#oc:terri

[jaysworlds]

Whumptober Day One, babeyyyyy

Prompt: Unconventional Restraints Word count: 567

~

“Back off,” Terri says, trying her hardest to keep her voice from shaking. She’s scared - fuck, of course she’s scared - but people are relying on her. She can’t afford to let them down.

Miles (well. It’s not Miles, not really. Something that looks like him, but not him) smiles. It doesn’t look right on his face, not the same bright, easy-going smile she’s used to.

“Come on,” he says, opening his arms towards her. “It’s me, Terri.”

She shakes her head. “I don’t know what you are. But I know my friend.”

He - it - sighs. “I am your friend.”

It takes another step towards her (towards Ash, still cowering behind her), and she balls her hands into fists. “I told you to back off.”

“I wouldn’t hurt you,” it promises, giving her another smile that just looks wrong. “Have I ever hurt you?”

“I don’t know you,” she says, shaking her head. “You’re not my friend.”

“We’ve been through so much together.”

It takes another step closer and she throws her hands out, acting on instinct more than anything else. Vines whip out from the ground and block its way, stopping it from getting any closer.

“I’m warning you.”

It narrows its eyes. It’s only from knowing Miles so well that Terri can guess its next move, because while it is not him it's still in his body, and it moves the same way.

It launches itself into the air, wings flying out to steady it as it tries to get behind them, but Terri is already moving. A vine wraps around its ankle and yanks it back down to earth, hard enough that it slams into the ground.

Ash makes a small, choked off cry, and for a moment Terri freezes, terrified she’s killed her best friend.

He’s alive, though. At least, the creature puppetting his body is, and it tries to pull itself up to stand.

She wraps the vines around it, binding its wings to its back. It struggles, cursing her, and she looks away, catching her breath and making sure Ash is alright.

After a moment its curses turn to pleas, pleading with her to let it go. I thought we were friends, it says, in Miles’ voice. I thought I could trust you.

Ash is crying softly, and Terri wraps her arms around her. She shouldn’t be here, too young to have to see this, but they can’t send her back now. They’re all in too deep.

“Please,” the thing that isn’t Miles asks, and Ash pulls away from Terri to look at it.

“Shut up,” she snarls, the ground shaking for a moment.

Terri bites back a smile. Ash is so, so brave.

“It’s alright,” she says, putting a hand on Ash’s shoulder. “We need to go.”

Ash glances up at her and then over at Miles, still struggling in the vines. “We can’t leave him.”

Terri swallows, closing her eyes for a moment. “We have to.”

They can’t take him with them. He’s too dangerous, like this, and they have enough on their plate without having to keep him restrained. She doesn’t know how to help him.

Ash stares for a moment and then looks away, burying her face in Terri’s shoulder.

“He’ll be alright,” Terri tells her, and hopes it’s true.

Ash nods, quiet, and lets Terri lead her away. He shouts after them until they’re out of earshot.

[jaysworlds]

Whumptober 2021 Day Eleven

Alexei knows he’s going to die here. He doesn’t see any outcomes which are favourable to him, but that’s alright. As long as Joseph comes down with him he doesn’t care.

Absently he hopes that the others will be alright, but he isn’t focused on that so much. It’s taking all the focus he has to pull the water up from beneath the ground, through the miles of rock.

There’s so much water, and his body is shaking with the effort of it. He’s not entirely sure how he’s still standing, but it doesn’t matter, not really. Either the effort is going to kill him or the drowning will, but he has to do this.

The water is still going up, hasn’t crashed down on them yet. No one’s moved, not yet. They’ve barely had time to react.

The water crashes down over them in a wave that’s so strong keeping it off them sends Alexei to his knees. They’re standing in a bubble of air, now, the water churning around them.

“Alexei,” Freddie breathes. Alexei doesn’t have the strength to reply.

This will destroy the city. A lot of people are about to die, and their deaths are on Alexei’s shoulders. He isn’t going to live long enough to care.

The water settles. They’re high enough that it leaves them a tiny patch of wet earth at the summit of the hill, their feet just barely out of the rivers flowing on either side of them.

“Alexei,” Freddie says again. He sounds as though he’s about to panic.

The guards finally break out of their trance, move towards them. Alexei snarls and flings his arm to the side, sending a wave out of the river and knocking them from the patch of dry land. They disappear into the churning water.

Alexei’s barely keeping himself awake. There’s still so much water beneath them, and he’s still pulling it out of the ground. Their patch of land will be gone before long.

Freddie needs to take the others and go.

Alexei grits his teeth, trying to gather the energy to speak. “Go.”

“I…” Freddie starts, and flinches as Alexei snarls at him.

“Go!”

He hadn’t meant to scare him. But he can’t let him die with the rest of them.

“None of you are going anywhere,” Joseph snarls. He must know Alexei won’t let him leave here alive, but maybe he doesn’t care.

“You’re going to die,” Alexei tells him. He’s still shaking, on his knees, but he holds the power here.

“So are you.”

“So be it.”

“No,” Freddie says. “No one’s going to die!”

He’s naive, if he really thinks that. Maybe he’s just hoping. Alexei doesn’t have the energy to speculate.

Joseph is looking around, and he must see Terri and Miles, still bound. “Your friends will.”

“No!” Alexei snarls, throwing out a hand and freezing ice up his legs. He’s not going to touch them.

Joseph’s eyes flash, furious. “I should have killed you a long time ago.”

“I’m going to kill you.”

Alexei forces himself to his feet. It’s difficult, and he nearly collapses again, but he stands.

Joseph has summoned a fireball and is melting himself free, and Alexei shoves Freddie into motion. He doesn’t have time to be nice.

Freddie seems to understand what he means, stumbling over to Terri and Miles. He keeps glancing over at Joseph, clearly distracted, and Alexei just prays he keeps it together long enough to get out of here.

Joseph’s managed to melt himself free, but he’s focused on Alexei, at least. The water is rising, lapping around their feet. It won’t be long until they’re under.

“What are you going to do?” he asks.

“Kill you,” Alexei says. It’s all he knows, really. Everything else is still up in the air, but that’s certain.

“You’ll die too.”

Alexei curls his lip. As though he cares about his own life.

Joseph must realise that, and Alexei imagines he sees a flicker of fear in his face.

He revels in it. Let Joseph fear him, for once.

If he had more time maybe he would drag it out. Force the man to beg for his life and then kill him anyway.

He doesn’t have more time. The water is still rising.

He looks past Joseph, meets Miles’ eye.

“Take them,” he says. “Go.”

Miles nods. He, at least, understands.

“Alexei,” Freddie says, eyes wide and afraid. “You can’t…”

“Go,” Alexei tells him. He doesn’t say I’ll be fine. They both know it’s a lie.

Joseph glances back at them for a moment. He doesn’t seem to care if they escape.

“Alexei,” Freddie pleads, and then: “father, please.”

“Go,” Joseph snarls. “You were always weak.”

Freddie flinches as though he’s been hit. Alexei wants to snarl don’t talk to him like that, but he simply doesn’t have the energy.

“Come on,” Miles says, and Joseph turns away from him.

The water is still rising, at Alexei’s waist by now. They’re not even going to have to fight.

“We’re both going to die here,” Joseph says, and Alexei shrugs.

“I get to kill you.”

He isn’t even going to be conscious when the water reaches his head. He can already feel himself slipping away, but he refuses to slip under before he’s watched Joseph die.

He takes a shaking step towards him, and then another. Joseph meets him in the middle, catches him when he stumbles.

For a moment he holds Alexei in his arms, almost gentle.

“Fuck you,” Alexei gasps out, and knocks them both off their feet, sending them under the waves.

It’s quiet, under the rushing river. Almost peaceful.

Alexei’s lungs fill with water almost immediately. He doesn’t have the energy to keep it out.

They’re going to die. Together.

It’s only a comfort when he finally blacks out.

[jaysworlds]

Whumptober 2021 Day Nine

“He’s not dead,” Freddie says, for what must be the sixth time. “He’s not dead. He can’t be.”

He just … can’t believe it. They made it this far, he and Alexei, and now Alexei’s just … gone? No. That isn’t right. It can’t be right.

Terri sighs, looking out over the churning water beneath them. “He was unconscious when he went under. I don’t know how he’d have survived.”

“He has to be alive,” Freddie insists, looking out over the water for … something. Anything. Any sign Alexei’s still there.

“I can go look again,” Miles says, pulling himself to his feet. He’s clearly exhausted, and Freddie feels so guilty about asking him for it, but he just nods.

Miles gives him a tired smile and takes off again, gliding over the surface of the water.

Another body drifts past, and Freddie looks away.

“Freddie,” Terri says gently, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t know how he could have made it.”

“He has to,” Freddie says, and turns to bury his face in her shoulder. “He … I need him.”

He’s going to have an awful lot of things to think about, once this is all over. His father is dead, and his brothers are likely the same. Everyone he ever knew could be dead.

He doesn’t want to think about that, any of it. He pulls away from Terri and stands, as if he has more of a chance to spot Alexei in the water than Miles does.

There’s so much water. This was a city, a few hours ago, and now only a few roofs are visible above the flood.

He doesn’t understand how Alexei did this. He’d never seen so much raw power from anyone before, and on the one level he’d known Alexei had power but … not this much.

Not so much power as to raze a whole city to the ground.

It saved their lives, though. Freddie doesn’t think he’s fully processed the fact that his father was going to kill him, just for … loving Alexei.

He doesn’t really understand that either. He doesn’t know if he’s ever going to.

“C’mon, Alexei,” he whispers, more to himself than to anyone else.

Terri sighs, but she doesn’t say anything.

Kai’s missing too, but Freddie isn’t so worried about her. She’s built for water, and she wasn’t unconscious. She’ll be fine, and he’s sure she’ll make her way back to them eventually.

He sits down on the edge of the roof and then stands again, walking over to the other side and looking into the water there.

Nothing. Of course there’s nothing.

“Freddie,” Terri says, coming to stand beside him. “I don’t think he’s coming back.”

“What do I do without him?” Freddie asks, hollow.

“You’ll be alright,” Terri says. “Come back with me and Miles. You can stay, if you want.”

Not like Freddie still has anything here. His father is gone. His brothers are gone. The castle is gone.

He stifles a sob, rubbing at his eyes.

He’s king now. That … he doesn’t want to think about that, but he is. Not like there’s anyone else to do it.

“I don’t think I can,” he says, a little wobbly. “I … shouldn’t leave, not now.”

Terri shrugs, puts an arm around his shoulders. “Fuck ‘em. They’ll find someone else.”

She must have realised too, then.

“That’s not how it works.”

“It might have to be.”

They’re interrupted by a yell from Miles, and Freddie almost falls into the water trying to see what he’s doing.

Please. Please, by all the gods, let him have found Alexei.

He’s found something, because he’s flying low, close to the water, and he seems to be struggling. Freddie wishes he could help, but he can’t fly and neither can Terri, and there’s not much they can do between the water and the distance.

Freddie’s momentarily distracted from Miles by the arrival of Kai, who drifts up on to the roof they’re on and collapses at his feet, obviously exhausted.

He crouches beside her, stroking her scales with shaking hands, and she barely reacts.

“It’s okay,” he whispers. “Good girl. You can rest now.”

“I found him,” Miles says, finally alighting on the roof, and Freddie scrambles to his feet. Sure enough, he’s holding Alexei in his arms, soaking wet and limp.

“Is he alive?” Freddie whispers.

Miles shrugs, lets Freddie take Alexei from him and lay him down on the roof. “I couldn’t check. Kai was keeping him out of the water.”

“Good girl,” Freddie says, glancing over at her, and presses two fingers to Alexei’s throat, praying.

He’s alive. He’s alive. There’s a faint pulse beneath Freddie’s fingers, and Freddie slumps down beside him, about ready to cry with relief.

“He’s alive,” he whispers, to the others, and wraps his arms around himself, unable to stop the sobs.

Miles collapses beside him, laying down on his back and closing his eyes. When Freddie finally manages to stop crying he needs to thank him, over and over, but for now he can’t even speak.

It’s going to be alright. They’re all here, all alive.

They’re going to be alright.

[jaysworlds]

Hello, may I please know everyone's ages? I can't remember the WIP name I think there's like a g an 8 and a p but in what order I have no idea and maybe that's wrong. Just. How old - Alexei and Freddie - forgive me for being incomprehensible I am currently feral. Not the best time to be sending asks maybe but the only time it really matters. Hope you're having a nice day

hello! yes! the wip is 8gp, which is short for eight gold pieces, because originally it had eight main characters (there are now ten but the name stays)

ages are a little bit complicated because i haven't written anything in order BUT here's my attempt at explaining:

Freddie and Alexei are a year apart and they're twenty-four and twenty-five respectively when they meet, so in all the chunks they're interacting Alexei's about twenty-five/twenty-six and Freddie's about twenty-four/twenty-five

Terri and Miles are twenty-two and twenty-one respectively

kai is like. one? two? she's not fully grown but she'd just had her first clutch when Freddie got her. i dont know very much about snakes but then again her age doesnt matter all that much

Joseph is in his fifties (about fifty-six when he dies i think)

i hope you also have a nice day!

[jaysworlds]

Whumptober 2021 Day Thirteen

“This,” Terri says, catching Miles’ face in one hand and making him look her in the eyes, just to drive her point home, “is going to hurt like shit.”

“I know,” Miles says, through gritted teeth. It already hurts like shit, has been hurting like shit since the shock wore off, but this isn’t the first time he’s broken a wing and he just needs it dealt with. “Just do it.”

Terri nods. “I’ll count down from five.”

“From five. Alright.” They won’t actually get to five. That’s what she does, every time she has to set a broken bone (almost always his). She does it at a different number every time.

“Five,” she says, and Miles braces himself. “Four. Three.”

And then she twists the break back into position. Miles yells and has to stuff his fist in his mouth to shut himself up. The others are sleeping.

“There, you pussy,” she says, leaning in to kiss his cheek. “Hold still and let me finish splinting it.”

She’s very good at that. She always has been, because she’s been splinting his wings (and everything else he’s broken) since they were kids. He’d do the same for her, of course, but she doesn’t actually have bones to break, and she somehow has the guts to do it herself whenever something gets knocked out of place.

“Are you done?” he asks, risking a glance over his shoulder.

“Nearly,” she tells him, smacking his back. “I said hold still.”

He sighs and holds still until she’s finished.

“There,” she tells him, shifting around so she’s sitting in front of him. “Good as new.”

“Thank you,” he says, giving her a sheepish smile. “One of these days I’ll get good at landing.”

“No you won’t,” she says dryly.

“No, I won’t.”

The flap of the tent opens and Ashley pokes her head around, poking a finger in Miles’ direction.

“You woke me up,” she says, accusing, and Miles rolls his eyes.

“Sorry Ash, next time I break a wing I’ll be quieter about it.”

“Good,” Ash says, and sits down on the ground, legs crossed. “How’s it feel?”

“Broken?”

“You’re such a dick, Miles.”

“You’re not allowed to say that!”

“I can too. Terri, can I call him a dick?”

Terri laughs, patting her shoulder. “Of course you can call him a dick.”

“That’s not fair,” Miles protests. “You’re not supposed to encourage her.”

“I love encouraging her,” Terri says. “It’s why I’m her favourite.”

“She is my favourite,” Ashley says, leaning against Terri’s side. “You’re old and a loser.”

“You’re a baby,” Miles tells her, reaching out to poke her cheek. “And Terri’s older than me.”

“Yeah,” Ashley says, shrugging, “but she’s old and cool.”

“I am extremely cool,” Terri says, grinning. “The coolest, in fact.”

“Not the coolest,” Ashley corrects. “Because you’re old. But you’re cool for an old person.”

Miles laughs, at that, doing his best not to shake the wing too much. “Yeah, Terri. Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“Your friends are awake, by the way,” Ashley says, in the way that implies she doesn’t consider them real friends. “I heard them whispering.”

“Alright,” Miles says. “Don’t disturb them.”

“I didn’t,” Ash says, wrinkling her nose. “They’re weird.”

“You’re weird,” Terri tells her, poking at the ticklish part of her stomach, and she shrieks, smacking her away.

“I hate you!”

“No you don’t,” Terri says, mischievous, and goes to tickle her again.

Ash scrambles away and takes cover behind Miles. He lifts the wing that isn’t broken over her, sheltering her from Terri.

“You can’t tickle me here!” Ash says, peeking out from behind Miles’ feathers. “You might hurt Miles. He’s injured.”

“Yeah, I’m injured,” Miles says, laughing. Ashley is being very careful not to jog his wing. “Leave us alone.”

They’re interrupted (again), by a gentle knock on the frame holding the tent up, and they all freeze.

“Who’s there?” Ash asks, finally, and Freddie pokes his head into the tent. “Hi. I’m, um, sorry to interrupt, but … is everything okay?”

He must have heard the yelling and assumed they were in trouble. It’s quite sweet of him to come check on them, really.

“It’s fine,” Terri says, waving a hand. “Sorry if these idiots woke you.”

“Right,” Freddie says, and nods. “Good. Um, how’s your wing?”

“It’s alright,” Miles tells him. “Terri set it. It’ll heal.”

Freddie nods, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m … sorry about it.”

Miles waves a hand. “Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t your fault.”

“Yeah, Miles is just shit at landing,” Terri said cheerfully. “He’d probably have crashed anyway.”

Miles grumbles a little at that, but it’s true. He’d been going way too fast anyway, which was probably part of why Freddie had freaked out and started flailing.

Freddie smiles faintly. “Alright. I just … wanted to make sure you were alright.”

“We’re fine,” Miles promises. “Sorry for waking you.”

Freddie shakes his head. “No, it’s fine. We … we were awake anyway. Alexei…”

He trails off and never finishes the sentence.

“Alexei what,” Ashley asks, and Freddie flaps a hand at her.

“Oh, it’s … he … don’t worry about it.”

Ashley doesn’t seem convinced, but she doesn’t try to interrogate him. Miles knows she doesn’t trust them, but they’ve asked her to be nice and she’s trying her best.

“I should go back,” Freddie says. “Sorry again.”

He ducks out of the tent before Miles can tell him it’s fine, really, stop apologising.

“I don’t like him,” Ashley declares, and Miles shushes her.

“You don’t know him.”

“I know I don’t like him.”

“He’s alright,” Terri says. “I promise. His boyfriend’s creepy though.”

Miles rolls his eyes. “Please be quieter.”

“Fine, fine,” Terri says, and yawns. “Anyway, we should go to bed. Miles, you need to sleep so your wing heals, and Ash needs to sleep so she doesn’t stay so tiny.”

“Fuck you,” Ash says, sticking her tongue out.

“Where’d you learn that?” Miles says. One of these days her parents are going to kill him for letting her learn so many bad words.

“Terri, duh.”

“Makes sense,” Miles says, and Terri grins.

“A princess needs a full vocabulary.”

Miles rolls his eyes. “No she doesn’t.”

“Yes I do,” Ashley says, punching him in the shoulder. “Go to sleep, you old fucker.”

“Stop swearing at me,” Miles says, but he does do his best to lay down without putting any pressure on the broken wing.

“You’ll be alright on your own?” Terri asks, and he nods.

“I’ll be fine. Better, probably, with no chance of you rolling onto me.”

“Alright,” Terri says, and leans down to kiss his cheek. “Sleep well.”

“You too,” he says, pressing his face into the pillow.

“Night!” Ashley says, and he hears the tent flap move.

His wing still aches, but not as badly as it had. He’s going to be walking for the foreseeable future, but it shouldn’t take too long to heal. He hopes it doesn’t anyway.

Sleep isn’t easy, but it comes eventually.

[jaysworlds]

my characters are all extremely gay people

[ID: a (fake) tweet by user plant rights activist with three tree emojis (@ terri_fied) that says ‘im sick of dating men are trash girls if you want to marry me reply to this tweet’. the first reply is by alexei (he/him) (@ to the seas again), tagging @ queen of lesbian. the second reply is by ‘Lux (she/her) pride flag emoji trans flag emoji’ (@ queen of lesbian). it has nine eye emojis and says ‘hello maam’. the third and final reply is by plant rights activist again and says ‘@ to the seas again @ queen of lesbian lexi i owe you my life <3 lux i have never met you but we will have a spring wedding’. end ID]

[jaysworlds]

every friendship group should have:

a bimbo

a mean bisexual

an even meaner lesbian

she/theys

and he/theys

a token straight who’s on thin ice

an astrology bitch who’s got everyone’s birth chart memorized

and a short king

(picrew by carrotkake)

[jaysworlds]

i figured out how to work artbreeder today so here,,, have some woo la woos

[jaysworlds]

i believe in terri/alexei reluctant friendship supremacy

[jaysworlds]

(ID:

a character from this picrew. shes a dark-skinned woman with long brown hair coming down over her shoulder and brown eyes. she’s wearing a lime green shirt with succulants printed on it and a bi pride badge. she has a dangling silver earring and an eyebrow piercing. her skin is tainted slightly green.

end ID]

its her birthday! 🥳 everyone say happy birthday

-this is terri i decided her birthday was a good day for a character introduction!

-she doesnt have an exact age -just ‘old enough to know better young enough to do it anyway’ -(probably early 20s)

-she’s a plant -yes, really (well, sort of)

-her mother was a witch who decided she wanted a daughter (after accidentally abandoning her last family) -and then she abandoned terri as well -shes not a good mother -terri pretends very hard that she doesn’t care -(but she does)

-she’s our resident chaos bisexual -as opposed to freddie whos our resident trying-to-be-functional bisexual

-she’s a very young immortal -the youngest immortal in the series, in fact

-she gets tall as hell -goes from being a foot shorter than her gf to three foot taller -she enjoys that a lot

-she likes causing a little harmless chaos -just for fun -and honestly who can blame her she’s cool and sexy

-in conclusion i simply love her your honour

[jaysworlds]

Whumptober Day Four

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. From dirt we came and to dirt we will return.

But not like this.

Terri’s never been afraid of anything. Fear is useless to her, it won’t keep her alive in the world her mother brought her into and then promptly abandoned her in. She makes friends and loses them, laughs too loudly and too long, cracks jokes about things other people shy away from.

It’s how she survives.

Now, though, now she’s terrified. She doesn’t know where she is, doesn’t even know which way is up, trapped with dirt pressing in on her from all sides.

She’s always loved the earth. It’s natural to her, and she feels safest when her feet are on solid ground.

Not here. Here it’s working against her, crushing her bones. If she were anyone else she would already be dead.

Even now, she isn’t likely to survive. She needs the sun, and she won’t get it, not all the way down here. She’ll lay here, trapped and alone, until she dies.

No one will come for her. Miles would have, she knows that, but Miles is gone, and no one else cares about her the way he did.

Even if they did, how would they find her?

She doesn’t even know if any of the others survived the landslide. She thinks they did, thinks that she saw them safe on solid land as it dragged her tumbling down the mountain, but she can’t be sure.

It’s odd, she’d always thought she would outlive her friends.

She inhales deeply, exhales again, trying to calm herself down. The oxygen does little to help her, and the movement only displaces the earth around her, packing it in even tighter.

She doesn’t cry. She hadn’t cried even when they had woken up to find Miles gone, her only friend in the whole world, and she doesn’t cry now, though she feels tears pricking at her eyes.

Being human is so painfully overrated.

Crying won’t help her. She’ll only lose precious water, and she needs water even more than she needs sunlight.

Everything is so dark.

This isn’t the first time Terri has been scared, but she can count on one hand the times before this. The day her mother abandoned her. When she realised she was going to outlive everyone she knew. When she woke up to find Miles gone.

This is the first time that she really thinks she might die.

She didn’t think she would ever have to come to terms with death, really. Not her death, at least.

The dirt shifts around her, presses ever closer. Maybe she won’t even survive long enough to die of hunger, or thirst. Maybe the earth will simply crush her to pulp.

She doesn’t know which she prefers. Which she’s most afraid of.

She wants to scream, to struggle, but the dirt is pressing so close that all she can do is lay in silence, trying futilely to press against the thick mud, to carve herself a bigger space.

Nothing works. With every movement the earth only presses closer.

So she lays still and closes her eyes, trying to think about warm days and the sun on her face. Anything that will distract her from the crushing darkness.

She thinks of Miles and of her sister, the family her mother tried to hide from her, and for a moment she feels almost hopeful, before she remembers the dirt and the dark, and that she will never get to see either of them again. Even if Miles is somehow still alive.

The dark is so oppressive, and she’s so tired.