant to do what he did then just disappear. He meant to break up and let her be for a few days, a week tops, then talk to her. But then he got called in and had to leave immediately. He knew from Claire and Hunnigan both that she didn’t understand why it happened or what caused it. Which he knew was his own doing. He should have told her. He shouldn’t have just said that they weren’t gonna work out. Especially since on their previous mission together they had a run in with Ada. 

But that wasn’t why he did it. No. It was because Stacey had been that person who they thought walked in. And as they had exited the training room, had messaged Leon to remind him that fraternizing with your partner was against the rules. He knew he should have just told Y/N why he was doing it, why he pulled away and why he treated her like shit for so long. But he couldn’t. He was scared that if he had, she would have argued with him and said it was fine. That they would figure it out together. It’s how she was and he knew it was. 

Of course, he still felt horrible for what happened on New Years, he shouldn’t have done that. Shouldn’t have gotten her hopes up just to crush them the following days. He shouldn’t have treated her the way that Ada would treat him. Shouldn’t have done something that would make her feel like he was using her in the moment because he needed something just to hurt her later.

----

December 31st of 2008/January 1st of 2009

Leon had gotten to her apartment earlier that day to help Y/N put up the decorations. But the entire time all that he had said to her was when he asked her to hand him something or made a comment about getting a drink or going to the bathroom. And then once Chris had arrived, surprisingly being the first, he had gone to talk to him. He had seen her leave from the corner of his eye, knowing she was changing out of the pajamas she had been in all day. 

He had no idea what she was going to come out in, but as she came back from her bedroom, a glass of champagne having already been downed, he knew it would be hard to keep himself under control. He noticed that she was wearing that top she had not-so-secretly bought a few weeks ago. Or at least he assumed it was. He had never seen the one she was wearing and he knew she hadn’t worn that one top yet. It was paired with her stupid jeans that fit her perfectly and those stupid heels that he loved on her because for some reason it always turned him on when she was practically a head taller than him. He saw her necklace was the one he bought her for their first anniversary in 2007. The rings were the ones she always wore and he noted that she wore the bracelet that she had owned since highschool on her right wrist, opposite of the watch he got her back in 2006 after her previous one got destroyed on a mission. Thankfully it was her birthday too so he didn’t have to deal with her arguing too much so he could argue that it was a gift for her birthday and she couldn’t turn it away.

He remembered how she kept saying he didn’t have to and that it must’ve cost a fortune. He had just shrugged it off and said he knew she needed one and he thought she liked that one. And even now, over 2 years later, he still hasn't disclosed the price of it. Something he’d never do because he knew she’d give it back and feel horrible about it. Knowing the only reason she had accepted the necklace was because it was their anniversary and she had gotten him something he knew was expensive as hell.

But even then, he didn’t talk to her. He didn’t go near her. Even as the rest of the group got there. He occupied himself with drinking and talking with people. Even as he saw the look of desperation on her face as she talked to Jess and Claire. Even as he watched her walk back to her room with a face full of complete defeat written all over her face.

No. he stayed talking with Chris and her brother Joe while he knew she was likely standing in the bathroom that connected to her bedroom. While he knew that she was probably doing anything to distract herself from how he had been ignoring her. He knew she could hear him talking and laughing with them. He knew that it seemed like he was happier with everyone except for her. But he wasn’t. He hated this. Hated this hell he had created by not doing it already. This hell he had created for both of them where he knew she was feeling like a deflated balloon that he didn’t want anymore. When that was the complete opposite of what was true. God did he want her. God did he not want to have to hurt her this way. All he wanted to do was hold her and tell her it would be okay.

Let her convince him that Stacey wouldn’t out their relationship and they would figure it out.

He got pulled out from the conversation when he heard a faint sound of something crashing in the back. He wasn’t sure if others had heard and chose to ignore it, or if it was just him who did since he was the closest to the hall. He stood and excused himself saying that he was gonna go check on her since they hadn’t seen her in a bit. 

When he got to the back of the apartment, he looked in and saw that it had just been the cup that held their toothbrushes and pastes. He watched as she leaned down and grabbed the fallen contents. He realized that she didn’t even notice him there until she jumped as he laid a soft knock on the door.

He laughed softly, like he always did when she did this. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare ya.” As she placed the cup back where it went, he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. The jolt from her didn’t go unnoticed and his face went from one of playfulness to concern. “Hey, you okay?”

She nodded silently, and he saw that she was trying to keep her breathing steady. “Yeah. Sorry. I think I’m just getting tired. My body isn’t used to not having to be on edge 24/7.”

He knew she was lying. He could tell it in her voice. But he still cracked a small smile in an attempt to calm her down. “Can’t disagree with you there. But you seem genuinely freaked, like after a mission.” The smile switched to one of concern, “Are you sure that you’re okay?”

She nodded and turned to him, giving him a smile of her own. “Yeah. I am Lee. Promise.” Lee, the nickname she gave him after their first mission together when she got a concussion. He remembered that his name kept blanking on her (as did most people) so she just referred to him as Lee as it was all she could remember and it had stuck. He noticed as she looked down at her watch before looking back at him, “Hey, it’s 11:59, we should get back in there.”

He was about to go to move some hair from her face, but stopped before he even reached his hand. He knew it would leave her even more confused when he broke it off. He knew it would make it harder for him if he continued to act like a boyfriend. So he kept on telling himself that he was being a friend. Friends treat friends this way. He could still be this way with her even when he calls quits to save her reputation. “Are you sure? It seemed like you had left for a reason.”

He knew from the look on her face that he was the reason and it hurt. At first it was because he hated that he was treating her like this, leading her on. But then it was because he couldn’t feel that way. He had to pull away from her so it would hurt less when he broke it. But he felt his resolve falling and knew it was close to breaking.

“Yeah. I’m perfectly fine. I just needed to get away for a moment. You know how I am.” 

He knew it was a lie. He knew she lied about something he wouldn’t call her out about. He studied her face and saw that she was doing everything to show she wasn’t lying. He knew she knew he was doing this. But he said nothing. He didn’t put her on the spot. Call her out. He just let her do it. Especially as everyone in her living room began to count down.

However, neither of them moved as their friends began down from 10. This was the closest he had been to her since Christmas. It was taking everything in him not to kiss her. Everything in him to not grab her face and pull it to his. But that entire work he was putting in was thrown out of the window the moment she brought her hand up and brushed some hair out of his face. And as she leaned in to him when their friends reached one, his thoughts to push her away were thrown out the window. As she placed a kiss on his lips. He heard nothing as he felt her softer lips on his own chapped ones. 

As she pulled her lips away from his, any control that had been left there disappeared as his hands on her cheeks and he slammed his back onto hers. The moment she let out a tiny gasp, he slipped his tongue into her mouth. He felt her arms wrap around his neck as he began moving them to the sink. Only stopping when the back of her legs met her sink. 

He pulled away for a moment, just to bring his lips down to her neck. And between kisses he asked a question that plagued him since he saw her come out in it. “Is this...a new...top?” He heard her humming in response, eliciting a small chuckle from him. “Is that a yes baby?”

“Yeah.” Her voice was soft and breathy, just above a whisper and he held back a groan when she did.

“I like it. You should wear it more.” He carefully moved her arms up so he could pull it off. His lips lingered on her collarbone, close to the center by her sternum, as he breathed in her perfume. It was a warmer one, a mix of vanilla and spice. He recognized it as the one he bought her back when she dragged him into Victoria Secrets when they were having a sale. He remembered her arguing with her that she wanted to buy it so they agreed that he’d buy her that and she could buy him whatever cologne he wanted. Which just happened to be the one he was wearing tonight.

His lips continued down her body as he got other noises from her. He only stopped when he heard a gasp, immediately pulling his lips away from her. His eyes looked over to see Y/N's sister-in-law standing there with a hand over her mouth.

“Shit, I’m so fucking sorry. I should’ve known what you two were doing when you didn’t respond. Fuck, I’m sorry. Um, Joe and I are heading out. I don’t wanna overwork my sister too much by watching the kids after she had a long week. But we had fun. I’ll see you later.”

He stood as he watched Jessica leave the room and felt Y/N/N's head fall on his shoulder. He listened as she ranted about how embarrassed she was by what just happened. How she had been hidden for nearly 30 minutes and then someone came to find her, just to see her making out with her boyfriend. So fucking embarrassing. 

He laughed lightly and joked, “At least we were just making out and not actually having sex.”

She groaned and buried her head in his chest, “I did not just say that out loud, did I?”

He missed the top of her head, “It’s okay.” He pulled away before leaning down to grab her shirt from where he had thrown it on the floor and handed it to her. After she slipped it on, he kissed her lips again. “You know I love you, right?”

She smiled and looked into his blue eyes, “Yeah, ‘course I do.”

“Good.”

This was going to hurt when he finally did it.

--

Leon knew that she wasn’t asleep as she laid by him. But he stayed quiet. He knew tonight would haunt him. He was supposed to be pushing her away. Not drawing her back in and making her feel better while he was just going to hurt her in the end.

----

January 3rd of 2009

He knew she was hurt. He knew she was trying not to cry. Leon knew how mad and confused she was. He knew. He knew her too well. He knew that she understood none of it. Even after he explained. He knew that she saw him as the one for her because he knew she was the one for him. But he could stop. He had to end them so neither...no so she didn’t get her reputation ruined. He refused to let anyone think that the only reason she gets chosen for assignments is because they’re together. He refused to let anyone think of her as anything but the fucking amazing and talented agent she was.

He had promised her back years ago that he would never hurt her. That he would never be the one to break her heart. That he would be there by her side no matter what. But then here he was, breaking her heart and about to leave her.

In the end, all that he could say was, “I’m sorry.” And “You don’t deserve this.” He reached to grab her hand in an attempt to comfort her, but she jerked it away. Which he understood. He deserved it. She didn’t deserve this. She deserved better than him. “You deserve better than this. Than me. Than our fucked up situation.”

“But Leon, I like it. I love you. I don’t care about the secrets and the lies. I just want you. Leon, please.”

“I can’t.” He stressed, he still hadn’t said what Hunnigan had told him when he asked what would happen. That was why he was doing this. He had to protect her.

“Can’t what?” Her voice was stretched, he knew she was trying not to cry.

For a brief second, he thought that he shouldn’t do it, but as he saw her face, saw as she was breaking, he decided to do it. “Can’t ask you to possibly give up your job because someone found out! Watch as you have to get reassigned because Hunnigan already confirmed that it would be you. Watch as your life completely changes just so you can be with me!” He ran a hand through his hair, “That’s why we’re done, Y/N/N. Why we have to be. Both in this relationship and in our partnership for work. I already sent in the request for a new partner.” He hadn’t said that last part to her yet. But it was true. He did it yesterday. After she had left the office for the day.

“Leon.”

He ignored her as he walked to her door, he was planning on just leaving, saying nothing else. But as his hand reached for the knob, he stopped, “I’m really sorry Y/N/N. Truly, deeply, sorry.” 

He walked out after that. But he didn’t go far. He stayed there in the long hall. He brought a hand up to his mouth to stiffen the sobs that were threatening to fall. He felt his chest tighten as he heard her scream and a crash. He knew she was angry and upset. He knew she was blaming herself. And it took everything in him to not open the door and agree with her that they’d figure this out. That they’d find a loophole. That they’d be alright.

----

February 18th of 2009

He shook his head, trying to forget that last time he saw her. Instead, he became hyper focused on Hunnigan trying to contact anyone on her team. The difference between her and them was with them, it called, but no one answered. He felt himself picking at the calluses on his hands, a bad habit that she always noticed. A habit that whenever she saw, she would take his hands into hers and hold them. He ran a hand through his hair as the nerves built up again when it went off that she disconnected herself from being able to be contacted. 

He hadn’t even noticed Hunnigan talking to someone through her mic set until she said: “Do you want me to assume her and her team are dead, sir?” He snapped his head to her. What did she mean by that? Why would they assume that Y/N was dead? She just went dark. Since when has it been the procedure to assume death when gone dark. “Of course sir, I’ll keep watch and will let Agent Kennedy know.” Leon narrowed his eyes at Hunnigan as she turned to him. “They want me to keep an eye out for if she pings a location in the next 48 hours. If not, then you’re being deployed to finish the mission and if you come in contact with her, call for an evac for her. But shoot to kill if she’s been bitten.”

Leon looked away from Hunnigan. He wasn’t sure if he could do that. Shoot to kill Y/N. Personal feelings aside, they had been partners since she joined back in 2004. Since right after he got back from Spain. Hell, she would’ve been with him if she hadn't had to get her appendix taken out and miss training causing her start date to be pushed back to where it was around 48 hours before he got back from Spain with Ashley. He had known her for 4, going on 5 years now. How could he shoot her, even if it was for the greater good? He felt his chest tighten and--

“Leon? Do you understand?”

He looked back at Hunnigan and nodded silently before getting up to leave the room. He couldn’t be there anymore. He felt like he couldn’t breathe. He practically ran through the halls, not caring who looked at him. Only able to catch his breath when the cold February air hit his skin. He heaved, his hands on his knees and he leaned forward. He couldn’t do it. He knew he wouldn't be able to do it. He knew that he would get in trouble. But he would rather get in trouble for not doing his job than have to shoot her.

He just prayed that she pinged to prove she was alive. And that if he ever got sent in, he would find her. Alive or dead but not bitten. Not turned. He’d rather find her already dead than have to do it himself. He would never be able to live if he broke her heart and then killed her.

Hell, he wasn’t even sure if he would be able to live with himself if he broke her heart and then found her dead.

--------

February 28th of 2009

36 hours after she went dark they received the first ping. 11 days had passed since and they had gotten 8 more pings. Leon was at his desk, waiting for Hunnigan to tell him they got the next ping. But as the sun went further and further down, they still had got nothing. He kept telling himself that she was okay. That maybe she just forgot or wasn’t somewhere where she could.

He kept telling himself that it was okay and she was alive. That he had no reason to worry. That she would make it back to them alive.

--------

March 2nd of 2009

Leon looked out the window of the helicopter he was on. 4 days had passed since her last ping. Since they last heard of her being alive. They had sent him in the early hours of the morning to go finish the job and find her. They told him to not have hope she’d be found alive. The cold was horrid and she was supposed to be back by now. It was doubtful she’d have enough heat stored to survive.

But he ignored them. He ignored their warnings and pushed them away as he climbed down and off the heli and walked the remaining mile to the village her team were meant to be staying at.

It took him almost no time to find the abandoned snow-mobiles they had ridden to get there. Took him almost no time to walk into the small place they were staying to find the rest of her team all dead. But still, there was no sign of her. No sign that she had even been there recently. He told Hunnigan and she responded that she’d send someone once they found Y/N. As he exited the house, he grabbed the keys to be able to use one of the vehicles.

He drove through the town until he reached the point where she had gone dark at. It was by a larger building that stood out compared to the rest. But that wasn’t where she had left at. She had left off in a small home by it. He walked in and looked around, finding her tracker and communication devices in a box that had been covered in snow. A few of the windows had been shot through, he assumed it was from her. He walked up the stairs and saw that there was no way out from there. If she had been in there, she had left the same way she went in.

He walked out of the house and was about to get back on the snowmobile, to head to her last pinged location, but he realized that it was inside the large building and he would have to walk it. The sun was going down as the time passed 6 PM as he jumped the fence and ran around trying to find her, shooting those infected that got in his way. Which he was surprised wasn’t that many. He had expected more to be there, but it was like someone had already gone through and killed most of them. 

He ignored the fatigue that grew as he ran closer and the sky got darker. Or at least he assumed it did, there were practically no windows in this place so all he had was his watch to tell the time. He ignored the gnawing feeling he had that he was going to find her dead. That he came all the way to bring her home alive that he’d have to do it dead. That he kept telling himself that she’d be alright and he could apologize. He could tell her what Hunnigan told him when he got back. So he could apologize and let her scream and yell and choose what to do. 

So he could know if there ever would be a possibility that they could have made it. That they could have done more if he hadn’t let the possibility of what could've happened take control of his life.

As he grew closer and closer to where she had last pinged, he felt his heart drop further and further into his stomach as he saw more and more blood covering the floor. He kept telling himself that it wasn’t hers. It was someone else's. And he wasn’t entirely wrong as he grew closer. A body laid on the ground, he could tell the blood wasn’t even an entire week old so it had to be from around her last ping. He placed his boot at the dead and grimaced as he recognized him as the guy from last summer.

That told him why she went dark. 

He kneeled by the body, looking for what caused the bleeding, finding a few bullet holes. They weren’t accurate and he could tell that whoever shot them had a shaky hand. Making him doubt it was Y/N. One thing he knew he could always count on was her steady aim. Rarely would she hit a target in the wrong spot on accident. It was always on purpose. But, he knew the bullet holes. It was with a Lightning Hawk. It was like how he always had his Matilda, she always had a Lightning Hawk on her.

He stood up and continued on, looking down at the small device to see how much further and realized that it was to his left. He turned and saw a door drawn shut. He put the device away and grabbed his gun out from its holster and carefully opened the door. He swiftly turned to walk further in, something that at first seemed futile as he didn’t see her. But as he walked further in and looked around, he saw remnants of her having previously been there.

He kneeled by her clicker that had been pinging her location when she told it to was on the floor with some of the layers she had been wearing when the mission started. But what scared him was that there was a bandage covered in blood that looked like it had been sitting there for a few days. If it was her blood like he thought, that would explain why it looked like someone had shot the guy shakily and unsure. And so that nausea grew as the gnawing feeling that she was dead came back to him. 

He shook his head of those thoughts and got up, looking around the room more. As his eyes scanned, he saw that there was a trail of blood that led to one of the walls. When he got closer, he saw the faint marks of what he assumed had been someone moving the cement. He put the flashlight between his teeth and holstered his gun as he began to touch around, trying to find a weak point in the wall. When he did, he pushed in until it started moving. Once it was opened enough for him to slip through, he grabbed the flashlight from his mouth and upholstered the gun. 

He pointed the gun forward and slipped through the crack, he walked with cautious footing. He still found it rather suspicious that he hadn’t had to deal with much since he had gotten there. His senses were on high alert, feeling like there was a possibility of him getting attacked at any point. He walked down the dimly lit room, turning the flash on and off so for the case of someone watching him, there was a possibility of him throwing them off. 

But any want to not get caught and have the element of surprise immediately left his body when he heard gunshots down the end of the hall. He ran as fast as he could and slammed the door open, gun ready to shoot. But when he got there, he saw that Dr. Lewis was already bleeding out on the floor, but still reaching for her own gun. As he approached the woman, he looked around and saw Y/N laying on her stomach, gun on her non-dominant side, in a corner. And as much as he wanted to check on her first, he ran over to the doctor and kicked her gun as far away from her as possible. 

He kept his gun up and stood over Lewis, the barrel of the gun pointed at her head, daring her to do something. But all she did was laugh before coughing up blood. “You...you really think this...this will be...be the e-end? You...you killing me? Think it...it will bring that little b-bitch ba-ack.”

He knew he was supposed to bring her in alive. So they could question her. But Leon just couldn’t. He knew she had been experimenting on children more than she ever had with adults. The information Y/N had found and sent in before she went dark proved it. And something, some part of him, felt like no one who did that to kids could live. Maybe it was his belief that he still was doing this for Sherry. He knew she was an adult now and that she doesn’t need his protection anymore, but it didn’t stop him from making it his main reason. 

With his gun still smoking, and Lewis’s eyes going blank with death, he pulled it down. “Still stops you.” He looked up when he heard the sound of an alarm going off and his vision was encased in red. He should have known that killing the head would do this, but he didn’t give a shit. All he cared about was saving her. He ignored the blaring alarm and robotic voice saying that the building will self-destruct in 10 minutes.

He turned to run back to where Y/N was lying. As he got closer to her, he could see she was slipping in and out of consciousness. When he reached her, he placed a gentle finger where her pulse would be, he knew he should have kept his eyes trained on Lewis, in case she turned herself into something, but he didn’t. His eyes were trained on Y/N. She was covered in sweat and blood, hair clinging onto her. Her breathing was labored and she barely was able to keep her eyes open. He turned her to her back and immediately saw what the reason for the bleeding was. 

A large gash that went down her sternum. There was dried blood all around it and he saw that shittily done bandage that had moved. It was surely infected and was probably the reason for her sweat. He grabbed his device to call Hunnigan and requested a medical evac. He found Y/N and she was alive. They were in the building, but he was going to try and get her outside. Hunnigan informed him that she already sent one the moment he said the rest of the team was dead and they were 5 minutes out.

The moment the call ended, he gently moved one of Y/N 's arms around his neck before putting his arms under her body. Placing one securely under her knees and the other behind her back and under her other arm. He heard her groan in pain as he started to carry her out. Trying to figure out how to get to the roof.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry Y/N/N.”

“Leon?” Her voice was hoarse, barely there.

“Yeah, yeah it’s me. I got you. Medic is 5 minutes out, okay? I’m gonna get you out. You’re gonna be okay.”

“Leon, please, just let me go.”

He shook his head, “No. I’m not doing that. I’m not letting you go. Not anytime soon.”

“But it hurts.”

He looked down at her and saw her eyes were closing again, “I know. I know it does. But I need you to keep your eyes open for me, alright? I know it’s gonna be hard, but I need you to do that.”

“But it feels better that way.”

He kicked a door open that led to stairs, “I know it does Y/N/N/N, I know. But I really need you to keep them open. Just until the evac gets here. Once they get us, you’ll be alright. You can close your eyes. Just keep them open till then.” Y/N/N/N. A nickname he came up with once when they were both drunk and abnormally clingy to one another. A nickname that he only used around her when he was close to breaking.

But she nodded, “Okay, I’ll try.”

He smiled down at her, “Good, try.”

He knew if she wasn’t injured and delirious, she would be yelling and screaming at him. So a part of him was happy she was, but most of him was scared that they medic wouldn’t get here in time and they would be fucked. That the team wouldn’t get there and he would lose her. But he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t lose her. Not yet. Not now. Not when he had so much apologizing to do. 

So when he made it out of the maze of a building, he let out a breath of relief when he saw the helicopter landing. Never in his life did he think he’d be so grateful that living Agents were top priority. That they’d rather lose the dead bodies and explain to the families that there was no body than possibly lose someone that could still be of use to them. Of course, he knew there was also the likelihood that they had sent two helicopters.

As he got to the Helicopter, he passed her body to one of the Agents in it before jumping in himself. And as they flew off, he helped close the door that he had jumped in from. For a moment, he stared at the window to see the sun coming up in the distance as the building exploded. But only after a second, he turned back to see the two medics already hooking Y/N up and getting her the help she needed.

He slumped down into one of the small chairs, leaning his head against the cool metal and silently watched as they flew to a hospital in Vancouver that was used to STRATCOM and the BSAA. 

--------

March 9th of 2009

Y/N's POV

Beeping. That was all she could hear. Her entire body was sore, feeling like she had been dropped from the top of a building. After a few moments of trying, she finally was able to open her eyes. But she instantly regretted it as the bright fluorescents welcomed her. She groaned as they tried to adjust to the brightness. She looked around and suddenly realized that she was in a hospital. That was the reason for the beeping as she realized how hooked up she was. 

Her throat felt dry and like something had been pulled from there. She moved her head to the side and let out a shocked gasp when she saw who was by her. She thought she had been dreaming. That the fever she knew she had from the infection that she knew had happened from the terrible keep of her cut had made her imagine he was there. That he had been the one to save her. 

She felt her hand move to reach out to him, but she dropped it when she heard the sound of the door opening. A lady, probably around her grams’s age, walked in. She had a soft smile on her face when she looked at Y/N and walked closer to her. Y/N watched as the lady began fiddling with one of the bags that she assumed was liquids to keep her from getting dehydrated. 

“You’re very lucky that boy got to you when he did.” The lady turned to her, “He’s a keeper, that one. He hasn’t left this hospital except for the one time me and another nurse forced him to get a hotel and sleep properly.”

“He’s just my partner--no, wait, he...I don’t know.” It hurt to speak, it felt like she hadn’t used her voice in years.

The lady raised a brow, “I doubt whatever he did will last long. You’ve been here a week and he’s had chances to go back to DC, but he’s stayed here.”

“Where is here? And what day is it?”

“You’re in Vancouver, it’s March 9th. Do you know the year?”

“2009?”

“Good, who’s your President?”

She genuinely had no idea. Graham had ended his Presidency a few months ago and she still had to learn the new guy's name. Only did she know the Vice-President. “I haven’t learned his name yet, but the Vice-President is Adam Benford, he used to be the CIA Director.”

“Hm, I guess that works.” The nurse chuckled, “You sure know a lot about him.”

She looked at Leon, “Yeah...the two of them are friends.”

“I should have expected that. Well sweetheart, we have you on a morphine drip to--”

“I-I can’t have morphine in large doses. It affects me worse than dilaudid.”

The lady took a look at her file and sighed, “Well I be damned, the nurse who did this completely ignored that it says no morphine.” She looked at Y/N, “I’m going let the head nurse know and we’ll get you switched onto, dilaudid you said? It works with no issue

“Yeah, every time it’s worked in the past it's been with no issues.”

“Alright.” She wrote something down, “I’ll be back in a few.”

Y/N nodded as that lady walked out of the room. Her eyes went back to Leon, who was still asleep in the chair, but she noticed how one of his hands was sitting on top of the bed, like he had been holding hers while she was out.  She gently took it in hers and brushed her thumb over the top. She wondered if Hunnigan ever found a loophole for them to work. If she ever found a way that she could use to show Leon they could have worked.

She watched as he stirred, his eyes slowly opening and blinking to adjust to the bright lights. He groaned before looking at her and she watched as he straightened up and took her hand in his own. She watched as his usual emotionless face turned to one full of emotions.

She gave him a soft smile, “Hey Lee.”

He moved the chair to be closer before he ran a hand over her, moving hair from her face. “Hey beauti--Y/N/N.”

She moved her hand to go back to rubbing the top of his, “You can call me beautiful. You got me out of there after all.”

“You scared me, y’know? I thought I had lost you there and I wouldn’t be able to tell you how sorry I--”

“Don’t, please. Just...just don’t. I don’t want to think about that. You’re here, that's what matters. That shows that you really care, even if you can be annoying about showing it.”

He gave a small smile, “Yeah, but I really am sorry for not...talking to you. It was fucking Stacey who walked in and he threatened to expose us. I just didn’t want your life to get fucked over.”

“Why would mine?”

He sighed, “Hunnigan said that unfortunately, STRATCOM would rather lose you than me. So if they had found out, they would have displaced you. Put you in another department or place you with one of the other offices. But we wouldn’t be able to see each other anymore.”

“And you were scared I would argue and say it was nothing.”

“Yep.”

She looked over to the other side, “I hate when you’re right.”

She heard him chuckle, “It’s a rare feat, but one that can happen.” She looked back at him and smiled, but the smile fell as she began to think. “What’s wrong?”

“Why did you call for a new partner?”

He let out a big sigh, “Because I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle seeing your broken face everyday. Be right by you, pretending to be a supportive friend while you move on.”

She scoffed, “Yeah, me moving on would’ve taken a lot. Trust me. I even asked Hunnigan to find loopholes in the rules for us to be together.” She sighed, “I guess she never found one cause she never told me.”

He laughed awkwardly and she raised an eyebrow, “Well...that’s not necessarily true.”

“What?”

“She found the loophole after you went dark.”

“And she told you?”

“So I might have come in drunk one day, felt bad because I did that because I drove drunk, and asked her to drive me back to my apartment. It was like I could hear you in my head getting mad, not because I showed up drunk, but because I drove drunk. So while she was taking me to my place, I might have spilt that I fucking hated what I did to you and wished that there was some fucking way for us to work and she might have told me the way it could. The small loophole that you asked her to go looking for.”

“What is it?”

“A lifetime commitment that we both said we weren’t ready for.”

“Kids?”

He snorted, “No. Not that.” He moved and dug in his pocket before handing her a small dark blue velvet box. She felt her heart in her throat. “Yeah...that’s the commitment.”

She opened the box to see the ring. It was simple, not over the top. Two diamonds with a sapphire in the middle on a silver band. She let out a shaky breath before looking at him, “When did you get this?”

“Um...a while ago actually. Last summer, I believe.”

She laughed slightly, “That was why you asked me what my ring size was.”

He laughed as well, “Yeah, I expected you to catch on.”

“But...that was before we talked about marriage.” She looked at him, “That was why you asked me, wasn’t it?”

He shrugged, “I realized that I would rather have a possible answer than make you uncomfortable.”

She smiled and for some reason, she leaned over to him and kissed his lips softly. “Why don’t you ask me now.”

“What?”

Her voice was soft, “Just ask that four word question.” She brushed some hair out of his face, “My answer won’t be dependent on it being the only way for us to be together and work together.”

He smiled, “Y/F/N, will you marry me?”

She smiled, “Yes.” She kissed him again, “Y’know, I would have said yes if you had asked me at Christmas.”

“Really?”

She nodded, “Mhm, that was around the time that I realized that even though marriage is a big commitment and we both have our issues with commitment, I was sure I would be able to fully stay with you. Was it partly because you’re the only guy I’ve ever been with that can handle me when my brain can’t function so I just shut down? Possibly. But it also had to do with the fact I can’t see myself with anyone else but you and every time I imagine a future, you’re always there.”

Now it was his turn to brush hair from her face, “So we could have avoided these past few months if I had just looked at the handbook for a loophole?”

She nodded, “Yep. But that doesn’t make me love you any less.”

He laughed, “Good.”

She closed the box and handed it back to him, “Hold onto it for me until we head back to DC.”

He took it and placed it back in his pocket, “I love you, you know that right?”

“I questioned it for a while, but yes, now I do.”

He laughed, “Good.”

They were silent for a few minutes until she looked him dead in the eye, “Can you promise me one thing, Leon?”

“What is it?”

“Never let me go, please? Promise me if you ever start to get insecure with anything in our relationship that you will tell me and we work on it.”

He smiled and kissed the top of her hand, “I promise.”

She smiled, “Good.”

[lostfirefly]

Dust the shelves and polish the glass-ware, the housework makes you happy

Welcome to another fun day for Catherine (OC from my “You’ve Got the Same Dream as Me) and Buggy. English is not my native language, errors may occur. As always, feel free to share your thoughts :)

Masterlist is here.

Description: Catherine once again pulls out the trio Buggy, Cabaji and Mohji from the prison's cell and forces them to clean the apartment.

Warnings: Fun, fluff, swearing.

Words: 5680

Taglist: @gingernut1314, @operationroots, @hey-august, @emmiebugz-blog

The title is taken from “Housework” by Robert Palmer.

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“Yes, I know him!” Catherine was lying in bed and tried to hide her irritation. “Is he okay? Yes? Can I talk to him? No? Okay. Thank you, officer! I'll be there soon!” Catherine threw her cell phone on the bed and growled into her pillow. “BUGGYYYY!!!”. She turned over on her back and began to kick her legs angrily. “FUCKING CLOOOOWN!”

“My mom told me, choose your man wisely, Catherine.” Muttering under her breath, she pulled on her sweatpants and sweatshirt. “Oh, that was a great idea to go to Egypt, Catherine. Oh, it was a great idea to fall in love with the clown, Catherine. And stayed with him in Cairo was a great idea too, Catherine.” She put on her sneakers, poured some coffee in a thermos mug, grabbed the car keys and went downstairs. 

Catherine reached the gray building in the center of town. She looked at the door, rolled her eyes and exhaled heavily. It wasn't the first time in the months of their relationship that she'd found herself in this place. 

“Catherine M~.” She mumbled as she walked over to the counter where a young female officer sat. “Oh, hi, Miss August.”

“Hello, Miss Mitchell. Again, yeah?”

“Yeah.” Catherine placed her elbows on the counter. “Shit! I never thought that at some point in my life I would be known at the police station.” 

“You know the procedure. Sign here and here.” The young girl behind the desk gave Catherine a pen and papers.

Catherine signed the form and adjusted the bag on her shoulder. “Where's he?” 

“Let me check, miss.” Miss August flipped through the papers. “Oh, we moved him to the lower level.”

“What? Why?” Catherine's eyes widened and her voice squeaked. “I thought he was in a regular cell at the station as usual. What did he do?”

“Oh, your boyfriend tried to start a little fight with the cops and accidentally hit one of them in the eye.”

“He did what???” Catherine’s jaw dropped. “Oh, shit! Is he okay?” 

“Who?” Miss August looked at Catherine and made some notes in the papers. “Mister the Clown?”

“No!” Catherine waved her hand. “The policeman.”

“Oh, yeah! He's fine. This’s your pass, show it to the officer, and he will guide you to the cell., You need to go to the elevator and go down to the minus first floor.” Miss August pointed her finger where to go, and Catherine headed forward down a small hallway. 

She went down to the floor and the policeman led her along a small corridor in which there were only four cells.

“This way, miss.” The policeman pointed the keys at the cell. 

“He-e-y, my cotton candy! You came!!” Buggy smiled widely, sitting on a bench with one leg over the bench handle. 

One of the officers came up to the bars and looked at Buggy, wiping his eye. “What, clown, you got nothing better to do than call a girl? I wish you could answer me for what happened.” 

“Oh, fuck you, I'm not afraid of you. No one can scare Buggy the Clown.” He swung his leg from side to side and laughed loudly.

“One more word, bastard, and I will describe that incident in the report!” The cop tapped his pen on the bars.

“Oh, put that in your report, too.” Buggy jumped up from the bench, turned his back to the bars and started slapping his buttocks. “Kiss my ass!”

“Buggy!” Catherine hissed through the teeth. “Stop this farce right now!” She shifted her gaze to the policeman. “Sorry, officer. Don't pay attention to him. He’s a total numbskull, who's sometimes even dumber than a bundle of rocks! Okay, not sometimes.”

The officer exhaled, glanced at Catherine and left. 

“What kind of performance was that, idiot?” Catherine stared at Buggy with dazed eyes. “Are you thinking with your head about sequences?”

“Fuck him!” Buggy plopped down on the bench. “Where have you been, Cathie-pie? Why so long?”

“I stopped to buy sandwiches at the café.” 

“Seriously? I'm sitting here, and you find time for sandwiches?” 

“Go fuck yourself, Buggy! That's the sixth time this month. What have you done again, clown?” Catherine crossed her arms. “Where have you been all night?”

"We.. Well... We had a few drinks with Cabaji and Mohji." Buggy scratched his head and giggled idiotically. 

“Had a few drinks? A few, Buggy, is when you come home and fall down, at least in the hallway where I can find you. A few when you hit on me when I'm asleep. You're in fucking jail, for god’s sake. Again. What did you do?” Catherine tilted her head and looked at the two bodies lying on the bench. “Together.” 

“That's what I'm saying.” Buggy shrugged and scratched the back of his head. “We drank a little and got lost.” 

“Honestly, clown, someday I’ll make you a bracelet with the address and the inscription “property of Catherine Mitchell” for people to know where to take your drunken body. No, I don’t buy the “I’m lost” version.” Catherine glared at him, stamping her foot. “Well, speak up! Otherwise, I’ll go home now, and you will sit here and wait for that kid with whom you were in Impel Brown.”

“Down, actually.” Buggy scratched his chin. “Is the ‘we got into the wrong taxi’ version okay?” 

“No!” Catherine shook her head. 

“Hmmm…” Buggy scratched his cheek, thinking through versions. “We were robbed?”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” She shrieked in a whisper. “You're the one who's gonna rob anybody. No!” 

“Oh, screw you! Choose the version you like, I’ll agree with it!” Buggy leaned on the back of the chair and put his hands behind his head. 

“Nighty night, Buggy!” Catherine waved and was about to leave.

“We were drinking at the bar. Then Cabaji kissed the waitress. Then we went to another bar. He kissed the waitress there too.” Buggy reached out to Catherine with his hand. “Please, cotton candy, get me out of here, I wanna go home.”

“You don't go to jail for kissing, Buggy!” Catherine rolled her eyes.

“They first trashed the whole bar, and then in some unknown way they broke into the neighboring police station. And then stole the booze with the cake from the policemen's party.” A tall black-hair girl approached Catherine, holding the protocol in her hands. 

“Break into a police station? Are you out of your mind?” Catherine cast an angry glance at Buggy. “What a brilliant idea. Did you think with your head?”

He just shrugged in response. 

“Yes. According to the report, the three got into a little fight, but mostly with themselves. The clown shouted something like “it’s time to leave the stage, let's bring the cake to my cotton candy,” they all ran to the exit. Those two tripped and fell, and this one with the red nose crashed into the door frame.” The officer looked down at Catherine. 

“In my defense, I stole the cake for you, baby.” Buggy chuckled. “But this nice lady took it away.” He nodded towards the officer. 

“Oh, thank you!” Catherine folded her arms theatrically across her chest. “You stole the fucking cake for me. You are so caring! Should this make me feel better, idiot?” 

“Cotton candy, I…”

“Shut up or I’ll kill you!” Catherine slapped her hand on the bars. “Knowing you, you're lucky that you weren't beaten by the police at that station where you broke in or by your cellmates!” 

“Well, actually, they got a little bit of trouble from the police too. So you're the Cotton Candy?” The officer looked confused. “We thought he raved.” 

“Meh, he raves all the time.” Catherine waved at Buggy. “Actually, I’m Catherine Mitchell. This's my real name.”

“Officer Nico Robin, Miss. Are you his wife?” Nico asked and started to note down things in the papers.

“What? No! No, no, no! We.. We live together.” 

“Sorry to hear that. Are you taking him home?” Nico gave the folder in Catherine’s hands. “The protocol, Miss.”

“I don't know, miss Robin. Can I leave him here for a couple of days?” Catherine looked at Nico from below and picked up the paper. “What will happen to him? Will he be transferred somewhere else or what?”

“No, they will stay in this cell for several days, and maybe we will send them to community service. Collect leaves, wash floors somewhere.” Nico shrugged. “So if you want to leave him here, miss Mitchell, well, you can do it.” 

“Cathie-pie! No!” Buggy jumped up from the bench and ran to the bars, looking at Catherine with pleading eyes. 

“Shut up and sit down, please! You pissed me off already!” Catherine studied the papers for a long time and glanced at Buggy, who was closely watching her every move. “Okay, I'll take him home. And those two bodies.. over there, too.” She pointed her finger at Cabaji and Mohji, who were snoring on the bench. 

“All right. You have to pay 600.000. Bail for the three of them and pay the damages.” Nico cast a compassionate glance at Catherine and walked away. 

Catherine immediately turned to the cell. “600.000? You know, Buggy, I'd like to leave you here for a while.” 

“No, no! Please!” Buggy grabbed Catherine's hands and started kissing it. “I want home. I don't want to stay here! I’m so happy I have you. What would I do without you?” 

“You'd keep getting into trouble. Even though you do it all the time.” Catherine chuckled and examined his face, saying softly. “You okay? You have bruises. You didn't get hurt?”

“Nah, I’m fine.” He pulled her closer by the arms. 

“You didn't show off your chop chop thing, right?” Catherine asked quietly. 

“Do I look like an idiot?”

“Do you really want to know the answer to this question?” Catherine exhaled tiredly. “Well, clown. I’m your rescue goddess again.” 

“Yes, you are.” Buggy kissed her hands. “You're my goddess.” Kiss. “You're the goddess of everything, cotton candy.” Kiss. Kiss. 

Catherine removed her hands and left the room without saying a word. She was gone for about an hour, and Buggy began to worry. 

“Captain, will Catherine be back?” A hungover voice was heard from another bench.

“I don't know, Mohji!” Buggy answered quietly. “Fuck!”

“Is there a chance that she will leave us here?” 

“Trust me, she can do it without blinking an eye.” Buggy started to think that, as punishment, Catherine had gone home and left him here. But he heard her laughing in the hallway and exhaled. “Yes!!” 

Catherine returned with Nico, laughing merrily. 

“Yes, Miss Mitchell. I feel sorry for you. Are you sure you're taking all three of them? This's your last chance to refuse.” Nico opened the cell, watching Catherine nod. 

“Thank you very much, Miss Robin. And thanks to the policeman who put himself in my position. I’m sorry it happened this way.” Catherine narrowed her eyes and cast an angry glance at Buggy

“Hey, Buggy the Clown and you two. On your way out. Say thanks to this wonderful lady. If I were you, I'd never let that girl get away from me.”

Cabaji and Mohji swayed as they stood up from the bench. Cabaji tried to kiss Nico in gratitude, but Catherine stopped him. Then he happily tried to kiss Catherine, but Buggy stopped him with a shout of “what the fuck!”.

Catherine took turns leading all three of them to the car and drove them home. Their trio stared at the floor the whole way, hardly saying a word. Cabaji and Mohji tried to ask to let them go home, but were quickly silenced when they heard Catherine's stern “No, I'm taking you both to our place.” It was useless to argue with her. They didn't want to make her even more angry. 

When they arrived home, Catherine immediately sent everyone to sleep, not wanting to listen to anything. She laughed because Buggy reminded her of a naughty cat. He carefully sat down on the bed and didn’t know whether he could hug Catherine or not. She came closer to examine his face again, and Buggy used this opportunity to wrap his arms around her waist. Catherine stood there for a couple of minutes while he buried the top of his head in her chest without saying a word. She carefully removed his arms and lay down on the bed. Buggy lay down next to her, covered her with a blanket and became a little worried because Catherine didn't stroke his hair, didn't kiss him on the lips or nose before the night, as she usually did. Buggy carefully pressed closer to her, listening to her dryly saying “good night.” Catherine could hardly sleep. Buggy snored loudly in her ear, hugging her with arms and legs, mumbling “don't leave me, I love you”. She stroked his hair gently, and he immediately snuggled closer to her. From the living room came the equally loud snoring of Cabaji and Mohji.

Catherine woke up a couple of hours later and saw in bed.... no one. She noticed only a fresh lipstick mark on her hand. Catherine put on her slippers, wiped her eyes and hand, and staggered to the kitchen to make herself some coffee. There was no one in the living room where she had put Cabaji and Mohji to bed either. Catherine thought the three of them had run off to the circus early in the morning to avoid being seen by her.

“Fucking circus freaks!” Catherine muttered, and paused for a moment. She heard a noise coming from the kitchen, walked quietly to the door and put her ear to it.

“Captain, are we sure we're doing this right?” Mohji asked.

“I don't know!!” Buggy grumbled. “She seems to do it like that!”

“Why are we doing it?” Cabaji asked with interest.

“You know, dude, I may not understand a lot of things about relationships, but one thing I've learned. If you mess up, and you don't want to be killed, do something nice for your girlfriend. Buy flowers, make breakfast. For fuck's sake! It's hot!” Buggy pulled his hand away from the frying pan. “Guys, you have to help me!! We have to beat the eggs, dip it in the bread and fry it.” 

“You said it would be easy. We've been whipping eggs for half an hour now, but nothing's working!” Mohji said with frustration in his voice. “What should this even look like?”

“I don't know!!” Buggy looked at the bowl and grabbed his head. “Like scrambled eggs! Keep whipping!” 

“How did we even end up in the kitchen preparing breakfast for your girlfriend, Captain? How did you even get into a relationship?!” Cabaji asked, trying to help Mohji to whip eggs.

“I don't know how it happened, Cabaji!! She charmed me, and now I'm standing here in this fucking kitchen. Fuck! Nothing works!” Buggy took the bowl and looked at the slurry. “Shit! I’m done. She will wake up and kill me.”

Catherine opened the door ajar and poked her head in. She didn't know how not to laugh out loud. Buggy, Mohji and Cabaji were trying to cook for her. The whole kitchen was in flour, they themselves were in flour and eggs. They were always grumbling and dropping plates and spoons. Mohji was trying to dip the bread in the eggs and somehow managed to spill eggs all over the table. Buggy was overdoing the bread, Cabaji poured coffee beans into the coffee maker, but dropped the bag and everything fell on the table. 

“How about we make these toasts differently?” Mohji asked, once again soiling himself in the whipped eggs.

“No, she likes it that way.” Buggy grumbled through his teeth. “She always eats grilled cheese toasts when she's upset.”

“You said grilled cheese? Wait a minute, Captain.” Cabaji grabbed the cookbook in his hands. “Oh-oh! Guys, we're in serious trouble. We're making fucking French toast.”

“What?” Buggy sent his head to look in the book. “No!! No, no, no, no!! God dammit! I'm dead. I'm definitely dead! Fuck! Fuck!” 

“Let’s just fry the egg and put it on bread! Maybe she won’t notice the difference.” Mohji shifted his gaze from eggs to Buggy.

“Do you even feel sorry for me, Mohji? Do you really think my girlfriend won’t notice that this’s another fucking dish?” Buggy scratched his head. “How did this happen? I knew what kind of toast she liked. I can't believe I screwed up like this. Aga~.”

Catherine cleared her throat and the three of them slowly turned toward her. She held it together until the last but laughed herself to tears. Three terrified faces looked up at her. Their hands were all covered in eggs, their pants were stained with eggs and yolks. 

“Boy, our kitchen can barely withstand one hurricane Buggy. But three hurricanes, that's too much.” Catherine bent down and started laughing even louder. “I wish you could see your faces now. Three scared meerkats.” She imitated their poses and wiped her eyes. “Good morning, crooked hand guys.” Catherine slowly approached Buggy, sizing up the scale of the tragedy. “What are you doing here?”

Buggy looked confused. “I thought you were sleeping.”

“One handsome man didn't snore in my ear, so here I am.” Catherine wiped his face with a towel and pecked him on his lips. “Hi!” 

Buggy looked disgruntled and started muttering something about they were not alone. 

Catherine shrugged and examined his face and head again. “Everything seems okay.” She walked over to Cabaji and Mohji and wiped their faces and examined their faces too. “You both are fine.”

They both looked at her uncomprehendingly, then shifted their gaze to Buggy, who had a change in his face and couldn't say he was pleased with the scene. 

Catherine clapped her hands and sat in her chair. “Well, guys! Where's my coffee?” 

Buggy snapped his fingers, pointed to the coffee maker for Cabaji, and he quickly ran to pour her coffee. Mohji tried to flip the toast while Buggy put the plate on the table and looked guiltily at Catherine. She couldn't resist and kissed Buggy on his cheek. Mohji looked at them with interest.

Catherine shifted her gaze to the stove. “You're on fire, Mohji!” 

“Catherine, I know I’m a total fire, and you're cute too, but not now! Our Captain is here.” Mohji pointed a knife at Buggy.

“Your sleeve is on fire, idiot!” She jumped up from her chair and ran to Mohji with a towel. Startled, he jerked his hand away from the pan, hit a bowl that fell on the floor and began shaking his hand, only fanning the flames more. Catherine turned on the tap and quickly put Mohji’s hand under the water.

“God, it's only the morning, but the madhouse is already visited me.” She examined his hand. “It's fine. You’ll live. But you’ll have to throw the shirt away.”

“What the fuck?!” Buggy yelled. “Mohji, couldn't you swing your fucking arms less? You’re not a fucking bird. You dropped everything. We've been whipping these fucking eggs for two fucking hours.” He abruptly pushed back his chair, plopped onto it, and looked at Cabaji, who froze with coffee in his hands. “Why are you standing there? Put the fucking coffee on the table.”  He was upset and clearly started to get angry.

“Oh, don't be mad at them. They tried to help you.” Catherine kissed the top of Buggy's head, hearing him say again, “baby, we're not alone”. “I was baking waffles last night. Okay. Sit down. Catherine Mitchell is gonna feed her boys. Watch and learn, guys. Especially you, Buggy.” 

She quickly warmed up food under the gaze of six eyes, put waffles and coffee on the table and sat down next to Buggy, watching the three of them gorge themselves on hot waffles drizzled with maple syrup, slurping loudly. 

“Very tasty, Cath.” Cabaji put his fork down on an empty plate. 

“Very tasty!” Mohji ate almost without chewing his food.

“Thank you! It's nice to know that my boyfriend's friends also appreciated the food.” Catherine watched as Buggy blushed, muttering that it was tasty for him too.

“I’m done. We're off to rehearsal, cotton candy.” Buggy threw his fork on the table, stood up and was already heading for the kitchen exit, nudging Cabaji and Mohji, whispering to them “hurry, get out, get out”. 

“Freeze!” Catherine said loudly, taking a bite of a waffle. 

“Goodbye, Captain!” Cabaji and Mohji were about to run away. 

“Hey, you two! I didn't give you permission to leave.” She shook her head, sipped her coffee and squinted. “You assholes made a mess in the kitchen. And I'm not cleaning that up. Na-ah.”

The three of them stared at her and didn't know what to do. 

“Captain, what should we do?” Cabaji whispered to Buggy, looking at Catherine. 

“I have no fucking idea. This has never happened before.” Buggy replied in a whisper. “Something new.” 

Catherine took the cup of coffee in her hands, stood up and walked over to them. “You boys now take mops, rags in your hands and clean up all this crap. Moreover, you three will clean all the rooms, otherwise I will send you back to where I took you from.” 

“But, baby....” Buggy tried to stare at Catherine confidently, but took two steps back just in case.

“Shut up, Buggy. I’m more than sure that it was you who shouted that you need to break into the police station.” Catherine came closer to him and whispered in his ear. “And I don’t even want to say what awaits you if you don’t start cleaning up here now. You know, I can do it, and you can ea-a-asily lose something important.” 

“For how long?” He asked quietly.

“Aye-aye.” Catherine clicked her tongue. “A week.”

“Little shit!” Buggy exhaled heavily. “Guys, let's grab mops and rags. We don't have a chance to win. This's the little red-haired devil.”

Catherine sat down on the table and began to watch as the three of them started cleaning the kitchen. At first, it seemed like they were making even more of a mess. Mohji washed the floor, did not ring out the mop, constantly slipped on the water and fell. Cabaji was washing the dishes because Catherine had forbidden him to use the dishwasher. Buggy was scrubbing tables.

“Fuck! I'm sorry, Cath.” Cabaji held pieces of Catherine's broken mug in his hands and he immediately received a blow to the head with a rag from Buggy.

“Do you have no hands at all? This was her fucking favorite mug!” Buggy was already red with anger.

“Sorry! I'll buy you the new one! I promise!” Cabaji turned his gaze to Buggy, who was becoming angrier and angrier every second, either from the fact that he was forced to clean up or from a broken mug.

“Oh, my dear, of course you will.” Catherine narrowed her eyea playfully. “You guys should be wearing duck aprons. You'd look cute in them. I would call you three Ducketeers.” She laughed, eating waffles. 

“You're having fun, yeah?” Buggy glanced at Catherine angrily.

“Oh, yeah!” She nodded and sipped her coffee.

Buggy threw the rag on the table and walked up to Catherine, looking intently into her eyes. Cabaji and Mohji froze with round eyes and didn't know if they should run away from the kitchen or not. 

“What? Do you want to tell me something, clown?” Catherine didn’t take her eyes off Buggy. “Better pour me a glass of wine.”

“You know what, my cotton candy?” Buggy grabbed her chin, wanting to tell her to fuck off and hire cleaners. “Go and fu~”. He almost pressed his body to her, when Catherine ran her finger over his hand.

“You want to get out, my love? That would be a shame. Just for your information, Buggy the Clown.” She took a bite of the waffle, moved closer to him and said quietly. “I bought new underwear. It's pink and lacy. I rea-a-a-ally wanted to show it to you tonight.”

“You… You…” Buggy took one step closer to Catherine, keeping his hand on her chin, and stared at her for a long time. “How.. Why.. What.. Which wine should I pour?” He took one more step closer.

“Fuck, you're so hot right now.” Catherine raised her body a little bit and said quietly near his lips. “But I want pink and dry, please.” 

“Fine!” Buggy sent his hand for the wine, without moving from his place, and poured her the largest glass of wine. “Here!”

“Thank you, my love. If you keep cleaning, I'll let you take off my underwear.” Catherine sipped her wine and slightly nodded towards Cabaji and Mohji. “Your guys are watching, by the way.” 

Buggy swallowed. “Fuck them and fuck you, Catherine Mitchell.” He hissed it through the teeth and cast an angry glance at his friends. “Why are you still here, idiots? Cabaji, you go clean the fucking living room. Mohji, you go to the fucking bathroom. I'll go to the bedroom.”

They went room by room and Catherine followed them around, showing where and what needs to be cleaned. Cabaji reluctantly began to wipe the table, Mohji exhaled and trudged with a bucket to the bathroom. 

Catherine went to check the bedroom and saw Buggy sitting in a chair while his hands raked trash under the bed.

“Hey! Don't cheat, asshole!” Catherine took the mop and gave it to him. “You are banned from chop chop thing for today. Do everything properly.” 

“You need to clean it up, you clean it up. I don't want to do anything.” Buggy reattached his hands and tried to grab her hand. 

“Na-ah! Rules, clown! You made a mess in the kitchen, not me. If you clean up well, you will receive a gift.” Catherine leaned over the chair. “For your information. It is around here somewhe-ere.”

“I need some pink motivation, Cathie-pie. Can I at least take a look?” Buggy looked at her with pleading eyes. Catherine shook her head, he sobbed, stood up and got down on all fours with the mop.

“God, your ass is so pretty.” Catherine tilted her head and smiled.

“Fuck off, Catherine.” Buggy barked. 

“Oh, my little bear is angry.” She came closer to him and placed her hand on his back. “My little bear is so sexy when he's angry.” 

“For God's sake, go away!” Buggy threw the mop on the floor. 

She smacked him on his head. “I'm gonna go check on your buddies.”

Catherine left the room and waited a couple of minutes. She opened the bedroom door ajar and saw Buggy lying on the bed. “Seriously, clown?”

“Holy crap!!” From the surprise he fell apart on the bed. “You freaked me out! Who does that, woman?!”

“Get off the bed and keep cleaning, Buggy!” Catherine rolled her eyes, closed the door and saw abandoned rags. She went to the front door and saw Cabaji and Mohji were trying to escape. 

“Open up!!” Cabaji whispered. 

“What about the Captain?” Mohji pulled the door several times. “Fuck! It's closed!!” 

“The Captain will understand us! Hurry!!” Cabaji shook his shoulder. 

“Have you lost something?” Catherine pulled the keys out of her pocket and clicked her tongue. “Aye-aye! How bad is it to abandon your beloved Buggy while he's doing his job.”

They blinked silently, not knowing whether she would kill them now or later.

“She's right, Mohji!” Cabaji nodded and crossed his arms. “See? Our Captain is strong and persistent! He is not afraid of rags and mops!” 

“He’s amazing!! He teaches us not to give up!” Mohji took off his boots. 

“Catherine!” They said in unison, falling on their knees. “Don't tell him, please, that we wanted to run away!” 

“Get back to your rooms and finish cleaning until the end. Now!” 

Cabaji and Mohji quickly run away, and Catherine had them rewash the shelves, the floor, and rewipe the furniture as punishment. They both constantly whined but continued admiring Buggy’s durability. 

Catherine went to the kitchen to take a couple of waffles and walked into the bedroom again when Buggy was wiping down the shelves, sitting on the floor. He was wet, angry, tossing rags, grumbling incessantly, but Catherine noticed him carefully picking up her figurines and candles with his hands and putting them back.  

“You're back.” Buggy said angrily, wiping a photo frame with their picture. He didn't want that kind of thing in their house at all, but Catherine convinced him to put it on the shelf. 

“Yeah. I love your bedroom.”

“Our bedroom.” He sighed heavily and sent his hand to place the frame back on the shelf. 

“Our. How are you?” She asked calmly, sipping her wine. 

“I’m fine.” Buggy grumbled. 

“I brought some waffles. Do you want to?”

“I don't want a fucking waffle, Catherine.” Buggy groaned. “I'm tired and wanna sleep or die. I’m not sure what options I want to choose. I’ve been wiping your fucking books, figures and candles for almost two hours now. You’ve already filled the bedroom with these candles. I cleaned your fucking fluffy pillow on the chair by the window. Do you really need it? The chair and the pillow?” He kicked the chair and threw the rag on the back of the chair. 

“Yes, I need it, Buggy.” Catherine came closer to the chair and adjusted the plaid. “I love this pillow and I love this chair by the window, this's my favorite place in this room. I love sitting in it in the morning and watching you do your makeup. I love sitting here with a book and seeing you walk home, hiding a bouquet of flowers behind your back or eating a bagel. I love when we sit in this chair together in the evenings, even though you think it's stupid. And I bet you will never admit that you like all my things and the fact that they made the house more cozy.” 

“What a speech! Fine! I give that stupid chair and pillow my permission to stay.”

“Thanks, you're so generous.” Catherine walked across the room and ran her fingers along the nightstands. 

Buggy followed her movements closely. “Is Her Royal Highness Princess Catherine happy now?” He asked, gently wiping down the box with her birthday present. 

“Am I just a princess? I thought you promoted me to queen. But just for your note, Princess Catherine is very happy. Because her beloved Prince Buggy the Clown is doing well.” She saw Buggy blush. “Finish up here and come to the living room. I’ll order a pizza and one additional pizza with sausages for my little bear and hot dogs, as always.”

Catherine walked back out into the living room, checking on Cabaji, who was already mopping the floor with his tongue out. “Cath, please tell me you're satisfied!”

She looked around and nodded. “Quite satisfied. Wipe down the shelves again and you can rest. I'm going to go check on your other friend.” 

Catherine went to the bathroom, hearing Cabaji's scream behind her. She opened the bathroom door and saw Mohji practically sobbing as he finished cleaning the bathtub. 

“I'm a good man. I didn't deserve that. But my captain is steadfast and does not give up! I must follow his example!!” Mohji glanced at Catherine with wet ryes. “Please, Catherine, tell me you're satisfied!” 

Catherine looked around and nodded. “Quite pleased with it. Just wipe down the shelf one more time and you can rest.” She went to the kitchen to order a pizza when she heard Mohji squealing. 

Catherine laughed loudly and went back into the living room. When the pizza was brought by the delivery man, Catherine couldn't hold back a laugh as she watched all three of them crawl effortlessly onto the couch. 

“Come on, guys! You've only been cleaning for almost four hours.” 

“I can't. I wan~ die.” Cabaji plopped down on the couch. “I was~. I wash~. I washed the fucking shelves and windows six times.” 

“Same.” Mohji plopped down next to Cabaji, resting his head on his shoulder. 

“How many times have I pulled you out of the cell this month, so many times you've washed the windows. It's simple.” Catherine shrugged. “Next time you will immediately clean everything in the kitchen and won't be punished.”

“I did it! I fin~ finished!” Buggy opened the bedroom door, leaned on the frame and stared at Catherine. “I wip~ wiped down all the fucking shelves, chang~ changed the fucking bed linen, neatly folded your fucking t-shirts with animals.”

“Did you fold my t-shirts neatly? Don't make me laugh.”

“Screw you!” Buggy waved at Catherine. “You.. Ass~. Assholes. Mo~ Move over.” He splitted in pieces and almost with no energy made his way to the couch, where he put himself back together at the last gasp. 

Catherine brought the beer for them and looked around the room. “See! You did great, guys! Everything looks clean now!”

“Yaaaay!” Buggy, Cabaji and Mohji rejoiced in unison and clapped almost exhaustedly. 

“Now you deserve a good and tasty pizza.” She opened the boxes and placed hot dogs on the table. “Enjoy!” 

The three of them silently synchronized to wave her off. Catherine laughed even harder, took a slice of pizza and sat down next to Buggy, putting her arm around his shoulders. 

“I adore you, guys. You need to come and clean up our apartment often.” She kissed Buggy's head. “And I adore you, my love!” 

“Baby, we're..” Buggy tried to speak. “We.. We’re not alo~.” He barely mumbled from fatigue. “~ne.”

“I don't give a shit.” She kissed his head again. “Let your friends get used to my love for you.” 

“The main th~... I will se~. Pin~. Fuck me, I don't have the energy to talk.” Buggy sent his hand for a beer. 

“Captain.” He heard Cabaji's half-dead voice. “You know what I understood after this morning?” 

“What?”

“I'll never get into a relationship.”

[that-one-ya-pagan-book]

Amaltheia Othonos

Avatar of Primordial Khaos | Devotee of Hera, Hellenic Queen of the Gods

[Moodboard Created By Me | Images All Found On Bing]

Name: Amaltheia Othonos

Amaltheia - "Tender Goddess" & The Name Of The Animal That Helped Raise & Feed Zeus In Greek Mythology

Othonos - "Wolf" & "Wealth"/Fortune"

Parentage: Irrelevant [None Related To The Godly World]

Pronouns: She/Her Pronouns But She/He Gender

Age: 17

↳ Ever since Amaltheia was born, she's always bled gold instead of red.

Ethnicity: Greek

Backstory:

Up until the beginning of the book, Amaltheia spent her life helping out the homeless. It didn't help that he was homeless, too, but at least she could say he did at least something normal.

She had been defending herself against someone that would eventually be known "The Gatsby"--after "The Great Gatsby" book & conspiracies created from it--at the beginning of the book when she unexpectedly teleported herself to Olympus after she backed herself into a corner and was too exhausted & panicked to fight her way out. This leads to general confusion because 1) no new god or deity has been fostered in hundreds of years and 2) mortals shouldn't be able to teleport to Olympus even if they had those powers without the assistance of Hermes--for technical and safety reasons.

Powers: Creation; Teleportation

Weapons: Tackling; Exhausted Spite; Inexhaustible Energy

Characters That Inspired My Creation Of Her: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Logan Howlett, My Other OCs

Likes: The Sky, Wind, & Rain [it reminds her of endless freedom & little worry]; Having A Sense Of Purpose [Why She Chooses Lady Hera To Devote Herself To, Since They Are Similar]; Life [Yeah, It's Shitty, But Its Also Life. She Loves Being Alive]

Dislikes: Smell [Just Because You Get Used To It Doesn't Mean You Like It];

Enemies: "The Gatsby" [Original Name Currently Unknown]

Fun Facts:

Lady Hera & Amaltheia are very similar in character--minus the whole "marriage" thing--which is why they bonded so well & will have so many scenes together as Amaltheia starts Attending to Lady Hera in the first part of the book. Lady Hera even comes to view Amaltheia as her own daughter at some point, which her other children took to instantly :)).

Amaltheia will have many moments with Lord Ares, Lady Hebe, Lord Hephaestus, and most of the other gods because of her relationship with Lady Hera & attending to Her needs

Why is she "Attending" to Lady Hera? Well, there are many reasons why she is one of Hera's main Attendees--the main of which is to provide her a space among Olympus to reside in so she does not have to return to her homelessness in the mortal realm. The Greek Gods are very welcoming but they are also Gods and have their own internal Hierarchies and Duties. They have systems in place so everyone among them must have a place that benefits and helps move along their systems. Why Lady Hera specifically? Ultimately, Amaltheia chose her because she knew her myths from her mom's lullabies and bedtime stories and because, as soon as she looked at The Queen, she felt a connection with Her and wanted to work with her. Other reasons include learning the ropes and keeping an eye on her, etc etc

As it was mentioned/implied before in both Amaltheia's Quote and Backstory, Amaltheia was born with full-on ichor--the blood of the gods--and is, technically (complicated), a god herself (see The Avatars of Primordial Khaos). This, as you may be able to tell, comes with powers (some of which Amaltheia already knew of):

The Ability To Transform: Amaltheia has the ability to transform matter in one form to another, as long as it is an equal exchange of matter necessary to transform the atoms into what she needs. This is one Amaltheia's known of and uses regularly to mend clothes (alongside the traditional way), get blankets, supplies, etc. She's tried to do money before but having unaccounted for money running around has always been tricky... but she's well-known among the homeless circles as someone who always has whatever you need. They assume it's because she's great at stealing--which is true--and finding clever ways of accounting for things--also true--but it's not just that. Amaltheia does it whenever she can get away with it.

The Ability To Teleport: Amaltheia has the ability to teleport just like any other deity could. She has unlimited access to things--as she is of The Creator & a deity without a specific Domain or Purpose (being a God/dess)--but is absolutely horrible at geography with how little education she has (she knows about the places from various stories she's heard among the shelters and news, but not where they are) and does not have the ability nor the experience to see the earth from above/feeling it through various powers/domains, like "proper" gods & other immortals do. The reason why she got to Olympus in the beginning of the book is out of sheer luck & panic + her ichor looking for safety among the numbers & itself.

Inexhaustible Energy: Amaltheia still can get exhausted because there are many different types of energies such as mental and spiritual that can drain & block the use of one's physical energy, but when available, she does have endless amounts of physical energy from her ichor & the source of its Energy being everywhere/always moving, so she can't ever get physically tired & can do physical labor for weeks if she can keep her mental energy up. Participates in a lot of physical contests for the money bc of that & then uses the money to give back to those around her because she's always got that safety net of her powers to rely on. The only thing is that she heavily struggles with her mental energy & has struggles like depression and insecurities :((

There are other feats within her that currently go either undiscovered by me, the author, or fall under those categories of Need.

[analexthatexists]

ENA OC: Emotions

Yeah, they still don't have a name.

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

"What a good joke! It sure was scrumptious!"

Goofball is usually the side of ENA that's the most present and in control, minus times where Loyal interferes the other side's antics. Her attitude and energy is upbeat and positive, even if she's prone to accidents and making situations worse.

"If there is anything you need of me, simply tell me."

Loyal is more respectful, cautious, and willing to do what people say. He's also the more quiet of the two Sides, and is commonly praying or spreading the word of Runas.

In a similar fashion that the original ENA, Goofball and Loyal are able to take over one another, consuming the full face and expressing more unstable emotions.

"WAAAAIT WAIT WAIT... IF YOU'RE NOT REAL, AND IF I'M NOT REAL, THEN WHO'S DRIVING THIS THING!? HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

When Goofball unleashes a manic breakdown or realizes something about the world that she shouldn't, she becomes Hysterical. While Goofball was already confusing and scatterbrained, this form is near incomprehensible, even by those who are believed to be nonsense. Cryptic and ominous, Hysterical tends to be self-deprecating, hurtful towards others, and questioning the world around her.

"WHY AREN'T YOU ANSWERING ME... HAVE I NOT DONE ENOUGH!? MY BLOOD BOILS... IS THAT WHAT YOU DESIRE!?"

Under pressure, out of desperation, or maybe even feeling the need to owe someone. A lot can make Loyal become Sacrificial. While becoming more frenzied and aggressive, respect and loyalty are twisted into obsessiveness and over-obedience. Even if it's harmful or dangerous for their own well-being, Sacrificial refuses to say no to any offer or command. Atonement will always come first.

Currently, there's one other form I need to design. One that mimics the original's Demon form. That's still in the works though, so stay tuned for it if you're still curious.

Also, I'm unsure if I'll make a Full Loyal/Goofball form (mimicking ENA's Full Sadness form) or a form to mimic the Diabalda form, but I don't plan to, so... yeah. :P