#or what if lucian is just really sad still

[trialbywombaat]

Maddie always walked so slowly. She was taller and older than him, but she still couldn’t keep up. So he always made up little games as he walked.

Hop on his right leg. Jump. Hop on his left leg. Jump.

‘Has anyone ever died in our house?’ he asked as they walked.

Hop. Jump. Hop.

He turned around, wondering why she hadn’t answered his question.

She smiled at him. ‘Why do you ask?’

Her voice sounded funny.

He shrugged. ‘Lucian told me that a baby died at his house once. He said that he could hear her ghost crying at night time.’

‘Lucian has a big imagination,’ Maddie said.

She was probably right. He was pretty sure she knew everything.

‘I told him that I think we must have a ghost, too.’

‘And what makes you think that?’ she asked.

He paused, waiting for her to catch up with him. ‘I hear crying at night too, sometimes,’ he told her. ‘I think it’s an old lady, maybe.’

‘It might be the wind,’ Maddie said. She had caught up with him now, and Evan saw that her eyes were a bit red. And she was sniffling a little, too. Maybe she was getting sick.

‘Everyone in our house always seems sad,’ he continued.

‘I’m not always sad,’ Maddie told him. ‘I’m happy right now.’

‘That’s because we’re not at home, where the ghost is,’ he said.

‘I’m happy at home, too,’ she said.

Maybe she was. She always seemed happy when they played together. But sometimes she seemed really sad.

‘Also, all of my things keep going missing, and I find them in all the wrong places,’ he added. He'd just thought of it then, while they were walking, and his chest puffed out with pride as he said it. Maddie would definitely agree that there was a ghost now. He'd have to remember to tell Lucian that bit too.

But Maddie laughed. ‘That’s not a ghost, silly,’ she said. ‘You just have such a busy brain that sometimes you can’t remember little things, like where you put your shoes.’

Evan considered it. ‘I do have a very busy brain,’ he agreed.

He spotted their house at the end of the lane, and knew that he was allowed to run now. That was Maddie’s rule.

‘I’ll race you home!’ he called out behind him, his feet already pounding against the dirt as he bounded off ahead of her.

A short passage from my (Bucktommy) WIP - King of the Lost Boys. You can read up to chapter fifteen here.

[tetsunabouquet]

Titan Shifters; Eren Yeager X Reader

A/N: Like I mentioned on my blog, I watched a Rise Of The Lycans analysis a few days ago and this prompted me to go on a rewatch. I am blaming this fic on Lucian.

You were jittering with nerves, being assigned to help with Eren's titan shifting experiments so they could compare your data. You were really intrigued by him. Born of human parents, yet being able to shift into a titan. Unlike you. You were the prized secret of the Survey Corps, the secret they had been hiding from the military police since your birth. The story they told was that they found you as a baby during their expedition, miraculously alive and the Survey Corps insisted into adopting you at their base under the excuse they had grown attached to you. The real truth was much more strange, and horrifying. On a scouting mission, they encountered a few titans, one acting more strangely then the rest. At first, they thought it was an Abnormal, until it started to evaporate on its own. In the middle of the smoke and bones, was a baby. You. The daughter of a titan and completely looking like a normal human baby. Keith Shadis who had been the Commander at the time, looked at the baby in his arms and he did not have it in him to surrender you to the Military Police and what kind of tests they might do to a tiny little baby. Keith Shadis was a hard man, but not heartless. As imperfect as he was, he had been the only father you'd ever known and you were sad to see him go. But he said it was for the best, especially after that event on your 8th birthday which had transpired a year before the fall of Shiganshina, when you had transformed into a 12 meter titan by accident. It seemed like you were some kind of half-titan, Hange would later conclude. Erwin had been good to you after he came into charge at the Survey Corps and Levi thankfully managed to keep Hange under control who continued to creep you out. But you missed Keith all the same. Getting a new piece of the puzzle of the titan mystery and your own, had made you look forward to meeting the boy. You had not nearly expected him to be so cute and looking like he would grow into a very handsome man. Needless to say, you had a slight crush and the idea of comparing your titan form to his, just flustered you beyond belief.

Things had turnt out interesting, like finding out Eren needed to self harm and focus in order to shift. You never did, you only needed to focus on a woman you presumed had been your mother's human form. She would often come to you in your dreams and you very vividly remembered blowing out the birthday candles on your eight birthday, thinking of that woman and how she never got to see you grow up before you transformed. Eren's titan had a different smell then the other titans you've encountered before. He still smelt human after turning into a titan. Hange had found it marvellous and had proceeded to question you why you never said titans smelt different to you and how humans smelt like. This was exactly why you never told Hange anything, because she would bombard you with questions that gave a headache. When she finally backed down, you had the opportunity to sit down in peace. Much to your surprise, Eren sat down next to you. "She finally left you off the hook huh?" He remarked and you chuckled. "Seems so." "How have you endured her for so long?" Eren asked which made you sigh with the weight of tolerating Hange for years. "I suppose it's my angelic patience." You offered as you looked up at the sun that hung low in the sky. "I swear she can be so creepy, like the way she measures my titan form every month as mine does ages alongside me. It gives me the icks." "So your titan underwent puberty? Like…" Eren looked a little red faced but continued bluntly, "it didn't always have boobs?" You stuttered with an even redder face,"Just wh-what were you l-looking at?!" "I'm a boy you know, and you're hot." Eren clarified and you might as well have fainted on the spot. Eren Yeager certainly changed your life for good, that's for sure.

[vice-president-galade]

Thank you @vonlipvig for tagging me!

Last song: Endgame #2, Chess in Concert (2008)

Favorite color: Yellow? Probably yellow.

Last book: A Christmas Carol, by some dude named Charles Dickens (reread). I think the last new book I finished was Dr. Anthony Fauci's memoir. I am currently reading Is She Really Going Out With Him by Sophie Cousens (who writes clever romance novels that are perfect for when that's what one wants)

Last Movie: I'm pretty sure I haven't seen a *new* movie (that doesn't involve Curious George or Elmo) since Oppenheimer, which is kind of sad. Last rewatch is either Clue or Back to the Future.

Last TV Show: Night Court (the new one!) I still need to watch the new Cobra Kai epsiodes that came out a couple weeks ago. On the to-watch list are The Terror (because Jared Harris <3) and Scandal (because @vonlipvig hooked me with recaps of Cyrus's adventures)

Sweet/Spicy/Savor: I refuse to answer this.

Relationship status: Married, with two kids

Last thing I googled: Difference between needlepoint and cross stitch (my friend does one of them but I can never remember which because I know absolutely nothing about sewing)

Current Obsession: My Suzerain (okay, Lucian <3) obsession has never really waned, but it's been kicked back up into high gear again. I might even start another run to get some writing inspo to finish the next chapter of my fic

Looking forward to: Back to the Future: The Musical in just over five weeks!!

[g0ttal0ve101]

To Catch a Predator

Note: I HAD TO DO IT TO THEM. also like. this takes place a little before lucian was into killing predators ok? ok. tw: mentions of sa, violence, and overall disturbing topics.

████████████████████

DING-DONG.

DING-DONG.

The doorbell reverberated throughout the home’s interior. Outside on the porch was a forty three year old man by the name of Richard Walten, a father of two and a construction worker for Woodlyn City. Today he was not here to meet with a citizen in need of his labor - Even if that’s what he told his wife and children before walking out the door. He was there to meet a twelve year old girl.

Rich found her on a dating app. With long blonde hair and sweet doe eyes, she posed in her pictures innocently enough. That’s not what our guest was really looking at though. His eyes were directed on her nice ass, her big tits, and her tiny waist. When talking to her in a chat room, he could only imagine what she was like in bed. It was a shameful thought for a man his age to be having, but an even worse idea whenever he took into consideration that she was an innocent virgin. And yet, he still listed the sex acts he would like to preform on her in great detail.

Now he stood at the doorway of what he believed to be a twelve year old’s house. He knew her parents would be gone all night, he knew she would be helpless, and he knew that she was up for having sex with him if he pushed hard enough. The thought of that drove him crazy. He couldn’t wait to get inside and finally meet her.

The door creaked opened. Rich blankly stared into the dark entry way before seeing the figure of who he thought to be Tia waiting for him. She coaxed him inside and rushed down the hall, presumably a bit nervous to get too close yet. That was fine. He wouldn’t push anything she didn’t feel comfortable with.

“Come on in, Rich! I made some cookies!”

She was real. With a racing heart and a throbbing hard on, the old man wandered behind her without much thought. He didn’t think of his wife or children while sitting down at the dining room table, watching as the blonde scurried away from him and onto the other side of the table. Her ass looked bigger than they were in the photos. Even hotter.

“How was the drive?” Tia cooed with a warm grin, her voice as delicate as a little butterfly.

Picking at his nails and trying to relax, he leaned back into the chair with a long sigh. “It was fine! I mean, just fine.”

She giggled and paused for a moment, presumably calculating the next topic she wanted to speak on. “Haha, it’s so nice to see you! Sorry, I’m just a little nervous right now.”

“Can I get a hug?” He proposed, his voice laced with poisonous intoxication. She let out another ring of anxious laughter.

“Well, let’s just wait a little longer before that…”

“Just a hug?”

“Haha, I’m just nervous, I don’t know! I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s alright.” He consoled her, lifting the box of alcohol he had on his lap onto the countertop for her eyes to wander. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t wanna do.”

Tia avoided his eyes. She seemed almost sad in those few moments. “So, what kinda alcohol is this?” She changed the subject quickly, as if not to think about it too much. Rich was getting the impression she was having second thoughts.

“Hard lemonade since you said you haven’t drank much before. It’s a nice one to ease into.”

Tucking her blonde hair behind her ear, she ran her fingers across the label. “Really? Cool. I knew I could count on you. Oh! But what about protection? You brought some, right?”

Rich chuckled under his breath. “Yep. I wouldn’t do anything without one.”

That seemed to be the trigger to relax her tense muscles. Moving away from the other side of the table, she practically marched over to his seat. His heart raced. He had a feeling he knew where she was going with this already.

“Okay, we can hug now. I’m not nervous anymore.”

It was almost too good to be true. Wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her in for a tight embrace, he smiled sickeningly. He could feel her breasts against his figure, her small frame pressed against his-

Pain. An overwhelming amount of pain suddenly coursed through his stomach as he hurriedly backed away and fell to the floor. Blood sprayed out of the gaps of his fingers, some pouring from his lips as he tried to comprehend what was happening. Tia was holding a knife. A knife in which had plummeted into his belly moments before.

“Thought you said you had protection, bitch!” Tia bursted into hoarse hysterical laughter, twirling the blade between her fingers. “Don’t worry. I’ll be gentle.”

████████████████████

DING-DONG.

DING-DONG.

The doorbell reverberated throughout the home’s interior. Outside on the porch was a fifty seven year old man by the name of Tony Lance, a cashier in one of Woodlyn City’s local grocery stores. Today he was not going to visit his mother in the hospital like he told his wife; he was instead prepared to meet a twelve year old boy he spoke to on the internet.

Wandering around dating sites desperate to speak to a young man and release all of his pent-up sexual desires, he came across the perfect profile. A boy, clearly much younger than eighteen, had posted a variety of pictures on his page and invited people to message him. By the time he had scrolled through all of his photos, Tony had already masturbated twice. He mustered up the courage to speak with him without even reading his profile’s bio.

That’s right. He had lied in the chat room and told the boy that he was thirty seven. In reality, he was fifty seven. That simple lie was simply a deterrent to justify himself in the end, trying to seem closer in age with the kid. Disgusting, but that was neither here nor there. What mattered now was that he was standing on the front porch, eager to go inside and see if he could really score with an inexperienced virgin boy.

The door creaked open. Tony forced his way inside the doorway without hesitation, wanting to see the boy before he made the final decision on whether or not to follow through with his plans. When he saw the figure of a young boy with a stunned expression spread across his face, he couldn’t help but grin. He was real.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” Tony sneered, practically shaking from excitement whenever staring into those big blue eyes. He remembered them from the webpage.

Backing away instinctively, the boy giggled nervously. “It’s okay! Come on in!”

Before he could tell him to wait, the boy had already scurried down the hall and into what Tony believed to be the kitchen. He sighed impatiently. Even just a simple hug would have done great wonders for him - He could’ve felt just how tiny that slutty waist of his was.

Standing by the dining room table nervously, the elderly man awaited for his young date to converse with him. His hands trembled as he reached into his pockets, pulling out the keys and wallet he had lodged in there. Deeper within, he brought a few condoms to last the whole night.

“How’s your day been?”

“What’s that?” Tony questioned, his hearing fading from old age.

Repeating himself with a giggle, the boy called to him again. “How’s your day been, mister?”

“Good, how about you?”

“Good! Um…so…what do you wanna do?”

Tony smirked a little from the question. “Well, I thought we could smoke a little pot first.”

That’s right. Tony promised the boy that he would bring marijuana for them to smoke before they had sex. Not because he wanted him to have fun - he didn’t care either way - but because he wanted the boy to be too high to tell him no. If that were the case, he would be able to do anything he wanted to him, including some sex acts that were almost unthinkable.

Shaking the thought from the front of his mind, the man chuckled to himself. “Yeah…you wanna smoke it now?”

“Uh, sure! I-I just…um…”

“What’s the matter?”

“I’m nervous, is all. Did you bring any condoms?”

“Come on over here and I’ll show you what I brought.” His voice was disgustingly sweet as he stood from his seat, almost seeming like he was going to lunge toward him.

The sound of a metal bat launching into his skull was the last thing he heard before falling unconscious.

████████████████████

The sound of whimpering and crying echoed throughout the dark basement. With a pounding head and blurry vision, Tony peeled open his eyes to examine his surroundings. It was cold, musty, and damp as he laid on the floor like this, tied by the ankle to a pole in the middle of the room. Once his vision evened out, he could see a bright light coming from an incinerator, a table filled with weapons, and the figure of a man sprawled out on the floor. Upon taking a closer look, Tony realized that the man had no face. He let out a shriek of terror and crawled as far as he could away from him.

“HOLY SHIT!” He screamed, yanking on the chains that restrained him. It was no use. The steel cuff around his ankle was in no position to even wiggle around, let alone break free. It felt like all the blood circulation was cutting off by the second.

His heart pounded out of his chest as a bright light suddenly blinded him from up the stairwell, two silhouettes standing at the top. He could hear them exchanging conversation as they came down the stairs, their words muffled and slurring together horrendously. His hearing must have gotten worse from the impact against his head.

“What’s going on? Wh-Who are you?!”

With a sick burst of laughter, the taller figure launched another fist into his jaw. He fell backward and began coughing up his own saliva, a tooth now completely detached from his gums. He spit it out onto the floor with a sob.

“Listen, I wasn’t h-here to do anything! I just wanted to help him!” Tony squealed like a sweaty pig on the chopping block for dinner that evening. The two figures simply stared at him with sick grins on their faces. Only then did he realize that the shorter one was the boy he spoke to online - Perhaps the young woman beside him was related somehow? Either way, he had to think of some excuse to get out of this mess. “A-Are you his older sister? You must be, right?”

Grabbing what was left of his gray oily hair, Mia lifted his skull upward with a horrific grin spread across her pretty face. “Something like that. What about you? Why’re you here?”

Tony stammered over his words. Every time he failed to produce an excuse, Mia launched the heel of her combat boot into his chest. It was only then that he noticed they had spikes on them.

“I-I wanted to help him! I know how hard it i-is to be gay that young and…and I wanted to guide him through it!” He blubbered like a newborn. Although, it didn’t seem to do much to change his circumstances. Both of the teens stared down at him with so much disgust that he felt degraded.

“By making him suck your cock? Seriously? He said he was twelve.”

“No, he didn’t! He said he was seventeen!”

That lie earned him a stomp right on the cock he praised so much about. He let out a wail of utter pain before she continued her interrogation. “Here, he’ll read the chat logs right now, dumbass. And if he says anything other than seventeen, I’m gonna tear your insides out.”

Lucian’s eyes widened. He stared down at the device trembling in his hands and swallowed against the limp in his throat, almost feeling guilty for restating the horrible words spread on the screen. It wasn’t until Mia turned to him with a frown that he suddenly felt a surge of energy circulate through his voice box.

“You can read it now.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Lucian stammered and scrolled to the part of the conversation where he gave his age to the predator. “You asked if I wanted to pleasure you…to kiss and cuddle you. I told you I was twelve immediately after. Then, you go onto saying I looked eighteen and you were thirty seve-!”

Interjecting her harsh words into his, Mia grabbed the man’s throat and forced him to lift his head upward so he could face her. “You ain’t thirty seven. You’re pushing sixty. What does he say after that, Lu?”

Lu. Mia called him Lu. With a spiral of emotions rising in his chest, Lucian’s voice wavered as he read out the next messages. “You asked me if I liked oral. I told you I didn’t know what it was and you said…sucking…” His mouth dry as he stared at the word. In order not to disappoint Mia, he tried again. This time, reading the exact message word for word. “…Sucking…cock. You asked ‘are you a virgin?’ When I said yes and that I only kissed a guy before, you asked ‘did it make you hard?’”

“It’s just playful chat!” Tony whined like a baby caught for stealing out of the cookie jar. His hands were painted red from guilt. “I wouldn’t have done anything honestly! I just wanted to see how he would respond…”

Mia spared a glance at Lucian again. Not because she was irritated with his performance like he thought she was, but because she wanted to make sure he was okay. His face was flushed from the heat running through his veins. She didn’t like that. She didn’t like it at all.

“You heard him. He didn’t say seventeen once.”

“Please! Please don’t do this! I-I have money, we can work this o-!”

Her knuckles launched into his face again. Before he could recover from the attack, she put her blade up to bare abdomen and began stroking the tip against his skin. Blood streamed from the shallow cuts she made. God knows how much worse it would be once she actually got serious.

Lucian watched intently with a tiny smile. His lips quivered a bit from speaking of such foul conversation, but he couldn’t help but to feel a bit proud of himself. A few years ago, he wouldn’t have been able to even look at the chat without crying. Now, he was conducting them and bringing these predators to justice with someone he looked up to.

“You ever used a chainsaw, Lu?”

Lucian’s eyes lit up. It was a sudden question but one he was sure to have an answer to. “N-No, ma’am. I mean…I’ve seen one used but…”

Dropping the knife with a small clatter against the pavement, Mia got up from her knees with a mischievous grin resting on her freckled face. Lucian blinked a few times in awe of how pretty she was. Carl was really a lucky guy.

“I’m gonna teach you how to use one today.”

“Really?” Lucian’s heart raced inside his ribcage from the sudden change of plans. Usually she tortured the guys with him watching closely from behind. They never exchanged many words with each other either - Only few rings of laughter and degrading the predator they caught. This opportunity wasn’t something he wanted to pass up.

Marching over to the weaponry table, Mia reached underneath it and pulled out a large bag. Both Tony and Lucian had a feeling they knew what was contained inside it. The man sobbed and screamed for mercy as the white-haired boy traced her every movement like a hawk.

Once the fabric unzipped, she pulled out the weapon by its handle. The blade was sharper than ever. Lucian could hardly look at it without feeling a bit intimidated. It was a huge tool. Seriously huge. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to even lift it up like she wanted him to.

It felt like mere seconds before Mia approached him from behind, leveling the chainsaw into his hands while supporting his back with her own frame. In a sense, Lucian felt more secure that way - But he was still incredibly nervous in case he messed up.

“C’mon. I’ll help you.” She assured him, her head nearly resting on his shoulder whenever she leaned in to do so. He nodded and placed his hands onto the handle, only for her calloused palms to grasp over top of them. That way, she’d still be able to control the movement if it got too out of hand. “Thatta boy. Look how perfect you hold that chainsaw,” she hummed with an adoring smile. He smiled too. She was so cool.

The happiness he once felt left his body as his eyes darted toward the man he would slaughter in the matter of seconds. He couldn’t bear to look him in the face, staring at the cracked stone floor. At least then, he couldn’t see how much it hurt whenever the blade dug its way inside.

Mia took notice of his visions. She understood if he was nervous but at the same time, she didn’t want him to miss out on how awesome it was going to be to murder the fuck out of him. So, in order to ease him up to it, she tried reminding him of what Tony did.

“Twelve years old, huh? Maybe we should take twelve limbs then.” She snickered with a sick sneer on her face.

“LET ME GO!” The man hollered with barely enough breath to fill his lungs. “LET ME GO, PLEASE! I’M SORRY! I’M SO SORRY!” His hand reached Lucian’s legs. He groped his shins while trying to pull himself upward, panting and wheezing. “H-Have mercy…I have a family…”

Lucian’s eyes did not shift from his face. He could remember the expression his stepfather made whenever he begged for his life. Why, he wondered, did they all look the same? If that was the case, maybe Tony wore the same expression Ryan did whenever he was being pleased by a boy like him.

“Shut the fuck up, you disgusting manwhore,” Mia kicked his head to shove him away from Lucian’s legs he was previously groping. “A family? Your first wife divorced you and took the kids after she found all the child porn you had. What the fuck are you talking about?”

Lucian’s eyes widened. How many children had he done this to? How many cried for their mothers and fathers? How many? His throat felt choked as he asked himself these questions. Had he known this man brutally took away the innocence of other children, he would have started the chainsaw a long time ago.

But he was afraid. He was afraid to do it and becoming something far worse than what Tony was.

Mia pushed it again. “C’mon, let’s do it. Let’s make him scream and beg like a little perra.”

“…I…” Lucian couldn’t bear to look him in the eyes. His fingers trembled around the chainsaw. “I don’t want to…he said he’s so-sorry…”

There was that innocent sweetheart that everyone took advantage of. It made Mia sick to the stomach to think about how many people had used his na��ve natures against him. All they had to do was throw a pity party and give a weak ass apology for Lucian to break down in tears and forgive them. Not this time. She wouldn’t let him get away this time.

“You don’t have to forgive him. You don’t have to forgive any of them.”

Before he could respond to those intoxicating words, the chainsaw reeled on with a loud screech. Blood sprayed onto the ceiling of the basement as Tony let out a wail of horror, staring into Lucian’s eyes as if he were responsible for it all. Lucian tried to pull the blade from his chest, but Mia lurched him forward to hand another blow. The blood fountain grew thick as his insides were shredding all over. His bones, his muscles, his organs - They were torn apart. The screaming stopped after seconds but Mia didn’t release Lucian from her grasp. Instead, she lifted the blade onto Tony’s neck and began to decapitate him.

His head flew off his shoulders with a sickening splat, relieving them of their goal. Mia laughed hoarsely before dropping the weapon to the ground, freeing Lucian from her arms.

“Hahah! You’re a natural!” She praised him, stroking her hand against his fluffy hair. She was taken aback when feeling so soft it was. “How do you feel? That was pretty dope, wasn’t it?”

Silence. Mia began to worry that she had pushed him a bit too far. Then again, even if she did, she couldn’t picture herself apologizing. That man deserved it. If Lucian didn’t want to get dirty, he shouldn’t have offered to help her. And yet, at the same time, she did feel a tad guilty. Maybe she should’ve gotten a better clearance? Maybe she should’ve asked if he was sure?

Before she spiraled too much, she spotted the expression on his face. With a ring of sweet laughter, he wrapped his arms around Mia’s waist and embraced her. “Hahah, that was awesome! We should do that every time! For the next guy, we should cut for even longer!”

Hesitantly, she pushed him in closer by placing her palm to the back of his skull. Strangely enough, she didn’t feel awkward like she usually did whenever receiving a hug from a guy. It was like Lucian was able to override any sort of negative connotation she had towards men in general. Because unlike most boys, Lucian didn’t think like that. When he reached for a hug, he didn’t care about Mia’s gorgeous body - He only cared about her. Maybe that’s why she held him longer and patted his head; Lucian was just her little sidekick, almost like a little brother.

“Yeah, whatever. Just don’t start feeling sorry for them again.”

Releasing her, Lucian giggled to himself a little. “Yes, ma’am.”

Mia flicked him in the forehead, similar to how she scolds Carl for saying something negative about himself. Lucian whined and tried to protect himself, smiling like an idiot.

“My name’s Mia. Not ma’am. You act like I’m bitchy old lady or something.” She sneered. With a playful shove to Lucian’s shoulder, she dragged the corpse into the back room where they kept the rest. “But good job, Lu.”

Lucian blushed a little from the compliment. Receiving such kind words from his idol was like a dream come true. “…Thank you, Mia.”

[thearchmanofgreenfield]

All five of them were so caught by surprise that Lucian almost feel over. For a moment, he was convinced that it was his father, it took him a few seconds to register that the voice sounded more childish than any adult voice. But he wasn’t the only one, for he saw even saw Joe jerk his head and take a step back.

“AH!” they all said in unison. But as Lucian looked at the entrance to the hallway he realized who was actually standing there. For at the entrance to the hallway stood Luin, standing straight in a brown shirt and amber coat with a book in his hand. Looking confused as to Lucian and the others reaction.

“What?” he asked tilting his head curiously.

“What are you doing here?” Lucian shouted after taking a deep breath to calm himself.

“That’s what I want to know!” Luin answered back without hesitation. “Isn’t that your father’s study? Why are you trying to break into it?”

“That’s…none of your business!” said Lucian, finding it difficult to come up with a suitable reason to justify his actions. But his response only seemed to make Lucian more curious. Lucian realized he needed to find a way to make him leave. “Why are you awake this early? And what are you doing carrying a book around the house? I thought recluses didn’t like crawling out of their caves,”

“Excuse me!” said Luin, offended by Lucian’s remarks. “But this book isn’t for me, it’s for Elliott. I told him I’d show him of my favorites and see if he shares my taste”

The mentioning of Elliott attracted the attention of the Hatlys, who both looked Luin with confusion. “Elliott? What’s he doing with you? He’s supposed to be asleep,” said Laura. Luin scoffed, “He snuck out of his room and came to see me after you both left him alone. You should know not to do that. It almost seems…negligent”

Both Hatlys seemed to take great offense with that statement. Laura seemed furious. “How dare you accuse us of such things! Do you know who you’re talking to?”

Luin did not waver. “I do. But luckily Elli enjoys my company more than yours. So he was not too sad about it.”

The Hatlys were fuming. But Lucian knew that they didn’t have time to argue. “That’s all well and good, so why don’t you go back to wherever you came from and leave us be!” he said trying to shoo away his annoying cousin.

Luin laughed, which did not make Lucian happy. “Are you daft? Now that I’ve seen what you all are up to why would I just walk away?”

Lucian groaned and rolled his eyes. “What do you want? Do you expect us bribe you, is that it?” to which Luin simply grinned. He then began to walk closer to the group. “Tsk, tsk, dear cousin. Do you really think you can buy me? The fact that you tried confirms to me that what you’re up to isn’t very allowed,”

“Well, whatever we’re doing doesn’t concern you. And if you still wish for me to keep the secret of how you obtained that newspaper then I suggest you walk away and leave us be,” Lucian said, hoping that this might get him to go away. But alas, even this threat seemed to have little effect.

“Oh I doubt either my father or yours would care about an old newspaper when they find out you all have been colluding behind their backs”

The mention of the newspaper seemed to intrigue the others, particularly Joseph and Laura. “Hold on, you got that newspaper from him?” asked Laura.

“Yes”-replied Luin. “I told him I’d paid off the newspaper delivery boy to get me a copy. Now he’s trying to use my words to threaten me! How idiotic,” he said while narrowing his eyes at his cousin.

“Well either way,” Joe interjected, seemingly having had enough of the back and forth. “We do not have time to entertain this bespectacled imp. So either you go and or we make you go,”

Luin sighed. He finally seemed to get the message. He turned around to leave just as Lucian went back to trying to open the door, but stopped midway before turning his head back. “Well I could open that door for you, you know”

As expected, all five of them immediately turned to Luin again. “What?” asked Charlotte, interested in what Luin said. He simply shrugged casually. “I can open that door that you all are so desperately trying to get through. That is, if you let me stay”

Lucian raised his eyebrow. “I thought you said that Elliott was waiting for you,”

“Believe me,” said Luin. “If Elli has any good taste in literature, the books in my room should keep him preoccupied for hours. Besides, no offense to him, but this is far more interesting,”

Luin then approached the door while Lucian stepped aside. Lucian saw him peek his eye through the key hole as though were inspecting it. He then reached into his coat and grabbed a piece of wood shaped like a key.

“What are you doing?” Lucian asked, not understanding Luin’s train of thought.

“Something I learned from one of my adventure books,” said Luin while keep his focus on the lock. Lucian saw him insert the key into the key hole. He was still confused as to what he was attempting to do but then he saw him wave his hand close to the wooden key. He saw the wooden key break apart as Luin moved his fingers. He then saw the key change into a different shape. Lucian and the others watched with puzzlement as Luin turned the key and the lock opened. Luin turned the doorknob and swung open the door, leaving Lucian and the others both impressed and confused. Lucian looked at the key as Luin took it out; he saw that it looked completely different to what it looked like when Luin first inserted it.

“Clever,” he admitted. “You reshaped the key while it was still in the lock. I didn’t know you could do that,”

“Of course you didn’t” said Luin smugly. “I wouldn’t expect you to know something so basic even though you’re older than me,”

“Well at least I have some semblance of existence outside that library,” Lucian retorted. It seemed as though they were about to enter another argument. But fortunately the others seemed to have run out patience at that point.

“Well in any case, the door is open. So I suggest we go inside,” Joe interjected. He then swiftly pushed Lucian and Luin aside and went inside. Willow and the Hatly sisters followed him.

“So, what other rooms can you unlock using this?” asked Willow, stopping momentarily. Luin shrugged, “Theoretically can enter any room I please, as long as the lock can be turned by a wooden key”

“Hmmm,” Lucian heard Willow mummer as she walked into the room. Lucian walked in behind her with Luin being the last to enter. Luin then closed the door behind him.

Inside, the room itself was rather extravagant. The walls were dark red with a dark wood trim going along the bottom connecting it to the wooden floor. The room was quite large, with the centerpiece being a long mahogany table placed over an ornate carpet. Next to the table was an unlit fireplace and next to the fireplace was a thin bookshelf. Behind the table was also a window looking out onto the open street. However, the room’s most striking features was located above the fireplace. It was a portrait, large and detailed, showing Lucian’s current family. It hung above the mantel in an almost imposing manner, with nine faces including Lucian, Lily, the twin and his parents standing towards one side with his father holding a large almost six foot tall gold trident in his hands. Grandfather Wren was sitting in a chair in the center and Luin along with Lucian’s Uncle David standing on the other side of the portrait. They all stood staring at the center of the room in an intimidating fashion.

As they entered, Lucian noticed Joe’s attention immediately fixate on something situated on the other side of the room. He looked to see what it was and realized there was small steel safe, about two feet tall, tucked behind the table. Joseph immediately went to it, Lucian saw him fiddle around with the dial at the front while keeping his ear on the door, but it seemed as though his efforts were met with no results.

“What are you doing?” asked Charlotte.

“Trying to open this box” said Joe, “If Demon’s father was going to hide something, it would be right to assume he would hide it here”

The Hatlys sisters then joined him in trying to unlock the box. Meanwhile, Lucian saw Willow go and inspect the desk, where several books laid outstretched. But amidst all of this Lucian noticed Luin eye the bookcase suspiciously. Which once again confused him.

“What is it?” he asked raising his eyebrow.

“This bookcase, it seems…too neat” said Luin. Which did not make Lucian any less confused. “What do you mean ‘too neat’?” he asked, seeing that the bookcase had several books out of place and several books taken out of it and put on the table.

“Will you both stop discussing nonsense and help us open this?” asked Laura, seemingly getting frustrated at the fact that the safe would not open.

“There is something odd afoot here. It cannot be as simple as one safe,” said Luin, still pondering while staring at the bookcase.

“How would you know?” asked Charlotte. “Well, in my adventure books, no secret ever comes as easy as cracking a safe. There is always something hidden somewhere”

“Well WE do not live in a novel!” said Laura. Trying several different combinations. “There isn’t always a hidden layer of complexity to every trivial thing! So are you going to help us or not?”

Lucian heard Luin mummer under his breath. “Don’t forget who got you here in the first place,” then Willow spoke up, “But he does have a point” she said while holding an old book.

“What do you mean?” asked Lucian. Willow waved her hand and gestured him come closer. Lucian approached the table. Willow then directed him towards a book on the table. A book with a black leather over with gold letters. Lucian read the title written on the spine of the book, which read ‘The Circulion Code of Law’.  The outstretched book showed a page titled ‘The Higher-Circulion Official Confidentiality Act’. Lucian then looked at the book Willow was holding, the title read ‘Codes of Transmission and Communication’ and it showed to a page titled ‘The Circulion Cipher’.

“What is all this?” Lucian asked, scratching his head in confusion. “It seems like your father was trying to solve a code,” said Willow holding a sheet of paper up to Lucian’s face. Lucian looked at the paper and saw that it was full of half-scribbled letter and numbers, the meanings of which he did not know.

“It appears your father was deciphering something in that letter. According to the Code of Law, letters written under the Higher-Circulion Official Confidentially Act are written in Muso-Numeral Code. But I can’t find any code like that in this book” she said flipping through the book.

“So what? The letter is unsolvable. Undecipherable?” asked Lucian. Willow shrugged, “To know that we must find the letter”

“A letter that, may I remind you, is in this safe!” Joe exclaimed still being unable to open the safe.

“I am telling you that that’s not the right safe!” said Luin. “It cannot be that simple!”

Joe seemed to lose his patience. He stopped turning the combination lock and shot Luin a malicious glare. “I feel as though you have spent too much time dwelling in imaginary fantasies. If you wish to frivolously search for non-existent secrets then suggest you don’t pester us about it!” he then turned his attention to Lucian, “I suggest you control your little cousin. He’s only here because we let him be here”

Lucian saw Luin give him a sad look. But he simply shook his head. Luin seemed to take that personally since he switched his expression to anger before huffing and making his way over to the bookcase. Lucian then saw him turn the books one by one and truthfully, he found it quite intriguing.

“You’ll see. You’re wasting your time with the obviously fake safe,” he said aggressively flipping through the books. Joe chuckled, “We’ll see,”

Lucian and Willow exchanged glances and shrugged. Lucian saw the Hatly sister’s roll their eyes. Suddenly, when Luin flipped a book on the third shelf of the bookcase, Lucian heard an ominous clang. Like the sound of a gear turning. Then it was followed by a clank and the sound of screeching. Luin took a few steps back and gasped with joy as the sounds of machinery continued. Lucian followed the sound, as it seemed to travel through the wall from the bookcase to the mantel. He then heard the sound of something unlatching and, to his surprise; he saw the portrait above the fireplace move.

However, Luin did not waste any time. He quickly walked up to the portrait and pulled it, opening it like a small door revealing something hidden behind the painting. Lucian’s jaw dropped and so did the jaws of all the others. Joe looked scandalized. But Luin simply gave them a smug look of triumph.

“HA, see! I told you it was not that simple! That safe is most likely a decoy, made to deter would-be thieves like you all!” he said beaming with joy. Lucian had rarely seen him so happy while being outside the library. But Joe wasn’t about to admit anything. He simply straightened himself and looked down on Luin.

“I suppose the bespectacled imp can do something useful after all,” he said in a rather condescending that Lucian did not condone. He frowned at Joe and expressed his displeasure but Joe didn’t care. Meanwhile it was clear that Joe’s comment had hurt Luin, but not enough to make him waver. He simply stood with a smug grin on his face whilst the rest of the group focused their attention on the new safe.

Lucian noticed that this safe also had a combination lock. It was plated with gold and next to it was a golden handle. Above both on those was the symbol of the House of Demon, etched into the metal and embroidered with yet more gold.

“Well how are we supposed to open this?” asked Charlotte.

“Step aside” said Joe pushing Lucian and the others aside. He walked up to the safe and placed his ear on the door. “Let’s try this now,” he said as began to turn the dial. But after a few moments he took his ear off the safe and looked at it, baffled.

“That’s odd,” he said. “I can’t hear any locks turning”

“Hmm” scoffed Luin. “Perhaps your marvelous hearing isn’t as perfect as you boast”

Joseph shot a look of utter rage at Luin. Luin returned the same look. Meanwhile Lucian looked at the safe. His suspicious gaze fell on the symbol etched onto the metal. He then looked at the top of the mantel. He noticed that were a few suspicious red stains on it. Like raindrops.

“I have an idea,” he said suddenly. All eyes then turned to him. “What do you mean?” asked Laura.

“I need something sharp, like a needle or some other thing,” Lucian said hastily. The others looked at him with confused looks but luckily, they decided to listen. The Hatly sisters, Luin and Willow all started to look around the room for something sharp.

“What’s your plan here?” asked Joe, doubtfully.

“Perhaps that dial is also a decoy,” said Lucian. He then placed his hand on the symbol. “Perhaps the key is in this symbol. Perhaps we need to use the Flame to open it”

“A Flame Lock? Hmmm, interesting” said Joe, still doubtful. But Lucian didn’t care. “Well, it’s worth a try. And for that, I’m going to need the Blue Lantern hanging above the door to the great hall”

Joe raised his eyebrow. “What? You want me to get it?” Lucian nodded. Joe still looked as though he did not believe Lucian. But luckily, Lucian didn’t need to do any more convincing as Luin chimed in at that very moment, “I could get it for you!” he said like an enthusiastic army recruit.

“You can?” asked Lucian. Luin nodded enthusiastically. He then turned around and ran out of the room. But no before grinning smugly at Joe before leaving.

“Looks like the imp is more helpful than you” said Lucian smugly. Joe frowned at him. But he didn’t yell, for shortly after that, Willow came once again with a quill in hand.

“Try this,” she said handing the quill to Lucian. “I took out all the ink, but it’s a bit blunt. You might want to sharpen it,”

Lucian looked at the quill. He concentrated. And before his eyes we saw the tip of the quill move and slide to become a sharp point. He then held the quill with the tip facing his finger. He took a deep breath and with all his courage, he stabbed the quill directly into his finger. A small but irritating pain immediately came to his mind. But he tried to ignore the as he took the tip of the quill out of his finger and watched as small stream of blood oozed from the place he had stabbed. Lucian then took another deep breath and proceeded to place his bleeding finger on the symbol. He then proceeded to draw the symbol using his own blood.

After he was done, he took his hand away before covering it to prevent any further bleeding. The others looked at him with concerned expressions.

“Are you sure about this?” asked Laura. Lucian didn’t answer. He and the others then waited for the Blue Lantern. Lucian was partially concerned that Luin might be caught while taking the lantern. But he quashed those worries with the confident assumption that Luin’s mouth could get him out of any predicament.

After a few minutes of restless waiting, the door swung open and Luin entered the room with the blue lantern floating a few feet above him. “It took me a while to get it passed the adults. They nearly saw me taking the…” he said but Lucian just restlessly gestured him to give him the lantern. He lowered the lantern and Lucian grabbed it. He then held the flames up to the blood he painted on the safe.

Immediately, the blood erupted into bright blue fire and disappeared within a flash. Lucian put away the lantern and, after taking a deep breath, turned the latch on the door. And, to his relief and the relief of the others, it opened.

“That…worked?” asked Charlotte.

Lucian pulled the safe open all the way and he and the others all peered inside. Lucian was expecting something quite valuable or something of great importance. But to his shock he found it mostly empty with its contents on consisting of a single white envelope with a broken wax stamp.

“There it is!” said Willow. She pushed her way to the safe and grabbed the letter. The others crowded around her as she opened the envelope and took out the paper inside it.

“What does it say?” asked Laura.

Lucian saw Willow read the letter. Her expression went from one of curiosity to one of slight confusion. “Hmm, it appears we were right about the code,” she said raising her eyebrow while viewing the letter from several angles. She then sighed and handed the letter to Lucian, who grabbed it eagerly and looked at it.

To the Baron Henry Demon, written by [WITHHELD] on the 286th Day of the year 634 AF. Muso-Numeral coded in accordance with the Higher-Circulion Official Confidentiality Act as per the Circulion Code of Law.

F3.D3.A1.B2.F3.A3.D3.E3:A1.F2.A3.G2.G1:G3.E3-E3.B3.D4.B2.G2.G1:F1.A3.D3:F3.A2.E1:A3.D3.D1.E1.D3-F2.A1.D4.A3.D3.E3:D1.E1.A1.F3.A2:F1.A3.B2.E2.E1.D1-B3.E2.A1.G2.G2.B2.G2.G1:B2.G2.E3.G3.D3.D3.E1.C1.F3.B2.A3.G2-E3.G3.E3.B3.E1.C1.F3.B2.G2.G1: F3.A2.E1:G1.G3.B2.E2.D1.E3- D3.E1.F3.D3.E1.A1.F3:F3.A3:E3.A1.F1.E1.F3.D4—

B1D4:C2G3E2B2G3E3—

At first glance, it wasn’t what Lucian was expecting. In all honesty, he was mildly unimpressed.  “Hmm, we need to find out how to solve this,”

“We could take the letter to our library. I bet there is a book that could help us,” suggested Laura.

“But we can’t steal the letter!” said Willow. “If the adults come back and find it missing then we’ll be done for!”

“You all might want hasten your pace” Luin interjected. “Why is that?” asked Joe. Luin looked at the ground and rubbed his feet on the ground. “Umm… I might have overheard the adults talking while I got the lantern. And they might be coming here at this very moment”

The room went silent. “What?” they all said in unison. “And why didn’t you tell us this earlier?” asked Charlotte.

“How could I?” he protested. He then whispered under his breath, “When you are too busy ogling a simple letter,”

“Well what do you suppose we do?” asked Joe.

“We could copy the letter!” Laura suggested. “On a piece of paper or cloth. That way we don’t need to steal it,”

Lucian saw Charlotte glance at her sister for a moment before turning back and saying. “She’s right, that could work!”

The others shrugged. But Lucian knew that they didn’t have time to argue. “Fine, I suggest we find some paper. And Luin,” he said turning to his cousin, “Go stay outside and warn us if the adults arrive”

Luin shrugged but obeyed. Lucian heard him mutter, “Not like it would make any difference, we’re done for the moment they appear in the hallway,” under his breath while he walked. The rest of the group then scoured the room for writing material. Lucian handed Willow the letter and he too began searching. Laura gave Willow the quill that Lucian had used to prick his finger. Charlotte took out a bottle of ink from one of the drawers of the table and Joe found paper in the other drawer. Willow then kept the paper on the table, quenched the quill in the ink and quickly copied the letter as fast as she could. He let go of the quill and let it scribble away whilst standing by itself, it wrote faster that way. Meanwhile, Lucian and the others watched restlessly, the threat of being caught loomed over their heads more and more as time went on. Lucian looked back and forth between Luin and Willow.

“Is there any future where we get caught?” he asked Willow as she wrote.

“I cannot say for certain, but in my experience the number of futures where we do get caught would increase exponentially every passing second,” said Willow hastily. She made the quill scribble faster and faster. And seconds later, it stopped moving.

“Done!” Willow shouted joyously. She quickly took the paper off the table and handed it to Joseph who kept in his coat. “Now quickly! Put everything back! We can’t leave the safe open!”

Lucian grabbed the letter off Willow’s hand before throwing it into the safe and closing the door. The Hatlys kept the quill and ink in their proper places while Joseph rearranged the bookcase and activated the mechanism that made the painting close.

“Quickly! I think I hear someone climbing the stairs!” said Joe, which further hastened the group’s pace. Lucian launched himself out of the door the moment the painting closed with the Hatlys, Joe and Willow coming out moments later.

“Close the door! Use that key of yours,” said Lucian. Luin nodded, he then closed the door before taking out his wooden key and locking it. The then made their way their way out of the hallway and towards the staircase. The panicked feeling slowly dissipating the further they got from the study.

As they approached the staircase, Lucian heard a sound coming from in front of them, the sound of footsteps. As the rush from their swift getaway faded, he realized that Joe was right. Someone was coming from downstairs. Lucian almost instinctively turned away and entered the hallway leading to the library. The others followed him as the all ducked behind the wall of the hallway.

Lucian watched, as the footsteps got closer and closer. First, he saw his father appear, followed swiftly by Mr. Hatly and Mr. Morrow. Behind them was Mrs. Morning and behind her was Mr. Bernstein and a slim but tall figure Lucian knew to be Mr. Angelmore, Joe’s father. Lucian and the others took a step back as they all watched their parents walk across the room towards the study, oblivious to the fact that they were being watched.

“Are they gone?” whispered Luin who had been pushed to the back of the group behind Joseph, who completely obscured his view.

“SHHHH!” said Joseph frantically, Lucian saw Mr. Angelmore rear his head in their direction, to which Lucian tried his best to hide behind the wall. Luckily, once he peeked his head over the wall he noticed Mr. Angelmore follow his father and the other adults into the hallway leading to the study. He breathed a sigh of relief.

“They’re gone,” he said. The others then relaxed themselves. But Joe once again stared furiously at Luin.

“What do you think you’re doing? Do you want us to get caught?” he asked. “What do you mean? I didn’t do anything!” Luin whined.

“Well, thanks to you my father almost caught us!”

“Well gosh damn it! How idiotic of me!” said Luin sarcastically. “If only you let me see passed your pitiful attire I wouldn’t need to ask such basic questions!”

“You annoying little…” Joe began, but before he could finish Laura grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him back. “Will you both please stop? None among us can take more of your incessant arguing!” she said angrily.

Both Luin and Joe paused. Then looked away. Joe straightened himself as Laura gave him a disappointed gaze. But Joe wasn’t done. “I suppose being unbearably annoying must be a family trait, eh Lucian?” he remarked while smirking smugly as Lucian. Lucian saw both Hatlys frown whilst staring at Joe, so he could only imagine what he was actually thinking. Yet Instead of arguing he simply frowned, “We got what we need, that’s all that matters”

“Well true, but who knows? You might still have some secrets you’re yet to share. Hmmm?”

Lucian flinched before momentarily glancing at Laura who glance at him with an expression of surprise. But luckily for him, Joseph didn’t notice that. “Well it has occurred to me that we still have an hour before breakfast. I could go for some tea, anyone else?” he asked walking towards the staircase.

“I would like some!” said Willow rising her hand. She then shot a glance at Lucian while she walked towards Joseph. “I didn’t get to finish the one I had earlier”

Both of them then walked away and climbed down the staircase together. Leaving Lucian with only the Hatlys and Luin. “Sadly, I also need to go,” said Luin. “I still have to meet Elli, and I might even try to solve this letter,” he said holding the letter in his hands and observing it.

“Do you think you can crack it?” asked Charlotte. To which Luin laughed, “Moor knows that this is the most interesting I’ve done all year. And besides, I think I have a better chance than any of you,” he then put the letter in his book before walking towards the stairs. “So if you’ll excuse me, I shall see you in the breakfast,” he said before climbing up the stairs and disappearing.

This left Lucian with only the Hatlys. “I assume you both also have somewhere to be,” he asked quiet awkwardly.

“I personally would like nothing more than some sound sleep! Now that Elli is with your cousin!” said Charlotte. Lucian then turned to Laura. “What about you?”

“The thrill of breaking into your father’s study seems to have knocked all the sleep out of me,” she said. “I suppose I might as well tell all this to the Bernsteins and the Mornings, if they’re awake. Perhaps you can accompany me; I might need some assistance with waking them up”

Lucian’s face came inches away from turning red. “I…I…” he stuttered but luckily Charlotte cut him off. “Well, you both can do whatever you please; I’m off to get some rest well-earned rest! No chance am I helping you two wake up those featherheads!” she said as she marched off to the staircase.

Lucian struggled to open his mouth. But he then took a deep breath and calmed himself, to Laura’s confusion. “Perhaps you can wake them up and we’ll all gather around and talk inside the library,” Lucian suggested. “There’s usually no one there except my grandfather, and he won’t tell a soul! Mostly because he won’t remember anything we say. I could even get us some tea in order to knock them out of their sleep,”

Laura shrugged. “Well I suppose I could drag them here by myself. So be it”. She then turned away in order to leave. But before she did, she stopped. “And if you’re bringing tea, might I suggest you bring something else along with it. I cannot wait another hour for breakfast!”

Lucian nodded and grinned. “I know the place where Lily hides all her treats, I don’t think she’d mind if some went missing. She stole them from the pantry anyway.”

Laura chuckled. They smiled at each other for a moment. Laura then walked off and finally she too disappeared into the stairs. Leaving Lucian alone in the hallway.

Back to Contents- HERE

[moldwood]

For the cos dm ask I would like to ask literally all of them but I understand that might be a bit much so I'll just go for 6, 11, 13, and 18. But if you want to answer more of them I won't complain ♪⁠～⁠(⁠´⁠ε⁠｀⁠ ⁠)

i have another ask for 11 so i'll save that one for them, but for the other three (added song links because i love connecting songs to characters heehoo):

6) Did you make any NPCs more sympathetic than in cannon? Or less sympathetic?

oh for sure. basically from what i've heard, i have turned every character in the module into a conduit for tragedy to hurt my players specifically. every npc got their "this is a 3 dimensional character" levels turned up to 11 if my players are to be believed. biggest examples of this:

lucian petrovich for suuuuure. imo he's already very sympathetic, i just gave him reasonable agoraphobia and a badass last stand at the feast of saint andral where he left the church in milivoj's name so that it still counted as property even if it wasn't sacred anymore since the players did not get the bones away from the vampire spawn. players cried and we had to take a break for an hour.

also the abbot. song #2 because i like him so much. my GUYY my fella my #1 sunlight smella. it's hard to say how he's more sympathetic because he's still just as stubborn and reacts less visibly to the pain he causes than the abbot in the module might, but i just made the mongrelfolk not be locked up and played on the part of him that is totally lost even if he can't/won't admit it and the players just won't kill him now. they won't even look into the things he's doing because they don't want to make it a situation where they have to

13) How did you play Strahd? What's his attitude towards the party, Ireena, the world in general?

hmm i would say i play him pretty much as described in the module. he can be intense, disappointed, smarmy, cunning, and content (but never sad or happy unless it comes to the hunt), and it's hard to say if anything he's doing at any moment is really him or a lie - or to take it a step further, if it's a lie to himself too. he hates the party right now. things are a mess for him so he's locked in on his connection to ireena more than before to stay """"stable"""" (as stable as strahd ever is). there is only one party member he would spare for their complicated history, and that's if they said the right things/rolled really good.

if i had to pick the strahd song of all time to get the feeling across for how i play him, it would be volatile times by iamx

18) Which NPC (or NPCs if its multiple) is your favorite to play?

EXETHANTER. my party met him once so far. they haven't been to the amber temple, it was just through the interactive tome of strahd. god i love that freak. a close second is ireena because it's cathartic to be so close to a mental breakdown? third is rahadin because he is the only person who hates them more than strahd. sure what the hell i'll list ezmerelda too because it's so fun to piss off the blood hunter of the party with her. i play her with a very devil-may-care facade. tbh think hobie brown. it's a surface level act that disarms you but she still manages to get cooler when you see the truth of who she is

[the-lunar-library]

TO THE RAVENS

The role of women in antiquity, what they're supposed to do, what their lives are like, is a big issue in To the Ravens. And if you want to arrange the major female characters on a spectrum of conventional to unconventional, it would go Tanais → Karyai → Akantha → Kokkonas → Brixia, and then way off, on the next page, Galana here. I don't want to say too much about Galana, because spoilers, so I'll reiterate what it says after her name in the book's cast of characters: she goes her own way.

So, keeping things vague: Galana's direct inspiration comes from Lucian, and while some readers might find her inclusion a bit jarring, I think she adds a welcome, refreshing note to the novel.

She was another hard character to name. I wanted something nature related, particularly water related. A significant number of Greek names include the suffix -rhoe (“river” or “current”). I also wanted something that highlighted her unusual accent. (Which is linguistically inconsistent and not very deep, but involves me using vowel and consonant substitutions that you see across different dialects of Ancient Greek.) So Kallirrhoe (“beautiful stream”), or Qallirrhoe in her case, would have been a good choice, and I think I did consider it. But it's another tricky name, and I didn't go for it. I also considered Rhanis, I think for no other reason that I liked the way it sounded.

And then one day I was flipping through my lexicon, looking for good words. And I found galana, which is the Doric form of the word galene, “the stillness of wind and wave”, or, more simply, “calm, tranquility”. Which hit every note – it's a nature name, it's a name that fits the character's (sometimes off-putting) serenity, it allows for a vowel shift from galene into the more obscure galana, and I think it just sounds beautiful. Really happy I landed on that one.

When it came to her looks, I wanted her to be very different from everyone else in the book. She's unnaturally pale, her hair is a deep pomegranate red and longer than anyone else's. Her features, with her small scooped nose and wide-set eyes and heart-shaped face, are pretty while still veering far away from the Greek ideal. She's almost always smiling, but it's a resting face, not necessarily a true reflection of what she's feeling. That being said, she doesn't often feel deep sadness. What she feels is deep conviction, and may the gods help you if you have a problem with that.

[ophernelia]

Wait one more question has Lucian only been with AJ’s mom and Lou’s mom?? If he wasn’t with Dodona then is it only those two and can I be next

Lmao it’s a few people in line for Lucian so you might have to fight them! Lucian hasn’t seriously dated any other woman since he was with Melissa. With the way that ended, he decided to pour all of his focus into raising Annisa. (And now Lou) He’s had his hookups for sure. Though they’ve grown a lot less frequent with the older he’s gotten. He doesn’t really (and I’m using this word purposely) have an appetite for it. Romance and sex isn’t something he has a desire to indulge in. At least not with new people. Especially not the young women who often take an interest in him. Most of which are close to AJ’s age or younger, which he just finds gross. He’s not interested in sleeping with her peers or any younger woman at all for that matter. It’s written somewhere in one of the later episodes, but Lucian just outright says he doesn’t wanna be with anyone who fucks like a 20 year old. He’d want a more mature woman and the only one he wants now is dead. There’ll be people who still catch his eye. He finds Rhiannon very nice to look at, Dallas also, and even Keahu when he sees her though it’s rare. Aside from just finding them physically attractive, Lucian’s not interested. It doesn’t go beyond a “she’s pretty.” Or “she has a nice figure”. That’s about the only acknowledgement he’ll give someone these days. He keeps himself busy with his memories of Amelia. As of recently, she’s been the only one he’s really desired. And what a sad thing to be hungry for something you cannot have.

[whumpy-wyrms]

For the whump asks!

3, 17, 23 please!

from this ask game

3. What kind of whump do you absolutely refuse to write?

besides the obvious stuff like nsfwhump and the rest of my squicks, i’m really not a fan of like intense conditioning or dehumanization, especially with pet whump. i’ll definitely read that stuff occasionally but i don’t see myself ever writing any of it

17. Do you consider character death (that is not reversed) to be whump?

hmmmmm… it’s complicated. i honestly really like character deaths sometimes. heck some of my favorite ocs ever that i don’t post about here (Louie, Toast, Lucian, Jasper) literally all DIE at some point in their story and i think that’s cool as hell despite making me cry (Louie’s technically still alive in a machine, but that wasn’t the case originally).

but when it comes to specifically whump stories? i’m not a fan of character death at all. i read whump for a different reason, and i often see myself in the whumpees, so bad endings or major character deaths just make me sad and i don’t like reading about them (there are always exceptions though).

so i’m really not sure if i consider character death itself as whump. like it is whump when Silas brutally murders Aspen over and over again, but it wasn’t whump when Basil died. it’s really confusing and i’m not sure if i have a clear answer actually! those are just all my thoughts anyway

23. Do you write whump for OCs or just canon characters?

just my ocs! the only time i’ve actually written about other characters besides my ocs was a couple years ago when i was hyperfixated on the amazing world of gumball and wrote a 70k word fanfiction that i never finished. i don’t think it was that whumpy? like it wasn’t focused on that but it was about the end of the world and very high stakes stuff. anyway i prefer to write about my ocs and dunno if i see myself ever writing fandom whump but u never know!

thanks for the ask!

[magicalyaku]

Yeah yeah, it's been a while between reading these books and me writing about them. Things were happening (namely too much work and a lot of Lies of P to counter it). Anyway, back then I was smart and made notes as I was reading, so here you go! In anticipation of my own new self-published novel I only picked up indie books for the month. I didn't even get through half of the list I made, so maybe there's gonna be more of them later. :)

Wildfire (Shania Renaud): Other than most books this month, I had this on my list for a while before. Finally a good excuse to buy it! And it's good! I have some issues with the writing. It's narrated in 3rd person, which I prefer but it's not always working well. Most of the time it's limited to Lucian, the protagonist, but sometimes switches suddenly to someone else, wchich would be fine, but's it is sudden and for just a few paragraphs and that felt weird. Luckily it didn't happen too often to put me off. Other than that, I would have loved to get a little more worldbuilding. None of the cities have names, for instance, and I'm not sure, the distances the people travel work out. Their travels just take as much time as is convenient to write about. I like things to be consistant and logical. :I And speaking of convenient and logical: Why didn't they just travel all the way to the place the wall ends? And how can Lucian sit there tied up and only be freed with two guards around after 5 days when … how did he pee and shit? And other inconvenient things? Anyway, I did like the way he was written. He actually felt young and inexperienced but not stupid. And there are some nice questions being raised about the way humans und human society think and live. (There's also a heavy dosage of slave trade and the resulting abuse, so content warning for that.) I liked it!

Hymn of Memory (S. Jean): This one was nice. Sweet and sad at the same time. I admit, I teared up a little several times. The loneliness and warm moments were just very palpable. The amount of modernisation vs the magic of the Divine was unexpected. I'm so used to my fantasy books being old-timey and contempories having no magic at all, that the mixture actually surprised me. :'D What did not surprise me were the revelations towards the end. But having your suspicions confirmed is good, too, and I was still eager to know how it would turn out. Overall, I really liked the book. I think it has good exploration of its characters and themes and I dare say I felt the love.

Of Knights and Books and Falling in Love (Rita A. Rubin): After bruising my tender heart I needed something easy. This was definitely it. Sweet and cozy and low-key, but still with some adventurous interludes. The characters are nice, they have some cute interactions and there's a cat. Do you know the Atelier Games? I only played the Arland and Dusk trilogies, but this reminded me of those: A laid-back protagonist who builds affinity with their friends by doing little adventures with them while collecting and crafting items. There's no item crafting in the book, but a bookstore, so … I really can't say much more than that. I just had a really enjoyable time reading. :'D

Wolf Willow Witch (The Gideon Testaments 2) (Freydís Moon): I admit, I was kinda lost during the first ~20 pages. Beforehand I thought, I remembered Heart Haunt Havoc quite enough, turned out I didn't. :'D I also had trouble liking the protagonists which is so weird of me, because I always crave badass heroines and then … I end up not liking them ... Which in this case is just because in real life the contemporary witch woman with her pet rat would just not be the person I'd approach. I also don't have any connection to religion so everything about this book felt far away from me at first. It got better as the story progressed and they found a goal to reach. In the end I was honestly curious how they would solve their situation. And also next volume promises to be interesting!

Whisper of Shadows and Snakes (vol 1) (J.S. Burn): (Haha, ok my notes for this one were sparse. Do I remember anything … :'D) This is the opening to a big adventure story with a whole party of friends ending up in a different world. Didn't expect that! Everyone gets their unique powers and training arcs and all that. There were some questionable plot things like, is there no public transportation in your city? Why do you have to walk all the way home? And also there just was an earthquake, so maybe don't go through a crater area in the dark which grounds you don't know? Phew. Also, with the money they'll need to pay for new shoes they could probably have shared a taxi. :'D Overall, I enjoyed reading it. It's aiming pretty high, but if I remember right, it felt like there was a lot of work put into it and it was done pretty well. :)

A Searing Faith (The Heart Pyre 1) (Audrey Martin): This is difficult. I did not really enjoy this but most of that was because of me rather than the book itself. It's a serious story which was not quite the best choice for me when I'm tired from work and spending all my free time gaming instead of immersing myself in reading. I think the story premise is interesting. I liked the worldbuilding and the writing style. It's not often authors describe the little gestures of characters while they're talking. It comes naturally to me because after drawing manga for many years my head is always in storyboard mode even when writing, so I'm always thinking about how the characters look and what they are doing. Not that I dislike usual dialogue scenes, mind you, but here was like "Oh! Nice!" What I didn't like was the heroine … (I probably always have expectations how I want my heroines to be and then am disappointed when they act differently.) Objectively, she is probably written well. Bad things happened to her and she has very little time to process. Also, she's only 16 and had a bunch of younger siblings, so many of her decisions are probably a result of that and yet … In August I talked about how much I like Will's brash attitude in The Will Darling Adventures. Rena is basically the opposite, so … :'D Overall I liked the story and I am considering to read the next volume when it comes, even though the ending didn't really catch me. I wish there was some sort of tiny tiny hint as to why it is Maya and not anyone else. Unfortunately being utterly clueless doesn't really create anticipation for me. Oh well. I do love the cover!

A Charm of Magpies Trilogy (KJ Charles): Okay, these ones are definitely not niche anymore, but they're still indie, right? I just needed a little break and read most of the three books on a Saturday curled up in my bed, like under the covers. I probably got up to get food, but otherwise … What to say about the books … They're fun and adventurous with nice characters and easy to read? KJ Charles just has this way of writing that gets me immersed and amused easily. This trilogy is not my favourite of her books from what I read so far, but I had a very good Saturday reading these. uAub

If you need more recommendations for indie books, some others I read this year and loved are: The Devil's Luck (L.S. Baird), Of Feathers and Thorns (Kit Vincent), The High King's Golden Tongue (Megan Derr), Oracle of Senders (Mere Joyce), Rowan Blood (Kellen Graves) and The Tarot Sequence (KD Edwards)!

[crystalelemental]

Sync Pair Retrospective - Hoenn VA (Common Pool)

And the other aspect of the Villain Arc: the commons.  Looker was finally added to the game, fulfilling my personal wish for his presence, while Courtney defied the odds and was added as the first team admin.   For some reason.  So, how did the new general pool additions do?

Looker Badly, moving on.  ...okay fine.  He did get Poison Zone from H!Iris, and he now can partner with Emma, but his "partnership" with Emma is that he has a better poison rate to let her Buddy move take over.  Looker's so incredibly sad as a sync pair, I'm kinda mad about it.  I don't know why they did this to him.  Like you couldn’t make him Tech?  Give him some kind of poison and debuffing focus?  It had to be a shitty Strike pair?

Looker is so bad that Roxie can outperform him.  ROXIE.  A common, who just received her EX, is stronger than Looker, a 5* pair.  Grid expansions cannot come fast enough, but given how late he was added, it’s far more likely that Plumeria will get one first, and eclipse both.  Looker may as well be bottom of the barrel at this point.  As far as general pool goes, Looker does not offer much, and it’s...very distressing. Courtney Comparatively, we have God-Queen Courtney, who some argue is the best general pool unit in the game.  They're wrong.  It's Lucian.  But Courtney puts up enough of a fight I'd consider her #3.

Courtney's big defining feature is Ground Zone.  Previously relegated to limited pairs, Zone effects were wildly coveted, and having it show up on a general pool was insane.  DeNA were pulling out all the stops to get you to spend on everything before the anniversary event, so man, whatever they had planned was going to be amazing (*agonized internal screaming*).   Courtney also packed a Ground-type sync nuke, with a decent Bulldoze DPS on it, and potentially perfect self-setup.  Moreover, she had Defense Crush.  Pre-mega evolution, it only had a 30% chance, while post-mega was a 100%.  This was a glorious effect that paired her perfectly with every known Ground-type damage dealer, as literally all of them were physical.  Also, note the Def/Spd debuffing again.  Three sync pairs in under a month.  Is that not weird to anyone else?

Her drawback?  SLOW AS DIRT.  Courtney's gauges are horrendous, and with a three-bar move, this is really bad.  Any team she's supporting needs to pack a lot of gauge control, or there are going to be problems.  And guess what Ground types suck at!

As a Zone setter, Courtney lives and dies by the strength of her same-type partners.  They all do well, but many, like Maxie and SS Giovanni, are so slow as to be catastrophic without speed-boosting support.  Ingo is a godsend for many, but Maxie actively doesn’t work because of the weather conflict, and until Lyra gets an expansion that hopefully improves her bulk, it’s not looking good for either of them.  Cynthia’s the winner of the type.  Relatively fast, loves Ingo, boosts her own speed under Sand.  The expansion really just highlighted that they were going for Cynthia favoritism.  Shame about her Lodge pair.

The intervening year hasn’t seen much change for Courtney.  Naomi was the first specially offensive Ground type in the game, but even then, Naomi’s so frail and aims to clear quickly, so Courtney remains her best partner with Ingo.  Victor showed up with secondary typing, and I imagine they’re able to do something together, especially with his Ground-type Max Move hitting all opponents.  Speaking of, Rose is coming in with similar, albeit much stronger, Max Move potential as well.  So that’s fun.  There’s also the new Raikou Legendary Arena.  It’s pretty easy, but Courtney is notably well equipped to counter its entire stage.  The big loss was SC Lyra.  Ground Rebuff should have been the next step in Courtney’s evolution, but Lyra is also slow as dirt with poor gauge management, so as far as helping allies?  It’s still not a valuable partnership.

Ground hasn’t really taken off.  There aren’t many pairs that function with Ground-type damage specifically.  Courtney does well as her own damage dealing, being the most competent of the generally available pairs.  Low bar, but she clears it nicely.  The problem for Courtney tends to come with her partners.  Gauges plague Courtney’s existence, and until she gets a really helpful speed-boosting support pair, not much will change.  There’s Sonia, I guess, but one point of team speed per hit taken isn’t exactly solving her issues, you know?

[ofpineapplesanddawns]

For Lucian x Peter - whichever AU works best for you

From the physical intimacy prompt list

helping your partner undress

🥰

I'm not sure what au to really go for with this one, but I decided on the Vampire Prince au because I never write for it anymore.

Remember when I wrote that really sad one-shot where Peter thought Lucian was dead after Kraven shot him, but turns out he's very much alive, just in a lot of pain?

Let's do a follow-up of that, more hurt/comfort than anything dirty, but hey, that's just as good.

Warning: blood, injury, Peter is an emotional mess

On with the fic!

--

It had been a struggle to get Lucian back to their quarters in the remains of the hideout. It was made worse by the carnage they came across, but Lucian was too out of it to really notice it. Peter, however, was not.

Selene and Michael had offered to help when Peter found them, but he told them no, it was fine, they did enough. He wasn't bitter, he was happy that Selene had finally taken down Viktor for good. She said that if anything happened, if they needed her and Michael, they would help.

Good to have allies, especially when your original ones were...

Peter laid Lucian down on their bed, his husband was burning up, his body trying so hard to heal, but the silver was fighting against his instincts. His teeth and claws were on display, and Peter wasn't sure if the gray-tint to Lucian's skin was from his need to wolf out or from the silver.

"Hold on, babe, I'll get you patched up. I've got this, you know my best talent is gettin' you naked and in bed with me." Peter said, his voice shaky as he popped each button on the man's shirt, looking at the damage with a pained wince.

Terrifying veins of silver were spreading across Lucian's skin, just like the ones on his face. "Oh, you beautiful, stupid idiot..." He said, his throat tight as he removed the jacket, tossing it across the room.

Next came Lucian's arm blade, carefully set aside, then the shirt was thrown somewhere, ruined and stained in blood and silver. He'll burn it later, no need for some vampire to find it and make it a souvenir. "Bastards, every single one of them, especially Kraven." He grumbled before leaning down, kissing near one of the bullet wounds.

He growled as he fumbled with Lucian's belt, his own claws coming out now, his teeth extending as he struggled. His vision was blurring with tears, but he ignored them. "When... when I find him, I'll pump him so full of UV rounds! I'll even shove the gun up his ass and have the light of the fuckin' sun up in there!"

Lucian's breathing was bad, and Peter was panicking. He finally got the belt undone and practically tore Lucian's pants off to see all the damage.

The gray veins were everywhere and Peter made a choked sound as he scrambled off the bed, trying to find medical supplies. He had them in here from the other night when he checked on Lucian after he had been shot when hunting down Michael.

He found what he needed and got to work removing what he could of the bullets. They melted on contact, but there was still small ball bearings, silver, of fucking course, that needed to be removed.

He got them all out, it took forever, and Lucian was just barely able to get his breathing under control, to something less worrying. He was still unconscious though, had been since Peter got him to his feet.

The vampire looked at his husband, pausing in trying to soak up the silver with medical gauze. "You did so good, babe, you got your hybrid. Proud of you." He mumbled, kissing him on the forehead before he started to wrap up the wounds once he was sure he got what he could of the silver that was leaking.

Lucian would have to push the rest out himself, there was only so much Peter could do. He thought about redressing Lucian, but he watched as the man unconsciously started the change, even though it seemed to pain him.

Right, okay, wolfy time, that's good. Means he can heal better this way. Peter sighed and rubbed at his eyes before moving to lay down on the bed. "Fuck, we need to get outta this place, we're retirin', gonna just... stay in Vegas, pretend to be a normal, goth married couple and totally not leaders in a monster war."

Lucian just sighed in his sleep, snout nuzzling against Peter's shoulder. The vampire snuggled up close to him, needing to rest as well, the stress of everything finally getting to him.

--

Sorry, probably not what you expected, but I was reading something with a character getting shot last night and the other one comforting them and trying to get them patched up, so...

[stillyour-sweetheart]

going to the wedding I was supposed to go with you to tomorrow

I feel so embarrassed for some reason? to not bring a plus one?

even though my friends are going to be there at the wedding too, why do I feel so... dumb? we were supposed to match somehow... in sage green, since that's the dress I ended up choosing. Now you'll never know what it looks like.

it makes me so sad to think that if we were still together you would be driving me bc my dress is kinda constricting. I'd be introducing you to my dental school friends and we'd all get along bc you're easy to get along with and my friends are friendly yet all have common sense. You would've gotten along with Brady the best because you guys would've both talked about sports and you deemed him as the 'chillest' based on my stories. You were kinda hesitant about Kevin just because you thought he sounded kinda sketch (he's not), but you two would get along. Kevin is a good talker and I think he'd really try to extend himself bc he knows you're important to me. You'd see that. You'd reciprocate. We'd be with Kaylee mostly and she'd just be laughing like she always is. You'd meet Andrew oppa and his wife. I think they'd think you and I are cute together. I think they'd look at us fondly. they'd think you're reliable and sturdy, while I bring the light and fun. they'd think we're a good match, kinda like them. You don't know Lucian, but he's the groom and you'd like his mustache, I know it.

we'd take photos, our first all dressed up! and we'd probably sit there silently thinking about how funny and strange it is to be at our first wedding together. thinking about ours - which we did often and talked about almost on a weekly basis. you'd probably make some sort of joke like you always do and whisper in my ear, 'we're next!' you may have even said nothing and just winked at me. you used to do that a lot when you knew I knew what you were thinking. I'd usually roll my eyes and look away, but I'd be blushing to be honest. you were always so confident we'd get to that point. you always said you'd marry me.

I'd tell you whether or not I liked the bride's dress and we'd eat all that was available. You'd ask me if I'm okay in my heels (you're quite attentive) and I'd say I'm fine but would still take your hand just bc I want to. your hands would be sweaty tho, not because of the weather but bc that's what would happen whenever I held them. one time I asked you 'why are your hands always so sweaty!' and you looked at me and said, 'do you really not know????' I paused. we laughed and I hugged you. that made me smile. it still does to be honest.

I think my dental school friends would've found it interesting to watch me lean on someone for once. not be in scrubs, not have my hair tied back the way I do when I work in clinic. to be dependent on someone. to be dependent on you.

I like to think they would've been happy for me.

[g0ttal0ve101]

n for the emoji asks errr,mmm

🤥👻💥🍰🍁💓(don’t have to do all of them lmao..) for ermmmm Evelyn, Sam, Lulu (and Thomas⁉️)

HERE I AM AGAIN WITH MY GAY PROPAGANDA 😹

tw: violence and obsessive behavior <3

🤥 - Are they a good liar? Do they have tells to show they’re lying?

Evelyn: British people never lie!! but seriously though, she hardly ever lies so it would be PAINFULLY obvious. I think she’d probably just look too intensely at their face and give it away but looking guilty asf.

Sam: YES. He is such a good liar that no one EVER suspects him of doing any wrong. He lies so gracefully without slipping up that the only way someone could catch him is if A.) They fact check him horrendously. B.) Someone else denies his alibi. C.) Riley is the one asking questions. cause let me tell you. HE’S ON HIS KNEES FOR RILEY. HE WILL FAIL TO LIE TO HER.

Lucian: eerrmm…he’s so painfully blunt that I can hardly imagine him ever lying but if he did, I think he’d give it away by giggling a lot. Like he won’t be able to take himself seriously and probably just give up 💀 - This doesn’t include the times he lies about his home life, he’s very shaky and obvious then too.

Thomas: You will NEVER know when he’s lying or telling the truth. NEVER. He’s so full of shit that it’s hard to decipher whenever he’s being honest even a little. This is because he ties his lies in with lots of truth and tricks people into believing his dumbass information. Seriously though, he’s scary good at it. The only teller I would say is if he has his hands tucked behind his back. Even then though, he might be saying some truthful shit combined with it.

👻 - Do they believe in ghosts? Why or why not? Ghostly experiences?

Evelyn: I’d like to believe she does. Not because she had any experience with the paranormal, but because she has hope that her family still lingers around her home to keep her company. :(

Sam: Yes. His mother talks about seeing ghosts way more often than he’s comfortable with. And of course, that’s his mama, he’ll always believe what she tells him. (Even if he cries afterwards.)

Lucian: Sadly, he gave up on that a long time ago. He used to believe in ghosts for the sole reason of wanting to pretend his papa was still with him, but nevertheless, he realized he was simply talking to walls every night.

Thomas: LMAO-no? He’s not sentimental at all. He personally likes to think that everyone who dies just disappears and never comes back. Because if they did, he’d have to fist fight at least 200 zombies.

💥 - What emotions do they have trouble dealing with?

Evelyn: Anxiety, anger, and disgust. Whenever these things combine, she has a mental breakdown and starts her way on a killing spree!! (Violet NEEDS to get her a leash for whenever that happens.)

Sam: Jealousy and obsession. When he feels his jealousy urges, someone will end up in his basement, never to see the light of day again. When he feels his obsessive urges, he’ll end up in Riley’s closet watching her every move. Mix them together and…haha. OFC SADNESS TOO BC HE’S CONSTANTLY CRYING BUT-

Lucian: Sadness. It’s almost impossible to have a deep conversation with Lucian without having him tear up just a little bit. Even if its far in the past, he won’t hesitate to shed a few tears for whoever he speaks to. Mention any of HIS past and he WILL cry. There’s no helping that.

Thomas: Rejection. Thomas. cannot. handle. rejection. Even if it’s not really an “emotion,” that’s the only thing I could think of that he can’t control his anger with. This rejection always leads to blackmail, to kidnapping, to torture, to arson, and it’ll keep going until whoever denied him begs for mercy.

🍰 - Favorite cake flavor? Are they specific about types of cakes?

Evelyn: Vanilla!! She loves any cake that Violet bakes for her! <3

Sam: Chocolate!! Preferably as much chocolate as possible.

Lucian: Strawberry!! He loves cheesecake and shortcake <3

Thomas: Chocolate!! He doesn’t care about desserts much but if anything, it has to be chocolate.

🍁 - What’s their favorite season? Why?

Evelyn: Spring. She hates winter and summer because they’re too extreme with the weather, so spring is a balanced season for her.

Sam: Fall. He loves Halloween, the pumpkins, the fallen leaves, the crisp air, all of it. Just the feel of fall makes him happier than anything else.

Lucian: SUMMER!! Not only is it nice outside, but he doesn’t have school!! Also, he gets to spend tons of time with Kai whenever Ryan is away for work. (and the amount of sleepovers they have is crazy.)

Thomas: Winter. He’s a firebug, so he wants everything to be warm and cozy in his house. Also, he loves throwing snowballs at the back of innocent bystanders heads with his lame friends.

💗 - What gets their heart racing?

Evelyn: Her girlfriend ofc…💚! She doesn’t let anyone else touch her except for Violet, so whenever they have skin contact, her heart races out of her chest. It’s the best feelings in the world for her to have. <3

Sam: RILEY MORGAN. Everything about her just makes him swoon. He particularly loves whenever she takes control of the situation and starts making him feel like the guy being stalked. Anything with her being as obsessed as he is, his heart is rattling. <3

Lucian: A lot of things Kai does makes his heart POUND. He loves it when Kai steals his clothes, he loves it when Kai kisses his knuckles, he loves it when Kai tries his hardest to impress him by writing/reading, he loves it when Kai-…he just loves Kai. <3

Thomas: women (optional) - but in all seriousness, when someone denies him. I KNOW I SAID HE DOESN’T LIKE REJECTION BUT THAT’S THE POINT. He loves it and hates it at the same time. Like, who’s gonna deny Mr. Valedictorian? Mr. Popular guy? Mr. Rich guy? Mr. Big dick-ok maybe that’s a bit MUCH but you get my point. So, yeah. He gets off to that. <3

[gnattyplayssims]

1943 Pt2 - Finding Sofia

The day every military wife dreads came one day in late summer. "Lucian what a lovely surprise. Can I get you some tea"

"No thank you, I'm not here long. I'm on my way back to Henford but I wanted to be the one to tell you."

He hesitated and Kailee's heart sank.

Kailee steeled herself and reached out a hand to encourage him. "I can handle it."

"I'm sure you know that Knox, William and Kye were all in the same squad. Well the squads MIA. Best case scenerio they're prisoner's of war. Worst case..."

"I understand. Thank you Lucian."

A shroud fell over Pigulock Manor after the news came. Each of the women coped in their own ways. Kailee threw herself harder into the community space, Lizbeth barely came out of her room and Anabelle threw herself into caring for the kids and drank herself to sleep every night.

Kailee found Anabelle in a drunken state one night, crying over a letter from Kye. "He asked me to marry him you know."

"What?"

"Yeah, in that letter you're holding. He said when he came home he wanted to make an honest woman out of me. I never gave him an answer."

"Why not?"

"It just never seemed like an option for us. I can't say yes when I can barely look at myself in the mirror."

"I think you need to find her. You need to stop thinking about how Kye would react and do this for yourself. I think I know someone who can help."

After a few weeks of Kailee exchanging letters with a contact in Henford, she and Anabelle set up a meeting at the remodeled community center. They even managed to drag Lizbeth out of her room for the afternoon though they both quickly regretted it as she was hardly good company.

"Okay kids, you know the rules. Stay within the fenced area, no running, indoor voices and be respectful of those around you."

Once in Kailee's apartment Lizzie let out a long sigh, "I still can't believe you kept this fridge."

"It's functional and we had to make due."

Once the ladies had freshened up Kailee brought them down to the Green Room which she had reserved to meet her contact.

"You've really transformed this place Kailee. I barely even recognize it."

There was a sad hopeful note to her voice "Knox will love it...when he comes home."

Soon Jonathan Noble arrived and Anabelle was left to their dealings. "So you're Anabelle. Pardon my saying so, you are much prettier than my mother-in-law made you sound."

"Ha, well Esther is the jealous type from what I hear."

"Mm yes, Gilbert's perfect match."

Jonathan chuckled and leaned forward "But enough of the family small talk. I hear you're looking for someone"

"Yes. My daughter"

"Kailee tells me the orphanage closed a few months ago"

Anabelle shifted nervously. "Yes"

"Hmm that makes things more difficult but not impossible"

Anabelle took a nervous drink of nectar. "I don't know what help I can give."

"Oh don't worry. I already have everything I need. But I do have an important question."

"What's that?"

"What do you wish me to do when I find her."

Anabelle let out a breath "Bring her home."

"Well?"

"He says he'll find her."

"Then he will. Jonathan married into the Hough Family. They're bad blood. That woman is Rowan Holliday, the lover of Kinley's brother Gabriel whose in jail now for assult. They'll find her and it's best not to question how they plan to do it"

"Did the family give you any trouble?"

"Are you kidding me? They practically begged me to take her off their hands and that was before they saw the bag of 'gems'."

"Ah I wish I could see their faces when they realize they're useless. And the girl?"

"Didn't even shed a tear."

Sofia looked up at the pretty woman standing before her. The woman dropped to her knees in front of her taking her hand. "You're all grown up now." Anabelle's voice shook as she looked into her daughters green eyes. "I'm so sorry I missed it."

Sofia didn't say anything.

Sofia remained quiet throughout the entire ferry ride. She finally spoke when they arrived at Pigulock Manor.

"You live here?" Her voice was barely a squeek as she realized how close she had been to coming with Nikolas so many times.

"Yes, Sofia. This is your new home."

David had come a few months before to assist with the children and be by Lizbeth's side. Stefan hid nervously behind him as Anabelle and Sofia entered. "It's okay son, remember what I said, just give her a chance."

Sofia looked up at Anabelle nerviously, "Is that...my brother?"

David gave Stefan a small nudge. Anger filled him as he looked at Sofia. "NO! I hate this! You can't be my sister, I don't have a twin!"

"Stefan wait!"

"Let him go, Anabelle. He has every right to be angry. You'll only make it worse if you try to take that from him."

David smiled at Sofia. "Now, I for one would like to meet my granddaughter."

Sofia let him hug her and for the first time she smiled.

Stefan balled his hands into fists. Mother had betrayed him. Lied to him. Hidden a part of him. Chose favorites. He hated her for it.

Later that evening, David was helping Anabelle clean up dinner. "William really did well for himself keeping this place. I'm sure you'll be able to get the Mizrahi Estate looking as nice."

"We won't be moving to Henford."

"Oh?"

"My home is here and Kye would agree."

David sat at the island with a chuckle. "Elena predicted as much. She said you'd left something here"

"She knew?"

"I don't think she knew exactly but she was the one who told me to send you away to find closure. Now it's time you decide what you truly want. With or without Kye"

1944 Pt1 - The First Keepsake

[olddirtybadfic]

The Sad Saga of James Morgan and Company: The Trouble Is Made Double

In which James loses his blood innocence (first kill drama) but gains a doppelganger.

This fic contains: Colorful language; possible out-of-character moments for James and Meowth; convoluted occult lore; murderous, occult-powered Jessiebelle; ellipses abuse; original characters; blood and violence (including sexual violence); Jessiebelle slut-shames James a lot; Jessie is still dead; Jesus Hades Christ eleven!me tortured James (and Meowth!) a lot in fic (and then I decided one James wasn't enough); James still has magical powers

-O-o-O-o-O-

*Jessiebelle kidnaps James again. Meowth meets Lenny and they both follow.

*At the dungeon, Jessiebelle has a new guard named Tyrel, who looks down at James mockingly.

Jessiebelle: Tyrel, help me find a way to punish this strumpet. James: I'm no strumpet! I'm still a virgin! Jessiebelle: I would've thought you'd sin with Tylas or Lucian. James: Don't you say their names. Tyrel: If you want, I could dig them up for you. James: I will beat the piss out of you. Tyrel: I'd like to see you try, whore-lock.

*James starts punching and kicking Tyrel. Tyrel is bigger than him, so his fighting doesn't do anything.

Tyrel: You're so soft. Will you love me like the other guards?

*Tyrel grabs James's ass and pulls him down. James bites Tyrel on his dick.

Tyrel: Get this crazy ho off my fuckin' dick!

*Meowth and Lenny come in. Jessiebelle whips James.

Meowth: He fights good, in a dirty way.

*Jessiebelle pulls James off Tyrel's dick. Meowth and Lenny get James out of there.

Meowth: That was weird. James: He grabbed my arse and called me a whore. Meowth: Now I see why you did that.

*Suddenly, a trap closes around James's leg. He shrieks.

Meowth: What's wrong? James: I think Jessiebelle set a trap and I fell into it.

*Meowth and Lenny pry the trap open and get James's leg out, somehow managing to avoid the powder smeared on it. James looks relieved until he sees the powder seeping into his skin. His eyes widen.

Meowth: What's wrong? James: It has poison on it. (winces) I'm starting to think the universe has something against me. Meowth: You and me both.

*James continues to put antidote on the poison.

James: (sighs) I'm just a bad luck charm. If life was a test, I'd get an "F." You're probably better off without me. Meowth: Don't say that. (grabs James's hands) We're stronger as a team. I will not leave you behind.

*They manage to keep away from Jessiebelle and Tyrel for a while.

-O-o-O-

*Imagine Tyrel made James so mad, he did an awful thing.

*James, Meowth, and Lenny are walking through the woods. Tyrel kidnaps James. Meowth and Lenny follow them (as usual). Tyrel does everything to torture James. Jessiebelle just stands by watching and smiling at the whole scene. Tyrel grabs James's nether areas. James tries to kick Tyrel. Tyrel pushes James against a wall with his foot. James gets away from the wall and punches Tyrel. Tyrel grabs James.

Tyrel: You are a disgrace and dishonorable for refusing to marry Jessiebelle. You must be punished! James: Let go of me!

*James starts fighting like mad. He grabs the pure death knife and stabs Tyrel three times. Tyrel is dead.

James: What have I done? Jessiebelle: (smirking) Congratulations, James. Your first kill.

*James just whimpers.

Jessiebelle: You should be happy. You didn't even like him. James: I drew blood. I killed someone. Jessiebelle: And the really funny part is, I controlled you and made you kill him. (laughs)

*James snarls and glares at Jessiebelle.

James: Leave me alone.

*Meowth and Lenny drag him out of there. James is pale.

Meowth: Are you okay? James: No.

*James begins to cry quietly.

James: I hate Tyrel. And I hate Jessiebelle. (sobs) Meowth: I know how you feel.

*Meowth puts his arms around James. James hugs Meowth. They stay like that for a long time. Neither of them are thinking about Jessiebelle's newest guard.

-O-o-O-

*Imagine Jessiebelle got a new guard. This guard really surprises James and Meowth.

*Their day starts out just like any other. Walking along, minding their own business, trying to avoid death. Then Jessiebelle grabs James inconspicuously. Meowth and Lenny follow. Jessiebelle takes James to her dungeon.

James: What more could you possibly want to do to me? Jessiebelle: Don't you want to meet my new guard? James: I'd rather not. Jessiebelle: Well, you're going to see him anyway. Evander, you can come out now. Evander: Is he here?

*Evander's voice sounds very familiar to James, but with a different accent.

Jessiebelle: Don't be shy. Come meet your target.

*A black-clad boy comes out of the shadows. James gasps. The boy looks exactly like James. The same hair, the same body type, the same face. And he's smirking evilly and James is staring at him, horrified.

Evander: What are you staring at, James? James: You have my face.

*Evander looks straight into James's eyes. His eyes are an icy shade of pale green, much colder than James's emerald green eyes.

Evander: Not exactly. I have the same Pokémon, too. James: No, you don't. You can't. Evander: You're right. Koffing and Weepinbel aren't the same as Weezing and Victreebel.

*James faints from the shock and from staring into Evander's eyes.

Meowth: What have you done to him?! Evander: He can't handle my Glare.

*Evander pimp slaps James. James wakes up, covered in sweat.

Evander: Did you have a nice nap?

*James just snarls and scowls at him in a very undignified way.

Jessiebelle: Good boy, Evander. Evander: Thank you, Master.

*Jessiebelle pats Evander on the head. Evander smiles like a dog getting patted on the head.

James: If you're so obedient, why don't you marry Jessiebelle? Evander: Because I'm helping her marry you. And I'm not suited to become the sacrifice. Jessiebelle: Leave Team Rocket. Marry me. James: No. I won't leave Meowth. Evander: Come now, the Temple Witch told you you're no good at it. James: That Temple was a trap! You disrespected Tylas's spirit!

*Evander hits James across the face.

Evander: Don't you tell us about disrespect, trollop!

*Evander takes out a Pokéball and releases a Persian.

Evander: Persian, fury swipes!

*Persian scratches James. He cries out in pain. Evander calls out an Arcanine.

Evander: His name is Archie. James: Copycat. Evander: Archie, bite him!

*Archie bites James. James screams. Evander calls back Archie and Persian. He starts beating James himself. He continues to whip James even after he's unconscious.

Meowth: Get away from James!

*Meowth slashes his way in and fights off Evander. He and Lenny get James out of there. He's covered in blood. Meowth collects some of the blood, cleans James up, and takes care of his wounds. James wakes up.

James: Is he gone? Meowth: Don't worry. He's not here.

*James begins to cry silently.

James: Why did she have to get a guard that looks exactly like me? Why did I have to kill that other guard? Meowth: It was self defense. James: That was my first kill ever. Meowth: I hate to say it, but you might have to do it again.

*James looks at Meowth, horrified.

Meowth: You have to kill Evander. James: No! I couldn't! Meowth: But if you don't kill him, he'll kill you!

*James shakes his head.

James: I'm not killing anymore. Tyrel will be my first and last kill. I can't kill Evander. Meowth: Then what are we going to do? James: I don't know. But there has to be another way.

*To be continued….

-O-o-O-o-O-

Moral of the story: If you keep saying "Make it double," one day a fic writer will actually take you up on it.