#other colors of fire exist goddamnit

[grimvestige]

A random NPC I designed for the Hadreon campaign! We ended up with a bar on our airship because of having a few adventurous factions that enjoy their booze aboard, so they needed a barkeep!

This is the ifrit, Tristan! He's generally pretty charismatic, and is thankfully used to the weird company and shenanigans that come with having a large quantity of adventurers in one place.

Timelapse under the cut, and as always reblogs are much appreciated <3

[my-brothers-corrupted]

Book Four - Part 13

Trick breaks free. Then the real fight begins.

Tws for torture, possession, and blood.

Part 13 - Chase

Anonymous asked: Remember Trick, Chase. In the battle against your own mind, only one person can win. Don't let it, let him, destroy you.

“Here you go, my darling.”

Shifting and whispers in the bed beside him. His eyes slide slowly open, sticky with sleep.

“Nobody will take you away,” Anti is purring to Dapper, clipping tiny cameras to his shirt and the pocket of his pants. “I’ll be watching the three of you all day. Oh, my Trickster’s awake.”

He leans over to kiss Chase’s head, scratching at his scalp. “At least you never cause me any problems. Be good. I’ll be back later.”

“Anti,” croaks Chase, rubbing at his eyes.

“What?”

“I’m really hungry.”

“You eat a lot more than Dapper, you know. But then again, he doesn’t age. He’s low-maintenance. Even the scars tend to fade off him, and he goes all pretty and soft again.” Anti pauses, glancing around the room. “I’ll leave the door unlocked. You can get something from the kitchen. Just don’t let Dapper out.”

“Can’t you bring me something?” asks Trick weakly. “I’m having a down day.”

He can feel it already, his depression getting a tighter and tighter grip on him. He just wants to be taken care of for a little while. Coaxed out of bed and into the shower, brought food and massaged. He knows someone should be here helping him. Knowing what to do. Anti?

“I have to deal with your miserable brothers today,” murmurs Anti, leaning in to nuzzle together once again. “But in a couple weeks, when we’re out of here, I’ll spoil the pair of you all you want and then some. Give master kiss.”

Trick presses his mouth uncertainly to Anti’s cheek, at least soothed a little by the contact, but all too soon Anti is drawing away.

“Have a good day. I love you, Anti.”

He glitches out of view, turning only to flash Trick a smile before he vanishes into color and smoke.

Trick stares after him, numb.

Dapper’s very deeply asleep beside him, face drawn. Anti was talking to him while he wasn’t even awake.

Trick hides beside his brother’s arm and tries to go back to sleep. There’s a faint noise in the edges of his hearing like a faint whimpering, but it scares him too much to think about. He just wants to be unconscious again.

Battle for his mind. Ha. He can’t fight for anything right now.

“Anti’s fucking right,” he whispers. “I am broken.”

Anonymous asked: You will make it through, Chase Brody. You are a survivor through-and-through, and sure you may have had to change for survival a few times, but you are still the strong man with a protective gun in hand, the protagonist enough to lead the story and still be you after all this time. Jack made you for happy endings. And goddamnit you are going to have one, no matter how long the story takes.

Trick glances over at you, eyes dull. He supposes he has survived a lot. But protagonist - he can’t do that. He can’t be that. Right now, all he can do is lie in this bed.

He’s too scared to get up. He’s scared to check Dapper’s pulse and find it fading. Scared to look out his window and feel himself go weak with the confusion and distress from that body on the porch. Scared to see a calendar and know how long he’s been here, here, here, just… rotting.

Just him in this silent room, with moments of Dapper’s company to comfort him, and then silence again. His stomach groans as though to mock him.

“Happy endings,” he whispers, rubbing at his face.

He dreams of that warm smell on a baby’s head and hands pressed into the muscles of his shoulders. Dreams of a soothing mixture of English, German, and BSL to soothe him. Dreams of strawberry shortcake and cats curling up on his lap, of trees with no monsters in them. He would really like that. He would really like a happy ending.

Anonymous asked: Anti hasn't talked about that night because he doesn't actually want to make things better, Trick. He just wants to make you forget everything he's done to you so he never has to apologise. He does it to all of you. He doesn't want to make things better, he just wants to force you to forget, force you to love him. Anti is an abuser. All he will ever do is hurt you worse.

“That night…” mumbles Trick.

He glances down at the deep, ugly burn scar on his hand.

“If I try to go I think he’ll hurt me worse,” Trick whispers, blinking wetly at that old memory in his hand. “I’m scared of him. So angry. He does so many things when he’s angry…”

He hears faint flickers of screams, sees old traces of blood and injuries, watches Dapper’s hands cry for mercy. He curls down tighter against his brother, shuddering.

“I think he will hurt me again,” he croaks out. “You know, I really think he will. I’m scared. I think maybe I wish I could have a little time away? Like Dok and Red and Blue? But then Anti was only more angry. And he makes my head so confused. But you know, I think you’re right. I think maybe he’s always going to be someone who hurts me. I don’t know why we make him so, so angry, but yeah, I think maybe he’s being mean.”

Trick’s eyes well up with tears - and, for a second, a flash of his old ferocity, like the bitter, hurting Trick who crouched against the windowsill in that house near the sea in Norway.

“He makes me do things I don’t want to do and he hurts me and my brothers. Why does he do that? I’m trying to be good. He’s - he’s being a dick. He really is. I think maybe he hurt Dok really really bad.”

Tears begin to drizzle down his cheeks. He turns away from you, panting.

“Fuck him. What the hell? I don’t know what’s so wrong with me, but Dok is sweet. Dapper’s sweet. This is… oh, holy shit, this is all so, so fucked up…”

Anonymous asked: Is it really 'stopping the pain' if it was caused by him in the first place, Trick? Is it really 'stopping the pain' if he's made you forget nearly everything you loved, destroyed and hurt your family, and made you spill the blood of all those innocent lives? Are his lies enough for you?

Trick wipes at his face, feeling pathetic and low.

“He used to stop all the pain,” he says. “And I would float in that haze for days, feeling good, feeling okay, with just these moments where I got the sense that something was totally wrong. Like I was living a life I wasn’t supposed to, cause some god stuck me in the wrong skin or something. But he made it stop hurting. And when we hung out, I’d feel happy and we’d have fun. He’s funny, did you know that? He’s really funny and he can be sweet too. Cause when he’s feeling fond of you, all he wants to do is have you close to him and give you things you want. He glows when you praise him and treat him soft. I thought maybe it was the two of us, right? Like we made each other happy. That’s what I thought.”

He stares out the window at the trees and the golden light of a world that feels miles away.

“But I can’t watch him hurt my brothers anymore,” he whispers. “I don’t think he realizes that that’s what really destroys me. He thinks if he just treats me nice, that’ll be everything I need. Why… why would he lock me away like this? And hurt them like that? Didn’t we do our best? For months now, months and months? Didn’t I love him? All I ever wanted was to make him happy. Now he tells me he has to take me away from the people who make me happy for his sake.

He closes his eyes. A sliver of that faraway sunlight touches him, running over his cheek.

“I don’t think this is going to be enough for me. I can’t stay in this room much longer. And I keep thinking ‘well, surely he won’t make me a prisoner forever’ - and then I look over at him.”

Dapper’s mouth is parted with sleep, his face ashy and hollow. Trick manages to sit up for the first time in more than twelve hours to pull him into his lap and rock him, bent low over his thin little body.

Anonymous asked: Even if it doesn't look like the abuse you've suffered in the past, Anti is emotionally abusing and gaslighting you constantly. The feeling you have that you don't understand anything that's going on and don't know the truth? That's caused by the level of gaslighting you're going through. Being less confident, not feeling like the person you used to be, like everything you do is wrong, making excuses for him, isolation from your family, denying actions you /saw/ him do. It's gaslighting. Abuse.

“Denying actions I saw him do?”

Trick stares out the window, picking at his lip. Pick, pick, picking at his mouth until the blood seeps against his fingernails.

He sighs and shrugs his shoulders, shaking his head like he’s trying to throw the thoughts off. After a few minutes, his discomfort overcomes his exhaustion and he gets up to use the bathroom, leaving Dapper gently propped up against the pillows like a time-traveling Sleeping Beauty.

Trick comes back paler than he was before and sits down hard on the side of the bed, eyes glazed over.

“Anti chained Red and Dapper in the bathtub for a whole night cause they tried to sneak him his Haldol. That’s why Dapper’s arm is busted. Then he told me he’d kill Dok in our sleep if I didn’t take off his necklaces.”

Anonymous asked: When an abuser constantly insists that they love you, your mind learns to rationalize that any abuse is excusable because "they must love me!" in order to keep mental pain at bay. You learn to rationalize that abuse and love can ever co-exist for the sake of your own heart. But the abuser does not love you. Love and abuse cannot co-exist. 'Family' or not, Anti is an abuser, Trick. A violent, physical one. Eventually youll have to choose between real love, & an endless cycle of excusing abuse.

“No, oh, no,” whispers Trick, grabbing at his head. It hurts! There is a wound opening up inside his head, a mallet pounding down against something deeply sealed, a fire burning at his memories. “No, we did love each other. He’s being so horrible, but he… loves us. No, he doesn’t. He loves me? How could he treat me so well when things are good if he doesn’t? He wants to keep me. He loves me.”

But this cycle - this cycle!

He hears a girl laughing. She smells like good cooking and library books. He’s the one making her laugh and it lights his chest up. He presses his mouth to the soft skin of her cheek and she smiles and touches his hand. They say goodbye. Anti slaps him so hard he crashes to the ground. He hears Blue screaming for him to stop, but Anti doesn’t listen. Trick forgot by the next morning.

Trick clutches his head. His fingers intertwine with green hair. “No, no, no. What is he making me forget? He’s - what - what is he trying to turn me into? Please, please get him for me, tell him I need him to clear my head. No - no, but he makes me forget, or - or these are just nightmares. These aren’t real. These are just… just…”

Anonymous asked: It wasn't a nightmare. Don't let him control your head. Don't let him win, Trick. He's been hypnotising you, in your head nearly every single day. Don't you remember when you hated it? When you would cry every time someone was possessed, when him being in your head nearly caused you to kill yourself? Anti doesn't "make the pain stop", he just erases it, destroys it, destroys your sense of self and your freedom over your own mind.

“No, come on,” begs Trick, shaking his head, feeling himself beginning to shake. He needs to lie back down again. He hides under the covers, still holding his skull. “No, that’s not true. I don’t want it to be true. I’m scared. I can’t fight him if he’s really like that. He’s going to hurt me and my family. What do I do? Oh, no, no! He’ll get in my head again - I’m going to forget again and just keep letting him hurt us! Dapper - Dapper’s been stuck in one room for months and months, I have to - I can’t protect anyone, no, he’ll make me forget. He controls me. He’s right, I’m just a fucking puppet. I don’t control my own thoughts anymore…”

Anonymous asked: I'm curious about something, Trick. I'm not even sure if you still remember but there was a girl who Anti captured who you guarded and were told to kill when you all left the area... but you didn't, and you let her go instead. Did she say something to you? What made you directly disobey Anti that day?

Trick looks up at you, astonished. He bites down on his nail, turning away.

“You’re right… shit, what happened?”

Flowers and plants bursting from the earth. Blue’s eyes full of despair moments before glazing over with Anti’s shadow. In the shed, the girl looked back at him, her eyes raised.

“I think she said she wanted to go home to her family,” says Trick. “Or did I imagine that? That she said she had a family to go home to, a family that was looking for her and scared for her? She was all covered up in cuts. Anti used to make Dok do that to people. It was terrible. He would go so wild as he tortured them, just like Anti wanted, but then afterwards he would just shake and shake and shake for days in silence, stuck as deep in his own head as he put his scalpel into Anti’s prisoners. One time, he became convinced there was some sort of infection inside himself that he needed to cut out. I found him in the bathroom, completely delusional, completely incoherent, his scalpel stuck inside his thigh, splurting blood everywhere. I don’t think Anti even said anything about it… Dok cut up someone else that next day. It was always cruel, the torture. For Dok, for his victims. I remember that girl all covered in Dapper’s cuts.

“And I guess I thought I could get away with it. We were all leaving, so why not leave her? But then she brought the magicians. It was my fault she took Dok away.”

He squeezes his eyes shut, head aching.

“And Anti kicked Dap, didn’t he?” he asks faintly. “Maybe I was just angry at him. Like the fire. I didn’t set the fire for Dok, I just wanted to tick Anti off. I don’t know if I left the girl alive because I felt sorry for her or because I wanted to tick Anti off. I think sometimes I do. I think sometimes I want to get him back for all the things he’s done to us.”

As the memories come back to him, so too do the feelings, and with the feelings, a glimpse of reality.

Anonymous asked: Henrik, you can gift your necklaces to other people right? What if you gifted the protection over heart and head to Trick? That might be the only way to keep Anti out of him. I don't think he can fully fight it alone.

Blue eyes slide open on the porch.

Crusted and red. Bloodied on one side.

Henrik’s mouth barely parts. He tilts his head back, trying to readjust, and barbed wire pokes into his cheek, sending blood down his lips, tracing the pale outline of his mouth.

His necklaces hang off his throat. His last, solitary comfort and protection. You want them for his brother?

You must ask someone still standing to be selfless. He can’t care for anyone right now and he’s done his share of the sacrifice. Will you see to it that he is buried by the Chevra Kadisha after Anti kills him? It is his last request. His eyes have gone faraway from you, the pupils shrunk, and he stares at you like a hawk who can see the whole world beneath its endless gaze.

Anonymous asked: Who was it that said the line ‘anti tortured my brothers and made them thank him for it’ ? Cos I think u need to remember that one rn

“I guess he did,” answers Trick faintly. “He’s cruel on purpose. It’s not… it’s not his temper. He thinks it’s funny.”

aether-mae asked: Trick, as much as I love seeing you remember the truth, it’s all for naught if you don’t have a way to get free from Anti. We’ve brought you out of your hazes before only for him to drag you right back in. If you can reach enough clarity, please, please, get the fuck away from him (and bring dapper with you), otherwise we’ll be back to square one again

Trick’s eyes flicker. He looks over at Dapper, chewing on his nails.

“Can’t get out of the house with all the cameras,” he murmurs. “Can I? But I’m allowed go downstairs a little. He’s not, but I am. I don’t know how I could… can’t Red and Blue just come get me, please?”

aether-mae asked: Uhh noodle poodle, come back here please. There’s Dark things in the woods. Hopefully they like kittens..

You hear Trick gasp so hard it’s almost a scream.

“Holy shit!” he sobs. “My cat! Where is my cat, oh no, no, no!”

He scrambles to the door, pulling it open. Panting, he stands outside the room and clicks and kisses for his cat, calling for him like he always does. But Noodle doesn’t come running.

“He’s in the woods?” cries Trick. “My kitten is in the woods? Did Anti hurt him? Is he alive? Noodle! Come here, baby, daddy’s here! Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit. I’m going to throw up. My cat, my baby.”

Anonymous asked: There was also a boy once, Trick. A kid you ran into when you robbed the pharmacy. I know you ran to avoid getting caught but I think partially it was because the name he had was familiar to you, in the same way your crinkle paper is familiar to you. No matter how Anti tries to shut your memories away, certain things always seem to linger.

Trick whimpers, shaking his head. Yes, he remembers. It hurt for a long time. It hurt for a long time even before that happened, before he even had that one name to cling to. There has always been a hole in his heart, for as long as he can remember.

But then he had his cat!

Having something to care for soothed him more than was probably healthy. He’s lost hope that he’ll see his children again, but his cat -

“I have to get my cat,” he cries. “I have to get away from Anti or he’ll leave my cat behind to die.”

And, on shaking legs, he begins his way down those great stairs, calling for Pot Noodle.

Anonymous asked: Anti took your children from you. Anti took your family from you, all of your friends, your life, your happiness. He took it all and filled your brain with false joy and lies all to make you a mimicry of Jack that he can pretend to control. Break free from him, Trick. Protect your real family.

The house is in ruins.

He doesn’t know when or how it happened. Struggles between Anti and his brothers, maybe, or just Anti himself lashing out. Maybe even Noodle caused some of the damage, in those first days where he was waiting for Chase to get out of the upstairs room and look after him. Some of it is just neglect.

The plant by the entryway door has fallen to its side and broken, the dirt spilling out across the filthy hardwood floors. A light is smashed above it and Trick can smell something like rot and spoiled milk in the air. There’s blood on the coat hanger.

Trick passes his hand over the wall, stepping through his broken home.

Here’s Red and Blue’s room. He remembers curling up with Red on the nights when Dok and Blue were both taken away from them. The room was cool and clean, Red meticulous in his organization and precise in his temperature control. They took what little comforts they could when they could hear their twins crying out from upstairs. Today, the room is in ruins. The sheets are torn off the bed and someone has been scratching at the door, leaving nail marks in the side, one hinge busted entirely. The drawers have been ripped open and the lamp is on its side, broken like it was used as a battering ram.

This home was so beautiful when they moved in, or Trick thought it was. And after everything that happened, he thought that maybe, just maybe, they would have a few months of peace and quiet, warm with the California sun and the love between them. It should have been idyllic.

He’s living in a fucking nightmare.

The basement is surprisingly clean, though Noodle’s sand box is full and his empty dishes have been pushed around and flipped in frustration by a hungry cat. But his and Dok’s bed is still untouched.

They would lie together. He would tell Dok about Anti. Dok would tell him about comfort and freedom and the future he wanted. Trick had barely even been able to listen at the time, ensnared in Anti’s power and his own self-delusions.

He puts his hand down on the mattress. His eyes water and spill over.

This was real family.

Anonymous asked: you were his nurse, trick. you were more than that. you loved him more than anti. you loved dok more than anyone. anti is torturing him, your real twin. anti is trying to force you to forget how much you loved him so that you'll be complacent. don't sit down and take it. fight for your family trick. see how horrible anti has treated you all for years and fight it with all your might.

“Dok was my twin,” he croaks out.

They would hold each other through the worst nights, whispering reassurances and secret sedition to each other, taking care of each other on their down days, days of blood and an exhaustion so deep as to eat holes in you. Dok - Henrik - was everything to him, when he had no one else to turn to. How did he ever forget, even for a hazy moment?

“Dok is my family. Anyone who hurts him like this does not belong. Dok is my family and I have to protect him.”

He holds his head up, breathing deep and closing his eyes.

“Okay,” he says. “Okay.”

Anonymous asked: Red, Blue, and Henrik have done it and you can do, Trick. I feel like this is a truth you always knew. Anti is a snake in the rabbit's den. Anti is a falsity haphazardly placed inside the truth of your brotherhood. Anti does not love you, even if he seems 'fond' whenever you're under his control. He doesn't love you, he wants to control you.

Trick runs his hand through his hair, trying to think. “You’re right,” he murmurs. “And soon, he’ll come back and put me under his control again. I’ll be all confused and listless again, forgetting everything that matters so I can be his. I - I have to act right now. Right now, today. Before he tries to destroy me again.”

Anonymous asked: (1) Anti needs you to believe you'd be nothing without him. He needs you all to believe he is in charge and he is special and free from the rules because it fits his world view, where he's the all-powerful, in charge of everything. But you're not truly under his control. Trick, Dapper, Red, any of you, can be free at any time if you stop conforming to Anti's self-imposed world view. Anti treats you like a means to an end, you're only with him to satisfy his needs, to be the person he wants.

“He can force me to believe what he wants,” says Trick, treading back up the stairs. He’s so hungry he can barely think straight, so he’s decided to do what Dok would want him to do and try to find some breakfast while he thinks. “I need help to keep him out of my head, that’s the truth of it. In Singapore, Blue was the only anchor I had who kept me from getting completely lost in his power. Dapper will help me if he’s up to it, I know that now. I’ll get him some food too. I have to figure out what to do. I have to…”

He stares around himself at the prison of his home. The kitchen is absolutely wrecked, the fridge door left open so everything has gone bad. The stench of meat makes him gag. He grabs a tray of stale muffins and fills up a big water bottle before heading back towards his room, sitting shakily down on the bed.

“Need to get out of the house,” he whispers, his eyes flickering around to the cameras in the room. “Need to stop Dok from being his hostage. But he’s always watching. I have to distract him somehow. Or be very, very quick.”

Anonymous asked: Anti said he'll finish Henrik off if Red or Blue even try coming close to the house. You can't rely solely on their help to get you out.

Trick curls in on himself a little, his anxiety spiking.

“That’s why they haven’t come to get me. They can’t even get close. They… they can’t help me at all while Dok’s on the porch. I have to go get him. But I don’t know how. Dap - maybe Dap can reverse something for me when he gets up. Then I could try a couple times over and figure out what works. I’d feel so much safer. I’m pretty scared. Anti’s really going to beat me if he finds out. He’s focused on Dok right now, right? Not reading messages or anything? I think he’s been hunting Red and Blue in the forest.”

He rubs at his face and takes a big bite of his muffin, his mouth flooding with saliva at the relief of having food again. They finished off Dapper’s snacks early yesterday. Trick was getting about ready to try that rotted cheese he had in the drawers. He chugs half the water bottle and touches Dapper’s shoulder, trying to wake him.

“Hey, little man. Let’s see if we can’t get some food in your tummy, yeah? Dap, here I am.”

Anonymous asked: cracked screen cracked screen cracked screen-

For context, the moderator had, at this point, changed the blog icon from a square of glitches to a square of glitches with cracks through it, like a broken phone screen.

“Is it cracked?”

Trick peers at his camcorder, finding the lens intact.

“Looks okay from my side of things, but there’s a lot of different cameras in this house.”

He feels movement in the bed beside him and turns to see Dapper squinting at him, blinking as he comes back to consciousness.

“That is some truly fantastic bedhead, my man.”

Dapper manages a faint smile for him.

“There’s my guy. Come on, bud, let’s get you sitting up and get you some water.”

He pulls Dapper up against the headboard, propping his pillows up behind him. “How are you feeling?”

“Little better,” answers Dapper.

“Here, have some water. Is that true that you don’t eat as much cause you don’t age?”

“I think so,” his brother says. “But I can’t be sure. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten much. Just survive off what Anti brings me. But I’m okay.”

“We’ll get you some food and clean up your bandages.”

Anonymous asked: Jackie, Blue, if you could get to the house and provide a distraction, Trick is willing to jailbreak him, Dap, and Dok. Is that a possibility?

Blue sits up straight from where he was slouching in the lawn outside one of Dark’s houses, eyes lighting up.

“Yes, of course,” he breathes. “Whatever he needs. He’s really willing to go? I told you he was my little fighter, Ro! Let’s go now and we’ll get in a fight with Anti. I can light him up with my magic back.”

Jackie shifts against the tree he’s leaning on, more skeptical than his sibling. “I don’t know. They’re going to get hurt. If Anti catches them, we’ll have three brothers strung up on that porch. And I don’t think Dapper can take that right now.”

“First of all, have some faith in them,” says Blue, pinching Jackie’s wrist. “They’re tougher than you like to admit and they’ve been through a lot of dangerous situations and come out the other side. Secondly, we don’t have much choice here, my darling. We can’t get past Anti while he has a hostage. He’s willing to kill and the cameras are activated. We need Trick to get Dok to safety.”

“How the hell is he going to get out of that house?” asks Jackie, shaking his head. “Carrying Dok and supporting Dap? I don’t think he could get out if he were on his own. Anti will have his eyes on the cameras even while he’s fighting us.”

“Then Trick will have to be fast,” says Blue, getting to his feet. “And you and I will have to be very distracting.”

A smile curls onto Jackie’s face despite his trepidation.

“Well that,” he says, “I think we can do.”

Anonymous asked: Jackie if you know you can handle the backlash, then maybe taunting Anti about being not afraid, talking about beating him to essence in front of Jack, and being stronger than him, etc, has seemed to definitely do the job in the past.

Jackie starts laughing even as he shifts his weight from foot to foot and rocks on his heels. Blue watches him carefully to see if he’s getting overwhelmed, but he has it together.

“Oh, he’d be so mad.” Jackie rubs at his hair. “But… I guess that’s true, right? I beat him before. I did. We did! He should be scared. He can’t treat my family like this. We’ll go get him.”

He turns to smile at Blue. “Yeah. We’ll get him.”

Anonymous asked: Could Shep or Google sneak in and help Trick get the others out while you two distract Anti?

A window opens in the house above them.

“This isn’t a fucking crossover episode!” shouts Host. “Use your own characters! There’s a such thing as narrative integrity and I will not watch as it is - ”

“Gigi!” calls Blue. “You want to come help us with our brothers?”

Gigi appears in the doorway, letting Moses out of the house. “Sorry, not allowed. Dark doesn’t want me involved.”

“Come on, don’t be a sycophant,” says Blue, flashing Gigi a look that makes Ro roll his eyes. “You know, I think we could have some fun, Gigi. You don’t have to listen to Dark. We might really have a good time.”

Google shakes his head. “I’m good right here, thanks.”

“You like being Dark’s, Gigi?”

Google gazes at him, then across at Dark’s house, where Wilford is chasing the dog around the yard. The peach tree outside the house offers leaves to the wind, pink fruit bursting on its branches. Birds cascade around the roof and windows. The breeze stirs his hair.

“I’m good right here,” he says again, and you think you see, just for a moment, the flicker of a smile on his mouth.

“Well, what about Shep?” asks Blue, glancing around for him. “Host, where is he?”

“Out looking for that cat again,” answers Host. “I recommended he put some meat in a carrier and see what he catches. My bet is on possum, but I would also accept bear cub or porcupine.”

Anonymous asked: Shep? ...Did you ever find Noodle?

“Guess not,” sighs Blue. “Trick’s going to be broken-hearted if we don’t find that cat.”

“He’s been out alone in the forest for days now,” says Ro. “He’s a house-cat, never lived out on his own. Most likely he’s dead.”

“Ro,” snaps Blue, and then remembers to soften his voice. “Sorry, just - a little too blunt, love.”

“Sorry. Yeah, uh, we’ll find him! Somewhere.”

scunneredzombie asked: Trick, if your oldest brothers create a distraction would you run? Can you get away in the middle of a fight, if that breaks out? Blue has faith in you!

“I wish Blue was here,” says Trick quietly, staring out the window. “He’d make everything better. He always does.”

Anti was the one who made him sick… the memory of his body in the hospital feels suddenly overwhelming… Trick bows his head and sighs, clutching his shirt and wringing it between his hands.

“Run away in the middle of a fight,” he mumbles. “Away from Anti. I don’t know. I’m…”

Scared.

“Maybe that’s why he likes me so much,” he says. “Cause he knows I don’t have the guts to stand up to him. I always come back all warm to him. No matter what he does. Even in Norway, before he messed with my head like he has been lately, I was so hungry for any affection for him. Now I still can’t seem to run away. I’m sorry, I don’t - I don’t think I can do this.”

Warm fingers cup his chin. He turns and finds Dapper looking at him, smiling. His little brother’s fingers move back to stroke against the hairs at the nap of his neck and Trick relaxes wearily, eyes sliding shut. He takes a deep breath. Dapper tugs gently at his hair and he opens his eyes to see him again.

“Can I tell you something?” he signs.

“Course, man.”

“When Anti caught you and Henrik, Red and I were both lost deep in his power. He had treated us very badly for a while, but as we came around and became more and more willing to do what he asked us to do - to be what he asked us to be - he started to become warm and loving with us. Our missions felt like adventures back then. Even the killing was satisfying. Red was having breakdowns most every night without ever being able to tell me why, but in the daytime, he and I were Anti’s monsters. In Italy and Denmark, we killed and stole like we were born to do it.

“You and Dok changed things. Anti was obsessed with Dok’s savagery as a torturer for some time, but as he watched it begin to destroy him, he got bored again. And you - ”

“Were always his little yellow-belly,” chuckles Trick. “He didn’t have any interest in me back then.”

“No,” protests Dapper, touching his chin again. “No, that’s not true. You only remember after he reset you. But Trick, you lasted longer than Dok and Red had before you lost the fight to Anti. You fought so hard, Trick. Fought him every step of the way. I think that was the first time I began to get my memories of who we had been back. Because you fight, Trick. You fight when you need to. That’s one of those things that Anti can’t take from you. And I think that’s one of the reasons he gets caught up in this fascination with you. Anti only respects power and ability. To him, you should be helpless, hopeless, lost all the time - a human being with no magic and a lot of pain going on in your head. But you still keep fighting. He can’t understand why. Why mortal things, despite all the suffering and weakness they have to go through, still find things in life worth fighting for.”

Trick stares at him, clinging to his words.

“Now, Trick, Chase, my brother - if you want, you and I can go with Anti. Maybe we could even convince Anti that Dark is right, and he shouldn’t kill the others. Maybe Anti could even make us feel happy for a while. If that’s what you want, you and I can go. I’ll stay with you. We’ll be family. And I think we could survive it.”

Dapper leans forward and lets their foreheads thunk together, just for a second.

“But that’s not what you want, is it?”

Trick shakes his head slowly, tears dripping down his face.

“Because that’s not who you are.”

Trick shakes his head again. No. That’s not who he is. That’s not what he wants.

“Trick, I’m too sick to help reverse things right now. I’m sorry. And I know you’re tired too, and I know you’re scared. But Chase… your favorite person in the world is down there, hurt and alone, while Anti plans to kill him. He can’t stay there, not for another minute if we can help it. Right?”

“Right,” he whispers.

“So what are we going to do?”

Trick reaches up to hug him. For a minute, they just hold each other. Eyes closed. Hearts together.

“Dap, I’m not a fighter like you think I am,” whispers Trick. “I want to, I just - I know I can’t. I know I can’t do this.”

“Why? What’s going on? Did something happen?”

“Because - ”

His voice breaks. He draws back with tears in his eyes, holding on to his little brother.

“Dapper, I still love him. I still love Anti.”

“Oh, my brother.”

Dapper reaches out to cup his face in his hands.

“I do too. But we don’t have to stop loving him. We just have to look at him, and see what he truly is, beneath the idea of him we fell for - and then choose to love ourselves more.”

“What if he needs me?” whispers Trick. “What if I’m the only one who could save him from himself?”

“Dok needs you more,” says Dapper, and he presses his hand to Trick’s heart. “And today, you really are the only one who can save your twin.”

Anonymous asked: To Trick (and all who need to hear): Healing from pain is a choice, and it is up to you to consciously /decide/ that you deserve to move on from the weight and hurt you've dealt with for so long. Because you do. You deserve hope and love and freedom. But you have to choose it for yourself.

“You don’t deserve to be hurt for his sake when he doesn’t even want to be saved,” signs JJ, the pair of them sitting side-by-side in their monster’s bed. “They’re right and they always have been, even when you were too lost to realize. You deserve - we deserve - to be free and safe and cared for, Chase. So what are you choosing, my brother?”

“Hey,” whispers Trick.

“Yeah?”

“You’re really good at giving speeches.”

He gets to watch Dapper’s tired face light up with laughter. It makes him smile too. A moment later, they are locked against each other, giggling and rocking each other on the bed, faces squished together.

“You have to choose with me, then,” says Trick. “I know how long you’ve been scared and alone. You got to choose to fight with us today.”

Dapper wipes at tears on his face, hugging him tighter. He doesn’t want to let go just yet.

Anonymous asked: Dapper is right. Trick it takes a looong feckin time to stop loving people who've abused you. It takes even longer to love yourself again. But it's a choice you are capable of making. Choose to love your family, love yourself, more than you love the monster amongst you. Anti is a calloused, cold abuser who delights in pain and cruelty. No amount of love will save him from himself. Go and be with the people who loved Chase before you ever had to be Trick to survive.

“You and the others are the only hope that I have held onto for long years now,” signs Dapper, stuck fast to him. “If you’re ready, then I am too. I’m not sure I can do much, but what I can, I will.”

“Okay, then - then me too, me too,” whispers Trick, wrapping him up again. “Me too. Okay, I’m stuttering like fuck, haha. You gotta give me a minute. Just to breathe. Then - then I’m ready. Okay.”

“You should change out of your pjs, maybe,” Dapper recommends.

“Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Alright, shit. Do you have everything you need if I go get him?”

“I’m okay. I want you to worry about Dok first.”

“No way, you’re just as important as he is.”

“Thank you, but Dok’s in a lot more danger than I am with Anti. Anti won’t kill me, I’m fairly sure. If it comes down to it, get him to safety first and worry about me later.”

“No, I won’t do that.”

“We’ll see what happens, alright? Now go get ready, quickly. I’m sure big brother will be here soon to make a mess and cause problems.”

“His specialties.”

Trick hugs him one more time before getting out of bed, leaving you beside Dapper as he goes to change.

Anonymous asked: Good luck!!!

Chase gives a small laugh.

It seems almost too little, but almost too much: good luck. He needs it more than he knows how to express.

But he is also the gunman, the guard dog, the father, the nurse. He is a fighter and a softie too. He needs luck. He needs hope. He needs courage. He will find them.

“Thank you,” he says quietly.

He’s wearing one of Jamie’s blue hoodies, basketball shorts, and worn, well-kept, fading Converse. He has no weapons and no magic.

For the first time in days, he dares to search for his twin’s body outside his window. He can see very little of him from this angle, but he knows him nonetheless. So fucking still. Why is the deck red beneath his unmoving hands?

“Go,” signs Jamie. “Look, in the woods.”

In the woods, movement. Anti appears from the air in front of the trees, eyes narrowed.

“I know you’re there!” they hear him shout from far away. “I can see both of you with the cameras I have in the trees! You’ll never get close to him before I can transport back and stop you! Neither of you will get out of my gaze.”

“He is watching for Red and Blue, as long as they keep him distracted,” signs JJ. “He knows all the magic and help they have. They will not be able to get to Dok on their own. Go, while he is so focused on them he feels safe.”

Trick hugs him one more time before moving towards the door.

“I’ll come back for you,” he vows. “Nobody’s getting left behind this time.”

“Please don’t worry about me.”

“No, Dapper - ”

He turns back to him and takes his face in his hands, drawing his gaze up.

“Don’t give up,” he says softly. “No resigning yourself to anything. Today, you find some hope, okay?”

Dapper bites his mouth. He nods, just once.

“I will come back for you and you will be ready to go. Okay?”

“Okay. Okay. Yes.”

They pull away. Chase goes.

JJ stares after him for a long time, hands clenched.

Then he gets up and he gets dressed.

It feels very similar to stepping back from the edge of a cliff in Lima.

Anonymous asked: Speak of the devil, where is Anti anyway?

“Speak of the devil indeed!” calls Blue through the trees. “Who’s the guard dog now, bitch boy?”

Anti turns his head towards him, snarling, but Blue vanishes behind a wall of ivy. A rock thwacks into the side of Anti’s head and he yells, touching a patch of blood on his skull and then making it glitch out of existence once more.

“How long can you keep that up, do you think?” asks Red, taking aim once again from a slingshot borrowed from the twins. “Can you glitch all day? Or is it like after you stole Blue’s magic, where you got fucking exhausted and crawled away from the battle half-draped across Trick’s shoulders?”

“You’d be tired too if you fought off half a legion of magicians single-handedly,” spits back Anti, and despite the irritation they’re bringing him, there is some wild light coming back to his eyes, a light you have not seen since Jack was still filming videos of him. “I think I can handle one magician and his useless brother just fine.”

Jackie leaps out of the underbrush, swinging his staff and hollering a battle cry, and Anti lunges forward to meet him. A wolf closes its teeth around the staff, shoving him to the ground; fire lights up the wolf’s fur and makes it screech; Anti rolls away again to find Jackie slinking back - goddammit! These fucking annoyances. Fuck, fuck, but he’s glad to be trying to kill them again. There are hot tears in his eyes. He hates them. He will tear them apart like he always wanted.

He follows them farther into the woods, his cameras lighting up in the trees. As long as he has eyes on them, no one will take the ones who still belong to him.

Anonymous asked: Help is coming, Henrik. Your twin remembers you. We're going to get you out of here.

Those blue eyes slide open again.

He doesn’t know what relief feels like anymore.

But he still has that raven on his breast.

He will die his own man.

His eyes slide shut again.

Anonymous asked: Just hang in there a little longer Henrik. Everything will be okay

“Dok,” whispers a soft voice. “Dok. Deutsch. Henrik.”

He has been whittled down to his own faint breathing; it is the only sound or sensation still existing in his chest. In - out. Slower. In.

Out.

In.

Breathe.

“Dok, I’m here. I’m here.”

Warm hands on the side of his face, caressing him, holding him, around the bloodied barbs of the wire. One on the right is close to piercing his eye. He has been trying for days to stop it from getting too close. Now he can no longer feel it. Perhaps it has already blinded him. He can see very little.

“What happened to you, what happened? I’m here. Dok, I was wrong. I couldn’t see him. I’m sorry. I’m here now. We can go. We can go home.”

He has no words left.

“I’ll get you out. Quick, before Anti checks on you. Here I am.”

Chase.

Anonymous asked: You've got this Chase, go quiet, go fast! Be careful of his injuries, Anti has been torturing Henrik for a long while.

Chase grabs at his hair, tears wet in his eyes, and he curses himself for being a crybaby and a sycophant and a coward.

“I’m here now!” he repeats, almost screaming it, and you see him leap to his feet and turn towards the yard, picking up the shovel that Red was using last week when he decided to dig holes in the lawn to trip Dark’s soldiers. Trick turns back to his twin and stalks back onto the porch, drawing the shovel back like a spear. He thrusts it down with keen accuracy and slams the sturdy metal against the thin dog chain lanced around Henrik’s throat. Again and again, he brings that shovel down, finding the weak chain and snapping - snapping - snapping free!

He kicks the end of the chain off him, panting. He sinks back down to his knees, holding his brother again. Trick lets the barbed wire cut into his arms. It doesn’t matter anymore.

“Dok, hey, are you awake, even? Say something to me. Ich bin hier. I won’t leave again, not ever. Maybe you can’t talk right now. Sometimes you get like that. I don’t mind. I never minded. We take care of each other, right? Remember how you used to stay up with me so, so late and rub my shoulders just so I could relax? I was so scared of Anti finding that I hadn’t guarded all night I would stay awake for days at a time. You were my only comfort. I’m here.”

Fingers flicker against his waist. He touches his head against Dok’s, beginning to try and peel the barbed wire off him, but fuck, fuck! Every barb has to come out one at a time, slow and delicate, and he knows he’s hurting his brother from the way he starts to tremble beneath him. Trick’s fingers too are being cut open by the barbs, because it takes real force to begin unraveling these thick bindings, stronger even, perhaps, than the chain. He won’t be able to get this all off in an hour, let alone five minutes.

“I should have stopped this from happening,” sobs Trick, rocking him. “They’re right. Anti’s been torturing you for ages, especially since we came to this house. And I just waited for him to stop being angry. That’s all I did. I should have stopped him. He wanted to make sure you were punished just for trying to live your life without him. Is this the price he asks for? Look at you, my poor Deutsch…”

Wounds beneath the wire. Wounds and bruises beneath the wire. His left hand is swollen immovably, blue and black and red. He has been cut to pieces. Trick has looked at him for only a moment and found a half-dozen injuries.

“What do I do with you, Henrik? Tell me what to do. Come on, you were always the smart one. I won’t leave, okay? Even if he comes back and kills us both. I’m never leaving you again.”

Anonymous asked: Hey Dok? I don't know if you have a camera about you, but... Do you think it would ever be possible to give Trickshot the necklace that protects your head and heart? I don't know if he could ever be fully safe without that magical help. He's deep in the fire, man.

“No, let him keep them,” croaks Trick, stroking Dok’s hair. “They’re for him. They were presents for him. To protect them. You keep ‘em, Dok. I’m sorry I tried to take them from you. I thought I was keeping you safe, but there are more important things than surviving. You didn’t want him back in your head again. He never will be again. I swear.”

He clutches the two ravens on his brother’s heart. Today, the birds do not burn him.

Anonymous asked: Get Henrik and JJ out of there, Chase. The only place you can be safe is far away from him, otherwise there's a chance he'll get into your head again.

“If I carry him they will dig into his body even more.” Trick looks around for help, but he knows none is coming. “I need pliers or something, but where would I get them? Anti locked up everything that Dapper or I could hurt ourselves with. Shovel won’t work. I’ll just - I’ll just have to start pulling them out and hope I can tug him out or something soon. Right? What else do we have? What else can I do?”

Henrik’s tired red fingers rest over Trick’s, still pressed against the necklaces. Trick clings to him, hearing a rough sigh of relief press out of him. It is the only sign of life Henrik has given him other than his breathing. Their hands rest together.

aether-mae asked: Every day I wake up and pray this story isn’t a Shakespearean-esc tragedy. These boys are going to make it. They have to

“Right,” mumbles Trick. “We have to, we…”

Their hands rest together on the birds. He looks at Dok and sees blue eyes slide open.

They hold on to each other.

“You trust me?” whispers Trick.

Dok breathes.

In.

Out.

His body, stiff and aching, relaxes against his brother’s body. His eyes slip closed again, unafraid.

Yes. Of course.

Here they are.

Trick snaps the string of Dok’s second necklace.

Anonymous asked: You guys have been so distant lately. I'm happy for him to have you back Chase, even if just for the moment right now. Also, does JJ still have his lock picking set from Max? Maybe you could break into wherever Anti locked things away.

JJ is standing in the window of the room upstairs, throwing his shoes at the camera above the porch, trying to knock it down.

“I threw the lock pick off the side of a cliff, unfortunately,” he signs. “I was not very future-oriented at the time.”

He has run out of his own shoes. He heads to the closet to get the shoes of the man who used to live here, the man he killed, but when he runs back to the window with his arms full of dress shoes, his brothers are gone.

“Oh, I think he got him,” he says. “He really did move fast. Damn, maybe we should break into Anti’s things though. I’d really like to have some knives.”

Yelling and fighting in the forest outside, and then Anti’s shriek of anger.

Dapper stares out the window, head tilted up, trying to catch sight of someone. Anti flashes back to the porch, shouting threats, but Dok is already gone.

“No fucking way they got to him, I had my eyes on them,” he snarls.

He looks straight up at Dapper. Dapper backs away from the window and goes to hide in the closet. Trick bursts into the room about halfway through and they smack right into each other, skulls slamming together.

“Owwww,” groans Trick, clutching at his stomach.

“Trick! Watch it! Come here, he’s coming!”

Dapper grabs his brother and they slide into the closet, closing the door behind them and hunkering down beneath coats and shirts, hands clutched together.

“Where did he go?”

Anti is stalking around the house, his mouth full of poison and vitriol.

“What the fuck did you do? Who else is here? Dark, if this is you or any of your soldiers, I swear to hell I’ll kill the lot of you!”

They hear Anti shove the bedroom door open, snarling like an animal. He tears the room apart, doors slamming and furniture crashing to the floor. When he finds nothing, he turns towards the closet.

“Where is Dok?” asks Dapper. “Did you - ”

Anti forces his way inside, grabbing them both by the hair.

“Where the hell is he?”

“We don’t know, we don’t know!” cries Trick. “Ow, Anti, ow! He’s not here!”

“If I find out either of you had anything to do with this I’ll feed you to each other!” shouts Anti, throwing them back to the ground. Dapper grabs onto Trick’s shoulder and they press back against the wall, panting.

Anti pauses at the door, eyes flickering.

“What’s that smell?” he demands.

Trick and Dapper exchange glances.

“Moths?” signs Dapper weakly.

Anti stares around the closet, eyes narrow.

“If you catch sight of Dok, tell the cameras,” he says, turning to stalk away.

Trick slumps back against the wall, one hand over his mouth, one hand over his stomach. Dapper pulls him into a hug and they both try to calm down.

Anonymous asked: Is something wrong with your stomach, Chase?

“No, nothing’s wrong, thanks, I, uh - ”

“What are you holding?” asks Dapper, pushing at his hands. “Let me see.”

“No, JJ, stop being a little shit,” scowls Trick, pushing him back, before the sentence has left his mouth, Dapper has stopped still, staring at him.

“What?”

“JJ?” he signs.

“JJ? What’s JJ mean?”

“You just called me JJ.”

Chase blinks, hands loosening on his stomach. “Oh. Dapper, I meant. What’s JJ?”

Jameson looks away, mouth turning down.

“Is that… you? Is that your secret name?”

He’s looking back at him like he might reply when there’s movement in his hoodie. Chase clasps his hands over his tummy again, but too late.

The little white and grey head of a sleepy-looking rat pokes out of the side of Trick’s hoodie pocket.

“Oh,” breathes Dapper. “A baby!”

Trick looks desperately up at Dapper and sees nothing but delight in his eyes. He relaxes a little, letting out another long, shaky breath.

“It’s an important baby. We have to keep it safe.”

“Can I have it?” begs Dapper, cupping his hands.

“No, no,” says Trick hurriedly, holding his hands around the rat, stroking its white head with his thumb. “Gotta let him rest and hide, okay?”

“Little baby… what a pretty fancy rat. It looks kind of sick though. Will we keep him?”

“We’ll worry about that later, okay?”

“Cutie. I’m in love. Oh, don’t let Anti see, he’ll kill a little mouse.”

Anonymous asked: How goes the fight, Jackie & Blue? Anti seems utterly pissed

“Tell my brothers to get out of the house!” he calls. “We’re leaving today and we’re not coming back.”

Anti screams and glitches towards Jackie in a flash, but Jackie rolls away and Blue is there a moment later, intercepting Anti’s attack with fire and plant life, guarding his older brother.

“Feeling a little useless, I admit,” pants Jackie, circling and loading another stone in his slingshot. “He’s got a fuckton of magic, and me? I have this rock!”

He launches it at Anti and hits him dead on once more. Anti snarls and glitches the wound away, slicing through thick vines with a machete pulled from thin air.

“Your tricks won’t stop me!” he shouts, finding Blue on one of his cameras and transporting towards him, knife swinging.

“He’s not pissed!” Blue calls to you, taunting. “He’s just scared!”

Anti shouts and transforms into the wolf, launching himself at Blue, teeth snapping.

Anonymous asked: JJ is him, yes! Jameson Jackson!

“Jameson?” repeats Chase, and though he remembers very little, the name still seems to fit, somehow, in his mouth. “That’s… kind of awesome. You look like a JJ.”

Dapper seems particularly touched by this, his mouth drawing shyly up again.

“Do you know the others’ names too?”

“It’s not my place to tell you,” says Dapper, touching his cheek for a moment. “Give them time.”

“Well, should I call you JJ?”

He pauses, glancing away.

“I’m not… sure yet. Should I call you Chase?”

Trick stares at him, cupping the rat in his hand. The warm head drifts sleepily against his palm.

“I think that’d be okay,” he says. “Trick, he - he wasn’t always kind to you. I’d like for Chase to be better.”

He tucks the rat gently back into his hoodie.

“Get everything you need from the room and let’s go.” Chase pulls Dapper to his feet, stroking the rat in his pocket with long, soothing strokes of his thumb. “We might have to be away for a while, I don’t know.”

“I want a knife.”

“We’ll grab one from the kitchen.”

“Then I think I got everything in here.” JJ grabs a black coat from the closet. It’s too nice and warm to match his thin, worn t-shirt and the short sleep pants he’s wearing, but its pockets are stuffed full of what few things he has - his favorite chalks in a ziploc bag, one half of a torn prayer card, a wad of American cash, the picture of Eshe that Max gave him, a GoPro camera, and a few slips of paper Chase doesn’t recognize. He pulls them from the pocket, flipping them over.

“What are these?” he asks. “What - plane tickets?”

“Anti was going to take us back to England to kill Jack like he said.” Dapper taps the word ‘London’ on the tickets. “There’s four tickets. Figured I’d grab them. I don’t know, I just grabbed everything.”

“Clothes and drawing stuff and everything?”

“Still in the backpack.”

Trick swings the pack over his shoulders. He takes Dapper’s hand and holds the rat inside his pocket in the other.

“Here we are,” he tells them both softly. “Let’s go, okay?”

Dapper squeezes his hand. They race down the stairs together, heading for the backdoor, hoping Anti is still distracted long enough for them to reunite with Red and Blue.

In the trees, Anti sees them step out onto the porch. You see him stop short, expression contorting.

“Get back inside!” he shouts, moving towards them. Chase and JJ exchange glances.

Blue and Jackie are panting in the foliage, taking a second to breathe, already half-exhausted. Blue’s hair is singed from his own fire and his hands are heavy with weeds, while a fresh cut bleeds heavily across Jackie’s forehead, but he hardly seems to mind. There’s a vibrant ferocity burning in his eyes.

“Let’s go,” he coughs, staggering to his feet to race out and protect the others.

“Jackie, wait,” calls Blue, pulling him back down. Jackie looks at him, astounded.

“You called me - ”

“Listen, is this the talisman Dok gave you?”

Jackie touches the raven on his breast. “The necklace, yeah. It doesn’t have any more magic, though.”

Blue grabs his shoulder, looking up at him.

“You can use it, though. When you have it. You burn like a star. You’re my counterpart, my twin. I don’t care if Anti was the one who decided it at first. Now we decide it. You are the other part of me.”

“This is sweet, but my baby brothers are on the other side of Anti’s glare right now.”

“Give me the talisman. It can still hold magic. Take my fire.”

Jackie’s eyes go huge.

But only for a moment. He accepts the idea a moment later, blinking. Mind already ahead. Strategizing. Fighting. Leading again. Like he was always meant to do.

“If you can,” says Jackie softly, pressing the necklace into his brother’s fingers. “Then give it to me. And we will share this fight together, my Blue.”

Blue smiles at him.

And then he lets all the power he can give blaze into that necklace, and gives it to his other self.

“Let’s go.”

Anonymous asked: Go Jackieboy Man, protect your family!! You're a shooting star, Astrifer, and it's time to burn like one!

Ro liked having the light magic. He liked burning like a star. The magic felt like having a blanket of warmth wrapped around his whole body. But even then, that was Emmanuela’s magic, and this - this is Blue’s.

This is Marvin’s.

He would know it without sight or sound or touch. He would know it by the way it comforts him, just like Blue always has. He would know it by the way it makes him brave.

Flame follows Jackie out of the trees, his twin at his side, wreathed in bloom and thorn.

“Look at you two,” snarls Anti. “Aren’t you straight out of one of his stories? I should have known. None of us can avoid the destiny he set down for us. We were always going to end up right here once again.”

“This time,” says Blue. “We finish it.”

“When I raze you to the ground, we will call it finished.”

“Anti,” says Trick quietly, eyes wide. “Don’t, okay? Just - just stop, please. Dap and I don’t want you to hurt them. There’s things we won’t forgive.”

Anti turns to him, lips drawn back in indignant fury. “You little bitch. Don’t tell me what to do. You belong to me so keep your mouth shut.”

Trick’s mouth is tight and trembling. His eyes reflect the fire in Jackie’s hands.

“What if I’m not,” he says.

“What?”

“What if I don’t want to be yours anymore?”

Anti hears himself laugh. He’s shaking his head at Trick, eyes slightly confused. “What? Who told you to say that?”

Trick stands close to Dapper. Anti sees the same expression in their faces - wary and scared, yes, and then something harder underneath. Dapper’s eyes speak to him. After all these years, Anti does not need to look into his head. He can see the change in him.

“What are you doing?” he asks. “Where… did you go? Dapper?”

Dapper doesn’t answer him. Doesn’t comfort him. He steps slightly closer to Trick, head low.

“Get away from them, Anti,” says Jackie. “Just… hell, man, just go. Just leave us alone and don’t come back.”

“No, fuck that,” snaps Blue. “You stay and learn what it’s like to scream in fear all over again.”

Anti breathes out, chest shuddering. The fire freezes over in his bitter blue eyes.

He glitches and he grabs Trick and Dapper, wrapping one arm around Trick’s waits, hauling him off his feet, and grabbing Dapper by the hair.

“Anti, don’t do this!” screams Trick.

“You get the hell away from them!” shouts Jackie, fire lighting in his hair.

Everyone is shouting or signing or both, moving towards each other; fire and plant life and painfully-bright colors burst up around them, Anti has a blade to his little brother’s throat and -

Anti hollers in alarm as something sharp digs into his finger. He looks down at his hand around Trick’s stomach, startled.

“Rat!” he screams, dropping Trick and Dapper immediately, glitching all the way up to the roof of the house. “It bit me, it bit me! Fuck you, Trick, you hid that from me? You - ”

His eyes find the raven on Jackie’s sweatshirt.

Anti looks back at Trick, hiding that rat back against his stomach, eyes frantic.

“Dok,” hisses Anti. “You… you, Trick… you took him off the porch, you - all of you… all five of you, the ones that belong to Jack… traitors.”

ari-trash asked: Oh- oh my god, the last raven necklace! Dok is the rat?? Is he okay? D:

“Uhhh, no, this isn’t Dok!” says Trick hurriedly, pressing him down into his pocket. “He’s fine, I hid him! Dok’s not here and he’s definitely not this rat, no way.”

“You… turned my brother into a fucking rat?” says Blue.

“Hey, I got him safe! He trusts me! He’s fine. Aren’t you, Deutsch?”

The rat does look remarkably settled in that hoodie pocket, its tired eyes closed and its little body rising and falling with soft breaths. Anti is gripping his knife so tightly his fingernails cut into his palm, panting almost to the point of hyperventilation. Fuck, muscles and bones confining him, animal flesh coating him, caging him…

“You keep that thing away from me,” he warns. “Trick. Even Trick. Even Trick has… you really are just Jack’s, all of you. Dapper is the only one who… fuck you, fuck you…”

Jackie keeps his eyes trained on Anti as the others surround Trick and Dok, Blue desperately checking on the little body in Chase’s hoodie, stroking his little head and calling sympathies at his younger brother.

“Anti,” says Jackie.

“No, no, no,” Anti is chanting, pupils shot. “No, no, no.”

Anonymous asked: The time has come, Anti. You are alone, utterly fucking alone. As you always deserved to be. They won't take abuse from you any longer.

The trees are mocking him.

Monoliths erected in the deep rich earth, subject to the will of a magician and dotted in his cameras, playing out messages to him - alone, alone, alone.

He can hear laughter. His head spins. He runs his hands along the smooth cool surface of a pumpkin, turns his green eye toward you in a red hallway, sinks beneath Jameson’s skin, tilts his head at the Darkness and laughs, stares at you without saying a word, eye twitching. He hears Jack whispering his name and Chase asking who’s there, feels the heat of Marvin drawing away from his own prophecies in terror, smells the scrap paper and ink of a trashed research room with a doctor sitting at a table, trying to fix everything gone wrong.

And he remembers something unseen by the cameras as well, something you have only heard of - screaming out for Jack to save him while his body mangled into hollow bones and winged flesh, watching his creator turn away from him.

There was grief in Jack’s eyes, but no pity.

“No,” he groans. “I wiped all that away. I’m beyond it now. No. You don’t remember.”

He hears one of them breathing and the bloody beat of their mortal hearts.

“We don’t have to remember, Anti,” comes a small, sad voice. “Not the past. You’re right, it doesn’t matter. Not really. But Anti, we want… we want to be happy now. We don’t want to get hurt anymore. You have to let go of us, Anti. We won’t stay here anymore. They’re right… it’s done.”

His eyes flash open and he is present again, his shadow cast over the group of siblings standing below him, guarded and together, shoulder-to-shoulder, side-by-side. They all have the same blue eyes.

And he sees grief, and rage, and hurt, and fear, and love, and determination.

But no pity.

Not one fucking shred of their pity.

“Very well then,” he hears himself breathe out, and he watches alarm fill up their faces as his body begins to shift beyond his control. His face is twitching. He can feel it, but only distantly. He’s numb and his ears ring, high-pitched and screaming. His body distorts and spasms, blood racing down his ivory throat. “You want to play Jack’s games? Let’s play. I only need one of you. And he will be mine whether he wants to or not.”

Dapper steps back, shaking his head, but too late. Too late.

Anonymous asked: None of them belong to you. Not even Jameson. He always said the day the rest of them turn is the day he too abandons you. You don't own any of them, you utter mythic glitch bitch.

“Jameson!”

“Dapper!”

“Leave him alone!”

His body crashes to the ground, fingers scraping at his skull. He feels Anti in his head again, just like he has been since that first day.

“You will never get free of me,” he hears his Anti’s voice scratch at the inside of his brain.

“Stop, stop!” his hands cry. His brothers are screaming for him, crying out.

“Possessing him won’t do anything! We’ll stop you from hurting him!”

“You’ll just confine yourself to flesh, coward. Fight us in your real form!”

“Dapper doesn’t deserve to get hurt, let him go! You’d have to be able to possess all of us at once to get away with this, Anti. You can’t make us your slaves ever again!”

“Fine!” screams Anti’s voice from all around them, and Jackie, Marvin, and Chase all falter to the grass, grabbing at their heads. “You think I can’t? You think I won’t control you all at once with nothing but my own power? I never needed your faith! I will make you mindless!”

Jackie hollers in pain, his skull pounding with a terrible pressure. Chase is on his side, protesting with the voices he can hear. Marvin grips at the grass, shaking his head out, shaking, shaking, shaking.

“You’re - you’re losing control,” he gasps. “You’ll destroy yourself, Anti.”

A foot presses against his throat and chokes him. He opens his eyes, wheezing, and sees, looking back at him – himself. With green eyes and hatred in his face, glitching and broken, distorted and transparent, himself. Marvin and Anti and Blue all in the same being. Turning his gaze with a desperate cry, Blue sees broken beings like shadows standing around his brothers, too, dark versions of themselves, corrupted and in pain.

And he hears a bitter voice, his own bitter, aching voice, lonely and afraid:

“So be it.”

[centipedall]

Crown of the White Death, or The Asbestos Prom

Senior year was my year. Student council president? Check. Choice college? Check. Prom queen? Check. Stayed with my boyfriend? No. Found out he was a cheating douche? Check. Not have a date to prom? Check. Prom king be a total loser who leaves early? Check.

Meh. Whatever. I don’t need losers in my life, anyways. Which was part of the reason I organized things the way I did. As student council president, I’m the one in charge of planning parties and organizing them. Well, the way I did it this time was just fan-freaking-tastic. Complex, yeah, but name one good thing that’s simple.

Now, my school is kinda set up in a circle. There are seven class areas that connect to two others, one for each subject. And, coincidentally, for each club I’m president of. And each color of the rainbow. Math, science, social studies, language arts, world languages, technology, and art. Chess, Science Honor Society, Philosophy, Creative Writing, Spanish Honor Society, Cyber Security, and Pottery. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, black. I would have used the massive central courtyard and gymnasium for the final one, made it into a whiteout zone to contrast with the final black area, but there was a horrible asbestos outbreak there a week ago so it was shut down. Oh well. No plan survives first contact with the enemy, right?

So, if you weren’t in one of those clubs, I tried to make sure you didn’t come. Giving discounts to club members, targeted harassment, not telling people that the gym was full of asbestos, all that stuff. You know, to save space. No sense in wasting that on losers. Especially not losers who now have asbestosis. You don’t need all that nastiness here.

So, club members were in their respective areas, there were very few non-club members here, and everything was set up. There wasn’t really a theme, but everyone had kinda taken to wearing their own things. My student council team wore small, masquerade-style masks.

I stalked through the halls of the school, basking in the glory that I had made this happen. My entourage of student council members followed me. We didn’t really talk- for some reason, they didn’t like to talk to me. No one did, actually. But hey, that’s fine. I don’t need anyone.

I started my second round down the halls, starting at the red chess area. The chess club members wore simple, black-and-white formal clothing, contrasting against the various red tones of the math department. A few of them had chess pieces emblazoned on their dresses or suit jackets. They visibly paled as I walked in, making way for me and my group.

Then, I walked into the orange room, with a single massive paper-mache microscope in the center. The club members here wore stylized lab aprons, gloves, and goggles, designed more for fanciness than protection. There was a refreshment table full of smoking drinks in plastic flasks, which were evidently highly enjoyable. The vice-president of the club dropped her drink as I walked in, and it stained the carpet.

“Uh, h-hey, Prez.” She stammered out.

“What’s your problem?” Harsh, sure, but I had things to do. Well, not right now, I guess, but normally I do.

“Richard, uh, he saw, he saw, uh-”

“Christ, just spit it out already!”

“Norman! He’s here! In the next room!”

“Oh what the fuck.” I seethed.

That bastard. I told him that I never wanted to see him again. And now he showed up? Here? Oh, I’m going to tear him a new one. Quite literally.

I walked speedily into the next room. My face was a placid mask, and I walked with grace, but my hands were clenched. I felt skin split along my knuckles.

In the yellow room, there was only the paled philosophy club, goofily dressed up like different figures from history. I know they had fought tooth and nail- literally- over who got to be Aristotle. She averted her eyes- sorry, eye, now- to the ground. Plato glowered at her. That one didn’t need a bald cap anymore.

“Next room. Sorry.”

“Goddamnit.”

Creative writing. They had transcribed their favorite books into tattoos on their skin. Weird stuff. Kids were like a cult almost, which was why they were my least favorite. They still looked away from me as I stalked into the Spanish Honor Society’s room.

Huh. There was no one in here. Just an over-saturated blue. It hurt my eyes. Makes sense why no one was here.

It was similar in the purple room. The cybersecurity kids were in here, though. They scampered around on the floor, completely nude but for the blindfolds they wore. I was about to walk into the final room, but I hesitated. My ex was a big guy. Maybe I should have my entourage join in?

I turned, and they weren’t there. They must have stuck behind in one of the other rooms, too scared of him to go in. No matter. I’ll deal with this myself. Like a real queen should.

The black room was, of course, pitch black. But for a glow that emanated from a figure in the center. My ex. He was, of course, in the most infuriating costume I’ve ever seen.

He was thin, scrawny. Which should have seemed impossible, given how he was two-hundred pounds of muscle last week, but whatever. He wore a long coat and a pair of pants, both pure white. His face was alabaster white, just like my mask. Actually, I think it was a mask. As I walked closer to him, I heard wheezing, like his breath was short. His mouth and chest were scarred with bumps. Every breath he took almost inverted his chest, actually. His skin and eyes were irritated, but not red. Just white.

He coughed, a wet, hacking noise, and something came out. A small, wet piece of flesh flew from his mouth. It hit the ground just in front of me. It was just like his chest. Scarred, bumpy, and pure white.

Oh God. He was flaking. Clouds of little white flakes left his mouth with every exhale. Little bits left other parts of his body with every movement. Mostly his fingers and shoulders. The greatest amount of dust, however, came from the chunk that had left his mouth.

The worst part of all this, the real kicker, was the crown. It covered the top half of his eyes, like a blindfold almost. It was white and gold at the same time. I- I’m not sure how, it just was. It was bigger than my own crown, too. Like he was the prom king. A prom king afflicted with asbestosis.

Oh, that asshole. I pulled my hand black, and slapped him across the face.

But I didn’t. There was nothing there. Just a mask and clothes, crumpled on the floor.

I wheezed. Coughed. Something came out of my throat. Something wet, bumped, and scarred. And then I blacked out.

‘

Senior year was my year. Student council president? Check. Choice college? Check. Prom queen? Check. Just an awesome year.

As student council president, I’m the one in charge of planning parties and organizing them. Well, the way I did it this time was just fan-freaking-tastic. Complex, yeah, but name one good thing that’s simple.

Now, my school is kinda set up in a circle. There are seven class areas that connect to two others, one for each subject. And, coincidentally, for each club I’m president of. And each color of the rainbow. Math, science, social studies, language arts, world languages, technology, and art. Chess, Science Honor Society, Philosophy, Creative Writing, Spanish Honor Society, Cyber Security, and Pottery. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, black. I used the massive central courtyard and gymnasium for the final one, made it into a whiteout zone to contrast with the final black area.

It was all pretty sick. Just the greatest party ever. There was only one problem: I had shown up late. And my prom king and boyfriend had probably taken his throne without me. But that’s okay. My entrance is going to be fantastic.

First stop, red. The chess room. My royal entourage behind me, we quickly strode through the room. It was a pretty fun design. The checkerboard people flickered in and out of existence. Black to white to black again. Good people. Fun to be around. Very, very smart, and very good at games. I was a big fan of the way they dressed up for the occasion. Old-fashioned in a new way, I guess?

Orange, now. The scientific. Loose strands of DNA littered the area. They looked like flasks, this time around. Filled with steaming liquids. They drank from plastic skulls full of juice. Nonalcoholic, of course.

Anyways, next room. yellow. Weird guys. I heard that this year, like always, they had fought over who got to be who. The leader was always Aristotle, but the others got to war over Descartes and Plato. Me, I prefer being the same person all the time, but different strokes for different folks, right?

Into green. The written. The folks in here had yellow skin, like an old book. The actual brains were written on them, though, like inked tattoos. It really must suck, being mental when all your friends are physical. Then you have to buy bodies, and actually get yourself in them. They’d bought cheap, but they made it look nice. Careful not to touch any bodies and smudge someone off, I went into the next room.

Blue, now. Just one member, in here. Spain looked at me with their thousand burning eyes. An army of skulls chanting in the darkness as their fingers danced. The mountains and rivers become nails and blood vessels. Twirling shapes in the darkness. A single piercing shriek echoing through the void.

Classy fellow. I’m glad they showed up. And in their best dress, too.

Okay. Purple. I walked through the blind, deaf, mute things. Cylinders of flesh that faintly throbbed as they sat in their chairs. Blindfolds covered alternating parts of them, like stripes. They rocked a little, swaying from side to side. It wasn’t due to any outside influence. Just their minds. I tried it once. The whole sensory deprivation thing. I got too antsy in there. Too many irons in the fire, you know.

Final room. Black. I was the only one in here. It was pitch-black, of course. Wet too. It thumped, and I could feel it beat around me. Thump. Thump. Thump.

I emerged from the pot, and entered into the white room. The throne room. My court. They were all there. Everyone from before. My kingdom bowed as I entered. And he was there. On the throne, with mine next to him. Two equal chairs, to represent two equal forces. The king and his queen. The light and the dark.

Pieces drifted from him, up into the sky. He breathed and his chest inverted. His crown was large, white. Beautiful. I couldn’t see my own, but I knew it was just as beautiful. I took my place next to him, sitting. And the kingdom was whole again. White and black united to become perfection. One that would reign for the rest of forever.

This is such a kickass prom.

[sunflowerspecter]

in the dark of space, d.d.💫

summary: sometimes, not even galaxies can keep soulmates apart

warnings: cursing, mentions of cancer and death, violence, some creeps kinda imply some rude stuff about din and the readers sexual life

pairing: din djarin x reader

words: 4794 (sorry? i don’t know if that’s long or short but it’s something) 

part: 2/6

note: the response i got to the first chapter was so good! thank you 🥺!! i’m so SO sorry that this is so late! i just got caught up with school and this chapter was harder to write... the next chapter i got ideas for so i hope to have it up soon!! tea gets real next chapter 🤭

“When we get in, stay with me. Don’t talk to anyone, don’t look at anyone, don’t do or say anything,” the Mandalorian says to you, and you nod, thinking he’s just being overprotective. You hold the child a little tighter as you walk inside, and you look around. The place is crowded, filled with the oddest people… part of you thinks that you only find them odd because they’re from, you know, another planet, but you think that these must be odd, even by galactic standards. 

“Ah, it’s you,” a voice says, and you turn to see a small woman holding out both of her hands in front of you. 

“Mando,” you mutter, reaching to grasp his cape. He nods at you, wrapping his arm around your shoulders to remind you that he’s here, and he’s not going to let anything happen to you. He traveled across the galaxy to help you get home, goddamnit. Home, you begin to think. Could you even consider Earth home? After everything with your mother, and then everything at work, and losing your job, and being evicted. You didn’t even have a home, you just existed. You almost want to grab the Mandalorians arm and run back to the ship, and beg him to take you back to the village planet, beg them to let you stay with them, and just pretend that this is your home. 

But you don’t. Because you can’t ask that of these people. Of the Mandalorian, or of the village people.

“Maz, good to see you,” the Mandalorian says, breaking you from your thoughts. 

She looks up at him and squints, then smiles. “It’s been forever.” 

“Yes.” 

The woman rolls her eyes, then says, “Follow me.” 

You sit at a small table towards the back of the room, and she waits for one of you to speak. The Mandalorian does. 

“This is Y/n. Y/n, this is Maz.” 

Maz smiles, nodding. “I know you.” 

Your eyes widen and you say, “We’ve only just met, now.” You look over at the Mandalorian, who watches you silently, almost waiting for your reaction, as if he expected Maz to say this. 

“Oh, I know. But I know why you’re here.” She pauses, then looks at the creature in your arms. She shrugs, then says, “You wish to return to your planet.” 

You nod, and the Mandalorian leans forward, talking quietly. “Maz, have you ever been to her planet? Earth, you said, yeah?” 

“Unfortunately, no. There is no way to return to that planet now that she’s been brought. Once a millenium do the doors between galaxies open and send through souls born separated.” 

Your jaw drops, and the Mandalorian stiffens. “So I can’t go home?” 

Maz squints her eyes at you. “That is not what I said.” 

“You said she can’t return to her planet, Maz,” the Mandalorian says. Then, Maz stands, gesturing for you to follow her. Hesitantly, you both do. She leads you down a staircase and to a large and empty room. 

“There are forces in the Universe that many do not understand,” she says, and the light drains from the room. You gasp, reaching for the Mandalorian, but you can’t find him. A bright white light appears in front of you and you gasp as it dances around your head. “There are forces in each section of the universe.” A large hologram of planets appears, and the light fills the space between them. Across the room, a red light surrounds a different group of planets. “Sometimes, a soul born to a force is in the wrong galaxy.” The planets disappear, leaving just the lights. A bit of white light appears in the red, and you move towards it, but as you do, the red violently attacks the white light. You gasp, stepping back at the sudden action. “These souls belong in the other galaxy, and the Universe will send them to find their force.” 

You back away. “You mean I was born in the wrong galaxy? What exactly are these forces?” 

The darkness seeps away and you turn and see the Mandalorian. You run to him, grabbing his cloak. 

“Forces connect all of us, all living things. Sometimes, these forces bind souls together. You, my dear, are a bound soul. You’ve been brought here to to find them, to find your true home.” 

You scoff. “So you’re saying I’m here to meet my soulmate?” You almost laugh at the idea. “That’s ridiculous, soulmates aren’t real.” 

Maz shrugs. “Maybe not in your world.” 

You groan, running your hands through your hair. “Fuck. Fuck!” 

“There has to be a way she can get home. I’ll take her there myself, I just need to know where it is,” the Mandalorian says dryly, and Maz sighs. 

“I’m afraid it’s not that simple. The galaxies… the forces won’t allow you to leave them, once you’ve found where your force is. You can’t leave.” 

You think you’re going to pass out.  

The Mandalorian senses this, apparently, because he grabs your arm to steady you. 

“This is bad, this is so bad!” you yell. “I… I mean, it’s not like there’s anything waiting for me back on Earth, but I don’t have anywhere to go! What am I going to do?”

Maz is quiet, and the entire room is silent for a moment as you begin to pace, because you’re doomed. 

“You… you could stay with me. I could always use an extra hand around this ship. Until you find somewhere more permanent, of course,” the Mandalorian says, and you look to him your mouth open, but no words coming out. 

“I don’t want to intrude-” 

“It’s no trouble, really.” 

You nod. “Thank you.” 

The Mandalorian nods at you. 

You turn to Maz. You take a breath.“Thank you.” A pause. “For the information. It’s better to have bad news than to be without any knowledge whatsoever.” Maz smiles warmly at you, then walks you and the Mandalorian to the exit. 

“Visit soon!” she calls, and you nod to her. 

Once you’re outside, you begin walking towards where the Mandalorian landed the ship. The journey is silent, and you begin to think. 

“I’m sorry,” you say to him. “If I’m ever too much just, tell me. You don’t have to keep me around, and I’d hate to make your life difficult.” 

“Hey,” he says, stopping. “Don’t worry about it, okay? You aren’t going to make my life difficult. The past two weeks have been nice, I like your company.” He pauses, then says, “In fact, I would have been sad to see you go.” You smile, nodding, and he pats your shoulder as he walks ahead of you. 

So, this is your life now. Living with a strange man and a baby, in a spaceship. You try not to think about how bad that is for your body, but then again, in this galaxy, space travel is normal, so the ships probably account for that. The air on every planet he’s brought you to has been breathable, at least. 

You hear a crack in the woods behind you and jump, and the Mandalorian pushes you behind him. 

A shot nearly misses your head and the Mandalorian pushes the child into your arms, saying, “Run!” 

You push off, running as fast as you can towards the ship. The Mandalorian is quick on your heel, firing a few shots off into the distance. As soon as you’re in the ship, he’s taking off. You sit in the seat next to him, holding the child tightly in your arms. 

You close your eyes when the ship rattles and you realize you’re being shot at. In space. 

On one hand, you’re about to die. On the other hand, if little you saw you right now, god, she’d be so excited. You’re in space! On an adventure! 

You try to remind yourself that that’s all this is. Just a little adventure. 

The ship gets quiet, and the Mandalorian puts his hand on your shoulder. 

“Are you alright?” he asks softly, and you nod. 

“Just shaken up, I guess.” 

He stays quiet for a moment, watching you, before he says, “Maybe you should go back to Sorgan. With Cara, and stay in that village.” 

You freeze, unsure as to why he would suggest that, but then you realize he’s probably trying to get rid of you, politely. “Oh. I mean, if you think that’s best,” you say. 

He sighs. “Life on the run, life out doing… what I do. It isn’t great. But if you’re okay with that, then please, stay here. I could use your help. But if you want out, tell me.” 

You pause. Do you want out? You trust the Mandalorian, and you aren’t sure why. Besides, even if you do settle down… you want to see that galaxy. If you’re in space, you might as well make the best of it. 

“I’m staying.” 

~~~oOo~~~

“Oh, my god,” you mutter as the city comes into view. Coruscant, is what the Mandalorian called the planet. The city… skyscrapers, flying cars… it was every futuristic movie ever, but… more unreal. 

“We might be able to blend in more here, and the comm system on the ship is down. We need credits, so I’m going to see if I can get a job,” he says. When you land, you’re ever so anxious to get off the ship. You bounce on your toes by the ramp, waiting for the Mandalorian to set you free. 

“Put this on,” he says, passing you a cloak. You nod, remembering that, although the bag that was with you had some clothes in it, but you’ll look like an alien if you wear Earth clothes. Well, technically, you’re surrounded by aliens… but still. He passes you the child and you put him on your hip, holding him firmly but gently. 

Once you’re in the city, you think you’re going to melt. Every nerve in your body is buzzing, energy moving through you with every step you take. It’s almost like being high, but it’s just the people, the city, the movement… you almost want to squeal. 

“I’m guessing there aren’t cities like this where you’re from?” the Mandalorian asks you, and you shake your head. 

“No. I mean, on Earth there are big cities. Skyscrapers, bridges, ferris wheels, the like, but there’s nothing quite so… colorful.” You sigh, continuing to glance around. “We don’t have flying cars.” 

He pulls you into a building, and you almost gasp at the architecture. You ignore what he says to a man at a desk, and stare at the art on the walls as he pulls you up a set of stairs. 

“You good?” he asks. You nod. 

“Where are we going?” you ask him. 

The Mandalorian laughs quietly. “You don’t have hotels on Earth?”

You frown, letting out a soft, “Oh.” 

“I’m sure you’re tired.” 

Out of nowhere, you yawn, and you suddenly feel the ache in your joints. “Now that you mention it, yeah.” 

He laughs again, stopping and opening a door. He lets you in first, looking around the hallway before shutting and locking it behind him. You set the child on the ground and drop your bag onto a chair. 

“So, you never did tell me your story,” you say, sitting on the floor by the large window that gave you an excellent view of the city. 

“Yes I did,” the Mandalorian says. You shake your head, giggling. 

“No, silly. I know that you’re a Mandalorian, and that you don’t take your armor off in front of other lifeforms, and that you’re on the run, but I don’t know about you, or your family.” 

He sighs. “Well, the Mandalorians are my family. They found me as a child and raised me as their own.” 

“You’re an orphan?” 

He doesn’t say anything, but sits beside you on the ground. The child crawls into your lap, and he falls asleep almost instantly. 

“Do you remember your parents?” you ask slowly. 

He nods, slightly. After a time, he says, “Yes.” It comes out broken, and you place a hand on his shoulder, above the armor. It’s cool to the touch. 

“Sorry, I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” 

He shakes his head, hyper-aware of the fact that you’re touching him. “No, you aren’t. It’s not your fault. I… I remember my mother, and my father. After they… after they died, the Mandalorians saved me.” 

You’re silent for a second. “How did they die?” you ask, almost whispering. 

“Droids attacked our village,” he replies. Your hand finds the gap between the pieces of armor on his arms, and you leave it there, remembering hearing something about physical contact being beneficial to sad people. 

“I’m sorry,” you say to him. 

“It was a long time ago,” he says.

“That doesn’t make it easier.” 

He looks to you expectantly, waiting for you to continue. You flush, looking away from him and pulling away your hand. 

“What do you mean?” he asks. Then, “What about your family? You said you didn’t have any, that they won’t be waiting for you on Earth.” 

You shrug. “I don’t. I mean, of course I had family. My mom, well she had me when she was a teenager, I guess. Never knew my dad, and mom hated me. She was a good student, before she met my father, I guess. Then she started sneaking out, and I guess things got carried away because then there was me. She took out a lot of her anger at my father on me. Anger for getting her pregnant, then abandoning us, you know. She raised me, and I’m alive, so that’s good, I guess.”

He’s silent, then he puts his hand on your shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he says. 

You huff, saying, “It was a long time ago.” 

He laughs, and you smile a little, setting your head against his shoulder, and the armor isn’t as uncomfortable as you would think. He slips his arm around you loosely, and you kind of laugh at the fact that, over the past two weeks, you’ve already formed a sort of makeshift family. 

You let your mind wander to what Maz said. Soulmates don’t exist, you try to remind yourself. But what if they do? Are you supposed to find yours? You’d have to search the entire galaxy for that… is it worth it? You decide it’s not, and you also decide that you very much need sleep. 

“I’m going to comm my friend, you should sleep,” he says, and you sit up straight, nodding. 

“Okay,” you say, watching as he walks off. When he’s gone, you lie, facing the window, on the ground, holding the child in your arms. Sleep catches you quickly, and by surprise. 

~~~oOo~~~

You open your eyes and find yourself in a field of flowers. The sun’s setting, and the sky is red, and in the distance you see a man walking towards you. You gasp, standing too quickly, and nearly fall over. 

You don’t recognize the man, but before he gets closer, he disappears, and you’re back in the hotel room, facing the window, but now there’s a blanket thrown over you and the child is pulling at your hair. You shake your head, trying to forget the strange dream. 

“Hi, little one,” you say, sitting up and holding him up. 

“I think I got a job,” the Mandalorian says behind you, and you jump, turning toward him. “We’ll spend the next few days here then head off there.” 

You nod. “Okay.” You pause, then, “Am I going to be an inconvenience?” 

He shakes his head immediately. “It’ll be fine.” You nod, still unsure, but then he says, “Walk with me?” 

You smile, picking yourself up off the ground and setting down the child, who trails behind you slowly as you cross the room. 

“Stay here,” the Mandalorian says firmly to the child. He picks him up and sets him in a seemingly makeshift bed, and the child, despite having slept with you for however many hours, goes right to bed. 

You follow the Mandalorian out of the building and into the busy streets. He pulls you along until you’re out of the crowd and following a sort of trail. 

“Where are we going? How’d we get out of the city so quickly?” you muse, and he just laughs softly. 

“I know this city like the back of my hand. Had a bounty go really wrong once,” he says, almost laughing at the memory. “And, you’ll see.” 

You grin, and the Mandalorian pulls you off the path and into a wooded area. Before you, there’s a pond, surrounded and hidden by the trees. The water is practically silver, and it sparkles, and flowers of every color grow around it. You almost expect to see fairies. 

“Oh, my god,” you whisper, smiling. “This is so pretty! It’s something right out of a fantasy novel,” you say, looking back at the Mandalorian. You’re sure he’s smiling. You can’t see his face, but you can imagine him smiling. 

“I figured you’d like it,” he says. Then, above the trees, you start to see a little glimmer of light, and realize the planet’s sun must be rising. There’s a large rock near the pond, so you take a seat, patting the spot next to you and waiting for the Mandalorian to join you. He does, and it’s quiet as the sun rises. 

~~~oOo~~~

“I thought you said he was your friend, these people don’t seem like your friends,” you say. 

“It… it’s complicated,” he says. You cross your arms, looking to the table where the crew was gathered, waiting for you to let Mando get back to them. 

“Complicated? Is that why you tried to hide me?” you say, venom laced in your tone. You did not like these people, nor the looks they were giving you. The woman looked like she wanted to eat you alive. 

“Look, you’re just going to have to trust me, okay?” he asks, and you sigh, nodding slightly, looking at the ground. 

The group discusses their plan, and the entire time, you have an uneasy feeling in your stomach. Maybe it’s the way the woman glares at you, or the way the human man says Mando’s name with such venom, but you know that they’re bad news. You begin to spiral, realizing that these are the people Mando associates with. He doesn’t particularly seem to like them, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t more people like them that you’ll have to meet. The high you felt just a few days ago in the city fade, and you realize this is what your life will more likely be. 

As a little kid, you wanted to be an astronaut. You weren’t so well off, growing up, and the idea of being able to escape the world that was so cruel to you was wonderful. And you suppose, now, that after the initial shock, that’s where your mind went. You were here and you could be free, but now the fear’s setting in. This is not what your life was supposed to be, not at all. 

“Hey, you good?” Mando whispers softly to you, pulling you from the group. You nod, and he says, “Okay. You’ll stay here while we go, okay?” 

Your eyes widen and you shake your head wildly. “No, wait, you can’t leave me here! I’ll stay in the back of the ship, I’ll be out of the way, I promise!” 

“Hey, calm down,” he says, putting his hand on your shoulder. “It’ll be okay, I won’t be away long.” 

“Please, Mando,” you whisper, and he just sighs. 

“It’s too dangerous to take you with.” After a beat, he sighs, looking away from you. “It’s probably equally dangerous to leave you here. Just, please promise me you’ll stay away from the others,” he whispers. You nod. 

“I’ll stay out of your way, I promise.” 

“No,” he says, “it’s not about you staying out of the way. These people… are cruel and dangerous, and I want you to stay safe.” 

“Oh.” 

He walks away, patting your shoulder, and you bound after him and onto the ship, crossing your arms. You sit in the cockpit with him while the droid takes off, and you wonder why he doesn’t trust it. You elect to ask him about it later. He watches the droid so intensely, and you sigh. The droid tells him and you to go join the others, and Mando does. You wonder if you should go and follow him, and after a moment, you do. You regret it of course, because they’re all fighting.  

“So, Mando,” the purple woman snarls, her eyes locked on you, “tell me about the girl.” She steps towards you, and Mando steps in front of you. 

“She seems far off,” the man that looks like a devil says. 

“What is she wearing?” the woman says, grabbing your arm. 

You pull away and the Mandalorian yells, “Enough!” The room falls silent, but the human man laughs. 

“Wow, imagine that. Our Mandalorian friend here has a girlfriend. Mind telling us how that works?” 

The purple woman tilts her head at Mando’s lack of words, then says, “How do you figure that?” 

Rolling his eyes like it’s obvious, he says, “You’ve never been in love, but if you had, you would’ve noticed by now that he’s different around her.” 

You don’t like the way they talk about you and Mando like you aren’t in the room, but you stay silent. 

The woman pouts, crossing to the man. “And how would you know a damn thing about being in love?” Every movement she makes makes you cringe. 

“I know things,” he says, leaning back in his seat. He’s the only one sitting, and when the ship turns quickly, just for a moment, you wish you were sitting to. You would go flying across the room if Mando didn’t grab you by the waist and hold you against him. 

“I agree, though,” the woman says, then. “He’s clearly changed,” she muses, tilting her head, stepping up to him, pressing herself flush against him. Mando stands rigidly and doesn’t look at her, but doesn’t move. 

You try not to react, you do. Because you aren’t his girlfriend. You’ve only known him a month, maybe two, goddamnit. The only reason you’re with him is because he’s nice and offered you a place to stay. Well, and maybe you would like him, under different circumstances. But you don’t have any time for crushes. Not at the moment. 

“Xi’an, stop throwing yourself at him,” the devil-looking one says. She turns to him, them, strutting over. You grasp onto the Mandalorian’s cloak, and he rubs your arm, sensing that you’re very uncomfortable. 

Things calm down, slightly, and the woman begins to ask less mean questions, like what planet you were from and how long you’ve been with the Mandalorian. That is, until the child is discovered. 

“What the fuck is that thing? A pet?” the human asks. You try to take it from him, and he laughs. “You two couldn’t possibly have made this, could you?” 

You wince and Mando tenses, but neither of you say anything, which just leads him to laugh harder. Xi’an hisses, crossing her arms, and you take the baby from the man. 

“Back off,” you say, and it’s the first time they’ve heard you speak, and they’re all shocked. 

“So it is yours? Is that why you keep her around, Mando, eh? Feel bad for impregnating this pretty young thing?” the man says, pushing a strand of your hair behind your ear. 

You jerk back, into the Mandalorian, and he says, “It’s not ours. It’s best not to interfere in matters that are so beyond you.”

He doesn’t have time to respond, because the droid is alerting the group that you’re there. 

“This won’t talk long, I promise. I’m really sorry about all this,” Mando says, and you nod. 

“It’s okay. I’m okay.” He hands the child off to you, and you take it. They all head off, and you sit in the corner and set the child on the floor, pulling your knees to your chest, trying not to cry. 

~~~oOo~~~

“Where are the others?” you say. Mando shakes his head, and a purple man like Xi’an joins him. 

“Ah, Mando, picked up this pretty young thing, have we?” the man says. “And I thought you were with my sister.” He laughs, then, and you shudder. You don’t get back to the base fast enough. You waste no time getting out of there. When the place gets blown up, you feel no sympathy for them. 

“Those people are toxic,” you say harshly, sitting beside the Mandalorian in the cockpit. “I can’t believe they used to be your friends.” 

Mando just shrugs. 

“Were you truly with that woman? Xi’an?” you ask, and you don’t receive an answer. Not for a time, anyway. 

It’s a forever of silence. “No. We were never… together.” 

You nod. “Not that I care.” It comes out colder than you mean it to, and you wonder why it’s not true. Why do you care? 

The Mandalorian lands on a small forest planet. “We’ll stay here for a few days to rest and recharge.” 

You somehow find yourself laying on the roof of the ship, staring at the stars. The sky is a deep dark blue and the stars are so bright, and you can see the whole galaxy, you think. You pull your phone out of your pocket. You found a way to connect it to the ship so that you could charge it, and you would be forever grateful for that. You go through your music and discover a song that Jane, your old best friend, had always made your listen to. You play it, closing your eyes as you hear the familiar lyrics. 

Mando finds himself beside you, listening to the song you play. 

“What is this?” he asks. 

“Starman. David Bowie,” you say, sort of laughing at the irony, because the man beside you is a starman. “This was Jane’s favorite song.” 

He’s quiet, just his breathing. “What happened to her? Why isn’t she waiting back on your planet?” 

You sigh. “She died. When we were teens. Cancer, or something.” 

“Oh.” A  beat. “I’m sorry.” 

“It’s not your fault.” 

You sit in silence with him for awhile, before you say, “Have you ever been in love?” 

He takes a shaky breath. “There are so many times that I’ve been in long term living conditions with someone, and so many times that I could have sworn I was in love. But, if I’m honest, I don’t know. I don’t know if I can say I’ve been in love.” 

You nod, reaching to his hand and threading your fingers through his. 

“Have you? Been in love, that is.” 

You laugh, looking over to him. “Have I been in love?” You sigh, looking back to the sky. “Sure, I guess. As a child I never felt connected to anyone besides Jane. She was the only human I ever felt connected to until she died. I loved her. Not in the way we’re talking, but I did. After that, I didn’t love anyone. Then, after college, I swore I was in love with the postman at work. He was young and beautiful and so sweet.” 

Mando huffs a laugh. “And were you?” 

“No,” you say thoughtfully. “I was in love with the idea of him. So, actually, no. I’ve never been in love.” 

He hums, nodding. “Have you ever kissed anyone?” 

You smile, shrugging. “Yes. Have you?” He laughs, and you roll your eyes. “There are ways. Ever heard of a blindfold?” 

“No, I’ve never kissed anyone.” 

“Favorite color?” 

He’s damn glad you can’t see his face, because the smile on his face is unreal. 

“I like that green blue color that the water is on some planets.” 

You giggle, turning onto your side to face him, resting on your elbow. “I love that for you.” 

He laughs, turning his head to face see you. “What’s yours?” 

You spend the rest of the night asking each other questions, diving into each other’s lives, and somehow, it’s like you’ve known him forever. No question was too personal or shallow, and nothing was off limits. You only leave the roof when you hear the child moving around inside, and you feel a sense of security with Mando. It’s strange but… you like it. You like him, you like being with him. 

You don’t want to say that you’ve fallen for this starman… but maybe you have. And, although you don’t know it, maybe this starman has fallen for you.

tag list (sorry if i tag anyone who doesn’t wanna be tagged and also sorry that i forgot i had one for the first part, so if i tag you and you haven’t read that part.... you should go check it out. jk.... unless...?): 

@marvels-blue-phoenix​ @simonsbluee​ @javert-delacour​ @loilko​ @jelly-snow-stark​ @mutantsandproud​ @ugly-wall-flower​ @taman-a​

[luuxxart]

GIVE US THE NEW WARRIORS HEADCANONS UR REDESIGNS ARE AMAZINGJAKMAKWJDKSL💖💖💖

aaaa omG thank you!! :’D I’m actually strangely attached to these characters so I’ll try to do my best to explain the design choices I made and everything

ok so here we go.

SCREENTIME

* first off

* Not an entirely bad name??

* I would prefer Worm tho as a reference to the Morris Worm

* And I did make his design a little more wormy. Kinda Doc Ock-ish.

* So his tragic backstory... Well. Long long ago... when he was just a little kid... his dad fucked his mom.

* Jkjkjkjk. But it would be better than fucking “internet gas.”

* To take this in a darker route, I think it would be cool if his grandad had been experimenting with creating cyborgs and turned his dad into one. And then turned Screentime into one. So Screentime escaped sort of half-finished and is just trying to help others who might mirror his situation of abuse.

* I like to think his first superhero story was he was just like fucking buying bulk ramen and then hears a dude harassing a girl in the next aisle over and is like. huh. word. guess I can intimidate this guy by threatening to take his fucking social security and make it public knowledge.

* Bc he can hook up to the internet and updates his database frequently so he can just Mr. Robot people.

* He’s probably like 18 or 19. Never was schooled and college is kinda pointless when you have the whole internet in your brain.

* So he’s just living in a rundown apartment. Payin bills by doing odd jobs and doin bitcoin stocks.

* On the battlefield, he’d definitely be a mind games kind of guy, but he’d also use his worm limbs for dexterity and could probably discharge bursts of electricity at the cost of losing some information in his database.

* Also it’s probably really hard to tell, but Screentime is my favorite out of the original designs.

TRAILBLAZER

* again! Not a bad name at all!

* Made me think of fire though... and hiking... so

* We really don’t have much information on these characters so they were kinda fun to play around w and I think she was my favorite in terms of concepts.

* Also what the fuck are those red things on her head am I just fucking dumb???

* They look like devil horns. So I’m gonna run with it.

* Ok so she got a backpack from a god.

* Well that god was a god of Hell and also her godfather. Her actual father was another god of Hell. And idk how gods really work in the Marvel universe?? But I think there’s probably at least some high-ranking demons of Hell. I think Hell exists??? If I remember Doctor Strange correctly? (Maybe not Doctor Strange... bro everything is so hard to keep up with)

* Anyway, her dad was killed by some hero traveling through Hell at some point probably. And so she’s been preparing since to go avenge him.

* Then she gets to earth and is kinda like... well, avenging can wait.

* And the reason she can’t just get anything she wants out of the backpacks is because the backpacks are alive. But over time as she gains their trust, they start to become more and more useful. So, like magikarp to gyarados.

* her outfit was so fucking hard to redesign. like,,, I still don’t like it. The backpacks and stuff yes. Everything else no. But it’s better than the Neon Nightmare.

* Her powerset shouldn’t be limited to just her backpacks though. I saw a lot of people complain about that. Bc anyone could steal them from her and use them?

* So I think she should have superhuman strength. Also, her backpacks should only respond to her command. It’d be cute if they were also kinda cheeky about it. Bc yeah she’s a spoiled little brat. But she’s their spoiled little brat so they’re not opening up for anybody but her.

* She’s defo the youngest of the group

* Even if she is an immortal demon kid lol

S

bro I can’t even say it

I’m renaming them Shuriken. Effective immediately.

SHURIKEN

* So Shuriken is non-binary. Which I think is really cool! They’re not the first non-binary character that Marvel has,, bc Loki exists,, but while they’re not a good step forward... they’re a step forward nonetheless and I kinda commend them for at least trying.

* But goddamnit why did they have to go and name them S

* Sn

* please don’t make me say it

* So Shuriken has ice powers that are sort of threatening to take them over. Like if Iceman couldn’t control his powers ig. Their powers sort of came to them mysteriously in the middle of them already having a gender crisis and high school is happening and all that blah and now they’re just like,,, so ,, “superheroing seems to be a good venture right now. Maybe I’ll find myself in heroics and forget about everything else”

* And most of the heroic ideal is on their brother, ,,,, uh,,,, Quarterback,,, who idolizes the “classic” heroes like Cap, Iron Man, and Thor.

* Shuriken prefers reading news stories about Night Slasher and Punisher, Jessica Jones, and just generally, the other edgier heroes.

* But because their brother idolizes heroics so much, it makes it sort of a surprise when Shuriken takes up their mantle before Quarterback realizes anything is going on.

* And how does the ice stuff affect them? They’re sort of on the fence about finding a cure and whatnot. Most people speculate its like later-in-life mutation, but Shuriken isn’t satisfied with this answer.

*they sometimes chop off the spiky ice parts for convenience(they have no feeling in the frozen over parts of their body)

*(I’m toying with the idea of them having a crush on Ms. Marvel ngl)

QUARTERBACK

* not much to say about him? Other than goddamn that neon was terrible.

* Also I’ve seen jocks wear pink, so some youtube dudes complaining about that can fuck off. Maybe not that bright of a shade?

* But I figure with a defensive character, you would definitely want a bulkier frame. At least Power Man levels of a bulky frame? Like I’m not talking Hulk or Thing. Just.. yknow. At least a good Cap size dude.

* Also a blockier costume would make sense. Since he’s supposed to be. Uh. Safe. For people to like,, crowd behind. Like a safe

* Like a safe sp

* Like a

* safespace.

* I also like to think he was sort of a stereotypical jock and then here comes his little sibling (by like,, 7 minutes) who’s finally just like “yo fuck the gender spectrum” and so he finally opens up to his own interests that he’s been burying

* Like the color coral

* Which is definitely not pink my dudiest of dudes ;)

* He’s definitely more

* CHILL

* than Shuriken about the whole ice taking over his body thing. Like, at the end of the day, he’s still a jock even if he did turn out to be a mutant. Like , the world didn’t just end because he’s got some cool ice powers

* Also only being able to create a shield if it’s for others?? What a fucking joke man come on

* He can create platforms of ice and just mainly uses the ice as shields.

B-NEGATIVE

* OK THIS IS MY SON

* not the original he kinda just looked like he took one look at Welcome to the Black Parade and said “I can do that outfit. But crappier.”

* Listen,,,, I constructed a son

* It’s like that thing from that movie

* I was like

* “We can rebuild him...”

* is that fucking robocop

* At any rate, yeah yeah, Morbius stuff is still withstanding

* What if

* And hear me out

* His parents were sort of antivax sort of anti-mutant sort of folk. They get into some sort of car accident when he’s kinda young. He gets a blood transfusion against his parent’s wishes and in the end also gets adopted by this weirdass doctor who probably has some nefarious purpose, considering he used Morbius’ blood in the first place.

* This would explain how he could survive having vampirism since a doctor would probably have easier access to donated blood and stuff.

* Should the blood be going to people who actually need a transfusion? yes, however, this doctor is clearly ,, off his fucking rocker and corrupt as hell,, and what is his purpose?? The world may never know

* I don’t think B-Negative cares about anything. Like he just seems like that kind of character? Totally and inherently aloof and selfish because he’s just been fed blood on a silver spoon his whole life?

* Just does not care

* He does care about music though. Specifically rock(alternative, punk, hard, etc) and the history of it.

* me personally I really like Pink Floyd and I’m not going to,, shove my beliefs onto a character but

* I’m going to shove my beliefs onto a character and say his favorite song of all time is probably Welcome to the Machine

* And he probably will not shut up about how righteous of a song it is and how pertinent the message is

* Bc I think it fits,,, a lot of things about the stuff I’ve wrote with the backstories of these characters

* and yes

* he can perfectly mimic Great Gig in the Sky. the man!! has pipes!!!

* I also think it would be cool if he’s the oldest of them? Like, younger than 21 but he’s out of high school. Just trying to get a bachelors in music history at fuckin uh. NYU probably.

* he unironically likes twilight

[this-is-a-podcast-fanblog]

Jupeter Vampire AU - Part 1

It’s time, monsterfuckers. Happy Halloween. 

If this is the last meal I’ll ever eat before I’m killed by a vampire, at least the vampire’s had the courtesy to pick out a great venue. 

“So, remind me,” I say around a mouthful of this incredible poutine. “In human years, you’re -”

“Thirty-six.”

“But you’ve been a vampire for -”

“Twenty years.”

“And I’m the first person to ever catch you.”

“It certainly seems that way.”

“I don’t believe that.”

The man across from me smiles, baring his extremely sharp teeth behind ink-black lips. Looking at those canines on which I’m probably about to be impaled, I find myself wondering vaguely how such an innocent start led to this. How did a couple of disconnected heists led to a pattern of thefts across the city? And more importantly, why did I feel the need to go tracking down the man behind them?

I know the answer, of course, whispered in the voice of my dead mother at the back of my mind. “You were looking for a way to play hero.”

My name is Juno Steel. I’m a private eye. And I have no idea how the hell I got into this situation.

It started a few months ago, with a string of robberies across town. As I investigated, the evidence began to line up and fit together into the shape of a tall thief who I saw a few times before he seemed to almost vanish into the night. I resolved to catch up with him, and then one night, I finally did. 

“Give me the things you stole, and I won’t call the police.”

Up close, I couldn’t help but notice his features; dark eyes and gorgeous bone structure and sharp, sharp teeth. He lifted a perfectly lined eyebrows, lips quirking in amusement. “And who might you be?”

“Juno Steel. Detective Juno Steel. Now put your goddamn hands up and give me everything you just stole.” 

“You’re cute, Detective - Steel, was it?” He flashed a grin. “I hope I’ll see you again.” And then he bolted, and the way he ran - I’ve never seen anyone move that fast. I took a stun shot after him, but I was still so startled by seeing him run like that, and I missed. When I walked back to my apartment I kept thinking about it. Something about him seemed almost… inhuman. 

And then I saw him again, taking his sweet time climbing out of a window. I pointed my gun at his back, poised to shoot right through that trailing black coat he wore. 

“You’re under arrest.”

“Oh, droll. By the way, that lipstick looks very nice on you.”

“Goddamnit, are you seducing me right now?”

“I’m certainly trying my best.”

“Whatever. Shut up. You’re coming to the station with me.” 

“Oh, but I’m afraid I won’t be, Detective Steel. You see, as much as I’d like to go somewhere with you, I simply have to go home and get my beauty sleep.” 

“Like I give a -”

“Ta-ta.” He crossed his arms over his chest and dropped backwards out the window. I shouted and ran to the ledge, but when I looked over with the expectation that I would watch his long limbs shatter on the concrete a hundred stories below, I instead saw him swing down a fire escape near the street and vanish into a dark alley. I’d never seen that kind of agility before, and I haven’t seen it since.

That was when I started getting suspicious. I saw him again, fifty feet of open museum between us, and a comms channel in my own hand that I should have been using to call the HCPD. He was a criminal. He was a thief. But damn it, he was so charming. 

“I hoped we’d run into each other tonight. This necklace seems to have shown up in my bag, although I can’t imagine how that happened. It’s not really my color, but I thought perhaps you might like it. Hold still?” His hands, clasping the chain around my neck, were ice cold. “It suits you wonderfully.”

“Is this some kind of trick?”

“Not at all. It’s me giving you a nice necklace. Adieu.”

I had Rita do some digging for me after that. Once I described everything I knew about him, it didn’t take long for her to propose a theory. The cold skin. The sharp teeth. The fact that I only ever saw him at night. I hated that I found myself agreeing with her. 

And so when I saw him again, leaning against the vault of a bank with a cigarette in one hand and a bag of cash in the other, I told him. 

“Now, what’s a lady like you doing in a place like this?”

“I know.”

“Know what, detective?”

“I know you’re a vampire.”

He took a long draw on his cigarette with a face as cold as the iron door behind him. Then he smirked and stubbed his cigarette against said door. “Let me take you out to dinner.”

And now I’m sitting across from him, knowing I’ve made a big mistake.

“Well,” says the vampire thief with a smile. “Here we are, then. You know my deepest secret.” 

“You don’t seem very bothered by that,” I observe. A smile flickers across his face. I can’t tell if he’s leaning closer or if I’m just a sucker, but it seems like the smell of his cologne is a little stronger, wrapping around me, intoxicating. He folds one long-nailed hand over the other on the table before him. 

“I’ll admit, Juno. It’s… a relief. To no longer be the only person in the galaxy who knows the truth of my own existence.” He cocks his head to one side, tilting his face into the pool of light from the lamp above our table. He’s so close now that I can see the gold flecks in his eyes. “Does that make sense?”

I swallow hard and nod. The corner of his perfect mouth flickers up, and his hand reaches across the table to cover mine. 

“I’m glad I met you, Detective Steel,” he murmurs, tracing the back of my hand. His fingertip runs along the vein in my hand, and I feel my pulse jump. Well, I guess this is it. 

“Hey,” I manage to whimper. “Before you kill me - can I just call my secretary and say goodbye?”

The vampire thief frowns. “What?”

“Just a quick call, I promise. You can watch me make it. It’s just, I can’t just vanish on her without saying anything at all.” His brow furrows, and I’m sure that I’ve displeased him, that now he’s going to make my death as painful as possible to punish me. Instead, a moment later, his face breaks into a smile. 

“Did you think that’s why I brought you here?” He lets go of my hand and retreats back to his side of the table, still grinning. “Detective, you’re adorable.” 

I blink. “So you… don’t want to drink my blood?” I hate that my voice comes out sounding disappointed. 

“I wanted to take you out to dinner.”

“But you’re not eating anything.”

The vampire thief chuckles. “Surely you know that there isn’t anything in this restaurant I can eat.”

There’s a long pause. I feel my pulse in the back of my throat, and I know I’m about to say something stupid. Quietly, I murmur, “I’m in this restaurant.” 

His dark eyes widen a little. I’ve startled him, I can tell, but he regains composure quickly and flashes that charming smile. His teeth flash in the light of the lamp above our table. “Let me get the check, and I’ll walk you to your car.” 

After he pays, we go out into the night, the fog heavy over the blurred neon of Hyperion City. The vampire thief turns to me. “Let’s do this again sometime,” he says. 

“Yeah.” I still can’t believe he’s letting me live. “Sure beats chasing you around the city.”

“Oh, I’m not so sure about that.” He reaches over and pulls me close by my coat, and for a brief, wonderful moment, I think he’s going to kiss me, and my heart leaps. Instead, I feel him slip something into my pocket. “Don’t read this until you’re back inside,” he whispers into my ear. “Goodbye, detective.”

And then he’s gone. I’m alone in the night, the fog curling around my feet, and lights shining high above my head. 

In my pocket: an envelope with a pair of earrings and a note that reads, “Thought these would look nice on you. xoxo, Peter Nureyev.” 

[ms31x129]

Woohoo! Time for Chapter 4! I had to make a another DJ! I felt compelled! I hope I have ideas for 3 more! @cultureisdarkbeer @monikafilefan @today-in-fic

Chapter 1 - Courage to Jump Tumblr LINK  AO3 it is HERE.

Chapter 2: Luck of the Irish Tumblr LINK or AO3 it is HERE.

Chapter 3: Graffiti of the Heart Tumblr LINK or AO3 HERE.

Chapter 4: Leave Your Demons At The Door  (Click on the name for AO3) or if you like Tumblr just clickity-click on the Keep Reading link below.

{Summary:

After seeing the past through Dana Scully's eyes, Jackson decides he needs a cold one. With the letter remaining in his possession, he finds a motel room to stay for the night and heads out to check out the nightlife. Of course, the past decides to hitchhike a ride. Jackson's internal conflict reaches a fever pitch when he steps into his birth parent's past at a time when they were fighting the future.}

“All men should strive to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.” -James Thurber

Jackson entered the motel room and tossed his knapsack off his shoulder, its buckles scraping along the surface of the small table as it came to a halt. Not ready for any type of sleep, he flopped on top of the bed with an arm cradling his head and flipped blindly through the channels to drown out the noise of the rest of the motel.

A lonely emptiness ate at his soul like the dying feasting on its last meal. There was nothing scarier to him than the idea that he could be sentenced to a purgatory of existing like this, nothing and no one with whom to speak. No compassion, no remorse, his soul had darkened to the point of charred coal without a hope for recovery. So why not embrace it? Why choose to be alone in madness?

Guiltily, he had found pleasure in cruelty, a joy in its power as a boy growing slowly into a man. Not for the first time, impossible questions riddled his mind. What if inside he was one of them? A bomb waiting to detonate; his existence serving its purpose to end it all. He thought he’d never be pure enough to make it through the gates of heaven anyway.

Why toggle the light and dark? He wondered while rubbing the barely there stubble along his chin. What was he afraid of besides loneliness? What was there to fear when you were the monster?

The springs of the sagging mattress creaked out a warning as he rose up and headed out to clear his head. At least he could find company in the loneliness of numbers.

The streets he walked were nothing like any he had traveled before. Yet they were etched in his head with a sharp knife, a scalpel scoring information deep into his DNA like some strange work of art. As he passed storefront windows and busy restaurants, there was a familiarity there that tickled at his brain akin to recognition. The insistent feeling led him to a bar and his height and a little illusion granted him a bar stool and a beer.

“You’ve got to train for that kind of heavy lifting,” said the bartender as the used beer glasses clinked, clanked, and stuttered against the highly polished, lacquered wooden bar. After several drinks, Jackson was barely able to steady his arm enough to prevent them from crashing to the floor. “Having a bad day?”

“You could say that,” Jackson sighed, chasing down a hiccup with what was left in his glass. “You come here often?” he smarted back.

“I’m the owner of this establishment actually,” she returned as she wiped up the last of the spilled beer. “Tonight’s been busy so I’ve been helping out.”

The other bartender finished doling out the last of the drinks to the customers and joined her to help clean up. He pointed at Jackson hunched over against the bar. “You look familiar... and I never forget a face.”  

He didn’t reply, afraid of it getting him tossed out, instead pointing at the bar for another round.

“So what brings you here?” The older woman asked, her short blond hair wisping over her forehead like bangs. She said it casually, but Jackson got the sinking feeling she was either testing his age or his blood alcohol level. Both of which were enough to refuse him any more service. It would only take a closer examination of his ID to uncover it was created courtesy of a man in a long trench coat in a dark alley.

The two bartenders were waiting for an answer and his depression overruled his logic. He opened his mouth intending on just feeding another lie to strangers who cared nothing for him, but carelessly started to ramble instead and the room spun without him.

“I’m part of an experiment to conceal the truth about the coming apocalypse,” he scoffed, wondering if that were even true anymore while he fingered the condensation on the beer glass. “Contagions, on a global scale to wipe out the planet except for the chosen few. I’m the atomic bomb: the savior and the sinner, and I can choose to destroy or save every man, woman, and child on this planet.”

Jackson chuckled to himself at how crazy his tale already sounded. His hands and arms were now animated as he spoke, staring at the bartenders straight in the eye.

“So of course they killed my parents. I’ve been forced to leave my girlfriends, drop out of school, I’m more of a bad joke than a friend. I’m Jackson, but they call me William…”

The man had the same look plastered on his face that most people had at hearing anything remotely “out there.” The older woman just look resigned, as if she’d heard this same shit on a different day. Maybe she had. Nothing surprised him anymore.

Noticing they both were still waiting for him to finish his spiel, he dove right back into the bullet point version of what he called his life.

“I realized I was part of the X-Men when I was just a kid,” he huffed at comparing himself to hero’s when he felt like a manifestation of evil. He leaned back with his hands gripping his knees, blowing a stream of air through puffed cheeks. “And now I chase after threads of sanity, trying to find who I really am, armed with a letter and a prayer hoping to find the courage to go to my birth mother, hoping she still wants me and has some answers. I’m shouting to the heavens or whoever is out there on the other side of my one-way sonar that the sky is falling. It’s goddamn Armageddon: earthquakes, flooding, fire, and disease.”

Jackson shook his head and rubbed his eyes. Knowing anyone else—anyone “normal” would consider this insanity, yet they were the building blocks of his life. They were what made him him . Saying them out loud as if he were confessing to his mom’s priest at their old church on Sunday mornings felt like a slap in the face.

“I’m the shitstorm of alllll time.”

“Well, that sure makes me feel better about myself,” the woman joked as she closed out his tab. “Looks like 86 is your lucky number, kid,” she told him, effectively ending his rant.

Jackson got the joke. She didn’t believe him and thought it was all some big hallucination from his consumption. Through her stimpering chastisement, she was throwing him out and refusing to serve. The depression and irritation at not being taken seriously yet again sunk from his heart into his stomach.

“You know, I’ve come to realize that one is the loneliest number,” he said, sulking with an arched brow and bathing in self-pity.

“That’s where I know this kid from,” the male bartender interrupted. “You remind me of that Spooky Mulder man. The woman passed him a curious look.

“You remember the FBI agent? Used to come in here years ago with his pretty redheaded partner.”

The female bartender smiled and nodded, a glimmer of recognition danced across her face and she added, “I hope the poor bastard realized she was crazy about him and grew a pair to finally ask her out.”

“Spooky Mulder?” Jackson questioned. That was them. Goddamnit! he thought, realization dawning. Once again following in the shadows of their history; literally it seemed.

“Yeah, I remember him bringing in his partner, what was her name?” she asked the other bartender.

“It was the same as the famous baseball announcer.” He snapped his fingers while Jackson gaped at the irony of it all. “Vin Scully—Scully was her name. Brought her in here after saving her life out in the arctic or some shit. Or she saved his life? I don’t know if they ever got that straight. Anyway, they would drink in here sometimes.”

The woman examined Jackson’s face. “Now that you mention it, he kind of looks like them.”

Jackson was afraid the jig was up. He tossed a couple fifties on the bar and stood, using the barstool to steady himself as he blinked twice to bring his doubled vision into focus.

While stumbling towards the door, a gang of bikers were making their way inside, marking out their turf like a wolf pack. They were rowdy and demanding, pushing the crowd aside as they grabbed their barstools and ordered drinks, harassing the patrons. Another younger, inexperienced bartender tried to settle them and it only appeared made them angry. One pulled him by his collared shirt to whisper something in his ear. Another one held out a knife, fingering it like he couldn’t wait to use it, while another man displayed the holster of his gun. If this was a bar frequented by the FBI, they were taking the night off.

Jackson’s heart pounded within his chest with what felt like a force hard enough to crack a rib as it yearned to beat free of its cage. His senses went on high alert and every color in the bar glowed brighter, every noise louder, smell stronger. With every movement anyone made he was prepared to react.

The song “Glitter and Gold” played through the bar’s sound system. Adrenaline and anger spiked in his veins like he had a double shot of caffeine. They were going to pay for their drinks and their disruption.  

In a dopamine rush, Jackson covered his frame in illusion, a monstrous form he invented as a child. Everyone froze at the sight of Ghouli before them. The eyes of the witnesses of Jackson’s transformation bulged and he could hear their strangled cries of mortal terror. Bulbs burst from the fixtures until there was barely enough light for shadows. The darkness fed his rage. Even the stars and moon seemed to cower behind clouds through the window preparing for Jackson’s storm. Everyone, everything, was now his prey.

Through the mirror at the bar, Jackson caught a reflection of a young boy with utter terror taking over his once innocent features, and his mother with her arms wrapped around him ready to give her life for his survival. In that moment, something inside Jackson snapped, or finally broke free perhaps. He heard it like a twig cracking in his mind, a subtle deafening sound. He ran. The bikers fled fearing he was headed their way, but Jackson was running away, not towards. Running to feel the sweet pain in his lungs, lactic acid building in his muscles, reminding him that he was real, he was human.  

Jackson “the monster” was no more. The old him really had died in the depths of the water on that cold night at the docks.

Now outside, the cars zoomed as they passed him, the drivers never taking notice of the monster running down the street, half human half Frankenstein as his illusion faded. People were too busy hurrying back to a welcoming home, eating their sirloin steaks and mashed potatoes with their family, making sure the children ate their vegetables. Somewhere parents beamed happily as they knelt down to tuck their kids into bed with a story in hand...

Would he ever know that comfort again?

Depression and self-loathing, like liquid death swarmed inside him, the blackness flooded and choked him begging his body to choose his future.

Heaving and gasping for breath with his avatar long gone, he slowed and finally stopped, leaning on his knees as he hunched over and concentrated on not vomiting. The sky spun and he heaved out the night’s libations. He wasn’t much of a successful drinker to begin with. Somehow he ended up on the damp ground, not certain how it happened, but he could feel the frigid water seeping into his jeans. His hands rested back into the soil as his feet dangled off the curb and into the street.

That monster was not him and it would not return.

[raguna-blade]

Revolutionary Girl Utena 34-39 And The Adolescence of Utena

So hot diggity damn, I finally finished the Series and it’s Sequel movie. (Perhaps it’s not truly a sequel. I will be graceful and acknowledge this as a possibility as I gleefully ignore it because hot damn that movie makes Negative Sense if You haven’t seen the series before (Which I know factually because I’ve watched it multiple times without having seen the series in full proper. That dance scene man) but makes immense amounts of sense if viewed as a sequel. I’m gonna get around to it sooner or later I think, probably sooner since the subject is on my mind, but still) Shit went down. So much has gone down, but the one thing that I can say is that it I am so glad to see that Akio got dunked on in the most pleasing way by the Lady who consistently spat hot fire the entire series.

Also that Dance Scene was SO FUCKING GOOD, LIKE HOLY SHIT GUYS.

Proper Essays and the like to come as I Do a run through thoughts and such, since I got a bunch of them.

Episodes 35-39

Episode 35

Oh Boy prince time again. Oh god. Oh god they changed it again.

I find it interesting that Dios is Still framed pretty sympathetically. He's a solid A plus good guy, but shit goes so horribly wrong that he just...stops. Hm. Wonder if there's a reason WHY he warped so? It doesn't excuse anything but...

Wait, did Utena start recalling everything? Hell of a way to regain your memories.

I do not appreciate the crotch shot here following that last ep.

GODDAMNIT AKIO. YEAH TAKE A WALK AWAY.

This whole scene feels awkward.

Oh damn her face flattened out like whoa. She mad.

Was it Eternity? That warped him...?

What's with the car...?

Also, ….Ok, toga. Car Pyramid too.

Also, is Akio...hm. Oddly Passive? Hm.

Give her a present, say it's from me, and god damnit akio please stop being weird for like 10 seconds.

What's with the carrot in his pocket.

Earrings? Jessu wakaba.

...Wait, was this to tilt TOGA? But why would that do it?

Prince Mystique. I think this shit was actually supposed to til him.

I think Akio actually fucking played Touga. HE THOUGHT THEY WERE PARTNERS AND YOU GOT PLAYED!

Yeah, Touga is fucking TILTED.

He looks so put off right now. Like he's...off. He's off in a way the others haven't been.

Saionji here reading him like a book. Jesus Saionji is tearing him a new one.

Used people like tools and it made you strong IN THE PAST.

Shadow Girls? Feels super early, but it's the second half of the episode. But what's the deal with fish...Oh, fish in the sea. Girls exist to be exploited? Huh...Toga I guess....A Mermaid? Oh, a fish and a personality

LEFT THE BED. OH NO. The earrings. Also, I dislike the soft lovely lovey dovey shading here. Just feels...like liesssssssssssss

Anthy.

He thinks he won the game. He wants her to be a princess.

A princess who will revolutionze the world.

Oh Shit the elevator! It's been too long.

Is it the bros time?

Never come out of this coffin. Is everyone dead here?

Saionji: YOU LOVE HER BRO?

TOUGA: Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Final Letter? Hm..Why the play? But I'm making this call. Akio's not actually end of the world?

Saionji: YOU SURE YOU WANNA BE LIKE HIM?

But for real dudes, why you strippin.

...Oh is chuchu a familiar? Or some part of anthy?

Anthy is not having it. AND SH what the fuck WHAT THE FUCK WE JUST GONNA IGNORE HER SPURTING INTO SWORDS?

Honestly, all of this is half making me wonder about the black rose arc cause it feels...mad out of place? It got excised from canon but...hm.

Episode 36

This yinyang shit is increasingly worrisome.

Elevator again? Also, how long has it been since we've seen the rest of the student council. And why does Touga think he needs to beat her to save her?

Hm....

Is the coffin (Coffins) Ohotori? Is this some weird purgatory? Would explain shadow seminar guy.

You sound sincere when you say that. IMPLYING HE DOESN”T THE REST OF THE TIME.

DON'T KISS AND LOOK ALL DREAMY FUCK YOU AKIO. FUCK YOU

WHY CANT THESE GUYS CLOSE A SHIRT?

Oh Stuco? Please be the heroes we need.

Juri: SOMETHING IS WRONG

Miki: WELL SHEIS A GIRL BUT...Uh...I mean that's good? Right? Something is off.

Oh Boy. Revolution TIME.

….What...what are they doing. What's with the  Bike...? Also, the metaphor shit makes me uh..Hm.

Touga: GETTING SECOND THOUGHTS.

Saionji tries to copy akio, and immediately shot down, shits dumb.

Shirt open utena? Copying princly(???) manners there.

Night Dueling...?

So...what's up Touga?

REAL STARS. SEEING REAL STARS FOR THE FIRST TIME!

And it shows the castle? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Man, touga realizing he fucked up but big.

I'm not sure if he's fucking around or for real right now. This is a cute as hell moment i'll grant, but suspect. Touga's got a history.

So he does care. Oh...So that's why he has to win. To keep her away from Akio? But...what's up with that.

...So is Saionji to Anthy as Touga is to Utena? Huh...?

Shadow Time...? Prince of the Horse and the Prince...uh...Hm.

Apocalypse time Hoo boy.

Huh. The Roses growing in anthy's clothes....I wonder if they're supposed to be sorta like...Swords? Analagous to Swords.

Touga and Saionji...Yeah I think that's a HARD ass confirm there. Wait oh my god really?????

That no budget though.

….Touga said he'd protect her and....EVERYTHING GOT REALLY FUCKING WEIRD. THE CARS. ANTHY

Oh man the cars are getting HOT wrecked.

Yo. YO GUYS THIS IS DOPE.

Are the cars the dudes/princes familiars...?

Is it over for us?

BEWARE THE ROSE BRIDE AND END OF THE WORLD

hoo boy. That's...a long ass pause there. And whispering akios name and YEESH SWORDS

oh god is it happening? Oh god it might be happening.

OH FUCK IT HAPPENED. AND SHE LOOKS BROKEN AS SHIT RIGHT NOW.

Utena is...uh...not here right now.

Nanami was RIGHT THE WHOLE TIME. TRIFLING AS HELL AS SHE WAS SHE WAS RIGHT.

ALSO BLUE HAIR AND JURI MIRROR UTENA AND TOUGA OK GOT IT. Shiori is Anthy then I guess.

Utena don't you know how much i've despised you? HOLY SHIT

Episode 37

Hey, Hey, Utena. SHITS FUCKED. ITS HIS FAULT.

DON'T TAKE THE RING OFF OH FUCK. She remembers. Oh boy. Ohhhhhhhhboy.

Only realizing how many fake ass stars are in the apartment.

Anthy is acting more robotic than usual.

Forgive Me! Chuchu.

Oh, the Rose bundle has the whole set of colors don't it. Yep. Orange, green, blue, yellow, red.

End of the World doesn't want things to change?

You two just gonna...just gonna admit how close you are. Touga. Saionji.

Anthy can hear the car noises. If you can still hear it.

GOD I HATE THIS MAN SO MUCH.

Anthy on her mind.

No star mention huh. Stars don't interest him....Hm.

Only place you can see stars are in Anthy and Utena's room.

Is this the first time we've seen utena in red?

….I JUST realized how immensely creepy this picture taking thing is from Akio. Somehow.

Anthy: My brother loves you as well miss utena.

Oh she's fucking up the ball game.

I love this life, I hope our feelings stay the same between the three of us.

Well fucking up the ballgame is off. But falling out the pattern. Never a good sign.

Juri and Miki to the rescue?

Utena is chosen to bring the world revolution. And she doesn't...want it. Been playing prince..So you could make yourself a prince.

Juri: What're you gonna do about anthy. You love her right. You...You know that right?

Nanami to the rescue. YOU KNOW YOU'RE BEING TRICKED YOU MORONS. STAY AWAY FROM AKIO AND ANTHY.

Nanami is a good girl, if a bit of a bitch..

Kozue watching like a hawk.

Miki: Hey I'm a bit in love with you.

Juri: COINCIDENCE?

Duel for her huh. HUH?

Shadow Girls...Why aliens crashing into the tower?

Utena's the Actress here. Shadow Girls OTP. Only one girl can be chosen at the audition.

So, a taste of the princess life?

Hoo boy...Why does he look so fucking angry. Also Anthy with the uh...weirdly sexual pains there.

What do you wanna do in the future Anthy?

Cantarella. A Deadly Poison. Why...are you just bringing that up. Poisoned Tea and cookies...huh?

What's with the record skip.

BOTH OF US TOGETHER 10 YEARS FROM NOW. Yes it would be nice. Just...Just ask her out utena. Please.

...Why are you on the ledge Anthy. uh...Is this a suicide HO SHIT.

I just can't go on. Anthy just...legit tried to kill herself? She just tried to kill herself.

Devoted to true friendship? A gullible fool?

Anthy. You can still turn back huh. Ring On. Prince Mode Engaged. Let's just fucking go.

Episode 38

APOCALYPSE AT THE START? UH. UH PATTERN BREAK? Uh...Shit.

Last two eps, now is the time I guess.

Hold Hands in the face of the End of the World. Let's goooooo

So...That's Dios. And Akio in front. So they're not the same person. For sure.

The Castle where a prince and princess will live together happily

WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED TO ANTHY JESSU CHRIST THAT WAS SCARY.

Rose Bride Utena.Make her into a rose bride. Hit him utena.

Yes, what does happen to Anthy. Rose Bride forever. Swords for ever.

Oh are they building on the suicide thing? Please and thanks.

Oh anthy REALLY wants to die. Like she is not even trying to stay alive.

The Rose Bride, a doll with no heart, to be abused and used huh.

Anthy and Utena finally having a heart to heart.

...Kinda feel like they're talking past each other though?

TAKE BACK THE SWORD.

Dios on her side.

The Prince and Castle are illusions. So that include the school...?

Uh...Uh...the star gazing room? Planeterium, that's the word.

Akio's room is the tip top. Casts Illusions.

Is it so wrong? YES FUCKER JESUS.

YOU ARE AN ADULT YOU FUCK. ITS NOT POSSIBLE TO BE FAIR.

You never tried to understand anthy. Huh...

They are throwing so much here. Like god damn.

Akio claims

HELLAVATOR?

He's trying so hard to get that sword from Utena.

He's...crying?

JUST A WITCH.

OH GOD THE SHELL. ITS BEEN SO LONG!

Nanami too!?

Smash the Worlds shell....oh the end of the world.

The Revolution Duel Has Begun huh.

Akio with his off brand Utena Outfit.

Real Combat huh?

Akio is REFUSING to explain himself. Which is markedly different since he's the only adult here.

I'm Gonna be a Prince...Oh shit is this the duel opening shot. Illusory construct. Oh boy. Oh boy that shit was literal wasn't it.

Anthy...? She looks uh...Not Ok.

Akio isn't though. He's looking uh...Bad too.

ANTHY? ANTHY?! WHAT TU FUCK? THATS HOW YOU END THE EPISODE?!

HOW YOU GONNA STAB UTENA LIKE THAT?

EPISODE 39

uh...pattern breaking again. Where's the opening. Last time to break a pattern I guess. Chance to.

FUCKING STABBED HER! WHY.

You remind me of Dios. But you can never be my prince cause you're a girl.

uh.

Uhhhhhhh.

The Duel Named Revolution. Utena is...Her Their Representative.? She's their Rep.

A boy saved juri's sister, and died. They can't recall his name. Uh...hm.

Y'all just gonna have corn cookin though.

Anthy....?

Do you hate what i've become? Why is he crying?

Y'all just gonna leave Utena dying.

His knowledge is absolute. He chose this path. Claims to love her. FUCK HIM UP.

He couldn't win with his sword, so he stole utenas.

UTENA HANGIN ON.

Stubborn and reckless hero. A taste of true friendship.

OH FUCK THATS A LOT OF SWORDS

Shine with with human hatred. Summoned and deflected by Utena's sword?

HEY HEY WAIT A SECOND. THE FIRST SWORD THAT STRUCK HER IS DIOS/AKIOS. HEY WAIT A GODDAMN MINUTE.

Takes the sword in place of the prince. Destiny of the Rose bride huh. And he's sitting here saying she chose this? YOU TALKED HER INTO IT ASSHOLE.

AND HE CAN'T EVE DO IT WITH THE SWORD HE WANTED SO BADLY.

So...Dios...Again. Through the door eternity, and the power to change things. Well damn fuck dios too.

It's interesting that Dios is presented as a powerful figure, but is ultimately pretty impotent here. He holds absolute power but cannot act? HUH.

Broke her sword huh.

Akio: I COULDn'T DO IT SO YOU CAN'T EITHER. FUCKING DUMBASS

Utena; FUCKING TRY ME. THIS SHIT IS GOIN DOWN.

Oh, friend pointed it out. Roses are all her color.

No power, you can't do anything. Just be dependent.

Utena: FUCK OFF. FUCK THIS DOOR. ANTHY

HAVENTS SEEN THIS SHIT IN A WHILE!

And the swords stopped.

Just realized how childish the prince is...

Oh hey a coffin. And her hands are bloody.

Oh...I think HES gonna have to deal with these swords now.

It's anthy in the coffin. Of course. Tracks.

Don't be afraid of the world says baby Utena. Word.

AT LAST WE MEET!? Yeah that tracks. That. Yeah. She's not being the rose bride. She's being Anthy.

TAKE HER HAND ANTHY GODDAMNIT

While i'm thinking, the whole edifice of end of the worlds power broke down.

Someday together. Uh. Uhhhhhh. Hey. Hey wait a minute.

HEY NO THATS NOT COOL. In the end I couldn't be a prince. Forgive me.

The Swords are...Uh...Utena. UTENA! oh..oh shit.

Wakaba. Hero.

Shadow Girls gonna be an actress. 10 year reunion.

Who was Utena again...? uh.. Utena Hopitalized? Uh...Hey wait a second.

Everyone seems to be..going on.

They're all forgetting she ever existed.

He really doesn't realize what happened.

She vanished from your world. Huh.

Oh hey she's in utena's colors. Well maybe her colors.

I SWEAR I'LL FIND YOU. HEY WAIT.

Hey Final frame Utena and Anthy. ALRIGHT.

MAY THIS ROSE REACH YOU.

NOW THE MOVIE

Revolutionary Girl Utena The Adolescence of Utena

Ok, so this isn't the movie proper, just the dvd thing, but Man Anthy looks super. She looks actually kinda confident and active and alive I guess?

Anyway, I'm going into this assuming it's some kind of sequel. I'm looking for that anyway. Whether it's true uh..We'll see.

HERE WE GO

Anthy and Akio on the tower? And now Just Anthy. At the toppest point where things were controlled right?

….what the fuck is this geometry.

Music still slaps.

I'm sure those pictures were supposed to mean something but fuck if I know what.

...What the hell.

Utena!? SHORT HAIR SHARP DRESSED!

Wakaba! Utena being the charmingest though.

On Air? Shadow Girl Radio! Listen Carefully!

This academy is castelvania.

Shadow girls: Dumped again? Rain on her parade? Huh.

Utena's Pavlor Instincts: PRINCE?! PRINCE WHERE!?

Budget yo. Miki and Juri though man. Juri's not a bad choice for prince.

Juri has like 8 times as much hair. Like Damn. Your Rival

Hey it's Touga! Utena is SHOOK

...The Rose Thing is BUSTED.  Just straight wrecked. The Garden. That's the word.

Hey touga what's with the spooky ghost bullshit.

HOW MANY YEARS HAS IT BEEN SINCE WE LAST MET.

I didn't come here looking for you. Surprised you're here.

I'll live with high goals.

More of a pink rose really. Unfurls to reveal...the ring? Huh. Rose Rain now.

Oh...That's DEFFINITELY the highest place in the academy. Structurally uh...uh.......

The Rose Gate looks fucked up. Oh that's a lot of roses. Didn't anthy say something about tending roses...?

Are you not afraid? Anthy looks...really happy. Her hair is down.

I'm the only one captive to the roses. Why'd you come here?

Why'd you come to this academy? And Anthy stopped when she saw the ring. And kinda freaked out.

How do you know about that. Heyyyyyyyyyyy. Saionji.

Rose brides symbol. She's holding that pink/white flower pretty tight though.

Anthy just...kinda went back into robo mode there. And she's not...precisely feeling the ring thing.

Meanwhile, that gate effect.

Do you have a sword? (you know nothing. Last chance to take it off please.)

Utena. A broom ain't a sword, but yeah fuck him up. Ain't worse than what you.

Anthy slap count. But she's active here. She's being a person here unlike before which is.

Anthy is covering her ears.

You're the one who doesn't understand. Is there any girl who's happy to be treated like a possession.

I NEVER SAID THAT I WAS A BOY. FUCK OFF.

Anthy looking hopeful there. DIVE. YOU're NOT ALLOWED TO DUEL WITHOUT A SWORD.

And...Is this song from the original but better but....

Anthy and utena got back into the swing asap. Long Hair Utena returns. Prince Utena rather I guess.

GG Saionji.

PINK MOSTLY! ITS PINK MOSTLY! NOT RED. A LITTLE RED! OH MY GOD THIS MIGHT BE A LEGIT SEQUEL!? Kinda sorta. I'll have to explain myself later.

Touga and Utena are cute as kids. Look at em.

Anthy just...asserted herself.

I don't usually invite people to my room. And then you pull her onto your bed.

Mark of the rose, you know it don't you?

Uh...uh damn Anthy. She's just....straight up feeling up Utena. Looked shocked then certain.

Dreaming of the castle with the prince.

Kozue what are ...what's up with this room. Her prince drowned huh?

Probably the closest we'll get to duelist wakaba here.

Also trying to win her. Well I guess you could say he's here for the dueling.

Hey, Touga don't kiss and tell.

These two are...oddly friendly.

Touga, don't talk to Akio. It's never good.

Calling her a witch.

Prince was a lord of the flies. The witch turned them into a prince.

Wait, not Kozue, that was shiori.

KOZUE, just put a knife to her brothers throat. OK.

Uh...Sold to your father...? Where's nanami though. Calling him a customer makes this uh...infinitely skeeziesr.

Wow Shiori seems a bit uh...

Oh yeah, that's no good. Goddamn poor touga.

Touga: I will win. But I can't be cruel to Juri. High goals man.

This darkness leads to the end of the world....And Dios being a goddamn Cryptid.

The Revolution will begin soon.

Miki: My wish is to obtain more power.

Juri: I want power to be free. To be unconstrained.

Touchy Juri is cool. Big Big Sister Energy there.

Shiori being MAD damicky right now. Trifling. Just absorb Nanami or something?

Miki: Free from Constraints. I get it. Yeeeeeee.

Anthy Please step away from the edge. And you just flash stepped to the center. ok.

Utena is WAY more expressive here too.

“There is no prince” That's...pretty chilling coming from utena actually. And Anthy is so damn touchy feely.

Uh. Uhhhhhhh. ok. Axe antics.

But not in utena which is a step up.

Ooh the ground is mad pretty.

And the starrrs. YoooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Anthy! Looking mad gentle and sweet here. Duelist Utena! And Rose Bride Anthy!

Oh shit. This dance scene is...And it's their reflections .

NO MATTER HOW MUCH TIME PASSES DON'T FORGET THTA PROMISE. IVE COME ALL THIS WAY AT LAST!

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE LIGHT IS ALWAYS SHINING!

THEIR EXPRESSIOSN AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

Oh it's the oninon boy.

Draw Each Other huh! eyebrow waggle

Anthy where the hell are you going.What the. And it's the tower huh.

It's just an obvservation room now though huh. Or in this version.

Anthy, smiles when she takes off the ring. SEQUEL VIBE INCREASES.

Anthy, is unquestionably the one in charge this movie. Compared to before. She's way more impish.

Like...How the hell did you talk her into posing nude exactly?

Utena. Utena are you asking her to strip- ANTHY!

Uh what's that sound. WHAT ARE THESE PICTURES? Uh...Uh...wait what's up with the anthy here.

Ok, so Akio/dios being a weirdo again....and there is a fucking hole in her chest. A big honking hole.

SHADOW TIMES:...

Is...Is that nanmi. There's Chuchu and nanami yep, ok. OK. Oh it's the three dudes too.

You had limitless budget and you put this shit in.

...What the fuck was that though. Crocodile kun.

Hey Akio looking...Cool as usual. But is he still awful?

Record skips. Great.

Did he roofie his sister.

Hey fuck that noise WE DUEL NOW

VS JURI

...People can SEE them dueling?

What's with Shiori though.

Juri once again, being a boss. Also, I just noticed that all of their outfits have gotten an upgrade.

...Miki what do you mean who is Touga.

Juri is...WAY madder about her pretending to princedom than before.

Dios Overlay. And Anthy seemed shocked.

…....A Dead Akio. And he was buried under the ground. And Anthy looked...kinda...pissed.

Anthy killed Akio. And Shiori? Out here pulling shit?

...Oh Akio thought she was asleep when he pulled his shit. Hoooooboy.

Oh the interview room. Shadow room?

Akio freaking the fuck out and he killed her.

And he's dead. Pretty pathetically actually.

Deffo the shadow seminar. Hellavator!

...Touga?

So castle showed up when she killed her brother.

Is...Touga dead.

They keep going back to this drowning kid.

Hero Touga. The Touga we deserve.

Well he died in water and not fire, so...Go him. Seemed pretty chill about it.

I finally found you utena. Power of miracles as long as you stay here.

Pull the sword out and just put that shit back in.

Let's get the fuck out of here-CARRED

TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD

Best version of the Apocalypse song, but why a fucking carwwash. Who thought this made sense. It's DOPE to look at but like damn man.

Utena makes a DOPE car though. Like that shit looks awesome. SHES RUSTING  ANTHY. PUT THE KEY IN HER.

Shadow Radio! Hot Damn, Kage OS looks DOPE.

They're all pink haired shadow gals. Which is neat.

Wacky Races Yo.

BIG MISTAKE THINKING YOURE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN TURN INTO A CAR.

Only one who escapes this world. The only one who deserves it is beautiful me. Well...Rip Shiori.

OH ITS THE SWORDS. THEY'RE THE SWORDS.

Ok, this makes CONSIDERABLY more sense if you think of it as a sequel I think.

Needs help? Stuco Squad is there for youuuuuuuuu.

Or at least those who remain.

….WAKABA IS THE JEEP!?

Saionji: I have your back. And when we get to the outside world, I will be there to seduce. The fucking dork.

Oh hey it's the castle making what I must assume is it's last appearance....Oh that's ominous. Das big.

THAT OPENING THEME YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Still freaking weird, but Shadow Girls got your back..

HYE THATS CHEATING!

Oh hey, it's everyone's favorite dickhead.

Where you can be a living corpse.

You can only be a prince in that world.

Goodbye brother, you are no longer my prince.

Hey Akio, how is it you're still the worst.

The balancing act there is crazy like damn you two.

Shadow Girls no more! But we'll miss you.

Anthy Himemiya and Utena Tenjou as the Shadow Girls huh.

Man, the real world looks like shit. (?real World?)

The logistics of it aside, that's a hell of a cool shot.

Return to the outside world we're from. Explore and make the world bigger. Ok. Ok. I get you.

Also. That made LESS sense with context.

[letstalksymphogear]

Symphogear, EP. 6

Last Time on Grand Theft Auto:

Tsubasa recovers from the world’s gayest coma as Hibiki trains her mind while putting aside such silly concepts as “the love of my life” and “literally being with my girlfriend.” After cooling Miku’s paranoia with her brand new washboard abs, Genjuro prepares the team for a pizza run across the city to deliver a dangerously hot pizza pie named Durandal. Chaos emerges as the delivery is intercepted by a rival pizza gang, lead by the nefarious Gremlin known as Yukine Chris. But, before the pizza could be claimed, dedicated pizza deliverywoman Hibiki not only steals it back, but eats it, harnessing the power of the pizza and unleashing cheesy pasta based chaos around the location.

Ryoko is so into it that she taps into her superpowers and protects Hibiki after she passes out. The delivery is considered a failure, and no tip is given.

And so, the journey continues...

Meanwhile, in this weird, tricked out mansion...

Chris meditates on some water metaphors of her own.

“that pacman colored freak took only touching it to activate a cheap ass french sword that gave her weird demon powers and its taken me YEARS to use this dumb stripper outfit and the funny cane that goes with it, what the FUCK man, what even is my life”

“maybe... maybe honeybaked hams ARE that powerful...”

“NO! turkey is the superior meat! it’s healthier, lower in fat, and way more tasty! fuck you! i’ll get my goddamned revenge!”

Chris begins musing about Fine’s motivations to capture Hibiki; during these, we’re treated to some brief image flashbacks of Chris’s life.

Suddenly, those jokes about food are a lot less funny.

It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together as to why this young woman is helping a strange nudist dominatrix spread alien terror across the city of mumblednoises, Japan. She doesn’t really have many an option on the table. It’s either help the weird kinkster with her plans, or die.

Despite everything, she has a high opinion of Fine, for the same reasons someone might have a high opinion of a television show if it were the only show they were ever exposed to. She is deeply afraid of being alone again, because she has lived through such misery that the very thought of existing out in the cold again terrifies the shit out of her.

The Sun rises casually amidst Chris’s thoughts.

“ah shit. it just hit me. i literally have spent the entire night standing here instead of actually going the fuck to sleep. goddamnit.”

On such a devious metaphorical twist, Fine stands behind her as the Sun rises.

“yeah, jokes on you. i couldnt sleep for shit either. turns out, all nude, no blankets? in japan? real bad idea.”

“thats why i decided to GO GOTH, babey! whattaya think? do i give those witchy vibes, huh? real ‘black magic woman’ santana hours? feeling cute, gonna head out with the girls and summon satan in the woods kinda aesthetic looking shit? come on, be real with me. does this not look baller?”

“you look like morticia decided to go to the grocery store to buy some wonder bread, but other than that, its a step up from your usual pussy out attitude, so sure”

“you know i decided to get some brain cells on loan from Brain Cells R Us, and ive been thinking this solomon cane stuff is solomon lame. i dont need this dumb oversized harry potter cosplay prop to get shit done. also, murder is... sorta bad? im still trying to get the brain cell stuff down.”

“i can punch just as good as goody two shoes if not better.”

“lol go do it then champ, im gonna go cut down a forest of trees now”

And so, they both just kinda... stand there.

“QUACK, NEXT SCENE, QUACK”

Meanwhile, Tsubasa is rapidly trying to rehabilitate herself from her wounds like walking like a madman, her IV drip presumably filled with Taco Bell brand Doritos Locos Tacos super spicy nacho cheese. Taco Bell: Live Mas.

“im gonna clear every fucking taco bell in your goddamned memory, kanade”

“think outside the bun! wait, what? that was a taco bell slogan? ah fuck it, im dead. what nerd’s gonna try and correct me?”

“i would, kanade. i am that nerd.”

Tsubasa is hell bent to try and understand Kanade’s simple philosophy of helping others selflessly. Unfortunately, when Kanade died, she took all the brain cells between them in the process, so coming to this epiphany is a work in progress.

“listen its a fucking miracle you are 1. alive and 2. able to have your blood run on the garbage melted plastic taco bell tries to dupe people into believing is cheese so why dont you just lie down and think of better franchises to eat from”

“no! you dont understand! taco bell is a franchise of the PEOPLE! their meals are cheap and filling and- and the chicken quesadillas are of good quality for their price! i promised kanade- my vow to the death. taco bell... ergh... now and forever... i-”

“wait. my gay senses are tingling.”

It’s Hibiki, probably running track with Miku.

“oh yeah... her... i should probably apologize to her. about trying to kill her. and then letting her almost be kidnapped. and just giving her a general hard time about something that wasn’t explained to her in the slightest for months. she’s a good bean.”

Tsubasa proceeds to never canonically apologize to Hibiki throughout the entirety of all 4 seasons of Symphogear.

Look at em run. See, it’s a metaphor, because they haven’t communicated yet and they’re running from their problems! But they’re running towards Tsubasa, who is part of the representative problem these two share! Clearly literary genius.

It’s like someone went halfway into writing an NTR plotline and went “maybe this isn’t a good idea to market our songs on.”

Hibiki is still thinking about her Hellshake Yano moment with Durandal. Mainly how she nearly killed someone with it. Hibiki is very starkly in the “killing is bad, and wrong” camp of morality, a trait currently unique to her that she’ll wind up teaching literally everyone else she meets one way or another.

Some could argue the L stands for Lydian, and they’re wrong. It stands for Lesbian.

“that was one hell of a run, hibiki! im pooped! why dont we go to the locker room and call it a day, have a nice shower and just get some dinn-”

“this is the last straw.

i clean your plates. i cook your food. we eat, shit, shower, and sleep in the same FUCKING area, and this is how you repay me? huh? you think being your wife is easy shit, hibiki? half the damn time you’re running off like clark kent having food poisoning and the other half ive gotta babysit you, the emotional equivalent of a preteen clown, to make sure your life doesn’t self destruct harder than Atlantis sinking into the ocean. im done! i am DONE. im reopening my tinder, im slamming my ass BACK into okcupid, and im gonna date some CUTE ACADEMY GIRLS that treat me BETTER than this ABSOLUTE BETRAYAL OF HEART AND IM NOT CRYING I SWEAR ITS JUST THE SWEAT IN MY EYES AND HIBIKI HOW COULD YOU-”

“oh yeah, sure! hey, lemme just do a few more laps, ive just been feeling judgmental about myself and my figure, you know? gotta push myself further...”

“o-oh yeah, sure. no worries, ill wait for you. love you too, hibiki...”

The girls bathe together, as good friends typically do.

“hey you ever notice the showers here have like, weird psuedo-luxurious minipools to bathe in? like, how rich is this school?”

“whoever made this place is either rich or a pervert. or both, probably!”

Miku remarks that Hibiki has changed since she’s entered Lydian, in a manner most unheterosexual.

“oh FUCK you really DO have washboard abs now! ohhh my god.”

“damn, those abs were heavenly. let’s get pancakes later.”

I won’t screenshot it but something to note is that they actually wear each other’s corresponding underwear colors (or even, if you want to examine more closely, each other’s underwear). Here’s an equivalent scene to give you the mental image.

This is the face of someone who knows what they want and already have it. Such is the power of Kohinata Miku.

Meanwhile, Genjuro comes back from the funeral of the guy the Americans filled violently and with impunity.

“yo that all black look looks baller. i should borrow that look... id look pretty gothy in it.”

“ryoko i sympathize with your sharp, fashionista eye but this was for a funeral, i was paying my respects to the dead. thats the usual dress code.”

“didnt know they updated that. i remember back in my day, we just went in white garments and chanted in latin!”

“shit was fire. literally. lots of funeral pyres.”

“lmao ryoko buddy your larping sessions arent actual history”

“hey dont shit on larping around me. i used to be a professional larper while i was majoring in acting. helped really sell my career when i had to pretend to slay the Dark Lord Jyarloen atop the mountain of skulls in Hargobor after my family was killed by the Dark Army. asshole.”

“haha yeah, larping, thats cool yeah, i do that

i...

i larp.”

“oh yeah? you wanna join my larping session sometime then? we’re gonna do an ancient babylon plot thats inspired by some anime, itll be fun”

“.....................................im super into realism.”

“i know im dressed for a funeral but id like to not part ways with my dignity yet. besides, we’ve got serious shit to talk about. basically, we’re on the verge of getting shitcanned.”

As it turns out, the death of this politician removed the last obstacle of opposition to maintain the 2nd Division, as the average criticism against the 2nd Division is “why are we funding this mystery division when we don’t know what they do”. Of course, the sensible idea for an organization that defeats the Noise is to declassify it, given people of different jobs and positions have physically seen the Symphogear in action, but you know. “Oh no, the other governments will come after us” stick gets shaken.

“im in a union. i know my rights. you’re not taking my acting job here away from me.”

“im not going back to be a preschool teacher. its been ten year. the bites on my ankles still havent healed...”

“yeah man, shit sucks ass. i cant fund my adoption habits if im fired.”

Look at these cinematic parallels. Symphogear truly is a franchise made by someone living in 3030.

“worst part is the new minister is super into america. he’s a... westaboo.”

“a westaboo?”

“westaboo?”

“did he just unironically say westaboo”

“he said westaboo. oh my god. this is the hell timeline.”

“i mean people kept calling me that for worshipping all these fighting flicks so i guess it fit? i dont see the problem here”

Meanwhile, in Lydian Academy...

“so it hit me, right? we’re ALL girls. and we ALL sing. now, humor me a moment. what if... what if we’ve all been recruited to potentially be superheroes... through our singing? like, there’s no coincidence that all this shit happens around us, right? and a famous singer LIVES here? i saw the black cars outside! weird shit is happening here- im not even gonna eat the all you can eat bar anymore!”

“kathy there is literally no such thing as superheroes who sing. this place is more likely to be a organ harvesting op than whatever madness you’re saying”

“what? you need me, a singing superhero, to go stop a problem happening underneath the school, a location meant to recruit young women into potentially becoming fellow crime fighting singers?”

“yeah im too busy poppin’ caps in asses so go kick ass in my place”

“sure!”

“.....................................who ya talkin to, hibiki?”

“the boss! gotta go do a thing again...”

“hibiki, i dont like the fact that capitalism is tearing us apart.”

“you’ve gotta join me in the revolution, hibiki. you. me. luxury automated gay space communism. aint it the dream? share my vision, hibiki. its glorious.”

“n... no...? no gay space communism today? well, what about tomorrow? or the next day? or... maybe the next day? baby steps, you say? but, direction action, hibiki! we’ve gotta strike now!”

“it’s okay hibiki. when i take over the world and destroy all first world government leaders, and unite the globe in my encompassing reign and love... ill make sure to spare you, and be my bride to be.”

“thanks miku. im just not ready yet for the globe to burn in an unending ball of fire as the continents fuse into a new utopia composed of our combined wills. also, ive really gotta go, its genuinely an emergency.”

“for the cause!”

“yes hibiki... for the cause...”

Admittedly, you can see the stages of grief Miku goes through when she sees Hibiki say she can’t join her for pancakes. It’s sad. This side story sucks.

Meanwhile, as it turns out, the problem Hibiki needed to resolve was checking on Tsubasa to see if she hadn’t dissolved into Taco Bell brand hot n’ spicy Tabasco sauce.

“god, cant believe taco bell was closed. now i gotta deliver these lame ass flowers”

“cant wait to get threatened again. wonder what she’ll say. ‘hibiki, i should have killed you when i had the chance.’ or ‘you’re so goddamned weak. i could break your spine with my fingernail’, or some other stuff about metaphors. oh, my stops here”

“HEY BITCH WHATS GOOD-”

“HOLY SHIT”

“you are already”

“dead.”

[depressed-sock]

Thief part 2

Thief part 1: https://depressed-sock.tumblr.com/post/182148517829/thief-just-something-a-bit-self-indulgent-i-may

After this part I think I'm going to make the story more defined and fully continue from my Sidestep's Kiyo pov instead of a neutral one.

They always say third time's the charm, though to be honest, you don't know who "they" are or why it took them three times to always get something right... though you are fast becoming familiar with that painful concept.

 Two Rangers… how do you steal two wallets from people who are supposed… no… absolutely fucking need to have far more self-awareness than an average everyday person. Their reaction time at the very least seemed fine but honestly, you shouldn't have even been able to slip the wallets out of their pockets.   

 Mistakes like that can get you killed. You know that… you've killed using those mistakes- Stop. It's over and you have no intention of ever going back to that. You followed orders and that's all.

  You shake your head digging your hands into your jacket pockets as you lean back against the fountain. Focus. The 40 bucks didn't last long or really help as much as you would have liked. A few cans of food was better than no food though, so you can't really complain. You should probably find a way to make a steady stream of cash other than trying to pickpocket but really what can you do?

 You sigh looking at you feet, focus on what you can accomplish now. You can worry about how to permanently fix your money troubles later, right now you need to work. You raise your head and scan the area, the park is starting to grow crowded with excited and very distracted minds.

 Today was a local event to draw people in to see people's hand made crafts and eat from exotic food stands. A third chance to hopefully get some extra cash for food or even a cheap portable heater... maybe. You doubt it, but you do occasionally like to hope for things.

 You start to move, letting the crowd guide you, allowing yourself to be bumped into and pushed. No one the wiser that you were grabbing their wallets. Your intel says that neither Wei Chen aka Steel or the Marshal were going to be anywhere in the vicinity of the park. The other rangers, unfortunately, you have no clue where they'll be. You couldn't find out their schedules because the bastard that you've been using for intel decided to die of mysterious circumstances.

 Poor bastard, you'd hate to get on whoever's bad side that he decided to get on. His death had not been a pretty one. You visibly wince just thinking about it. Focus.

 You'll have to wing it and hope to fucking god that the other rangers have better sense than the last two. Or maybe it's you who should have the better sense. At least with Steel, you should have sensed something different about him, should have at the very least registered exactly who he was talking too.

 The crowd pushes you forward past a dozen stalls, each brightly colored but peddling different items. The aroma of food makes your stomach grumble in protest. Shit, maybe you should have eaten something beforehand.

 Just ignore it, you've already procured 3 wallets, your empty stomach can last a bit longer until…. Until there's an explosion a little ways behind you.

 People scream pushing you forward as they run to get away from it and your not fast enough to keep up with them. You fall and people in their rush to get away begin to trample you. You let out a scream as someone steps on your wrist. Fuck! You pull it in and bring your other arm around your head trying to make yourself a smaller more protected target.

 You feel a pair of hands grabbing you, pulling you up and out of the crowd's way. Literally up… into the air...what the fuck?!

 Strong arms grip you, trying to hold you still you as you try to scramble away in fear. This is to high.

 "Calm down, you're alright," his warm voice reverberates through his chest along with a chuckle. You're tempted to look up at him but you don't need him getting too clear a look at your face.

 Fuck. Your luck is absolute shit. He's got to be around the twelfth boost you've meet in the past month. At least he's not trying to set you on fire like that last one…. You are apparently not much of a people person because she and several others have tried to kill you every time you've opened your mouth.

 The man holds you close as he hovers over the crowd before setting you both down on a nearby patch of grass. You stumble out of his grasp falling to your knees onto the grass, cradling your hand against your chest. You hope the hood keeps your face hidden well enough.

 Another explosion goes off and you look slightly towards the area seeing green smoke careening into the air. The man standing above you lets out a sigh and you risk peaking up to find him staring at the smoke with a frown. Oh, you recognize him. Sentinel… another Ranger… how do you keep running into these people?

 "You should get out of here," he says looking down at you and you quickly look away with a nod of your head. As you start to get up and move away you hear him mutter to himself, "Goddamnit Themmy why can't you wait before rushing in."

 He's gone before you even begin to run away from the danger.

…

 You go through the wallets, you made out pretty well all things considered. You've got almost 200 dollars and that's just between the two wallets you've looked at. Unfortunately, most of that is going to have to go towards medical supplies for your broken wrist. You toss the second wallet into the pile with your good hand and reach for the third letting it flip open.

A rangers ID slips out of the wallet, the picture on it shows a person with curly red hair and freckles. Anathema.…No….Why?! Why does this keep happening?!

 You don't even know how to feel about this. This one didn't even notice you take their wallet, fuck you didn't even notice who you took it from.

 You glare at the ID, you should keep it out of spite. Maybe than the Rangers would learn to fucking not be easy targets.

…

 You gave the wallet back… this time though you convinced a hyperactive 12-year old girl that if she turned in the wallet she could get Charges autograph.

 She had looked at you with starry eyes and a gigantic smile when you said that. Charge had better of fucking given her an autograph or you were personally going to find them and make them regret their entire existence.

 You're two blocks away but you swear you can feel her unbridled allation spike at some point.

….

 Alright, so stealing wallets may not be the best course of action for you, especially considering how your luck has been playing out. That's fine, in fact, you have had a sudden inspiring idea that makes sure you don't accidentally steal from 'Heroes' anymore. You'll just steal from criminals!

 Nobody complains when they get beat up, right?! And nobody should complain if you beat them up and take their money, right?!?! You really fucking hope so because this is a decision you can't really turn back from now.

 One of the six guys on the ground groans and you immediately respond by kicking him the head too fully knock him unconscious. Well, technically they tried to steal from you first so stealing from them should honestly be considered fair game.

 You're going to have to move again...fuck. This place wasn't great but at least it had been your place. It had all your stuff in it too, well maybe most of it isn't really your stuff… but it is now. There's no take backs allowed.

  You step over several of the knocked out thugs, gathering what you need. Trying not to take the things you don't. Keyword being trying. You groan in complaint, this is your stuff, you don't want to leave any of it behind.

 But you know better, so you take the necessities you can fit into a duffel and maybe a few extra things. You leave the building refusing to look back and regret.

[royallyanxious]

Fingerprints. Chapter 4 (The End)

Ship: Prinxiety

Word Count: 3400ish

Trigger warnings (read triggers goddamnit):  mentions of abusive, toxic relationship, implications of rape, mentions of sexual assult

AO3 LINK

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Roman looked at himself in the mirror, scanning every inch of his body and either smiling with love or frowning in disgust. Firstly, he affectively caressed the fingerprints around his wrist. The ones that he loved more than anything else in himself, the ones that he had to hide from the person who made them, so carelessly. Then, with the unmarked hand, he scratched marks on his hips. Despite being much fainter than few years ago, they remained same radiant to Roman. Every day, every morning and evening he checked if they were still there. He impatiently was waiting for the day when he would wake up and see that they are gone. They still reminded him more of bruises than blessed soulmate marks.

Sighing, Roman slipped into his pajama, making sure that the sleeves tug his wrists tightly and once again looked at his reflection in the mirror. He felt stupid for caring so much but he couldn’t help it. He would disrespect fingerprints Virgil unknowingly gave him, if he wouldn’t try to look at least decent. His brows furrowed under his own critical gaze. His skin was fairly clear, hair, that now was dangling loosely around his slim shoulders reminded stylishly of a bird’s nest. He always wanted to grow his hair a little bit longer but never dared to try while living with Felix. Roman shook his head and gently pinched his cheeks, trying to add some natural, healthy color to his skin tone.

It was one of these warm evenings that Roman grew to fell in love it. On evenings like this, Virgil and him usually sat outside the house and admired the garden coated with the silver shade of the moon and the dark wall of trees behind the fence. At the beginning the sight of black, irreconcilable forest in the night used to make Roman uneasy and revealed but the more time he spent in Virgil’s little house in the middle of nowhere, the better he understood how to appreciate the great mystery of nature living around them.

Drawing the fresh scent of pine needles into his lungs, Roman walked outside the house. As expected, Virgil was already sitting on the garden sofa, the newest purchase Roman himself insisted on. Turned out it was so comfortable that it made them spend even more time outside and, though it was not Roman’s primary intention, he had to admit that he highly cherished that perk. Virgil had his legs crossed, blanket carelessly wrapped around his shoulders. His skin seemed to reflect the white light of the moon, making it shine like it was made out of thousands of diamonds.

Roman stopped for a second to admire the view he was given.

He wished that his life had always looked like that. But there’s no calm without a storm. He regretted what he had with Felix, he regretted every minute of that suffocating, toxic relationship, but at the same time he knew that it was this hardship that eventually made him meet Virgil. And he strongly believed that it was the best event of his life.

Stroked with a blow of wind, forest rustled around them, breaking the spell of silence. Virgil’s attentive, dark eyes travelled to Roman, sending a shiver down his spine.

“What are you waiting for? Sit down.” Virgil said. He patted the place next to him and moved a little bit to the side, leaving more space for Roman.

Encouraged with the gesture, Roman flopped on the couch, loudly breathing out the air and stretching out his limbs. He wanted to move closer, to feel Virgil’s warmth beside him but he fought off that urge.

“What a lovely evening.” Roman whispered, looking at the stars above them. He knew that it was cliche but under all these crumbled layers of shattered psychic, broken dreams and long-forgotten hopes, there was still a romantic, that once looked for his soulmate so eagerly. His heart was aching in attempt of reaching for the man sitting next to him. The fanciful whispers were singing soft ballands in his head. Roman bit his lips, trying to stop himself from smiling. He could see it through the eyes of his loving, dreamy soul- it was a perfect night for love-sick confessions.

“Indeed.” agreed Virgil, pulling Roman out of his fantasies.

No, there was no perfect time for that. Where Virgil and him were right now, had to be enough. It was enough. He had already tasted more happiness than he did with Felix. Roman didn’t dare to ask for more.

They were sitting for a while saying no words, breathing and thinking with sweet feelings only. Tangled into subtle game initiated by the wind, moon disappeared behind the clouds. Its cold, but pleasant white light yield from the sky, letting stars have their moment to shine. They were winking at each other from the bare, navy patches of the sky. Each of them held stories of life and death, but had no one to tell them to. The play of thousand actors, the prophecy of million fortune tellers. Roman, with his eyes wide opened, marveled at the performance spreading above his head. He recalled reading somewhere that one could never comprehend the beauty of the firmament before watching it with their beloved one. With that thought in his heart, he glanced at Virgil. Their eyes met in a longing stare and Roman suddenly saw the galaxies that he was vainly looking for at the sky. Moon peeked behind the cloud. The world came back to its usual rhythm.

“I thought I would never find a person that would like to sit in the eternal darkness with me.” Virgil chuckled softly “Most of people I know find it creepy.”

“It’s not scary at all if the company is nice.” smiled Roman softly.

“Well, most people I know don’t find my companion nice either.” Virgil laughed.

Roman gulped, forcing the words through his throat.

“Well, how about your soulmate? Didn’t you think about sitting with her like that after you met her? I bet that she would appreciate being here with you...” he curled his legs up to his chest and rested head on the knees, tilting it so he could have a good view at Virgil.

“Chelsea?” asked Virgil, more himself than Roman. He rarely talked about her, mentioning her name only once or twice when Roman had directly asked about that “She was… Actually, I didn’t get to meet her well. Who knows maybe we wouldn’t click.” he hummed to himself.

“But she was your soulmate!” squeaked Roman, almost offended.

“Sometimes soulmates clearly aren’t a good match.” Virgil answered, his voice vicious and poisonous, glancing at Roman. Some wild animal squeaked in the bushes, surprised with the aggressive response. Virgil clenched his teeth, fingers gripping on the blanket as though he wanted to tear it apart. “Sorry I shouldn’t have said that.” he apologized after a moment, shaking his head.

“No, no... It’s fine now.” smiled Roman reassuringly. “You’re right anyway, Felix and I were… Well, let’s just say that it seems that sometimes fate makes mistakes.”

“It wasn’t a mere mistake, it was a massive pile of shit that was thrown at completely innocent person!” exclaimed Virgil passionately. Roman had rarely seen him so fired up, but it took only few seconds before he regained his usual peacefulness by taking few deep breaths. Roman with curiosity watched Virgil’s chest synchronize with the sound of silence. Safe, secure and steady. “You see, Ro, it’s easy for me to say things like that because… Before meeting Chelsea I didn’t believe in soulmates. I mean, I knew that they existed of course but the whole idea... It just seemed… naive and stupid to me.” he sighed eventually.

“How about now?” asked Roman, staring at Virgil intensively. Their eyes met again, obsidian and amber, but the other man quickly turned his gaze back at the forest.

“Now, it’s different.” he whispered, voice quiet and low as if he was exposing one of the secrets of the universe.

Roman wanted to ask what was different but swallowed this question quickly.

Cicadas were singing in the distance. The noise they made was soothing nerves of both of the men. Coming from the south wind brought a smell of grass and wild berries. Roman inhaled the scent deeply. He wished he could stop the world and live in this moment forever. He needed time to remember every detail, from the stars on the sky, through the shape of the clouds, to sound of the wind in his hair. He wanted to secure this pure feeling in his heart and never lose it. Not again. It was too precious to let it slip into the past. Virgil pulled down the sleeves of his shirt, making small, black cat-paws. Time moved on, not waiting for Roman.

“Hey, Virge?” asked Roman quietly, slightly dazed with the atmosphere of the night.

“Mhm…?” humed Virgil absently.

Putting his feet back on the cold ground, Roman sighed heavily. He could drop the conversation here and now and he knew that Virgil wouldn’t mind. But how could he do that if everything around him was telling him to latch on to the feeling in his chest. It was warm, summer night. A midsummer’s night dream. He could hear the fairies dancing in the distance, their melodic laughter was echoing in the forest. Roman looked up in the sky. The moon was full this night. It felt as though it was sending the lost time back on the earth. Seconds, minutes, hours... If Roman caught them, could he live forever? Something cut the sky in the half and for a split of a second he thought that everything behind the firmament would spill at earth. But it didn’t. It wasn’t even a star. Just a glow-warm. Roman opened his mouth in awe and the moonlight slipped down his throat, tickling his vocal cords. He could ask now. Fairies stopped singing.

“Remember when I told you…I mean… when we talked about Felix doing drugs… Few months ago...?” he asked finally in a hushed voice, shifting uncomfortably. Virgil turned to face him and Roman bit his lips.

“I do, but we don’t have to talk about it.” he assured, putting his hand on Roman’s knee, making him shiver “Like, we don’t have to mention him ever again.”

“No, it’s not that.” Roman shook his head “I want to…” he huffed out his breath, hesitation lingering his words thickly. Virgil lightly squished his knee, trying to boost his confidence. Roman smiled weakly. He wanted Virgil to know the truth. “Umm… Have you ever seen my marks, Virge?”

Virgil shook his head. He had to admit that he had been wondering where were Roman’s tattoos for a while now. The man wasn’t the first one to reveal his body but still, Virgil thought, he should have had caught a glimpse of these fingerprints at some point, right? He even had a theory that maybe actually Felix wasn’t his soulmate- that in reality it was Virgil himself. He knew that it was wishful thinking but he couldn’t help himself especially on evenings like today when Roman tried so hard to open himself on the world. Eventually, to Virgil’s utter surprise, Roman got up, shaking a little bit.

“Don’t get freaked out.” he whispered before gently pulling up his shirt, revealing pale hip bones.

Virgil gasped loudly, putting a hand over his mouth.

The green, faint marks on Roman’s hips seemed to radiate under the moonlight, decorating the skin with ten, dark tattoos shaped into fingerprints. Roman turned around, making sure that Virgil had seen them from each side before pulling the shirt down.

“I… I don’t know what to say.” stuttered Virgil as Roman sat back next to him.

“You don't have to say anything. It’s not that every day you meet a person, whose first contact with their soulmate was a sexual assault.” he said, trying to hide the trembling in his voice.

“I’m sorry.” Virgil whispered finally and before Roman knew what was going on he was pulled into a tight hug. The heart in his chest was hammering and he was pretty sure that Virgil could feel that but he couldn't care less. A little bit unsure if he wouldn’t be pushed away, Roman hesitantly wrapped his arms around Virgil’s waist. It was different than any other hug Roman had shared with Felix, if any of those even could be called a hug. Virgil was warm under his touch, uneven breath tickling Roman’s neck, hands holding him protectively. It felt… it felt nice.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about, it’s not your fault.” murmured Roman after a while, hum vibrating through Virgil’s body.

“You’re my… I mean…” Virgil sighed “I’m your friend, I wish I could be there for you.” He said, pang of pain stinging his heart.

Roman’s heart skipped a beat once again. Yes, friend. They were friends, that’s for sure. And he knew that he was a foolish dreamer to hope for more but... friends should be honest with themselves, shouldn’t they? Roman could feel how exposed his wrists were behind Virgil’s back. If he could only see them, if only it was so easy, if only Felix was never there… Roman pressed himself even more to Virgil, one more time before reluctantly moving away. The sleeves of his shirt covered his wrists again. He was breathless, thinking about what he was about to do. He was afraid for the first time in a months. Afraid of rejection and overwhelmed with truth growing in and on him for months now.

“When I first saw them… Felix’s soulmarks...” Roman started again “I thought that they were bruises. Even though the lines were clear, I still wanted to believe that these were actual bruises. And I waited for them to fade away for days, weeks and months. They never did.” he uncovered his right hip bone a little bit, three fingerprints peeking beneath the shirt. The adrenaline was rushing through his veins. Roman knew that they were fainter now, he knew exactly when and why they started fading but he didn’t know if Virgil was going to believe him. Roman was more than sure that his confession may sound like a whining of hurt, broken soul but he had to give it a chance. The fingerprints around his wrist were pulsating, pouring more and more hope into his heart. Roman gulped “Until few months ago.” he looked straight into Virgil’s eyes “They started fading few months ago.”

“Few months ago…” repeated Virgil after him, his eyes empty “Do you know why? Why did they start fading?” Virgil asked and Roman didn’t know if the shaking of his voice was just an illusion or happened in reality.

“I suspect…” Roman whispered.

“You do?” Virgil’s voice was equally quiet, almost muffled.

Roman nodded, not trusting his own vocal cords and slowly rolled up the sleeve of his shirt revealing five clear, purple tattooed fingerprints. The air and fear of disappointment felt cold on his skin. Virgil carefully, as if Roman was made out of glass, took the hand and moved it closer to his eyes. Roman’s breath hitched.

I was wrong. Echoed in Roman’s head like a mantra. I’m the only one.

Finally, Virgil shifted his fingers, trying to touch the wrist in the same way he held it when his fingerprints printed into Roman’s skin. They matched perfectly and pleasant, warm shiver ran down Roman’s spine.

“They match.” Virgil declared, staring at the tattoos, as though he didn’t want to lose them out of his sight. “These are my fingerprints.” he said slowly “On your skin.” he added, blinking rapidly.

His touch was gentle and caring and Roman wanted nothing more than to move closer, especially now that he felt as if he was losing ground under his feet. But as much as he craved that, he much more cared about what Virgil thought about it. Roman knew that he shouldn’t had given himself hope, and yet the reaction hurt him. It was only him. So be it. Roman was determined not to show the tears and disappointment. Not here and not now. He was an idiot to believe in the second chance to begin with. Seeing how desperate and ungrateful he was, fate must had decided to make him even more miserable. Roman closed his eyes tightly. Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad. As long as he could stay by Virgil’s side, everything was going to be alright.

“Look, don’t mind it. It shouldn’t happen at the first place” Roman said finally, opening his eyes and taking his hand back, to cuddle it to his chest “I get that you… don’t have it…” his voice was starting to break. He lightly poked his wrist. “It’s not even your choice, I-” Once again he was cut in the middle of sentence. Virgil’s finger on his lips, pressing lightly, dark eyes glaring into Roman’s golden ones. He couldn’t make himself look away. The thread between them was already tied.

With the other hand Virgil brushed the hair behind his ear and rubbed the place beneath it showing first little mark. And then another and another. All of them were delicate, merely tattoos, but there was no doubt in what they were.

“Oh.” escaped Roman’s parted lips. “M-may I?” he asked and, receiving a nod, carefully touched the fingerprints. Virgil shivered under his touch, causing Roman to move his hand away quickly. The marks were in the shade of dark burgundy, similar to those Felix had on his collarbones.

“The marks that Chelsea left started fading few months ago. That’s why I started wearing only long-sleeved shirts.” explained Virgil, staring at his hands. The blush that flushed his face was visible even under that moonlight, perfectly matching the tattoo behind his ear. “I was afraid that it would freak you out. As soon as they appeared…” He touched the place behind his ear. “I knew who made them, even if it wasn’t our first touch.”

“Yeah, I guess that not many people play with your hair like that.” chuckled Roman.

“They’re usually intimidated with my hissing.” laughed Virgil in reply, glancing at Roman. “So… I guess we are soulmates. Somehow.”

There were no words that could describe how soft these words felt finally being spoken out loud. A single shooting star crossed the night sky but neither of them noticed.

“Somehow.” echoed Roman. The news, still fresh, was sinking into his mind. He had another soulmate. The man he dreamt of. The soul that wasn’t meant for him at first but yet here they were. Roman looked at Virgil sitting in front of him. Stress and uncertainty were well-visible on his face and in his eyes.

“Oh! I-I mean… We can totally stay platonic! Or we can absolutely ignore that! I don’t really mind it the way it is! It was... general note…” Virgil reassured frantically, waving his hand off. There was a beat of silence before Roman wrapped his arms around his neck, bringing Virgil closer, almost sitting on his lap, breathing in his smell, enjoying his warmth against the chest.

“We can…” he started carefully, trying not too sound to excited. His breath tickled Virgil’s ear. The one that was partly hiding Roman’s fingerprints. “Or we can give it a try and…”

“I don’t want to hurt you. You don’t deserve another shitty soulmate.” mumbled Virgil, against his neck.

Roman moved away and firmly grabbed Virgil’s chin with his hand.

“You’re nothing like Felix. I know you won’t hurt me. You are… a gift from heavens, an answer to all my prayers, a person that I dreamed of and-”

Before he had a chance to finish, Virgil’s lips covered his own and he couldn’t do nothing more than pour the rest of his speech into the kiss. It was warm, gentle and made Roman’s stomach spin in the way, it never did. Neither with Felix, nor with anyone else. His fingers tangled into Virgil’s dark, silky hair, bringing the male closer.

And suddenly Roman felt the touch on his hips. Cold hands slipping under his shirt, caressing his bare hip bones, the part of body that he hated the most about himself. The touch was careful, delicate like butterflies wings. Loving. It didn’t feel wrong for the first time in his life. Roman smiled into the kiss.

So what if they weren’t soulmates chosen by fate?

They were soulmates chosen by love.

The end.

if you liked it you can buy me coffee

GENERAL TAGLIST: @depressed-alone​​ ​ @changeling-ash​​ @dear-lover-dearest​ @ultimate-queen-of-fandoms2​​ @calmingthoughtsinyourhead​ @zo-geeky​​ @fandomfreak-19​​ @thegnatnat​​ @inha-led​​ @tree4life25​​ @panic-at-theeverywhere​​ @reallyanextrovertipromise  @shit-happens-bitchachos @pastel-patton123​​ @pinkeasteregg​​ @greymane902​​ @princeyssash​​ @ilovemygaydad​​ @musicphanpie-b​​ @all-these-trees-stealing-mah-o2 @birosezz​ @winged-outlaw @anxious-fander-talian-bean​ @lizaelsparrow @moonstonefox12 @pastelnerd101  somecrappyclone mysticalstrawberryface @ninjago2020​  donteatmyassghostie toriwithacamera moxiety--sanders101 confinesofpersonalknowledge xxladystarlightxx wheeitsvee a-very-optimistic-realist narniasfinestavengingsociopath  thequeensqueer allycat31415 rileys-main-blog-spotroman-is-a-dramatic-prince virgil-my-diamond justanotherproblem faacethefacts  beautifully-terribly  logical-but-anxious queen-of-all-things-snuggly seabellart   @generalfandomfabulousness @quietlypondering @punk-and-flowers

FINGERPRINTS TAGLIST: faacethefacts ab-artist fricksonsticks la-fandom-freak the-psycho-pie applecannibal  supremestoverlord da-simi rejectedathena jordan6803 pridefox authordrawingmusic candiukas @sanderssidesvp iirobynhoodii hamilin-manuel-miranda lightningbug04 vanitasequilibrium 6tick6tock6 snowcherri sanderssides-things romanpizza harrygivememywand bibbidi-bobbity-booyah brikcsandbones fandomsofrandom llamaly your-username-is-unavailable entpscarleharrrr justanotherpurplebutterfly musikasworld @ipaniceverywherenotjustthedisco @madly-handsome  dennithekit  blue-wolfbane  sillysandersides @the-incedible-sulk

[agentsokka]

Davekat Fic Recs [P2]

Continuation of my Davekat fic rec list from ye old 2016. An absolute metric shit ton of Damn Good Fics™ have dropped since then, and it’s criminal I haven’t updated that original list in so long. 

As per usual with these things, you won’t find much luck here with smut content. Some stories feature scenes, but for the most part, the fics themselves aren’t exclusively about such.

Cheers!

[Oneshots]

English is Full of Really Shitty Metaphors: You knew you probably shouldn't stay on a planet mostly inhabited by trolls once you finished your adult pupation and your blood color became more apparent. You also knew that you should learn a couple of other languages so that your weren't floundering around like an idiot when you eventually did move. Talking to random aliens on the internet seemed like a really good way to practice.

Fatalistic Humor, or, Jokes to Make Post-Mortem: ‘Head over heels’ is an appropriate turn of phrase because falling in love is exactly like throwing yourself down an endless staircase of inconvenient emotion.

i’m at the combination dunkin donuts & urgent care: Karkat Vantas is convinced beyond a doubt that his neighbor is some variety of murderer, until they actually meet in person. Highlights include blood at the laundromat, Dave's weird obsession with candles, and a box of shitty swords.

In Which a Loser is Sick: IN WHICH A LOSER IS SICK AND TRIES TO DENY IT, A TROLL IS ALSO A LOSER AND TRIES TO DENY IT, PISSING PANTS IS DISCUSSED IN THE SAME LINE OF CONVERSATION AS CALMING DOWN, VRISKA IS MENTIONED BECAUSE OF COURSE SHE IS, SOUP IS MADE AND SUBSEQUENTLY IGNORED, AND AN ACT OF AFFECTION IS REPAID BY THE WEAKENING OF AN IMMUNE SYSTEM. Dave gets sick and Karkat takes care of him.

Pretty Friggin’ MATRIMONIAL: Karkat is planning the proposal to end all proposals, but a clueless Dave has plans of his own.

Rumination: Dave and Karkat do some thinking, talking, kissing, and cuddling. Not necessarily in that order.

Self Sabotage and Other Symptoms of a Damaged Soul: Ok so everyone knows Dave and Dirk had a long amazing talk that presumably ended with Dave asking him for advice on the Being Not Straight stuff. My problem is, Dave also spent three years with his gloriously gay twin sister on a fucking space rock while he was right in the middle of coming to terms with all this stuff. So I wrote this mostly to reconcile the gap I think exists there, with a bunch of other Dave centric stuff thrown in with it.

Shitty Punchlines are the Purest Form of Self-Deprecation: Laying somewhere solidly post-credits and wondering, when do we start feeling like winners? Or is that not part of the package? Where's our fucking GameFAQs guide to navigating these stupid first steps into an eternity processing whatever the FUCK just happened, here? Going through that door was supposed to fix everything. Wasn't it? What's it going to take to fix ourselves?

Sleepwalk: Dave has unfortunate nocturnal habits. Karkat handles them better than anyone might've expected.

Start at the Beginning: Don't stop until eternity. And even then. (Davekat, meteor to can land to earth c and on. Happy anniversary.)

Sweatertown - Population: Two: Dave's cape gets hijacked, but Karkat knows what to do about it.

Tested: Dave and Karkat want to escape Aperture Science Laboratories.

That Cultural Divide: “Dave,” says Karkat neutrally, “why are they beating him up?” And your mouth runs dry.

Valentine’s Day: Valentine's Day through the three years on the meteor.

What to do When Your Boyfriend is Too Hot: Moving to a new universe and a new paradigm brings a lot of changes. And Dave kind of likes the way things were before, back on the Meteor, when he had Karkat all to himself and didn't spend sleepless nights waiting for the shoe to fall.

[Multichap]

About a Time I Failed: A doomed timeline AU. Instead of trolling John, Karkat finds himself scrolling through Dave's entire timeline. He is horrified by what he finds, and ends up in a pseudo-friendship with somewhat reluctant Dave. The story spans the rest of this timeline- Dave and Karkat's budding internet romance, the beta kids becoming friends, the start of SBURB, and, eventually, all of them realizing that Dave and Karkat's diversion from the Alpha Timeline has doomed them all. [Incomplete]

And it’s a Downward Spiral from There: One day, the whole world is going to acknowledge you as that one guy who finally made contact with aliens, but if you had known that getting drunk was going to lead up to abduction, a potential probing, and becoming the worst cult sacrifice this side of the galaxy, you probably would have just stayed at home. [Ongoing]

Astronomy in Reverse: Dave and Karkat are intergalactic pen pals, originally paired together for an extra credit school outreach project. Now, three years of correspondence later, they're best friends... and Karkat is finally immigrating to Earth. [Ongoing]

Breathe: Your name is Dave Strider, and there's nothing good about John and Rose changing schools. Without your twin sister and best friend, you've been left socially crippled at school, and barely coping at home. You're nearly certain that your mental health has been slowly spiraling downhill. You have no clue how you'll last the year to high school graduation. In all this, there's just one single ray of light. Your name is Dave Strider, and there's nothing good about John and Rose changing schools. Except for meeting Karkat Vantas. [Ongoing]

**The Calm is Terrifying When the Storm is All You’ve Known**: There were two kinds of trolls who went to Earth: rich shitheads with too much money and free time, and desperate assholes who couldn’t survive on Alternia, even with the best efforts of the young Condesce. Karkat hated the planet almost immediately, but with his home planet too dangerous for mutants, he really didn’t have any choice but to hide out on this weird little diurnal planet. At least he’d be safe. Or so he thought, right before blundering his way into an accidental friendship with the son of an anti-troll terrorist. Slow burn, shifting perspectives; romance really isn't the focus here but it'll still play a significant part; extra content warnings will be posted with each relevant chapter. [Ongoing] [y’all I’m serious read it it’ll water your crops and clear your chakras it’s Good Shit]

cold desert: Curiosity killed the cat. It probably just wasn't as good at being nosy as Dave is. [Ongoing]

Demon Eyes: In which Dave goes in to kill a demon for his bro, and things...don't exactly go as planned. [Ongoing]

Doc Scratch’s School for Supernaturally Gifted Adolescents: One minute you get a mysterious message from a man who types all in white like a jackass, and then the next thing you know you're being whisked away to a mystical school for kids with superpowers. If you weren't Dave fucking Strider, this sort of thing might bother you. [Ongoing]

Fortuitous: Dave and Karkat build a pillow fort and an unexpected chain of events occurs. [Ongoing]

If I Lose Everything in the Fire: The Kaiju - or Horrorterrors, as the trolls call them - first invaded Earth through a transdimensional rift at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Serving the Condesce in her quest to add Earth to the Alternian Empire, these monsters have terrorized humanity for twelve years. With the help of rebel troll factions and the adaptation of Alternian mind integration technology - The Drift - the Interspecies Defense Program has fought back as the last line of defense between the Kaiju and Earth. Karkat Vantas was a Jaeger pilot, fought for freedom in the Assault on the Breach that brought trolls to Earth. The loss of his co-pilot left him bitter and full of rage, but desperate times have lead to him being recruited to join the fray once more. Dave Strider is the best and brightest the Interspec program has to offer. Jaeger Restoration Project Head, highest simulation score on record, and younger brother of the Deputy Marshal - except he's not allowed in a Jaeger. Nobody expects them to be Drift Compatible. [Ongoing]

i'm sick of the things i do when i'm nervous: Two idiots poke at recovery with a stick. [Complete]

IN WHICH TWO SETS OF HUMAN BROTHERLY BONDS ARE ESTABLISHED, SEVERAL CORRUPT INSTITUTIONS OF MORALITY ARE IDEOLOGICALY DEMOLISHED, A DOG WITCH USES GOD POWERS TO MESS WITH EXQUISTELY CAREFULLY PLANNED INFRASTRUCTURE PLANS FOR SOME TREES LIKE A JACKASS--: --APPROXIMATELY A BILLION FUCKING CONSORTS AND CHESS PEOPLE, ALONG WITH A LOT OF USELESS GOD MODED LAYABOUTS ARE LEAD TO SUCCESSFUL COLONIZATION AND ESTABLISHMENT BY A SUCCESSFUL AND COMPASSIONATE LEADER, AND LONG-SUNDERED SOULMATES TORN APART BY FEAR AND DEVASTATING, MIND-BOGGLING STUPIDITY ARE REUNITED AT LAST BY A WISE, COMPASSIONATE BOSS / GUIDANCE FIGURE AND HIS LOYAL, EFFICIENT RIGHT-HAND MAN. THERE ARE AT LEAST THREE CRYING SCENES, TWO KISSES, AND OVER TEN TOTAL MINUTES OF REAL-TIME DESCRIPTION OF LONGING GAZES AND TENDER HUGS. 2 RESOUNDING ENDORSEMENTS OF BELOVED MUNICIPAL OFFICIALS. PRIMERS ON HUMAN/TROLL INTERSPECIES ROMANCE. THIS TEXT IS SUGGESTED SCHOOLFEEDING MATERIAL FOR ALL REASONABLY GROWN HATCHLINGS GAZING OUT ON THE BLIGHTED WASTELAND OF THEIR PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, WISHING THEY WERE DEAD, AND DESPERATELY YEARNING SOMEONE WOULD CLUE THEM IN ON JUST WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON. RATED 8(17)+ AND UP. [Complete]

M.C. Escher that's My Favorite MC [It’s the End of the World as We Know It]: Dirk has a plan, when he's 18 he's going to take Dave and get him the fuck out of their terrible lives and start over. Until then being the barrier between Dave and Bro is his only job, his soulmate is just going to have to wait goddamnit. Dave has a plan, it involves getting internet famous and not going gay, easy right? Karkat also has a plan, to repeatedly track down his dumb as rocks soulmate and get him to actually talk to him for fuck's sake. [Ongoing]

Midnight’s Son: Dave Strider's father, a prominent detective, is tasked with infiltrating the Midnight Crew. Dave, worried about his father's safety, decides to do a little undercover work of his own and tries to befriend the boss's son, Karkat Vantas. [Complete]

Nothing Risked, Nothing Lost: Try as he might, Dave remembered nothing from the first four years of his life. There were three signs of imminent upheaval. First, the King of Derse disappeared without a trace. Second, the Queen of Prospit dropped dead. The third sign was the return of long-lost royalty. Not like any of this was Dave's concern. Not the war between Prospit and Derse, not the horrorterrors of the Furthest Ring, not the failings of some dumb monarchs. He was a nobody. Not like Rose, a bona fide Seer of Light. He wasn't sure why she wanted them to go to Derse, but he followed her, anyway. Like he always did. [Hiatus]

Off Court: Your name is Dave Strider, and a hospital wasn’t the setting you had imagined when you thought of seeing your twin again. Your name is Karkat Vantas, and having Terezi drag you around her weird human legislacerator training probably wasn’t the worst way you could spend the rest of your sweeps. And then you meet him. [Ongoing]

Palisades, Palisades: In your memories, you see Dave Strider, fourteen-years-old and made up of lean muscle and awkward limbs that he would still need a few years to grow into fully. Crows surround him, all cawing impatiently, vying for the chicken sandwich in his backpack. He swears loudly as he swings a stick at them, trying to get them to leave him the fuck alone. “Stupid feathery assholes,” he’d always complain once he finally shooed them away. You tear yourself out of the memory. You miss him, and you hate yourself for it. [Complete]

The Red Thing: The first time you ever realised there was something wrong with you, you were two sweeps old. You still remember it like it was just yesterday. You were at the playground in your then-community, which you had long since moved from. You’d been playing ‘tag’ with some of the other young trolls, but had tripped and scraped your knees. One of the other troll’s custodial guardians had noticed what had happened, and wandered over to make sure you were alright. You don’t think you’ll ever forget the look on her face when she picked you up and saw the mutant-red seeping through the knees of your pants. Things spiraled downhill quickly after that. You’d never quite understood what was happening when you were young, but you’d known that you’d become an outcast. Other trolls around you started to avoid you. Sometimes they’d throw things at you – food, stones, anything that might hurt you. Other times, they’d call you names – mistake, mutant, freak. You preferred when they tried to hurt you. At least then you could fight back. [Ongoing]

space cowboy disaster zone: Your name is Karkat Vantas, and these nights you eke out a quiet living on Antoren-3, helping around the Caltira Inn or scavenging out in the rust plains. It’s a simple life, and the only excitement you get for the most part is from the stories of other scavengers, a handful of bar fights, and the occasional salvageable wreck. Fresh wrecks, you’ve only seen a handful of times, and when John spots the telltale streak of light from a distant crash in the middle of a rust storm, you’re eager to get first dibs on whatever it might contain, the elements be damned. You don’t expect a survivor. [Ongoing]

Stepping Stones: A series of vignettes concerning the evolution of the relationship between Karkat Vantas and Dave Strider. Or, the troll title: IN WHICH DAVE AND KARKAT DISCUSS THE VARIOUS DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HUMAN AND TROLL GENITALS, THERE IS AN AWKWARD CONFESSION OF EMOTIONS, DAVE AND DIRK FINISH THEIR CONVERSATION ON THE ROOFTOP, DAVE GETS SOME ADVICE FROM A FEW OF THE LADIES IN HIS LIFE, AND THERE IS A SMUTTY EPILOGUE. [Complete]

The Stories We Tell Ourselves: Dave was silent. YES. YOU. The voice answered him before he even had a chance to speak up and voice his confusion or curiosity with a lack of delicacy only a child was capable of. It had a harsh way of speaking, brash enough to be rude and so loud the sound of his voice practically echoed off his skull. In it he could feel the rich, crimson flow of blood, the drip, drip, of molten lava degrading stone so ancient not even the gods of old would have lived to see it form. A being so old, so vast, that even to speak his name would grant one with immeasurable power. It made him shudder, little hands clenching into fists against rough stone. HUMAN CHILD. In which Dave is alone and Dragons exist. Shenanigans ensue. [Ongoing]

Stow Away: Calm and collected, that's Dave Strider. The docking station around him is chaotic and loud but he is like ice, cool and clear. None of that is true of course, but nobody is looking closely enough to notice the way his hands shake and his eyes dart around underneath the opaque plastic of his vintage sunglasses. Dave Strider sneaks on board an Alternian ship in an attempt to flee his shitty situation on Earth. This is the first of many questionable decisions. [Complete]

Time Displacement: Side A: After the events of the game, Dave wakes up in a universe that is familiarly unfamiliar. Sburb didn't happen, all their guardians are alive, and Bro is...different. [Ongoing]

Transcend: Dave doesn't get troll romance, but that's okay because Karkat is bad at it anyway. A journey through all four quadrants and a bit more. [Complete]

[screamingintp]

more about my mc

this is a mess, please don’t read it unless you’re interested in what i come up with when i’m sleep deprived and creating my first rp character

https://character-resource.deviantart.com/art/Big-Ass-Character-Sheet-Updating-167182524 but i cut out a buncha shit

welcome to hell(or the place in which I can’t capitalize for shit and curse too much and am vague but that’s honestly my personality in general)

Full Name: Mark Knox

Meaning: Mark, derived from Martkos(Roman), related to the war god, Mars. Knox, derived from cnoc(Scottish), meaning hillock.

Origin: made it up on the spot because planning is for cowards

Signature: illegible letters - MKX

Gender: male

Orientation: pan(i wrote pam and don’t regret it)-aro

Blood: three-quarters pure, half blood father

Birthday: 6-6

Deathday: (May not have one yet)(oh gee, did you not expect me to have a day of death?)(well, i don’t)

Astrological Sign: Gemini(fun fact: Draco’s the only Gemini on the wiki)(why is this relevant)(astrology is weird as all hell)

____

Immediate Family: Jacob Knox(brother)

Distant Family: Shay Knox(mother), Clark Knox(father)

Parenting: non-existent

Upbringing(morals and ideals): considering he was raised by a person only a few years older than him, during the period of Voldemort’s rule, he is less screwed up than he could’ve been. However, he still possesses a rather vague and undefined sense of right and wrong - using his logic to bypass any sort of regrets if it blocks him from his goal

Infancy: (dropped at birth is an option and i’m living for it)

Childhood: that one kid who lit ants on fire and was ‘rebellious’ (you know that post about america being the asshole kid with neglectful parents? That’s the one)

Adolescence: canon

Adulthood: never. He hasn’t even gotten taller

____

Species: hooman

Preferred Hand: ambidextrous(he keeps injuring his hands)

Facial Type: like a face, why is this - oval, i guess

Eye Color: dark brown

Hair Color (Self Explanatory)(it isn’t when his hair is grey/silver/white)(the kid probably bleached his already pale hair)(he probably likes the smell of bleach)

Hairstyle: fringe-up

Complexion: blushes easily, relatively smooth unless you look at the cuts and bruises and scars on his arms, back and legs

Body Type: ectomorph

Build: skinny arms and legs, he isn’t the most physically fit and regularly damages his body due to his complete lack of care for his own safety

Height: 65 in

Weight: 120 lb

Shoe Size: (Shoe size doesn’t matter)(goddamnit i forgot this was an innuendo)(keep it pg, please)

Birthmarks/scars: no birthmarks, and has tons of ugly marks all over him, none of them particularly remarkable

Distinguishing Features: the contrast between his eye color and hair color - but other than the hair, he doesn’t have a memorable face

_____

Health: as healthy as a wizard without impulse control and emotional support could be

Energy: swings from highs and lows without any pattern

Memory: remembers the small stuff, the negative parts - forgets about major ideas or lessons

Senses: heavily relies on eyes, can’t taste for shit

Allergies: (Self Explanatory. May be optional.)(i mean, i would put animals, but we have transfiguration)

Medication: needs some, doesn’t take any

Phobias(irrational fears):

Symmetrophobia(fear of symmetry, an unnatural-looking but normal occurrence, which isn’t debilitating, but causes him stress and uneasiness)

Siderophobia(fear of the stars, the idea that there’s so much out there that he doesn’t know of is pretty awful and, again, while it isn’t going to freeze him up, it will cause him to become upset)

Addictions: none yet

Mental Disorders: undiagnosed

______

Style: couldn’t care less about appearance  - he wears the school robes most of the time

Mode of Dress: doesn’t have a particular taste, as long as it’s passable, it’s fine - tends to wear a size or two larger

Grooming: somewhere in between messy and neat

Posture: he displays an air of aloofness and confidence - almost condescending in stance

Gait: quickly and efficiently - it’s brisk at his slowest

Coordination: not physically fit at all, he’s too reckless for that - exercises to the point of exhaustion without realizing that it’s detrimental to do so and has limbs flying all over the place

Habits and Mannerisms: taps his foot or fingers when excited, nervous, or anything that deviates from his usual ‘cool’ facade

Scent: earth, smoke, and grass - faint but noticeable

______

Mood: ‘calm’ - probably plotting though

Attitude: he’s charismatic and charming until you dig deeper

Stability: hA

Expressiveness: can act like he’s wearing his heart on his sleeve but can never fully give his true thoughts

When Happy: smirks - invades personal space and slows down

When Depressed: smiles - talks louder and speaks faster

When Angry: (trolls online is an option and if that isn’t Mark, i don’t know what is) smirks - wide eyes and tense hands

______

Friends: Rubeus Hagrid - but not really

Enemies: Rita Skeeter - but not really

Bosses: Filius Flitwick - but not really

Followers: not even himself

Heroes: Filius Flitwick - “short people are closer to hell and he’s gonna whoop my ass if I do anything stupid”

Rivals: Ismelda - “for most edgy teen”

Relates to: Dumbledore - impersonal but seemingly close, full of contradictions and ulterior motives

Pets/Familiars: does his jar of bug bodies count?

______

Wardrobe: mostly consisting of Hogwarts robes, formal robes, and the identical grey-blue sweater and jeans

Equipment: carries a wand and a pencil(but not paper, because he has problems)

Accessories: a single dangling silver piercing on his right ear(family tradition)

Trinkets: carries hair ties on his wrist all the time(why? He doesn’t even know)

Funds: his family is relatively well off, being a respected branch of purebloods

Home: almost like his personality, warm and nice on the outside, cozy on the inside, but dead silent and empty when no one looks - not large but not small either, seeming normal by all accounts if you don’t look into any of the rooms(jacob’s windows are taped shut and Mark broke through the locked door that connected their bedrooms)

Neighborhood: the woods

Transportation: running because stamina apparently is infinite in this world

Collections: bug bodies, herbs, and lighters

Prized Possession: his wand, after seeing Jacob’s broken one

_____

Lovers: yeet

Marital Status: yeet

____

Experience: works in the three broomsticks in his off time to get experience and money, nothing serious

Organizations/Affiliations: changeable, he doesn’t plant many roots or make any long-term promises

______

Education: i mean, Hogwarts. But is it even ‘education’?

School: (What was their school like?) bitch this is Hogwarts

Social Stereotype: “least favorite cursed student”

Intelligence: mostly interpersonal, linguistic and logical

Extracurricular Activities: would do theater if given the chance

_____

Morals: don’t exist - but he honestly has a problem with reasoning his way into committing seriously wrong deeds

Crime Record: hasn’t been caught yet ;)

Motivation: adrenaline, change - nothing truly meaningful or satisfying

Priorities: knowledge, humans, self

Philosophy: gen z nihilism

Etiquette: usually practices ‘correct’ etiquette - does not give a fuck if his behaviour offends someone though

Influences: everything and anything he finds intriguing

Traditions: tries to run away from them, always moving and staying ahead of the past

______

Career: spell-inventor or wand-maker/seller

Desires: uncertain

Accomplishments: undetermined

Biggest Failure: failing Jacob

Secrets: his manipulative side, his genuinely mean streak and the fact that he regrets having those traits

Regrets: a shit ton of things

Worries: Jacob, being nothing in the grand scheme of things, being a hypocrite, betrayal, a shit ton of things

Best Dream: having a greater purpose

Worst Nightmare: dying alone and being left behind as a ghost

Best Memories: finding his brother’s secret room, meeting Billingsley

Worst Memories: losing his brother, lying to his teachers, accidentally calling Chester: Jacob

_______

Hobbies/Interests: explore the wilderness, identify flora and fauna, observing other people

Skills/Talents: pyromancy, charms in general, debating, acting, singing

Likes: mint, sharpies, fire

Dislikes: himself, close-minded people, pity

Sense of Humor: sarcastic, self-deprecating, relatively dark

Pet Peeves: the guy scratching his quill the wrong way in the front row whenever they write essays

Dreams/Nightmares: doesn’t dream usually - when he does, it’s usually flashes of color and abstract black and white shapes

Quirks: can’t sit on the fucking couch correctly

Understands: how people think, the reason they fail, mistakes

Can't understand: quidditch, values, structure

Closet Hobby: burning shit(though that isn’t really a hidden thing with him)

_________

Strengths: charismatic, diplomatic, quick-witted, inwardly caring, able to understand his flaws, patient, logical, able to read other people

Flaws: lies often, manipulative, lazy, lenient, passive, harsh, inconsiderate, enjoys pushing people’s buttons, doesn’t understand people

Perception of others: beautiful, incomprehensible, vast

Instincts: wants approval(deems it irrational)

Lures: leadership roles, secrets, problems

Soft Spot: innocence but not ignorant, optimism

________

Ability: capable if he puts his mind to it - employs unpredictable and risky techniques instead of having a fear of consequences

Weaknesses: stubborn opponents - he expects change and gets caught off guard when someone seems set in their ways

Patronus: non-corporeal

Boggart: fire(irony i guess is easy to use when you don’t have anything else)

Wand: spruce, phoenix feather, 12”, springy

Amortentia: lime, smoke, sharpies

House: Ravenclaw(that post about the kid wanting to be put in Ravenclaw since ppl will trust you but got in Slytherin)

_____

Favorite Color(s): grey, blue

Favorite Animal(s): swedish short snout

Favorite Drink(s): coffee and soda(probably together because he can’t function like a normal person)

Favorite Genre: mystery or myths

Favorite Subject(s): charms(Flitwick is the man) and divination(where you can bs your way through anything)

Least Favorite Color(s): black, white

Least Favorite Animal(s): flies

Least Favorite Drink(s): does soup count? Because he does drink it in a cup

Least Favorite Genre: manuals and biographies

Least Favorite Subject(s): flying(impulsive idiot) and care of magical creatures(he’s a screw up around animals)

________

Languages: english and he taught himself some Latin

Voice: average in tone, a bit nasally, rather forgettable except for the speed

Greetings and Farewells: doesn’t

Ask your character "how are you": yes.

Character tries to compliment: you have eyes, your name is ___

Tries to insult: passive-aggressively drags a person

Expletive: damn(dam)(loopholes, my friends)

Laughter: snorting, definitely not normal

Tagline: ___, yeah?

________

Reputation: other than the whole ‘brother’ problem, is relatively well-liked

First Impressions: charming, confident guy

Stranger Impressions: a bit loud but not strange

Friendly Impressions: goddamnit Mark, shut up

Enemy Impressions: please keep talking so we’re allowed to punch you in the face

Familiar Impressions: ah yes, the hair pops up from time to time

Compliments from others: bright, energetic, optimistic, honest

Insults: dangerous, unstable, chaotic

Self-Impression: am shit

_________

Compare to: forest fire(destructive and necessary for change)

Symbols: flames, ashes, duality

[llamastories96-blog]

Are You My Genie? Part 3

Characters: Reader x Jongin

Word Count: 2001

__________________________________________

"Chanyeol," you heard yourself say. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Y/N."

He looked at you, then to either guardian, before resting his eyes on you once again.

"Please, Your Highness," his low voice rang out, "the pleasure is all mine."

___________________________________________

You look at Chanyeol, sizing him up. He's wearing dark wash jeans and a dark tshirt with a leather jacket over top. His hair, is fire red.

"Suho, Kai, can you catch me up?" Chanyeol asks taking a seat on one of the beds.

"I'm going to take a shower, so you guys can talk about whatever you need to." You shot a smile at all three guardians, and excused yourself to the bathroom.

You could hear them speaking lowly among themselves as you headed towards the bathroom. You sighed heavily as you closed and locked the door behind you.

As everything hit you once you were alone, you broke down. Your shoulders heaved as your sobbed into your hands, attempting to be quiet to not alert your guardians.

Your mind wandered to your childhood, at what was taken from you. Your 'parents,' those monsters, who ripped you from your real family. Your real life.

Your sobs turned sour in anger, as you continued to realize how much the Mungiki had ruined for you.

You had no idea what they had done to your parents, let alone what the action did to your kingdom. From what you were told, you were from a very loving, and caring place.

Your kidnapping must have been devastating.

You stood up and stared at yourself in the mirror. You gripped the porcelain countertop, as your emotions came through on your face. Your anger contorting your eyebrows, your chin, your eyes.

As you stared at your face, it sobered you up, and soon the anger disappeared, a frightened expression replaced it.

You stepped back from the mirror and wiped at your face leaving no tears behind.

Once your breathing began to even out, that’s when you heard the boys yelling in the other room. You opened the door and peeked your head out to look into the main room.

“KAI. You’re telling me you couldn’t sense them coming?! We have to let out everyone now to make sure we can get away! Goddamnit!” Suho was yelling so loudly, and Kai just had a tight expression on his face.

Suho looked over at you, and for a second you saw fear flash across his face before it was gone.

He took a few steps toward you, and spoke quietly, “Your Highness, they’re here. We need to release the other guardians and catch them up so we can get out of here. Are you ready to do this? It will be nearly impossible with the three of us.”

It took you a moment before you could respond. “Yes, do it.”

Chanyeol had the box in his hands already, and dumped the contents onto the ground. Crash after crash echoed throughout the motel room. The Mungiki could probably hear the crashes outside as well. Hopefully the rest could get caught up fast.

Colors of fog mingled on the ground as figures began appearing. After a few moments, seven figures appeared. Different sizes, different hair colors, different outfits, but somehow they all looked cohesive. All nine of your guardians, even though their looks varied, they all looked like they belonged together. Like a true team.

Suho hollered and grouped them all together. There was low murmuring before they all stepped back a slightly before dispersing into their assigned positions. One of the guardians approached you. He was tall, but not as tall as Chanyeol, but taller than Suho. He had a very soft face, and as he approached he smiled and revealed a set of dimples.

He bowed as he approached you, “Hello, Your Highness, my name is Lay. I am going to be by your side this whole time. My donum is healing, and my job is to make sure you don’t get hurt. Okay?” He smiled sweetly, eyes scanning your face.

You gulped, and nodded as you slightly nodded at him. “Nice to meet you, Lay. I believe you will take care of me.”

Out of the corner of your eye you saw Chanyeol open the door to the motel room, as well as three other guardians you didn’t recognize. Suho, Jongin, and two other guardians came over to join you and Lay near the bathroom.

“Your Higness, we don’t have much time,” Suho said. “This is Xiumin and Baekhyun. Xiumin’s donum is frost, and Baekhyun’s donum is light. You probably don’t know this, but Kai’s donum is teleportation. My own, is water.”

Suho gave you a chance to consider what he said. You nodded for him to continue. “Xiumin and I are going to be in front and back, and Kai and Xiumin will be on either side of you, with Baekhyun leading the way. We’re going to keep you close. We’re going to keep you safe. The other five are outside, taking care of the Mungiki that are close by, and once the immediate threat is eliminated, we’re going to run. Okay? We only need to wait maybe, fifteen minutes, so try and stay calm. We are professionals, we won’t let anything happen to you. I hope you can trust us, Your Highness.”

You smiled at Suho, before surprising everyone and hugging him. You hold him tightly, and soon feel him timidly put his arms around your waist. “Suho, I hope you know I appreciate all you’ve done for me. You’ve treated me with such care, and I trust you with my entire being. Thank you.”

You pulled back and he smiled at you, reaching a hesitant hand to lay on your cheek. “Anything for you, Your Highness.” He pulled back his hand and brought Xiumin and Baekhyun to the door and window, keeping clear of not being seen. Lay rested his hand on your shoulder, and smiled, gently squeezing your shoulder in reassurance.

You look at him and smile, Kai pulled up a chair for you to sit in. 

“So, who was the first to be summoned, Kai?” Lay asked in an attempt to release the tension in the air.

Kai chuckled a little, “It was actually me. We were in the attic of the princess’ house, and I was able to get us out of there. I brought her here, and then Suho was summoned. We explained the very top of the iceberg of what’s happened in Exotheca, and then she summoned Chanyeol. We were figuring out what to do next, when Suho felt them coming.” Kai paused, not sure if he should say something, then decides to say it. “I didn’t feel them coming. The only time I’ve felt their presence, was in their home. They were twenty feet from me. Hyung, I-”

He chokes a little on his next words.

“I didn’t feel them. What if my teleportation doesn’t work.”

Lay reached out to Kai, resting his hand on his arm, and attempted to reassure him. “It will work. You’ve had your donum for years, Kai. You know how to feel it, you know how to conjure it, you know how to use it. It’s not going to let you down now.”

Kai visibly relaxes at Lay’s words, and smiles at Lay.

“They're coming back,” Suho calls from the window. He turns around and assesses the three of us in the back of the room. He makes eye contact with each one of us. “Are you ready.”

You nodded, and Lay and Kai respond with a verbal yes. You stand up and walk with the boys to the front of the room, stopping a few feet from the door.

The door opened slightly, every guardian slipping in quickly and quietly. The door is shut behind the last guardian, and soon everyone is assessing the people in the room. Mainly, you.

Suho speaks up, “Chanyeol, report.”

Chanyeol straightens up. “There was six Mungiki four blocks from our location, we split off into two a mile apart, and no one could sense anyone else. Minhyuk and Clara were nowhere to be seen. We couldn’t sense them.”

Suho nods, thinking before he responds. “Kai can’t teleport more than one person at a time. So, my plan might not be the best one, but there is an island forty miles from here on the coast. Kai can teleport Xiumin, then myself, then Chen, then Her Highness,” he winks at you. “Then everyone else in any order. But we need to be fast. We cannot let them regroup and come at us again. As far as I know, they don’t know the island exists, it’s omitted off of every map. There is an underground building that I discovered a few weeks before we went into the orbs. If the underground bunker is not there any longer or has been compromised, we have to drive to a different location. Thoughts?”

A chorus of agreements followed Suho’s explanation of the plan. Many of them were yeses, there were some answers that weren’t absolutely sure, and you were silent. And everyone seemed to notice.

“Your Highness?” Suho directs at you, “What are your thoughts?”

“I trust you completely, I’m just scared that we may be underestimating the Mungiki. Isn’t it better we overestimate them, than underestimate them?”

Suho nods, “Yes, but this is the best option we have at this point. None of us have weapons except for our donums. The Mungiki have machine guns, bombs, in some places they have tanks. They have villages of fighters. This is the best chance we have, for right now.”

“Okay, then let’s do it. Let’s go.”

Suho smiles, and nods to Kai and Xiumin. Kai looks at you, winks, and disappears out of thin air with his arm around Xiumin’s shoulders. 

There was a quiet muttering amongst a few of the guardians, as people sat in various parts of the motel. After a few moments, Kai returned.

“The bunker is still there. Xiumin and I walked through the whole place, and it seems it still hasn’t been discovered by the Mungiki. Are we continuing with the plan?”

“Yes, I think Chen is next. Chen, are you ready?”

A voice from the back of the room called. You had met the rest of the guardians as you waited for Kai to return. Chen was tall, but still not tall as Chanyeol, and he had a gorgeous face. His cheekbones nearly reached the heavens, he was beautiful. You blushed as you thought of him like this, hoping no one noticed.

Chen walked to meet Kai in the front of the room. Kai laid his hand on his shoulder, closed his eyes, and they disappeared. A few more minutes passed, you learned a few more of the guardians. You met the rest of the guardians that went with Chanyeol in the initial mission.  Chanyeol took D.O., Chen, and Sehun with him. D.O. controls earth, Chen is lightning, and Sehun is wind. You had a chance to talk to Chen a little before he left with Jongin. Sehun is very shy, but sweet, and if it’s possible D.O. is even quieter. They didn’t say much, but polite almost to the extreme.

The politeness most of the guardians exhibited made you feel like a real princess. Which made your mood deflate, thinking of how different your life could have been if you had been where you should have been.

Jongin interrupts your thoughts, reappearing slightly out of breath. “Jongin, are you alright?”

“Of course, princess, I just haven’t been able to workout in a while.” He winks at you as he holds out his hand to Suho. “I’ll be back for you.”

They disappeared, and it was as if Jongin just dropped Suho off in the bunker, he was back almost immediately.

“Suho told me to pick up the pace.” he winks and holds out his hand to you. 

You smile and take it, you looked into his eyes as the floor disappears from under your feet. Your stomach drops to the ground, and then the ground is brought back and you land on cement.

You look around. “So, this is the bunker, huh?”

[katmaria1]

Reacting to Crests, Corrupted Ch 20 cause i have no self control

aedvjfnovn i didn’t realize this happened cause i suck at checking ao3 but Crests, Corrupted is a fantastic fic and if you like digimon i suggest it a lot @dreamedge i hope you enjoy all i ask is that you excuse any ramblings about ocs cause i have way too many scenarios with them

Link

let’s get started ready steady go!!!

“A Kind Voice, Half-Forgotten”

uhhhhhhhhh?????? okay?????????

ooo we’re exploring takeru now this is gonna be fun can i say i love takeru and yamato being siblings and both of them actually dropping their guards around each other cause goddammit they need it oh no takeru’s got nightmares how much you wanna bet it’s devimon coming back again so the cut’s no longer a scab but a scar? jeez he’s been picking at it i kinda wanna jump to conclusions about the color being yellow-gray but lemme not do that here oh takeru’s going down the “duty’ line of thinking for handling chosen duties awweeeee takeru got iori a nightlight that’s adorable is that supposed to represent hope being the light in the dark or am i going too far my mind is racing way too fast with theorizing with these goddamn colors you’re gonna kill me HERE we go getting into takeru’s doubts about himself

oh shit getting into ryo let’s go hikari’s taking what daisuke said seriously hmmmm?? gossip sucks ass and i can’t imagine what that did to poor ken

“God I can’t imagine the effect to Ichijouji,”

me too hikari me too oh no they kinda remember but kinda don’t remember ryo this poor dead kid

“No, it’s… I want to. Something doesn’t feel right,”

koushiro this is the digital world literally nothing feels right oh shit miyako’s in a good mood what the fuck did she find OF COURSE THAT’S WHAT HE’S LOOKING FOR GODDAMNIT I FEEL LIKE A DUMBASS

“Gennai-san would know, At least what it is if not where.”

i mean it’s pretty obviously a crest it wouldn’t have been mentioned otherwise what other symbols exist in the digital world that aren’t digicode she’s gonna go to gennai about everything this isn’t gonna end well for who tho

“Then no. I don’t trust it. We’ll focus somewhere else,”

oh shit look at hikari with the battle planning you go girl miyako fell asleep this poor girl

flipping over to the others… ken bby this fucking spore needs to die in a fire the kimeramon project’s really getting him down, huh wonder what daisuke’s gonna go for if he gets even more desperate so that’s why the other area was looking weak beginning of the war ken was original 02 ken? that i’d like to see but not really cause wormmon is not allowed to be hurt

“I hate it, actually.”

oh shit wormmon spilling the tea over here ken’s seeing what daisuke’s doing…… daisuke’s turning into how ken used to be he’d be the one willing to test the rings oh fuck ken you gotta do something soon if you want to save your boyfriend crap daisuke used to fight against him

wait was he alone so i think i have a timeline- nine months ken is undisturbed outside of the digital world’s defenses, then daisuke realizes what’s happening, fight him for three months, ken has a seizure, which is his few days in the hospital from ‘exhaustion,’ where daisuke becomes the knight to try and help him find a cure for the dark spore do i have that right? okay time to rework oc timelines and put them in place hehe

“and a kindness that glittered a gentle purple behind his eyes.”

now we’re getting into the crests part of crests, corrupted, huh? how does he think daisuke’s gonna take surrender? the darkness and the kindness are fighting oh boy oh vee please help him

i am screaming

this chapter was chaos and i love it and i need to write myself cause holy fuck this was awesome it’s like 1am i need to knock out but i saw this and had to

[i-w-p-chan]

Miss- err, Mr. and Mr. Croft - Part 1/Last Revelation - I

Summary: Tsuna and Hayato find themselves in place of Lara Croft. Repeatedly.

Note: this fic is completed with 13 chapters and will be updated on weekly basis (unless I forget, because I'm currently incapable of keeping track of days). It will have a sequel, but there is no guarantee that it will be written and posted immediately after I finish posting this fic.

Important Author Note: Unless it is specified who says which part, the dialogue typically alternates between Tsuna and Hayato.

WARNINGS: OOC, Language (there is a lot of cursing), Violence, Indiscriminate Killing (Tomb Raider Typical Killing- applies to humans, animals, and mythical creatures), Dialogue Heavy, Set In The Tomb Raider Games 'Verses, So May Not Make A Whole Lot Of Sense If You Don't Know TR (unless you, like me, don't mind that), Collection of Snippets/Drabbles/Scenes Featuring Tsuna's And Hayato's Adventures In The TR Games, Beware Of Unexpected Mood Whiplashes, Ship Teasing, Slight BoyxBoy (why do I even warn about this anymore?), Platonic 5927 (To The EXTREEEEEEEME!), Snark, Badass Tsuna And Hayato, Badasses In Dresses, Perverted Swords, Cute Hammers, And As Always: Shameless Self-Indulgence/Ridiculousness.

Disclaimer: Don't own TR or KHR.  

.

Gokudera Hayato and Sawada Tsunayoshi were both seven years old when a bright light swept them up and deposited them in a world where they were both mistaken for a 'miss Croft', and no one seemed to realize that they existed or acknowledged their words and actions unless it fell in-line with what that 'miss Croft' would say or do.

.

The two weren't sure whether 'miss Croft' becoming an archeologist-slash-tomb raider was a blessing or a curse to their freedom to say or do what they want.

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Last Revelation

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"Hey, Hayato, why did we shrink from thirty to sixteen?"

"Beats me, Tsuna."

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"Cool."

"Hayato, put that down."

"It's made of gold, I wonder if-"

"Hayato, it's a skull putitdownnow."

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"Why are you freaking out about a golden skull when there are skele-"

"Don't. Mention. It."

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"OH MY GOD!" Tsuna put a hand to his chest as he stared at the floor in front of him.

Hayato followed his path of sight, "Hmmm, I wonder how the spikes were worked into a system to-"

"STOP!"

"Tsuna, you keep interrupting me. It's not nice of you."

"It's not like you talk about nice things in the first place."

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"Oh my god was that a wild boar?!"

"Tsuna, breathe, you've faced worse. Remember that pack of wolves on our first adventure?"

"At least we were armed back then!"

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"Do I have to go to the other side? My clothes will get soaked. My shoes will get soaked! Walking while wearing soaked shoes is ugh."

"Fine, you big baby. I'll swim to the other side and get the bridge down."

"Thanks, Hayato; you're a life saver."

"Just stop acting like walking with soaked shoes is going to end your life; I remember when we swam with piranhas."

"Piranhas are not that bad. They are also delicious."

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"Do you have to collect the skulls?"

"Yes, they are interesting. And I want to find out whether they are gold molded to look like a skull or a skull covered in gold."

"…"

"Don't look at me like that! You have no problem with yanking a backpack out of a skeleton's hand and using it for yourself."

"No comment."

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"You sure can run fast."

"So what, Hayato? Would you have preferred that I casually stroll down the corridors while arrows are flying towards me?"

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"He wants to race us to the Iris, huh?"

Tsuna and Hayato shared a smirk.

"Let's show this old man what we're made of."

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Hayato breathed heavily after they reached the Iris.

"Damn, you really didn't hold back. If you hadn't dragged me by the hand, I'd have been left in the dust. What do you have there?" Hayato asked as he saw Tsuna stand up after he read the inscription on the stone in front of him.

"I don't think anyone who takes the Iris will be walking out of here alive."

"Really?"

"Well." Tsuna cocked his head towards Hayato, his lips were quirked in amusement, "We may need to exert a lot of effort to get the Iris and then get out."

Tsuna turned around to look towards the entrance, "Or some special fire power. But…"

That was when Von Croy came in.

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"Damn, again. I kind of thought that you may try to help him out." Hayato raked a hand through his hair.

"He is an adult, responsible for himself and aware of the dangers. He had been warned, as well. It's not our fault that he didn't listen." Tsuna's eyes momentarily flashed orange, "We're not here to babysit him. In fact, according to our current physical age, he's supposed to be the minder. Now, Hayato, let's go."

Tsuna turned and walked off. Hayato whistled, it was not the first time that how firm Tsuna grew up to be surprised him.

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"Oh, wow, we're thirty again. But where are we?"

"Let's explore and see. Though from the appearance of our guide, I can make a few guesses. What do you have on you?"

"Hmm, let me see-"

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"Why," Tsuna started, looking at the shotgun Hayato picked up from the ground, incredulous, "Is there a perfectly working shotgun conveniently placed on the ground?"

"You'd think that after all the times we found perfectly functioning firearms, bullets, flares and other equipment in illogical places; you'd stop all the snarky, incredulous comments about the subject."

"Never!"

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"Why are there shotgun shells in that dark corner up there?"

"Tsuna, stop."

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"Goddamnit, Hayato! There is a spiked wheel rotating around! Focus!"

"Well, excuse me if I, an intellectual, want to know how the wheel was made and how it's functioning with rotating spikes that rotate in different directions and how it travels in-"

"HAYATO! FOCUS!"

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"Did we just…"

"Get turned around? Yep."

"Dang it."

"At least we got a gun out of it."

"Speaking of which-"

"Tsuna, shut up."

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"You think the blades will slice up and down again once we move forward?"

"Not sure. You're the guy with the terrifyingly accurate intuition, why are you asking me?"

"Do you want me to just drag you around all the time as I follow my intuition?"

"No…"

"But since you're asking, I don't think that the blades are going to move again."

"Okay."

"And Hayato?"

"Hmm?"

"Why do we always end up having this same conversation at some point during our adventures?"

"For the same reason we keep having that conversation about finding equipment in weird places, I'd bet."

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"ALL of this is flammable? Great."

"What's the matter, Tsuna? It's flammable, shouldn't you be happy, Human-Flamethrower-san?"

"Pfffff, which one of us keeps making snarky comments again?"

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"Ummm, where is he going?"

"And why is he leaving? Should we continue?"

"After we reached this far? Of course."

"I thought that you would be all for running off, color me surprised, Tsuna."

"Oh, hush you."

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"That looks like a murder device."

"You're exaggerating."

"It's a spinning fan with wickedly sharp blades that have blades rotating at their ends. I'm exaggerating. Of course."

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"Think we could take what's embedded in it?"

"How about we explore around first; I have a bad feeling about those pathways in the floor."

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"The pathways lead towards the sarcophagi, I wonder why."

"I don't really want to know."

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"It's red. Suspiciously red."

"C'mon Tsuna, where could they possibly get enough blood to run through the pathways as if it was water? Relax."

"What are those pools of red, then? They weren't there before. And the sarcophagi hold fucking mummies, Hayato."

"We are in ancient Egyptian ruins, Tsuna, why are you so surprised?"

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"Oh great. We have to go past a mummy to continue on our way. Great. We should have run off with our guide."

"You're the one who suggested that we continue."

"Ugh. Don't remind me."

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"Do you hear it?"

"How can I fucking not? Stop asking stupid questions."

"How can it even move? Ugh."

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"Is that a mummy on the ground? Why is it not moving? Is it planning to surprise us when we least expect it?"

"Just go, Tsuna."

"Ohmygod it's getting up!"

"Go, Tsuna!"

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"Did the room actually fucking rotate?!"

"How the fuck can they do that?"

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"I can finally see the light."

"We're not done yet, Tsuna."

"Killjoy."

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"Give me that." Hayato watched, mouth agape, as Tsuna yanked the shotgun from where it was strapped to Hayato's backpack and proceeded to shoot down their assailants.

It looked like someone wanted to vent.

As the last of their assailants fell down, Tsuna threw the shotgun back to Hayato and beckoned him over towards the jeep that was there. Hayato looked at the jeep, "We need the keys."

Tsuna brandished the keys in his hand as he sat in the driver's seat, "Hop in, Hayato."

Hayato took a moment to pray to every god he knew of to survive the trip with Tsuna behind the wheel, and then got in.

Tsuna put the keys in and started the car.

Tsuna floored it (for lack of a better term).

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When Tsuna finally parked and got out, Hayato got out of the jeep on shaky legs and then collapsed to his knees. Hayato kissed the ground from relief.

"Oh, don't be a baby."

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"Your insistence on jumping and climbing and dropping and crawling towards the weirdest, most unlikely places to find ammo and health packs, astounds me."

"Won't you ever shut up about it?"

"No."

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"You get that one, I get this one?"

"Sure, Tsuna."

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"So, what did you find?"

"A fucking shotgun."

"Heh."

"Shut up."

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"I like this part of being a tomb raider."

"Yes, the exploration is nice."

"Until something pops up to attack you."

"Oh, hush."

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"Holy shit! Is that a crocodile?!" Tsuna climbed to the highest point he could reach, Hayato brandished a shotgun in the face of the approaching crocodile.

"You had no problem with taking out the armed men before, but you're freaking out in front of a single crocodile that can't reach you after you climbed so high."

"Those men didn't have teeth so sharp that could tear me limb from limb!"

"Uh-huh."

"Just keep shooting!"

"Wow, you're so violent."

"Hayato!"

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"Oh my god! We can walk on the water! How do you think that happened?"

"Maybe a special chemical mix? I haven't really paid enough attention; I was focusing on figuring out where to go next."

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"Hayato! Don't jump down carelessly like that! There could have been one more crocodile waiting to take a bite out of you!"

"You have no problem in swimming with piranhas but you freak out about swimming with crocodiles?"

"What do you have against piranhas?!"

Hayato sighed.

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End Part 1-1

Last Revelation - II