#ok i need to eat that’ll make me feel less awful.

[bright-and-burning]

asking my college friends if they wanna do anything for my birthday and feeling nauseous 👍🏻

[moemammon]

Since you're open for requests, how about a MC who cannot die no matter how much you try? The anime my sister was watching yesterday (I think it's Rezero or Re:zero, I'm not sure which one) had a character like this, apparently she comes back out of nowhere each time you kill her, no matter how. It's kinda creepy, but I think a MC like this would be very interesting!

MC Just Can't Be Killed! (Feat. The Demon Bros)

(Took some liberties on this one and tweaked it so MC just conveniently manages to escape with their life-)

Lucifer

He knew something was up the moment you first avoided being killed by Levi-

He thought it was dumb luck and pure chance that you could always talk your way out of things, or how you were always rescued by someone. But then he started getting suspicious.

How can you, a human, possibly survive so long? Not that he’d allow you do die while under his care, but even HE was impressed when you managed to bounce back from being clapped into the shadow realm by Belphie.

And then you just... kept narrowly escaping death. You crawled out of the jaws of Cerberus, completely unscathed. You tripped on a path (with Mammon) and went tumbling down a hill... and off a cliff. Yet when he went to get you, you were fine. You ate Solomon's cooking and lived to tell the tale.

What are you.... he demands answers...

Mammon

Probably?? Doesn't notice for a REALLY long time how many brushes with death you've had. Literally thinks your survival is all thanks to his great supervision skills.

When in reality, he's sometimes the cause of a few of your mishaps. Like the other day, when he playfully tripped you on your way out, and thought he fucking murdered you.

And the time he let you help him advertise a shady 'youth potion', and a couple of demons thought you were part of a promotional sampling platter.

How you were still in one piece after all of this was beyond him but hey, he's not asking questions! As long as you're alive, Mammon is a-ok!

Though, he seriously wants to know how you survived that thing with Cerberus. Can you give a guy some tips on how to avoid teeth-induced puncture wounds?

Levi

What kind of infinity lives glitch are you exploiting and how did you implement it in real life-

Levi knows a hacker when he sees one and he's NOT letting you off the hook. The moment he realizes that you haven't died despite being manhandled in every sense of the word, he's watching you.

But also hella thankful?? He wouldn't know what to do if you ACTUALLY died.

It's probably because you're so amazing that you keep managing to do impossible stuff, huh? As expected of his best friend!

Still lowkey worried though, and tries convincing you that you're less likely to die if you just stay in his room with him all the time.

Satan

Inch resting....

Satan would definitely notice right away that you seem practically unkillable, considering how you walked away from every single brother completely unscathed.

You were a human, attending a school for demons, sometimes completely unsupervised, and you were STILL alive?? Yeah, some thorns me not adding up.

He would purposely lead you into dangerous situations, just to watch in awe as you get out of it without so much as a paper cut. Until he starts catching feelings, of course.

As interesting as it is to test out your lucky abilities, the anxiety that swells in Satan's chest when he sees you doing something dangerous is enough to make him want to protect you. Isn't it safer to just sit down and enjoy a good book?

Asmo

Asmo literally tried putting you in Lucifer's way in the beginning so you'd get hurt, so he definitely notices how not hurt you are after a while.

But now that he loves you, all's well that ends well! He's sooo glad Lucifer didn't tear you apart like he thought he was going to! Mwah mwah, no hard feelings ❤️

Seriously though, how the hell are you managing that?? You keep being tricked into eating things they're poisonous to humans, and the most that happens to you is bad indigestion. And that time Asmo forgot the hot springs were too hot for you? Yeah, somehow you didn't die that time, either.

What were you made out of??? Were you secretly magical like Solomon and didn't tell anyone?? Or maybe you were super lucky???

Does that mean you're especially sturdy? If so, then maybe he could introduce you to a few "activities" that are bound to keep you out of trouble~

Beel

What have you been eating that's making you so sturdy?? Actually, what HAVEN'T you eaten at this point..? The fact that you didn't die after eating Solomon's cooking is enough to tell Beel that you might not need his protection.

Though, that doesn't stop him from following you around. Even if you miraculously bounce back every time, he's getting kind of worried for like.. your overall health?

At this point he's tempted to just zip you up in his jacket to keep you safe. You're like a danger magnet and it's giving him anxiety.

He doesn't mind your adventurous side, but can't you slow down a little? At least make sure he's with you when you decide to do something risky.

If he feeds you enough, you'll get tired and just want to rest. That'll keep you out of trouble. So get ready, because Beel's bringing over a ton of desserts from Madame Scream's.

Belphie

Yeah uhhhhh he was fucking SHOOK when you came back from the dead after he clearly sent you to heaven with his bare hands??

So yeah. He's convinced you're unkillable for now. But as curious as he is to test those limits, he's realized that you're off limits as far as killing goes. And he might.. like you a little too much to try anything.

Just kidding. He makes it known that he likes you, and once you're comfortable with it, he'll make jokes about how you're immortal. Maybe you're a demon in disguise? Or an angel even?

Doesn't make it known, but he quietly watches over you to make sure you don't kill yourself through one of the millions of ways to die that the Devildom offers for free. Might not be the best bodyguard since he falls asleep all the time, but he's doing his best.

You know what would really keep you out of trouble? Napping with him. So every time you even think about something risky, he's dragging you off to the attic for some quality z's.

[heyitssmiller]

Clandestine: Chapter Four

The espionage boys go to Slytherin. Chaos ensues.

Content Warning: Some violence towards the end.

@lumosinlove

Clandestine Masterlist

.

Finn reached over the center console of the car to grab some M&Ms from the bag in Logan’s lap. Logan slapped his hand away playfully, not taking his eyes off the Slytherin police station they were parked down the road from. “Why don’t you eat your own snacks?”

“They’re salty and I wanted something sweet.” Finn said with a shrug, popping one of the candies into his mouth and grinning.

Leo sighed from the backseat, letting his head rest against the window with a thunk. He stared out at the full moon as a lonely cloud passed in front of it, moving fast. It was the most interesting thing he’d seen all night. “Why didn’t y’all tell me stakeouts were so boring? This is horrible.”

“But we’ve learned so much already!”

Finn got an arched blond eyebrow in response. “Have we?”

“We’re downtown, so we’re going to have to be extra careful about being seen. Shift change is at 6 pm, so we need to avoid that time frame as much as we can. There’s fewer people on the night shift, so our best bet is to wait until nighttime.” Logan rattled off, still not looking away from the building. “There’s a side door on the west side of the building, so that’ll be your best bet when you need to break in. I can see at least one security camera there, so Loops is going to need to help you out.”

Finn motioned to Logan dramatically. “That’s how you do it, Peanut Butter. Take notes.”

“I had lots of practice, keeping an eye out while you guys were off being bank robbers.” Logan grumbled good-naturedly, grabbing an M&M for himself.

Finn hummed thoughtfully. “Robbers is a bad way of putting it, don’t you think? You make us sound so evil.” 

“I mean, you’re also technically an arsonist.”

“That was one time. And the other bank heist went off without a hitch.”

“Still doesn’t change the fact that you set a trash can on fire.” Leo piped up, giving Logan a high-five when he held his hand out.

“I knew I liked you for a reason, Nut.”

Leo really tried his best not to read into that statement. He grabbed the small lock in his pocket and fidgeted with the dial to distract himself. He didn’t mean it like Leo thought he did. Like he wanted him to. Besides, that would be so complicated, wouldn’t it? Being a spy was messy in and of itself. Dating two other spies - who were his partners - would be a whole other level of chaos.

But that didn’t make him want it any less.

Which was also ridiculous. He’d known them for, what? Maybe a month? Why did his heart always decide to move at such breakneck speeds? 

“Do you two have to always gang up on me?” Finn asked with a sigh, snapping Leo back out of his thoughts. “What did I ever do to deserve it?”

“Don’t take it personal, O’Hara. You’re just so fun to tease.” Finn threw a barbecue-flavored chip at Logan, causing him to laugh and eat it.

“How long do stakeouts usually last?” Leo asked, desperate to change the subject to something - anything - less hazardous for his heart. 

“Until we have all the information we need.”

“And how do we know when that is?”

Logan shrugged. “Depends on the case. I’d like to stay and see when the next shift change is, just to be safe.”

Leo groaned and settled back in to wait.

***

“So how are we doing this?” Finn asked the next morning as they all sat around the table in the briefing room, propping his chin in his hand. “Sneak Leo in through an air vent? Although you might be too tall for that, Nut. Blow a hole in the wall and steal the whole safe? Create a story like the bank heists?”

“It’ll have to be a distraction again.” Sirius said, looking to Loops for confirmation. “The longer we can fly under Riddle’s radar, the better. The other four drives are on Riddle, in his office, or with trusted gang members. If he starts getting suspicious now, he’ll go on lockdown and we don’t stand a chance at getting the rest of the drives.”

“He’s right.” Remus agreed. “Plus there’s way too many officers in the precinct at any given time. Since the safe is in the evidence room, we can’t risk anyone coming in there and catching Leo red-handed – they’d shoot you on sight, no questions asked.”

Logan watched the color drain from Leo’s face and turned to send Remus a glare. Of course this job was risky – if you didn’t think so, you were a naïve idiot. Getting caught or shot or killed was just a part of the job and as a spy, you had to learn to live with that. But that didn’t mean you had to scare rookies about it right before a big, high-risk mission.

Remus noticed his glare, but simply ignored it and looked away. “Here’s what I’m thinking. There’s another, smaller gang in Slytherin, right?” At Sirius’ nod, he continued. “If we can place an anonymous tip on their location, that all but guarantees a full holding cell inside the precinct. Plus it gets another gang off the streets, so it’s a win-win. Logan, if you can get yourself arrested for something small – public indecency or drunken disorderly or something – you’ll be put in that holding cell too.”

Logan leaned forwards, excitement coursing through him. “I like where this is going.”

“I don’t.” Finn stated plainly. It was his turn to glare at Loops.

“If you can start a fight in there, you can get a majority of the officers’ attentions. Especially if it’s at night when the staff is smaller and more likely to be tired. Leo can slip in the side door unnoticed, get into the evidence room, grab the flash drive, and get out.” Remus raked a hand through his hair, looking thoughtful. “It’s more complicated than the banks, but it should work just fine.”

“That’s the plan?” Leo asked dubiously. “Try to start a riot in a holding cell, hope that all the officers get distracted, steal the flash drive, and then just wait for Logan to be released in the morning? There’s so many things that could go wrong.”

He was right - there was a lot riding on nothing but chance. Sadly, that was part of the territory of working in espionage; it was one of the only things the James Bond movies got right. You had to take risks in order to get results sometimes. Leo’s job was all about planning and precision. He knew exactly how to execute his mission and there usually weren’t any hiccups as long as he had the right tools with him and enough time. Not much risk-taking involved in cracking safes. So he’d probably never been a part of a plan with so many aspects up in the air.

He’d also never seen Logan in action.

“Never doubt my ability to start a fight.” Logan said with a grin. “Man, I’m so excited to go on a mission where I’m not stuck in the car.”

“I want to go with you.” Finn said firmly, leaving no room for argument. His gaze was fierce and determined and if Logan didn’t know him already, he’d probably be just a little bit scared. It was kind of hot. “I don’t like you being in there by yourself.”

Remus looked at him, clearly surprised. “I thought you didn’t like fights.”

“I don’t. But I’m not leaving my partner in there to fend for himself. Hell no.”

Logan ignored the way his heart sped up and asked, “You don’t want to go with Leo? Be a lookout?”

“Normally I’d say yes, but if someone does end up seeing him, one person raises less suspicion than two.” Finn said with a shrug. “It’ll also be easier to start a fight with two people.”

“If you’re getting arrested in Slytherin, you’ll need disguises.” Remus said, looking the cubs over. “They’ll take mugshots of you at the station. We can’t risk it.”

“Ok, so who do we go to for that?”

“Ooh!” Leo piped up with a happy, unfairly adorable smile. “I actually know this one!”

***

When they entered the disguise office the following day a woman with long, blonde hair looked up at them from a rapidly moving sewing machine. Finn feared for her fingers as they inched closer to the bobbing needle, but she barely batted an eye as she took her foot off the pedal and smiled in delight when she spotted Leo. “Nutty! How’s it going?”

Leo smiled back and gave her a warm hug. He looked like he gave good hugs, Finn thought. All tall and long-limbed like that. “Hey, Nat. Good to see you.”

“Kasey told me you’re on a mission. Look at you, all official and taking down the Snakes!” She stood on her tiptoes to ruffle his hair. “So grown up!”

“Stop.” Leo laughed, taking a step back and dodging her hand. “Y’all treat me like I’m twelve.” He seemed to remember Logan and Finn were with him and his cheeks turned red as he looked over at them. “Uh, guys this is Natalie. Nat, these are my partners Finn and Logan.”

“Nice to meet you boys.” She said, shaking both their hands. “So you’re here for disguises?”

Finn nodded, then started explaining the premise of their op, watching Natalie a bit nervously as she looked him over thoroughly. It was a bit unnerving, even when he knew it was just to get a good idea of what she needed to do for a disguise. Her gaze was calculating, like she could figure out everything about them with a single look.

Maybe she could.

Finally, she spoke up. “We’ll have to change that hair. How do you feel about wash-out hair dye? Normally I’d just give you a wig, but if you’re getting in a fight it could get pulled off. And you.” She turned to Logan, taking a second to look him over. “I have so many ideas for you. I have a feeling you’re going to love it. Oh, and Nut?”

“Yeah?”

“I’ve got a cop uniform that should fit you.”

He bit back disappointment. Finn was dyeing his hair, (which was a bit of a tragedy, really – Leo thought his hair was really pretty, especially out in the sun) Logan was doing who knows what, and all Leo got was a uniform? “Oh. Ok.” He looked over at his partners. “I’ll meet you back in the bullpen?”

“Sounds good.” Logan responded. As soon as Leo closed the door behind him, Natalie faced Logan again with a wicked smile.

“How do you feel about tattoos?”

***

Logan and Finn found Leo having a staring contest with a small, god-awful painted eagle paperweight on Finn’s desk.

“I see you’ve met Brad!” Finn said happily, giving the eagle a pat on the head and startling Leo in the process. He seemed to jump a foot in the air before he realized Finn wasn’t a threat.

“I’m pretty sure it’s haunted.” Leo said, looking away from it slowly. Those beady little eyes seemed like they were staring into his soul and finding it wanting. “I’m from New Orleans, I can tell- holy shit.” He said when he caught sight of his partners.

Finn’s hair was dark brown, his freckles tragically hidden from view. Natalie had also done some makeup magic to accentuate different lines of his face, changing his profile and making him barely recognizable. Logan’s hair was now a dirty blonde. Both of his arms and one collarbone were littered with dark, swooping ink in varying different shapes and patterns. They were both wearing more casual clothes than Leo had ever seen them in, looking soft and comfy instead of like polished, professional spies.

“If I wasn’t expecting it, I’m not sure I could recognize you.” Leo said slowly, trying to get his brain back up and running as he gently grabbed one of Logan’s arms and turned it this way and that, looking at the tattoos in awe. They looked so real.

Logan grinned. “Yeah, Nat’s a pro.” He followed Leo’s gaze down at his fake tattoos wistfully. “Sometimes I wish I wasn’t a spy, just so I could get tattoos.” He couldn’t have anything about him be easy to recognize as a covert operative – it would make him too easy to track down and get compromised. Tattoos unfortunately fell into that category. His eyes landed on the eagle paperweight Leo was staring down earlier. He laughed. “O’Hara, what the fuck is that?”

“It’s Brad! My brother is a spy, too – works out of Tampa. When I joined, we created this competition: whoever brought in the most criminals in a year got to keep Brad on their desk.” Finn preened, looking fondly at the creepy eagle. “Yours truly has the honor this year.”

Leo glared at it mistrustfully. “That thing needs to be burned. Or I could smoke it out with sage for you. I’ve got some from Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo back home. That’ll get rid of the spirit for sure.”

Finn gasped in horror. “How dare you? Brad is a treasure and deserves to be protected at all costs.”

“I strongly disagree.”

“It is not haunted, it’s a symbol of being a winner-”

“As much as I’m loving this conversation,” Logan interrupted, looking amusedly between his partners. “We should probably get going if we want to get to Slytherin in time. Loops already placed the anonymous tip about the other gang, so we’re all set. Ready?”

“Ready.” Finn echoed, giving Brad one last loving pat for good luck before heading towards the door, Logan by his side. Leo picked up his pace to walk alongside the other two. 

“Please don’t make me sit in the backseat again.”

“But you’re the rookie.”

“I’m also the tallest. You try being stuck with your knees to your chest for a several hour road trip. Not fun.”

***

Finn laughed as Logan stumbled during their “drunken meandering” in the park near the Slytherin precinct and threw an arm around his shoulder. He spotted a uniformed officer talking on his phone a few yards away, apparently on break. He knew Leo was also out there somewhere, keeping tabs on them and relaying information to Sirius and Loops. Since Finn and Logan were getting arrested, they didn’t want to be caught with mics and earpieces on them. That would really raise suspicions and get their cover blown for sure. So Leo was keeping an eye on them now and Loops would do the same via the security cameras once they were both inside the precinct.

“There’s an officer to our left.” Finn said, leaning close to Logan to murmur into his ear and knocking their heads clumsily together. He could just barely see the curve of Logan’s smile from that vantage point, almost taunting him with how easy it would be to press a kiss there. Just a slight movement of his chin and he could do it. Refraining took all of Finn’s willpower.

He moved away. “Now all we need to do is get his attention and get ourselves arrested.”

Logan leaned in close and eliminated all the space Finn had just put between them, green eyes bright and mischievous and luminous under the artificial light of a nearby streetlamp. “I’ve got an idea.”

Finn simply stared. “Huh?”

“You know how I hate the police?” The brunet-turned-blond asked, grabbing Finn’s hands and walking backwards. Finn followed the siren’s call without hesitation. If he crashed into the rocks and sank because of him – well. Drowning would be worth it.

He had to urge his brain to focus and vaguely remembered that conversation from New Year’s and the rant about abuse of power that came with it. Even drunk off his ass, Logan had made some very good points. “Yeah.” Finn glanced over Logan’s shoulder as they approached the parked police car.

“We’re really going to piss them off today. Go with it.” Were the last words out of Logan’s mouth as he backed himself up against the police car, pulled Finn flush against him, and crashed their lips together. Finn barely missed a beat before he was kissing back, moving a hand up to cradle the back of Logan’s head. On New Year’s – when Finn was convinced Logan was going to kiss him but didn’t – Finn imagined what kissing him would be like. He pictured it soft, tantalizing, and teasing, just like the rest of their night had been. It was somewhat like that, and yet Finn was still off by miles. This kiss was a lot of things – it was warm and feisty and absolutely addictive – but soft didn’t fit the description at all. Logan kissed enthusiastically, if not a little sloppily. Finn couldn’t really tell if that was part of the drunk ruse or not.

Fuck, this was a con. It wasn’t real. This was for the mission, and nothing else.

But then why did it feel so real?

Finn pushed the thoughts away as he angled his head and deepened the kiss, inhaling sharply through his nose as he only then remembered the necessity that was breathing. He might not get this opportunity again, so he was going to use this chance to make Logan weak in the knees. Finn’s brain knew it was a horrible idea, but he wanted Logan to remember this, to think about it before he went to bed that night and wonder what if. If they weren’t spies or partners or on the biggest operation of their entire careers, what if he could have this?

If this was the only time Finn would ever get to kiss Logan, he was also going to make sure he remembered every tiny detail: the way Logan’s breath hitched when he bit down on his bottom lip, the feel of cold hands slipping under his sweatshirt, the rise and fall of his chest against Finn’s.

“Hey now!” A gruff voice shouted, grabbing Finn’s shoulder and pulling the two apart. “Cut it out.”

Finn staggered back – which was not an act. He was just that off balance, mind reeling. The police officer was glaring at him sternly, looking very annoyed. Finn shrugged carelessly, letting his words slur. “I would say sorry, but I mean – come on. Look at him. Can you blame me?”

Leo watched from his vantage point on a nearby park bench, something twisting painfully in his chest.

He could admit he was jealous – that was the easy part. But he wasn’t jealous in a way that made any sense. He was jealous of both of them. He wanted both of them. And yeah, it was a con and they were just making out to get the officers’ attentions, but it sure looked genuine. There were some things you just couldn’t fake.

The way Logan was gazing at Finn was one of them.

Of all people, he had to catch feelings for spies. Not just one spy – two. Two spies who may or may not have feelings for each other.

Fuck.

This is what I get for letting myself speculate, I guess.

“Leo?” Remus’ voice asked through his earpiece. “What’s going on?”

Leo focused back on the mission at hand and forced his voice to stay even. “They’re, uh, making out against a cop car.”

Sirius laughed loudly, while Remus just sighed long-sufferingly. “That’s one way to do it, I guess.”

“They’re egging the cop on, now.” Leo said, watching as Logan’s shoulders tensed and he said something harsh to the cop. “Looks like it won’t be long.”

Sure enough, the cop whipped out his handcuffs and motioned for Leo’s partners to turn around and put their hands behind their backs. They were loaded into the back of the cop car, and Leo allowed his eyes to follow it as it drove off towards the precinct before getting to his feet and walking in the same direction. “They’re on their way. Let me know when all the action starts.”

“Copy that.”

The good thing about being on a mission was that Leo didn’t really have time to internally reflect or try and decipher his feelings. He had a job to do. He couldn’t afford to mess this up because he was too busy stuck in his own head.

He did, however, assume he had enough time to not rush his walk to the precinct. Finn and Logan still needed to be searched, booked, and put in the holding cell before they could even think of starting the riot. So he kept his gait slow and let himself get lost in the sound of the wind sweeping through the trees and the rustle of dead leaves as they danced across the sidewalk.

He shoved a hand in his pocket, finding the old, worn, familiar lock there and fiddled with the dial.

***

Things in the holding cell were… not exactly going to plan.

First of all, there were about half the number of gang members in the holding cell than they anticipated. This wasn’t great, but it wasn’t the end of the world either. It might be harder to get everyone in the precinct to pay attention, but Finn was still confident in their ability to cause a scene. Then it got stranger.

The gang members were absolutely delightful.

Three were sitting by Logan, sharing stories behind their numerous tattoos and rolling up their sleeves to show off more ink. Four more were in a cuddle puddle in one of the corners of the cell, trying to get some sleep. One was even sitting by Finn, although he had made no attempt to strike up a conversation or anything. Finn was usually pretty comfortable with his height – he was tall, by most people’s standards. But the guy sitting next to him was huge. He was at least three inches taller than Leo, and easily twice as broad. With an unreadable face made of stone, the guy was also practically impossible to get a read on. Finn figured he needed to do something to get the ball rolling. Poor Nutter Butter would be stuck outside all night at this rate.

So he braced himself, turned to the guy next to him, and said, “Hey.”

Not his best conversation starter.

The guy looked at him strangely. Finn decided to keep going. “I’m Finn.”

“Tanner.”

“How’s your night going, Tanner?”

Tanner seemed to think Finn was certifiably insane. “Well, seeing that I’m currently in jail, not great.”

“Right… right.” Finn trailed off, cringing internally. He was so off his game tonight. Of course, he knew why, but that didn’t make it any easier to snap out of it. All he could think of was pressing Logan against a cop car and how much he wanted to do it again. But it wasn’t that simple-

“Are you ok?” Finn looked back up at Tanner, who shrugged stiffly. “You seem a little stressed.”

Finn thought about it, then decided fuck it. He’d never see this guy again. And who would Tanner tell? He blurted out, “I kissed my coworker today.”

Tanner blinked, then leaned back against the wall. “Ok.”

“I don’t think he feels the same way.”

He didn’t even bat an eye and the whole being attracted to the same gender thing. His face still revealed nothing. Finn couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or not. “Did he kiss you back?”

“Well, yeah.” Finn said, glancing across the cell at Logan and thinking back on the feeling of those lips pressed against his, the texture of the soft curls beneath his fingertips.

“Then what the fuck is the holdup?”

Finn sighed, looking back at Tanner. “It’s not that simple.”

“Look. He either likes you or he doesn’t. What good does it do you to keep guessing when you could get a definitive answer by just asking him? Everyone seems to forget how simple things are when you break them down into components. It’s just simple communication, dude. That’s it.”

“But-” Finn stopped short, taking a second to think when he was struck with a realization. It wasn’t out of the blue, nor was it completely surprising. It still felt like getting hit by a fucking train, though.

Tanner let him stay silent for a second, then prodded curtly, “But?”

“I… I think I might have feelings for another of my friends, too.” Finn thought of sunny blond hair, kind blue eyes, and a warm, dimpled smile.

Shit.

“You know polyamorous relationships are a thing, right?” Tanner sat up straighter, looking at Finn eagerly. It was the first emotion Finn had seen on his face, and also strangely endearing. “I have a ton of articles I can send you if you’re interested.”

Finn couldn’t help the smile that crossed his face. “Thanks, man. I think I might have to wait it out, though. We all work together and it would get so complicated so fast. Maybe once we finish the project we’re working on together.”

Tanner followed his eyes across the cell to Logan. Finn hadn’t even realized he was staring at him again. “Is that the one you kissed or the other one?”

Finn arched an eyebrow, which the gang member snorted at. “You aren’t subtle, bud.”

“That’s the one I kissed. Well, he kissed me, if we’re being technical. But I don’t think he meant it. It was kind of a – a dare, I guess you could say.”

Tanner’s face turned stormy. “He did what now?”

Finn frantically started to backtrack. “It’s fine. I mean, I’m not mad or anything-”

Tanner stood up and pointed angrily at Logan. “You!” He bellowed, voice like thunder. “What the fuck is your problem?”

Logan looked from Tanner to Finn, then back to Tanner, brow knitting in confusion. “What?”

“Did no one teach you about consent you little piece of-”

And then Tanner drew back his fist and slammed it into Logan’s cheek in a brutal cross hit. Silence rang through the holding cell as Logan reeled backwards, raising a hand to his cheek, which was already red. When he looked up at Tanner again, his eyes were a combination of furious and excited.

It looked like they were getting their fight now.

Finn managed to get out the words “holy shit” before all hell broke loose.

Logan threw the next punch, aiming for the stomach first and then the temple when Tanner doubled over, knocking the breath out of him. One of the other gang members took offense to that on Tanner’s behalf and went after Logan, who dodged the first swing easily and collided his fist into the guy’s nose.

The three gang members who were talking about tattoos with Logan instantly jumped to back him up, while the four who were sleeping leapt to their feet and tried to make sense of the situation. There was a charged energy in the air, an undercurrent of adrenaline and anger mingling with it.

Finn hated fights. They were messy and ugly and painful. Plus he was a conman – if his face was all beat up and bruised, no one would trust him and he’d never get any of his jobs done. So he tried to avoid them as much as he could, but he didn’t think he was getting out of this one.

Logan turned his fiery gaze on Finn, making him take an aborted step backwards before he realized this was the plan. They were supposed to be starting a fight. Finn wasn’t sure he could fight his partner, though. Especially since he’d kissed the guy just shy of two hours ago. Luckily he didn’t have to think too hard about it, because Tanner was back on his feet and charging at Logan, along with two other gang members.

Logan moved like the ocean when he fought – smooth and fluid, but also unpredictable and dangerous and wild. He also clearly knew exactly what he was doing, how to exact the most damage on his opponents. He used his size to his advantage by punching upwards and using his leg muscles to land harder punches. With shorter limbs like that, his blows were quick, effective, and brutal. Logan also seemed to be a southpaw, delivering brutal body shots directly to the liver.

It was absolutely mesmerizing.

Unfortunately, Finn was too busy watching Logan to notice the guy coming towards him until he was tackled forcibly to the ground. His head smacked the concrete floor painfully, stunning him for a brief second. When the spots disappeared from his field of vision, he looked up at the guy standing over him.

“Fuck you, man.”

***

“Nut, you’re good to go.” Remus said as he watched cops swarm the holding cell. “I’ll keep an eye out for any stragglers that might catch you.”

“Thanks.” Leo said, and Remus watched the security footage of the side door as Leo crouched by it and began picking the lock. Sirius looked over his shoulder and whistled lowly.

“Damn, Tremblay’s got some moves.”

Remus briefly switched his gaze over to the footage of the holding cell before scanning the hallways for stray officers. “That’s kind of his thing. He gets sent into situations where things are dicey and people need some sense knocked into them.”

“Maybe he should teach O’Hara. He’s already on the ground.”

“What?” Leo asked, sounding concerned as he unlocked the door and slipped inside. “Is he ok?”

Remus watched Finn climb to his feet and face the guy who knocked him down, getting into an admittedly terrible fighting stance. “He’s fine. Head straight down that hallway. The evidence room is the last door on your left.”

“I hate not knowing what’s going on.” Leo muttered, creeping effortlessly down the hall. “Now I understand why Logan hated the bank missions so much.”

Sirius was watching the action in the holding cell eagerly. “I think this mission more than makes up for those. He’s having a blast. Look at him go! He’s a little ball of rage.”

Leo laughed under his breath as he broke into the evidence room seemingly effortlessly. “Ooh, you’d better not let him hear you say that.”

Remus frowned, watching the blond locate the safe and crouch in front of it. Something about him was… off. He’d seemed fine earlier, but now he seemed subdued. His voice was carefully controlled and even, a blank mask on his face.

So the question was: what had happened between 10 am and now that made him feel like he had to distance himself?

The safe opened within a few minutes. Leo switched out the flash drives and pocketed the real one, closing the safe again and rising to his feet. “Headed out now.”

“Coast is clear.” Remus said, looking back at the holding cell. The officers were pulling people apart and seemed to be getting things back under control. “Good timing – looks like the fight is wrapping up. Now all you’ve got to do is pay their bail after a little while and hit the road.”

“Perfect. That’s the easy part.”

Paying bail, it turned out, was not the easy part.

After what felt like the thirtieth time he’d signed a fake name on the forms and having to jump through countless hoops, Leo still had to wait over an hour until Finn and Logan were processed and released. So he sat in one of the uncomfortable chairs in the lobby and waited. And waited. And waited.

When his partners finally walked through the doors, Leo did a double-take. He knew they’d been in a fight, but good lord.

“Y’all look like shit.” He said, taking in Logan’s bruised cheek, the way Finn was cradling his left arm to his chest, and their overall rumpled appearances. He also noticed the way they were steadfastly refusing to look at each other.

Logan snorted. “Thanks, Peanut.”

Leo shrugged, holding his hands up defensively. “I’m just telling the truth here. Don’t kill the messenger.”

“Let’s go home.” Finn said wearily as he led the way outside and towards their car, limping slightly. “I think I might be allergic to this makeup. It’s starting to itch.”

Later that night, when they were all in their separate apartments scattered across the city, all three of them faced a restless night of staring up at their ceilings and wondering, in some variation or another, what if.

[suekre]

So ive followed you a VERY long time (like from the deviantart days lmao) and i only just realised that you were talking about ocd in that post. Just wanted to let you know that i have ocd as well and god it is exhausting and i know exactly how you feel! I finally start therapy for it in 2 weeks. Pls know that i love your art and you very much and appreciate everything you create and share with us. All the best!! X

Hey you, I know you! Thank you for coming to my inbox and sharing this with me, I appreciate that so much. :) I am SUPER happy for you that you are about to get the help you need, that is awesome. I wish I could have had it at the time!

(And oh boy, the good old deviantart days, haha! Always happy to have my longtime followers around! :D)

OCD is exhausting indeed. People who aren’t affected can’t imagine what a nightmare it is. I, personally, am more prone to intrusive thoughts than actual obsessive-compulsive behavior. When people hear „OCD“, they usually think of obsessive hand washing or „leaving out every black tile while walking through a kitchen“ or so, while it can manifest in other ways. I didn’t know back then. I just thought I was going completely crazy at the time. I think I mentioned my disorder at times but I never actually openly talked about my own experiences (where I come from, mental disorders are a big NO NO, because it’s all in your head, just pull yourself together, other people are ACTUALLY suffering, it’s just dumb thoughts, you just need to think positive, y’know).

I kinda feel like doing it now. Just to get it out, and also to occupy my brain and hands and hey, maybe someone else can pick this up and find themselves in my own experiences. I sure know how relieved I was when I found out I wasn’t alone with my what I thought was a ‚Very Weird, Unique and Niche Problem‘.  

I gotta admit first - I’m doing much better nowadays. Even my worst days, as horrible as they may feel at the time, do in no way compare to the hell I went through in the second half of 2015. I have come a long way since my last (and so far worst... omg, oof, I hope there won’t be another) episode of intrusive thoughts. But, oh boy, was it intense.  It was the absolute worst time of my life, ever. I’m not writing this to scare anyone. Anyone who is familiar with this, will know how bad it is and anyone who can’t relate at all won’t feel affected anyway and will maybe even think something along the lines of „What the fuck?!“. I get it. It DOES sound crazy.

I have always been an overthinker. I always needed more validation and reassurance than other people around me and for the longest time I had no idea why that was. It was usually subtle - always kinda there but never strong enough to actually affect my life in a negative way. I just felt off at times, and not always super good. But I was generally ok, I could always manage.

Until that one episode that changed my life forever. I know that sounds dramatic but, even though I am in a good place nowadays, it sure DID change my life. I was 31, I lived together with my then-boyfriend and I still remember the exact date. Friday, July 24th, 2015. I remember the exact moment when my entire mind collapsed. It’s so weird, it literally happened from one second to the other. I am not making this up to sound more dramatic, it was a matter of seconds.

I was on my way home after work and I felt… restless and stressed. It felt good to get off work (it was my first full time job and... it didn’t go well, to put it nicely) but I was no longer really looking forward to my week off, and our trip to our favorite Open Air the following week. I picked up some dinner on my way, I came home, and I saw my boyfriend in the middle of the living room, he was making some preparations for our upcoming trip. When I saw him, tall and handsome and smiling at me, I smiled back but inside I felt like crying. My smile was fake. Kissing him felt weird, and also fake. And all of a sudden, there it was. The life changing thought:

„I don’t love him anymore.“

A simple thought. I had weird thoughts before, like anyone does, but they never had any greater impact on me. This time, though, that one thought knocked me off my feet. Not literally, I had turned into a pillar of salt somehow. This was the Perfect Man Of My Dreams (at least that was what I thought back then). The man I wanted to spend my life with, the man who made me happy every day! How could that even be, how could I even think something like that?

I felt even more restless. I didn’t tell him, of course. When he asked how my day was, I put on my fake smile again and said it was okay. We ate our dinner (although I had instantly lost any appetite), and I kept looking at him and the thoughts... just kept coming back.

You don’t love him anymore. What if you don’t love him anymore?

On repeat. It was awful. I just couldn’t shake them off.

It’s the stress, I tried to tell myself. You’re overworked. It’ll be good, you just need some rest.

But I couldn’t relax. My heart was racing, my blood was pumping. I didn’t know what was going on. I begged him to leave his work undone and take me out for an after work drink and he agreed. All the time, the thoughts wouldn’t leave my mind. I didn’t want to think them, but they were merciless, they just kept coming back. I felt so helpless.

A few drinks later, I had calmed down a bit, at least so much that I could stand to look at my BFs face again without feeling guilty. There you go, I said to myself, not quite convinced, you’ll be good. It’s already wearing off. When we crawled into bed later, I was tired and relaxed (and tipsy) enough to sleep and convinced that this was just a little glitch, that things would be just fine in the morning.

When I woke up, I felt exhausted. My heart was racing... and the thoughts came back IMMEDIATELY.

You don’t love him anymore. You gotta leave him.

What. The. HELL!? Why are these thoughts still a thing? Why are they still there? Why do they keep coming back?

I kept trying to push them away but the more I tried, the more intense they became. As if they tried to spite me. I started losing focus on everything else around me, the world slowly started to blur. It was just Me And My Thoughts from here. I tried my best to hide my state, and I think I managed for a while, but I felt like a robot any time I talked to someone. When people would pick up on my confusion, I usually brushed their concerns off. It’s nothing, I’m good.

I mean... how do you even tell someone that you just. can’t. stop. thinking. about whether you still love your boyfriend or not? According to the world, that is something you “just feel and know” after all. Except that I didn’t. I had no clue. I couldn’t feel anything. But, according to the world, that was perfectly normal, too. “Honeymoon phase is over at some point, babe. That’s everyday life, you grow comfy, it’s no longer a flash of feelings every day, you know that. You guys have been together for a while after all, what did you expect?!” ... what I felt didn’t feel like comfy everyday life either, though. Comfy everday life shouldn’t come with high key anxiety, sleepless nights and a loss of appetite at any lived second. If that was comfy everyday life, I sure didn’t want it.

So, what do you do when you have no clue about something? Right! Google! Go and ask the world! “How do you know that you still love your partner?”, “Is the love gone?” ... I spent hours, DAYS doing that, but no answer I found was remotely statisfying (or maybe it was for a minute, but the reassurance never lasted long) and I felt that those articles didn’t actually understand what I was asking in first place. I would spend every day like that. Permanently asking myself the same questions, analyzing myself, testing if the Big Feels for the man had decided to come back... nah, not really. Maybe NOW? If I just look at him close enough?! ... maybe if I squint a little?! Fuck, still nothing! Niente! Nada! I am a horrible person, aaah!

(Our open air trip was an emotional disaster by the way, I felt horrible all the time, and the permanent rain didn’t help. -3/10, do not recommend).

If I had known at the time that I wouldn’t spend just a few days but (more or less) six months with this shit... oof. I was already exhausted after those few days.

Over the course of the next weeks I stopped eating almost entirely. I just couldn’t. This permanent tight anxiety knot in my stomach made me want to throw up at the mere thought of food. At my worst point I weighed 138 lbs (63 kg), at 6 ft 1 (1,85 m). I often joked about how I had almost reached runway model standard. I was sick, I was weak, I was scared, but I just couldn’t eat and the bits I DID force myself to eat were burned almost right away by my crippling anxiety. (I still have clothes from that time, and I sometimes beat myself up for no longer fitting into them before I remember that I should NEVER fit into them EVER again.)

Instead I smoked a pack a day. I hardly got any sleep and when I did, it wasn’t relaxing. Always in Fight and Flight mode. My body was at alert level any minute, any day. I’m still asking myself how it could be that I never actually... collapsed. I was always tired, exhausted and malnourished... I dunno, you tell me.

The thoughts never really disappeared. They kept coming back in all variations. You don’t love him anymore. You have to leave him. You may not want to, but you have to. You don’t love him. I had very few “good moments” in between but in those good moments, my mind was usually frantically looking for explanations and reasons behind all this. For ways to improve my relationship, to feel better about my boyfriend. I came up with the WEIRDEST shit. Almost every day I found something new that bothered me. One day he was a little boring. That’s it! We gotta go out more, do more stuff, that’ll change everything. ... aaah, no. Guess not. The next day, it was something else. The day after THAT, it was something entirely different again.

I was suddenly prone to making some HELLA weird impulsive decisions, too. „I gotta break off contact to that one person RIGHT now, THEN I WILL FEEL BETTER!“, “I gotta talk to my mom about THAT particular incident in my childhood right now, THEN I WILL FEEL BETTER!”, “I gotta make a trip to the mall JUST NOW, THEN I WILL FEEL BETTER!”… the decisions made total sense to me the second I made them, for about ten minutes at most, but the initial rush of relief started to fade again quickly and I frantically started looking for new solutions. Google was my best friend. I couldn’t go a day without googling exessively. Overthinking, pacing, googling. Any day, any hour awake. Over weeks. A few months even. My mind was constantly reeling. It was a bottomless pit.  

I cannot put into words how exhausting that was. Sometimes the idea of throwing myself out of the next window seemed SO tempting, not because I wanted to die, but because I wanted the thoughts to stop tormenting me.

(I was out of regular therapy at the time, btw. I thought about calling my therapist about it but never did it. I felt isolated, I literally thought I had to do this all by myself.)

At some point, a few months into it, I somehow transferred to zombie mode. The thoughts became a little less intense over time. They were never gone but not quite as nagging anymore. But any time I wasn’t in alert mode, I felt just hollow instead. Sucked dry of any joy, of any emotion, of any sign of life. I just... functioned. Still tried to hide it. I dunno how well I did with that. Probably not at all well. I kept it all to myself, just because it felt that ridiculous. Tried to find excuses. “I’m just tired.”, “You know, there’s a lot going on in my head right now, but I’ll be good.” ... truth is that I don’t remember a whole lot of that time, it’s all blurry. There are just a few significant moments.

Such as that one evening, after work, when I left the building, made a few steps and stood five (or ten? fifteen??? who knows?! not me.) minutes on the spot, motionless, because I could no longer remember my way home.

I got fired from that job, by the way. I’m sure it was mostly due to low performance, I get it, but I can’t blame my poor state alone - they were also assholes.

Anyway.

I had, of course, never stopped the googling and one day, after hours of browsing any niche I hoped I hadn’t browsed yet, I somehow found a blog written by a young woman like me. The description tackled almost all of my thought patterns and I was blown. away. She asked herself the very same questions, with the very same twists, and... she even had a name for it.

ROCD. Relationship Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

I cried for what felt like hours. Out of relief. There was a person in this world who knew exactly what I was going through. And she even had tips how to overcome it. It wasn’t the first time I had heard about OCD, but as it had never affected me in any way before (I, too, associated it with compulsive hand washing and tile jumping), I wouldn’t have thought of it. After doing my own intense research on the subject, a huge part of me and my life finally started making sense to me. Not much was known about ROCD at the time, but it kinda didn’t matter anyway. What mattered was the OCD part. The subject of the thoughts is entirely interchangable. It’s the chain of thoughts itself that has to be broken. Don’t focus on the relationship. Break the chain instead.

The internet also recommended exposure therapy but as therapy wasn’t an option at the time (weird German laws... regular health insurance covers only a limited amount of therapy lessons within a certain span of time and I had used mine up and there was no way I could pay myself), I decided to try it myself, the key points being:

* No more googling, no more reassurance. Learn to live with the uncertainty, learn to live with Not Knowing.

* Let the thoughts happen. Watch them pass by. They’re just thoughts, they can’t harm you. Don’t fight them, just recognize them and let them stay, they’ll get less scary over time.

* Focus on other things, as hard as it is. Try to occupy your mind and your body. Any minute you spend doing something else but brooding is a win.

It all sounded so very abstract at the time, but I was determined to give it a try. Oh gosh, was it hard. After months of emotional torment and getting used to unhealthy ways of coping, it was SO DAMN FUCKING HARD to NOT google. To NOT think. It felt like torment all over again. How was I supposed to just let the thought sit with me!? It was scary, I didn’t want it! Just ONE little peek, only a second, come ON! I won’t do it again after that?!

Oh god, it was the worst, it really was. Trying to break the chain while I was so desperate to save my relationship was terrible. I honestly don’t remember HOW I made it... but I made it. I somehow... clawed and bit my way out of it. I went right through the pain and made it. It’s not actually a linear process but there comes this point (and I know a few people I met on online platforms who would back me up on this) when you know the worst is over. You just know it. Things weren’t exactly good by the time the thoughts were history but I had reign over my own head again, I could actually SEE the world again, and that was worth everything plus my body weight in gold.

I’ll stop right here because the following months weren’t about my OCD anymore, but about figuring out needs, figuring out myself and what I wanted from life and this particular relationship and it’s not quite relevant and another story. (I DID love my ex-BF but it turned out he wasn’t at all good for me, I had ignored all the red flags for too long, and it didn’t take long after this for us to go separate ways)

I hated this particular time in my life while it lasted but I have learned and taken so much from it. It has changed my life in so many ways. I learned that things are never set in stone, not for anyone. That there will always be uncertain times on our ways. That change is always scary. That it’s okay to be scared. That staying in crappy situations for the sake of it isn’t always the right thing to do. Sometimes, doing the right thing (aka leaving a relationship that isn’t good for you) can make you sad. Love does not equal compatibility.

Looking back, I am - in a very bizarre and twisted way - grateful for the experience. It was an incredibly important lesson for me that taught me to be kinder to myself, to look out for myself and to listen to my own needs. That I should put myself first at times. For the first time of my life, I really got in touch with myself and my own emotions. I learned to understand them, I learned where they come from. I learned to cut myself slack at times.

The list goes on and on, but you get my drift. I know myself inside and out at this point. That wasn’t always the case. Not until 2016.

It still comes back at times. Not with such full force, but it keeps creeping back in, pretty much any time I have to deal with uncertainty in my life. Bad news at work, not hearing from a friend for a while that I’m dying to hear from (inevitably thinking that they MUST be mad at me) or when I spot a few symptoms of sickness that I’m not familiar with (I practically never get sick). Not Knowing What Will Happen drives me CRAZY. I hate uncertainty, I need my life to be stable and calm to fully function.

Now, in COVID times, it’s mostly the fear of suffering from an incurable disease. AGAIN. I’m familiar with that, too. I’m not even scared of catching the virus, I just fell right back into overthinking any symptom I have, even if it’s just a short pain in the neck or whatever (you know, things that one usually brushes off). When my life was busier, I was MUCH better at handling those thoughts. Most of the time, they didn’t even come up in first place. Sitting inside and avoiding contact 99,9% of all times, and having little to no actual distraction („reading/watching movies“ doesn’t help me personally, it does’t occupy my mind enough, I usually just stare right through the pages/screen), however, leaves FAR too much time for the thoughts to unfold, once they come up.

This subtle but lingering concern for my health puts my body into a permanent state of anxiety once more. Fight and Flight mode. The pace of my heartbeat is always slightly, but perpetually, increased. It isn’t always outright panic attacks, it’s this constant state of having to be… alert. Something MIGHT happen, y’know. Be prepared. Relaxing and doing nice things becomes almost impossible. Instead, I get tired and exhausted. Depressed, even. It sucks the joy right out of me. I feel like living under a glass dome. I see what’s happening around me but I am unable to connect, emotionally. People keep living their lives and I can watch them, but I can’t be a part of it. It’s a deeply crushing feeling. I manage to somehow function but I don’t really feel alive. My abandonment issues and fear of „getting left behind“ kicked in again, too. I want to catch up and take part but can’t so I stress myself over THAT, too. This only adds to the exhaustion and makes me feel even more isolated.  

Hello, vicious circle, my old friend.

I didn’t even realize that I had such huge potential to fall right back into it. It all started… I dunno, by mid/end of January?? It’s a bit blurry this time. It is directly connected to Germany’s recent lockdown, though. A massive case of Not Knowing How Things Will Turn Out. I failed to take better care of myself in the past few weeks. And now I’m here. AGAIN. Ugh.

But well, as I said, it’s not as bad and, as I said, I have at least learned some important things over the years. In this particular case of intrusive thoughts, the first rule is: NEVER GOOGLE SYMPTOMS. And never google shit like „chances to survive (whatever illness think you have at the time)“, either. The mind longs for reassurance but googling symptoms is BAD, as we all know by now. It’s not even reassuring when you do it. Because you’ll inevitably end up diving through the vast internet for HOURS, picking up an entry that some person named Kevin made on a cancer forum way back in 2004, saying that his uncle died the next day after finding out he has cancer and that is, OF COURSE, what will happen to YOU, too. There is no other way. YOU WILL DIE.

Excuse the text walls. I took an opportunity to ramble about my own experience, for the first time ever since it happened (not including the few short talks I had with the few people I met on internet forums).

To anyone who made it this far: Thank you so much for reading. It sure felt good to write this down for once, even if it’s just a short summary (yes, really, I mean, we’re talking six-ish months here), and the descriptions fall woefully short. If anyone affected by the same happens to read this -  I am so, SO sorry you are suffering so much. You are NOT alone and you are NOT weird. Talk to someone. Open up. To your doctor, or you therapist, if you have one. To a person you trust. It is the worst but there are ways, there is help. I wish I had known at the time it started for me.

You know now. :)

P.S.: DON’T FUCKING GOOGLE:

[twoidiotwriters1]

Pure Blood 25 (Sirius Black x F!Oc)

Words: 2,027

Masterlist

Chapter 24 // Chapter 26

Okay, this could be worse.

Lily, Alice, Marlene and Jenna are laughing like crazy at something Alice said, which I didn't understand, but my best friend knew that at some point during the sleepover this could happen, so Jenna puts two chocolates in my hand, now I just watch them while eating happily.

"That'll never grow old," Marlene says, wiping her tears from laughing and she seems to want to tell me something, then she sees my chocolate and she just smiles kindly, I suppose she's getting used to my way of being.

"Very Well," Alice claps, "This is going great, I'm already very happy."

"Let's review things," Lily continues and Jenna rolls her eyes, I look at them curious.

"It's not necessary, Lily, and you know it," my friend complains.

The redhead makes a face, but ignores that comment.

“We're in our room, which has a spell so that no one else will listen,” she says proudly, “Alice, Marlene, Jenna, Persephone and me, of course. We have food, drinks, blankets, pillows, and books,” She smiles.

"Do you do that at every sleepover?" I ask.

"Yes," they all answer at the same time.

"Great," I make a face and open my second chocolate.

"Before we continue, I would like to say that I'm glad to have you here, Persephone," adds Alice.

I raise my eyebrows and just nod my head.

"I don't know what to do in these meetings-"

"Don't worry, it's always the same," Marlene says to my left. "Although it doesn't always end as we expect," they all laugh.

This is suspicious and I want to say it, but Jenna puts another candy in my hand and I get distracted.

The girls start with some gossip from people I know, well, at least by sight and now that I can't run away, I just have to hear all the details. I must admit, this is not as boring as I thought.

"And you Persephone?" Marlene asks me "Do you have any gossip to tell us?"

I shift awkwardly in my place on the floor.

"Hey," Jenna tells me "It doesn't have to be about what happened with Remus, if you don't want to talk about it now or tonight, nobody will force you."

"Besides, nothing will come out of here, believe me," says Lily "If not, we would all be ruined"

“I guess I have nothing. I'm not very interested in other people's lives, I don't know,” I frown trying to think, until something comes along. “Uh, maybe- my older sister Juno…”

"She's a bitch, we know that, P," Jenna interrupts me and the others scold her, but I let out a loud laugh.

"Well yeah, but that's not what I was going to say," Lily rolls her eyes, Marlene and Alice look unsure, but they look at me with a smile. "In the summer I learned that Juno has a crush with Remus."

"What!?" They ask at the same time and I'm proud to participate in the gossip round.

"I didn't know she had a heart, much less that she liked someone like Remus."

Once again, Jenna's comment makes me laugh.

"I never thought Remus was her type," Alice complains.

"No offense, Persephone, but I don't like your sister at all," says Marlene.

"I'm not offended, I don't like her very much either and the feeling is mutual between her and me," I say without importance.

"Apparently the Singhs have a soft spot for Lupin," Jenna nudges me. I roll my eyes, I know she doesn't mean it, so I don't answer.

"Oh, who doesn't? Remus is a dream!” says Alice.

"Alice! Are you changing Frank for Remus?"

Alice blushes and laughs.

"Of course not. I'm just not blind, girls."

"I agree, but I must admit that Black has his own charm, too," Jenna adds, glancing at me as I pray to all the gods not to blush.

"I would put James first," says Marlene, "then Remus, Sirius and then Peter..."

"Remus, Sirius, Peter and James," Alice continues.

"Sirius, James, Remus and Peter" says Jenna.

Then the three of them wait for Lily and I to continue. I'm about to panic and I can see that Lily is also in a tough spot.

"Don't get stressed," says Alice laughing, "It's not like you're going to marry any of them! Just say the order in which you like each one, no one else will know..."

The redhead sees me asking for help and I sigh. I think very well my answer.

"Sirius, Remus, James and Peter," I say without looking at any of them, I'm sure I'm blushing now.

"It's your turn Lils."

"This is absurd," She complains.

"Hey, it shouldn't be that hard! But that's okay, we're not going to force you," says Jenna and I'm about to complain, but she continues. "Anyway, we already know that your number one is Potter." I laugh out loud again when I see Lily's flushed face.

"That's not true!" She squeals. "I'd never really put Potter on my list," she says proudly. "Remus, Peter and Sirius, no James," She crosses her arms like a little girl and that makes me laugh harder.

"You're quite a comedian, Lily," I tease and she tosses me a candy. The others laugh too.

"Ok, since we're on this with the boys" Marlene says looking at Alice. "What can you tell us about Frank? Something new?"

"Wait, are you talking about Frank Longbottom?"

I've never talked to him much, but I know he's a good boy. They all agree.

"No, there's nothing to report, but, it has been strange lately," answers Alice with a pout. "I don't know what happens to him and every time I ask him he just makes excuses, we've been going out for a long time and we always tell each other everything," She sighs. "Maybe he's bored of me."

"Are you crazy? Anyone can see Longbottom drooling over you. "

“It's true, Alice. Maybe Frank has something to tell you, but he's not ready,” adds Lily.

"How to ask you to marry him?" Asks Marlene and the others follow.

I feel a chill hearing those words.

"You all think that?"

"Aren't you too young?" I ask confused. They're both only a year older than me.

"Maybe," says Alice. "But actually, I don't see it as an obstacle, I would like to be by his side forever."

"Aw, Alice, you are in love with him!" The others screech with excitement and I am still very confused.

"How do you know?" I ask.

"P, it's different for everyone," says Jenna smiling at her girlfriend.

"But there must be signs or something, right?"

Alice smiles at me and nods.

“It's difficult to explain it in detail and not everything has to be perfect, but...” She sighs. “Every time I see him, my heart races, I have a need to hug him, kiss him or just hold his hand. I love hearing him talk about herbology, even if I hate it. We don't always have things in common, but we always manage to support each other. Frank's not only my boyfriend, we are best friends and I feel lucky to have him”

"I wish I had something like that with someone," adds Lily.

"There are many things that I love about Frank, but one day, I just looked at him and knew that I wanted to be by his side always," She ends.

I'm surprised with the tenderness of her words, it seems that Frank and Alice don't have big problems with their relationship, and her way of speaking makes me want something like that too.

"I'm glad you have something so... nice," I say with a smile.

"I'm sure you guys will," My best friend whispers something to Marlene and they both laugh, oblivious to the conversation. "A few sooner than you think."

My heart leaps to see Jenna being so happy with Marlene, I can even imagine her wedding, which is very crazy. I hope they invite me.

"Come on, ask her!" Jenna says to her girlfriend and she pushes her a bit.

"But it's not right, Jen," she replies and my friend rolls her eyes.

"It's nothing bad..."

"But it will be uncomfortable..."

"What are you talking about?" Lily asks.

Marlene sighs and looks at me uncertainly.

"Persephone, I know you don't want to talk about what happened with Remus..."

"But we all wonder something," complements Jenna.

The four share a look understanding everything.

"From one to ten, how good is Remus at kissing?"

I didn't expect that question and the words get stuck in my throat.

"Come on, P. just tell us, hardly anyone has had the privilege of trying!"

They all await my answer. I scratch the back of my neck and feel my hands sweat.

"It's not something to write home about, girls."

"Your nervousness tells me otherwise," says Lily.

"Sirius doesn't have to know!"

"What does he have to do with this?" I ask offended.

"Not! Don't get distracted and answer!"

I grunt and feel my cheeks flushed again.

"Eleven," I answer and they all scream and then laugh, making me laugh as Well. "He’s really good!" I laugh.

"This is gold."

We laugh again and the night continued to be more fun than I expected. Among more laughs, gossip, challenges, questions, and many-many-sweets, everything turned out fine. I'm glad Jenna forced me to come, although I won't admit it now.

In the end, we all arranged the sleeping bags -even if Marlene, Lilly and Alice had their beds- and we got ready in a circle.

Little by little I hear the snoring of some, I laugh slightly, but I have trouble sleeping, so I stare at the ceiling, waiting for sleep.

"Persephone," I hear Alice's whisper. I roll over still lying down and lean into my arms.

"What's going on?"

"Do you remember what I told you about my feelings for Frank?"

"Was it all a lie?" I raise an eyebrow and she laughs.

"No, everything I said is true, it's just that..." She makes sure the others are asleep and gets a little closer. "I don't know you and I don't want to intrude on your life, but I have seen some things that could help you…"

"What do you mean?"

"Don't get me wrong, I just want to give you some advice," She bites her lower lip. "I think you shouldn't waste any more time, Persephone."

"What?"

“For once, listen to your body, I know it sounds very strange, but when the boy you like is around, pay attention to your reactions and don't doubt saying what you feel. You never know when the last time may be and believe me, it's more painful to regret not having done anything than to suffer a broken heart."

She smiles sweetly at me and turns around. I do the same and again I look up at the ceiling. I want to play dumb and ignore her advice, but what if she's right? I sigh and close my eyes, I know that tomorrow will be a difficult day.

***

The next morning, we all woke up in a good mood and had breakfast at the lions' table, a bit apart from the others to keep talking and laughing about what happened last night.

Everything is quiet, until Remus, James and Peter enter the large dining room. It's the moment.

"Lily," I call her and handed her a small folded piece of paper. "Can you cast the spell to make this paper fly to Remus?"

I know how to do the spell, but I'm so nervous that I'm afraid of ruining everything.

The redhead looks at me confused, but does as I ask. Suddenly the paper folds into the shape of a bird and flies towards Lupin.

From my place I can see Remus' confusion, he takes the note and opens it. James and Peter try to read it, but he pushes them away.

My friend reads the paper, tenses and looks for me, when he finds me he can only nod, and then turn to his friends.

This evening meeting will be very uncomfortable.

Taglist

@treestarrrrrrrr​ @siriuslysirius1107​      @thagreenmoon​ @madmaiden2890​   @ren-ela​   @avipshamitra​   @auroraawrites​ @findzelda​  @lizlil​ @siriusmuch​   @chloe-geoghegan1​ @reverse-hxlland​​  @may-rapp​​ @the-specific-oceans​ @eveft​

@bloodorangemoonlight​

@littledeadgirlwalking​

[i-am-a-bad-influence-writes]

The villain in your story - 4. Treason

Series Masterlist - Bucky Masterlist - Full Masterlist

Summary: Sure, I could be your loyal lapdog, your sweet little slut, you biggest fan. But I don’t want to be. Why should I be loyal, sweet, or supportive when I receive none of those things from you?

Pairing: Bucky x OC (Roxanne Amy)

‘Miss Amy,‘ he smiles when he sees that she’s stopped walking, ‘I have a favor to ask.‘ ‘I don’t do favors anymore,‘ she tells him and continues walking. He runs in front of her to block her way. Her eyes widen at the audacity of the kid. ‘I know, I know, but I need an internship for school and from what I heard you own a company in robotics focused on prostethics,‘ he rambles on and on, ‘and I am really good with robotics and it would be a great learning expe-‘ ‘Fine,‘ she sighs, ‘come around tomorrow at ten am. Ask for miss Amy, not Roxanne.‘

Roxanne really wanted to call in sick when Monday finally came. She had a rough time getting out of bed knowing that the chapter she closed isn’t fully gone. There’s still a bookmark there to flip it open whenever and that bookmark is called Peter Parker. Cheeky little son of a gun. She sits in her office, reviewing old documents and electronics that she remastered for Bucky’s arm in hopes of making their usual prostetics a little more advanced, even if people don’t have a large budget. It’s a lot of financial gymnastics to make that work. ‘Good morning miss Amy.‘ The door swings open without being knocked on. Roxanne almost jumps out of her skin as the overly enthusiastic Peter Parker walks into her office, schoolbag on his shoulder, and dressed way too casual for her company. Is that a science pun on his t-shirt? ‘Okay,‘ she huffs, pointing him towards the chairs in front of her desk and he takes a seat, ‘one, never ever walk in without knocking again. You’re going to give me a heart attack. Two, dress for the job you want, not the job you have.‘ ‘I’m a student,‘ Peter stutters. ‘And you dress like one,‘ she tells him, gesturing at his whole getup, ‘if you want to get an internship here, you have to look the part.‘ ‘Yes ma’am,‘ he repeats, looking a bit down. She smiles, knowing that he picked that up from Bucky. Damn, she misses him already. ‘At least you’re well mannered,‘ she tells him, ‘now, you were rambling last time so what do you want to learn here and how are you going to achieve those goals?‘ His eyes widen at the realization that she’s giving him a chance. ‘Oh, I want to get better at robotics,‘ he explains to her, ‘I’ve been working with them for a while now, but the work you’ve done for Bucky is incredibly impressive and I want to learn how to do that. And I hope you’ll teach me.‘ ‘I don’t do that work anymore,‘ she hums as she writes down a short summary of his words, ‘and the technology we use in our prostethics and other medical equipment is somewhat disappointing compared with Bucky’s arm. See, when I work on Bucky’s arm I know I don’t have a budget nor a deadline. When I work on medical equipment there is pressure to make something that performs well and consistently does so within as little time as possible, and it can’t cost too much so that everyone will be able to use it. Now how long do you have to intern for?‘ Peter looks a bit thrown off, out of his element, after she tells him the reality of things. ‘Two months?‘ ‘Just two,‘ she questions. Peter nods. ‘Okay, here’s the deal. You will work in assembly for a month and will switch department every week so you can see the different parts of it. Legs, arms, hands, etc. The month after, I will put you in the lab with my scientists and engineers.‘ ‘That sounds-‘ ‘I’m not done,‘ she speaks, ‘any work you invent yourself in that time will be patented under your name, mits we can work out an agreement so that we can still work with it and I will pay you 500 a month. I know it’s not much, but it’s what we always offer our interns.‘ ‘That honestly sounds great,‘ Peter says, looking in awe, ‘other companies that I went to told me they’ll own the patent if I invent anything.‘ She shows a small smile. ‘Well, I know what it’s like to have work stolen and though it would probably better for my company to patent everything for ourselves, I want to help the younger generation along,‘ she explains to him, ‘we already have an extensive list of patents that no one else can use, so all we ask is that we can use the invention against a decreased rate for the remainder of the company’s lifetime.‘

‘How was it?‘ Peter almost jumps out of his skin as he steps out of the elevator. It seems everyone decided to wait for him in the common room, but none of them really care. Peter hadn’t told anyone about asking Roxanne for an internship, but it seems they figured it out. ‘How did you-‘ ‘You can people walk to her building from the lab,‘ Bruce tells him, ‘did she give you the internship?‘ ‘She did and she’s even going to pay me,‘ Peter smiles excitedly and starts rambling about the work schedule, the teachers he’s going to get, and the patent arrangement. ‘Is she stupid,‘ Tony laughs, ‘giving people their patents when they work for her. Doesn’t she know that’ll stab her in the back?‘ Peter notices the venomous look Bucky and Bruce shoot at Tony who is too busy looking at his phone. To Peter’s surprise, even Steve and Natasha seem to be bothered at the statement. ‘So you meant nothing of what you said last week,‘ Bucky snaps at him, ‘you were just trying to safe your ass.‘  ‘Guys, come on, I’m sure he was just joking,‘ Peter tries to reason with the two, but it seems to piss them off more. ‘He isn’t, that’s the problem,‘ Bruce says calmly, getting up to make his leave, ‘Tony, I honestly expected better from you.‘ Bucky gets up as well and follows Bruce past Peter into the elevator. ‘Oh come on, I was just joking,‘ Tony says, trying to get them back but they’re gone. ‘That wasn’t fair Tony,‘ Natasha speaks softly and gets up as well. ‘I’m with Natasha on that one,‘ Steve says and follows her into the elevator with Bruce and Bucky. Finally, it’s just Peter and Tony. ‘I know I am not the person to say anything about it, but-‘ ‘So don’t,‘ Tony snaps. Peter swallows thickly, but stands his ground. ‘Honestly mister Stark, I have a lot of respect for you but I honestly hate seeing this. You’re pushing your team away and you can’t even see it,‘ Peter tells him, ‘I think you should try to make things right with miss Amy.‘ And Peter makes his leave as well, following the others into the elevator. He gets a pat on the shoulder from Steve as the doors close. ‘Good job kid.‘ ‘Thanks, but what do we do now?‘ Bucky holds up his phone and everyone reads his text. “Hey Roxanne, sorry to let you know on such a short notice but can we come over to your place for a little? We kind of walked out on Tony. - Bucky.“ It takes a few seconds, but a new message comes up. “Who is we?“ “All of us.“ “If you bring something to drink, I’ll order something to eat.“

The group stands in front of Roxanne’s apartment, hesitant to press the doorbell. Steve sighs deeply and lets his head hang in shame. ‘Even after all this, she still invites us into her home when we’re in trouble,‘ he grumbles, ‘I feel horrible.‘ ‘You should tell her that,‘ Bruce nods and presses the doorbell. The door swings open with force, slamming against the wall. Meanwhile, Roxanne is already walking back into the living room with her phone pressed to her ear. She turns around for a second when she notices no one is following her. ‘You all like pizza, right? It’s all I could think of.‘ They group nods in unison, looking at bit confused at the Roxanne they’re seeing. It’s like a blast from the past. Sweatpants, tank top, huge cardigan that used to belong to Steve, barefoot.  ‘Well don’t just stand there, come inside,‘ she tells the group and they finally walk in. She continues her phone conversation while the group files into the living room and stands around awkwardly. They watch Roxanne talk until she puts her phone away. ‘Did you bring drinks,‘ she asks like nothing’s different than it usually is. Bucky nods and follows her into the kitchen to put them away. ‘I’m sorry, but why are you okay with us now,‘ Natasha asks her, ‘because you’ve been giving me the silent treatment for weeks.‘ ‘I am not ok with any of you, at all,‘ Roxanne explains, ‘but I honestly can’t think of a more meaningful gesture than having all of you walk out on someone that wronged me. I feel like you respect me again and that means a lot to me. Though I shouldn’t have had to fight for it so hard because I was clearly right.‘ ‘That’s fair,‘ Natasha shrugs. ‘By the way, you’re paying for the pizzas,‘ Roxanne tells the group as she opens a cupboard with all kinds of different glasses, ‘what does everyone want to drink?‘

As the evening gets less awkward, the group talks more and more. Though she doesn’t like to admit it, Roxanne has a good time. After all, they used to be friends. For a little while it’s like the old days. Peter Parker and Bucky Barnes are fun additons to the mix, though she did also want to meet the Gods since she never got the chance to. She offered for them to stay over and most of them took her up on her offer. Everyone except Peter who had somewhere else to stay. With two couches, one extra mattress, and a king sized there’s a bit of a discussion of who sleeps where. Meanwhile, Roxanne just starts to clean the room. Eventually, Bucky gets fed up with the discussion too and tells them he doesn’t care. He’ll sleep wherever. He picks up a few glasses and takes them to the kitchen where Roxanne is loading the dishwasher. ‘You sure you’re alright with us staying the night,‘ he asks as he hands her the glasses. ‘Yeah, I’ll be fine,‘ she mumbles. He looks at her and she really doesn’t look that bothered. In fact, he hadn’t seen her as happy as he did tonight. She seemed happy to talk to these people again. ‘Our of curiosity,‘ he smiles, ‘who do you think’ll sleep where?‘ ‘Wel, Natasha is obviously either sleeping on the mattress or the big couch. She’s already sitting on the couch like she owns it while Bruce and Steve are sharing the other,‘ she starts, ‘Steve is a pushover, but so is Bruce. I think they’ll be discussing who sleeps where till the end of time if we let them and if Natasha decides she doesn’t want to sleep in the bed with me, then one of them will end up on the floor because you aren’t going to sleep on the floor.‘ She leans on the kitchen counter with her elbows, head leaning on her hands. Bucky can’t help but steal a quick glance at her body before planting his hands on the kitchen counter to get the same view. ‘I disagree.‘ She snorts out a laugh. ‘Well, what do you think?‘ ‘Steve is a soldier. He’s used to sleeping on the ground and he might even find it more comfortable sometimes. He’ll insist he sleeps on the floor no matter what happens. Bruce might be friendly, but he’s reluctant to say he’ll sleep on the floor because he really doesn’t want to yet he also doesn’t want Steve to sleep on the floor. And Natasha won’t sleep in bed with you because she has some kind of scheme in mind that involves me in your bed,‘ he explains to her. Her eyes widen. ‘I’m sorry, how did you pick up on that?‘ ‘She’s been saying I need to make a move on you all night,‘ he smiles a little. Roxanne has to admit she loves his smile. It’s charming. ‘Okay, then you’ll sleep in bed with me,‘ she chuckles, ‘problem solved.‘ She moves to go tell them, but Bucky grabs her wrist to pull her back. ‘How about we don’t tell them.‘ He has a mischievous grin on his lips which Roxanne finds very, very attractive. She smiles at him and intertwines their fingers on the hand he grabbed. She shows him to her bedroom. He awes over the view for a second before he can realize how personal this room is. There’s a reading nook and a floor to ceiling bookcase just like the one in the living room, only these books look much more read than the others. The bed is huge, but there are only signs that anyone slept on it on the right side, which is the side that is against the wall. There is a small dresser and two clothing racks that hang from the wall all very neatly organized. One seems to be business wear and the other is leisure. ‘Bathroom is through there. There are extra toothbrushes and clean towels in the top drawer underneath the sink,‘ she tells him, ‘I might have a clean shirt for you to sleep in. I wear very oversized shirts to sleep, so I should have one in your size.‘ She goes through the dresser and finds a shirt to her satisfaction. She hands him the shirt and sits down in her reading nook. He takes this as his que to use the bathroom. He isn’t quite certain why he feels nervous, well, actually, he does know why. He’s about to sleep in the same bed as a woman he finds very attractive and might be falling for.

[flightfoot]

As Luck Would Have It

AO3/FFN

*SPLAT*

Everyone froze.

Slowly, Kagami stood back up.

A crushed piece of chocolate cake unstuck itself from the back of her kimono and landed on the floor. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In Animaestro, only dumb luck prevented Kagami from sitting on that piece of cake.

What if luck went a different direction?

What would the consequences be?

*SPLAT*

Everyone froze.

Slowly, Kagami stood back up.

A crushed piece of chocolate cake unstuck itself from the back of her kimono and landed on the floor.

This- this is what she wanted right? This was the plan she’d agreed on.

But seeing the look of horror on Adrien’s face, the way Kagami’s breath hitched… she couldn’t make herself believe it.

“Kagami?” Adrien whispered, reaching out to her.

Kagami’s face slowly crumpled.

She let out a sob, then dashed away, revealing the huge brown stain on the back of her clothes.

“Kagami, wait!”

Adrien started towards her.

“Just- just leave me alone!”

He froze, hand still outstretched.

He straightened up, looking devastated. “Kagami…”

She ran.

“Hah! That’ll teach her.”

Marinette turned towards Chloe. A look of glee covered her face.

She- she was happy. Thrilled, even, at Kagami’s flight.

Why wouldn’t she be? This was the outcome they were working towards.

That THEY were working towards…

What was she DOING?

This was wrong.

Marinette felt like her stomach was being drained, as if there was some whirlpool in there that sucked up any good feeling and left her simultaneously feeling empty and sick to her stomach.

This was a bad dream right? She’d never do something like this. Yeah! It had to be one of those dreams where you apparently did something awful within the background of the dream, but before the dream actually started. So you’re just dropped into it with a backstory that doesn’t match who you are, and you just have to live in it.

She watched the proceedings as if in a trance. None of this was real. She was just an observer, watching from the outside.

At Chloe’s words, Adrien turned around, meeting Chloe’s eyes.

They hardened as he took in her expression.

He looked more closely at the chair the cake had been placed on, eyes narrowing as they locked onto the string that Chloe had used to pull it and the chair he originally brought over for her, replacing the clean, empty chair with the one with the cake slice.

His face twisted in anger.

“Chloe,” he hissed, keeping his voice deceptively calm. “What did you do?”

She tossed her hair. “Moi? I’m just enjoying the party, Adrikins. You can do so much better than her.”

“You put that slice of cake on her chair. You pulled the string.”

Chloe gasped. “How could you possibly accuse me of such hurtful things?”

“DON’T lie to me, Chloe,” a bite of anger entered Adrien’s voice. “I’ve known you since we were little. I can tell.”

She shrugged. “So? Maybe I did. It’s not like it was just me who wanted her away from you. Little miss goody-two-shoes Marinette helped.”

Marinette?

Oh. That was her. Seemed like her role in this drama was continuing.

Chloe was still talking. “Besides, now you don’t have to sit next to her anymore. With Kagami gone, there’s an empty seat right next to you!”

She walked up to him, moving to clutch his arm. “Wouldn’t you rather sit next to me, Adrikins?”

Adrien ripped his arm away, backing up several steps.

“NO. What you did to Kagami was not okay, Chloe. You hurt my friend. And pretending that Marinette was involved in this? That’s low, even for you.”

Pretending Marinette was involved? Maybe the dream was changing to get rid of that bogus backstory.

Why didn’t she feel relieved?

“But… I am your friend,” Chloe said, voice dropping.

“After this, I’m not so sure.”

Adrien turned to Marinette. “I’m sorry Chloe dragged you into this, I know you’d never do something like this.”

I know you’d never do something like this.

He was talking about her.

He was wrong.

Adrien just continued staring at her, waiting for a response. His comforting expression morphed into one of confusion.

“Marinette? Are you alright?”

Marinette.

She was Marinette.

She was here, in this moment, right now.

This wasn’t some imagined thing.

She wasn’t going to wake up.

This was real.

Which means that everything she’d remembered doing, she’d actually done.

She ran.

She wasn’t sure where she was going.

So long as it was away from the movie theater, away from that slowly replaying clip of Kagami sitting on that cake, that was good enough.

What had she been THINKING?

That Kagami and Adrien were going to get together?

That Kagami was evil JUST because it meant that she, herself, couldn’t be with Adrien?

Her stomach curled at the thought.

That didn’t justify what she and Chloe had done. If he chose her… well, then he chose her. She had no right to try to take that choice away from him, to drive off the people he cared for.

This… why did she DO this?

But it wasn’t like this was the first time she’d crossed the line with Adrien.

She’d left an embarrassing voicemail, so she’d decided that that gave her the right to break into his locker and steal his phone in order to delete it.

That… that was theft and invasion of privacy. And not for an altruistic reason either, like when she stole Alya’s phone to try and recreate her little shout-out to the Ladyblog. That was for her own personal gain, to avoid embarrassment.

God, he’d probably have just deleted it without listening if she’d ASKED him to! He was nice and respectful like that.

“Marinette…” a small voice squeaked out.

She looked down at her purse. Tikki poked her head out.

“I- I should’ve listened to you Tikki,” she forced out.

“Hey, it’s going to be ok,” Tikki looked at her, reaching out comfortingly to touch her arm. “I know this seems bad-“

“Seems bad?” Marinette choked back a hysterical sob. “I tried to drive Kagami away from him, just because he might like her. I HURT her. She’s done nothing to deserve this.”

Tikki spoke firmly, “What you did was wrong, yes. But it’s not the end of the world. People make mistakes, Marinette. Even mistakes that hurt other people. Even good people have bad days. You just-“

Tikki’s eyes widened. “Watch out!”

Marinette turned around, spotting a blotch of purple flying overhead, getting closer.

She went into crisis mode. “Tikki, Spots On!”

As the red-and-black spotted suit replaced her waitress uniform, she threw out her yo-yo, putting a bit of distance between herself and the butterfly.

Before it could get much closer, she swung her yo-yo out again, catching the butterfly and purifying it.

She let it out, staring numbly as it flew off into the distance.

She’d nearly been akumatized. Nearly given Hawkmoth half of what he needed, and probably doomed all of Paris.

And it would’ve been her own fault.

Did she even deserve to be Ladybug?

She curled up into a ball on a nearby rooftop and cried.

She remained there for the next couple hours.

Adrien collapsed onto his bed at home.

Today had been a DISASTER.

And it had started so well too!

Getting to spend time with Kagami?

Seeing the premiere of a movie that (though he was the only one who knew it) starred I, where he’d gotten to voice himself?

It was just such a funny thought, a little inside joke that only he and Plagg were privy to.

He wished he’d actually gotten to hear the dialogue for the movie’s “Ladybug” before the premiere though. While his own dialogue was at least within the ballpark of stuff he would say (which may have partly been due to his own interventions when it came to the script), Ladybug’s wasn’t remotely like her. Allergic to cats? Please.

Sadly, he hadn’t even gotten to meet the girl who was going to voice Ladybug, much less record alongside her. He’d just been given his lines and was vaguely told of what was going on in the scene and the sort of emotion he was supposed to deliver with the line. He’d always assumed that voice actors got to know the entire script, but apparently that wasn’t always the case.

Ah well. Hopefully Ladybug wouldn’t be too annoyed by how they’d butchered her character.

“So that was a disaster, huh?”

Plagg flew out of his shirt.

“Yeah.”

Adrien flopped over, putting an arm over his eyes. “I still can’t believe that Chloe did that to Kagami. I mean, it’s not that out of the ordinary for her, but I really thought being Queen Bee had helped her to change. But then she pulled THIS stunt. And she had the nerve to blame Marinette too! And Kagami…”

Adrien trailed off. Kagami had calmed her voice enough to tell her mother that she wasn’t feeling well and she needed to go back home. Since Tomoe was blind, she had no idea that Kagami’s clothes were ruined, and she’d had no desire to inform her mother of the truth.

Adrien had watched the movie without her. He’d have rather gone after either Kagami or Marinette, but his father or Nathalie letting him leave was an iffy prospect.

Chloe had taken Kagami’s seat. She’d had the good sense to NOT try to drape herself all over him, but he still would have rather been anywhere else than the movie premiere he’d been so looking forward to.

Honestly he was just shocked no one had been akumatized. Kagami was definitely distressed enough, and Marinette… well, he didn’t know what was up with Marinette. Did she not believe him when he told her that he knew she hadn’t helped Chloe?

He wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He’d rather not fight either of the girls he cared so much about.

Speaking of girls he cared about…

He opened his phone, scrolling through the Ladyblog.

There was a flurry of recent activity, all over a handful of photos.

He looked closely. It appeared to be of Ladybug hunched over, half-hidden behind a chimney. Apparently she hadn’t moved for hours.

Well this didn’t bode well.

“Plagg, we’re going to visit Ladybug.”

Plagg paused in the middle of eating a cheese chunk. “But I haven’t finished eating yet!”

“Eat more later. Ladybug needs us. Plagg, Claws Out!”

Moments later he was running over the rooftops of Paris, glancing at the Ladybug tracker on his staff every now and then.

It wasn’t long before he reached her location.

She still hadn’t moved, looking exactly like she had in the photo from before.

He approached cautiously, not wanting to scare her. “My Lady?”

She yiped and flew about ten feet into the air.

Well. So much for not scaring her.

Was he just really good at sneaking up on people without meaning to? He’d accidentally startled Marinette several times before, but even she usually didn’t jump THAT high. Then again, she didn’t have superpowers.

When she landed, she just stared at him, frozen.

Her eyes were red from crying, mucus running from her nose, and even her hair looked a bit unkempt.

What the HELL had happened?

“Ladybug!” He rushed forwards, taking her by both arms. “What happened? What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Did someone hurt someone you care about?” A stab of pain went through him as the next thought came to him. “Was- was it Hawkmoth?”

She gave a sobbing laugh, looking down at her feet. Adrien’s gut twisted. Normally he loved His Lady’s laughs. He treasured every time she laughed at his jokes and antics (even if occasionally it was at his expense). But this? This wasn’t a sound he ever wanted to hear. He never wanted to hear her sound so miserable.

“N-no. No one hurt me. No one hurt anyone I care about.”

That didn’t sound like the end of the story. “Then what-?”

“It was me.”

Huh?

“What do you mean?” he asked hesitantly.

“I hurt someone. I hurt someone BADLY for STUPID reasons. And you know what’s worse?”

She looked up at him. “I realized… I’ve been doing this kind of thing for awhile.”

His Lady had hurt someone? Well… he guessed he could imagine it. She could have a temper at times. He’d seen that with Lila.

But he doubted that she could have hurt someone who had done nothing to deserve it as badly as she seemed to think she did. Ladybug wasn’t perfect, he knew that, but she was a good person who tolerated people even when they’d caused her trouble. Heck, she gave CHLOE a Miraculous!

And when she had gone overboard, she tried to make things right. He’d seen that with Lila as well.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked her hesitantly. This sounded like a civilian thing, but if he could help, he would. He hated seeing her so miserable and alone.

“I-“ She looked torn and lost. “I- I dunno. I’ll try.”

He sat down, cross-legged, and patted the space next to him. She gave him a small smile and sat, leaning against him.

After a few moments she spoke. “I was at an event earlier today. I hadn’t planned to go, but then I found out that the boy I like-“

She froze, jerking her head up to look at him. “Oh crap I didn’t mean to hurt you by talking about him I’msorryI’msosorry-“

He pulled her into a hug.

“It’s fine, Buginette,” he told her soothingly. “I’m not upset or hurt, I promise. I’m just hurt seeing YOU be hurt.”

She took another breath and continued. “So. The boy I liked was there. And so was- so was the girl he’d gone on a date with.”

The boy she liked was taken? Adrien’s stomach did a flip.

He tried to quell the hopeful feeling. This wasn’t about him, and this DEFINITELY wasn’t the time to think about doing anything concerning his lovelife. This was about Ladybug.

“I didn’t like seeing her with him. I thought she might- I dunno, kidnap him to Japan. It was dumb.”

“There’s this other girl. She’s mean to just about everyone. She’s always bullied me, my classmates, anyone around her really.”

Someone had BULLIED Ladybug?! WHY?!

Deep breaths, Agreste. Let her finish the story. You can’t do anything about the people in her civilian life anyway. Concentrate on the here and now.

“She didn’t like seeing him with that other girl either, and she proposed a plan to drive the girl away from him. I- I wasn’t sure at first, but I was just so scared of her taking hi, of him choosing her, I just… I wanted to believe it was justified. I told myself the girl was evil even, that we were in the right! But it was a lie.”

“I- I may not have come up with the plan. But I knew what it was, and still helped.”

She let out another sob. “The plan worked exactly as intended. The girl’s clothes were ruined, and she left, upset and distraught.”

The girl’s clothes were ruined? Wait… this sounded familiar.

No. No, it COULDN’T be.

“The boy found out what had happened. He confronted the other girl, the bully. She tried to lie at first, but soon told him what we did. Even bragged about it. And then, she mentioned that I had helped.”

The bully… could that be Chloe? But then, if that was true, then, Ladybug must be…

“The worst part? He told her to stop lying. That I’d never do that.”

“He thought I was too good a person to hurt someone like that, for such a petty reason.”

“He was wrong.”

Marinette.

Ladybug was Marinette.

She looked up, noticing the way he’d stiffened. Her eyes crinkled, fresh tears welling in them. “If- if you want a different partner-“ her voice hitched. “I- I understand. I didn’t think I was cut out to be Ladybug when I first started. Now… I know I don’t DESERVE to be Ladybug.”

NO.

He pulled her into a hug.

She seemed shocked for a moment, then relaxed, fresh tears falling on his shoulder.

“You’re wrong. You’ve saved the day again and again, and are the kindest, bravest, smartest, most amazing girl I know. You screwed up today. I won’t deny that. But you recognize that now. Everyone can have moments of weakness where they do something wrong, something they shouldn’t have done. It’s part of being human. It doesn’t define who you are, or erase everything else you’ve done. Kagami was hurt, but not irrevocably.”

“Kagami?” she whispered. “You- you know who she is?”

He gave a small nod. “Your description was a little too exact. I saw the whole thing. It wasn’t hard to guess who you were talking about.”

“Then- then you know…?”

“You’re Marinette Dupain-Cheng. The best partner I could ever ask for.”

She melted into him. He stroked her back, comforting her.

They stayed like that for several more minutes.

Finally, she pulled away.

“I can’t believe you found out like this, and you’re still… you’re really too sweet, you know that?” she said.

He shrugged. “I like to see the best in people. They can mess up and do something wrong, but everyone’s got their own lives, their own things going on. Sometimes someone just makes a mistake. Sometimes they’re hurting, and just don’t know how to deal with it. Unless they’re really, actively malicious or hurt someone irrevocably, I don’t think they should be written off entirely. And someone just having a bad day, then realizing that they did something wrong and regretting it? We’re all human, Buginette. The important thing is to try not to do it again.”

She flinched. “This… this isn’t the first time I’ve crossed the line when it comes to Adrien.”

A small thrill ran through him as she said his name.

“Remember how I said I’d been doing this for awhile?” she continued. “I’ve been obsessed with Adrien since the beginning of the school year. I- I paid close attention to when he said he’d go somewhere and what his usual routine was, and wrote it down on my schedule so I’d know what he was supposed to be doing at all times. I’ve eavesdropped on him before, especially when he’s with another girl, I’ve got his pictures all over my walls, I’ve made him birthday presents through his 30th birthday now to make up for the last one I gave him losing my signature somehow, and I even bake him a special macaroon every week just in case I work up the courage to finally give it to him!”

She winced. “The worst one though, before this, was stealing his phone.”

Adrien blinked. Marinette had stolen his phone? When would she have-

Oooooh.

“That was the time you were late to the statue unveiling ceremony, right?” he asked.

“How did you-? Never mind. Yeah, that was it. I’d been trying to ask him out to the movies, but I could barely speak a word straight. I thought it’d finished recording, but nope. And I- I called him ‘Hot Stuff’! I went to stop the voicemail from going through, but accidentally hit the wrong button. So of course, in all of my great sanity,” she rolled her eyes, “I decided that the best option was to secretly break into his locker while he was fencing and erase the voicemail from his phone before he got the chance to listen to it.”

Well. That explained where his phone had gone.

“Look, I’m sure it’ll be okay. You stole his phone and yeah, you probably shouldn’t have. But you were panicked and weren’t sure what to do. If I’d been in that situation… well… I’m not sure I wouldn’t have done that either, in your shoes. It’s okay.”

She buried her face in his shoulder. “He still doesn’t know about it though. He doesn’t know about ANY of the things I did. Heck, he doesn’t even know what I did today! I can barely talk to him normally, how can I tell him about all the crazy things I’ve done?! …And I really need to tell him. Even if he hates me and never wants to see me again, he deserves to know.”

“Woah woah woah!” Adrien put up his hands. “What makes you think he’ll hate you?”

She stared at him, slack-jawed. “Did you not just hear about the stuff I did? Of course he’ll hate me! I know you don’t Kitty, but you’re not him!”

Oh the irony.

Adrien shook his head. “He doesn’t hate you, Marinette. I don’t think it would even be possible for him to hate you. I know that for a fact.”

“How- how can you be so sure?”

Adrien took a deep breath. “If you really want to know how I know so much about the situation – how I know so much about what Adrien thinks – I’m gonna have to detransform.”

She looked at him for a moment, then nodded. “…Okay. Just – let’s move somewhere a little less visible.”

He grinned. “After you, Milady.”

A few minutes later, they alighted on Marinette’s balcony.

She turned to him. “So. You think that detransforming will explain everything?”

He nodded, suddenly nervous. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea…

Too late now though.

“Just… try not to scream.”

She blinked. “Scream? Why would I-“

“Claws in.”

She screamed.

Maybe a joke would help?

“So, do you still think I’m Hot Stuff?” he asked, flexing one of his arms.

Marinette burst out laughing.

Meowch. That was a hit to the ego.

Still. It accomplished his goal of stopping her from screaming. Laughter was better.

“I- You – I told you everything – and you,” she choked out in-between laughs. “You just – how?”

Um.

“How what?” he asked.

“How are you so just… OKAY with all of this?” she asked.

“I grew up with Chloe,” he said. “Remember her reaction? She saw nothing wrong with what she’d done. With hurting others. You? You cared. You cared so much, you broke down sobbing when you realized what you’d been doing. I’m not going to judge you too harshly for getting overenthusiastic and going too far. Not when you clearly care about harming others. You’re a good person, Marinette.”

She stared at him for a moment, then shot him a small smile. “Thank you.”

“I still need to make it up to Kagami though. Or at least, try to. I need to do something to show how sorry I am, and to make some recompense for helping to mess up her kimono- OH!” Marinette shouted, a lightbulb seeming to come on. “I can make her a new kimono! Wait, but I don’t know her measurements…”

“I can help with that,” Adrien told her. “My father helped to design some clothes for Tomoe and Kagami recently, he probably still has her measurements laying around somewhere. I can get them to you.”

She nodded. “Thanks, kitty.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “No problem. I can head back right away and try to find it. Or, well, send Plagg to look for it. He can’t be caught on camera, I can.”

A smile tugged at the edge of her lips. “I’ve heard how lazy Plagg can be. Need a little added incentive for him?”

“That would be helpful.”

“Spots off!”

Newly detransformed, she went downstairs, coming back a few minutes later with some cheesecake. “Think this’ll be good?”

Oh yeah. “This is perfect.”

“I’m glad. You’re helping me to fix my mistake; the least I can do is help with this.”

He carefully took the cheesecake in one hand, making sure not to let it tilt, and ran off back to the Manor.

Marinette headed down to her bedroom to start on some ideas for her new design. She’d messed up. But the world hadn’t ended. Maybe Kagami would forgive her. Maybe she wouldn’t. But at least she would have tried to make amends.

And as for Adrien…

She went too far with him, became obsessive, even slightly possessive at times. But her relationship with him wasn’t broken. Far from it.

And he returned her affections.

She’d step back a bit. Rein herself in. She didn’t want to get pulled into that hole again. Didn’t want to repeat her previous mistakes.

But maybe later, maybe once she was confident that she was okay.

Maybe then, she’d finally ask Adrien – ask her Kitty – out on a date.

[niall-is-my-dream]

Lost Without You - Part Five

3530 words

Your back was pressed against the door to your dorm, but the goosebumps all over your body were caused by one thing only, Niall. His hands gripped your bum as he fucked you, the door rattling with every thrust.

When you'd opened the main door to him you couldn't hide your excitement, you'd both practically ran up the stairs to your room. Rushed misplaced kisses as you took each step, desperate to be alone together after more than three weeks apart. You pulled off his jacket before you'd even reached your room, his t-shirt before the door was even closed. 

Undoing the button on his jeans and pulling them to his ankles you'd planned to take him in your mouth, but Niall had other ideas.

"Need ya petal, need to be inside ya." His voice pained by frustration.

You pulled your t-shirt off and stepped out of your shorts and underwear all whilst Niall was touching and kissing every inch of your skin. His hands fell to your waist, thinking he was going to guide you to your bed, you gasped when he bent his knees and picked you up. Lining himself up, both of you moaned and sighed as he filled you up. His face fell to between your breast and he nipped and sucked at your nipples as you tugged at his hair.

"Hmmm missed you so fucking much." He said his breath haggered.

You panted out his name as he pounded into you, pulling his face up to yours you kissed him with everything you had.

Both of you came undone at the same time, you threw your head back against the door breaking your kiss. Niall leaned his head into the crook of your neck and he thrust a few more times until he was completely spent.

There was no noise in the room except for the breathless sounds of you both panting. Catching his breath he leaned across and captured your lips in his, a soft kiss that made you smile against his mouth.

"I missed you too." You finally replied.

Neither of you bothered getting dressed, instead you climbed into your bed and cuddled up to each other. Although you had messaged every day, you still spent the next few hours talking about what you'd been up to the last three weeks.

 "Can't even begin to tell you how jealous I was about you going to see Wild Youth." He said as he pulled you closer to him.

 "Must be rubbish missing out on your friends gigs and stuff."

 "Yeah it is, but I was more worried about you and the lads, didn't want any of them to be flirting with you."

 "Well one of them did, but I managed to brush him off."

 "Which one?!" He said as he sat up slightly leaning on his elbow.

 "I'm not telling you that."

 "I'll ask Conor."

 "Who said it wasn't Conor?!" You smirked.

 "I'll kill him." He smirked back.

 "No, it wasn't him. Just someone from their team. It was nothing." 

You joked around a little bit more before your innocent little kisses that had been shared during your time in bed turned to more. Taking things slower this time, you lazily rode him as he gripped your hips with one hand and rubbed your clit with the other. After coming twice, the last time together you collapsed on the bed, both of you falling asleep.

Since you'd had your final exam last week, you didn't have anymore classes to attend. Most people were slowly packing up and making their way home for the summer. You had got another few weeks before you needed to leave your dorm and you planned on working a few more shifts at the pub and at Audreys before moving into the flat that she had offered you.

Your interview was in less than two days time and you didn't plan on going anywhere far from your bed until then. Niall had got a free week and you had both planned to spend it together.

When you woke up from your nap a few hours later, Niall was already awake scrolling through his phone.

"Hey sleepy head." He said as he kissed you.

"Hey."

"Wanna go out and grab some dinner with me?"

"Mmmm sounds good." You replied.

"It's only 4 so we've got some time." He said as he moved to hover over you. "Think I have enough time for a little snack."

You laughed at his awful joke, but as he made his way down your body leaving little kisses across your skin your laughter turned to moans.

*******

"So I was thinking." Niall said as he pulled up his jeans. "Do you maybe want to spend a few days at mine? There's a pool in my building that we could use and stuff. Your interview isn't until Thursday afternoon right?"

It was Tuesday today and because of your interview being at 2pm on Thursday you weren't working at the bar that night. You weren't even in until Friday evening at 5pm. When you told Niall all this his face broke out into a smile.

"Good. Means I can cook you dinner, spoil you a little bit. Can even go over your interview practice if you like, Willie would be good at that actually. So what do you say?"

"I'd love to. But if you get sick of me then just say and I'll come back here."

"I don't think that'll happen Emma, I'll be begging you to stay longer." He said smiling.

********

You were fully aware that Niall was famous and with that quite wealthy, but you weren't prepared by just how much. He certainly didn't come across as being filthy rich, Niall couldn't be more humble and down to earth. He had happily sat in your dorm eating Chinese food and watching films on Netflix via your laptop. When he'd been at yours that first time discussing your degree in Interior Design, he had shown you pictures of his flat. But walking into it was entirely different.

"Wow! This place is beautiful!" You said unable to stop yourself. You continued babbling on about the features of the room, colours and soft furnishings. Niall couldn't contain his laughter and it caused you to pause your pacing of his living room and turn to him.

"You're adorable." He said.

"You're making fun of me!"

"No I'm not, I mean it. Love how passionate you are, you're going to smash that interview."

Niall gave you a tour of his flat and your mouth dropped when you walked into his closet. Rows upon rows of clothes, suit bags with Paul Smith logos on them and endless jackets and t-shirts.

"Here, hang your interview stuff here. Don't want it getting creased." He said as he moved a few items along the risk to give you some space. "What?"

"Nothing, just taking it all in you rich bastard!" You said jokingly.

"Fuck off!" He said laughing back. "Do we need to have the conversation again about doing as you're told and calling me Daddy, because we can?!"

 You stood there, mouth wide open at his words.

"Fuck, I want that but my stomach hasn't stopped rumbling since we left my dorm!" You replied.

"Maybe later then, come on let's go get something to eat." He smirked, knowing just how much he had got to you.

*******

Niall's bed was definitely more comfy than yours. A new bed was actually one of the many things you needed to buy before you moved into the flat above The Cosy Coffee Corner. The one at your dorm wasn't yours, the only items of furniture you had was your arm chair and your bedside table, plus kitchen stuff. You would definitely need to make a trip to Ikea in the next week.

Because his bed was so comfy you woke up that Wednesday morning at 11:30. Your long sleep might have been helped by the fact that you and Niall had indulged yourself with pizza and wine the night before at this amazing Italian place that he knew.

Niall was still happily snoring when you woke up and as much as you wanted to stay snuggled with him, you were desperate for a wee. Deciding to not use the ensuite, worrying that you would disturb him. You threw on some pjs and made your way out to the main bathroom. After doing your thing you decided to head to the kitchen and search for the coffee.

Of course Niall had a fancy coffee maker, but being the best barista in Battersea you figured it out and were soon sipping on a cup and admiring the view from his kitchen window of the London skyline.

"Hey, what are you doing?" He asked startling you.

"Fuck, you scared me!" You replied clutching your hand over your chest.

"Sorry love." He replied laughing, wrapping his arms around your waist and resting his chin on your shoulder. "But what are you doing? I wanted to make you breakfast in bed."

"Bit late for that Niall, it almost noon!" You replied leaning into his touch.

"Ok, I'll make you brunch."

You sat at his kitchen table sipping your cup of coffee while he cooked at the stove. Wearing just a pair of black Calvin Klein's you were happily enjoying the view. 

Fuck he was absolute perfection. His back was beautiful, are backs actually beautiful? Well his was. You could feel your self swooning as you sat and gazed at him as he chatted away to you.

"Emma.... ?"

"What?"

"Did you hear what I said?" He asked, a smirk on his face. You knew he'd caught you staring. Time to come clean to the cheeky shit.

"I was paying zero attention to what you were saying, I was too busy checking you out. Your back and arse are amazing."

He blushed, actually blushed at your words and turned back to the stove.

"Um, I......."

"Are you blushing Niall?"

"No!" He said not turning around.

"Can't believe I made you blush!"

"Shut up." He joked.

*******

 "So Miss Pearce, your portfolio of university work is incredibly good." One of the interviewers said to you.

"Thank you." You replied trying not to grin too much.

This interview was going really well, the two people conducting it seemed like nice people and you had relaxed a little bit. They had gone through all what the job would entail and how the first part of the internship was 3 and a half months in the Paris office. You would go in September and return a week before Christmas. A studio apartment within walking distance of the office was included and then a subsidised pay to reflect that.

You would be shadowing a more senior employee and learning how the company runs, before returning to the UK to do the same in their London office. It all sounded so exciting and you were pleased you'd had gone over some interview practice with Willie, Niall's cousin the previous evening.

As you left the office after the interview you were absolutely buzzing, it couldn't have gone any better. But you were realistic, and they had said that they were interviewing two other people as well as yourself. Niall had insisted on picking you up afterwards so you called him while you got yourself a coffee from a cafe shop nearby.

"So?" He asked as you got in the car.

"Went so good!" You squealed.

"I knew you could do it. When will they let you know?"

"Beginning of next week I expect. They said they had another interview tomorrow morning and I doubt they will make the decision quickly."

"They'd be mad to not employ you." He replied as he started the car.

**********

Jasper and Luke were at the bar when you arrived for your shift on Friday at 5pm. You'd reluctantly left Niall's that morning and headed back to your dorm to do some packing and then take a nap in preparation for the late night.

You'd stayed up late every night at Niall's, talking into the small hours of the morning. He was someone you felt you could share anything with and he had shared stuff with you too. Things you were surprised he would do if you were honest. The fact that he trusted you with some of his most private inner thoughts and feelings made you feel that this was something special. 

And that worried you.

With his tour coming up and with you working in London, possibly Paris both of you were pretty busy from the end of August right up until Christmas. You needed to try and not get too attached to him, he was sure to end things with you by the end of August.

Abi had been on the day shift so she updated you with everything that has happened during the afternoon. You took over from Abi with clearing the tables on the courtyard outside while Jasper and Luke stocked the bar and served.

As much as you hated working late nights in the bar, you were going to miss it when you finally got another job. You enjoyed working with Jasper and Luke and it could be quite amusing watching all the intoxicated people sometimes.

A large group of lads came in at about 7pm, seems they were celebrating their last exam. They were pretty rowdy but nothing that you, Jasper and Luke couldn't handle. You spotted Niall as soon as he walked in, walking side by side with Deo, Willie and another lad you didn't recognise.

"Evening." You said smiling.

"Evening Emma my love." Deo replied.

You smiled and offered a greeting to everyone, a cheeky smile on Niall's lips when he replied. Taking their order you started pulling their pints of Guinness and chatting with Willie about how your interview went. They had come out for a couple of pints and because "Niall wouldn't stop talking about you" apparently according to Deo. That cute blush that Niall gets started to creep up on his face at Deo's words.

You excused yourself after a while, you needed to go out to the courtyard to collect some glasses and make sure everything was ok out there. Stepping past the table of rowdy lads you stopped to clear their glasses and make general conversation with them. They had indeed finished their last exam that morning and were out celebrating as you had thought when they'd arrived.

They were joking about with you as you collected their glasses, innocent enough, but you could feel Niall's gaze from across the bar. It's not as if you were flirting with them, they were only asking about offers you had on shots at the moment. Warning them that if they got too rowdy then you'd kick them out, you said goodbye and made your way behind the bar again. 

Niall being in the bar was kind of awkward. You had glasses to collect, people to serve and all you wanted to do was grab yourself a beer and sit your self next to him. There was no way you could kiss him goodbye when he would eventually leave, people had been glancing over to him occasionally, obviously recognising him. One brave girl, similar age to you had been staring at him while you were getting her drinks and you were over come with jealousy. It was tempting to accidentally knock her drink over as you passed it to her, which would surely result in her getting soaked.

But you were a grown up and also you knew that you'd spent the last three days having dirty sex with him. Niall was definitely a one woman type of guy, you had zero idea what you guys were, but he didn't seem the type to have more than one girl on the go at one time. He was a busy guy, he could barely keep up with one let alone multiple girls.

It was almost 11pm when Niall and the lads stood up to leave.

"What time do you think you'll be home?" Niall asked.

"Not sure by 12/12:30." You replied, your eyes scanning around to make sure you weren't heard.

You weren't planning on spending the night with Niall as you had to be up at 8am to get to The Cosy Coffee Corner for your shift. Neither of you had made any plans for the weekend with each other, when he'd brought you home earlier today he had just said he'd see you later. Not wanting to come on too strong and seem clingy you had just said the same and kissed him goodbye.

"Are Luke and Jasper walking you home?"

 "Yeah they are."

"Call me when you're home then Petal, so I know you're safe."

"I will do, goodnight Ni." You replied smiling.

Flicking on the kettle as soon as you got to your dorm room, you kicked off your shoes and headed to the loo. Once you'd made your tea, you sat your self on your chair using one of the boxes you'd already packed to prop up your feet. Blowing on the cup to cool down your drink you patiently waited for Niall to answer his phone.

"Hey darlin, you ok?"

"Hey you, yeah I'm ok. Bit tired."

"Busy few days." He replied and you could hear the smile in his voice.

"Yeah, someone tired me out." You giggled.

There was silence for a moment and you wondered if you should say something else, but then Niall spoke.

 "Can we talk about us?" He nervously asked.

"Um, yeah. What did you want to talk about?" You managed to reply.

So this was it. 

You thought he wouldn't end this for at least another month, right before he was due to go away. You took in a deep breath waiting for him to answer you and trying to hold back the urge to vomit into your cup of tea.

"I really like you, like really like you."

You were waiting for the but....

"I was so jealous when you were talking to those lads in the pub, worried that one of them would try and get your number."

A small smile appeared on your face at his cute jealousy. "They were asking about the offers on shots."

"Oh."

There was silence again while he processed what you had said. You didn't speak, choosing to let him finish whatever he had wanted to talk to you about.

"Well it occurred to me that um... you could have given them your number um ..... if you had wanted to."

He was being so shy and nervous that you couldn't help but smile.

"Would you have wanted to? If they had asked that is?"

Niall Horan, multimillionaire and international musician, lusted after by millions worldwide was nervous about talking to you.

You, Emma Jane Pearce. A now ex university student who worked in a coffee shop and a pub.

"No, I wouldn't have."

Now was the time to bare your feelings to him. It had obviously taken him a lot of courage to ask you that.

"Niall, I really like you too. I feel really comfortable with you, I've never been able to talk about such personal stuff with anyone the way I speak about it with you. Not even Hannah and Jess. And I was jealous of the way that some of the girls were looking at you tonight. But I know that happens as part of your job, you're such a stud."

You both burst out laughing then at your attempt to ease the awkwardness.

"People always watch me and stare at me, it's unfortunately part of the job like you said."

It was silent again.

You wish he would get on with it and end whatever this was, instead of prolonging it anymore.

"I um..... Wow this is harder than I thought."

Come on just get on with it, I can take it you thought.

"Do you maybe want to make this a bit more.......I don't know, maybe take another step forward. Like.....um maybe be exclusive with each other, put a name on it or something or whatever....." He said trailing off.

"Niall, are you asking me to be your girlfriend?!" You asked him, so shocked that your voice was all high and squeaky.

"Well yeah, I mean I would've liked to have asked you face to face but I couldn't have slept tonight without having spoken to you. Why are you sounding so shocked?"

"Well, I did think you were about to end whatever we had going?"

"You did? Why would you think that?"

"I don't know I just presumed that when you went away for your promo tour and with the new album coming out that you'd be too busy to entertain me."

"Is that what you wanted me to say?" He asked you nervously.

"No, God not at all. I just didn't want to think that you might want this to be more when in reality you didn't want that at all."

"I want this to be more Emma, so much more." He replied softly.

 "Me too Niall."

Part Six

https://niall-is-my-dream.tumblr.com/post/187761923968/lost-without-you-part-six

[taronfanfic]

NYC

A/N: It’s been a while so excuse the shitness. 

“Ah, you made it!” Taron greeted you with his arms outstretched and ready to envelope you into the tightest, warmest, squishiest hug that you’d been craving ever since you let go of him outside the airport 2 weeks before. Melting into his arms and resting your head against his shoulder made you feel right at home, even if being in New York was the total opposite of home.  

“I made it,” You sighed back. “How is promogeddon going?”

“Yeah it’s alright, shouldn’t really complain should I?” He laughed a bit.

“You can to me, it’s what I’m here for.” You loosened your arms from around his back and placed a quick kiss to his lips, not wanting to draw too much attention with pda’s when you were still in a hotel packed full of media.

“I know, but’s it’s been fine honestly. So much easier when I knew you were on your way here and it was only a matter of hours before I could kiss you again.” The lust in his eyes was screaming at you but you knew it wasn’t the right place so you returned to hugging him tightly and pressing as much of your body in against his soft padding as you deliberately changed the subject.

“Have you eaten yet?”

“Nah, the jetlag had me up late so I slept in this morning and didn’t get time for breakfast. But it’s ok, it makes you feel thinner on camera.” He laughed slightly to try and hide his insecurity, but it masked nothing for you. It wasn’t the time or place to go into it now, so you simply took hold of his hand and pulled him after you out onto the street.

“We’re having a monstrous brunch now then because I’m starving.”

“What are you craving?”

“Pancakes, waffles, bacon, maybe a bagel… ooh and eggs.”

“Something small and light then.”

“When in Rome.” You shot him a cheesy grin as you crossed at the lights and made a beeline for the first place that smelt good.

After ordering way too much food a pleasant silence fell over the table as you both took a moment to gaze at each other and refresh your memory of all the tiny details you missed seeing up close. His hand reached out for yours and his thumb started to trace circles against the back of it as he smiled softly at you.

“Tell me what you’re thinking?”

“You get more beautiful each time I see you.” He replied without a single moment of hesitation.

“Stop it, you’re making me blush.” It was no good trying to hide your smile with your free hand when Taron had already spotted it and was grinning widely.

“You’ve just proved my point with that smile. Nothing makes me happier.”

“Well I’m glad I make you happy.”

“Very happy. So what were you thinking about?”

“How good it felt to be snuggled in against you earlier.”

“Well if you want more of that…” The suggestion coming from his raised eyebrows had you rolling your eyes.

“Later! Food first.” You laughed back as the first few plates started to arrive on your table and you looked down at the size of them in awe. “That’s if I’m not in a food induced coma.”

“Or repulsed by the size of my stomach after I demolish your leftovers as well as my own plate.”

“That’ll never happen!”

“If you eat all of that I’ll…” Taron paused as he tucked into his pancakes. “I’ll, recreate the Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting dance routine around central park.”

“Singing too?”

“Singing too, the whole shebang!”

“Ha, you’re on!” You replied confidently as you picked up your cutlery and dug straight in, watching closely to see if Taron looked remotely nervous by your eagerness. He knew you too well to be threatened though.

The smile remained on his face as you ate and the slower you became at clearing your plate the more smug he started to look.

“You struggling?” He asked as you knocked over the last quarter of your pancake stack.

“So much. But they’re so good, and you don’t look remotely worried by the prospect of singing and dancing in public!”

“Let me help you out then?” He reached his fork across the table but you cut him off with your knife.

“Hey! Mine!” You pouted back.

“You’re never going to eat it all, just give me a taste, please?” The puppy dog eyes were brought out and you succumbed instantly, pulling your knife back and sliding your plate into the centre of the table.

“Fine, you win. Can we still walk through Central Park on the way back to the hotel though?”

“’Course,” He paused as he savoured the taste of the sweet syrup and pancakes, “gonna need to burn some of this off before the premiere tonight else I won’t fit in my suit.”

“Taron, stop worrying.”

“But I’ve got all chubby since my last fittings, and I only eat more when I’m nervous.” He realised what he was doing and pushed your plate back towards you.

“You suit is definitely going to fit, you’re going to look incredibly handsome, and you’ll have me by your side whispering utter filth into your ear on the red carpet so you’ll be so distracted you won’t have time to think about being nervous!”

“I think it’s a silver carpet tonight actually…”

“Whatever, you missed my point. I prefer you when you’re a bit squishy and less chiselled. You always look happier and you’re way more comfy to lie on.”

“More practical, less sexy.”

“Stop it.” You gave up fighting against him when he was in that mood and took your purse over to the waitress so you could pay for brunch.

The walk through Central Park was a quiet one, both of you strolling side by side and taking in the surrounding views. It was bustling with people and as you separated to walk around a young family with two small children and a dog you lost track of where Taron was, searching over your shoulder to see if he’d stopped behind you, and then looking ahead in confusion as there was still no sight of him.

“Y/N!” He finally called out and then you spotted him sat at the end of a bench with his phone held up as he started to take some photos of you as you walked back to join him. “I’m sorry.” He lowered his phone and reached out for your hand as you moved in and sat right next to him.

“It’s alright, I get it.” You smiled softly.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I can be a dick when you were just trying to be nice…”

“I wasn’t just being nice, I meant it. I love you, all of you, you’re incredibly sexy and I really do prefer having more to cuddle y’know.” You let your head rest down against his shoulder.

“I know, and I love you too. I don’t deserve you.” The kiss he placed to the top of your head had you smiling again. “I was going to post one of these photos of you on Instagram and write a cheesy caption to make it up to you…”

“Oh god no,” You sat up and tilted his phone screen towards you. “you’re not the only self-conscious one around here. Can’t we at least take a cute photo together and post that instead?”

“Oh go on then.” Taron rolled his eyes sarcastically at being in yet another photo that week and then lifted his phone in front of you to take a selfie. With your arm wrapped around his shoulders you leant your head against his and went for a sweet little smile that soon broke out into a cheesy grin as you felt Taron’s lips pressing firmly against your cheek. My One and a heart was the only caption he needed as he posted it straight to his Instagram and locked his phone again.

Requests: fluff story of taron and reader out and about in nyc like getting ice cream, etc. and he posts reader on his insta? thank u!!  and Can you write a story where Taron isn't muscular? I think chubby Taron is far cuter. Something a little nsfw but not too much? 

[weaselle]

pay no attention to this collection I just need to post it so I can find it

hit walls and floor... tall inside of my skull; if I never fall at all, clever's awfully dull - so if "push" says the door you'll be watchin' me pull - 'cause I only shop for china when I'm walkin' with bulls

Order me sit? dope, I'm askin' how high; I out right hope my notes are causin' outcry - where do I fit? miles as the cow flies - statistically shit, climbin' slopes to outlie

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I can juggle knives, and proselytize, and wink my eyes in flirth (or mix words like mirth and flirt, like, ask what planet Dirt is wearth) I can lift a person by their soul, or... even let them down; I can fit myself to any role: demon, prophet, clown. I can write like frightened squid, or read a book from any shelf- but a lifeguard out at sea can drown, and I can't save myself

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I want an adventurous crew, less than 100 and much more than 2; I've got an idea or four to do and believe that "to lead" isn't "ordering you" - I want be thicker than thieves: if one of us cries, everyone grieves; stacked deck for success, form small companies so that every ace dealt goes up all of our sleeves - I wish I had Boromir's horn; I stand full of arrows, small and forlorn I'd summon an army as sure as you're born and we'd rend every obstacle / mend what is torn

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yo when it's late I don't know if debate is a pro that I'm prone to or con I conflate; yawn ok great it's the dawn of new date too soon gone like a pawn in a perilous state - do I wander or wait, keep closed yonder gate or transpose these ten toes 'til exposing my fate? if not off to bed nodding off head berates and refuses to do more than snooze/obfuscate

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I don't have time enough to tell the clock to stop its ticking talk, while I'm sublimely sleepy, still ensconced in twos of shoes and socks; I'm staring off in awful need of themes that breed these searing thoughts- I breathe more air when all unfair reality congeals and clots; when sleep is claustrophobic, fear near stoic in its static stay, I ride my nightmares into mounts more suited to the dreams of day

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time for me to be known from home to home, on the campaign trail like when Romans roam, I'mma do the damn thang, prevail and own every twist in this life-line vine I've grown

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sick like a little bit with a bad tum and sniffle it's not a badda-boom bat beating but a wiffle hit; sleep like the bleeping sheep gotta wring it outta me, sore like a freaking score that you sing without a "c".

________________________________________________________________

i got nothing to say, i'm all bluff in this play, i mean i'm here to swerve some verse it's clear i'm thumpin' away at the buttons with the letters on whenever it’s day like a cat attacks a sweater, just pretending it’s prey - I need to catch the thing I’m chasing, like, it’s gotta get caught, and so I jot it down a lot to try to capture the thought; but though the plot is often written out in dashes and sketches, i rarely cash in those checks, i need more carry than fetches, so I’m dreamin’ and dumpin’ out all the schemin’ or somethin’ and like, even if it’s meaningless these keys I’ll keep thumpin

__________________________________________________________________

with the internet i’m magic and i’m casting a spell call a song out of the air to here as clear as a bell private playlist from the A-list like i’m famous as hell making music moving quickly so I’m faster as well

_________________________________________________________________

“oh no” I shout “Where’s Trusty my phone?” I don’t know the whereabouts, must be shown- adjusted the tone of the ring to silence now trying to find it brings me to violence; really need to locate as I motivate to go today I throw the flippin’ sofa pillows hopin’ for a stowaway... but oh no way it’s gone I pray this song will make a tiny spell; a lesson less on lost forlorn and more intent on finding cell

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pocket full of humbug, some'll argue/ some shrug but damnit my whole planet's stupid like it's on the Dumb drug will there be a U.S. war? (I mean ANOTHER on our list) maybe something civil: neo-drivel vs. power fist... maybe accidental, mental trump insulting china's boss I fear these pale tears will steer us straight into a giant loss

so many people on the earth are searching for a safe life the rich'll keep their swords but lord they'll take away our steak knife Nothing free for you and me our banking fees are never waved; an act by black or poor is "crime" for white or rich it's "misbehaved" They're pouring us an ethanol and calling it an eggnog - time to run away and trade these reindeer for a sled-dog; the season of the commie christ whose message hasn't landed yet: money only isn't evil if the people's needs are met

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no thanks on the news, yo crank up the tunes, don't bank on the crankiness taking a snooze unless I get dressed from neckless to shoes and charge the horizon more wise than confused __________________________________________________________

hear the too late beep, missing two days sleep, and the road to a dream is a two way street; so the mood stays bleak though I do make sweet this coffee with cream and the brew ain't weak

____________________________________________________________________

been a While since I styled out the verbs and tenses, went around the Gates and straight hopped the fences; penUltimately gotta be a sultan of self: master mind, rule body, find my worth-and-my-wealth; if i'm quiet too long I'll have sloth not stealth so I try to move along and get my words off the shelf.

my projects: objects I invent/books writ - that shit won't pay the rent; throw fits, I have, it don't prevent: what's real from feeling devil-sent.

so I must be clever, do each: sum total; whatever needs eating this dead-beat goat'll; ask what is the art in a pace grown sickly? cut to the part where the chase goes quickly

Now hook or crook I must prepare, to tell each truth/take every dare stand hand on hips, and one in air, you can kiss my lips, or my derrière

______________________________________________________________________

got me a hit list, swear i'ma get this done til the sun goes under the business; witness, this is crazy and witless, lazy lately: maybe the wiz kid just hid restless - put to the test his quiz is bested get to the rest it's now or not again, get that got and then kill it til the whole damn lot is a slaughter pen, sweat til the wet drip drops gettin' hotter than the metal that your kettle corn kernel keeps poppin' in; hoppin' and hippin' and readin' what's written i gotta be gettin' to the List no skippin'! slippin like fall, new leaves i'm flippin - givin' my all just to keep on grippin'; breakin' what doesn't bend wrong way through, as i make it to the end of the long To Do

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i post at the prompt, chew big what i've chomped; grew kid to a ghost haunting most of this pomp; listless within this to do list i'm swamped - spirit in fits, corpse slow to go romp

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incautious swatches of saying; watch as he washes the playing: switching the swerving and swaying into some terms of conveying wishes conditions occurred in which this envisioned un-blurred digit could get itself heard and flip politicians the bird

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in the trace of the face off you tasted last, is the scent of the sense made fading fast, so your dreams leak sieve-like hiking past a scared nightmare crew of an all-you cast

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got me a pallet of shall get around to, climb out of shallow kie, it's not about you; just look at the play and see where the props ain't, take out a brush but don't rush it you'll drop paint; stop sayin' you're praying for planet like damn saint but get out and do, do it, do, 'til you feel faint; yes do it, true get into some writing, what you must chew is how much off you're biting, i dust off the lightning and plug it right in, if i play hard enough then my bluff just might win, all this tin in my pocket while walking about til the hat-caving camptown will clean me all out- my ten other projects, pretend money fudge it, i'll sell all my objects and end up with budget; i'd love it if some of my ideas ran, but i'll finish the one and be one happy man

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each piece is news, new peace in reach; tho a few of you choose nude tweets of Preach- but the rest got best bits fittin' here, what tests my pets must sit and hear: forget that past rush last two years going mash-gas fast 'til we're clashing gears, it's clear no room for fear to be, but the info flash is a blast to me- from the crashing sea to the land locked loam, we're lashed to the new word womb to tomb; and it's all fantastic like plastic foam that'll patch like magic a tragic home, or a tech part heart in 3-d print that'll let docs talk too intelligent; it's so elegant, that an elephant could do operations like he hella went: to harvard med my head is full but the school yard's sharp like a shaving tool; i'm a raving fool, but i drink it in, article particles 'til i sink and spin, win wonder i'm under delusions grand- will i sunder illusions and understand? or is it too much fuss will i cuss and worry, will i do what's just 'mid the dust and fury all i know is i go with the flow i find, tryna rein in my brain while i fill my mind

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so often was the A.M. spent prayin' for mayhem, like seeing riots firing inspired me to 'amen'; i'd hate when the job sucked, my robbed luck, i'd get stuck- attempts at free society my hopes and dreams were all fucked; but lately (don't hate me) the game is less crazy- i bust twice as lustrous if bosses don't make me; So new to the bragging, i catch up from lagging and write down solutions more lucid less nagging

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no sleep awake i sit and wait until the mill will dim/abate some whim shall take my fancy fate is to be sleeping dreaming state my eyes won't close i'll type i 'spose i'll write a night time rhyming prose those words i've heard but rearranged their meaning seeming weird and strange i've changed but how i could not say i only know no other way yet days gone by then who was i my mind was mine but what i tried to bind untied it flies! it runs! i rue what once i 'knew'; so dumb- untruth undo what time has done i can't so chant of what's to come oh spin oh sing oh show such things oh paint me what the future brings if won't be still then say your fill i pray my brain abstain from frills and spill the beans and give me scenes of things that help divine the means which plan to make which paths to take? i sit and wait no sleep awake

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rework this

i want things to be different, starting with me; like to find me a new mind, with new eyes to see; like to start a new life, with new ways to be; can't be hard to do right, or this dude might flee- but i like the older version, no aversion to he: the kid who up and did lots, and got up from knees; who figured bigger sub-plots, and thought it was neat; who questioned syncopation, by stepping off beat; so i'd like to start a nation, a tribe or a team; one with no reservations just, a vibe and some steam; a group think to shout out 'thou shalt know peace' and to try it they're provided with some elbow grease; what i mean is, i think it's, so nice to be me; and the thing is the scene seems a singularity; but my brain goes, down more roads, than the branches of trees; and with more crew, i might do, more glancing with ease; so for multiples of loyal, one/two/three: i might try it royal, and become true We

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[starlight-starwings]

The Adventure Zone Season 2 quotes.

Unfortunately the quotes I saved between seasons 1 and 2 were lost because I got a new phone, so this is starting with episode 6 of Amnesty. If anyone has good quotes from the first arc, experimental arcs, ans the live shows during the experimental arcs, feel free to add or send them.

• - listen... ok, we could... agdgsbjsbuhah. how they eat and breathe... its just a show, just relax

- technically the .. waste water systems and the regular water systems of a city or not connected, and so like theres a lot of.. a lot of ways to figure it out. But yea, maybe you get the idea that this thing doesn't.. it can.. it.. is weird man...

• hey there adventure zone lovers. I dont know if that means you love adventure zone, or you... heh heh heh, ya know.

• - can you feel it?

- the idea of feeling is kinda weird-

- close your eyes and tell me if Im doing it

- well you already did- ok.

- close your eyes. Did I do it?

- you did it

- aaahh, I didnt

- ok. This is not a fun game for me

• - its our first day here!

- yeaa. Like... Let me ask you about the fucking... cast of Friends

- youre talking about Matt Leblanc and Matthew-

- Ah fuck.

- ah shit

- damn

- son of a b- he's good, he's real good

• - Don't I have to roll?

- we have not played dungeons and dragons in so fucking long!

- Here

- what are you rolling to do?!

• - tell me, is patience one of your more valued v-

- yes!

• Hey. No ideas bad. It just wasn't good.

• - I got eleven? You got any cash on you?

- uhh yea I happen to have nine bucks right here. Griffin cant prove otherwise.

• listen Pidgeon, here's the thing: I... love... to... practice fishing. But... the running water... frightens me. Its called hydrophobia. And I would love to practice my cast in a real water environment, where I can get in a large body of water, where I can guarantee that running water wont be a factor. And I would just love to practice my casting in a guaranteed still body. But here's the other thing! Sometimes if you do it in a lake, thats what youre thinking, a fish will bite it. And normally thats ideal but Im just trying to practice casting. If like.. when you dont want to catch em. Thats when they're biting. Ya know what I mean? I need a still body of water, that I can guarentee won't move, to practice my fishing casting.

• - Noooo

- are you sure?

- yeaaaaa

- Beause its our podcast!

- noooo

- we're actually doing our own podcast

• - Make uhhh.... check. You're gonna need to make a check for this one

- I got the gum. But I have the gum

- It's good gum; you'll have advantage on it.

• Cause I mean a 4 legged octopus is a horse.

• - What does control water do?

- Merle can- well gee wiz. It makes spaghetti! What do you think control water does?

- whats the fucking card say?

• Good you know my sister Jane was doing missionary work in Honduras and normally I would spend the uh, holidays with her. But uhh I had some friends come in from uhh out of town. And uhh... I wanted to communicare this to anybody who might be listening somehow, and I thought this might be a more organic way of uh, doing it.

• um... nah so ok right... so... the pizza hut sign... started to fall, cause of the weather. And he ran up there on a... fire escape, and tried to... push it? With a bat? Dammit. Nah. He just pushed it. And it fell. But then he fell. Cause he got shocked. I bet. Mmmm. I didn't see. I was in- Ah shit. Alright. Hey folk- hey guys. Rewind. I- hey guys rewind a second. Aahh fuck. I was inside I didn't see. Anything. I don't know. This man. I do know this man. His name- fuck. Alright. I'm met.. high net... here... Mmmm, alright. So, This man's is name is Ned. And he's uh.. friend of mine. And I dont know what the hell happened to him. But you know this guy. He's always getting into something. I don't know. I was in the building. I almost got killed by a pizza hut sign. I might be in shock.

• Write the fucking story with me! We are New York Times bestselling authors!

• - Ok. Go ahead. Uhh where are your wings? Obviously you can't see them right now because I'm wearing my disguise. Would you like to see my wings?

- Yes.

- I don't know you very well, so no, not- not quite yet.

• Aw Juno this is so embarrassing. Um last week, uhh, my truck got beat up, and I... I had to take it over to Whistle's. And he wa- while he was fixing it up I had to borrow yours to run out uh... to- to do a check on... a body of water. In... the... tree... zone... forest. Fuck. It was a body of water in the tree zone. And I had to check on it in your car. And when I- I drove your car, without asking, and... I think I left my... pants? No. Wallet? Money. I left my wallet in your truck and I was wondering if you could go look for it real quick.

• - a goat..

-well. No its.. i mean you look at the legs you can kinda see... yea...

- its pan!

- no were not crossing over

- there no crossover here sir. No.

• - oh thats easy. All you have to do is press that red button right there.

- and what will that do?

- itll give you the key sphere

- well hold on....

- merle casts zone of truth!

- so what happens when I press that button?

- the red button? Itll give you the key sphere

- what will the blue button do?

- it'll kill ya

- what would the other frankenstein tell us?

- well my companion over there always lies. He'll tell ya to hit the blue button.

- oh okay. Its kinda one of those- ya know what Im gonna check his flavor real quick

- ok.

- I flip the lever

- No that'll kill me!

- the other Frankenstein sits up and says oh hey! Im Frankenstein. A lot of people say Im Frankenstein's monster but-

- yea yea yea. Ok we get it. Uh is this Frankenstein in the zone as well?

- uh yea.

- These buttons over here what will the red one do?

- oh the red one? Its the key sphere one. I would've told you its the blue one.

- ok I slam-

- No listen. Listen. No listen. Listen listen listen. Hey. Stop wait! Im the liar Frankenstein.

- I hit the red button.

• - Merle casts shield of faith

- ok. On whom?

-um.. it surrounds a creature of my choice

- yeap. So..

- time to make that choice

- that is kinda the question I asked

• - are you a grief counselor?

- yea you a grief counselor?

- I do have some counseling experience, um, but right now think of me more as your friend.

- I could really use a grief counselor I think more than a friend at the moment. I got-

- ok then Im a grief counselor, yes.

• - and Im gonna roll 2 d6... god almighty... hatchy matchy...

- howd you do, Justin?

- Well I got a 4 on that one, Trav. Which is, what we call in the biz, we call that bad. That is less than ideal.

• A charisma check. Okay. Hahahaha! That's a threeee.

• I know how you young people talk: It was rad.

• hey! Hey man fucking bigfoots behind you dude, drive! Jesus Christ! Hey Ive been skitching this whole time brother, Im really sorry but you gotta fucking drive right now dude, come on! Im vulnerable as hell! Come on! Dont make me fight bigfoot, I want thinking through this shit, go! Im not gonna fucking fight bigfoot.

• No, you know what- I'm gon- ya know what? It's fine. Ya know what? Its fine. Its fine. Im gonna- it- thisll be fine. Thisll actually be fine. Uhhh Im gonna cast lightning bolt on the tank. I thought about it, thisll be fine.

• - dont worry, the rest of us will take care of this. I think the best plan is if the three of you go up the spire to face the final confrontation alone

- why is that the best plan??

- cause theres exactly enough people outside- robots outside, that we'll need all of the army...

- but then why dont we wait and help you kill all of the robots?

- we'll kill them and then we'll all go up together

- theres no time!

- what are you talking about were just fighting a bat- theres plenty of time

- we got a whole other act!

- huurrryy

- okay we'll hurry, yes fine, yes.

- good luck

- well now dont say that! You said to go on ahead!

- I'll remember you

- this passive aggressive stuff...

- youre sending mixed signals. Should we stay and-

- the doors that ive just invented shut behind you.

• Okay uh, Hollis. Let me ask you something: Okay, on the other side of this portal- im gonna lay it out for you. Alright. Are you ready? One hundred percent honesty. On the other side of this portal is another world. Just like, the same scope and size of ours, with a population of people, and... just like us. People just like us. Right? And... think about this. In... lets say West Virginia alone, not even the whole world, the whole earth, west Virginia alone, right. How many people do you think there is, a per capita ratio, thats murderers to just regular people? Right? So what if somebody said "there are murderers in west Virginia, so we're gonna march into west Virginia and kill everyone there, cause they might be murderers." Right so what if the only thing you knew about west Virginia is that some murderers came from here? And you said "so let's just go in and wipe everone out"? You would come in and wipe out the whole state, and murder innocent people, just in case they might be murderers. What does that make you, Hollis?

• - Aubrey what... what are you?

- Oh I'm bisexual.

- Do all of bisexuals have this power?

- Yes.

• - uh lets jump right in

- im in. Already. I actually got in before you did. Just to make sure the water was okay.

- oh how is it? Hows the scene doing?

- the scene is good. Im already in it, but because the narrator has not joined us we are locked in... stasis. We are characters in search of an author as it were, in the pernella play.

- so theyve been there for 2 weeks? Or whats up?

- theyve been there for 2 weeks. Locked in perfect stasis, until time itself should turn its gaze upon us and let us resume our merry roles in this play called existence.

• - did you get the part where we're gonna find the quail and just crush its heart or whatever?

- its uh- its- it- its quell

- yea thats what I said, quail

- you said quail like a big ol bird

- wait what are you saying?

- yea quail

- no quell

- quell?

- quell

- quail?

- quell

- kwäil?

- listen- listen kwaiell

- quail!

- you said quail. Its quell

- the mothman uh, grabs your wrist duck and looks at the watch on it and says 'boy howdy I sure hope that those arent several minutes that we will need to uh prevent the apocalypse. Because they are gone now.

• - Ju- Ju- wait a minute. Juno? Juno Devine?

- yes shes-

- Juno Devine is- shes in the forest service? (Switches to character voice) Ahh-ha! Well that makes a lot of sense! She- she loved the forest. That- ahh...

- that is... did you just do a player to character cross-fade?

- that was so fucking wild Ive never seen anything like that on this podcast

- that melted my brain

- it was like Clint started the sentence, and then Thacker ended the sentence

• I can roleplay a gay elf with magical powers. I dont think I could roleplay someone who likes beef jerky

• We've all been trying to help people right? And sometimes you fuck up. Sometimes people get hurt, sometimes you can't- sometimes you act and you do things, and you're wrong. And if you let the fact that you fucked up stop you from trying to help again, thats... thats the real mistake. Ive fucked up so many times. You cant be afraid to help. Because yea, you might hurt. But you also might help. You just have to keep helping. Dont be afraid. Im not.

• - query: are the extraterrestrial invaders engaging in deception? 89.84% affirm

- now listen. You all don't know Duck like I do. Believe me, he can not engage in deception to save his life.

- he's also an employee of the federal government!

- it skyrockets up to 98.64%

• It makes sense right? Great power; great responsibility. But you know what people forget? Is that the green goblin dosen't swing up to your door everyday and blow your whole life away and in one moment you have to figure out what to do, ya know? The responsibility is every day. Its every moment, and it's- every time I pick one of those saplings up and I put it in the ground, and pat the ground around it, and I pour water on it, and I think about our childrens childrens childrens children will breathe the air that this thing makes, and Minerva, thats power. Thats my responsibility. I dont have to fight no more. I did it. And now Im gonna grow.

[phantomphangphucker]

Hiding The Devils Mark - PhannieMay - Day 31 Free Day

Summary: Danny’s a little too used to this kind of crap

Warning: corpse, mentions of taxidermy

Chapter 2. of Dealing With The Devil

Danny sits awkwardly on his bed, not exactly needing the whole sleep thing anymore. Flipping out his phone as he remembers Jazz. “Hey, you can sleep now” “Told you, you wouldn’t really have to worry. Well much anyway” “Well the talk went good but Dan showing up did not” “Dan!?! Are you safe? Are they? Is anyone? Please tell me he’s not just running around” “He's sealed away, again. Everyone’s fine, though the carpet has some new and very red stains” “Danny! That doesn’t sound like everyone’s fine!” “It wasn't from anyone alive Jazz” “God, that is disturbing and not what I needed for a good nights rest” Danny, chuckling, “at least you still get to have those” “We so need to have a talk about that humour of yours” “And that’s my cue to hang up. How about you just sleep better for the both of us” “Not sure that’s even possible Danny, but goodnight” “Yeah, night” Danny hangs up and opts to spend the night gaming, completely ignoring his everything for a time.

Danny frowns at his ghost-shaped clock, “well normally a Thursday wouldn’t be so bad but uh, all of this”, Danny gestures over his body, “isn’t exactly school material”. Flipping out his phone to text his now, most likely awake, friends. The two had pretty much forcefully become very early risers, to deal with whatever bullshit well before school. Not even bothering with punctuation, “My room frying pan with extra sauce parent approved” - d “Dude, fuck your life” - t “It’s the death of me” - d “You’re both awful, and I’m already here so beam me up Scotty” - s “Now see that was awful”- t Danny, invisibly, sticks his head out and sure enough, Sam’s there. Floating down just as Tucker arrives, grabbing both of them. “Dude, little warning. Especially after last nights bullshit”. Danny talks as he drops them in his room, still invisible, “Tuck, what?”. Sam rolls her eyes at the air, “pretty sure Dan got out, that or someone is a real ass. We’d been seeing him out of the corner of our eyes for like two hours”. Tuck nods, “very creepy. Did not sleep. Do not recommend Dan as a sleeping pill”. Danny though annoyed at Dan once again can’t help but laugh, “I’m pretty sure you got the more pleasant experience. Pretty sure the living room is horribly stained and my parents are probably traumatised”. Sam crosses her arms though clearly worried, “ok spill, what happened? And could you cut out the invisibility, we already know you look weird; extra sauce thing is always an “I look fucking weird or more ghost than normal” type of thing”. Danny rolls his eyes as Tuck questioningly taps on his own canines, “Tuck it’s way more than fangs. And the rundown of the night is grade A fucked. Even more so when the least fucked up or weird thing to happen was me literally dying”. “Uh don’t you basically do that everyday dude?”, Danny laughs his ass of at that and losses his invisibility. Scaring the crap out of both of them, “dude holy fuck! Uh, nice hair?”. Sam winces a bit, “ok the Dan hair is plain unpleasant, making your hair like that is probably the most petty thing he has ever done”. Danny glares a little, “ok I think there’s a slight misunderstanding here”. Danny sits on his bed, rubbing his neck a bit, “guys when I said literally dying, I meant it. Like, my human half was literally murdered. Which I’m pretty sure doesn’t qualify as petty. Especially since he showed up again to beat me with my own damn corpse, in front of my parents”. Both of them stare at him for a bit hoping he’s kidding, Tucker’s the first to speak as they clue he’s not, “dude, what the fuck. You mean you’re a full ghost now? Completely dead?”. “Fuck Danny, what are any of us supposed to do with this?”, Sam and Tucker both sit down next to him. Danny’s ears flick down a little, “yup, completely fucked. Very dead and fuck if I know. Oh and to add more to the pile, CW showed and you’re looking at the new ghost king”. Tucker weakly smacks Danny on the back, “king thing is almost expected dude but everything else is completely screwy”. Shaking his head, “but I’m guessing, since you’re still at home, the rents reacted not horribly?”. Danny smiles at this, “sure I had to turn off the lights and shit so I could explain before they saw me but yeah. Complete acceptance, dad’s honestly more curious than anything”. “Good, we all knew they would but Danny, is this just how you look now?”, Danny can’t blame Sam for being bothered by the hair. The rest is much more general ghost crap, but white flaming hair is very Dan. Running his hand through the flames a little, “yeah, stuck with it. Not exactly impressed but really? Can any of us really be surprised? Dan is me, sort of. So looking like him isn’t really unexpected”. Both of them nod, though Tucker wiggles his fingers in Danny’s hair as he speaks, “well at least it doesn’t burn, currently anyway. The town is going to freak and, oh fuck, school dude? Full ghost means no human form?”. Danny shrugs, “I know, but Dan can make himself look like human me so maybe I can too. Bastard did that in front of my parents too. Can’t say I’ve been successful thus far though”. Sam nods thoughtfully, “well how much can you cover up? Makeup will do for the skin, clothing over the suit but everything else?”. Danny smirks and yanks the same beanie over his hair and ears, and points at blackout sunglasses, “I’ve got nothing for the teeth though. But I can just not open my mouth very wide...”. Tucker pokes at Danny’s very obvious glow, “and ghostdeglow for that I’m assuming”. Danny rubs his neck awkwardly, “if my parents can make more, yeah. Not really any left now”. “Contacts are another easy fix for the eyes, you just have keep them from glowing. Voice though”. Danny’s only response is a shrug, cause there’s really nothing long-term for that. But thinking about his parents' initial reaction, “ghost flu. Works short term and no one in Amity is going to question that. If I can’t make myself human looking and sounding, I'm fucked though”. Both them nod again, as all three flop back to lay on the bed. “And there’s the whole can’t sustain myself out of the zone for more than few days issue. Which I guess we don’t even know is for sure yet but still”, all three jolt as Maddie knocks on their door. Danny sits up a bit, “yeah?”. Maddie sticks her head in and looks at his friends, Tucker’s the one to answer, “we’re just making him human passing, school is still a thing after all”. “You’re doing that by laying on the bed? And I’m not sure that’s even possible”, Maddie eyes Danny a bit. Danny smirks, “both of them have passed themselves off as me before. Less drastic but still”. Sam grins and slams a Danny wig on him for emphasis, making Tucker chuckle, “ok that looks very weird over blue skin!”. Maddie shakes her head, laughing, “you have a wig specifically for this kind of thing? Jack would be calling you a sneaky genius again”. The three grin goofily at her while Danny asks, “need the ghostdeglow stuff though, so I hope that stuff is easy to make. Hopefully, I can take a human looking form so once I figure that out I shouldn’t need it anymore”. Maddie nods by then grimaces, “like what that thing did. To look like you, human you”. Danny nods which earns a curt nod from her, “well the ghostdeglow will take at least an hour but that’s do-able”. Danny smiles at her before she leaves. “Man Dan is an arse”, currently Danny couldn’t agree with Tucker more.

After about an hour of packing on makeup, “well that’ll probably work. But it’s really obvious you’re caked in make up, painfully so”. Danny glares at her, “yeah it damn well feels like it. If anyone asks, ghost flu makes your skin green and I wasn’t going to school like that”. Sam snickers as Danny throws on the same turtleneck and a pair of jeans, searching for some gloves. Danny’s adjusting the beanie over his wig, to fully hide his ears; when Maddie knocks again. “Done, Sweetie. And oh wow. That is way more convincing than I thought possible”. Danny smirks at her as she hands him the spray can thing, “welcome to the life, or un-life in this case, of having a secret identity”. Maddie only laughs as she heads back down. Promptly giving himself a good spray down and checking himself out in the mirror, “well damn, this might just work. But yeah it looks like I face fucked a jumbo makeup palette or whatever”. Earning chuckles from both of them as they all head downstairs.

“Son? I thought you couldn’t be human anymore?”, this makes all four of them laugh. Maddie composes herself first, “Jack dear, it’s a disguise. A scary good one apparently”. Danny lifts up his sunglasses to prove the point while snickering at his dad’s clearly impressed face, “Wow you are turning out to be the biggest genius in the family, just applied very differently”. Danny laughs while Sam and Tucker talk simultaneously, “he’s a moron”. Both his parents raise their eyebrows, as Sam smirks, “he’s swallowed at least six sporks accidentally and constantly forgets that dodging is a thing”. Danny shrugs as everyone sits down for breakfast, which he really only eats because it’s routine.

“Wow Fentit, I didn’t think your “fashion” sense could get any lamer”, Danny rolls his eyes at the sound of Dash’s voice, though hoping Dash doesn’t try to pry anything off. Danny can’t help but find it weird to have to force himself to be quiet. Instead just flipping Dash off, as Paulina comes up snickering, “wow, I never took you for makeup. I’m not sure whether packing on so much is impressive or sad”. The two A-listers don’t even get a chance to do anything as the trio just slides into class, with Mr. Lancer coming in early as usual. Unfortunately for Danny, Mr. Lancer calls on him to read, “I’d really rather not”. Nearly everyone snaps their heads toward him as they hear his voice, Star is the one to pipe up about it though, “what’s wrong with your voice? No way that isn’t some ghost-related thing”. Danny groans, “ghost flu, and no it’s not contagious”. A couple people make faces at him but Dash snickers, “I think Fenton should read”. Danny glares at him through the glasses, while Mr. Lancer asks him, “if it’s not bad for you, then, yes please read”. Danny rubs his neck as he reads while some snicker at his echoing voice.

“Well that was uncomfortable”, Tucker can’t help but snicker at Danny’s complaining. “Dude, you know your voice actually sounds good right? Ghostly, but powerful”. “Tuck Buddy, I’m damn well aware. If my voice wasn’t powerful sounding that would be weird. Considering everything, not a very good thing right now though”, Danny cringes a bit as some random kid does a double take at his voice. Groaning and talking much quieter, “yeah I so need to work on the voice changing thing. If I even can”. Sam nods at them as they join her for second class.

By third people were asking Danny to say random shit, Danny was only obliging because it seemed to put Dash off from bullying him. Come lunch, saying “I’m Batman” for the tenth time was getting very old though. Danny’s luck only goes downhill after lunch. Sitting in sixth for his second class with Mr. Lancer, as his ghost sense goes off. Sticking his hand up as Mr. Lancer shoos him off, “normally I’d say no and you’d leave anyway, but I’m not questioning it today”. Danny does genuinely appreciate that, until the ghost comes into the classroom and everyone starts freaking out. Danny glares at the laughing Technus, with an arm full of old calculators, “you have got to be fucking me”. Danny only glares harder as Mr. Lancer turns on the ghost shield and starts ushering the class out, while dodging flying electronics. The rest of the class just books it out of the school while Mr. Lancer tries to get Danny to hurry up, “Fenton now is not the time to be daydreaming!”. Danny glares at him, and just tries coming up with a good lie, “I’m not, I just can’t leave. Ghost flu doesn’t exactly react well with anything anti-ghost”. Mr. Lancer gapes at him so he proves his point by knocking on the, very solid for him, shield. Before having to yank Mr. Lancer out of the way of a blast. Glaring at the busted to Hell door and practically dragging Mr. Lancer by his shirt collar, as they avoid more calculators and ectoblasts. “Child! Why do you drag around the old man!”, Technus is genuinely confused as Phantom doesn’t usually want humans involved, but he also feels somewhat cautious because something about Phantom feels different. “Oh I don’t know, maybe because he was trying to get me to leave and then you pulverised the poor door”, Technus lowers his arms and tilts his head at Danny over his voice while Mr. Lancer throws a desk at him, which he easily avoids. Danny turns and gapes a bit at his teacher, “why are you the one teacher here that will actually try to fight the ghosts? And why the hell don't you carry hunter weapons? They’re allowed and I’m sure they work better than a damn desk”. Technus nods a bit before shrugging and going back on the attack, he’s not sure what’s up with Phantom but he’s notorious for being strange. Mr. Lancer yelps and actually drags Danny out of the way this time, “I’m not about to let my students get hurt or be the targets, Daniel!”. Danny can’t help but laugh a bit, being the target was like eighty percent of his life or death, “I think I’ll be just fine Mr. Lancer”. “The child is correct! Everyone knows him to be more than capable! But today I, Technus, will be the capable one!”, Danny can’t help but glare at Technus and his stupid big mouth. He can’t help but glare harder as the wind Technus is stirring up with all the damn flying microwaves and shit, blows his hat off. “Things can’t be normal for even one day, can they?”, Danny full force throws one of the coffee machines at Technus, which hits him way harder than either actually expected. Danny has a feeling Technus only takes the hit out of shock at Danny’s exposed light blue and clearly pointy ears. And Danny knows that while Technus is a bit of a fool, he’s not an utter moron. Nobody moves for a bit as all the tech crap just falls to the ground, Danny’s a little weirded out that Technus looks sad and angry. “Who did this whelp”, Technus doesn’t hide the venom in his voice, none of them wanted the special little halfa fully dead, but someone clearly did this. And even Technus wants that person to have a very bad day. Danny blinks a bit, kind of weirded out, putting a bit of power into his voice because he really wants Technus to just go away, “no one any of you know, keep it that way”. The two stare each other down for a bit before Technus frowns even more, talking quietly for once before slipping through the floor, “sorry”.

Danny kicks at the random electronics as he goes to retrieve his hat, as he’s picking it up Mr. Lancer walks up behind him, “I’m not exactly sure what just happened but, ghost flu was another one of your, oddly good and creative, lies. Wasn’t it?”. Mr. Lancer keeps talking as Danny straightens up, Findling with the seam of the beanie a bit, while Mr. Lancer keeps talking, “no flu can change a persons physical body like this, and ghosts don’t behave like that to regular people, so what’s really going on?”. Danny groans, knowing full well he’s kind of fucked here as he puts back on his hat. Talking as he sits on one of the few not knocked over desks, while adjusting his ears under the beanie, “I’d rather you didn’t ask but I know you’re smart, so how about you tell me”. Normally Mr. Lancer would glare at his most difficult student but his gut feeling just left him feeling sad. Knowing this particular student would lie about pretty well everything, Mr. Lancer goes for blunt honesty, “somehow you died and now, are a ghost”. Sighing as Danny doesn’t even attempt a response other than shrugging, “Daniel, I’d rather know what happened and you’re officially excused from your other classes. Hell, you shouldn’t really be here, not even sure how you are. But considering this town, a causality was bound to happen and with your reckless parents; I can’t claim to be too shocked”. Mr. Lancer sits across from Danny and just waits for him to talk. Danny groans a little as he eyes-balls his, clearly not going to believe anything else or let this go, teacher; before folding off his sunglasses. Looking at him, Danny can tell Mr. Lancer’s trying to school his expression, sighing, “like I said, I know you’re smart. But in case you can’t tell, I’m trying to not have everyone know. At least right now anyway, things are complicated”. Mr. Lancer nods understandingly, “of course things are complicated. That’s death, even more so when ghosts are involved. But it is my understanding that not only should ghosts not really remember their human lives but also not still be trying to live them”. “I’m different. I’ve been partly dead for years, two to be exact. I lie to cover up ghost shit. I run off to deal with ghost shit”, Danny’s honestly rather annoyed but considering he still can’t make himself look human, he knows he might have to have this talk with a lot of people, eventually. Because obviously, completely covering up his full death was not going to work out, it hadn’t even been a full day and someone had already called him out. “You mean to tell me that electrical accident, which you played off almost excessively as being no big deal, partly killed you? If it wasn’t for the fact that, knowing your house, that shock was likely from something ghost related; I wouldn’t believe you. But I appreciate this rare moment of honesty from you”, Danny can tell his teacher means it. Mr. Lancer is always someone who cared, sometimes too much really. Though that did result in Danny having a bit of a soft spot for the man, nodding as he talks, “yeah, though my lies and secrecy were and still are necessary. It’ll all depend on certain things if this becomes public knowledge. With Technus, I highly doubt he’ll keep his mouth shut. So I know it’s likely already public knowledge in the zone but that’s expected and fine. Things are more touchy here”. “Well, you are clearly more mature than I knew. Which is honestly concerning Daniel. Care to explain why a high schoolers death would be such big news? Yes, you being a ghost and still in school might be more than a little problem but otherwise? Not to mention why ghosts would care?”, Mr. Lancer can tell Danny’s debating something in his head but judging by Danny’s facial expression, he isn’t going to lie. Danny smirks almost playfully, after fully deciding that lying at this point would just make him a complete ass, “I’m pretty sure not only Amity but the stupid GIW might just lose their heads, finding out that not only was the local town hero not fully dead and now is, but is also just some Highschool kid”. Danny’s not sure whether to be impressed or amused that his teacher goes wide-eyed as soon as he said “hero”. Deciding to humour his, honestly favourite, teacher; Danny lifts up his sweater to show of his flaming DP symbol before dropping it back down.   “Well, that is certainly not what I expected, though it does explain a lot. You’re right this will be a big deal, anything Phantom is. But I am not about to allow some government dogs to harm one of my students, even ghost ones”, Danny shakes his head and laughs a bit as Mr. Lancer gets up, fixes one of the kettles and makes himself some tea. “The GIW can’t touch me unless I let them, pretty much. I’m more worried they’ll interfere with my duties or harass my family. But if they cause too much of a fuss then yeah that will be a problem, their dumb antics have nearly destroyed the zone and earth more than once. It’s entirely possible they could instigate a war”, this makes Mr. Lancer cough a bit and stare at his student. Composing himself a bit, “I did not know those men were that much of an issue. It’s almost impressive how blind the government can be to things. And I guess they wouldn’t exactly listen to a teenager or a  ghost would they? Government officials do tend to put themselves on a pedestal, unwilling to listen to those outside their ranks”. “Many have tried talking to them, so no they won’t listen. Though with an entire town telling them off, maybe. But if things go bad with them, I won’t be giving them a choice. I rank above them and if they don’t listen, then they’ll pretty well have to deal with the entirety of the zone dropping on them. Like I said, war”, Danny shakes his head and frowns, knowing even if he didn’t give any kind of command, a fair amount of ghosts would lose their shit at a bunch of humans going after and insulting their king. Especially since Danny’s actually well liked, he knows even his enemies are closer to frienemies. But at the same time, a human vs ghost war is bound to make the Observants flip and no way he wants those eyeballs involved. But he also knows that they’re not dumb enough to be unaware than he’ll do whatever he can to make sure shit doesn’t go totally south. Even if he’s not a halfa anymore, he wants to protect both species and worlds. And honestly, a protection based obsession is a pretty damn good one if you ask him. Mr. Lancer sips at his tea, thoroughly impressed but also saddened by his strange student, “why would the whole ghost zone come to your defence? And I know you don’t work with the government, so whatever ranking you have they likely will not care”. Danny blinks and smiles a bit warmly, fiddling with the ring under his glove. Sure he didn’t have the crown yet but it may as well be official, “I’m well liked by pretty well every ghost, even my enemies really. It wouldn’t take much for them to come to my aid. But I’m more than just a student, ghostly hero and sort of ghost hunter. The other title I hold isn’t public at all, and preferably will stay that way, regarding the human world anyway, even if everything else comes to light”. Danny will admit he’s kind of enjoying being a startling enigma right now. It’s moments like this where he really understands ClockWork and it really is no wonder the two get along so well. Danny can’t help but smirk as Mr. Lancer is clearly egging him to go on, “Mr. Lancer, being some operative high ranking official or even being president of the United States itself; is nothing when compared to the king of an entire dimension. Especially a dimension filled with powerful creatures”. Danny actually has to catch his teachers teacup as he gapes at him. Chuckling again, “couple that with the fact that the only two beings in existence that are actually stronger than me, are either sealed away or forbidden from interfering unless there’s a word ending catastrophe, I’m sort of a big complicated mess that nothing else can really compare to”. Danny sighs as his ghost sense goes off, “well I’ve probably freaked you out enough for a lifetime and duty calls. But, uh, being all that I may be, I’m not some high and might prick and I’m concerned with keeping people safe. So, um, don’t worry?”. Danny cringes at Mr. Lancers stunned face a bit as he turns invisible and flies out the school, after phasing his disguise into his locker. Making sure not to use his intangibility full body/on his face. because his stupid makeup will come off. He knows whoever it is will be shocked by the hair but it’s a ghost, they’re all going to know eventually. He’s more worried about the town’s reaction, can’t fight in a wig though.

“You...want my human corpse? What the fuck? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised but seriously, what the fuck?”, Danny floats, bent over a bit as Skulker shrugs at him. “Still your pelt, whelp. And I’d say I’ve got the best claim on it”, Danny can’t help but gape at him. Promptly dodging a net and some harpoon thing, “pretty sure its owner has the best claim, tinman”. “Oh like you’re going to do anything with it, ghost child!”, Danny can’t help but admit he’s right, and the idea of having a funeral and burying himself is kind of really messed up and genuinely disturbing. However, “Skulk, can’t say I even want to know what you would do with it”. Danny snickers at Skulker looking disgusted and judgmental, shooting at Danny more aggressively for his comment, “you should already know full well. Like any hunter, I preserve my prizes”. Danny blinks a bit as he gets hit a couple times, he knows he really should get better at the whole dodging thing but it almost seems pointless. Sure it hurts but he’s way too durable for it to do real damage, “you want to preserve me? That is oddly sweet, Skulkie”. Danny feels almost honoured at Skulker’s clear mild embarrassment at being called out. But Danny flat out grins as he clues in that this could be a way to avoid the whole, how to bury his corpse without revealing he was dead or sticking it in the back yard. Because man was that creepy, but his body getting taxidermied is almost just as creepy. “Still very gross and creepy though, but you’re not exactly wrong”, Danny feels more creeped out as Skulker’s face clearly lights up. Skulker stops firing at him and glares at him eagerly, getting an idea because no way is Skulker keeping his pelt or whatever, not to mention being kind of curious if anyone knew about the king thing. Danny crosses his arms as he flies backwards in the direction of his house, “just take the damn pride in getting to preserve or whatever my “pelt”. Not keeping it though. If it belongs anywhere, it’s my castle”. Danny can’t help but laugh at the utterly bewildered look Skulker gets, “oh man that face is worth it. No point in you telling anyone one though, something tells me they won’t quite believe you”. Skulker is honestly more excited now, keeping his prize or not, this is basically a job for the freaking ghost king. Not too mention getting to work on such a unique and one hundred percent rarest pelt is beyond his obsessions wildest dream. Eagerly flying invisibly next to Phantom and not even caring that Phantom shoots him jokingly, Danny shakes his head, “you are such a damn creep sometimes. But at least I know you won’t be a disrespectful ass”. If there’s one thing Danny knows Skulker would treat with insane levels of respect, it’s his most sought after pelt. Which is both creepy and comforting. Skulker floats a safe distance away from the hunter family’s house while Danny invisibly digs through the living room floor, not having a damn clue how far down he phased his corpse. Frowning a bit at the utterly mangled bloodied thing, he almost can’t wait to see Skulker looking disgusted. Though he’s not sure if Skulker would be more disgusted by that being done to Danny or just by the not-so-pretty state of a “pelt”.

Floating out to Skulker, still invisible, “no ones to know for now you weirdo. You know how I love to be dramatic, CW will get his kicks too I’m sure”. Danny’s occasional dramatic and rather flashy nature is really one of the few things he doesn’t care that he had in common with Dan. “Whatever whelp, but very well. And wow I hope you beat the lights out whoever did that”, Danny nods frowning as Skulker gingerly takes in the shredded corpse; while they’re both hidden in an alleyway. “That thing is sealed away and being kept that way. He’s not from this timeline and he is not someone you should even try finding or going near. You met him in that other timeline, let’s just say you weren’t well off and you wanted him very much destroyed. So did every other ghost, that hadn’t been destroyed anyway, and what was left of humanity”. Skulker stares at him, “I’ll take your word then. I’m no fool, I know when you’re serious”. Looking back to the corpse, “it can’t be perfect but...” Danny tries to ignore Skulkers giddy grin. Rolling his eyes at him, “just get out of here before it’s spotted or before I hit you, again”. With that Skulker books it away, gingerly cradling Danny’s corpse.

Danny’s not too surprised his friends are waiting for him at home, “dude, the hell? Where’d you go?”. Sam and his mom both glare at him but he can see his mom is trying really hard not to laugh, “well, pretty much the whole ghost zone definitely knows, Mr. Lancer figured it out, and Skulker just flew off with my corpse. And what was so funny?”. Tucker actually laughs while Sam slams her head on the table and his mom looks horrified. Tucker wipes at his eyes a bit, “that is so something he would do but also just absurd, especially cause I know you just gave it to him, didn’t you?”. Maddie gapes at Danny as he rubs his neck sheepishly, “he had the guts to ask and he agreed to not keeping it. Just making it not look torn to shreds”. Sam snaps her head up, “taxidermy, nice. Honestly, you getting taxidermied is almost expected, very goth. I approve”. “How are you ok with that? How are any of you ok with that? And Danny the makeup is not helping this be less messed up”, Danny cringes at his kind of freaked mom. Rubbing his neck again, but phasing the makeup off above the kitchen sink. Washing it down as he responds, “we’re sort of used to all my weird mom, they’ve literally seen me get turned into jello and liquified. Skulker’s whole thing is that he wants my pelt aka skin. He’s a poacher and collector of all things rare and unique. It’s kind of hard to beat me in the rare and unique department. Plus I’m strong, so there’s respect there”. Tucker shrugs, “we’re pretty well sure Danny here is indestructible or something. Might have only been a halfa thing though so who knows”. “Aka I'm complicated and also, no offence or anything but I’d rather pass on the whole burying my corpse in the back yard or just leaving it under the living room floor. That’s way more creepy than getting it preserved, even if it is Skulker doing it”. Tucker laughs again, “and really dude, he’d probably rather destroy himself than damage or disrespect anything even close to being your pelt. He’s probably treating it like the freaking holy grail”. Maddie sighs while Danny smirks, knowing full well that Tucker is right. Skulker would probably destroy anyone who so much as even attempted to touch it, which was perfectly fine with him. Maddie pinches her nose as she plates everyone’s food, “I can see your point Danny and I’ll admit myself, just the thought of having a funeral for you is unnerving. Especially when you’re still walking around”. Danny frowns a bit through a mouthful, “agreed. But unless I can make myself look human or at least change my voice, there’s really no way to avoid Fenton dying going public; which means a funeral. Especially since I’ve already been called out on it”. Sighing a bit, “at least this way we don’t have to deal with someone asking what the hell happened to me, because my corpse didn’t exactly look pretty. And again, Skulker’s not keeping it so...”. Jack sticks his head out the lab door, “Son quick question, do you actually need to eat or are you just doing it because everyone else is?”. Danny blinks a bit though rather happy about the lighter topic, “I can still taste it so I can enjoy it just fine. Even if I don’t need it. Most ghost do still eat, just for the experience rather than needs”. “Well, it would be a bit awkward if you were the only one not eating sweetie, so thanks I guess? But if a funeral does have to happen then it’s closed casket, regardless of what state it’s in”, Maddie shivers a bit and glares at the, definitely stained, floor. Sam rolls her eyes at Danny’s slight green blush, “you are so extra Danny. I mean it’s very goth to display bones and taxidermy, but of your own body is almost masochistic and egotistical“. Danny shrugs at her, “um, guilty as charged? I rather like the notion of a reminder for pretty much everyone that I was human and part human, once. Not here though”. While his parents share a worried look, Tucker slams his hand on the table looking almost giddy, “dude Phantom, that’s right! Phantom Castle!”. Sam laughs, “well that’s one way to thoroughly both impress and amuse pretty much every ghost. No one else has probably ever or even would display their own corpse”. Tucker claps Danny on the shoulder, “talk about a power move! You freaking well better make one hell of an extravagant and unnecessarily over the top unveiling ceremony or something”. “Already got cheesy “I’m really freaking dead this time” ghost paper cut outs in mind. And at least one person will fake die. Plasmius piñata is definitely happening”, Danny is chuckling into his hand while his mom eyes him worryingly. Sam waves her off, “Danny’s sense of humour is out to lunch. If he’s joking about his death than that means he’s in a good mood and perfectly happy. We’d be worried if he wasn’t making a joke of this”. Danny nods at his mom, “joking about my half death and, I guess, full death, is practically one of my things. A trope I guess, all us superhero types have em”. Maddie’s still a bit weirded out but thinking back to all his strange jokes, it’s pretty obvious that Danny’s being honest. Danny smirks devilishly, “and I mean you are talking about someone who’s superpower was literally dying on command”. Earning him a few groans.

Danny is trying to figure out the whole human transformation thing when his mom knocks, “yeah?”. Danny looks to the door as Maddie pokes her head in, “not that I’m complaining but how are you not getting weak or dissolving? It’s been a full day, I figured that your human half was what made you able to stay here before, but now?”. Danny blinks at her a bit, knowing full well that he is a bit weaker nothing drastic though, he hadn’t really been thinking about having to go to the zone, “yeah my human half was doing that. And the reason I’m fine right now, is both because this is Amity and because I’m strong. Amity has tons of latent ectoplasm in the atmosphere because of all the ghosts. Our house and my room have by far the most, because of the portal and me. So ghosts can sustain themselves way longer in Amity than other places on earth”. Danny proves his point by manipulating some of the rather thick ectoplasm in his rooms air into a ball, tossing it in the air a bit, “the ectoplasm that’s latent in my room is more specifically mine so I can manipulate it and it supports me or whatever”. Chuckling and tossing the ball to his mom, who inspects it while Danny talks, “that’s why my room’s always so cold. I have an ice core so my everything is cold. But this is not the zone. I can’t just stay here. So yeah, I’ll have to go to the zone eventually but I’d like to try and sort all this out first”. Noticing her frown and sad glance at him, “obviously I’m not going to just stay away. I’ll be around, just a bit less. Can’t say I know how long I need to be in the zone at a time though. Like I said, not quite sure yet how being full ghost is going to effect my existence yet”. Rubbing his neck and glancing out the window, “probably have to deal with the whole ghost king thing as soon as I make a zone trip too”. Maddie chuckles a bit weakly, “kind of forgot about that. It’s pretty crazy to think my son is the king of the things I hunt”. Looking at Danny as he meets her eyes, “you sure you’re okay with us being hunters? I mean, you’re a ghost and aren’t we basically attacking your subjects?”. Danny smiles softly at her, “it’s fine. Any ghost who comes to the human world expects to get hunted, we pretty much agreed to it. Plus, most who come are looking to start problems. Amity is probably one of the few places that actually gets friendlies, like me or ClockWork. So I guess just don’t hunt the ones that aren’t causing issues”. Chuckling with a smirk, “and obviously don’t hunt ClockWork, that will end embarrassingly for you guys. And absolutely do hunt Plasmius and feel free to annoy any floating eyeballs wearing a cloak. Unless I’m talking to them anyway”. Maddie shakes her head, “if you’re sure. But consider all that talkabout experiments and destroying, off the table. Okay, sweetie?”. Danny smiles warmly at her, “of course, I don’t want you guys to stop being who you are and doing what you love, just because I’m different or because some of your theories were wrong. Being hunters is part of who you are as people, be like telling me to not be overprotective or not make jokes”. Danny chuckles a bit and waves his mom over to the bed, “now feel like being a scientist and shooting out wild theories on how a ghost would go about transforming to make their human form? Cause I’m gettin nowhere other here”. Maddie eyes him for a bit before sitting down, tapping her chin, “well, we both saw how that thing changed, so how similar looking was you transforming before to that? And I’m guessing you’ve already try replicating how your transformation felt?”. That was the first thing Danny had did pretty much, so he nods, “yeah, tried that, multiple times actually. I could transform in more than one specific way, so I just tried every one. And it looks and sounds the same, which isn’t exactly helpful”. Danny knows it’s entirely possible that he simply can’t, how Dan became a full ghost and how he did were not the same. Well, actually, the only real difference was the lack of consuming Plasmius. But Danny wasn’t about to go and do that, for so many reasons. Maddie pokes at him, “why not try the reverse?”. “Um, what?”, Danny’s not following his mom’s train of thought at all. “Why don’t you try the reverse of the transforming feeling or feelings?”. Danny blinks, “so try to transform ghost? Eh, maybe. Seems kinda backwards but”. Danny doesn’t really move or anything, as he tries, having done it so much over the years, made it so simple to do. Not exactly surprised when it doesn’t work, shaking his at her, “nothing”, Danny tilts his head as an idea hits him. He could just try this like using it the way he’d use a normal power. Instead of focusing on the cold light energy and little sparks of electricity inside his veins, that doesn't seem to be there anymore. His rings normally would form like a ball in his chest, where his core was, before shooting out into the rings; and they were cold... Maddie’s opting to stay silent as it’s obvious to her he’s got some kind of idea, both them jumping a bit as a bright ball of light forms only seconds before expanding outwards. Danny smirks at the floating, but not separating ring. It felt way colder and had a slight blue tint but otherwise not that different. Though it’s clear he’s going to have to work on this since the rings don’t just do their thing naturally anymore. His mom mouthing, “wow”, is enough to make him lose his grip on this. She cringes apologetically a bit as the light just snaps back into him. Waving her off as he brings it out again, this time cooking energy around the top half and the lower half, adding a down pull to the bottom and up pull to the top. Smirking as they do indeed shoot over him, and the change does feel different as it goes. Kind of like being compacted into the thermos but with more room. Looking at his glove free hands over before smiling at his mom, “nice”. Maddie shakes her head affectionately, “I would tell you to get some sleep but”. Patting him on the back but jumping as he just snaps back to his new normal look. Danny doesn’t blame her for glaring, rubbing his neck, “sorry bout the light show. This works like a new power, not like the transforming I’m used to. Always takes a bit to get good at new powers”. Especially when he hasn’t gotten a new one in quite a while, so he’s not quite as used to adjusting to new as he was in the first year. “Well, the weekend coming up will give you lots of time”, Maddie nods at him before kissing him on the head good night. “Oh gross! My head is literal ghost fire you know!”, Danny pats at his hair some while Maddie walks to bed with a soft smile.

Danny spends most of the night practicing with transforming but also watching to see if it can get exhausted, trying to figure out just how much of his ectoenergy it uses up. None to pleased when it’s clear it uses up a decent amount, nowhere near his wail but a bit more than a strong ectobeam. Eventually opting to see how long he can just lay and maintain the human appearance, preferably while focusing on it as little as possible. Not too surprised that he does have to actively maintain it now, but it was hardly different than forcing himself not to float; which he was very used to.

Stretching in the morning, before hopping down the steps. Aiming to be as human as possible for as long as possible, he needed to know the limits of this. “Wow son, either you’re concerningly fast at this or you solved a problem”, Danny sticks his head in the kitchen just before the doorbell rings. Talking as he walks to the door, “option two, testing out how long I can keep it up though”. Tucker only looks confused for a few seconds when Danny opens the door, “dude! Nice, you just saved your own ass!”. Danny tilts his head back and laughs, “we all have to do that way too much!”. Tilting his head back down and smiling as they walk in, “it’s not the same though. I have to intentionally maintain it, so no startling me when others are around”. Both them give him a thumbs up but he knows Tucker is going to intentionally startle him at some point, just not in school. All of them have breakfast around the table, before the trio wave as they head off to school. While his parents shake their heads, affectionately, at their overpowered ghost of a son; in the trappings of a human. End.

[recklesssherbet]

So, future college students

I realize is a little early for this but I'm forgetful and if i wait til August there's a high chance i will forget about it so, some advice (and little things I've learned so far) for college and how to survive it

First of all, and is kind of a cliché, but please always be on top of your work, it's really easy to fall behind so start working on it as soon as posible.

Be mindful of your eating habits, use alarms if you must. With all the things that you'll be doing you sometimes kinda forget to eat and passing out in the middle of a hallway is awful *talking from expirence, but not in a hallway but the stairs, really awkward landing on top of someone*

Talking about food, if you are hungry you CAN eat in class, i promise is okay and most people don't care, just try and bring food that a) is not that smelly and b) doesn't make a lot of noise.

WATER IS YOUR FRIEND, PLEASE DRINK IT. It sounds kinda lame but it really is important. 8/10 your headache is caused by dehydration so just spare yourself some pain.

*this never happened to me anyway but just in case* if you are afraid of freshman bullying (never seen but i know it could happen) just remember this: a) if you are afraid to ask a question, ask to someone who works there, they will always know. b) you may feel safer, but when you walk around in big groups of people? Yeah, that's how older students know you're a freshman. *still i think this is ridiculous but if you're going somewhere with that kind of fame, just be wary, ok?*

Despite what i just said, most people won't do anything to you, most of the older students are to busy with other things so they barely realize who you are so don't worry about it.

In fact, If you can make friends with older students is great cause they can share information that you haven't learn yet, like professors and their methods or good places to hang out or study.

Is important you make friend in this stage of your life.

Also, please be nice to the caretakers of the campus, they work really hard to keep it nice. Also, they can save your life.

Please be clean. I know they pay the caretakers to clean but by giving them extra work you are making a person that is probably getting paid minimal wage, work non-paid extra hours. Also, most people hate dirty people and even if you aren't in school anymore and bullying isn't that common, you will get shit for being a pig.

Even if it sounds reasonable, don't get early classes. Or at least not every day. You'll want to die and take with you as many people as you can.

Also, try and don't get classes right after lunch hour. It's awful, you won't be able to concentrate, you'll just be in a haze.

Dress however the fuck you want. Use it to your benefit or to explore or whatever. I actually used to use it in my favor when i had a really early class and i noticed that whenever girls used skirts, our professor was less likely to yell at us for being sleepy. What a gross human being but i used his disgusting tendencies to be sleepy a little longer. I don't recommend it tho. But use that info as you may.

Talking about gross people, be aware that there is a chance that you'll find some. I really hope you don't but if you ever feel awkward talk to someone about it.

Also, this is not to put the guilt in individuals because everyone should be able to behave like a decent fucking human, still, if you feel awkward around someone and you have to talk to them, stay with someone you trust, and never be alone with them. Also, trust your instincts, if you feel awkward, act how you think best. You don't have to make yourself comfortable around anybody just not to seem rude. They're grown ups, they'll get over it.

I know there's an actual procedure for that kind of situations, I'm just not very familiar of how it works in other countries/places different that my city, so i suggest you get familiar with said procedure. *I know that most girls in my city who go through that kind of situations record it and make it viral so that the university has to do something about it, but i don't know if in other places that'll put the victim in more trouble. *

If you feel like you are being cheated on your notes, remember you can always ask for a second opinion on that grade. It's your right. I have friends that have gonne through entire classes like that cause they weren't comfortable with their grades and i promise they won't get tired of you, is just something that they ought to do.

It's okay if it takes time for you to adjust to college life, it's very different and it takes a lot of time to break old habits and built new ones.

You are paying a lot of money to be there so make sure you go to as many lectures as you can. I'm not saying that if you have a bad mental health day you go to class anyway because i know it is extremely difficult to do that, but always make sure you have a contingency plan. Make sure someone records it for you or they can pass the notes and explain to you.

Study every once in a while, even if you don't have any tests that week, that keeps it fresh in your memory and helps you realize what things you need to pay extra attention to. Also, is less stressful later.

Make a lot of questions. Specially before the lecture is up. Professors usually answer almost every single thing you ask during class because a) they are passionate about it b) they see you are passionate about it. But beware, cause all professors answer questions during class, but not every professor is okay with answering questions after class. So like, take the chance when it comes.

Education is one of the main reasons to go to college, but don't forget there are other things you have to do. And by that i mean socialize. And taking care of your health. You need to find balance or else you'll feel real bad real soon. So please, don't overwork yourself.

Don't get too preoccupied about getting a significant other. Love may come or not and it's okay. I've seen people be great on their own and get better when they get a couple, and I've seen other who drop everything when they get one, and some who that doesn't affect them at all, and then some who never get in a relationship and are always okay. So, please don't pressure yourself over something that you really don't have any control over, it is hard already without having to worry about someone else.

I know a lot of us grew up with this mental image of Elle Woods not being able to keep up with everything when she wrote everything by hand during her lectures and then she got better when she got her pc. Maybe it was just me but i thought her success was directly related to that (cause i was a naive child) but for me it always worked best the other way around. I mean, having a laptop is great, it's an amazing tool that you'll use a lot but to me it has always worked best to hand write things because (and this is science) i remember things best when my hands are involved in the process. Although that really depends on how you learn so do what works best for you.

Try to eat balanced. Not just junk food. Your brain needs actual food and although pizza and cheese macaroni taste like heaven, their nutritional value is laughable. So like, eat salad.

I hope you don't have to subject yourself to the miserable life that is having to go though all nighters, but if you do, in case you live far from where you study, keep a nice comfy sweatshirt or a little blanket with you, find a ear piercing sound that'll wake you up, carry your earbuds with you and go find a nice place (corner) to throw yourself at and sleep with your earbuds on, and never sleep less than half an hour but never more than an hour if you have a lecture to attend.

Don't mind those people who feel in a high horse and tell you how a healthy lifestyle will keep you away from caffeine, the bastards are usually as addicted as anyone else, just plain fakers. If you need it, you need it. Don't abuse it though. (to me sugar works best, but i have a really good resistance to sweet. Don't get yourself into diabetes and related issues just cause it works for me)

Take notes, specially of the things professors say off handedly. You can always ask for presentations but they will never repeat simple comments and many include those pieces of info in tests.

Make friends with whoever is in charge of the copying machine or wherever you make copies. It will save you if you are running late and you have to copy/print something fast.

In case you haven't learned yet, group projects are hell. And in college you will have to be in teams constantly. So find out who you can be friends with and who you can work with. They aren't always the same and is important you separate your professional life and your private life.

[magtitude]

31 -- 40 Chris headcanons from my old blog/s under the cut. watch out tho bc it’s a long post. additional cw for headcanon 32: suicide/suicide ideation/suicide attempt, mental illness, abuse ( child & medical ).

31. Chris will probably always have a chip on his shoulder over his parents’ stupidity – i.e., getting pregnant and having him at such young ages. Even though he knows he’s neither the first nor last, it still annoys him ( although ‘annoys’ isn’t the right word, that’s what he says ).

32. By the time Chris is 14, he figures that there’s more going on with his family’s history than either his mother or aunt are saying, and it’s why they’re both on opposite ends of the emotionally-expressive spectrum ( Diane – close off; Angela – bursting with emotion ).

And it’s not until he’s 15 that his mother has a “little emotional breakdown” ( as she calls them; “they’re temporary”, she says ), and admits that she’s been having suicidal thoughts lately ( more than lately, she’ll say later ), and she promises she won’t, even though she has it planned out how and where.

And it turns out, through listening to his mother’s upset rambling, that he had an uncle who killed himself by throwing himself into a river a few months before Chris was born, and that aunt Diane tried to do the same when she was 12.

And that Angela’s parents were awful, terribly awful. and it was no wonder her siblings wanted to die and that she has all these thoughts all the damn time–

Won’t go to a doctor, though. Don’t trust them, not after what they did to William. The doctors that their parents had sent William to for his behavioural problems; it made him worse, made him unreachable.

And Chris thinks, oh, this might explain some things.

33. A general list of things he is and likes:

tall

nerd

doofus & memelord

Angry Inside

but also Dad Inside

an idiot sandwich

doesn’t allow himself to show weakness

will push himself to the limit if he thinks he should be ( especially/more so post-mountain ), i.e. less eating, less sleeping, less taking care of himself, more drinking, more likely to start arguments to distance himself from his loved ones

only ever Kinda OK at any point in time during his pre-Proper Adult™ Life. childhood before josh? <:/ Not Good. childhood when he meets josh? improvement, but still feels weird. teenager? Dead All The Time, he thinks. but also memes. young adult? Some Shit Happened, My Dude.

… he’s at least content before All The Shit Happened, tho.

AN. IDIOT. SANDWICH.

loves hugs, cuddles, & kisses. very cuddly. and the forehead thing.

34. The first time he was asked by another school kid which school he used to go to, he lied and said he was homeschooled. That way, if someone teased him and said, “you didn’t have many friends back in your old school” ( or something like that ), he’d say, “well duh i was homeschooled :///”. He keeps it up for as long as possible – which is probably forever since no-one really cares about it, and he was 8 when he moved, anyway.

35. “One of my muse’s prized possessions.”

His phone, definitely. It’s portable, it’s got all his contacts, all these funky features that’ll keep him busy and happy ( photo & video galleries, various apps, etc. ). And if it gets too full, he can just dump what he doesn’t need to keep on there onto his computer.

36. “A sleep headcanon.”

It’s either too much, or not enough, and one feeds into the other. Tends to go to bed at ridiculously late times ( even when he was younger, he was terrible at bedtime ), sometimes as late as 6 or 7 in the morning.

Sleeps more on his front/side than on his back.

When sharing a bed – he can either be a bed-hog, or very clingy, even if the other’s hair gets up his nose. And he will steal the covers; he’s like a self-generated heater, but he still feels cold without them.

37. “What was my muse’s first heartbreak?”

His first heartbreak was before he was even in a relationship; having developed a crush on Ash, and after a good few hours of realising he had a crush on her, started to talk himself into believing she’d never return his feelings, alongside the thought that being in love made him vulnerable, thus becoming some messed up ouroborous of self-doubt and fear of rejection.

Basically: “Oh, hey, I have a crush on her… shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. :’(”

38. “What are the ways my muse says ‘I love you’ without actually saying it?”

Numerous texts. Making breakfast. Cuddling in his sleep. Brushing through their hair. Forehead kisses, and kisses on the mouth, and the cheek. Cuddling when he’s awake. Showing them all of the things he finds cool on his phone and/or laptop, and what he thinks they might be interested in. Teasing them, jokingly, about how they’re in love with him ( “you’re in love with me? whaaaaat?” ). Touching their face all the damn time. Reminding them of things they need to keep up on, or checking in. “Sleep tight, dork.”

39. “Describe a physical action that shows complete trust.”

Shoulder-touches. Keeping his back to them. Letting other people touch him in casual ways – shoulders, arms, back, hands. Falling asleep near them. Forehead touches.

40. “On a sleepless night, what would they be found doing?”

Mostly either on his computer or his phone, watching or reading anything that will fully occupy his attention – spooky stories, or weird-but-true things, conspiracy theories, etc. -- which probably won’t help with sleeplessness, but hey-o.

If he can’t get himself to focus on those, he may end up just lying in his bed and making himself more miserable with whatever he happens to be thinking about ( e.g. having a crush on someone, memories of living in Las Vegas, unspeakably upsetting thoughts ).

If he’s also restless, he’ll go for a walk outside.

[elliotthezubat]

DEATH CITY DAYS CHAPTER 85

from new sturm members, to etta’s past, to the agency’s sympathies

also Fyodor continues to be a dick

[cont from part 84]

-the next day- kyouko: *making breakfast* Rin: =______= *yawn* "Gouda mornin'..." kyouko: mornin' Rin: "How's breakfast goin'?" *looks around* kyouko: just started. Rin: "Hmm..." *opens the fridge, pours orange juice* "Where's everyone?" kyouko: yukio's at the school already. Rin: O________O; *looks at the clock* "AM I LATE?!" kyouko: yeah. Rin: "OH, FUDGE!" *grabs his school jackets, and runs--in pajama bottoms and slippers* kyouko:....*grin* -elsewhere- Mephisto: *pours tea* "Here you are, lovelies~" *he's wearing...glasses* felisia: thank you. (niiiice) -elsewhere- Damon: "...Is he still asleep?" becky: yeah. but the room looks cool. Damon: "Yeah!" *opens the toy chest* becky: wooah. *shiny eyes* Damon: "..." *takes out a doll* "..." *smiles* "Cool!" -elsewhere- Lucy: "??? You look exhausted." *sets down a cola and some chips* atsushi: busy running errands the other day. *The restaurant is pretty much empty* Lucy: *sits down* "Secret hush-hush stuff?" atsushi: more or less, i guess. *nom* Lucy: "Ah...Atsushi? You like this?" atsushi: ?? Lucy: "The work you do?" atsushi:...yeah. Lucy: "It's still dangerous...With the news..." atsushi: .....*holds her hand* of course it's scary, but someone has to do it, right? Lucy: "..." *small squeeze, nods* "I still worry. After what I've seen in the Guild, there's a lot out there." atsushi:...yeah... Lucy: "...Be careful. And if you need help...would you ask?" atsushi:...i will. Lucy: *smiles, nods* -elsewhere- shiori: *walking and drinking from her sippy cup* Kid: *following* shiori: *looks up at the cookie jar* Kid: "Oh? See something you like, Shiori?" shiori: that. *points to the jar* can i? Kid: "How about I bring it down for you? Sound good?" shiori: yes peas! Kid: "That's the magic word!" *brings down the cookie jar, sets it on the floor, opens the top* "Take one." shiori: *takes one and eats it* ^u^ Kid: ^^ *takes one as well* "Good, right?" *nom* "Chocolate!" shiori: hehehe! ^u^ Kid: "Maybe we can make some tomorrow--like oatmeal--" shiori: >Xp Kid: ._. "...I mean, it's healthy? What would you want?" -elsewhere- Chuuya: "How did class go?" sonia: it was nice. im glad Q's here now... Chuuya: "You are?" sonia: *nod* maybe we can help him not be as broken. Chuuya: "...I...suppose we can." ("...Rain...Just listen to her...") sonia:....is the demon broken too? Chuuya: "...I don't know what he is..." sonia:...oh..... Chuuya: "He...may not recover." sonia:.....i cant forgive him for what he did to mama......but at the same time, i pity him...the young boy i mean.... Chuuya: " 'Young boy'?" sonia: i see him in my dreams too sometimes. he always seems so sad, and he's trapped inside the demon... Chuuya: "..." *hug* sonia: ..... Chuuya: "You're very kind-hearted." sonia:.....*hug* Chuuya: "I just don't want you to...ignore all of a person...what they are capable of." *as he talks, he sees himself in a mirror* corruption?: *smiles at him* Chuuya: "..." *shudders* sonia:......*pap pap* Chuuya: "I-I'm sorry..." sonia: its ok.... Chuuya: "I-I want to be a good father to you..." sonia: .... Chuuya: "...Sorry. I don't mean to put that pressure on you." sonia: its alright.... Chuuya: "...Let me...see if someone can talk to...him." sonia:....*nod* -elsewhere- Magaki: *sits on the couch, reading* "..." tsubaki: how was school? Magaki: "...Fine. A lot of reading..." *looks away* -elsewhere- Kuro: "...They make us...do work from home. ...Monsters." mahiru: well get used to it. Kuro: >_< "I don't wanna...Can't I copy yours?" -elsewhere- Joker: *passed out at the bar* scarlet: of course. -_-; Joker: "Fluffernutters..." -elsewhere- Anya: "...'Trust exercises'?" EF: *she nods* you'll fall back and the person behind you will catch you. Anya: "I feel like we did this before--and it didn't turn out well. Why do we need this?" EF: ao and tsugumi said they'd be willing. Anya: "..." *sighs* "Okay...Who's catching me?" ao: *wave* Anya: -____- "...Don't drop me." ao: i wont.. Anya: "..." *turns...closes her eyes* "Say when to fall back..." ao: now. Anya: … *falls back* -nice catch- ao: see? no ulterior motives here. Anya: "..." *nods* "F-Fine...Thanks." tsugumi:...*smile* Meme: "Tsugumi, how about you next?" tsugumi: ok! -elsewhere- Emine: "--and that's pretty much what happened when we were kids." mana: wow... Shotaro: *nods* "...Rough." mana: ..... Emine: "..." *sniff* lin-kimpur: *hug* Emine: "..." *hug* Shotaro: TwT -elsewhere- Konro: *humming as he puts together flowers* kabuki: ^^~ Konro: "There! Good practice for the big day." -elsewhere- Walter: "Yo, G.E.! How you fitting in?" george: alright i guess. still trying to find out what the heck my ability is. also i have this weird tattoo on my stomach? Walter; "Yep! Part of the contract. Goethe didn't mention that, huh?" george: no. no he did not. Walter: "I mean, it'll make swimsuit season a little bad, but you can work it...You see everyone else's abilities?" george: not really. Walter: "Well, I can make an illusion of myself, Etta can control people's movements..." george: i see.... Walter: "The twins show you theirs?" george: no. Walter: "Wilhelm can make animals appear--" george: huh. *two children pop up beside George* george: GWEH! wilhelm: that sure startled him, eh bro? Jakob: "Indeed, bro." Hansel: *griiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin* gretel: hehehe~ george:....yeeeah totally not creepy in the slightest... -elsewhere- Rin: *sitting in an empty classroom* *tick tick tick* Rin: "...Son of a gun!" shura: hn? rin? the heck're you doing? Rin: "I thought it was a school day!" >_< shura: well as you can see, it isnt. but on the bright side, no one has to see you in your pjs and slippers. Rin: "..." .\\\\~\\\\. "Ah, nut-butter." -elsewhere- Justin: *opens the window, looks outside* -seems like a nice day out- Justin: "..." *smiles* "Time for a walk." oriko: *nod* -elsewhere- Kunikida: "You know I want you to be safe, yes?" aya: of course i know, dad. Kunikida: "... ... ..." aya:..... *realizing what she just said* t-that was a slip of the tongue, really! Kunikida: "..." *nods* "...Although..." aya: ? Kunikida: "...I may not be your father, but I am concerned for you." aya:...t-thanks. Kunikida: "..." *pat pat* "Let's make sure you stay protected out there." -elsewhere- Patty: *spies over the back of the couch* OwO kirika: .... *staring at homework* uuugh, how am i still in school yet? Patty: "Need help?!" kirika: HIUFIUIHSJBHIFLHJBKBJ Patty: OwO "...So, yes?" kirika:... -elsewhere- Allison: "Hey, welcome back!" erina: hey... Allison: "Settling into work?" erina: i think so. Allison: "Well, you got tonight off, right? Any plans?" erina: not sure... Allison: "I got some leftover pasta..." erina: cool.... Allison: *smiles* "Any interesting things happen?" *places meal in the microwave* erina: usual work stuff. Allison: "...That sounds like an improvement." *small smile* erina:...yeah... Allison: "I'm happy you got away from the prison..." erina:.......*stares at the floor* Allison: "..." *shoulder pat* erina: t-thanks... Allison: *smiles* "Any time, buddy." erina: .........*looks at her phone* *A phone number is on the screen* Allison: "??? Missed call?" erina:......*dials a number* -elsewhere- Jordan: *shifting the joystick on his 3DS* "Just a bit more..." *LOUD RING* Jordan: "!!!" *The Golden Stag is lost* Jordan: Q___Q *looks at the phone* "...!!!" *answers* "H-H-Hello?" erina: hey jordan...is this a bad time to call? Jordan: "Erina! N-Nah, not at all! What up?" erina: did you...want to come over at all? Jordan: OWO "Yeah. Sure. Wh-Where at?" Allison: *shiny eyes* -she tells him where the apartment is- Jordan: "That'll be about 20 minutes. C U then!" erina: see ya....*hangs up* .... Allison: :3 erina:....did i...do the right thing? Allison: "Depends--just looking for some company?" erina:....i guess.... n-not that i dont like you here or anything like that, thats not what im saying- Allison: "But wanting to have something a little more intimate?" erina: *blush* a-alli! Allison: "I meant just one-on-one relationshipping--wherever that goes." ^w^ erina: 7////7;;; Allison: "So, what you going to wear? Casual? Spruced up?" erina:....too tired to change into clothes. Allison: "Well, it's an informal visit--I'm sure your attire suits it." *opens the fridge* "I'll get another plate." -elsewhere- Yumi: *sets Shiori into bed* "All tuckered out?" shiori: *yaaaawn* Yumi: *tucks her in* "We'll see you in the morning, sweetie." -morning- Takehisa: *rotate his shoulder* "Sore..." komori: [lots of training today?] Takehisa: "Yes. Continuing from yesterday. The Commander expects something big will happen..." komori: [i see.] Takehisa: "Sorry to ask, but can you keep an eye for any injuries today?" komori: [that is my job, isnt it?] Takehisa: *nods* "Thank you." -elswhere- sayaka: it's been like, forever since we saw you last, hitomi! hitomi: it sure has, hasnt it? sayaka: so what brings you to the DWMA hitomi: i've heard a lot about your's and madoka's adventures, and i felt...a bit lonely, for lack of a better comparison. madoka: aw, hitomi... sayaka: well we have lots to tell you. and lots of cool people to introduce you to! madoka: that reminds me, how's kyousuke doing? hitomi: oh, that... sayaka: something wrong? hitomi: not to bring the mood down but, kyousuke and i actually broke up. sayaka:.... madoka:.... sayaka + madoka: *feeling awkward* madoka: well, there's a nice cafe not far from school. maybe we can go there? hitomi: ^^; sound nice. -elsewhere- erina: *looking around* *panting and running is heard* erina: ?? Jordan: "I-I'm here! I'm here! I'm--" *trips--and falls on his face* "..." erina: oh, hey jordan. come to visit me at work? Jordan: *lifts up his head--his nose is bleeding* "I wanted to return the container from the leftovers your roommate gave me!" *holds it up* erina: oh, thanks. Jordan: "How's work going?" erina: alright. Jordan: ^w^ "...Well, while I'm here, I'm gonna use my lunch break for a pretzel and an amiibo." erina: well, you do that, ok? Jordan: .w. "...You had lunch?" erina: in a few minutes. Jordan: "Ah..." *scratches his cheek* erina:....sooooo..... Jordan: "...Well, um, I'll...leave you to it!" erina: you too. *small wave* Jordan: ^w^; *wave* -elsewhere- etta: *brushing her hair* {???: "Perfection."} etta: ?! *turns.....nothing*... {etta: *whimper*} {???: "Now, now...You know pretty girls don't cry like that. Look at your eyes..."} {etta: *sniff* my feet hurt, papa...} {Mr. Hoffman: "That is to be expected. After all, you cannot reach beauty without pain."} {etta: .....} -my life, is a cruel one- {etta: *looking out the window*} {*There are children playing in the snow*} {etta:....*goes to get her coat*} {*Mr. Hoffman is sitting at the fireplace, his chair facing it...There's no way he can see behind him where she walks, and there's no way he can see the door leading outside...He is so still he sounds like he's asleep*} {etta:....*slowly creeping, trying to keep silent*} {*Mr. Hoffman reminds silent*} {etta:...*reaches for the doorknob*} {*heat hits her ankle, like a flaming coal*} {etta: AH!} {*There are tiny embers on the floor, having just left a quick touch on her ankle*} {Mr. Hoffman: *stands, turns...he holds a hot poker from the fireplace...* "Can't have that perfect skin blemished..."} {etta: *trembling, trying to reach for the door*} {Mr. Hoffman: "Etta, really?" *marches forward* "You cannot. Unclean urchins outside. Failure to keep to a schedule. This is not the perfection I imagined for you..." *holds the poker more tightly* "Do you need...to be punished?"} {etta: *trembling, crying*} {Mr. Hoffman: "...No tears. They will ruin those eyes..."} -i was a prisoner of my own home- {etta: can i do to school?} {Mr. Hoffman: "...Why would you need school?"} {etta: maybe i could....make friends?} {Mr. Hoffman: "Etta...You have friends. What about Mr. and Mrs. Coppelius? Or Mr. Gaiman?"} {etta: but they're grown ups. i want friends my age...} {Mr. Hoffman: "And children are fools. You do better without them."} {etta:....} -im not your doll- {etta: *collapses from exhaustion*} {Mr. Hoffman: "Imperfect. Again."} {etta: *pant* p-please...may i stop now?} {Mr. Hoffman: "Other dancers practice nine hours daily. Again."} -i want to get out- {etta: *heads back into the dressing room and sits down, weeping* i dont want to go home....*looks at a nutcracker doll on the desk....hugs it*} {*it sounds like someone is pacing outside*} {etta:......*shaking*} {???: "...Zzzzz..."} {*is that...snoring?*} {etta: ?? *looks out the door*} {*Down the hall is...a vagrant? Collapsed asleep?*} {etta:....*pokes him with her foot*} {???: *grunts* "Quit it...Let me sleep."} {etta: the hallway isnt a place to sleep, sir.} {???: "..." *opens his eyes* "I'm tired. _Anywhere_ is a place to sleep if you do it right."} {etta: ....} {???: *yawns* "Man...When does that darn play start, anyway?"} {etta: it just finished.} {???: "..." <Dammit.>} {etta: ......} {???: "...Wait...You were in the play?"} {etta:...yes, i was.} {???: "How you think it went?"} {etta:....alright i guess....*rubs her eyes*} {???: "...And it looks like it took a lot out of you."} {etta:....whats it to you?} {???: *shrugs* "Passes the time. My ride isn't here."} {etta: .....right...} {???: "How about you? Someone waiting to pick you up?"} {etta:....just my f-...my father...} {???: "...He didn't attend your performance?"} {etta: i'm rather happy he didnt...not that it would satisfy him...} {???: "...What, you're not good at this?"} {etta: i-its not that im not good, but even if i do 100%, he'd _still_ want me to do better and look pretty doing it. *tears up* im only a human being, im not some doll...} {???: "...That's a lot of pressure to put onto a kid."} {etta: ...it's not fair! i wasnt allowed to have a normal childhood like the other kids. i wasnt allowed to go to school or have a pet, all he wanted was a perfect doll for a daughter. i hate him!} {???: "...I'm sorry."} {etta:....*sniff* s-sorry....i was just....i guess i lost it there, huh? and do someone i dont even know....} {???: "Goethe."} {etta: ??} {Goethe: "Johann Wolfgang von Goethe."} {etta: i see. well, i assume you know who i am then, given the posters.} {Goethe: "Etta Hoffman, right? The sugar plum fairy of the stage?"} {etta: yes. that would be correct} {Goethe: "...You have another performance tomorrow or next week?"} {etta:...most likely....} {Goethe: "...Then I'll have to stay awake that time."} {etta:......right...} -I was given that chance- {etta: ......} {*knock knock*} {etta: its open...} {Goethe: *opens the door* "Hey." *he's holding flowers*} {etta: oh... thank you....} {Goethe: "You're welcome. It was deserved--you've gotten better."} {etta: ....} {Goethe: "I mean it. That was a tremendous performance."} {etta: ...... *she seems drained*} {Goethe: "...Need some water?"} {etta:....it's getting worse and worse....am i going to be trapped this way forever?} {Goethe: "Nothing is forever--it has to end, one way or another."} {etta: maybe if i just drank this ink and poisoned myself...} {Goethe: "Stop."} {etta: *looks at him*} {Goethe: *deadly serious* "Don't do that."} {etta: then what should i do then, huh? im tired of being controlled by him!} {Goethe: "...That dancing has made you stronger than you think..."} {etta: what do you mean?} {Goethe: "Stamina. Flexibility. Speed. Strength. You have enough in you to accomplish anything--but your greatest skill is your willpower."} {etta: .....} {Goethe: "And all you need...is the opportunity to take that willpower to the next level...to exert control over _others_ for a change."} {etta: ?? what do you mean?} {Goethe: "Well...I haven't been entirely honest. How do I put it...I have an ability."} {etta: an ability?} {Goethe: *nods* "I have this power to give people powers..."} {etta: ...are you offering me an ability then?} {Goethe: *nods*} {etta:...whats the catch?} {Goethe: "Well, you'd be under my employ..."} {etta: so then i'll have to retire early then, huh?} {Goethe: "I know it's a lot to juggle multiple jobs--but nothing would stop you from performing on stage. I'd make sure of that."} {etta:...and if i do so, i'll be freed from my father?} {Goethe: "Yes."} {etta:...alright, i'll do it.} {Goethe: "Then let's get the contract done." *holds out his hand*} -and I took it without hesitation- {etta: ......} {*a crash is heard downstairs*} {etta: ?? *heads downstairs* ??} {Mr. Hoffman: "That lying tramp!"} {etta: f-father?} {Mr. Hoffman: *turns, holding the card attached to Goethe's flowers* "How dare you!"} {etta: f-father, i can explain-} {*SLAP*} {etta: AH! *stumbles*} {Mr. Hoffman: "No wonder your dancing has been off! You have made yourself impure!"} {etta: b-but i havent-} {Mr. Hoffman: "These silly notions! They infest your head! Just fantasies of men doing...doing..." *shudders* "It's awful! Who would ever put those notions into--" *spots the Nutcracker* "..." *looks at the poker by the fireplace*} {etta: you're wrong! t-they were from a fan! i havent been with anyone!} {Mr. Hoffman: "...I knew it was a mistake to let you have this...Men...They are all that's on your mind." *picks up the poker, raises it over the Nutcracker*} {etta: !!! STOP IT! *holds hand out*} {Mr. Hoffman: *brings the poker down at the Nutcracker--before his hand stops in mid-motion* ??!!} {etta: !!!....(so this is........) *cold glare at her father*} {Mr. Hoffman: "...Etta--"} {etta: *moves her hand*} {Mr. Hoffman: *his hand moves on its own* "!!!"} {etta:..... *glances at the fire*} {Mr. Hoffman: "Etta! For the love of God--"} {etta: shut up. you dont have the right to beg for mercy! after all the misery and pain you put me through, IM SICK! AND TIRED! OF BEING YOUR PUPPET!} {Mr. Hoffman: "I'm begging you! Don't--"} {etta: i will give you one last thing.......an early preview of hell.} {Mr. Hoffman: "No--"} {-she makes him get onto his knees at the fireplace and then....-} {Mr. Hoffman: "No! I--"} {etta: *she ignores him......and makes him stick his head in*} {Mr. Hoffman: *screams, unable to move*} {etta: *just stares*} etta:....(right...im not his to control...) *smiles* (if i am to dance, then i dance for myself.) *Music can be heard...* etta:....*dancing along* Walter: *in the living room, turns it up a bit louder* etta: *smiles* Kafka: "..." *taps his foot* -elsewhere- Damon: "Wow...We can see the whole city!" becky: woah... soul: awesome view, right? Damon: *nods* "It's the biggest city ever!" soul: *smiles* Damon: *points to a ferris wheel* "What's that?" soul: that's a ferris wheel. you can see from really high up. becky: cool. Damon: "It's a ride? Like a park?" soul: sort of. there's lots of parks in the city. Damon: "...Are they scary?" soul: not all of them. Damon: "...Some of this city is." soul: sure, some of the things people say here can be a bit scary, but its normal for the locals. the people who lived their whole lives here are often called 'death children', but dont let that scare you, they're pretty nice most of the time. becky: ... Damon: "Like that 'Kid' guy?" soul: *nods* yep. Damon: "...Why does everyone here talk about 'death'?" soul: well this is 'death city'... Damon: *pouts, crosses his arms* soul: owo;;; becky: *raises a brow at him* Damon: "I don't like hearing about it..." soul:...i know, its scary, but you two are going to be safe....this is a city of second chances... Damon: "??? What do you mean?" soul: in death, there comes new life. becky: like in nature? soul: like that. *nod* Damon: "??? I don't understand..." soul: take flowers for example. they bloom, and then they wilt and leave seeds, which then become new flowers....sometimes its bulbs instead of seeds, but thats beside the point. Damon: "...And then the seeds...?" soul: they become new flowers...new life, and the cycle starts over again. Damon: "..." *reaches for Soul's hand* soul:...*small squeeze of both their hands* Damon: *small smile* -elsewhere- Vulcan: "Hold up--you're a nun, too?" tamaki: *step step step* *faceplant* ow...frick. Vulcan: "...You're a _clumsy_ nun?" tamaki: where do i get this thing hemmed? -_-; Relan: "..." *takes out a sewing kit* tamaki: thank you. TTATT -elsewhere- Akutagawa: "..." *looks up* "Need to run an errand." higuchi: it'll be risky... Akutagawa: "..." *takes his coat, and--* *FWOOP* *The coat is now more of a hoodie, hiding his face...He slumps forward* Akutagawa: "I'll disguise myself well enough..." higuchi:....be careful... Akutagawa: *nods* "Thank you." *steps into the tunnels...* -elsewhere- Spirit: *lying on the couch* "Ug..." sachiko: *puts washcloth on his forehead* Spirit: "Th-Thanks...This migraine..." sachiko: *pats his head* Spirit: "Mmmm..." *smiles* -elsewhere- Kunikida: "Anything interesting you saw?" atsushi: well......*remembers the mysterious person on the train*....just the usual stuff... Kunikida: "...Have you been practicing?" atsushi: yes sir. Kunikida: "...Let's see about that--" *opens the desk drawer, reaches for something--* atsushi:....*DODGE* Kunikida: "..." -_-; *he's holding a deck of cards* atsushi:...*takes a seat* .w.;;; Kunikida: *cuts the deck, shuffles* "Keep an eye on the cards...Memorize them..." *spread out five cards* "Let me know when you have them memorized." *The cards even match different members of the Agency...with Dazai as the Joker* atsushi: are these custom? Kunikida: "I assume so. And it answers the odd item on the budget Dazai charged..." atsushi: ah.. Kunikida: "Got them memorized?" atsushi: i think so... Kunikida: "Then keep your eye on the cards..." *with one flip, the cards are face-down, and he slides them along the table, slowly at first--then faster and faster at blinding speed* atsushi: ._.;;; yosano: oh, poker night already? Kunikida: *finishes passing the cards around, looks at Yosano* "No, that'll be tomorrow. Now we're trying to see whether Atsushi can find the Jack." atsushi: ._.;;; hmmmm..........is it.. this one? Kunikida: *flips, revealing the Jack* atsushi: (success!) Kunikida: "And how did you do that?" atsushi:...by the smell? Kunikida: "...Interesting. You trusted your smell more than your sight?" atsushi: in that case, yeah. Kunikida: "...Doctor, could you get a blindfold and the leftover curry?" atsushi: ._.;; -elsewhere- Akutagawa: *scrounging in a dumpster* lucy: *walking back to the agency apartments* Akutagawa: *pulls out a loaf of bread, wrapped, just one day past the "best buy" date--and tosses it behind him into a basket below* lucy:....*sympathetic glance* Akutagawa: *pops up again--turns* "..." lucy:.... !!! Akutagawa: "...Oh. You." lucy: *whispers* what are you doing? Akutagawa: "We're low on supplies. And this food is still good." lucy:....is it...has it really gotten that bad? Akutagawa: *shrugs* "Just a daily routine." lucy:..... Akutagawa: "...If you want what's in this trash receptacle, forget it--I've already claimed it." lucy:....*sigh* i'll see if i can talk to the others to arrange something... Akutagawa: "...You would do so?" lucy: yeah...it's just pitiful looking at you like this. Akutagawa: -____-; "...Thanks." -elsewhere- twain: so who's next on our list of former guild members to search for? Steinbeck: "Irving, in Terrytown." emily: according to rumors, his residence has a lot of traps in it, so be careful... Hemingway: "??? Like 'Home Alone'? Or 'Home Alone 2'?" emily: more or less. Hemingway: "...I hate those movies." *grabs a harpoon* emily: ._.;;; Steinbeck: "Let's save the threats until after we determine how cooperative Mr. Irving will be..." -elsewhere- Poe: *shivers, looking around the room* lenore: *watches from her perch* something bothering you? Poe: "Th-The room feels cold, and just trying to find a book I misplaced..." lenore: i see. Poe: "It was a book on cosmology, for a poem I had wanted to finish..." -elsewhere- Damon: *asleep on the couch* "Zzz..." soul:....*picks him up and carries him to the kid's room* Damon: "Zzz..." *sleep-hug* soul:.... *smiles and tucks him in* Becky: "???" *walks in* soul:...hey kiddo. Becky: "..." *whispers* "He's really tired." soul: yeah...you doing alright? Becky: "...I don't know." soul:...you want something to eat? Becky: "...Okay. What can I have?" soul: lets see, we got ourselvesss....cereal, chips, etc....what do you like? Becky: "..." -___-; "Cereal, then." soul: sounds good. Becky: "...Do you have a girlfriend?" soul:...........*he seems sad* Becky: "...Oh. Sorry." soul: ....guess i'll take it from the top. -he tells her the whole story- Becky: "...So Mr. Spirit's daughter?" soul:...yeah...*wipes his eyes* Becky: "Is-Is that why y-you took us?" soul:...*hug* sort of...but i knew you and your brother needed a home, someone to care for you. so i decided to do it. Becky: "..." *cries, hugs him* soul: i want to be a good dad for you guys... Becky: "..." *shakes her head* soul: ..... Becky: "Can you...just take care of us?" soul: ok. i will. Becky: "...Thank you..." -elsewhere- Akutagawa: "All this?" atsushi: *nod* *hands him two bags of groceries* Akutagawa: "...You didn't have to." atsushi: well, lucy told us about your situation and we felt kind of bad for you. Akutagawa: "I don't need your pity." *small pout* atsushi: ^^; Akutagawa: "...Tell the ill-tempered girl I appreciate it. I'll make sure the Mafia don't break her leg." atsushi: sure thing, akutagawa. Akutagawa: "..." *nods* "And thank you...Atsushi." atsushi:...*awkward smile* Akutagawa: "..." .\\\\. atsushi:....see ya then? Akutagawa: "...Right." -\\\\- *takes the bags, turns, walks* -elsewhere- Jordan: *crying into his glass of Mountain Dew at the bar* louisa: did...something happen? Jordan: *blubbers* "I don't know how to flirt..." louisa: ? Jordan: "She seems so nice--but I can't get with her! Look at me!" louisa: um... *pat pat* m-maybe we could speak with her? Jordan: "L-Like a group activity?" louisa: sure! Jordan: QwQ *whimper whimper* "Thank you!" *snot comes out his nose* louisa: ._.; Jordan: "Wh-What should it be? Smash tournament? Or hit up the manga shop? Or ramen?" -elsewhere- Yumi: "..." *smiles* lord death: *napping on the couch* Yumi: *keeps his head on her lap, strokes his head* lord death: =w= *purr* Yumi: ^\\\^ ("Kitten...") -elsewhere- Yukio: *packs his books into his satchel, opens the door out of the school* ???: good to see you, mr yukio~ Yukio: "...It's been a long time." *holds his bag close* pazuzu: whatcha got there, cutie~? Yukio: "My readings, of course. What are you doing here?" pazuzu: im here to make an offer of course....we've taken quite an interest in you~ Yukio: "...The Illuminati?" pazuzu: indeed. your flames has mr lulu quite intrigued~ Yukio: "!!! What?" pazuzu: dont you want a family reunion~? Yukio: "...I have enough of that as it is." pazuzu: pweeease~? Yukio: "Why? I have no interest in him, or his organization...And you can tell him..." *his glasses reflect light...or is it a reflection?* pazuzu: tell him what~? Yukio: "...Tell him I don't want anything..." pazuzu: *pout* the offer still stands~ *flies off* Yukio: "..." *takes off his glasses...his hand shakes...he rubs his eyes* shiemi: yuki? i heard a noise...is everything ok? Yukio: "..." *puts on his glasses, smiles* "It was just a squirrel." shiemi:...oh...*worried* Yukio: "...You were here at school as well?" shiemi: *nods* miss seiya asked me and izumo to help out with some things. Yukio: "How did it go?" -elsewhere- Kafka: *in the kitchen, pours himself some milk...and grabs a plate of cookies* =\\\\= wilhelm: *peeeek* OvO Kafka: *turns, walks* wilhelm: *stomach grumble* Kafka: "???" *turns* wilhelm: can i have one? OvO Kafka: "..." *sigh* "Just one." wilhelm: for real? *shiny eyes* Kafka: "I said yes, didn't I?" -_-# wilhelm: yay! can jakob have one too? Kafka: "Yes, yes..." wilhelm: thanks~! *takes the two cookies and walks off* jakob, i got you one too! Jakob: "Yay! What kind?" Kafka: "..." *sighs* hans:...*small smile* Kafka: *walks to his room* -elsewhere- Akutagawa: *walks inside* higuchi: woah! where did you get all this? Akutagawa: "...I'm not sure you would believe me, but the Agency." higuchi:...ah. Akutagawa: "It took me by surprise as well: that ill-tempered waitress helped." higuchi: *smiles* Akutagawa: "..." *clears his throat* "...I'll go shelve these and get dinner going." -elsewhere- Steinbeck: *packing* baum: isnt this exciting, dorothy? dorothy: yaaaaay =A= Steinbeck: "??? You never been to New York?" baum: once i think when i was younger, but dorothy hasnt. Steinbeck: *smiles* "It'll be quite an encounter. May need a guide there..." emily: *nod* Steinbeck: "How about you, Emily?" emily: m-me? Steinbeck: "Ever been to New York?" emily: a few times to visit family. Steinbeck: "Great! Then I hope you can help us." -elsewhere- stocking: TT~TT Kid: *holds the hot pad* stocking: thank you...*whine* Kid: *nods* "You're welcome..." *rests the pad onto her* "Like this?" stocking: *nod* Kid: *holds it there...lies with her* stocking: *smile* Kid: *strokes her back* -elsewhere- Motojiro: *looking in one room* "..." katya: ? Motojiro: "...Think this would be a good spot for the nursery?" katya:...i guess? Motojiro: "...I'll have to put something together to decontaminate this room before putting the baby here..." katya: i guess.... Motojiro: "..." *starts shaking, over-ventilating* katya: *pulls him down by the shirt and slaps him* GET A DAMN GRIP, MAN! Motojiro: Q____Q "What was that for?!" katya: you need to just breathe and focus right now. i know, im not the kind of person to be going on about being calm when i fly off the handle so easy, but you seem to have a better handle on things, especially given that lev and your kid are counting on you. Motojiro: "..." *nods* *inhales more calmly* leo: motojiro? Motojiro: *smiles at her...his eyes still look a little red* "Yes~?" leo: are you alright? *worried and strokes his cheek* Motojiro: "..." *holds her hand* "With you, yes." leo:...*smiles* Motojiro: "Katya and I were just looking at rooms for the nursery!" leo: ah. Motojiro: "And we can start prepping it!" -elsewhere- Tanizaki: "Here's dinner, all!" kenji: yay! Kyoka: *sniffs* "Smells good..." Tanizaki: "We got some quiche, some roasted vegetables--" sylvia: ... Tanizaki: "...Sylvia? Anything you wanted?" sylvia: um.... Kyoka: "Ever had quiche?" sylvia: *shakes head* not that i remember Kyoka: "Well, do you like cake?" sylvia: mr ted never let me- Kyoka: "...Well...It's like that. Only with spinach and cheese and maybe meat." Tanizaki: "..." *walks back to the kitchen, checking in the fridge for dessert* sylvia: um... Kyoka: "Well...What did you like to eat?" sylvia: i usually was given egg toast... Kyoka: "Oh. Quiche has egg and bread, so it's like egg toast." sylvia: oh... Kyoka: "Try it. For us?" sylvia: hmm....*nom*.. Kyoka: "...How is it?" sylvia:..it's alright. i-i didnt die at least... Kyoka: "...Yay." naomi: ^^ -elsewhere- Lucy: "...Think it was the right thing to do?" atsushi: i think so. Lucy: "...He just looked so...pathetic. Like feeding a stray." atsushi:...like a stray dog, i guess... Lucy: *nods* "Scrawny..." *looks at Atsushi's arm...and pokes* atsushi:... .-.; Lucy: "Have you been keeping to a diet to stay toned and fit?" atsushi: yes ma'am. *pulls up his shirt slightly to examine himself* .... Lucy: "..." .\\\\\\\\\. atsushi:.... .////. Lucy: >\\\\\< "Put it down--we're trying to have a meal!" atsushi: right! ^-^;;;; Lucy: -\\\\\- *picks up her water--and drinks* -elsewhere- Fitzgerald: "??? What's all this?" mary: jordan needed help asking a mall cop on a date. Fitzgerald: "I see...Well, fashion choices will be one improvement needed..." louisa: his hair could use some work too... ^-^; Jordan: Q____Q "I'm right here." Daisy: "We know." bram: ... -elsewhere- elizaveta: *humming* Gogol: <How's it going?> elizaveta: <ok. kinda bored though.> =3= Gogol: <Yeah, without Child 1 and Child 2.> elizaveta:.... <got anything cool in your cape?> Gogol: "..." *shiny eyes* <What did you have in mind?> lydia: <most likely anything a young child would have interest in.> elizaveta: =3= <he knooows thaaat.> Gogol: *nods* <I'm no fool.> *takes out a bottle marked with a skull on it* elizaveta: ...? lydia: ............. Gogol: "...Oh! Sorry. The poison was for someone else..." *puts it back, and takes out a pair of Nerf guns* elizaveta: YAY! ^o^ Gogol: "Search and destroy!" elizaveta: who's the target, sir? Gogol: "Hmm...Ivan?" elizaveta: yessir! Ivan: *walking down the hall with a cup of tea* -pew- Ivan: *suction cup dart at his forehead* O_o elizaveta: hehehe *runs* Ivan: "..." =_= "What even is--" -pew pew pew- Ivan: *darts on his head, chest, and butt* "..." elizaveta *giggle* Ivan: "CEASE THIS ABSURDITY--" Gogol: *leaps, slow motion, twin guns--and fires* Ivan: Q_____Q zoey:...*giggle* Gogol: ^_^ Ivan: "THIS ISN'T FUNNY!" *rips the darts off* lydia: now now, let him be. Gogol: -3- "Fine..." lydia: <you alright, vanya?> Ivan: <I have sore spots on my head, chest, and bottom...> lydia: <want me to patch you up?> Ivan: *nod nod* lydia: <ok> Gogol: "No one lets us have any fun..." yana: you will soon. Gogol: *shiny eyes* "Like a mission?" yana: *nod nod* time for number 3. Gogol: "..." *wide smile* -elsewhere- Yohei: "Okay, Akaderu has dishwashing tonight--" akaderu: *groooooan* Kepuri: ^^; "I'll help with that." *pat pat* akaderu: thanks babe... Yohei: "And that leaves Emine to take out the trash." Emine: "..." *looks at Mono* mono: boi you better not. Emine: "I said noth--" ((Mana, help her.)) mana: *gives emine the 'im watching you look'* Emine: "...Fine." *picks up the trash can* "I'm putting half of this into the recyclable can as my bad deed." Tool: "THE HELL YOU ARE!" -elsewhere- Tachihara: *arms crossed* Gin: *shakes her head* higuchi: what did mori do this time? Chuuya: "???" Gin: "Just...noises." Tachihara: -_______- higuchi: ....*listens*........eugh... WHY did i do that?! Gin: "We warned you." higuchi: TT___TT; Gin: *pat pat* Chuuya: "...In any case, don't let the noise distract you from the task." higuchi: right. Tachihara: "What, should we have someone sitting in there now?" Chuuya: "..." *looks at Higuchi* -elsewhere- minoura: alright, im only going to ask you this again, dostoevsky. *shows him a photo of zoey when she was still a nurse* do you know of her location? Fyodor: "Yes." minoura: where is she? Fyodor: "She is where Rats go." minoura: is that some kind of damn riddle or not? with you, we cant be certain... Fyodor: "Think about it. Rats scurry for whatever dark location they can find with sustenance and away from predators, yes?" minoura: ..... Fyodor: "...What, do I need to draw maps for you now?" -some noise is in the hallway- minoura: ??? officer: mr lewis, please calm down, this area is for authorized perso- Mr. Lewis: "Let me go! Let me go!" Fyodor: "???" officer: sir, please- *The door is kicked open, as Mr. Lewis tries to get inside the room* Mr. Lewis: "You bastard!" Fyodor: "..." officer: *holding him back* sir, please! calm down! Mr. Lewis: "Give her back! Give me back my daughter!" Fyodor: "Oh. I should have recognized you." *smiles* minoura: we're trying to find her now, we're _trying_ to get a location from him... Mr. Lewis: "He knows! Make him talk, damn it!" officer: sir, you arent allowed to be in here! Mr. Lewis: "Why?! You bastards can't even get a word out of him! Let me at him--I'LL KILL HIM!" Fyodor: *smiles* "Best be careful, sir. It would be horrible for you to not live long enough to meet your grandchild." officer: !!! minoura:....son of a- *A chair is tossed* officer: !!! *The chair slams into Fyodor's head* Mr. Lewis: *panting* "You son of a bitch!" *leaps* officer: *trying to hold mr lewis back* Mr. Lewis: *sobbing* "How dare you! How fucking dare you!" Officer #2: "Shit! He's bleeding!" minoura: i knew you were a sick fuck, but to r-...do _that_ to- Fyodor: *smiles, despite bleeding* "And she was quite good at it." Mr. Lewis: *not even struggling to move...just sobbing* minoura: that's going on the list of charges... Fyodor: "??? What? She seemed enthusiastic about it." officer: *trying to move mr lewis out of the room* Mr. Lewis: *sobbing, as he's practically carried away, his body limp* Fyodor: *smiles* "So long, 'Dad.'" minoura: i have half the mind to have you thrown in the chair right now... Fyodor: "Yet that would defy the very laws you hold yourself to. And the idea of such hypocrisy...Well, it makes my skin crawl." minoura: ......*hard glare* Fyodor: "But at least you provided something I've lacked for some time." *smiles* "Entertainment." minoura: ........... -elsewhere- Poe: "Lana? Are you okay?" lana: y-yeah. just old memories...*wipes her eyes* Poe: "..." *offers his handkerchief* lana: thanks edgar... Poe: *nods* "You're welcome..." *offers his hand* lana: *hug* Poe: "!!! ..." *pats, strokes her back* lana: ...... Poe: *hums lightly* -elsewhere- Rin: "Jeez...He's still locked up in there." momo sakura: is he sick? D8> Rin: "Nah, I don't think so--just really grouchy." momo sakura: ..... Rin: "...Want to help me make something to help him feel better?" momo sakura: ok! Rin: ^^ "I think this calls for cupcakes." momo sakura: yay! Rin: *walks with her to the kitchen* "And we can make some frosting..." -elsewhere- Magaki: *lying in bed, looking up at the ceiling* "..." -silence- Magaki: "..." *gets out of bed, walks downstairs* -...naho's door is open- Magaki: "???" *looks inside* -naho is asleep in her bed, with sakuya asleep next to her- Magaki: "..." *looks away* -one book is on the table- Magaki: "..." ("I am out of reading...Maybe Naho wouldn't mind...") *tip-toes inside* naho: zzzzz Sakuya: "Zzz..." Magaki: *looks at the cover* -it seems to be two guys- Magaki: "???" *flips it open* -too lewd to show- Magaki: "... ... ..." *closes the book carefully...sets it back exactly where they saw it* "......" *turns, carefully steps towards the exit...* naho: TuT *smug grin* Magaki: *gets outside into the hallway...* @_@ -morning- Kid: *making waffles* "..." stocking: *yaaaawn* Kid: *sets out a plate* "And I'll get the fruit..." -elsewhere- Panda: *poke poke* "Wakey-wakey..." inka: *snooooore* Panda: "..." *presses cold bag of frozen strawberries to her face* sasori: *asleep on the windowsill* inka: *SCREEEEEE* *PAWNCH* Panda: *K.O.* *collapses* XwX inka: =_= ...... ?? oh, she's asleep? Sancho: *runs into the room* "What happened?!" inka: cold strawberries. Sancho: "...He didn't put them on your feet this time, did he?" inka: -__- Sancho: " 'Cause I'm not having foot-tasting cereal again." *opens the fridge* *looks at Sasori* "...She's out like a light..." inka: yeah... Sancho: "...Huh. Well, I'll get the rest of breakfast going--then we can plan the day." -elsewhere- Motojiro: *rings a tiny set of bells* "Time for class~!" sonia: come on Q. Q: "..." *follows* -elsewhere- Damon: *asleep next to his bowl of cereal* "Zzz..." soul:...hey kiddo, sleep enough? Damon: "Hmph..." *looks up* "..." *shakes his head* "Bad dreams..." soul: *pats his back* Damon: "..." *hug* soul: *hug* -elsewhere- kirika: *nommin on pancakes* lord death: *hair ruffle* mornin, sport! kirika: *grunt of response* Yumi: "Shiori, sit still--" *splat* -_-; shiori: uups. lord death: *hands her a paper towel* Yumi: *wipes her face* "Thank you..." *sigh* "She'll need some more solids to try." shiori: sowy mama... Yumi: "..." *smiles* "It's okay, sweetie. Just watch where the food goes..." shiori: okaaay Yumi: *wipes Shiori's face* "Kirika, what's on your agenda today?" kirika: *shrug* is it the weekend yet? Yumi: "Yes, it is. Are you going out?" kirika: yep. Yumi: "With your boyfriend?" kirika: *noms on pancakes* Yumi: "..." *smiles* "And you will see your sister?" kirika:...yeah. Yumi: *nods* "Let us know if you need anything." kirika: kay... Yumi: "And make sure your phone is charged." kirika: yes mom. lord death: make sure it's on. kirika: i hear ya. -elsewhere- Tool: "And let's get your sweater on, kiddo." io: okay! ^o^ Tool: *slips it over Io's head and arms* "There you go...Ready to head to the park?" io: ya! saki: ^^ Tool: *opens the door for Io and Saki* "Then we're off!" io: ^o^ -elsewhere- Rin: *looking in a shop window* *shiny eyes* "LOOK AT THEM ALL!" kyouko: woooah. madoka: ^^; sayaka: neatooooo.... hitomi: oh wow. Rin: "That shirt with those jeans, then that badass necklace--I'd look choice!" madoka: ^///^ kyouko: lets remember why were here, ok? Rin: "..." *nods* "I mean, maybe he needs a new book..." -elsewhere- baum: so john, what was it like at home for you? Steinbeck: "Quite crowded, really." baum: *listening* oh? Steinbeck: "My younger brother and I had a room." baum: ah, i see. emily: was it nice? Steinbeck: "...You never felt alone." emily:..*smile* Steinbeck: "It's been a bit since I've heard from them...I did mail a bit of money after the treasure hunt." emily: that's nice. Steinbeck: "...How 'bout you, Em? How were things growing up?" emily: it was rather quiet. Steinbeck: "Peaceful kind of quiet?" emily: i suppose...a bit lonely though. Steinbeck: "...How about parents?" emily: it was decent enough, even if they did forget i existed sometimes. they're busy a lot. Steinbeck: "...You talk with them?" emily: sometimes. baum: what about you, ernest? Hemingway: "...Not much." dorothy:.... Steinbeck: "..." ^^; "At least Baum and Dorothy are here..." -elsewhere- goethe: ....... Kafka: "...Yes? What?" goethe: contact the agency, they live here, dont they? Kafka: "Yes, they do..." *sigh* *pulls up their number* "Am I supposed to speak with them?" goethe: tell them to bring their leader and the blonde guy with them. also tell that dazai guy to fuck off. Kafka: "..." *dials* *waiting for someone to pick up* naomi: armed detective agency. may i help you? Kafka: "Hello. I am calling to set up a meeting with your supervisor and the one named Kunikida." naomi: ah, yes. *writing this down* and may i ask who is calling? Kafka: "Kafka, with Sturm und drang." naomi: O_O y-you're calling all the way from germany?! Kafka: "No. And even if I was, we could afford it." naomi: wait, where are you calling from then?! Kafka: "Death City." naomi: ._____. kunikida? phone for you. Kunikida: "???" *takes it* "Who is it?" naomi: sturm. Kunikida: "..." ._. *answers* "Hello?" Kafka: "We need to talk." Kunikida: "..." Kafka: "Also, my boss wants the one named Dazai to be aware he should pleasure himself in an unfavorable manner." goethe: no, i didnt say it like that. i want him to simply 'fuck off', off he will fuck. atsushi:...? Kunikida: "...Understood. Who should be present?" Kafka: "You and your supervisor. Meet us at--One moment." *hand over the receiver* "First, I am not saying that. Second, where should they meet us?" goethe: kafka, you go pick them up and bring them here. Kafka: "Very well." *back on the phone* "I'll pick you up in-- ... ..." *turns, glares at Goethe* "NOT WALTER'S VAN--" atsushi: ?? -elsewhere- etta: *looking at a map* Leroux: "Which way?" etta: should be... ah! there it is! -the manhasset building is just ahead- Jordan: *seated on a bench outside* "And she's so pretty..." Assi: *nod nod* "I know, fam..." -the doors open- bram: hm? Daisy: *looks up* "...Are those...theater nerds?" etta: hello, we have an appointment with mr fitzgerald? ^^ Leroux: ^w^ Daisy: "...Name?" etta: hoffman and leroux. Daisy: "Hmm...I see...You're a bit early. Fitz's office is on the top floor." *gets up, takes out key card* "I'll let you in..." etta: ^u^ mary: who do you think they are? bram: not sure... Leroux: "???" *sees the children* "..." *actor persona* "Oh, joy! For we may meet with the glorious majesty of the occupant of this find edifice!" bram:....um....a pleasure to meet you as well, sir. mary:.....huh? Leroux: *sparkling eyes* "Lead us, young maiden!" Daisy: -____-# "Okay. Shut him up, or I'm tossing him out the 42nd story window." etta: ^^; bram: oh this should be just a thrill... *sigh* mary: yay! new friends! *drags bram along* Leroux: *follows Daisy* "What is the gentleman like~?" Daisy: "He spends his days counting money and clipping coupons. We all love him." -_- bram: have you heard the term 'upper class twit'? Leroux: "Ah...I know the role well!" Daisy: -_______- "He's still talking..." bram: thats mr fitzgerald in a nutshe-*COUGHING UP BLOOD* grk-... etta: O-O;;;;;; Leroux: D: Daisy: *sighs* *offers a tissue* bram:...im fine, just a side effect of my ability. *COUGH* dont mind me.... Leroux: "..." *looks at Etta* *practically squeeing* "Another ability user!" etta: that's why we're here. but lets save that for the meeting, ok? Leroux: ^w^ bram: ?? (ability users, huh? just what are they here for?) Daisy: *presses the top button, slides the key-card* -and so- Fitzgerald: *clipping coupons, humming* -knock- Fitzgerald: "??? Someone answer that..." *returns to clipping* louisa: yes? etta: hello~ Leroux: ^w^ Fitzgerald: "..." *looks at Louisa* "You hired circus performers?" etta: >3< Leroux: Q_Q "...We are the-at-er..." etta: easy roro. easy. we're here from sturm und drang to discuss business with you. you are ability users here. right? Fitzgerald: "...Among the remnants of former Guild associates, yes..." etta: in that case, we would like to make an offer. are you familiar with the rats in the house of the dead? Fitzgerald: "...They forced my giant whale ship to crash." etta: well as it would seem, the rats are an enemy of sturm, amongst other organizations. which brings us to why we are here. we would like to form an alliance. Fitzgerald: "Hmm...What does your organization have in terms of exterminating those Rats?" etta: while we have resources, we're small in numbers. our leader, goethe, wishes to bring together the ability user groups of this city as a task force to deal with the rats, as well as anyone who would be considered a threat to ability users as a whole. Fitzgerald: "I see what is it in for us ability users...but I also am a businessman. I need to know I am not footing the bill on my own." etta: as we said, we do have resources. Fitzgerald: "For example?" etta: we may be small in numbers, but we have ways of recruiting easily. Fitzgerald: "...Hm...Who's your recruiter? You?" etta: *looks at leroux* Leroux: ^^; "Our benefactor, actually. He's quite persuasive. And benevolent." Fitzgerald: "..." etta: soooo....please? OuO Fitzgerald: "I will have a contract for your supervisor's review--after I can meet with him." etta: of course. -elsewhere- Kuro: *in a baby bjorn* =\\\\= mahiru: *shopping* ???: "Oh, so cute!" mahiru: ?? Meme: "What a cute kitty!" >w< mahiru: thanks. ^^ Meme: *pet pet stroke* "Hee hee..." Kuro: =\\\\\= *purr* tsugumi: hehe. ^^ mahiru: you're sure popular, huh kuro? Kuro: -\\\\-; Anya: "You're the new student, aren't you? Mahiru?" mahiru: yeah. Meme: "How are you and your friend fitting in?" mahiru: pretty good. ^^; Anya: "Where is your friend? You seemed joined at the hip in classes." mahiru: oh, he's closer than you think. ^^;;;;; Anya: "...Oh, shopping elsewhere." mahiru: yeeeeah.... ^^;;;;;;;;; ao: say anya, i think your friend hyde works here~ mahiru: oh? *INTERNAL SCREAMING* Anya: "!!!" .\\\. "Oh...I wonder whether Licht is around, too..." Hyde: "MA-HI-RU! Yo! Over here!" *waves* mahiru: o_O;;;;;;;;;; licht: keep it down, shit rat. -_-; oh. hello princess. Hyde: ^^ "Hey, buddy! I see you enough at school, now you're here too--" *spots Licht and Anya* "..." Anya: "!!!!" .\\\\\. "It-It's Anast--Anya. Um...Hello." ao: 7u7 mahiru: um..hey hyde, licht. good to see you. ^^;;; (is something going on here?) Kuro: -_- *yawn* ("Too loud...") Hyde: *staring at Anya* "Yeah, hey, buddy. Cute bjorn." licht: .....? Hyde: "...New hair, Anya?" Anya: *voice cracks* "...Same hair..." mio: he means the ponytail. Anya: >\\\< "I know what he meant..." mahiru:....*looks at licht* am i missing something here? Licht: "I have no idea. That's because, when standing before my majesty, everyone gets nervous--" *dramatic pose* "--because I am an angel." Anya: "..." .\\\\\\. *steam comes off her head, as she falls back* tsugumi: *sweatdrop* *Anya lands in Tsugumi's arms* Hyde: -\\\\\-;;; ochako: *casually putting products on the shelves, blissfully unaware of what's going on* Meme: ^^; "So, Licht, what brings you here?" licht: due to a long boring story, im stuck with him. Meme: "Like a partner?" licht: to an extent. Meme: "Neat!" Death the Kid: Hyde: >\\\\> Anya: @\\\\@ mahiru: yeeeeah... ^^;;;;; Kuro: *yawns--and slight paw at Mahiru* ("Get a move on...") Hyde: "Oh, you brought Kuro out!" Kuro: O____O mahiru: yep. i sure did. licht: we meet again, mr kitty. *shiny eyes and paw hold* Kuro: >_> Meme: "...Isn't your classmate named 'Kuro'?" mahiru: what a coincidence. ^^;;;; Kuro: "..." *his paw grips him--with claws* mahiru: Qw<;;; Anya: *snaps back to attention* "Maybe declaw him?" Kuro: -_-# -elsewhere- Kunikida: "...You actually paid to have the van imported--" Kafka: "I SAID NOT TO BRING IT UP." >_<# goethe: *laying on the couch* greetings. masuji: hello ^u^ Fukuzawa: "Ah, Ibuse--this is a surprise." *looks at Goethe* "And you are our host?" goethe: that would be correct. thank you for your time gentlemen. masuji: of course. hoho! Kunikida: "This is surprising to see you now in this city. May I ask what prompted this move?" goethe: consider it instinct that the rats are planning something big. so we've decided to form an alliance with the ability user organizations in this city as a contingency plan. Fukuzawa: "...Which ones?" goethe: anyone who is an enemy of that prick dostoevsky, pretty much. masuji: that's be just about everybody, lad. Fukuzawa: "I had heard from my subordinates your offer to assist us, your promise to help. However, how do you imagine this alliance?" hans: *glances at kafka* goethe: we all share a common enemy, do we not? Kafka: *arms crossed* Fukuzawa: "We do..." goethe: then is that not reason enough? Fukuzawa: "Depends on methods...and additional goals you have in mind. Is that all you want, to stop Dostoyevsky?" goethe: well, do you know what he wants? Fukuzawa: "...It's rather oblique, a madness to destroy ability users." goethe: my goal over all is to make the world a better place for ability users, and to share those abilities with those who are less fortunate. all of the members of sturm had rather difficult situations that they were in, many on the verge of despair, i simply granted them their abilities and saved them from their suffering. im not trying some cliche 'take over the world' scheme, im just trying to be a good Samaritan. Fukuzawa: "And where did Ted Hughes fit into that?" goethe:..... 7_7 im only human, i can make mistakes sometimes. Fukuzawa: "...It takes an adult to admit to that. And our Agency hardly has perfect people in it." *looks to Masuji* "What do you think?" masuji: it's normal to make mistakes. it's a part of life, lad. such things do happen. goethe:...i appreciate that, i think. Fukuzawa: "Yet these can't be the only ability organizations you have contacted." hans: we're making contact with Manhasset, the guild remnants and the port mafia. as well as the special abilities department. masuji: hmm, all the major players, eh? Fukuzawa: "...Thorough." Kafka: ^^ *beaming with arrogance* hans: the mafia is a bit hard to track, however... Fukuzawa: "...We can present this proposal to them." -elsewhere- Poe: "Oh, you're having a meeting?" ranpo: yeah. fukuzawa is meeting with those guys the others met in europe. Poe: "Interesting...Even the roach man?" ranpo: yep. Poe: "Should be exciting--getting to see new abilities..." ranpo: yeah... sylvia: .~.;;; Poe: "Miss Sylvia, you were part of the group, yes?" sylvia: s-sort of...i just worked for m-mr ted, though.... Poe: "How was that?" sylvia:....*she looks down and begins to tear up, shaking* Poe: "!!! I-I'm sorry..." ranpo:...*pap pap* Poe: Q_Q -elsewhere- Justin: *opens the door* kirika: yo. oriko: *smiles* Justin: "Hello! Please, come in." kirika:...*takes a seat* oriko: shall i prepare some tea? Justin: "I would like some." *smiles* oriko: *smiles and goes to do so* kirika:...she's a lot more talkative now... Justin: *nods* "We've been talking about many topics during walks...and it seems a few memories are returning..." kirika:...*smiles* Justin: "I think you can ask her a few more questions...so she starts associating you less as just someone she knew...and as her sister." kirika:...right....*pulls something out of her bag, a rabbit doll* hey oriko? you remember this, right? oriko:...how cute. ^^ kirika: you gave this to me when i was taken in. oriko: i did?.... kirika: *nod* oriko: ......it feels....familiar.... Justin: "..." *nods* oriko:....ah..*she has tears falling down her cheeks* Justin: "!!!" kirika: y-you remember a little girl, right? {???: here, this is for you k#r##a.} oriko:....f-faintly... kirika: *HUG* a-at least that's something, right? Justin: "..." *goes to the kitchen* -elsewhere- Mr. Lewis: "..." *staring at the floor* mrs lewis: .....*hug*.... Mr. Lewis: "..." *shivering* mrs lewis: ...... *she doesnt know what to say* Mr. Lewis: "..." *voice cracking* "Z-Zoey...What did we do..." mrs lewis: ..... Mr. Lewis: "Where did we go wrong..." -elsewhere- stocking: *smile* Kid: *holds her hand* "Weather is warming up a bit." stocking: yeah. Kid: "Care to take a vacation trip soon?" stocking: sounds lovely~ Kid: "Great...Maybe somewhere scenic?" stocking: *nod* Kid: "Were you thinking the woods, or maybe the beach when it warms up more?" stocking: how about camping? Kid: *nods* "That would be good." -elsewhere- Tool: *pushing Io on the swing* io: *laugh* saki: *smiles* ^^ Tool: "Careful how high you go..." *smaller push* -elsewhere- Leroux: ^w^ hans: so how did it go? etta: i think it was more or less successful! Leroux: "They were enthralled by our performance." hans: i see. Leroux: "How did things go here?" hans: it went fairly well, i think. Kafka: "I thought they asked too many questions..." etta: ^^; hans: well, no one said it'd be easy.... the agency's leader said he would consider it, but he didnt seem to trust goethe... Leroux: "Maybe we can convince him?" hans: that man, kunikida said he and the other agency members would discuss it. Leroux: "Even that bandaged man?" hans: -_-; yes, even him. -elsewhere- Dazai: *walking past shops* *hums* atsushi:...hey, dazai? Dazai: "Hmm?" atsushi: are you sure you're alright? Dazai: "As good as I can be..." *false smile* atsushi:...things havent been going well for you recently, have they? Dazai: "...I suppose there have been setbacks..." atsushi:....is it still the incident with the rats that's bothering you? Dazai: "...Ever play Risk?" atsushi: *shakes head* Dazai: "Well, it's like chess or checkers, only you're trying to take over entire countries." atsushi: .....oh... Dazai: "And it requires a lot of careful attention to how you want to win. Which nations do you take over? Which alliances do you form? But if you want a strategy to bring the game to the end, there is one thing you can do..." atsushi: what's that? Dazai: "Blow it all up." atsushi: ...... Dazai: "There's an idea that, if you can't win, make sure no one else does. It's suicidal..." atsushi:....what does this have to do with the rats? Dazai: "Because when I think about what Dostoyevsky is capable of, if he is really losing, he wouldn't be locked up in a jail cell: he would be destroying everything right now." atsushi:....... Dazai: "And that's why I'm bothered." atsushi: ....*phone buzzes* ??....oh, we're being called back for a meeting. Dazai: "...Right." *looks around* "Walk it or cab it?" -elsewhere- Fitzgerald: "Miss Alcott." louisa: yes sir? Fitzgerald: "Have Eckleburg examine the security footage of those two guests through the facial recognition software." louisa: yes sir. Fitzgerald: *smiles* -elsewhere- Fukuzawa: "..." *walks forward* -inside- naoya:...we got someone coming... Chuuya: "...Well, would you look at that...Who wants to greet them?" hirotsu: i'll speak with them. higuchi: same. Chuuya: "And we'll monitor from here...And I want someone around the corner, in case we need protection." higuchi: *nod* Fukuzawa: "..." hirotsu: fukuzawa, what brings you here? Fukuzawa: "We wanted to check on you..." hirotsu: well we're doing alright, as you can see. higuchi: and we did appreciate the donation.. Fukuzawa: *nods* "Thank Miss Montgomery as well...We also had an offer from a third party to your benefit." higuchi: ?? hirotsu: oh? Kunikida: "Your colleagues remember their trip to Germany, and any encounters with a group called Sturm und drang?" higuchi: i.....think i've heard the name in passing? it's been a long time… Kunikida: "While we were in Germany, we had encountered a few of them: the dancer who can control people's movements, the swordsman, a giant cockroach-man--" hirotsu: hmm... Kunikida: "--and they are all ability users. And they want our assistance against a common threat." hirotsu: the rats? Kunikida: *nods* hirotsu: hmmm... higuchi: katya would be more than willing if it means going up against dostoevsky. Fukuzawa: "I can not ascertain the trustworthiness of their organization, yet having additional resources against the Rats cannot be a bad thing." hirotsu: that is a good point... Fukuzawa: "What should I say is your response?" hirotsu: we'd have to speak with them in person. Fukuzawa: "We will go about setting up a time and place." -elsewhere- Fyodor: "..." *smiles* -silence- Fyodor: "Guard?" guard: ..... Fyodor: "Have I any new visitors?" guard:.....*not answering* Fyodor: "No? What a shame. It gets so lonely here." guard: .... Fyodor: "...How is the nursing home treating your mother, Brian?" brian: *biting his lip* Fyodor: "Alzheimer's is awful. And her lungs...I hope she can get some good deep breaths." brian: shut up... Fyodor: "??? I'm just saying that to see your parent so elderly is a terrible situation for a young person--" brian: just stop, ok?! Fyodor: "Oh, I can stop at any time, Brian. But I like conversing...and you are not as good a conversationalist as the earlier guard, Erina." brian: .... Fyodor: "You know what I want to know." brian: *shakes his head* Fyodor: "Tell me where she is." brian: like you can do anything from inside your cell! Fyodor: *smiles* "Sure." brian: ..... Fyodor: *hums a song* -elsewhere- Kepuri: *looking through an old hard drive* nea: looking through some old stuff? Kepuri: *nods* "Wanted to see if there were any contacts I missed..." nea: oh? Kepuri: "You never know who is tracking and harassing old friends, and I haven't heard from some in a while." nea: ah, gotcha... Kepuri: "Ever see this one?" *pulls up a photo* nea: nah... Kepuri: "Damn it...More of us keep disappearing." -elsewhere- Gopher: "Oh! That looks really good!" kotone: *shiny eyes* Gopher: "Want one?" kotone: *nod nod* Gopher: *holds up two fingers* "Two cupcakes, please!" -elsewhere- Walter: ^^; "Kiddos...Um...Maybe you need to calm down a bit?" wilhelm: IM GONNA DIIIIIE!! DX> *he pinched his finger* george: ._.; Jakob: "GET ALL THE ICE!" *pushes George to the kitchen* george: -_-; Jakob: "Get a cold cloth! It's at the sink! Wet it!" *dragging a chair to the fridge* george: ok! ok! *turns on the sink and sticks a hand in....it vanishes into the water* ._. um... Jakob: *shoves frozen meat aside, then ice cream--* "...HOLD UP!" *takes the ice cream out* "For later~!" *goes back to pulling out ice cube trays* "Got the cloth, George?" george: *pulls out hand* um. yeah! Jakob: *grabs the ice cubes and ice cream carton* "Then let's go!" *heads back to Wilhelm* george:... (just now...what was....) -elsewhere- Yumi: "Any new black blood locations?" nygus: thankfully not. Yumi: "What about the earlier site?" nygus: it seems to have lessened... Yumi: "What caused it in the first place? Any potential kishins discovered?" nygus: it's still under investigation. Yumi: "I'll review the files, see if I can spot something..." -elsewhere- Magaki: "--so I want books. Other books." tsubaki: ok. what kind? Magaki: "Hmm...History?" tsubaki: ok. ^^ -elsewhere- Kyoka: "Feel better?" sylvia: *sniff* y-yeah.. Kyoka: *pats her back* "Did you...want to see any of them?" sylvia: i-i guess so...n-none of them were p-particularly cruel to me.... Kyoka: "..." ("But why would they let her be hurt so long...") "Even those kids?" sylvia: i-im s-s-sure they...meant no real harm... Kyoka: "Did you get to play with them?" sylvia: s-s-sometimes... Kyoka: "...That's good. It's important to get to play with people around your age...And Walter seemed nice." sylvia: y-yeah... Kyoka: "But that Kafka man seemed irritable. And Naomi was grossed out from the encounter." sylvia: .... Kyoka: "...Can this man, Goethe, be trusted?" sylvia: i-i think so... Kyoka: "...Then that's good enough for now." *smiles* sylvia:...*faint smile* r-right... Kyoka: "Want to play?" sylvia: w-what did you h-have in mind? Kyoka: "Whatever you want. We could play basketball." sylvia: i-i dont know how to play... Kyoka: "I can show you. You just have to toss a ball into the air to get it into a hole high up above." sylvia: o-ok.... Kyoka: "I'll get the ball from the closet--" *opens it...and it's a mess* "..." sylvia: ._. -elsewhere- sonia: *drawing* Q: *glances at her drawing* "Got any red crayon?" *drawing as well* sonia: *hands him one* here. -she's drawing several people in the mafia, including herself, Q, chuuya, gin, higuchi, motojiro, leo, and rain- Q: "Thanks." *he's drawing Zoey and Aya* "..." sonia:....she was the nurse, back underground, right? Q: *nods* "My new mommy." sonia: ....when i came out of the tube, she told me she was my mother....but i knew she was lying....*points to rain in the picture* this is my mommy. i see her in my dreams sometimes... Q: "The lady secretary?" sonia: *she nods* she died...the demon hurt her a lot. Q: "..." *nods* "I saw the damage..." sonia: ..... Q: "...Does Chuuya miss her?" sonia: *she nods* sometimes i can hear him crying at night because he misses her so much. Q: "...That's really sad." sonia:...*nod* Q: "Do you think he'll stay alone?" sonia:.... Q: "Like, date anyone else?" sonia:...i dont think so... Q: "..." *sad sigh* sonia:..... Q: "Love sucks." sonia:...*pap pap* Q: T~T "I haven't seen Aya, and I've been here for a whole, like, four days..." sonia:....do you like this person? Q: "With all my heart!" sonia: why do you like her? Q: =\\\w\\\= "She's pretty and feisty..." sonia: ....she kind of looks like grandma's photos of papa...he had the same kinda hair... Q: "...Huh...Really?" sonia: i can ask grandma to show us. Q: "Okay!" -elsewhere- Yukio: *wearing a party hat, seated in front of a tray of cupcakes and a wrapped gift* "..." Rin: *shiny eyes* kyouko: ta-dah! shiemi: ^^ Yukio: "...What's the occasion? It's not our birthday." kyouko: you've been working really hard, and we wanted to show our appreciation. Yukio: "..." *nods* "That is very kind..." -elsewhere- Black Star: "Hey, kids!" becky: hey uncle star. Black Star: "..." *looks at Soul, whispers* " 'Uncle'!" soul: *small smile* Damon: "..." Black Star: "What you two up to today?" becky: homework mostly. Black Star: "Oh, you started class?" Damon: "..." *looks down* becky: yeah. Black Star: "How's the teacher?" becky: she's nice. Damon: "..." soul:.... *pap pap* Damon: *shudders* "I-I don't know..." becky: *pap pap* Damon: "It-It's fine...I don't know..." -elsewhere- Kafka: *walking up the street, holing a stack of papers* ango: *also walking* Kafka: "...Hello." ango: *nod* Kafka: "You are Ango Sakaguchi, correct?" ango: who's asking? Kafka: "An ability user." ango: .... -elsewhere- Katai: *outside the door to the Agency* Q____Q naomi: oh, katai. come on in. Katai: "Is-Is it alright? We don't mean to impose..." *he's holding his futon* naomi: its fine. ^^ Katai: *enters* "Where is everyone?" naomi: doing work and stuff. -elsewhere- Rin: *pats his belly* "So good." =w= Yukio: *dabs his mouth with a napkin* "...Thank you." shiemi: ^^ kyouko: oh, and happy birthday, shiemi. Yukio: "..." ._. Rin: "..." .__. shiemi: thanks, kyouko. ^^; Yukio: "... ..." ("...Keep calm...You can still get a gift...") Rin: (*loud internal panic noises*) -elsewhere- Ivan: *whistling* lydia: <who has lunch duty?> Gogol: <What shall I prepare? Caviar? Pizza bagels? Flan?> lydia: <whatever we have on hand> Gogol: *opens the cupboard* "...Sardines and peanut butter." lydia: ..... *sigh* elizaveta: *raises hand* Gogol: ^w^ "Yes, Elizaveta?" elizaveta: can i go get some? Gogol: "Okay, but bring a weapon." -elsewhere- Kyoka: *holding ice to a basketball-shaped bruise* sylvia: Q____Q Kyoka: "It's okay. Games sometimes have injuries..." sylvia: i-im sorryyyy... Kyoka: "..." *pat pat* "Apology accepted." sylvia: *sniff* Kyoka: "..." *hands her a tissue* "It's okay..." -elsewhere- elizaveta: *returning with groceries and crashes out on the floor asleep* Gogol: "???" *looks at Lydia, quietly* <Put the groceries away...> *picks up Elizaveta carefully* elizaveta: zzzzz lydia: *nods* Gogol: *carries her to her bed* elizaveta: =w= Gogol: *tucks her in* elizaveta: ..... Gogol: *looks at the nightstand--and spots a doll* "..." *picks it up, tucks it with Elizaveta* elizaveta: *hugging leila* =w= Gogol: *smooths her hair away from her forehead* elizaveta: zzzz Gogol: *forehead kiss* <Good night...> -elsewhere- Kepuri: *staring at her screen* "..." {Kepuri: "What's on the agenda?"} {akaderu: *shrug* i dunno...} {Kepuri: *groans* "So boring...Hardly the best use of a genius mind like mine..."} {akaderu: *grunt of reply*} {Kepuri: "..." -3- "Anything going on with you?"} {akaderu: other than a general lack of motivation, not much} {Kepuri: "..." *pat pat* "Hang in there. It has to get better..."} {akaderu:....*tiny blush*} {Kepuri: "..." *looks away* "If you need motivation, I got a task for you." *shoves a file to him* "It-It's another Dokeshi Hunt thug to monitor..."} {akaderu: .....} Kepuri: *staring at the file...It's Yohei's* chie: whats up? Kepuri: "Not much." *switches windows, smiles at Chie* "Just looking through old stuff." chie: ah. -elsewhere- Steinbeck: *pulls over* "..." emily: zzzz twain: zzzzz -baum siblings are asleep as well- Steinbeck: *parks* "..." Heminigway: *sipping coffee* *whispers* "We staying here?" Steinbeck: *nods* Hemingway: *nudges Baum* baum: nghugh? Hemingway: "We're here. Help me get the others inside." -elsewhere- Jakob: "IS MY BROTHER GOING TO LIVE?!" Walter: ^^; "Of course." wilhelm: all better now. ^^ Jakob: *sad ugly tears as he hugs Wilhelm* T~T george: ^^;..... ....... Walter: "How you holding up, G?" george: f-fine...*looks at their hand* Walter: "...Oh! You stare at your hand, too?" george: i-im fine. just thinking.. ^^; Walter: "...About why we have ten fingers instead of 12?" george: um... Jakob: " 'Cause your hands would look bigger!" *playfully pats a hand on Wilhelm's cheek* wilhelm: =n=; bro please. george: ^^; -elsewhere- Kafka: "And that's what we can provide, for now." ango: hmm.. what do you think, mr taneda? Taneda: "..." *slides a paper to Ango* "Fukuzawa already had a similar discussion." ango: hmm... Taneda: "From all feedback, this sounds like an alliance worth considering. I will issue a recommendation above me." Kafka: *nods* ango: ? Taneda: "Ango, please see Mr. Kafka out." *holds out his hand to Kafka* "We'll speak soon." Kafka: *shakes his hand* Taneda: *turns, leaves* Kafka: "..." *whips out antibacterial wipes, wipes thoroughly* >_< ango: -_.-; Kafka: *finishes...sighs* "Aaah..." *looks at Ango* "...What? I like to be neat and tidy." ango: i get you there. *adjusts glasses* Kafka: "... ... ...Tell me. Did you encounter someone named Dazai?" ango: *tenses* yes. he's-....an old friend. why do you ask? Kafka: "Hmm. He does not seemed well liked. Even among his allies." ango: .... Kafka: "Why do people work with him?" ango: despite his many shortcomings, he has proven himself a skilled tactician. Kafka: "Ah. So, crafty." ango: precisely. Kafka: "Still, his behavior is erratic. He even approached one of our members for a suicide pact." ango: that sound like classic him. Kafka: "As for the other Agency members...they seem reliable. They are tending to one of our former members." ango: is that right? Kafka: "Yes...You have an ability?" ango: yes. Kafka: "Then you can imagine what it feels like to be under threat for who we are." ango:.... Kafka: "...There are those who would hurt us, even those who are ability users." ango: so i've heard... Kafka: "And what do you plan to do about it?" ango:....still figuring that out... -elsewhere- Kid: "We're home!" lord death: welcome back. ^^ kirika: yo. Kid: "How was your visit?" kirika:..it went well. *wipes eyes* Kid: "..." *pat pat* kirika: =//,//= Yumi: "..." *group hug* lord death: ^////^ Kid: ^\\\^; shiori: bubu! ^o^ Yumi: *picks up Shiori* "Hug your sister?" kirika *tiny awkward hug* shiori: yay! Yumi: ^w^ -morning- Sakuya: *yawns* *stretches* naho: zzzzz Sakuya: "..." *brushes a hand over her forehead* naho: =w= Sakuya: *forehead smooch* -at school- Kuro: *flipping mindlessly through the book* "..." mahiru: *taking notes* Stein: "As your guest lecturer, I'm here to introduce you to the challenges that await you at this academy." hitomi: *listening* Stein: "We begin with a serious one..." *takes out a cage, which has an aye-aye bat inside* Aye-Aye: OwO;;;; Stein: *sneers* "With vivisection..." Kuro: "!!!" mahiru: im sorry what? hitomi: O-O;;; -chop- nygus: no. Stein: >_< "Hmph. Fine, we'll save that for an extracurricular..." *puts the Aye-Aye away* Aye-Aye: =w=;;;;; mahiru: ._.; Kuro: "So annoying...What are we learning anyway?" Stein: "We can move onto a demonstration of battle..." hitomi: ... Stein: "Come in." *The door is kicked open* madoka: ^-^; Kuro: "??? A sailor scout?" hitomi *waves to madoka, smiling* madoka: *smiles back* Arthur: *holding his hilt* "Is this where warriors demonstrate their mettle in combat?" nygus: yes, this is battle demonstration, yes Arthur: *charges up Excalibur* "Then I will hold nothing back, mage [Madoka]." madoka: *nods and takes her bow out* -she also put a barrier up to keep the students from being harmed- Arthur: *swings his blade along the floor towards Madoka* madoka: *jumps up and fires 3 shots* Arthur: *dodges* "Impressive..." *runs past them, leaps up--and swings* madoka: *dodges to the left* Arthur: *swings his leg under her* madoka: *jump and kick to the face* Arthur: "UMPH!" *falls back, swinging his sword--slicing into the floor* hitomi: *watching, nervous* Arthur: "KNIGHTLY LIGHTNING STRIKE!" -elsewhere- Yohei: "Mono, you busy?" mono: *doing homework* Yohei: "??? Okay...Guess you're busy..." mono:..whats up? Yohei: "I wanted to check how things were going." mono:...alright i guess. Yohei: *nods* "Keeping up on homework even while working at the cafe?" mono: yeah. Yohei: "...Need any help with the homework?" mono: just this one. *points to a problem* Yohei: *reads it* "Oh. It's cosine's? I can help with that..." mono: *nod* Yohei: "So it's a right triangle...and the smaller angle is 60 degrees. That means you write the equation 'adjacent side divided by hypothenuse'..." mono: right... Yohei: "We know the adjacent side is 'x,' and the hypotenuse is 20, so we are solving for x...You got your scientific calculator?" mono: hold on... -elsewhere- Rin: ^^; "All forgiven?" shiemi: i wasnt exactly mad at you guys. but i do appreciate it. ^^ izumo: 7-7 Rin: "And you get to go with Stocking, Seiya, Shura--" *spots Izumo* "Polka Brows--" izumo: =_=# shiemi: and what are you guys gonna do? Rin: "Camping! Male bonding! Reaffirm the chains of friendship!" konekomaru: ^^; Bon: =^= "Who said I was going?" konekomaru: ? Bon: "Some of us have studying to do--" konekomaru: im sure it wouldnt hurt. izumo: yeah, letting loose wouldnt kill you, you know. Bon: -___- "You too, Kamiki? Don't you have work to catch up on?" izumo: i already did it. Bon: "D-Don't try to show me up!" >_< izumo: *smirk* Bon: "..." >\\\\> "I'm not getting roped up into any dumb during this camping--" Rin: "Super!" *arm around his shoulder* "We're doing so much stupid stuff!" Bon: -_____-# -elsewhere- Leroux: *hanging up paper lanterns* hans: *dusting shelves* Kafka: *re-enters--carrying a plastic shopping bag* "I have returned." hans: welcome back. Kafka: "Hello. I met with the governmental agency." hans: and how did it go? Kafka: "They seemed amenable. I expect we will receive confirmation within days." hans: ah... Kafka: *takes out a jar of jelly beans* *nods* *opens it* "..." *starts munching* *nom nom nom--* etta: hi guys~ Leroux: "Hello~!" Kafka: O\\\\O "GRK--" *swallows hard* hans: *gives him the Heimlich* Kafka: *coughs up a mess of jelly beans* "Th-Thanks..." etta: you ok, franzy? Kafka: "I AM NORMAL!" O\\\\O etta: ovo~? Leroux: ^w^; "Franz brought us candy!" Kafka: "?!!!" wilhelm: OuO Jakob: "Really?!" Kafka: *growling low at Leroux* "Who told you this was okay...?" Leroux: *smirks* "You'll thank me~" etta: aww, how sweet. ^u^ Kafka: "..." .\\\\\. "I was nothing..._IT_ was nothing..." >\\\< etta: *giggle* Leroux: ^w^ Jakob: *munching on a chocolate bar* "George, grab them!" Kafka: "..." *offers Etta chocolate* etta: *nom* george: um....thanks? Kafka: "..." *nods* "Of course..." goethe: ....at least share some with me. -elsewhere- Toby: *pawing at papers about Etta and Leroux* eckleburg: *picks him up and puts him in his little bed* *pet pet* Toby: -_-; *soft fox purr, before shifting under blanket* -elsewhere- tatsuya: *writing things down* Damon: "..." teacher:....mr evans? Damon: "...Wh-What?" teacher: is everything alright? Damon: "..." *nods* "I'm sorry." teacher: well, try to pay attention, alright? Damon: "..." *stares at a blank sheet of paper--moves his hand to grab his pencil--and accidentally knocks it to the floor* "..." boy: shhh. -elsewhere- Steinbeck: *sits up in bed...* twain: *halfway off his bed asleep* Steinbeck: "..." *sighs* *gets out, goes to Twain, tries to nudge him back into his bed* twain: *snore* thank you mr davis, you saved my life. again. Zzzzz Steinbeck: "??? ..." *tucks him in* dorothy: morning... Steinbeck: "???" *turns* "Hey..." dorothy: couldnt sleep. Steinbeck: "Sorry...Want to get some water?" dorothy:...*nods* Steinbeck: *opens the cooler they brought with them, takes out two bottles of water* "Cheers." dorothy: *siiiip* thanks mr steinbeck. Steinbeck: *smiles* "You're welcome. Were you hungry at all?" dorothy: i'll eat later. Steinbeck: "...Anything on your mind?" dorothy: *shrug* big bro's probably gonna want pancakes. Steinbeck: "Do you like pancakes?" dorothy: i guess. Steinbeck: "...What kind of foods do you like?" dorothy: ..... Steinbeck: "..." *sips water* "...I like a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich.” dorothy:.....sure. Steinbeck: *smiles* "I'm going to make one. I think we still have some bread left over..." dorothy: ok. Steinbeck: *gets to work* "..." ("Wonder why she's this quiet...") "Wish the rest of us could sleep as soundly as that guy..." *thumbs at Twain* twain: *leg twitch and dopey grin* dorothy: .... Steinbeck: *finishes, cuts it in half, holds up a half to her* dorothy:... *nom* Steinbeck: ^^ "I remember we used to make jelly...And preserves." dorothy: was it nice? Steinbeck: *nods* "Until one of the kids flung a spoonful of grape jelly at my face..." ^^; dorothy: yikes. Steinbeck: "It's all in fun--you know how kids are." dorothy: yeah, seeing as i still am one, sorta... Steinbeck: "...And a kid deserves to have fun, with whatever time they have." dorothy:....are they nice? Steinbeck: "Most part, yeah!" *takes out his wallet, holds up a photo* dorothy: *examines the photos* ... *The photographs show Steinbeck tending to the kids since babies...They look happy* dorothy:...you seem to be a good brother. Steinbeck: "...Thanks. That means a lot..." *studies her face* -she seems to be thinking about something- Steinbeck: "Still thinking?" dorothy: yeah... Steinbeck: "What about?" dorothy: my brother. our family. Steinbeck: "...How is he doing?" dorothy: right now he's still asleep. -elsewhere- Kid: *walking through the DWMA halls* kirika: *sneaking up* Kid: *comes to a stop* kirika: *ducks behind locker* Kid: *looks left to right...then keeps walking* kirika: *runs up and blows an airhorn at his ear* Kid: O_________O *leaps up--and doesn't descend* kirika: 8\ *looks up* *There is a Kid-shaped hole in the ceiling...and the floor above...and the floor above...all the way to the roof* kirika:.... *snaps a pic* Kid: *in the sky, clinging to Beelzebub like a cat to a ceiling fan* Q~Q -elsewhere- Justin: "I have to run an errand...Did you want to stay?" oriko: *nod* Justin: "Okay. Don't let anyone you don't know in..." oriko: ok. Justin: "And I can bring back something from the grocery if you want. Any requests?" oriko: im alright. Justin: *nods, grabs his tote bag and keys, opens the door* oriko: be safe. Justin: *smiles, nods* "Thank you." *closes and locks the door* -elsewhere- Steinbeck: "Zzz..." emily: *driving* Hemingway: "He seems really worn out." twain: he was up pretty early. Hemingway: "??? Must've been a good reason, I hope." -elsewhere- Kepuri: "Remember this?" akaderu: ?? Kepuri: One of the files we had while investigating..." *it's Yohei* akaderu: oh yeah... Kepuri: "...A lot has changed." akaderu: yeah...*hug* Kepuri: "!!! ..." *hug* =\\\\= akaderu: love you, babe. Kepuri: "Love you, too..." *squeeze* -elsewhere- Chuuya: *tapping the walls* naoya: ?? Chuuya: "...Which other surveillance devices did the Agency keep here?" naoya: hmm, my ability doesnt work on any cameras, just living beings. Chuuya: "After the last infiltration, I want to go through the building more carefully...May need some tech help." naoya: no dice with keek. she's pretty much cut ties with the mafia after...y'know. Chuuya: "..." *nods* "Kajii and his assistant?" naoya: *shrug* bleeeegh it sucks we cant go out hiring people right now. Chuuya: "Yeah... ..." *kicks the wall* naoya: 0-0 Chuuya: "This is awful...Just..." naoya:....*pap pap* Chuuya: "..." *sniff* naoya:.... Chuuya: "This shouldn't be like this..." naoya: yeah...damn those rats... Chuuya: "...When we find Fyodor...We're stopping this." naoya:...well we know he's in prison, but are we really about to break _in_ to prison? Chuuya: "If you think he's staying in there...No. He won't. So we need to find him as soon as he makes his escape." naoya:...right. -elsewhere- soul: have fun today? Becky: "It was alright. Kind of dull." Damon: "..." soul: i see....so, i made a call to the therapist today. Damon: "?!" Becky: "...Why?" soul: ...to help you feel better. *smile* Becky: *small frown* Damon: "...How? What would they want?" soul: they'd talk to you about how you're feeling, and maybe find a way to make you feel better. Damon: "Really?" Becky: "...That's all?" soul: yep. that's all. dont worry, i'll go with you. Damon: "...Okay." Becky: "..." *nods* -elsewhere- Walter: *reading emails* "Mom's doing well!" hans: glad to know. *smiles* Walter: ^w^ Kafka: *putting files away* "..." hans: ...so how about you, leroux? any news from your sister? Leroux: *sighs* "Little good, I'm afraid." etta: oh no! D:> Leroux: "..." *nods* "He keeps himself locked away..." etta: ... Leroux: "...He's incredibly morose." hans: i could imagine... Leroux: "...I don't know what help is available." hans: he is in psychiatric, isnt he? Leroux: *nods* "But is that enough?" hans: .... etta: *hug* TT^TT Leroux: *hug* T~T Kafka: "..." >_> *awkward pat on Leroux's shoulder* -elsewhere- Lily: "How are things?" mahiru: they've been well. Kuro: *nom nom nom* Lily: "Excellent! We'll have to celebrate your admittance before your have midterms~" mahiru: aww, thanks. misono: it's the least we can do. -elsewhere- Rin: "All packed!" kyouko: you guys be safe, you hear? Yukio: "...Right." Rin: "Not a problem! Even got bug repellent!" kyouko: *nod* Yukio: "What about the tent?" Rin: "...I'll be right back." *goes back to his room* kyouko: ...^^; Yukio: "You'll hold down the fort while we're out?" kyouko: you bet. Yukio: "And keep up with homework." kyouko: i know. Yukio: "And keep an eye on Father. And bring in the trash, water the plants, patrol the perimet--" kyouko: got it all in here. *points to her head* i've been doing this for years now. Yukio: "...Right. Sorry." Rin: "I got it!" *holds up his 3DS* Yukio: "...Rin. Tent." Rin: "...Oh!" *runs back* kyouko: *sweatdrop* Yukio: "Maybe I should put Post It Notes on him..." kyouko: *chuckles* -elsewhere- yana: *doing some browsing* Ivan: "???" yana: <just looking up some stuff.> Ivan: <Anything interesting?> yana: <i did find this one website. death city rumor file> Ivan: <Any juicy material?> yana: <well, i found a bit of info regarding that shibusawa person.> Ivan: <Best keep it away from Gogol, then...> ^^; yana: <well it wouldnt be much, because this only gives me like, three facts about them. number 1, do you recall the 'dragon's head rush' incident?> Ivan: *nods* yana: <apparently this shibusawa person was the mastermind behind that, at least according to this.> *shrugs* <number 2, they're called 'the collector'. not sure why that is. and number 3, and this is speculation mind you, they are theorized to have connection to the rumor of the white eyed princess of the mysterious tower.> Ivan: <That old tale?> yana: *nods* <wasnt that one of the rumors pushkin's sister and uncle were investigating? then again, they research a lot of urban legends and stuff like that, so...> Ivan: <...It was probably just a tall tale.> yana: <maybe> .... *updating the file* <but i at least have all the profiles up to date.> Ivan: <Master will be so pleased~> yana: *nod* ...... Ivan: <Any additional information?> yana: <at the moment, nothing...> *sigh* <actually, i did find something. info on one of the boss's subgroups, 'the angels of decay'. we know the boss and kolya are part of it, but the info on the other 3 members is password protected.> Ivan: <...Try 'Ivan'?> yana: <tried that, didnt work. i've asked the boss, and he told me to figure it out myself.> *grooooan* <dont get me wrong, i do respect him as our leader, but does he have to be so damn cryptic all the damn time?> Ivan: <Adds to the mystique~> yana: ... Gogol: <What you talkin' about?> yana: 0-0 *clicks out of the angels of decay file....which returns to the rumor file page on shibusawa* (SHIT) Gogol: O\\\\\\\O "..." *faints* yana:.... -_-; <unprofessional.> -elsewhere-

[builder051]

Come to me now and rest your head part 11: 4th of July (MCU Captain America fanfic)

This is part 11 of a 15-chapter fic about Bucky’s return and recovery, as told through a year’s worth of rough holidays. Not every chapter will be emeto, but all have some form of physical illness or mental health struggle that could be categorized as sickfic or whump.

We are in powers/no powers choose-your-own-adventure.

This is a remix of Stay with me, we’ll take the night, now all from Bucky’s perspective.

Contains migraine, ptsd/panic attacks, and vomiting.

_________________________________________________________________

On Steve’s birthday, Bucky’s desperate to be normal.  He wants to give Steve one day to celebrate and not be dragged down with Bucky’s problems.

They’d arranged to have a barbecue.  Nothing crazy, just their little circle of friends gathered at the townhouse for hamburgers and hotdogs and the view of the fireworks display on the National Mall. Though from their distance, it would be more like the view of a postage stamp.

Steve keeps saying kind things like you don’t have to, and Bucky keeps saying that he’s fine.  He’s well aware that, really, he’s not, but that’s beside the point.  Bucky’s been feeling alright physically.  The nightmares are no more or less than usual.  He hasn’t had a panic attack since May.  When Sam gave him the brief low-down on depression, he’d said it’s common.  It happens to a lot of people.  And it probably doesn’t keep them from hosting birthday parties for their significant others.

Steve’s taken off on his bike to pick up provisions from the grocery store, and Bucky’s making himself lunch.  He spreads mayonnaise and mustard on bread, carefully lines up turkey slices, and adds a piece of iceberg lettuce.  Bucky assembles the sandwich and cuts it in half before washing the knife and giving the kitchen a tidy.  Finally, he takes his plate to the table to munch while he re-reads the article on Egyptian mummies he’s bookmarked in his newly-subscribed Smithsonian magazine.

Bucky only gets through half his sandwich before a headache starts stealing his appetite and screwing his concentration.  He’s peering at a photograph of hieroglyphics from the inner walls of one of the pyramids, but somehow his mind’s showing him visions of busy Arabic-speaking marketplace folks falling at the end of his rifle.  And the sound…it’s as if he’s right there, hearing the shots and feeling the recoil.

But, no.  He’s in the townhouse.  Eating lunch.  Reading his magazine.

Bucky’s not hungry anymore.  He takes his plate to the counter and digs in the drawer for a roll of cling wrap.  He tears off a sheet with hands that are starting to shake and is halfway to draping it over the sandwich remnants when Bucky’s mind fires him another gunshot and he jerks to one side, the plastic sticking to itself and becoming useless.

He’s opening the cupboard under the sink, but can’t remember why.  Then Bucky reaches for the radio, but he doesn’t know the number for the station he wants.  His head’s throbbing and his vision’s blurry and he’s not sure how he makes it to the couch, but it’s a relief to have the soft upholstery under his face.

Eventually, there’s the sound of the front door scraping open.  The rustling of plastic bags.  The fridge opening and closing.  Then, Steve’s voice.  “Buck?”

Bucky exhales loudly by way of response.

Steve’s footsteps approach, and he murmurs, “Hey.”  Bucky can feel his hand hovering millimeters from his own fingers.  “Can I touch you?” Steve whispers.

Bucky breathes out again to give consent.

“Ok,” Steve rubs his back.  “You’re safe, ok?  You’re with me.”

Feeling somewhat grounded, Bucky rolls to face Steve and squint at him.  It seems a lot brighter in the living room than it was when he first lay down.

“Hey,” Steve says.

“Hey,” Bucky echoes, trying not to let pain leach into his voice.

“What’s going on?”

“Head fucking hurts,” Bucky says.  “And I keep hearing shit…”

“Aw, babe,” Steve whispers sympathetically.  “It’s the kids across the street.  They’re shooting off their fireworks already.  Probably breaking a million city ordinances…”

“Yeah, I figured,” Bucky says.  Internally, he’s raising his eyebrows with sudden comprehension.  He’d forgotten that people…do that.  He doesn’t want to sound stupid, so he says the first (stupid) thing that comes to mind.  “I think I broke the radio.”

Steve looks back to the kitchen.  “It might be ok,” he says.  “The tuner’s just knocked off, I think.  Were you looking for your station?”

“Yeah,” Bucky mutters.  “Every station’s playing fucking Justin Bieber.”  It’s his standby joke for why he prefers classic rock to pop hits.  He’s not actually sure what the speakers are spitting under the fuzz.

Steve laughs, but it’s drowned out with another sizzling boom.

Bucky curls into a fetal position, trying to discern whether the sound came from outside or inside his head.

“It’s ok,” Steve soothes.  “It’s those damn asshole kids.”

Bucky nods and keeps his eyes shut.

“Do you still want your music?  Or would that bother your head?”

“Yeah.  Music,” Bucky grunts out.  That’ll give him something to focus on.

“Ok, I’ll get the radio fixed up here…”  Steve pats his shoulder.

A few seconds later, Patty Smyth is filling the room.

Shootin at the walls of heartache

Bang, bang

I am the warrior…

“This ok?” Steve asks

“Fine,” Bucky says.

A second later, “Can I put this away?  Your lunch?”

“Yeah,” Bucky answers.  “Cling wrap’s broken too.”

He lays there, slightly dazed, mentally repeating each word of the song to keep himself focused on something he knows is real.

Then Steve’s back beside him.  “Hey, Buck, we don’t have to do this.”

“Hm?”

Steve sighs.  Explains it could be better to cancel the party.

“No,” Bucky says, propping himself up on his stump arm.  “It’s your birthday.  I’m gonna be fine.”  His head throbs, and he scrubs his hand over his eyebrows.

“Hey, if you’re not feeling good—“

“I’ll be fine.”  Bucky comes up to a seated position and slouches into the couch cushions.  “We’ve got time.”  He squints at the clock, but he can’t read the numbers, so he flicks his gaze out the window instead.

Another loud pop sounds, and Bucky feels the color drain from his face as pain and nausea solidify into a lump in his throat.  “Yeah, maybe I’ll just go to bed for a while.”  He gets unsteadily to his feet and heads for the stairs.

“Can I get you anything?  Excedrin?” Steve asks.

“No, just keep on, whatever you’re…” He loses his train of thought.  “I’ll be fine.”

Bucky closes the bedroom door and flops onto the mattress, curling onto his side and burying his face in Steve’s pillow.

Maybe he sleeps for a while, but Bucky can’t be sure.  He does know that the next time he’s aware, he’s struggling to flee.  He’s under fire, he can hear the enemy gunshots, and somehow he’s weaponless…

Bucky pushes the window open, pops out the screen, and parkours his way down the dusty white siding to the ground below.  He dashes behind a bank of bushes for cover and tries to decide whether the desire to run or vomit is more urgent.

I need to go back home.  Back to Steve, Bucky thinks.  But then suddenly he’s in the park and all the Frisbee-playing dads look like enemy operatives, so he gives in to the distraction and jumps a fence to take cover.  But then he’s in somebody’s yard, and he has to jump the fence again, and by that time he’s so fucking dizzy he has to sit down on the edge of the sidewalk until he hears another loud noise and the cycle starts again.

It’s almost dark when Bucky finally can’t go on anymore.  He's standing in the vacant lot beside a strip of stores and restaurants, holding the wall of the pizza place and puking into the dirt, almost blind and completely concussed.  He’s about to fall (and probably lose consciousness) when all of a sudden there’s a little high-pitched voice bobbing around his waist and interfering with his hallucinations.

“Are you sick?  Are you ok?  What’s wrong with you?”

But Bucky’s got the song stuck in his head, over the backbeat of explosions…

Shootin at the walls of heartache…

“Do you need a doctor?”

Bang, bang…

“Does your arm hurt?”

I am the warrior…

What was the question?  “No, my fucking head…”  Wait, he’s not supposed to cuss around kids.  Is this a kid?

“Is that why you barfed?”  Definitely a kid.

God, how do you explain a goddamn migraine to a kid?  It turns out, you don’t.  “Yeah,” Bucky croaks, jamming his thumb into his eye as if that will actually bring his vision back.

Somebody’s yelling.  Bucky cringes.

“What’s your name?”

“James.”

Somebody else is yelling.

I am the warrior…

No, somebody’s talking.  He missed something.  “Huh?”

“Are you a homeless vet?” the kid asks.

Bucky doesn’t get it.  He inches his head around to look at her, but he can only get a silhouette.  She repeats herself, and Bucky cobbles together an answer.  “No.  Well, kind of.  I have a home.”  He really feels like he’s going to throw up again.

“You should go home,” she suggests.

“Yeah, well…” It turns into a muddled explanation of the birthday party and Steve and…things.  Bucky's sensitive about his relationship, but to the little girl, blissfully growing up in post Obergefell v. Hodges America, everything seems fine.

Another explosion sounds, and Bucky cowers under his arm.  "Jesus...Fuck."

"It's just a firework," the little girl informs.  

Bucky's overwhelmed with relief that she can hear it too.  "God, I know.  But it hurts.  Makes me remember bad shit.  Stuff."  It's painfully obvious he doesn't know how to behave around kids.

"Like, war?" the girl asks.  She rattles off an incomplete list of different historical military events, none of which captures Bucky's past.  But, the sentiment and baseline knowledge are definitely there.

Bucky nods.  

Then she pipes up again, but more somber this time.  "Is that how you lost your arm?"

Bucky can feel her hovering inches from his stump shoulder, and in a burst of confused inspiration, he says, "You can touch it."

He half expects her to recoil and run away.  But the little girl softly runs her fingers down the sleeve of Bucky's T-shirt and across the scarred flesh beneath.  Then they stay quiet for a few minutes.

Bucky can hear running footsteps.  Evacuating civilians?  Advancing enemies?  Bucky raises his head and peels his aura-stricken eyes open to see a couple of kids, maybe a little older than the girl, running around with sparklers.  He suddenly remembers Steve's explanation of "asshole kids with fireworks" from earlier, and Bucky's torn between oh, them and maybe they're not so bad.

The kid follows Bucky's gaze and explains that they're her brothers.  Then she asks, "What's your boyfriend's name?"

Bucky tells her.

"Does he love you?"  This is getting profound.

"Yeah..."

"With one arm?"

"...Yeah..."

"Then he's gonna love you even though you got sick on his birthday."  

It's so lame and cute and perfect that Bucky almost laughs when he says, "Yeah.  I know."

The big brothers are yelling at their sister again, trying to get her to come light a sparkler.  Bucky tries to shake her off, tells her to go play.

She goes for a moment, but then she's back with a sparkler for Bucky as well.

They watch the goldish sparks fly in the early darkness.  Then Bucky hears, from a ways down the sidewalk, "Buck!"

It's Steve.  He's there in a second, and Bucky gives the girl his sparkler so he can stand up and stumble into Steve's chest.

Steve makes sure he's ok, then holds Bucky while he calls Sam.  Bucky remembers again that they have houseguests.  Shit.

Bucky tries to apologize, and the little girl tries to explain to Steve all of what's happened, and then Sam and Nat and Clint and Laura and Tony and Pepper and seemingly everyone Bucky knows is gathered around him saying soothing things and patting him on the back.  Laura manages to grab Bucky by the shoulders, feel his temperature, and force him to admit he still feels like shit.  She makes him sit down, take Excedrin, and drink some water.

They all sit in the dirt, like they're around a nonexistent campfire, and giggle at nothing for a while.

Then the booming starts up again, but it's more muted and distant.  Like rolling thunder.  It's the fireworks display on the National Mall, tiny and far away from their suburb.  Steve pats Bucky's shoulder and asks him if he needs to go home.

Bucky does, but not right away.  He wants to watch the show.  And wish Steve a happy birthday.

The first time Bucky and Steve host a party, they end up sitting in a vacant lot late into the night.  And they can't say it's completely not enjoyable.