#she pretends to help him while scheming behind his back to make sure there is always a war going on for him to get involved in

[ciudaddelapazmp3]

I'm not an artist but I really really really wanted to do my version of this meme

[shadowtriovibes]

can you write one where f!MC is being pursued by an annoying guy she doesn’t like who won’t take no for an answer. it annoys sebastian just as much as it annoys her, so next time it happens he pretends to be her boyfriend and suggests they start fake dating for good measure. eventually they make it for real.

thank you! i love the fake relationship trope sooo much and i’ve yet to see anyone write one with sebastian.

of course, lovely anon!! i haven't seen any fake relationship fic either so i'm happy to contribute a lil something! tbh i sincerely thought this would be a short ficlet but it ended up being just over 2.5k fluffy words of dummies in love 🤩

Title: rumor has it

Pairing: Sebastian Sallow x f!MC

Summary: Eric Northcott is relentlessly pursuing you, so Sebastian offers to act as your heroic boyfriend to get him off your back.

"Northcott," Sebastian greets him, leaning against your potions station and resting a hand possessively on the small of your back. "Is there something my girlfriend can help you with?" "Your girlfriend?" Eric asks skeptically. "That's new." "I suppose it is," Sebastian agrees, nonplussed. "Been a long time coming, though." Across the room, Ominis laughs under his breath.

Sebastian Sallow is an excellent young wizard. Clever, well-read, focused – by all accounts, he should be a brilliant strategist.

But sometimes he comes up with the worst ideas you’ve ever heard.

“You musn’t be serious, Sebastian,” you laugh, closing your potions textbook to appreciate the actual madness of what he’d just suggested.

“Why not?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

You roll your eyes as you tell him, “You can’t just pretend to be my boyfriend.”

Earlier that afternoon, the two of you had met up with Ominis in the Undercroft to study after staging a quick exit from the library. While Sebastian was hunting down a book on ancient runes, Eric Northcott had cornered you in the stacks and tried for the second time to convince you to have a Butterbeer with him at the Three Broomsticks instead of “hiding that gorgeous face behind those dusty books like you always do.”

When Sebastian had returned, you were shoving the Gryffindor boy away from you with a tense look on your face, and if he hadn’t just finished a stint of evening detentions for slipping a Puffskein into Duncan Hobhouse’s schoolbag, he would have hexed the amorous git himself.

Since then, he’d been suggesting ways to make him pay, with each idea more fantastical than the last.

“Sure I can, and we can even make a real show of it,” he says with a charming grin. “If you want to get Northcott off your back for good, let’s allow him to think your handsome, roguish boyfriend is the type who would challenge him to a duel if he tries anything untoward.”

“That is a terrible plan,” you deadpan.

“It’s actually not a bad idea,” Ominis chimes in.

You glare at him, because Ominis never thinks that Sebastian’s ideas are any good – even the ones that aren’t completely bonkers.

“What are you playing at, Gaunt?” you accuse him.

“I’m merely suggesting that Northcott may actually accept your contempt for him if it’s for a reason that allows him to save face,” he explains with a secretive smile. “Simply telling him that you’re not interested hasn’t seemed to work thus far, so why not be creative?”

“Creative?” you snort. “Wouldn’t ‘creative’ be blasting him myself the next time he lays a hand on me?”

“As if you need any worse of a reputation,” Ominis drawls, and he has a point.

“Come on, let’s really mess with him,” Sebastian pleads. “You know he deserves to be taken down a peg or two.”

You’re not surprised that Sebastian is able to get you on board so quickly. Truthfully, you think you’d follow him on his harebrained schemes just about anywhere.

“Fine,” you cautiously agree. “But just to scare him off, alright?”

You swear you can see the gears in Sebastian’s head start to turn immediately.

He kicks off his brilliant plan the next day during your N.E.W.T.-level potions class. You’re supposed to be brewing an antidote to Veritaserum, and while the draught itself isn’t necessarily difficult, some of the ingredients are a little tricky to prepare.

You’re focused on trying to carefully slit open some Sopophorous beans when you felt a presence behind you, and then Eric Northcott is draping his arm across your shoulders.

“Need a hand with those?” he offers, trying to sound congenial.

“I’m fine, Eric,” you insist.

“I’m really quite good at potions, you know,” he reminds you, grabbing one of the paring knives off the table and haphazardly slicing one of the beans you’d laid out. “I’d be happy to give you some hands-on lessons if you’d like, one-on-one of course.”

“Sebastian,” Ominis hisses from across the room, having picked up on the conversation while the other boy poured over his notes on wormwood. “Now might be a good time to offer some gentlemanly assistance.”

His eyes narrow when he spots Northcott leaning over your cauldron, clearly trying to sneak a look down your top.

“Don’t let my antidote burn,” Sebastian mumbles as he storms across the room, as if Ominis would ever spare a thought for Sebastian’s cauldron when the show is about to begin.

You bite the inside of your cheek as you watch him notice your predicament, silently pleading him with your eyes to do something to get you out of it.

“Northcott,” Sebastian greets him, leaning against your potions station and resting a hand possessively on the small of your back. “Is there something my girlfriend can help you with?”

“Your girlfriend?” Eric asks skeptically. “That’s new.”

“I suppose it is,” Sebastian agrees, nonplussed. “Been a long time coming, though.”

Across the room, Ominous laughs under his breath.

“Really?” Eric asks dubiously, briefly glancing at your expression. “I was under the impression that the two of you were just ‘best friends.’”

“Well, shouldn’t a good relationship start out as a friendship?” you counter, though you don’t sound entirely convincing.

“Right,” he says slowly.

“Mate, you know how tough she is,” Sebastian says with a charming grin. “Took me ages to convince her to give me a chance, she strung me right along for months.”

You jump slightly when Sebastian slides his hand across your back to your waist, tugging you closer to his side – and out from under Eric’s arm.

“But she finally took pity on me,” he says with a lovelorn sigh, and you narrow your eyes at his dramatics.

“Oh, Sebastian,” you reply, laughing nervously. “You’re hopeless.”

“Hopelessly in love with you,” he says, quickly leaning in to kiss the corner of your mouth.

Before you can react, Professor Sharp wanders by and instructs you all to stop your dallying and focus on your draughts. Eric spares one more skeptical look at the two of you before returning to his cauldron.

Sebastian’s hand on your waist lingers for a moment even after he’s gone, but then he lets it fall.

“Sorry about that,” he says under his breath. “Had to sell it, you’re really a bad liar, you know.”

You think Sebastian doesn’t know the half of it.

(Sebastian’s just glad you avoided his gaze long enough to miss his deep red blush.)

—

As it turns out, the kiss wasn’t enough to convince Northcott that you were properly off the market.

The rumor mill quickly focuses on you and Sebastian – specifically whether or not it’s true that your platonic friendship has become something more.

“I don’t really believe it,” Nerida claims whenever the subject comes up. “Sebastian has always seemed like the bachelor type.”

“He could have had a girlfriend all this time and never has,” Violet agrees, trying to hide her bitterness. “I don’t think he really wants to be in a relationship.”

“Are you joking?” Imelda scoffs. “Sallow’s been a lovesick puppy over that girl for years, I’m just glad she finally came around.”

“She is very protective of him,” Grace speculates. “I remember when Samantha Dale asked him out last fall, I thought she was going to Depulso the poor girl clear across the courtyard!”

You do your best to ignore it, but Ominis stubbornly insists on telling you everything he’s heard.

“I would have thought that the two of you would be better at pulling off a ruse as simple as this,” he says, disappointment dripping from his words. “How hard can it be to pretend to like Sebastian? I don’t have to see him to know that the whole school thinks he’s handsome.”

“You don’t understand,” you sigh, walking alongside him on the way to arithmancy. “It’s… I don’t have to pretend, if you know what I mean.”

“Come now,” he says quietly. “I’m blind, not dim.”

“Then you do understand!” you whine. “How am I supposed to just let him pretend to be my boyfriend to ward off Eric and not go mad from knowing that it’s all a lie?”

“I suppose me telling you to be honest with him about how you feel would go in one ear and right out the other,” Ominis suggests, smirking to himself when you curse at him under your breath.

“Buck up, then,” he says simply. “I’m sure this whole thing will blow up in some spectacular way sooner than later – it is Sebastian, after all.”

—

As per usual, Ominis is correct.

Not even a full day goes by before Sebastian corners you outside the Hufflepuff common room and asks to walk you to dinner, taking your hand in his as soon as he notices some fifth-years studiously watching the two of you as you make your way to the Great Hall.

“I missed you this afternoon,” he tells you as he walks you upstairs, putting on a good show. “How come you didn’t want to study with Ominis and me after class?”

“I just needed to lie down for a little while,” you tell him, not wanting to admit to avoiding the way he’s been so unbearably charming lately.

“Feeling alright?” he asks concernedly.

“Yes,” you tell him. “Just… I don’t know. Out of sorts, I guess.”

“Anything I can do to help?” he asks.

You get distracted by the feeling of him stroking his thumb along your wristbone reassuringly.

“Um… n-no, I don’t think so,” you stutter.

“Surely there’s something I can do to help,” he says, and you wonder if you’re imagining the way his eyes look a little darker than usual, as if his pupils have entirely taken over.

“Like what?” you breathe.

Then he gets that look on his face that he always gets when he’s about to do something stupid.

“Come with me,” he says, tugging you over to a spot along the wall in the reception hall, next to one of those empty cabinets you’d looted for Nellie Oggspire back in your fifth year.

“Sebastian, w-what–” you stammer.

He presses you against the wall, one hand pressed to your waist and the other flat against the stone behind you, boxing you in. He glances around again and clearly spots whatever it was he was looking for, grinning mischievously before he leans in and traces his nose across your cheek.

“Don’t hex me for this,” he murmurs against your lips, and then he’s kissing you.

You melt against the cool stone wall, tipping your head back so Sebastian can tilt his head against yours and completely overtake your senses with his demanding kisses. Without consciously deciding to, you wrap your arms around his shoulders to hold him close to you, desperate to ensure he stays right where he is.

He kisses you well, you think. You know he’s always been a huge flirt, and that he has taken some girls in your year on dates to Hogsmeade over the years, but you’ve desperately avoided any post-date conversations with him because you did not want to know what he and those girls had gotten up to afterward.

Now you know, you think bitterly, but just as quickly you realize you don’t actually care. He’s skilled at this – nipping at your bottom lip to get you to open up for him, sliding his hand between your robes and your dress shirt so he can feel the curve of your waist, nudging a knee between your thighs to pin you even further to the wall.

“Bastian,” you murmur, tangling your fingers in his hair.

He groans against your mouth like he can’t help himself, and you whine a touch too loudly when he grinds his hips against yours.

Then you hear Eric’s voice call out, “Sallow!”

Sebastian looks like sin when he pulls away from you, and not just because his hair is a little mussed from your helpless tugging and his lips are red and swollen.

It’s because he’s smirking, and you quickly realize he’d planned this entire thing.

He’d pulled you to a spot where the Gryffindors on their way to dinner could easily see you being ravished, and it’s not just Eric he’s caught up in it – it’s Leander and Cressida too, some of the worst gossips in the entire castle.

…You are absolutely going to hex him for this, you think.

“Northcott,” Sebastian drawls as he turns around. “Can I help you?”

Eric looks furious, but at least he doesn’t look skeptical anymore.

“You might want to consider someplace a bit more private,” he offers, seething. “I am a prefect, after all. Could send you to detention for being so lewd in public.”

“Fair point,” Sebastian says easily. “In fact, maybe you ought to send us both. Hardly anywhere’s as private as the dungeons.”

You quickly smack Sebastian in the chest with the back of your hand, wordlessly begging him to stop before you actually do have to report to detention.

Mercifully, Eric simply throws a few choice words at Sebastian and stomps off to the Great Hall, Leander and Cressida on his heels to undoubtedly tell the entire school what just happened.

“You’re evil,” you hiss, still catching your breath. “You arranged all that just to embarrass Eric? To embarrass me like that?”

He frowns, confused. “No I didn’t, and I would never embarrass you.”

“You did!” you whine, shoving at his shoulders so he’ll step back. “They’re going to tell everyone and it’s going to make me sound like – like some pathetic girl who’s so desperate to avoid Eric’s attention that she’ll let her best friend feel her up in a busy hallway.”

“That’s not what they’ll think,” Sebastian argues. “And if anyone’s pathetic, love, it’s me.”

You scoff and wrap your arms around yourself, ashamed at how badly you wish you were still wrapped up in his arms instead despite everything you’re saying.

“You think I’m lying?” he asks derisively. “I’m a fool for you, and I would never hurt you. I kissed you like that because I wanted to, and if it happened to embarrass Northcott in the process, that’s even better.”

“Y-you wanted to?” you ask softly.

“I’ve wanted to for so long,” he finally admits.

His hands twitch at his sides like he wants to reach out for you, but he forces himself to behave.

“It’s the reason I came up with this stupid plan in the first place,” he sighs. “So that if anyone at this damn school gets to have the pleasure of walking you to class, or taking you to the Three Broomsticks or – or even kissing you senseless somewhere everyone could see, it would be me.”

You don’t have any words. But even if you did, there’s nothing you’d want to say to him that you couldn’t communicate by tugging him in by his collar and kissing him like you can’t think straight without his touch, so you do just that.

When you both break away to breathe, Sebastian quickly asks, “Are you actually hungry?”

“Not anymore,” you admit, your gaze still on his lips.

Sebastian barely manages to utter the words “Undercroft” and “hurry” in between kisses, but while he determinedly works a claiming bruise into the side of your neck, you whine, “Your common room’s closer.”

—

Once Ominis overhears Cressida waxing poetic about Sebastian Sallow practically mounting his new girlfriend in the hallway by the Grand Staircase, he doesn’t wonder why the two of you never show up for dinner.

[lethalchiralium]

White Carnations | Simon “Ghost” Riley x Wife!Reader

a/n: HNNNGGG THE BRAINROT IS BACK ITS REAL. (thanks to @as-is-above-so-below for help with this and to @halfmoth-halfman for the lovely missus art they made 🥹)

warnings: mentions of doctor’s offices, hospitals. mentions of intense grieving, mentions of miscarriage and pregnancy.

summary: Two more days until Simon has to leave his home, and he wants to spend as much time as he can with his oldest daughter.

PREVIOUS << | >> NEXT | SERIES MASTERLIST

Rain in England is normal.

To Simon, it makes him feel safe. The rain means calm, the rain means cover, the rain means his daughter sleeps through the night. He doesn’t ever go outside when it’s raining and he’s home, he’s usually inside with a squirrely Winnie, wanting to play and have fun - but today was different.

The forecast said a chance of rain, it had rained for a few days straight - the sun was shining when he walked out of the house, Winnie holding his hand, chirping about her pretty blue dress. She wanted to wear her ladybug rain boots, and Simon could never say no to her. They walked to the tram, he picked her up so she didn’t run off as they waited.

It was warming up, Winnie begged and begged to wear her dress and her boots, and now she was happy. She watched as little bugs flew around while her father gazed at her little face, brushing away a curl that failed to remain in her ponytail. She didn’t even notice, it was an infinitely small detail in her grand scheme of her little world, but it was important to Simon that she could see everything his world had to offer - so he pushed the strand behind her ear. He would never shy her away from telling her the truth about what really happens, but he wanted to keep her like this - wide eyed with a toothy smile that only admired the beauty in his ugly world.

Two days. He had two days until he tucks his five year old into bed, kisses her good night, and leaves her for the hundredth time. Two days until he puts down his almost one year old, kisses her little head, and leaves her for the first time. People needed saving, the world needs people to shove their hands into the bloodbath of war to wash the rest of humanity of their sins. He has to put on the mask his oldest never feared but his youngest will, he has to pick up the rifle that has killed men with daughters like his own. He may pretend the blood doesn’t stain, but it leaves burns underneath his skin when he checks their wallets; when he sees a picture all too similar to one he’s taken of his own children.

The tram slowed to a stop, it was packed full of people, just like it always was. He stepped on, Winnie settled her head on his shoulder as he found a place to stand - against the window, watching everyone on the train and making sure he had enough space between himself and the three people around him. There has never been such a thing as being too careful.

Winnie’s leg was digging the pack of cigarettes in his pocket into his side, a habit he’s been trying to quit since Winnie was born. He was close to finally being done with it, but sometimes he needed to clear his head - even with all of the anxiety settling into his stomach, he wouldn’t dare light one once he stepped off the tram. His daughter’s health was much more important than a stupid Marlboro.

“Dad,” She murmured, he moved his head a little to hear her better.

“What’s up, duckling?”

“Can we get Mummy something?”

He settled his cheek against her head, a small chuckle leaving his lips. “What would we get her?”

His daughter shrugged a little. “Pretty flowers.”

“Pretty flowers.” He echoed, a smirk tugged at his lips underneath his medical face mask. “We can get Mum pretty flowers once we’re done with the doctors and with our ice cream, okay?”

She nodded, he patted her back. No matter how old she gets, he hoped she would still let him hold her - even when she’s got little ones of her own, she’s always going to be that little baby he stood by the window with, watching the rain and letting her be soothed by the sound of it. She will always be that little pink baby in the NICU, when her cries finally silenced as soon as her father held her. She will always be the girl Simon Riley had changed his life for.

“Pink flowers an’ red flowers an’ blue ones too, Dad.” Winnie whispered, her fingers curled around the collar of his leather jacket. He nodded, moving his head from hers as the tram alerted to their stop. He moved forwards a little, free hand held onto the rail next to the door as the tram began to slow down. “Are you getting strawberry ice cream?”

“Yes, baby.” He chuckled a little, stepping out of the tram as soon as the doors opened. People rushed past and into the crowded transportation, he didn’t have much care about it. All he was focused on was his daughter and potential threats to her safety. He held her a little closer as he crossed the street when every other person did, he was speed walking to make it to the hospital. Maybe he was a little late, it didn’t matter to him but it did to you. I’m trying to keep her healthy, you said. Get my baby to her appointment.

Winnie didn’t speak much when he entered the hospital, even when they were alone in the elevator. He was half convinced she had fallen asleep, but he dismissed it when she raised her head at the reception desk.

The lady behind the desk was one he’d seen before. She was always nice, she looked young. Isn’t a threat. Shut up. “How can I help you?”

“Winter Riley, appointment at 10 with Dr. Hughes.” Simon spoke with a calm tone, much quieter than his normal voice. Winnie buried her little face into his neck again as the receptionist typed away on her computer.

She cleared her throat before speaking again. “She’ll be right out if you want to take a seat.”

Two exits. Stop.

“Dad.”

Before he knew it, he was sitting on an exam room guest chair, Winnie still curled up in his hold. He had tried to get her to sit on the exam table, but he understood why she didn’t want to. Simon couldn’t sit up there with her, so Winnie decided that being poked and prodded while cuddled in her father’s everlasting safety was much better than a cold padded table.

“Yeah, Win?”

“I want you to stay.”

Simon’s been stabbed before, shot, waterboarded, burned - but nothing had ever felt so painful as his daughter wanting him to stay home. He looked down at her head, her hands still clinging to him. She picked at the metal zipper teeth, head down like she was avoiding his gaze. He kissed her head and patted her leg with his hand.

“Just one more trip, lovie.”

“You say that every time.”

A hot knife slammed into his chest, the cold blood that thrummed through his heart as it began to sizzle, causing him pain. His entire chest filled with agonizing pain like the knife had stabbed him repeatedly. All he could do was force a smile, push her stubborn curl away from her face, and softly speak to her,

“I know.”

Simon went through the motions of pretending to be a human being. Speaking with the doctor, listening to her advice and her notes. He held his five year old as she got two immunization shots, let her scream and cry into his neck as he spoke to her in a soothing tone. She made him kiss her bandaid before the doctor put it on, listening to her as she babbles on about it being good luck. He memorizes his daughter’s face as she talks and talks, memorizes how heavy she is as he carries her out of the office, out of the hospital, and to the ice cream shop. Simon memorizes how little his daughter’s hand is as she stands on her toes, reading the ice cream flavors out loud so he can know what they are too.

He snapped back into his headspace like a freshly broken rubber band as he put down five quid on the counter, he took his bowl of strawberry ice cream as Winnie took her cotton candy swirl with both of her hands. He opened the door for her, the little girl stepped out onto the street and looked up to him, waiting for him to tell her where to go. Simon looked around before nodding his head to a bench only a few feet away. She instantly scampered away, jumping up to sit on it as Simon sat down beside her. Winnie instantly dug into her ice cream, completely unbothered by the cold breeze that breathed through the city streets.

He was quick when he took the picture of Winnie, knowing she doesn’t like to have her picture taken. He sent it to you, then slipped his phone back into his pocket before he softly spoke, “I’ll be home soon this time, I promise.”

Winnie paused in her eating, eyes not moving from her paper bowl and spoon. “I know.”

“Dad has to go away to work, duckling, you know that.” The pain in his chest hadn’t subsided yet, he hoped trying to get her to understand would help ease his mind. “Dad has to go be a hero.”

“I don’t want you to be a hero.” She murmured, sticking her spoon in her ice cream before scooping out a large portion of it. “I want you to be home with me and Mummy and Melsie.”

“Baby, you know Daddy loves you, yeah?”

She nodded.

His cup of ice cream settled in his lap as he gently pet his daughter’s head, she didn’t dare move. “And I’d do anything in the world for you. You know that too, right?”

“Mama tells me that.” She sniffled a little before shoving the spoon of ice cream in her mouth.

“Whatever Mum says, it’s true. But duckling, Daddy has to go. Do you know why?”

The girl shook her head as she pulled the spoon from her mouth, shoving it back into her ice cream.

“Because there are many little kids like you who don’t have a Mummy or Daddy to care for them. And big scary men make the world not safe, which means those kids aren’t safe either. That’s why I go.” He fixed her ponytail, one of her hands swatted his away. “The faster I get rid of the bad guys means the faster the world is safe, which means you’re safe. And when you’re safe, Daddy gets to come home. Does that make sense?”

Winnie shrugged, he grabbed his own ice cream.

“I promise that I’m gonna be gone on trips less, I’ll be home for a long time in a few months.”

“Why?”

After taking a bite of the ice cream flavor he hated, he responded. “Aunt Kate said so. I have a question for you, duck.”

She nodded, finally looking up to Simon, which made his cold heart full of sizzling pain suddenly become calm. There would never be a day where he wouldn’t love his daughter.

“How do you feel if Mum has another baby?”

The girl looked away, digging back into her ice cream. “I dunno.”

His shoulders slumped a little, worry settled deep into his bones like a curse. “Would you be…happy? Sad? Angry?”

She shrugged, spoon stirring the melting delicacy. “Happy, I guess.”

“You guess?”

His daughter looked up to him, a sad look on her face that hurt Simon deeper than he’s even known. “I don’t want Mummy to be sad again.”

Nevermind. That’s worse. Oh god, that’s worse.

Simon’s lips were pulled into a tight line as he took his daughter’s ice cream, setting both his and her cups beside him on the bench before he picked up Winnie. He placed her on his lap so he can look at her face, his hands then held her little ones, squeezing them gently.

“That’s true, little love. We were very sad for a bit, you remember, right?”

The little girl with dark hazel eyes looked up at her father with a hopeful look.

“Does Mummy have a baby in her belly?”

Simon Riley’s chest tightened, but his hands did not. He gently brushed his thumbs on the backs of his daughter’s hands.

“…She might. We’re not sure yet. Mummy needs to go to the doctors, just like you did today.”

“A different baby?”

He nodded. “Right. S’not the same baby as before.”

“Will this one go away too?”

“Plea-Please, please…” Sobs wrecked your body as Simon held you to his chest, you fought him. You fought his comfort, you fought his love because how could you do this? How could you break his heart?

“Baby, it’s okay,” He spoke into your ear, your nails dug crescents into his scarred skin. “It was just a bad dream, you’re okay.”

“I want my baby.” Those were the words you spoke almost every night for days and Simon never understood how those four words could keep shattering his heart. You kept dreaming of your son, your beautiful son who loved to play in the water, who loved to run and squeal and play fire truck with his sisters. The boy that you’ve wanted all your life, now that you have the two daughters you’ve dreamed of when you were little. You were in mental and emotional agony, Simon could feel it. And God, did he wish that pain could be given to him. He would do anything to make your pain subside, to take it away; but he knew he couldn’t. So he has laid beside you, for days on end, holding you and putting pressure on where it hurt like it was an oozing wound. His forehead in your shoulder, holding where his son used to be. He imagined pressing a dressing to a wound, trying to take himself out of the equation to neutralize the pain of it all. He was sure that son of his left a gaping wound in your chest and Simon had to choose which wound was worse - where his son was warm and loved oozed like a deep gash from a knife, or where his wife’s grief was gushing blood from a gunshot wound she didn’t even inflict.

You squeezed his hand, sobbing so hard you could barely breathe.

Simon watched as your tears fill the ocean that was drowning him. He can fix anything, he has fixed many problems in his life and he was begging somebody, anybody, to allow him to fix you. But he can’t; he hated that he couldn’t place a kiss to your cheek and have everything become right - that’s not how any of this works.

He pressed his lips to your shoulder blade as you stilled, his arms hot from the nightly hours he spent under the covers with you, his stomach curled with hunger. Your cries had stopped, your young and bashful heart causing you more pain as it flickered with life every second. The hand that had sat on your heart since he got back into bed after putting his daughters to sleep moved, ever so slowly, towards your cheek - resting on your hairline before gently moving, petting your head ever so carefully.

You bobbed in the ocean with him, breaching the waves and taking in greedy breaths of oxygen before being pulled under again. His hands always so desperate to hold onto you, to help you, could only reach so far before he had to take a breath of his own to dive deep, deeper, and to the deepest point of his core. He would force your head above water, even if it meant he would drown. He’s always been sure you could be better off without him.

Simon spent six days taking care of his grief-stricken wife, navigating the sea of mourning, trying to pull your head above the inky waves. With every crest of the waves of tears in his body, his strength would dwindle. But with every slow descent of Simon, came the rising phoenix that was you.

“I don’t know, love.” Simon bit his tongue for only a moment, just to rid his mind of the dark ocean he found his soul in for a moment.

He shouldn’t have to explain this to his child, he should be explaining about which room will change into her big girl room so he can switch the kids around. He should be talking with his daughter about how he is going to stay home after these next few missions. Explain that she will lose a little sleep too. But he isn’t. He’s sat on an old bench in front of an ice cream shop, eating his least favorite flavor of ice cream to please his daughter, and having to tell her that not every baby dies. He has to explain that her beautiful mother won’t have to be sad again.

“Sometimes that happens. Babies go away and there isn’t anything we can do about it.”

“Do we get to keep this one?”

He smiled at his daughter, even when he didn’t have the answer. Even when he felt a drop of rain on his head, reminding him how close he was to going beneath the waves in his mind. “I hope so. Do you want to keep this one?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“Do you want a brother or sister?” He whispered, his hand grabbed her ice cream and settled it on her lap. Her hands instantly grabbed it, holding the small cup and spoon before whispering back.

“I want a brother like before.”

“Okay.” He nodded at his daughter before taking his ice cream cup back in his own hands. “Will you like the baby if it’s a girl?”

“Yeah. I just want a brother.” She shrugged, now more interested in her ice cream. He leaned forwards, placing a kiss on the top of her head.

“Well, the baby decides that, okay? They’ll tell us when Mum gets a bit bigger.”

Winnie nodded again, before looking up at her dad again. “I love you, Daddy.”

His heart swelled, his smile didn’t falter as he spoke, “I love you too, my darling girl.” He set his most hated ice cream flavor down on the bench before picking Winnie up, placing her on her feet on the ground. “You ready to go home?”

He tossed two half empty cups into the trash next to the bench, making sure it made it into the food waste slot. He picked up his darling girl in her raincoat and rain boots, then made his way towards the tram as specks of rain dotted his head.

He watched the rain as it splattered against the tram windows, he helped his daughter into her blue raincoat he had kept in his own jacket, he huddled with the crowd of people under the station shelter when he had to change trams. Winnie hummed to herself, little fingers curled around the collar of his jacket.

“Daddy.”

He kissed her head. “Yes, my love?”

“Are we still getting flowers for Mummy?”

He sighed a little, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet before he muttered, “We can’t be in the rain for too long, you will get sick. I don’t think we should go today.”

The girl in his arms practically deflated. “But… But her flowers, Daddy… I want to get her flowers…”

“Flowers aren’t as important as you, my darling girl.” His large hand patted her back, hearing the squeak of her raincoat as the rain fell harder. He was under the shelter just enough, but the mist still coated his daughter’s hair and his face. “I want you to be home and healthy, not bundled up with me and poorly.”

“But… I want the flowers so I can tell Mama she’s pretty like you do.”

The tram rolled to a stop as his mental state was yanked above the waves it had been drowning in, his feet could barely touch the water as he felt his heart soar.

Kind. His mind sung, his heart singing along. My daughter is kind.

He quickly walked onto the tram, he grabbed an empty standing place as the tram became more full by the second. Winnie moved her head from his shoulder, eyes gazing at his face.

“What’s wrong, Daddy?”

The medical mask had sat in his pocket, so his daughter could watch how his lips grew a smile so wide. “You don’t need flowers to tell Mummy she’s pretty.”

He had counted the amount of people in the tram by that point, and without failure, he noticed the small crowd of people around him staring at him and his daughter. Even though he knew it wasn’t safe, he ignored them all. He focused on his daughter’s button nose, those hazel eyes that are glazed over with fatigue.

“I don’t?”

“No, my love,” He whispered, hand gently petting her head. “You tell her every time you think so, just for me. Can you do that?”

She nodded vigorously, his heart beat with such golden pride for his wonderful Winter.

“We’ll go get her flowers, my love. Just so you can tell your mummy she’s very, very, very pretty.”

The five year old giggled as he pushed the button for the next stop.

Winnie demanded to hold the bouquet on the way home. The flower shop with many options for the colors his daughter chose was a tram ride in the opposite direction of home, so now that the public transportation journey was over, all Simon had to do was walk home.

Much easier said than done.

The thunder was loud, lightning glimmered in the sky as the rain poured, but Winnie barely cared. Her little hood up, her ladybug boots squeaked with every step. His phone was strapped somewhere dry on the inside of his coat, the flowers Winnie was so excited to hold were clutched against her chest as he held her other hand, hurrying along his daughter as their home came into view. The porch light on, soft lighting casted upon his windows from inside his warm home. He squeezed Winnie’s hand. She squealed with laughter as she squeezed back, jumping into a puddle and drenching his jeans.

Simon used to be an angry man. Every little thing that went wrong would turn him into a ball of rage, everything that used to get him punched by his father made him angry. He ignored help, shunned people who wanted nothing more to help him feel okay. He remembered the days when he used to play in the rain and drench his father’s pants in muddy water. Those nights ended with four year old Simon in tears in his closet, blood oozing down his face from a cut on his forehead from his father’s rings. Simon remembered those moments with perfect detail. Every age, every time he hid himself under his bed, in his closet, in the fox hole behind the house, Simon was nursing wounds that should have had him in the hospital since he was two years old.

Simon Riley looked at his daughter and the sky blue hood over her head, the large bouquet of flowers clutched to her chest as her ladybug boots stomped in the puddle, splashing his jeans more and more.

He doesn’t feel anger. He doesn’t feel upset. He held his daughter’s hand as they finally walk up the lane to their home, helping her up the stairs to their porch and into the dry house his true family called home. He didn’t feel upset that she didn’t put away her shoes like he had taught her for months on end, he isn’t angry that she left her sopping wet raincoat on the carpet. He toed off his own shoes, taking off his jacket while he watched her fly into the living room, where you sat on the recliner with his ten month old baby. Your arms cradled your baby Mellie, holding her head up to feed from your breast as you turned your head to see Winnie in her pretty blue dress.

His heart felt warm as he walked into the living room, smiling as Winnie began to speak.

“Mummy.”

Your smile lit up the room, he has always told you that but you never believed him. If he could show you through his eyes how he saw you, you would never doubt him again.

“Yes, my love?”

“Daddy bought me flowers so I can give them to you.” The five year old placed both of her hands on the plastic outside of the bouquet, rain dropped off of the side of it as your eyes widened.

“For me?” You looked up to your husband, whose heart jumped to his throat. “Daddy thought to buy me flowers?” He has bought you flowers almost every two weeks, the bouquet of roses he brought home a couple days ago sat on the kitchen counter in your favorite vase.

“No no!” Winnie giggled, dropping the sopping wet bouquet onto your lap as she cheerfully said, “I wanted to buy you flowers so I can tell you how pretty you are, Mama.”

You looked back at your beautiful five year old daughter, tears instantly falling down your face as you removed an arm from underneath Mellie to reach for Winnie. Mellie made a grunt of disapproval as Winnie laughed, climbing onto the recliner to be held by her mother.

Simon could never lie and say that he could try and put himself in his father’s shoes, not when Simon witnessed moments of true love like this.

He had two days. But with how you were laughing and pressing kisses to both of his daughters, he felt a pang for warmth in his belly. Simon knew you would be alright.

taglist: taglist (ignore that tagging hates me): @sigynxlokiwifelover @lumpypoll @multitargaryen @chloeforde @blueoorchid @vir-tual @lolis-pikt @theverycelestialgemini @simpingforleoandnico @prodyng @royalty-purple @projectdreamwalker @tiredweeb7

Copyright © 2023 lethalchiralium. All rights reserved.

[n0v4t33z]

The Piece of Eight - Assimilate and Assault

Pairings: Capt. Hongjoong X Female Reader , Crewmate San x Female Reader (Overall not chapter specific)

Genre: Pirate AU, Romance, historical-ish (not really), Action, Angst, Non-Idol AU

Word Count: 5.1k

Tags/Warnings: For Mature Audiences, Violence, Language, mentions of blood and gore, Highly Suggestive at times (This is a warning for the whole story overall)

Chapter specific: Some suggestive conversations?, straight up violence for some of it (HERE'S YOUR WARNING IF YOU DON'T LIKE GRAPHIC VIOLENCE), enemy says vulgar shit to y/n, lots of blood, y/n's PTSD makes a small appearence, Mingi being a little weird (let me know if there's anything else)

MINORS DO NOT INTERACT!!

Spotify Playlist ⚓ | Masterlist 🏴‍☠️

Author's Note 💌: Hi I finally had some time to edit and post this lol it's very short but it gives you a peek into MC's first day with the teezers. Also I had to change the color scheme bc Tumblr wanted to be mean and remove the yellow text option so I chose orange bc ateez. Tbh I've been so tired from work I've been procrastinating editing this and i've just been working on the most recent chapter of the story which is easy writing but I decided I need to at least post something so I hope you enjoy this chapter and please look forward to the next one! - N 🌙

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A few hours later I wake up and it’s dark. Eledonia was also now gone from the horizon and as I look around at the endless dark sea I realize a blanket is wrapped around me.

It was most likely Seonghwa since Hongjoong did say he’d be coming by later to show me to my room. I keep my gaze fixed in the direction of Eledonia and now is when it sinks in that I will not be seeing my family in awhile. I sit there welling up in my own thoughts until a gentle tap on my shoulder disturbs them, it was Seonghwa. 

He gives me a soft smile and says “Hey, you’re awake now. Let me show you to your room so you can sleep comfortably.”

 I get up and he helps me with my bag while I silently follow behind him with the blanket still wrapped around me since It was quite chilly. We walk down to the crew’s quarters which is located towards the front of the ship. I walk down and I notice nothing was separated, everyone was sleeping in the same room.

 I could see six figures fast asleep in their own beds then Seonghwa leans over and whispers “Go ahead and sleep on my bed, I’ll be keeping watch tonight up in the crow’s nest so I won’t be using my bed. Don’t mind everyone else, sleep well okay?” 

He sets down my things next to his bed and gives me a smile and a nod goodbye. After I’ve quietly settled down on Seonghwa’s bed I notice it’s quite comfortable, more than mine back at home. Which led to me falling asleep pretty quickly.

 In the morning I’m woken up with voices, all of them belonged to the six figures on the beds last night which obviously belong to my crew mates. Since I have a habit of sleeping with a blanket over my head I lay perfectly still and pretend to be asleep then I hear someone say “That’s not Seonghwa. Is that y/n? The Captain’s new protector?”

 For some reason I’m terrified now that I’ve made my existence known. Someone then answers “Nah I don’t think it’s her, why would she be sleeping in here? I’m sure that’s probably Seonghwa being lazy.” 

Suddenly, something presumably a pillow is thrown at me followed by “Get up Seonghwa or you’re not getting any breakfast!” Followed by someone pulling the blanket from over my head harshly then complete silence. 

I open my eyes and and realize 6 men standing around the bed I’m laying on with some of them with their mouths agape. Then someone says “What the fuck? She’s sleeping in Seonghwa’s bed?” 

Slightly irritated from how embarrassed I was I sit there in silence glaring at them. Followed by Mingi chuckling then reaching over to grab my arm  “Hey let’s g-” Before he’s even able to finish his sentence I grab his wrist and twist it “Don’t touch me.”

 Immediately he pulls his hand away and massages his wrist and says “She’s feisty.” The man with puppy like features looks over at the blue haired male “Mingi stop..” 

I throw the pillow at Mingi who gets bonked in the head then manages to catch it “Look, just- can you understand how I was woken up? Like that was such an aggressive and rude way to wake up it was so uncalled for so, can you blame me? Especially your so called superior, you’re really going to disrespect him like that?”

San looks over at Mingi says “I agree with her, that was rude. Especially towards someone who’s not used to the way we play around” 

Mingi playfully punches San in the arm “Loosen up San, it was a joke.” San turns and looks over at Mingi with a glare. 

Wooyoung raises his eyebrow “Wait, so are you really the Captain’s protector?” I bite the inside of my cheek “Yeah, otherwise what else would I be doing here.” Mingi responds “Our-” Yunho immediately covers his mouth “No, stop. Quiet, no”

 Everyone else erupts in laughter. I roll my eyes then I get up and grab my backpack “If you’ll excuse me I need to change.” Wooyoung smiles “Sure.” Someone in the distance then says “You pissed her off, she was so nice the last time we saw her..”

 I walk out of the crew quarters and It just so happened that Seonghwa was walking in that direction and I’m stopped in the middle of the hallway leading to the stairs to go back upstairs.

 “Hey, I was just about to go wake you and introduce you to your other crew members.” I stay silent for a few seconds then I respond in a low voice “No thanks.”

 Seonghwa grabs my arm “Wait, why not? What happened?” I shake my head and pull my arm away from his grasp “I’m going to change..”

 I walk upstairs towards the deck to look around and head towards the room the Captain walked into last night. Surely he must be in there right?

I knock on the door and carefully enter the candle lit room “Captain?” 

 He glances over at me and removes his glasses “y/n? Good morning, I didn’t think you’d come here so early. I heard you stayed up pretty late.”

 “I did, but I’m a light sleeper so I woke up pretty easily.” I sit on the leather chair in front of his desk softly squeaking from my weight.

“That reminds me, can I tell you something? I don’t want to be worrisome on my first day here but this just kind of bothers me.” Hongjoong nods giving me a concerned look “Did something happen?”

“Yeah kind of. Your crewmates are assholes, they threw a pillow at me thinking I was Seonghwa, is that really how they treat your first mate?”

 Hongjoong lets out a small laugh “Well, yes but the respect is there don’t worry that’s just how they get along. As for the way you were woken up..” he trails off and lets out a sigh “I’m sorry about that, if you want you have my permission to scold them if they get on your nerves as they tend to have their moments of not being the most pleasant to be around.” 

What? No way he’s letting me scold them?! Is that how much he trusts me? I mean it’s a given the man trusts me with his life, why wouldn’t he when it comes to just standing up for myself and straightening out a couple of grown brats…

”Oh, um. Thank you for that.” Hongjoong’s eyebrow slightly raises “Anything else?” I awkwardly stipple my fingers for a few moments “Um, do you have food? I’m kind of starving” 

Hongjoong smiles “Yeah, second floor below deck. Breakfast should be going on right now. I’ll walk you there.” I look over at his desk and notice he’s writing something immediately feeling guilty for making him stand “oh, uh. No captain, it’s okay. I should learn my way around the ship by myself.” 

Hongjoong hums and I continue “Besides, you’re busy doing Captain things..I really don’t want to bother you.” Hongjoong puts his black polished index finger on his lips and hushes me “I promise you’re not bothering me darling, I’m more than happy to show you around. I’ve got plenty of time.”

I stand up and smile “It’s okay Captain, I think it’s best for me to learn things on my own. You are the Captain after all, I’m sure you’re quite busy erm…Being a Captain.” 

Hongjoong smirks then looks at me fondly “Alright, but in case you need someone to guide you Seonghwa and I are here. Don’t forget that.” I quietly nod then he continues “Once you’re done with breakfast go ahead and head over to the crow’s nest and keep watch. I’ll put you in charge of that. If you spot anything let Seonghwa know immediately. ”

 Hongjoong reaches into the side drawer of his desk and hands me a golden spyglass “Thank you Captain, I will.”

  I glance down at it then back up at him where he then motions for me to leave “Alright, go. If you need anything Seonghwa will be there to assist.” 

I bow, slightly intimidated by him not because he's scary but more or so because of how well he carries himself. 

When I exit the captain’s quarters I carefully examine the spyglass. Must be brass or something judging from the nice weight to it. 

Regardless it was so beautiful It had an engraving on it, the same one as the one on Hongjoong’s arm band. I guess this means it’s his, that’s cool. He trusts me even with his personal items.

 While I walk across the deck my stomach growls then I sigh. If I remember correctly Hongjoong said the kitchen was on the second floor? 

I head downstairs and as soon as I enter the mess hall it becomes dead silent. I knew it, I knew it was going to be this awkward. At least Hongjoong isn’t here it would have been much more embarrassing. 

San pats the seat next to his and gives me dimpled smile “y/n, sit here. I saved this seat for you.” 

This man is making me want to smack him. Pretending to be nice. Why is he so flirty? I can only imagine how cringe he was with the girls back in Eledonia. They probably ate that shit up too. Ugh.

 I sit on the seat next to San on the other side to my right was Wooyoung who immediately stands up. To my recollection he's the cook, he was the one wearing an apron while cooking back in Eledonia and the one who gave me the delicious peach tart.

 Seonghwa then brings everyone’s attention over to me“Evreyone, you weren’t properly introduced but this is the Captain’s protector Her name is y/n.” 

The tall one with blue hair and glasses which was Mingi if I remember correctly says “Ah yes, the cute doll back in Eledonia.” Wow, he must have a thing with dolls but honestly I'm not mad at it. 

“You’re cute, I know why Hongjoong chose you now. I think Hongjoong likes cute girls. Cute..” Everyone silently stares at him then Yunho looks over at Mingi in disgust. “Maybe you should stay quiet you’ve used the word cute one too many times for my liking.”

 Yunho looks over at me and gives me a concerned look “He’s weird please don’t listen to him. Anyway, hello y/n It’s nice to see you've decided to join us.” I slightly raise my hand from the table to acknowledge his greeting and take a bite of a piece of bread from a basket. 

From the corner of my eye I notice the guy with Jongho back in Eledonia, Yeosang if i'm not wrong. Looking at him closer now I notice he's got very gorgeous features, one of them being a cool looking birth mark on his left eye (which I didn't notice) , his face being almost too perfect to be real with soft brown hair that compliments him very well giving him a very princely and delicate appearance. 

He stares at me without saying anything which is intimidating noting how gorgeous the man is. The stare wasn’t out of hate, it was more or so out of curiosity until he finally speaks “Who trained you?” 

Slightly taken aback I almost choke on my bread but manage to play it off. He speaks Eledonian, like Hongjoong only much more fluent. “My grandfather, an Eledonian veteran. Why?”

 He gives me a small smile and shakes his head “I was just asking, I’m Yeosang. My apologies for not introducing myself when we first met.” I shake my head “It’s okay, no worries. I appreciate you introducing yourself..” 

San furrows his eyebrows “Hey Yeo, you speak Eledonian? I didn’t know that.” Yeosang glances at San while resting both elbows on the table and his hands laced together “Who do you think taught Hongjoong?” 

Shortly after being gone Wooyoung comes back with a bowl and a cup of tea and gently sets it in front of me. “I hope you like it, it may be a little spicy depending on your spice tolerance but it should still be good.. ” 

I silently nod and take a sip of my tea then Seonghwa says “So y/n, how’d you sleep? You didn’t get seasick?” I pick up my eating utensil and mix my food.

“Well, besides being woken up in the rudest most uncalled for way ever. It was actually pretty comfortable, more than my old bed so I fell asleep almost instantly.” The whole table stays quiet with exception of a few of them clearing their throats and awkwardly adjusting themselves in their seats.

 Seonghwa looks over at the rest of the guys and forces a smile when he looks back at me “Well at least you slept well up until that point.” I shove a spoonful of food in my mouth and nod, San remorsefully speaks “So um, about this morning. Sorry we thought you were Seonghwa and we kind of ambushed you without your permisson.”

 I shrug taking another sip of my drink “What’s done is done, it’s fine.” Jongho, the very well built dark haired male with a very friendly face says in an apologetic tone “We should have honestly checked before we pulled something like that. I’m sure that’s the reason you’re being so cold towards all of us which we understand.” 

Woah this guy hit the nail on the head with that one. “You’re right, you guys were assholes but now with the Captain’s full permission if you ever cross the line with me again I have his personal blessing to kick your asses.”

Mingi says under his breath “Ah, that’s so hot..” San looks over at Mingi like he just insulted him and flatly says “No..” 

Seonghwa glares at both males, something told that pissing him off wasn’t a good idea. As it is he’s already intimidating. “How about you both calm down and behave. You both act like you didn’t just meet up with women back in Eledonia” 

Wooyoung giggles looking in San’s direction playfully nudging my arm so that I could watch the whole ordeal go on. “Seonghwa’s right, weren’t you two the ones who were flirting away and getting back rubs from Eledonian women later in the evening?”

 San crosses his arms in front of his chest “They were just back rubs!” Everyone looks in his direction then Wooyoung fires back “You and I both know you’re lying about that, that's not the only thing that was getting rubbed”

 I roll my eyes at how utterly embarrassing this whole conversation was getting and continue to eat my food completely tuning out the conversation happening. Everyone explodes in laughter while San sits there festering in annoyance and Mingi awkwardly laughs it off with the others.

 Once they settle down a bit Jongho says “That’s true one of them didn’t come back until midday the next day so that says alot about what actually happened.” I eat the last of my food and drink the remaining tea from my cup and I get up not caring we were all in mid conversation.

“I’m done eating. Wooyoung, the food was delicious.” I give Wooyoung a smile and in return he blinks “Oh, you ate fast.. Do you want seconds?” I shake my head and get up “No thank you, I’m full.” 

San turns to me and looks at me a bit sad “You’re leaving already?” I nod dusting my lap off from the leftover bread crumbs “Yep, see you around.” 

Before anyone has a chance of saying anything else I excuse myself from the clearly very private conversation going on in the background. I guess I'm going to have to get used to conversations like this, men are so… Weird.

After that chaotic breakfast I find my way back to the crow’s nest, it was a nice change of environment. I wonder if this is the only thing I’ll be doing while we’re at sea, then again there is no one I need to protect Hongjoong from anyway so I guess it makes sense I’m in charge of keeping an eye. 

After a few uneventful days of me keeping watch, which were either cargo ships or just other ships in general who weren’t of intrest. I basically lived up at the crow’s nest and only really came down to shower or use the bathroom since Wooyoung would usually bring up my food while on duty. 

Today was a different story, on the horizon I could make out a ship in the distance then I look into the spyglass and notice a ship with a peculiar flag. Unlike our flag, theirs was red with a skull on it except this skull had two spears crossing behind it then my stomach sinks. 

I quickly climb down then I run over to Seonghwa who was talking to Mingi and in between breaths I say “I don’t know who they are but we have company from the north east.”

Seonghwa quickly puts down the book in his hand and runs outside onto the deck then pulls out his spyglass, and stares at the ship for what felt like forever “The Scarlet Sailors… The Captain needs to see this.” He turns to me “Prepare for battle these pirates are quite tough, ring the bell.” 

It’s like a switch instantly lit up I run over to the bell and ring it as loud as I can while Seonghwa runs into the captain’s quarters to alert the Captain. My first looting with the crew and I’m not going to lie but I’m scared. What if I die not even three seconds after stepping foot on that boat.

 Meanwhile the whole ship goes hectic to prepare everything and a few minutes later Hongjoong steps out and looks through Seonghwa’s spyglass with a big smile on his features “Evreyone, looks like we hit the jackpot. We will strip them from everything.” 

He hands Seonghwa his spyglass back then looks over at me and gives me a bright smile “Use this time to practice, don’t worry if you kill them. The government doesn’t care, so neither should we. Also, unless I call for you do your thing I’m not useless.” I hum and touch the gun on my holster then I smile. Here’s my chance to show off.

 As the ship gets closer Jongho aims the canon at the ship and shoots directly hitting the ship in the front of the ship he then signals San and Yeosang to do the same permanently disabling the ship due to Jongho’s successfully being able to break the main mast of the ship. 

Right as Yunho and Mingi begin to set up the plank a few people of the enemy begins to shoot at us causing us to hide. 

Seonghwa gently squeezes my shoulder “Good luck, and please protect our Captain.” I turn and give him a smile for the first time in a while “No problem.” once the plank is clear I notice the captain of the ship immediately heads over towards Hongjoong.

 He’s not useless he can fight, I just need to clear these people out then I can help him. I shoot my gun at any of the crew mates running towards me until I have no ammo left after that I pick up a sword from one of the bodies on the ground then I climb up one of the shrouds of the ship. 

Before jumping I take a deep breath and jump down onto a crew mate who was about to shoot Yeosang in the back so I proceed to stab him in the back of the neck with the blade exiting through the other side of the man’s throat.

 When I pull it out of the man’s neck the sound alone of the man choking on his own blood causes Yeosang to turn and notices the man on the floor then he looks back at me and smirks.

I pick up the man’s gun and shoot the man behind Yeosang and I smile. I notice a scary looking man about to gang up on Wooyoung who was already busy with a sword fight so I give Yeosang a two finger salute and while running to Woooyung’s aid I shoot the man on the side of the head causing him to fall to the ground limply.

 While I look around to see if I could assist anyone I feel a hand pull me back by the hair and begins to crush my throat with the other then I put the barrel of the gun under the bearded man’s chin and I pull the trigger causing him to fall back. In the midst of me running away I see another huge scary bald man with a cigar in his mouth begin to walk towards me with evrey intention to kill.

 “You can’t go around killing people like this little lady, you’ve been a bad girl.” I smirk then I pull the trigger of the gun only for it to be empty then I let out a frustrated groan so I grab the sword again then he lets out a laugh. 

"You wanna fight with swords? Alright, I'll do you a favor before I kill you then although I can't guarantee I won't fuck you up pretty girl." He grabs a sword from the nearest body And does a few practice swings. 

I run towards the man and swing to aim at his midsection but he successfully blocks my sword and knocks it out of my hand. The man lets out a laugh and grabs me by the wrist and pulls me towards him then he rests his blade on my neck, pressing just enough for me to acknowledge the blade on my throat drawing some blood.

 The smoke from his cigar hitting me in the face while I lay completely still “What a shame I have to kill you I really wanted to fuck that pretty little face of yours-”

 Feeling complete disgust by the vulgarities this man was saying I pull out a dagger hiding under my belt and stab the man once in the midsection then another right in the eye causing him to drop his cigar to the floor and scream in agonizing pain.

 “You fucking bitch! I’ll kill you!” I pick up the sword I dropped and motion the angry man to attack "Come and get me you ugly troll.." 

The man leans in and swings his sword in my direction grazing my arm only managing to rip the fabric of my sleeve. I parry the angry man and unfortunately for the man his anger combined with only having one eye grants me an opening to lunge and slash followed by a stab right on his stomach causing him to fall on his knees and drop the sword on the ground.

 I pick up the cigar he dropped from the floor and push the end of the lit cigar into the wound in his eye.

The man screams in pain and clutches onto his face squirming on the floor until I pick up the shot gun off of a body and shoot the man dead. It's over, finally. 

I slowly close my eyes and let out a soft sigh, when I open my eyes I look at the state of the situation and see the captain of the Scarlet Sailors had been defeated or more so shot in the face. 

The rest of his crew only a handful were left alive and were are all tied up while San kept watch the rest of the guys were quickly hauling alot of supplies and money onto the ship.

 A few minutes go by of me being confused and not really knowing what to do si I decide to help San keep watch on the rival crew mates. From a distance I hear a whistling noise only to realize it was Hongjoong, who was looking in my direction and motions me back onto the ship.

 Both San and I walk back to the ship, leaving the rival crew on the boat. It still hadn’t dawned on me how brutal this whole situation is in reality. How my first encounter with true violence would be the one to light a fire in me that won’t be put out which will put a crack on my moral compass.

Once we get on the ship I begin walking towards the bathroom before Yeosang stops me “Hey, are you okay? That slice on your neck is bleeding.” I gingerly touch my neck then look down at my hand to see it coated with blood.

 Of course internally i’m panicking but I can’t let anyone know that the captain’s protector is a wimp, so I hum quietly while looking down at the blood. “The bleeding will stop, I’ll be fine.”

 Yeosang shakes his head “You have to go get that cleaned or else it’ll get infected.” I smile and wipe the blood with my finger on my inner wrist.“I’m going to shower so no worries the wound will get cleaned, thanks for your concern though.”

I give Yeosang a soft smile and before I even see his reactiom I walk over to the bathroom and close the door behind me and I begin to undress.

While I’m undressing I notice my hands are shaky, it must be the adrenaline still coursing through my veins. Growing slightly irritated because of how flimsily it made my hands feel I clench both my hands together and sigh. 

Slowly a small smile forces itself onto my features “I did a great job today, for my first day. I can’t be entirely disappointed.” I stand in the warm water staring at the ground with the slight sting on my neck from my wound. 

Suddenly I get flashes of all the people I’ve killed today and I will admit I do feel remorse for what i did as I’m only human but what Hongjoong told me keeps repeating itself in my head “The government doesn’t care, and neither should we.”

 Which means technically they aren’t the government since pirates are anti government but they did begin to head straight towards us and willing to attack us so we were in full right to attack them back.

This wasn’t wrong was it? Am I just overthinking everything right now because of the amount of people I just killed? I don’t know honestly, all I know is my body is reacting to it.

I start to feel slightly dizzy and a bit light headed so I sit under the water to rest a little bit. How can I be so weak I’m reacting like this, what happened to my grandfather’s training? No wait, his training didn’t include how to cope with killing people. 

After a long maybe 5 or 10 minutes of me feeling weird I eventually finish showering and tightly wrap the bathrobe around my figure and step back out onto the deck. It’s as if Yunho was waiting for me outside of the bathroom he hurriedly walks towards me “Yeosang told me about your wound.” 

I brush out my hair with my fingers “Oh, I’m fine.” He rolls his eyes and puts both his hands on my shoulders and turns me in the direction of the crew’s quarters “Yeah, I’m not taking any risks then you die on us and the Captain will get mad at me for not doing my job which is attend all the injuries our crew gets.” 

I sigh slightly rolling my eyes but not enough where Yunho notices “Yeah, okay then.” When we go down to the quarters he sits me down on the first bed entering the place.

 “Sit, I’ll be right back.” He walks over to a small cabinet in the room and pulls up a chair next to me. He gives me an awkward smile and points at my robe.

"Can you um, pull it down a little bit?” I nod and grab the soft fabric of the bathrobe and gently pull it down exposing my neck but still covering my chest. 

He clears his throat and silently begins to clean my wound up until he probably get tired of how painfully awkward it was so he breaks the ice and says “So, I saw you fighting and you’re pretty good. I now understand why the Captain was so hellbent on you joining us.”

 I awkwardly smile at Yunho “Yeah.” He chuckles and awkwardly smiles back  “You looked like a cat on top of those shrouds, weren’t you scared?” 

Stiffly I nod trying not to disturb what Yunho was doing “A little but when you’re set to kill you just kind of forget evreything around you and you just focus on your task.” Yunho hums “I see, just remember to be careful. You’re meant to protect the Captain and if you get hurt you’re neglecting your purpose.” 

Well that’s a bit.. Outright. What a strange way to tell me to be careful. “Okay, i’ll be careful. I'll try my best not to worry the Captain.” 

After a few more minutes of awkward small talk and him cleaning my wound he finally finishes and dresses my wound then puts away his first aid kit. I pull my bathrobe back up and I head over towards the door.

 I really wanted to say thank you but for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to say anything until I finally manage to say in a very low almost indistinguishable mumble “Thank you.” Yunho turns back to me and says “Did you say something?”

 Great, he didn’t hear me. I look so dumb right now. Immediately I shake my head and walk out without another word. I stand by the railing looking out onto the sea, unfortunately It hasn’t even been a month yet and I’m already kind of sick of seeing nothing but water.

 I might as well learn to get along with everyone even if that means I have to fake my personality. They can all be afraid of me but if I keep this up and keep being so quiet and unaproachable I’ll not only get bored but I’ll be miserable. I also can’t latch onto Seonghwa and the Captain the whole time I’m here I need to make friends even if these guys are a bit…Weird.

 I hear steps approaching me from behind and a familiar voice emerges behind me “I’ve brought you some clean clothes. I don’t know if they’re your style but Hongjoong chose them. I’m sorry we didn’t give these to you earlier and you had to go into battle with your personal attire. I am sorry your old ones got ruined.” 

I turn and it was Seonghwa, skin with a slight sheen of sweat on his exposed skin which was just his neck and face with a small cut under his eye and a busted lip. “Ah, It’s fine. I’ll keep those clothes as a memento of my first battle with The Piece of Eight.” I shake my head and see his slightly worried expression shift to a small smile.

“Good job out there by the way. Yeosang told me you saved him twice and you helped out Wooyoung. I also heard you took out the juggernaut first mate of the Scarlet Sailors.” I nervously laugh “Thank you, I was only fulfilling my duty.” 

He hands me my clothes and smiles “This might have been your first battle but it certainly won’t be your last.” I look down at the clothes and I couldn’t tell first glance if I was going to like them. It wasn’t until I actually tried them on I saw and could definitely tell Hongjoong chose them. 

Very high fashion, it’s a very nice blend of their style just a bit more feminine. I like it. It was a black blazer with a beautiful pin on it the shape of an hourglass with silver detailing and a top that was a black fitted vest and some black pants , boots and.. A wide brim fedora. 

Kind of an odd choice, I thought pirates wore those weird looking hats? Not Hongjoong though, I can tell this man goes against what everyone expects of him. He forges his own path even with the smallest of things as simple as clothing. Something tells me I'm working for right man, the right cause.

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[laurancezvahlslefteyebrow]

Vylad Ro’meave Redesign Time!!

as usual, headcanons and detail changed:

Because of being a premature shadow knight, he still ages but very slowly. It takes about 3 years for him to physically age 1 year. The same will happen to Laurance.

By the time he and Garroth are finally reunited, they are now physically the same age, which was certainly jarring for the decently older Garroth.

Though he was adopted by the kind-heart Garte in the public eye, in the private of their home, Garte ignored him. So much so that at times Vylad questioned if he were even real.

He was always much smaller in frame than his brothers. Garroth and Zane were always taller than him, and he was always skinny. Because of this and the fact that he wasn’t allowed in the public eye as much as his brothers, people who saw them together often assumed Vylad was a friend. Some people called him the forgotten brother.

He wasn’t allowed to attend school or the lesson his brothers were forced to attend, but he’d watch from afar and teach himself the skills on his own.

When wondering the streets of O’khasis one day, he met a blue haired girl named Julia. She showed him all the best hiding places, secret tunnels, and how to pickpocket. Julia moved to Nahakra Village by the time Vylad was a teen.

He was killed by Zane. He had been spending some time outside in the garden one night, when Zane silently came up behind him and stabbed him in the back. Vylad never saw his attacker, and to this day has no clue it was his own brother.

Zane was instructed to do this by Garte, who grew tired of seeing Vylad’s face and being reminded of Zianna’s infidelity. After Vylad was dead, Zane roughed himself up, ran back to the palace and yelled for help, claiming to have been attacked by bandits.

He was brought back as a Shadow Knight because of his brain. He has a strong mind and mental ability, and is very smart.

When he came back as a Shadow Knight, he at first went along with it. Pretended to be on their side. When he was sent back to the Overworld to gain his immortality, he ran away, going into hiding.

At first he went back to O’khasis, hiding in the places he’d hide as a child. He kept watch over his family, namely his mother and Garroth. When Garroth faked his death, he believed it to be real. He was absolutely devastated that his brother, one of the few people to ever truly care about him, would take his own life.

When he saw Garroth leave O’khasis, he quickly understood what had happened, and followed him. He stayed and watched Garroth live his life in Phoenix Drop for a while before venturing into the forest and meeting Hyria.

He spawned Irene/Aphmau in Phoenix Drop to help not the village, but his brother. He didn’t want Garroth to be forced to take up position of Lord and risk exposing his identity.

He has been effective in shutting off his emotions for the most part, having to do so from a very young age, but he has his moments. There are times when the calling begins to whisper evil thoughts in the back of his mind.

When he saw Aphmau and Laurance entering the Nether, he followed. He kept hidden for the most part, watching from afar only wanting to step in should it be absolutely necessary. When he saw them all fleeing, his only goal was to make sure Aphmau got out. No one else mattered in the grand scheme. Once he was sure they were clear he ran to break the portal. He could see Laurance, running and calling for him to stop, to wait, but it was too late. Laurance was too far and the Shadow Knights were too close. Vylad called out that he was sorry and turned to the portal, breaking it with a few hard kicks. He knew it likely wouldn’t last, but it would give Aphmau a head start.

He allowed himself to be captured, and was dragged back to the base along with a now barely conscious Laurance.

Alrighty that’s all I have for right now

Next up is everyone’s favorite Yggdrasil Elf!!

[kuzann]

The Wayward Heart Outlines & Notes

I thought it would be neat to give everyone a look into my writing process! Behind every bit of writing I post is a TON of notes as I basically talk to myself about how the fic is gonna go. Hope y'all find it interesting! ^__^

As you can see there were a lot of changes between outline 1 and what I posted in the end. As well as stuff that didn't make it in due to wordcount limitations. That's my bad for not judging the amount of words this would need accurately tho heh... ^^;

The fic can be found here on Tumblr or on Ao3!

Outline 1

Basic premise is that Vlad is trying to avoid being forcibly paired off with a powerful ghost so he has to pretend that he’s engaged to and dating Jack Fenton. Hilarity ensues. Includes an instance of the One Bed scenario with the added caveat of it being 100% mandatory that they share the bed.

Maddie thinks it’s hilarious when she finds out.

Vlad has fun afoul of a ghost called the Matchmaker who is tired of his fooling around and wants him to settle down already and stop being such a menace to the Ghost Zone. She is going to pair him off with a ghost he’s never met and has heard bad things about, and Vlad is extremely unhappy about this especially when she springs it on him out of nowhere while he’s recovering from a big Ghost Zone scheme that went badly.

Since Vlad is still too weak to fight Matchmaker off and won’t be strong enough to do so for a while yet, he has to think fast and while going over romantic options in his head(he’s wondering if Jack will go along with Vlad fake-dating Maddie for a few days) the Matchmaker suddenly says “Jack Fenton?” and convinces him that he mumbled the name aloud and Vlad has to think fast when she presses him on it. Vlad is forced to tell Matchmaker that he is in fact in love with Jack Fenton but human world culture stuff is getting in the way.

Matchmaker listens with polite interest, then tells Vlad to bring this Jack Fenton over so she can measure their compatibility as partners, adding that human cultural politics aren’t much of a concern to her so it would be fine as long as they make a good match. She waits at his mansion and Vlad hightails it over to FentonWorks to try to get things sorted out; he’s hoping to get Maddie to come along too because he’s convinced that he’ll match better with her than with Jack and that Matchmaker will reveal this.

Vlad gets to FentonWorks and begs Jack and Maddie for help. Jack is onboard with saving his buddy and Maddie is surprisingly open to the ruse, saying that this is a good opportunity to help the two see eye to eye, and that it could be a nice humbling experience for Vlad. Maddie’s views on the matter don’t make Vlad happy but he’s glad for the help regardless. Another reason to keep the other match from being made is the fact that this ghost will gain a great deal of power through Vlad and the last thing anyone wants is a maniacal ghost to get access to Vlad’s resources.

Danny thinks the whole situation is pretty funny but does warn Vlad that if he ruins his parents’ marriage he might have to actually kill him. For once Vlad is not fixating on that and promises Danny that he has no intention of ruining things between Jack and Maddie. Right now he is completely focused on saving his own skin.

They go back over to Vlad’s mansion where Matchmaker is still waiting. They don’t simply blast her because she’s used her powers to take Vlad’s actual heart from him to make sure he follows through and they don’t know if he’ll survive if they beat her to the point that her powers stop working.

Matchmaker performs the assessment and finds that Jack and Vlad are indeed compatible. Maddie asks that she and Jack be assessed as well out of curiosity, and it is found that she and Jack are even more compatible; a further curiosity test between Vlad and Maddie shows little compatibility between the two which makes Vlad pretty sad. (The test takes the souls of the two parties into account, and it is notable that because souls are changeable, so is the compatibility. It also uses some arcane technique to determine how much the match would benefit both parties.)

With the compatibility confirmed Vlad thinks he’s in the clear and can just tell Matchmaker that he’ll date Jack to make her go away(and then not follow through at all), only for Matchmaker to ask that he prove it because she’s wary of him trying to trick her. So she assigns them trials in the form of things that lovey-dovey couples do together, like cooking, sharing a bed, and going on picnics.

After the first trial(cooking, where Jack sets the non-flammable parts of the stove on fire somehow and is banned from using it again) Vlad is starting to have a crisis of goals because he’s starting to realize that he doesn’t hate Jack as much as he thought he did and oh yeah that’s one of the reasons he was keeping contact with Jack as minimal as possible. Especially after the night of sharing the same bed results in the best sleep Vlad has had in a long time.

Actually Vlad’s hatred still remains throughout, he just gets ever more conflicted about it, especially once the two get a chance to actually talk about what happened after the accident twenty years ago. Jack apologizes and admits he was too much of a coward to properly face how he’d hurt Vlad back then, which is why he backed off when Vlad told him to kick rocks directly after the accident happened(in Vlad’s defense he just got like kinda irradiated so he had every right to be really angry) and when the hospital staff rebuffed him a few times, but he wants to help and support Vlad now and promises he won’t let him down again. Admittedly this is the type of apology Vlad has wanted to hear for years—that acknowledgement of the harm that was done is actually pretty important—but Vlad is far from being ready to actually put faith in Jack as a friend at the moment.

With a lot of effort and acting from Vlad(and a surprising amount of actual fondness that causes a lot of inner turmoil for him) they make it through the trials and convince Matchmaker that they are, indeed, a good couple. But before Vlad gets the chance to breathe a sigh of relief, Matchmaker declares that since they’re such a good couple it’s only natural that she have them ghost-marry right now, and only afterward can Vlad have his heart back.

(Note that Vlad’s heart being taken is a contractual affair, so Matchmaker can’t go back on the terms of him getting it back. Actually he gets it back after the trials are over, but since he doesn’t want to draw her ire or be married off to aforementioned tyrant ghost he goes along with the ghost-marriage to Jack.)

Vlad is justifying the marriage to himself by it being a Ghost Zone marriage that the human world will not acknowledge as valid and Maddie will not acknowledge as valid either, and that it’ll keep any further ghostly suitors off his back in the future(and that part of him kinda likes the idea now that he and Jack have actually talked to each other about what happened back in college and some old romantic feelings toward Jack have been revived but he’ll never admit that to himself). Jack is sincerely trying to be there for his friend and keep him safe(and does have romantic feelings too but feels he has to keep them under wraps for his marriage’s sake), though he doesn’t really see a ghost marriage as valid and won’t be actively adhering to it. Maddie has complete faith in her husband’s love for her, doesn’t view the marriage as valid at all, and also she thinks it’s really funny to see Vlad squirm and hopes this will be a humbling experience for him.

They’re about to make their vows when someone says “I object”, and it’s not who you’d expect. The one who objects is Matchmaker who directly calls Vlad out for only going through with this for his own protection, adding that she was sure he wouldn’t be able to take this anymore during the trials because she already knew about his hatred for Jack.

There’s also the matter of certain secrets he’s been keeping from his to-be partner and only gives Vlad enough time to look at her in horror before forcing him into ghost form, revealing his secret identity to Jack and Maddie. Vlad fearfully backs away from Jack, saying “I can explain”, only for Jack to clasp him by the shoulders and say “No need to explain, V-man. We know this is just a trick!”

Jack and Maddie pull their weapons on Matchmaker because why wouldn’t they think she was trying to trick them under these circumstances, so the ghost resorts to incapacitating and kidnapping Vlad instead so she can force him to marry the tyrannical ghost mentioned earlier who had in fact already paid her to hand Vlad over to him as a partner. Vlad is locked in a room made of both Ghost Zone and human world material, which prevents him from phasing out of it in either form. He asks Matchmaker how long she’s been planning this and she tells him that it’s been in the works for a while since she and her associates are sick of his antics in the Ghost Zone and that his recently-failed endeavor was part of the plan so he would be weak enough to control. Having that tyrannical ghost turn his attention on the human world instead of the Ghost Zone will also be a bonus.

Vlad tells Matchmaker that he’ll escape because he’s gotten out of worse situations. Matchmaker says “not this time” and leaves him to mope in his room while she makes preparations. Vlad examines every inch of his prison and finds no immediate means of escape, and has to sit down and try to come up with a way to get out of this.

Before long an explosion rocks the room and there are sounds of a commotion outside and then Jack bursts through the door. Vlad is flabbergasted because he honestly didn’t expect that Jack would come to save him, and so quickly too. Jack tells Vlad that he’ll never abandon him again and leads Vlad down to the main room of the building they’re in. It’s kind of like a dream for Vlad and he’s letting himself get swept up in it until reality comes crashing back in via Matchmaker starting to reveal his crimes to Jack, and under a truth compulsion no less so Vlad can’t lie when Jack asks him to confirm what she’s saying.

Matchmaker accuses Vlad of wanting to murder Jack and take his wife and when Jack asks Vlad if this is true Vlad admits that yes, that used to be true... In a sense. Jack asks why Vlad didn’t just hire a human hitman in the last twenty years and Vlad is forced to admit to himself and Jack that maybe deep down he didn’t actually want Jack dead. It would’ve been quite easy to utilize his human world resources to dispose of Jack, and yet he never did...

Any further admissions are cut off by the other suitor stepping in, having just defeated Phantom and stating that if Jack wants to marry Vlad then they can have a duel over it to prove who is stronger and more worthy. 

This actually gets Vlad pretty scared—to his own surprise—since he’s heard of how powerful this ghost is and there’s a not insignificant chance that this will be a fight Jack does not walk away from. Vlad tells Jack to back down since he doesn’t want him to die, but Jack brushes him off and says he’ll be fine, adding that he promised Vlad that he wouldn’t let him down again, to which Vlad says he’ll forgive it in this case since he doesn’t want Jack to die.

All the while the enemy ghost has been boasting about how powerful he is and how neither of them stand a chance against him, so Vlad uses that against him and successfully baits him into fighting both of them at once, the reasoning for fighting Vlad being meant to prove that the ghost is actually stronger and capable of controlling him. The ghost accepts with all the bravado of someone who fully expects to win, and Vlad shifts to ghost form...

Jack and Vlad share a look, and Vlad says “later?” to which Jack says “later” with a nod and the fight begins.

Vlad is still pretty weak powers-wise at the moment and the fight is pretty hard on him but they’re able to win and even find out that this ghost actually isn’t as all-powerful as he’s been making himself out to be, since his power is based more on resources stolen from others rather than his own remarkability. He even called a bunch of his minions in to help him when he started losing.

This gets Vlad fantastically mad since he was scared of this guy for nothing and proceeds to brutalize him and his loyal minions while Jack cheers him on. Once Vlad has calmed down he flops down on the floor in exhaustion and Jack lays down next to him. Jack says something goofy that gets a laugh out of Vlad and the two have a lighthearted chat.

The rest of Jack’s family walk in on the two just chilling and then they all go home. The ghostly officiator and Matchmaker are there, and in the end Vlad decides to ghost-marry Jack just to no one can spring this crap on him again, not realizing that this will actually have consequences later because he thinks it won’t apply to him or Jack due to their human qualities.

After this are the closing conversations between Vlad and Jack, Vlad and Maddie, and Vlad and Danny. Vlad has to come clean to Jack about his half-ghost status and at least some of the schemes he’s done, he has a decent conversation with Maddie where he promises not to come between her and Jack and adds that he has some stuff to figure out and Maddie mentions that he’s still on thin ice but she feels a little better about Vlad now that he’s on better terms with Jack, and he has a conversation with Danny where he apologizes for what he’s done to Danny and promises he’s not trying to destroy his parents’ marriage anymore.

Outline 1 Notes

Overall

Alright let’s rethink a few things...

I don’t think Matchmaker’s betrayal quite works. Some of the motivations aren’t properly there and it’s sort of unnecessarily malevolent, and forcibly outing Vlad does feel a bit too cruel. Vlad should give Jack that secret himself as a sign of trust and the start of a new phase in their relationship. The big bad would-be suitor can still show up to interrupt the wedding because he heard about the match and felt entitled to Vlad’s hand in marriage.

In fact Matchmaker’s plan all along was to get Vlad to actually talk to his former friend, clear the air, and maybe calm the hell down with the troublemaking as a result. Getting them to actually marry would be a bonus that would make it so ghosts having an issue with one can complain to the other and potentially get some respite, or at least get the troublemaker sidetracked long enough to fix things. And again hopefully get Vlad to calm down. Matchmaker also pushed for the marriage because she thought it would be funny.

Since Matchmaker doesn’t out Vlad in this rendition, him revealing his secret to Jack is more meaningful. When they’re about to duel the suitor Vlad looks at Jack and says “please don’t hurt me”, then he shifts to ghost form. Jack is shocked but he doesn’t hurt Vlad and simply asks “talk later?” to which Vlad agrees “talk later”.

Important that Jack has gotten Vlad to trust him enough to let him know about his secret(for the sake of keeping Jack from being killed). It’s a very meaningful bit of progress for Vlad.

Talking to the Fentons(Beginning)

Danny makes a “what if Vlad just never had a heart” joke when Vlad reveals the fact that Matchmaker took his actual heart and Jack tells him to knock it off and even Maddie doesn’t laugh since she knows that Vlad used to be a better person.

Jack and Maddie of course find this a bit difficult to believe, especially when they check his pulse at his wrist and find it normal. But then he tells them to listen for his heart and they can’t hear it. They’re admittedly very curious about how the ghost was able to do this without killing Vlad outright but there are more important things to attend to right now.

Timeline

This whole thing starts when one of Vlad’s schemes directly impacts Matchmaker and she decides to take a crack at fixing things permanently. She does her research, discovering the one-sided bad blood between Vlad and Jack, sneakily runs a compatibility test and finds that they’re compatible, then concocts her plan to shove them together until they talk about their issues and also take Plasmius down a peg.

Matchmaker kicks things off with a boobytrapped artifact, then spreads rumors about it that she knows will get Vlad’s attention. In fact maybe it’s this artifact that takes Vlad’s heart to begin with when he touches it and since he was caught red handed trying to steal it he has to appease her to get it back. She tells him that if he wants it back then he’ll have to play her game and put some serious thought and effort into finding a partner who will fulfill him enough that he stops these foolish pursuits of his.

The main goal is to get Vlad and Jack on better terms with each other and the ghost-marriage isn’t even necessarily part of that, but Matchmaker pushes for it anyway because she thinks it would be funny and she wants to see if Vlad would actually go that far.

If the artifact did the heart-steal then the “contract” for it was left in plain view, Vlad just didn’t read it because he assumed that he knew everything he needed to know and didn’t need to read any stupid warning. His arrogance bites him in the butt. Again. It’s nothing new with him.

The fulfillment condition of this contract is that Matchmaker succeeds in getting Vlad a worthwhile partner—which will have to be either Jack or that tyrant ghost. Only then will his heart be returned to him. She can also null the contract early and give it back if he’s placated her enough.

Danny’s Pranks

Should Danny try to sabotage the trials? He wouldn’t want his dad to actually be paired up with Vlad but on the other hand he doesn’t want a potentially worse threat getting its hands on Vlad’s resources.

Even if Danny isn’t trying to sabotage things he could still swing by just to annoy Vlad since Vlad can’t do anything to stop him with Jack constantly being around him. Heck Danny might use this as an opportunity to just do an absolute prank spree on Vlad—and unintentionally push Vlad and his dad closer together as a result. The pranking kinda bites Danny in the butt with that being the case.

Picnic Trial & Apology Notes

Near the end of the picnic trial Danny turns invisible and hip-checks Vlad into the duck pond. The resident swan pair hiss at Vlad and give him a few slaps with their wings, and they have to head home after that since Vlad is covered in pond muck and needs to shower and change his clothes. Jack is as helpful as he can be throughout, driving Vlad home in out of his coat before he’s shooed away so Vlad can clean himself up.

Perhaps Vlad falling in the duck pond gets Jack to bring up Vlad’s apparent bad luck, including the college accident in that tally… And that sets Vlad off a bit, as he calls Jack out for using such passive language about something he directly caused and asks if Jack is ever going to take responsibility for the years of pain he caused Vlad. It doesn’t last long as Vlad catches sight of Matchmaker lurking in the background and remembers why this is all happening, and he forces himself to calm down and drop the matter.

Luckily it was enough to get through to Jack that he can’t keep dodging responsibility like this if he really wants Vlad to at least be his friend. The ride back to Vlad’s mansion is very quiet since Jack has a lot of thinking to do and Vlad doesn’t feel like talking.

This helps lead into Jack’s apology and promise that night when they share a bed. Actually multiple conversations throughout the day’s trials should lead to Jack’s apology, but the picnic one is the tipping point for him. Jack becomes more and more aware of how Vlad is trying to keep himself at arm’s length despite the show they have to put on for Matchmaker and can’t hide behind his delusions about everything being fine between them anymore.

Key points to Jack’s apology Vlad are that he takes full responsibility for the accident(because yeah, it’s 100% his fault three times over for: not making sure the area was clear before turning the proto-portal on, not checking his math while tuning it, and not putting the correct filtration substance into it cause he was too busy looking at Maddie), take responsibility for and explain why he ditched Vlad afterward(Jack was too cowardly to properly face what he’d done and was afraid of the consequences, and he’d even been trying to make excuses and deflect blame right after the accident happened which got Vlad even more angry than he already was and caused him to lash out verbally at Jack), properly and completely apologize, and promise to do better in the future. Vlad still doesn’t trust him of course, but it does reduce the hatred he feels for Jack and does help him feel a bit better just in general and about their relationship. This also helps the two understand where the other is coming from better.

Perhaps each trial(that the audience witnesses anyway) addresses a pain point between Jack and Vlad, and then that comes to a head in the bed scene where Jack apologizes. Matchmaker could’ve mapped out the main issues between the two and then planned out the trials accordingly.

Then when the ghost wedding rolls around and Vlad is taken away, Jack makes a step toward proving that he’s reliable by immediately going to save Vlad. He also exercises forgiveness for how Vlad attacked him in ghost form before when Vlad reveals his secret identity to him. The fact that Jack doesn’t attack Vlad after learning his secret also proves that Vlad can start to put trust in him again.

Another important point to prove to Vlad is that Jack doesn’t care about his money and status, he sincerely wants Vlad to be part of his life again like he was back in college. Vlad has thought that Jack was being fake in his friendship attempts when actually he was just being really inept.

All throughout the trials Vlad is feeling his grudge start to waver simply from having to spend time around Jack with no ulterior motive and he hates himself for being weak every time he notices. Part of the grudge is Vlad feeling that Jack should suffer at least some consequences for the harm he did to him and thus it takes energy to maintain when he has nothing to focus on but Jack. Vlad is at once trying to save his skin by making the couple thing look convincing while also being constantly reminded that Jack is very likely to hurt him out of carelessness again and then not even own up to or try to fix it.

Future

Once Vlad and Jack are on better terms it’s time for Vlad to fret over having to tell Jack about how he’s been a menace to his family and worry over how Jack will react to that. The bulk will have to be left to a sequel fic though cause there’s already a lot going on in this one and I have only a month to write it and only 20k words to accomplish that in.

Vs Reginald & Jack Proving Himself

Does the situation Jack saves Vlad from at the end fit the hang ups that were between them and sufficiently prove that Jack is serious about his promise? Cause we’ve seen that jack is ready to help Vlad out of a bind at the drop of a hat—just not the ones he’s immediately responsible for. In the case of having to finally cure Vlad’s ecto-acne Jack had already put sufficient excuses and distance between himself and the event so that he didn’t feel guilty about it.

Jack could even bring up curing Vlad’s ecto-acne as a reason that Vlad shouldn’t be mad anymore, only for Vlad to point out that Jack could’ve reached out at any point in those twenty years to check if it was gone and try to cure it but no, it took Danny’s friends getting involved for Jack to finally try to do that. And in the end Jack didn’t even cure it, Danny did by figuring out the substance that mucked up the filtrator; Danny is willing to go the distance for his friends, Vlad can only wish he could say the same of Jack.

Also in any case, finally stepping up to fix something he broke doesn’t magic away the twenty years of pain and loneliness that Vlad had to endure. Especially since Jack couldn’t even bring himself to say as simple a phrase as “I’m sorry” for the longest time.

But back to the question of the scenario that Jack has to save Vlad from. It would be more relevant to Vlad and Jack’s conflict if it did come about as a result of Jack’s carelessness, and whereas before Jack ghosted Vlad this time he immediately comes running to fix things and apologize. This would show that while Jack is still his usual bumbling self, he’s now ready and committed to fixing the things he breaks and being more accountable for the harm he causes, which will be a good thing for everyone in his life, not just Vlad.

But how would Jack’s carelessness result in the fake suitor crashing the wedding and kidnapping Vlad? As it is now, that situation is squarely Matchmaker’s fault. Could it be that Mitze(the Matchmaker) decided to test Jack specifically by having him hold onto the artifact that currently contains Vlad’s heart for a bit? And then Jack was careless and left it in a place where the fake suitor found and stole it, thus granting him the leverage he needed to force Vlad to do what he wants(because the false suitor can just crush the artifact to destroy Vlad’s heart and instantly kill him).

When Vlad sees that the artifact—and his heart—has been stolen he is absolutely devastated and he looks at Jack and says “I can’t believe I trusted you” before going over to the suitor as ordered under threat of instant death. Vlad had earlier agreed to letting Jack take care of the artifact because he at least trusted Jack with it more than Mitzi, only to have that trust betrayed when Jack screwed up the assignment. He is also expecting for a repeat of twenty years ago where Jack is nowhere to be found and Vlad has to rescue himself.

Mitzi the Matchmaker

Mitzi the Matchmaker looks like your busybody aunt from the 20’s: big-brimmed hat, long but fairly simple dress, fancy shoes, a fur wrap(that is itself an ermine ghost that is basically her familiar), and a cigarette in one of those long holder things. Her clothes are dusty rose, her skin gray, and her eyes teal or green.

Though she isn’t outright malevolent she is rather self-important, which is why she thought herself capable of pulling off such an ambitious scheme as this. And she almost does pull it off without a hitch so she’s mostly on the money with that self-assessment. Mostly she just wants things in the Ghost Zone to be as harmonious as possible, which can’t exactly happen with Vlad running amok as often as he does.

Final Showdown Notes & Does Maddie Find Out

Rather than run away like last time Jack is ready and raring to go after Vlad as soon as the suitor ghost has left. His family has to restrain him and get him to calm down and make an actual plan before he dives in.

Mitzi had attempted to get close and conclude the contract spell while the suitor ghost was crashing the wedding, but he caught on to what she was doing and threatened to kill Vlad then and there unless she backed off. The rescue plan involves getting her close enough to the artifact that she can return Vlad’s heart to him, which requires a substantial distraction that Jack will provide by challenging the false suitor to a duel for Vlad’s hand in marriage(which the false suitor will accept cause they appeal to his arrogance and he wants to rub his win in Jack’s face and put him in his place).

Jack’s team is able to successfully get Mitzi close enough to conclude the contract so sneakily that the false suitor doesn’t realize the heart has been returned when he takes up and crushes the artifact just to spite Jack and Vlad when he loses. Both Vlad and the false suitor are shocked that this did nothing, and then Jack’s crew of helpers emerges from their hiding places and reveal how they pulled off their little scheme.

With this being the case it’s possible that Maddie also witnessed Vlad transforming into his ghost form so he’ll have some explaining to do with her over that later as well. Or maybe she wasn’t in the immediate area when the duel happened—she could’ve been obliterating the false suitor’s minions in a different room—so the reveal could be limited to just Jack. In the second case Jack and Vlad would have to make plans for telling Maddie about Vlad’s secret identity lest she find out on her own and things go to hell in a handbasket as a result.

I think it’ll depend on total word count by that point since I can’t exceed 20k words. If it’s getting too long then Maddie has to be told later, if not then she finds out too and then the three have a closing conversation about it once everything has calmed down.

When asked why he never told the two about his ghost powers Vlad asks why he would tell them after they ditched him for twenty years and given the fact that they hate ghosts and love to experiment on them. They don’t really have a defense for that since admittedly the way they act toward ghosts would give any hybrid reason to mistrust them.

Reginald, “Future King of the Ghost Zone”

What does this false suitor look like and what’s his name?

He’s a sort of “old money” brat full of entitlement and overestimation of his own abilities because his stockpile of resources and external power mean that he rarely faces any adversity and typically gets what he wants with very little—if any—effort. His dire reputation thrives on the fog of rumor and the correct details being lost over the course of word of mouth transition, which means that most ghosts are too intimidated to do anything against him, resulting in more easy wins that further boost his overestimation of himself and his fearsome reputation.

It’s a very rude awakening when he gets thrashed by a human ghost hunter and a ghost hybrid who is basically working with only a fraction of his usual power. His reputation and good fortune take a massive hit and Vlad and Jack gain a reputation of their own.

Maybe his name is something like Reginald, harkening back to times of royalty and playing to his own views of self-importance. And what should his title be? The Terrible? The Regal? Actually it should fit with the typical Ghost Zone titles like Master of All Electrical Technology, Master of Time, the Ghost Zone’s Greatest Hunter… It needs to be something that suits his arrogance and thus isn’t necessarily true… Maybe he claims to be Pariah Dark’s successor? That’s definitely an arrogant enough assumption on his part, and maybe he decides that he needs to conquer both human and ghost worlds to prove it, thus why he’s determined to acquire Vlad when he learns more about him.

Reginald, Future King of All Ghosts? Or Prince of the Ghost Zone? Might need more work but it’s good enough for now.

He lives in a distant enough area of the Ghost Zone that he wasn’t affected by Pariah’s awakening in Reign Storm and had been making plans to present himself to PD only to discover that PD had already been shoved back into the Coffin of Forever Sleep. Heck he could’ve been making plans to assassinate PD too since PD would stand in the way of his own ascension to the throne and his time ended long ago anyway. He did take notes from PD’s brief return though, namely the whole wanting to conquer both human and ghost worlds thing. Vlad’s human world resources would make half of that goal easier. Also cause he heard that he was considered as a match for Vlad and how dare no one tell him about it until it was almost too late to do anything about it.

The main source of Reginald’s power is a special necklace with gems that contain captive ghosts. Break these and Reginald’s power weakens, leaving him at average strength for a ghost once all are destroyed. Vlad notices the necklace glowing whenever Reginald is using a unique ability and tells Jack to target it with him. Actually the gems only need to bind a piece of a ghost, and upon breaking that piece is returned to its true owner.

Any wannabe tyrant is not without his sycophants of course. And since he’s imitating PD he’d require that they make themselves look like skeleton warriors. They’re not very strong individually but what they lack in power they make up for in sheer numbers.

Similar to Skulker, Reginald hides his true face behind a more frightening mask. This mask takes some design elements from PD, though minus the eyepatch. His entire regal suit of armor is enhanced with technology to give himself as much of an edge as possible.

To be clear Reginald is not any weaker than your typical ghost, nor any more special. He still thinks himself superior to them regardless and thinks he should be the one to rule them(even if he was superior that still wouldn’t give him license to rule over anyone, tbh). If he is below average in anything it is not due to lacking natural ability but to gross excess making him lazy through lack of genuine effort. Big difference between having enough and having things in gross excess.

Needless to say, their run-in with Reginald does cause a bit of self-reflection in Vlad cause no way does he want to be as pathetic as that guy.

Jack’s Perspective

I need to think more in-depth about where Jack is coming from. He does care about Vlad and wants good things for him, but he’s ultimately selfish in that he has until now refused to acknowledge how he hurt Vlad and has not not tried to fix that, yet feels entitled to being around Vlad anyway. He’s also selfish in that he hasn’t really thought about what Vlad wants(an apology) and what would actually be good for him(the apology).

Jack is all for saving his friend whenever it’s from something he didn’t just cause, but when it’s something he did his fear of catching consequences gets in the way. Or maybe he thinks that he shouldn’t suffer consequences. He’s dumped consequences on his family in canon before(landing Danny in detention when he used the Fenton Peeler on Mr. Lancer and then immediately dipped) so what, does he think he’s above that? No, probably just that he doesn’t like consequences and tries to avoid being stuck with them. Maybe he was disproportionately punished for screw-ups as a child and that caused him to be so avoidant about these things.

Jack is still as careless as he used to be, maybe it’s a flaw that he either refuses to acknowledge or has given up on trying to fix. He also runs away from taking responsibility for his actions most of the time, relying on the people in his life forgiving him time and again rather than leaving. In the present situation it’ll be a bit harder for Jack to run away from what he did to Vlad, he’ll have to face how severely he hurt him.

Acknowledging how he hurts the people around him is painful for Jack, and it’s not just Vlad he’s hurt(though Vlad was definitely the person who was hurt the most by Jack). Change is hard, and though Jack can talk a big game about wanting to change he fears that he won’t be able to. If he can’t be more careful he can at least stick around and clean up the messes he makes, which he does after this.

Despair for the Future

All the while Vlad is kind of starting to despair over the fact that he will be forced to just bury what happened and wait for Jack to hurt him again, dreading the eventuality all the while. Jack starts to see this and is really distressed by it—since Vlad is letting big cracks in his armor show, Jack can’t continue to ignore how his presence hurts him. It all helps lead into their proper chat later on in bed.

Once Jack has at last taken responsibility and apologized, Vlad’s despair starts to ease a little and he’s a bit more relaxed around Jack, and is even a little hopeful about their future. This hope is, of course, temporarily dashed when Jack allows Vlad’s heart to fall into Reginald’s hands.

Cooking Trial

The cooking trial requires that Jack and Vlad prepare a nice meal for the family as a team. No having one person cook the whole thing while the other does nothing. Vlad is super stressed and tries to figure out something for Jack to make that isn’t too difficult.

This results in Jack goofing up and setting the stove on fire, putting them both back to square one when it comes to the meal. Vlad is not taking this well(he really wants to impress Maddie and it’s embarrassing to not get a meal out to hungry guests on time) and Jack does his best to calm him down and keep their guests satisfied until the actual meal is rolled out. He comes up with the idea of making a cheese board and Vlad starts putting it together only for Jack to stop him and say that he should be the one to do it.

Vlad hesitates for a moment, then tells Jack that he better not set the cheese board on fire too and returns his attention to the main meal. Jack successfully assembles the cheese board and shows it to Vlad, who’s impressed to find that Jack picked a really good combination of flavors and asks how he knew these would pair so well and Jack looks at him blankly for a few moments before replying with “the smell”. This reminds Vlad of how intuitive Jack has always been and he tells him good job and Jack takes the cheese board out to the guests along with crackers and bread and drinks.

When Jack returns he asks Vlad what he can do to help and Vlad asks him to work on preparing ingredients for him to use, which works out alright. They find out that Jack does best when helping someone cook, rather than making a dish on his own as he’d been trying to do originally.

Throughout the kitchen chaos Maddie has been a bit worried about how things will go since Jack is not allowed to cook for good reason. She’s not even remotely surprised when she catches the smell of Jack setting the stove on fire. She asks Jack if he’s done helping when he brings the cheese board out but to her surprise he says he’s still going to help and goes straight back into the kitchen.

Together Jack and Vlad are able to put a good meal on the table. Jack is in high spirits while Vlad is pretty exhausted from all the stress.

But what part of Jack and Vlad’s relationship does this highlight or question? It displays pretty prominently that Vlad’s strength is planning while Jack’s strength is improvisation. If they were a couple and iron things out their strengths would compliment each other. Vlad didn’t think of this when delegating tasks and also didn’t take into account the fact that Jack isn’t the best at following directions and would try to take a shortcut or “improve” a particular step(this resulted in the stove catching fire).

This trial also seems to highlight that Vlad needs to learn flexibility and to stop being so uncompromising(that Jack would be able to help teach him this on top of showing up weak points), as well as being better at meeting people where they’re at and taking their unique skill set into account rather than expecting them to magically conform to his expectations. This has been a roadblock for him when it comes to his relationships, especially with Danny and Dani, and Vlad refuses to even meet someone halfway(though to be frank, it’s still on Jack to apologize for their friendship to get off the ground again). So it would benefit Vlad and everyone else in his life if he learned to compromise and see where someone else is coming from better.

So it looks like this trial highlights how Jack could help Vlad improve as a person if he let him back into his life, and this helps Jack realize that he actually can help out in the kitchen, just not as the sole person cooking the meal. They’d both help each other improve if it happened on the right terms.

Unmasked Misery

A large part of Jack being unable to continue lying to himself about being friends with Vlad is that Vlad is plainly becoming more and more miserable around Jack, even though he’s doing his best to act otherwise. The times when Vlad’s mask slips and he shows how unhappy Jack makes him are impossible for Jack to ignore, and that helps to get him thinking about how he can fix things with Vlad or at least make it less painful for Vlad to be around him.

Changing Stance on Eccentricities

Important to note that Vlad found a lot of Jack’s quirks to be more endearing back before the accident. It’s amazing what fondness will allow us to excuse. He can recover a bit of that fondness—and thus find Jack easier to be around—after Jack makes his apology and after Jack proves that he won’t be running away from responsibility anymore.

Trials Notes(Plus Movie, Nature Hike, Museum)

What other couple things should the trials include?

We have the picnic scenario, the meal prep scenario, and the sharing the same bed scenario, what other couples things should they have to do? The picnic draws Jack’s unwillingness to take responsibility for what he did to Vlad into focus. Meal prep shows how Vlad and Jack can make each other stronger by shoring up each other’s weaknesses. The bed is where things come to a head and Jack makes his apology.

Watching a movie together? No development around that immediately jumps to mind... But if they try to connect over a movie like Back to the Future that came out while they were separated it could highlight how much time they lost because neither was willing to restart communication(this is kind of more Jack’s fault than Vlad’s, since Jack was the one who hurt Vlad and needs to apologize to start fixing things). It would be a bittersweet activity for the two.

Nature hike could be a fun one. But how would it relate to their relationship and how it could improve? Or some regret that the two unknowingly share? Neither of them are opposed to doing outdoorsy things since Jack likes fishing and Vlad is implied to have done hunting(plus one of his mansions being in the wilderness), it could be something for them to connect over. Though it’s also pretty likely that Vlad will try to rush through the hike either to get it over with as soon as possible, to keep Jack out of breath enough that he doesn’t have any left to talk to him, or both. If Vlad rushes the hike he’s absolutely going to regret it later since it’ll make his pre-existing tiredness worse. The hike can be an early off-screen trial that Mitzi almost failed them on because they weren’t acting like a couple. After the warning from Mitzi Vlad is careful not to pull something like that again and is really worn out afterward so he regrets having done that.

A museum visit would be up Vlad’s alley but Jack probably wouldn’t like it so much. If Vlad is smart and trying to do better at the trial he’ll take Jack to the exhibits he might have more interest in, like the dinosaur halls since most people think dinosaurs are neat. Jack will probably have a great time and then wonder aloud if dinosaur ghosts are a thing, to which Vlad replies that none have been seen but it’s a possibility that they’re in some distant part of the Ghost Zone and simply haven’t been found yet. And that would get Jack pretty excited and he’d ask if they could go looking for them together sometime. Maybe this one happens after the sharing a bed scenario, once the two are on better terms.

Trial Order

So the trials could be, in rough order:

Nature Hike

Meal Prep

Picnic

One Bed

Museum

Movie

Six trials in all isn’t bad, and they don’t all have to be covered in their entirety to get the necessary character moments in place. Mitzi actually had a lot of trials planned and was prepared to keep throwing them at Vlad until things were resolved.

The trials can be split among several days since they do need several hours each and Vlad and Jack need time apart to process things. Maybe day one could be nature hike and meal prep, day two is picnic(they do have to put the picnic together themselves) and then at the end of day two is the sharing a bed trial, and day three is the museum trip and movie which prove they’ve made a big step toward fixing things so that’s when Mitzi calls an end to the trials... And then tells them that it’s time to get married for a laugh and to see if they’d actually do it, which they do because Vlad never wants this crap happening to him again and he doesn’t view it as valid anyway.

Wedding Size

The wedding is put together a bit hastily since Vlad just wants to get things over with, so it’s small and has only the most important guests invited. Mitzi takes the opportunity to show her gal pals a good time by inviting them, but unfortunately they tend to gossip a lot and that’s how word got around to Reginald.

Stealing the Heart

As for how Reginald gets ahold of Vlad’s heart… Jack got swept up in wedding prep and was worried he might drop the artifact or something to that effect if he kept carrying it around with him, so he hid it in the lab for safekeeping. Which while he had good intentions that was a terrible place to hide it because Reginald just stepped through the perpetually-open ghost portal and found it pretty quickly.

Chat Between Danny & Vlad

Danny pulls Vlad aside for a little chat once Mitzi has let them go for the day and asks what’s going on because he knows Vlad isn’t telling the whole story to his parents. Vlad does tell him the truth, if only to get Danny out of his hair sooner. Danny asks if he should try to take Mitzi down and why Vlad is so scared since getting his heart crushed wouldn’t completely kill a creature like him right?

Vlad tells him to leave it cause best case scenario is that he becomes full ghost and worst case scenario is that his entire being gets obliterated because the artifact took a significant portion of his powers along with his heart. Danny asks why Vlad was willing to tick off such a powerful ghost and what he was planning to do with the artifact if he got his hands on it.

This part Vlad isn’t willing to tell him and Danny threatens to beat the answer out of him, only to relent when Vlad comments that a tactic like that is straight out of his own playbook. Instead Danny warns Vlad that if he tries to use this whole fiasco to ruin his parents’ marriage he’ll find a way to make Vlad regret it. Vlad assures Danny that this isn’t what he’s after and he just wants to put this whole mess behind him as soon as possible and forget it ever happened.

Danny prods Vlad a bit over him hating his dad but Vlad gives no answers other than a line about Jack betraying him, and Danny decides he’s had enough of interacting with Vlad for the day and leaves. Because Vlad was rude about Danny’s dad, Danny decides that he’s gonna prank Vlad while he can’t do anything about it, especially since an opportunity like this doesn’t come along every day.

Jazz’s Deductions

Jazz figures out what Mitzi is actually about before anyone else and talks to her about it. While she appreciates what Mitzi is trying to do she’s worried that things might spin out of control if they take a wrong turn.

An Open Heart

A side-effect of the artifact is that it makes the person it’s used on more emotionally open and honest. It can also make them more closed off depending on how the outer rings are spun.

In Vlad’s case Mitzi has tuned the artifact to keep Vlad more open so that his pride won’t get in the way of letting Jack know how much he hurt him(and because Vlad believes that would be showing weakness and he’s very afraid of appearing weak due to trauma reasons and because he doesn’t trust or respect Jack). Vlad notices this after a day or so and confronts Mitzi over it, and Mitzi pretends that she can’t control it but tells him that a little emotional honesty can go a long way in improving a relationship. It’s a hint that Mitzi is in fact aware that the relationship between Vlad and Jack isn’t great but it flies over Vlad’s head because he’s too focused on other things.

Important to note that the artifact will not force Vlad to love Jack, just make the emotional communication on Vlad’s end more open. Jack still has to do the work of apologizing and moving the relationship in the right direction, and he has to get over his own emotional roadblocks himself.

Vlad is much more likely to tell Jack when he’s hurting him in this state. Annoyance and anger are easier for Jack to chalk up to some other reason than a direct statement of “you hurt me” from the person he’s presently dealing with. That’s something Jack can’t run away from as easily and Vlad is going to be telling him that more and more directly as time goes on.

Dance Trial

The dance trial, where Jack and Vlad have to do a waltz, would show how miserably out of sync the two are. It would be a good follow-up to the hike cause they were so out of sync in that one. They must waltz together for an entire musical piece.

Vlad is the only one of the pair who knows how to waltz, so he’s the one who should lead. Jack is a bit freaked out by the fact that they failed the first trial and once he goes a few rounds of following he gets a bit too into it and ends up stepping on Vlad’s feet. A lot.

After a few more rounds but before the song ends Vlad hits his limit and starts telling Jack to stop, but the end of the song is drawing near and Jack isn’t listening because he’s trying to get them to the finish line. At last Vlad yells “You’re hurting me!” and that finally gets Jack to pay attention to him—and notice that he’s currently standing on both of Vlad’s feet.

Jack steps back and releases Vlad, who limps off to the nearest chair and sits down. Vlad is upset that he showed weakness by telling Jack that he hurt him but he knows that he has to keep trying or else they’ll fail the trial. Jack comes over and apologizes for stepping on Vlad’s feet and hurting him like that, then asks if they can try again and promises to be more careful this time.

They try again and this time Jack is actually paying attention to Vlad and avoids stepping on his feet. The waltz is a clumsy one because they’re both tired, but they make it to the end and Jack is even paying enough attention to notice Vlad’s knees about to buckle and he sweeps him into a dip to make it look natural just as the song ends. Jack has the sudden(but not unexpected) desire to kiss Vlad during the dip but he resists and gets them upright again, holding onto Vlad to make sure he doesn’t fall.

Mitzi gives them a round of applause and says they pass. Vlad is super relieved and tells Jack that he can let go now—and he falls to the floor when Jack does that.

An important part of this trial is that Jack starts to realize that he needs to get better at listening to Vlad(and the other people in his life) and not just assume what’s best or what he wants.

Actually scratch the apology part too, that’s still something Jack has to work through. Maybe he thinks it’s unnecessary in this case cause he knows how to fix things, which for this situation would be to pay attention to Vlad and not step on his feet again.

Should this be from Jack’s PoV or Vlad’s? There are merits to both, but I feel like we need a bit more behind Vlad’s dislike for Jack? And Jack can always get time to digest things later...

But a big piece of this story is Jack realizing he has to apologize and try to be a better friend to Vlad. So Jack could start realizing things during the trial and then Vlad could do some reflection afterward.

Yeah, let’s do Jack’s PoV for this trial, to demonstrate directly that he hasn’t been paying as much attention to Vlad as he should’ve been. Show Jack actively not listening to Vlad and stomping over him until Vlad very directly tells Jack that he’s hurting him, which finally gets Jack to pay more attention.

Wedding Rearrangement

Now that I’ve mostly written the fic and gotten past the 14k point I think some bits would be better if I rearranged them.

The Fentons devise a plan to get Vlad’s heart away from Mitzi by proposing a trial where Jack takes care of the artifact for a while. It would be a very large bit of proof that Vlad trusts Jack now, at least to a degree. They figure that it’s worth a shot so they can carefully run some tests to see if they can reverse the artifact’s effects themselves.

Actually no, have Mitzi propose it as a trial and put Vlad on the spot. Vlad has a lot of indecision as he weighs the danger of letting Jack watch the artifact vs letting Mitzi keep it. Since Jack is set on being more careful Vlad decides to give him the chance to prove himself despite his anxieties over it.

Things actually go alright for a little while. Jack is actually very anxious over the heart and keeping it safe, constantly worrying over accidentally harming it as long as it’s on his person. With that being the case, Jack decides to hide it somewhere instead, not realizing that Reginald’s spies have already moved in and one was able to see him hide it.

(The Fentons don’t meddle with the artifact despite having full access to it because if they mess it up that would likely kill Vlad. Jack even immediately sides with Vlad on the matter when Maddie brings it up.)

Vlad was really taking a chance by putting his life in Jack’s hands. No, more like he decided to give Jack a chance by allowing him to do this. It’s an enormous show of faith—not the smartest move, but still. Vlad is showing that he’s willing to believe that Jack can change. Which makes it all the more devastating when Reginald is able to steal the artifact.

This time the two are just hanging out when Reginald barges in and orders Vlad to marry him. When Vlad tells him to get lost Reginald repeats the order with an “or else” attached and shows that he has the artifact.

Vlad is stunned for a moment(Jack is too), and then he gives Jack a look of utter betrayal and says “I can’t believe I trusted you”. With no other option Vlad walks over to Reginald and is taken away to the ghost’s lair.

Jack is devastated over having failed Vlad but his moping doesn’t last long. He’s ready to go charging after Vlad and has to be stopped by the rest of his family since he could get himself and Vlad killed that way.

Mitzi shows up and they accuse her of being in cahoots with Reginald, which she denies; in reality he was never supposed to get directly involved and was only used as a threat to get Vlad to play along, since her real goal was to get Vlad reconnected enough with Jack that he wouldn’t have the time or desire to be such a menace to the Ghost Zone anymore. In fact she dreads what Reginald might be able to accomplish by marrying Vlad and offers to help with the rescue plan.

Meanwhile Reginald is rushing through wedding prep as he intends to marry and dispose of Vlad as quickly as possible so he can take all of Vlad’s assets for himself. Vlad is desperately trying to figure a way out of this but Reginald is able to keep him contained long enough to start the wedding ceremony.

Vlad is despairing as he stands on the dias and is forced to start giving his vows, only for chaos to erupt as the Fentons leap out of their hiding places and crash the wedding. During the mayhem Jack is able to get his hands on the artifact but Reginald refuses to let go. After some back and forth Reginald asks if Jack knows who he’s trying to save and messes with a dial on top of the artifact.

This forces Vlad into ghost form with a sudden painful surge of power and Jack stares at him, dumbfounded. At last he asks Vlad why he attacked him before and Vlad replies that he did it because he was angry and stupid and selfish and he thought that getting back at Jack would make him feel better, but it never did. He’s about to make his own apology when Maddie interrupts by shooting at him. Vlad yelps and starts running while Reginald panics and orders his minions to protect Vlad cause he can’t let him die before he gets all his stuff in the marriage.

Maddie drives Vlad into a frantic chase around the room, picking off every single one of Reginald’s allies as she does so and leaving Vlad surprisingly unscathed. At last Vlad has nowhere left to flee to and Maddie asks if he has any last words, to which Vlad says “I wish I’d just talked to Jack to begin with” and braces himself for the end. Reginald jumps in to stop her and Maddie shoots him down.

Now that all hostile ghosts have been defeated Maddie straightens and thanks Vlad for being exactly the kind of distraction she needed to decimate the enemy forces.

(Also Jack was chasing Maddie around the room begging her not to kill Vlad throughout her pursuit, meanwhile the kids were basically eating popcorn while they watched cause they knew that if Maddie wanted to shoot Vlad, she wouldn’t be missing.)

Vlad sits up and returns to human form just in time to get tackle-hugged by Jack and both of them are pretty freaked out about Maddie’s attack. Jack is almost crying and saying he’s so glad Maddie didn’t kill Vlad and Vlad is touched and amazed that Jack still cares about him that much even after finding out his secret. Vlad looks up at Maddie and asks if she was planning to attack him all along and Maddie replies that it was spur of the moment since their original planned distraction got derailed(Jack was gonna challenge Reginald to a duel as cover for Mitzi) but the anger was 100% real and the are going to have a talk later.

Reginald snatches the artifact up and declares that if he can’t have Vlad no one can and he crushes the artifact. To the surprise of half of those still conscious this does nothing to Vlad. It turns out that Mitzi used Maddie’s distraction to get close enough to the artifact to return Vlad’s heart. With Reginald’s bargaining chip removed the adults give him one last beatdown to teach him a lesson then take the kids and go on their way.

Don’t forget that Vlad accidentally said Jack’s name at the end of his vows, which means his end of the marriage contract is primed for Jack to wander into the other end and seal it for both of them. Jack will probably get confused when the officiator asks him if he accepts Vlad’s promise/vows and say yes.

They’re both shocked when the officiator declares them married and congratulates them before wandering off to get on with his day. They immediately wonder if divorce is an option but doing so would require tons of hoops to jump through since there are humans involved. Maddie thinks the whole situation is hilarious and doesn’t see a ghost-marriage as something that threatens her own marriage anyway, so they decide to leave things as they are for now.

Giving Heart

It’ll be important to show everyone’s reactions to Vlad giving Jack his heart to protect. Danny even tells Vlad that this isn’t a good idea as Vlad takes the artifact in his hands and prepares to pass it to Jack. Maddie questions if this is a good idea too, as much as she loves Jack she’s still going to be realistic about what he’s like.

Vlad ignores them, his voice breaking somewhat as he puts the artifact in Jack’s hands and says “Jack, I’m going to let you take care of this for a while. Please don’t let me down.”

Outline 2

We start with Vlad in front of FentonWorks. Jack lets him in and he tells them about his heart being stolen and that he and Jack will have to pretend to be a couple.

They visit with Mitzi who does the assessment and finds that Jack and Vlad have decent compatibility, Jack and Maddie have great compatibility, and Vlad and Maddie have NO compatibility. Mitzi breaks the news that Vlad will have to prove that he and Jack are a couple in order to get his heart back.

Danny pulls Vlad aside for a little chat once Mitzi has let them go for the day and asks what’s going on because he knows Vlad isn’t telling the whole story to his parents. Vlad does tell him the truth, if only to get Danny out of his hair sooner. Danny asks if he should try to take Mitzi down.

Vlad tells him to leave it cause best case scenario is that he becomes full ghost and worst case scenario is that his entire being gets obliterated because the artifact took a significant portion of his powers along with his heart. Danny asks why Vlad was willing to tick off such a powerful ghost and what he was planning to do with the artifact if he got his hands on it.

This part Vlad isn’t willing to tell him and Danny guesses it had something to do with his mom. Danny warns Vlad that if he tries to use this whole fiasco to ruin his parents’ marriage he’ll find a way to make Vlad regret it. Vlad assures Danny that this isn’t what he’s after and he just wants to put this whole mess behind him as soon as possible and forget it ever happened.

Danny prods Vlad a bit over him hating his dad but Vlad gives no answers other than a line about Jack betraying him, and Danny decides he’s had enough of interacting with Vlad for the day and leaves. Because Vlad was rude about Danny’s dad, Danny decides that he’s gonna prank Vlad while he can’t do anything about it, especially since an opportunity like this doesn’t come along every day.

Jack and Maddie have a chat about Vlad and what’s going on. Maddie says a bit more on her low opinion of Vlad but doesn’t get into it too much, while Jack still has faith in him. Jack also double-checks that Maddie is okay with this, which she is because she knows Vlad can’t replace her and she thinks this’ll take him down a peg and maybe get him to appreciate Jack more.

The next day arrives, and the nature hike trial begins. Vlad sets a relentless pace that keeps Jack behind him and unable to talk to him. This results in Mitzi nearly failing the two of them then and there because they weren’t acting like a couple. Vlad walks away from the trial exhausted, demoralized, and a bit scared.

The dance trial is Mitzi’s attempt to get Vlad and Jack to be more in sync with each other. They have to waltz for an entire musical piece, and since Vlad’s the only one who knows how to waltz he’ll be leading and trying to teach Jack how to do it. Jack is a bit freaked out by the fact that they failed the first trial and once he goes a few rounds of following he gets a bit too into it and ends up stepping on Vlad’s feet. A lot.

After a few more rounds but before the song ends Vlad hits his limit and starts telling Jack to stop, but the end of the song is drawing near and Jack isn’t listening because he’s trying to get them to the finish line. At last Vlad yells “You’re hurting me!” and that finally gets Jack to pay attention to him—and notice that he’s currently standing on both of Vlad’s feet.

Jack steps back and releases Vlad, who limps off to the nearest chair and sits down. Vlad is upset that he showed weakness by telling Jack that he hurt him but he knows that he has to keep trying or else they’ll fail the trial. Jack comes over and asks if they can try again and promises to be more careful this time.

They try again and this time Jack is actually paying attention to Vlad and avoids stepping on his feet. The waltz is a clumsy one because they’re both tired, but they make it to the end and Jack is even paying enough attention to notice Vlad’s knees about to buckle and he sweeps him into a dip to make it look natural just as the song ends. Jack has the sudden(but not unexpected) desire to kiss Vlad during the dip but he resists and gets them upright again, holding onto Vlad to make sure he doesn’t fall.

Mitzi gives them a round of applause and says they pass. Vlad is super relieved and tells Jack that he can let go now—and he falls to the floor when Jack does that.

Reflection time. Jack and Vlad are thinking over the day in their respective homes, and Maddie may chime in for Jack.

The cooking trial requires that Jack and Vlad prepare a nice meal for the family as a team. No having one person cook the whole thing while the other does nothing. Vlad is super stressed and tries to figure out something for Jack to make that isn’t too difficult.

The scene opens with the stove being on fire. Vlad calmly puts a fire blanket over the mess and facepalms when Jack says “whoops”. Given that this puts them back at square one for the meal, Vlad’s stress levels are hitting their peak and he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to hold it together long enough to get through this. Jack does his best to calm him down and keep their guests satisfied until the actual meal is rolled out. He comes up with the idea of making a cheese board and Vlad starts putting it together only for Jack to stop him and say that he should be the one to do it.

Vlad hesitates for a moment, then tells Jack that he better not set the cheese board on fire too and returns his attention to the main meal. Jack successfully assembles the cheese board and shows it to Vlad, who’s impressed to find that Jack picked a really good combination of flavors and asks how he knew these would pair so well and Jack looks at him blankly for a few moments before replying with “the smell”. This reminds Vlad of how intuitive Jack has always been and he tells him good job and Jack takes the cheese board out to the guests along with crackers and bread and drinks.

When Jack returns he asks Vlad what he can do to help and Vlad asks him to work on preparing ingredients for him to use, which works out alright. They find out that Jack does best when helping someone cook, rather than making a dish on his own as he’d been trying to do originally.

Throughout the kitchen chaos Maddie has been a bit worried about how things will go since Jack is not allowed to cook for good reason. She’s not even remotely surprised when she catches the smell of Jack setting the stove on fire. She asks Jack if he’s done helping when he brings the cheese board out but to her surprise he says he’s still going to help and goes straight back into the kitchen.

Together Jack and Vlad are able to put a good meal on the table. Jack is in high spirits while Vlad is pretty exhausted from all the stress.

The picnic starts out alright, they even make light conversation, though Vlad is still distant. They keep chatting as they go look out over the pond together, and then something causes Vlad to fall in. Jack helps Vlad back out, commenting that for such a fortunate guy he still has the worst luck and includes the proto-portal accident in that tally.

Doing that sets Vlad off. He tears into Jack for using such passive language about an event he directly caused and asks if he will ever take responsibility for how much he hurt Vlad for years and how ridiculous it is that Jack thought he could just run away from what he’d done. Vlad is ready to say more but then he spots Mitzi lurking in the background and cuts himself off, not wanting to throw off their ruse. He drops the matter and tells Jack to forget it, then asks that they go home since he’s covered in muck.

It’s a very awkward and silent ride back in the GAV since neither of them want to talk much.

Jack gets time for self-reflection, and he realizes that Vlad is just miserable around him and that his inability to take responsibility for the problems he causes and apologizing is putting a wall between them.

Vlad confronts Mitzi about the weird stuff going on with his emotions. Mitzi pretends that she can’t control it but tells him that a little emotional honesty can go a long way in improving a relationship. It’s a hint that Mitzi is in fact aware that the relationship between Vlad and Jack isn’t great but it flies over Vlad’s head because he’s too focused on other things.

Mitzi’s pet returns and tells her about the developments with Jack, so she decides it’s the perfect time to have the sharing a bed trial happen.

Jack apologizes during the bed trial and promises he’ll do better by Vlad in the future.

Museum time. Jack and Vlad just go there and enjoy it. Vlad is more willing to accommodate Jack, and Jack has slowed himself down to match Vlad’s pace more. The resentment Vlad has felt for years is background noise now.

Mitzi proposes the trial of letting Jack watch over the artifact for 48 hours, after which she will give Vlad’s heart back to him. Vlad has a lot of indecision as he weighs the danger of letting Jack watch the artifact vs letting Mitzi keep it. Since Jack is set on being more careful Vlad decides to give him the chance to prove himself despite his anxieties over it.

Things actually go alright for a little while. Jack is actually very anxious over the heart and keeping it safe, constantly worrying over accidentally harming it as long as it’s on his person. With that being the case, Jack decides to hide it somewhere instead, not realizing that Reginald’s spies have already moved in and one was able to see him hide it.

(The Fentons don’t meddle with the artifact despite having full access to it because if they mess it up that would likely kill Vlad. Jack even immediately sides with Vlad on the matter when Maddie brings it up.)

Vlad was really taking a chance by putting his life in Jack’s hands. No, more like he decided to give Jack a chance by allowing him to do this. It’s an enormous show of faith—not the smartest move, but still. Vlad is showing that he’s willing to believe that Jack can change. Which makes it all the more devastating when Reginald is able to steal the artifact.

This time the two are just hanging out when Reginald barges in and orders Vlad to marry him. When Vlad tells him to get lost Reginald repeats the order with an “or else” attached and shows that he has the artifact.

Vlad is stunned for a moment(Jack is too), and then he gives Jack a look of utter betrayal and says “I can’t believe I trusted you”. With no other option Vlad walks over to Reginald and is taken away to the ghost’s lair.

Jack is devastated over having failed Vlad but his moping doesn’t last long. He’s ready to go charging after Vlad and has to be stopped by the rest of his family since he could get himself and Vlad killed that way.

Mitzi shows up and they accuse her of being in cahoots with Reginald, which she denies; in reality he was never supposed to get directly involved and was only used as a threat to get Vlad to play along, since her real goal was to get Vlad reconnected enough with Jack that he wouldn’t have the time or desire to be such a menace to the Ghost Zone anymore. In fact she dreads what Reginald might be able to accomplish by marrying Vlad and offers to help with the rescue plan.

Meanwhile Reginald is rushing through wedding prep as he intends to marry and dispose of Vlad as quickly as possible so he can take all of Vlad’s assets for himself. Vlad is desperately trying to figure a way out of this but Reginald is able to keep him contained long enough to start the wedding ceremony.

Vlad is despairing as he stands on the dias and is forced to start giving his vows, only for chaos to erupt as the Fentons leap out of their hiding places and crash the wedding. During the mayhem Jack is able to get his hands on the artifact but Reginald refuses to let go. After some back and forth Reginald asks if Jack knows who he’s trying to save and messes with a dial on top of the artifact.

This forces Vlad into ghost form with a sudden painful surge of power and Jack stares at him, dumbfounded. At last he asks Vlad why he attacked him before and Vlad replies that he did it because he was angry and stupid and selfish and he thought that getting back at Jack would make him feel better, but it never did. He’s about to make his own apology when Maddie interrupts by shooting at him. Vlad yelps and starts running while Reginald panics and orders his minions to protect Vlad cause he can’t let him die before he gets all his stuff in the marriage.

Maddie drives Vlad into a frantic chase around the room, picking off every single one of Reginald’s allies as she does so and leaving Vlad surprisingly unscathed. At last Vlad has nowhere left to flee to and Maddie asks if he has any last words, to which Vlad says “I wish I’d just talked to Jack to begin with” and braces himself for the end. Reginald jumps in to stop her and Maddie shoots him down.

Now that all hostile ghosts have been defeated Maddie straightens and thanks Vlad for being exactly the kind of distraction she needed to decimate the enemy forces.

(Also Jack was chasing Maddie around the room begging her not to kill Vlad throughout her pursuit, meanwhile the kids were basically eating popcorn while they watched cause they knew that if Maddie wanted to shoot Vlad, she wouldn’t be missing.)

Vlad sits up and returns to human form just in time to get tackle-hugged by Jack and both of them are pretty freaked out about Maddie’s attack. Jack is almost crying and saying he’s so glad Maddie didn’t kill Vlad and Vlad is touched and amazed that Jack still cares about him that much even after finding out his secret. Vlad looks up at Maddie and asks if she was planning to attack him all along and Maddie replies that it was spur of the moment since their original planned distraction got derailed(Jack was gonna challenge Reginald to a duel as cover for Mitzi) but the anger was 100% real and the are going to have a talk later.

Reginald snatches the artifact up and declares that if he can’t have Vlad no one can and he crushes the artifact. To the surprise of half of those still conscious this does nothing to Vlad. It turns out that Mitzi used Maddie’s distraction to get close enough to the artifact to return Vlad’s heart.

Don’t forget that Vlad accidentally said Jack’s name at the end of his vows, which means his end of the marriage contract is primed for Jack to wander into the other end and seal it for both of them. Jack will probably get confused when the officiator asks him if he accepts Vlad’s promise/vows and say yes.

They’re both shocked when the officiator declares them married and congratulates them before wandering off to get on with his day. They immediately wonder if divorce is an option but doing so would require tons of hoops to jump through since there are humans involved. Maddie thinks the whole situation is hilarious and doesn’t see a ghost-marriage as something that threatens her own marriage anyway, so they decide to leave things as they are for now.

[unmellowyellowfellow]

Chalk Mountain | I - Kicking the Red Dirt

draft status: (complete rewrite)

A/N: here she is! the first chapter to Chalk Mountain. i'm still working on drafting future chapters (completely rewriting all of my work has proven quite...harrowing) but this and the introduction chapter i posted will hopefully help me get any kinks out that i'm missing lol. anyway, enjoy! P.S., new character unlocked!

The glow of the setting sun beamed through Dixie’s curtains and illuminated her tattered blue saddlebag while she shoved clothes, toiletries, papers, and her I.D. inside. Admittedly, Dixie has pulled the run away stunt a few times. She’s never been as good at the disappearing act as her mother or brother; she loved her dear bedroom and all of her little secrets she hid amongst the walls. Dixie pulled open a drawer to a picture of her and her mom. She clutched it in her hand and read the faded pencil on the back:

Marigold & Dixie Anne, Dixie’s 9th birthday!!

The picture presented a young Dixie with flushed cheeks, blowing out her birthday candle on a cupcake with red icing that surely stained her teeth for the days to come; her mother, Marigold, stood behind her with a joyful smile on her face and hair to match her daughter. Declan, around seven years old, stands next to Dixie with a keen eye on the delicious dessert – their father holds a tight hand on his shoulder, to prevent the lunge.

After she tossed the photo into the bag along with more of her belongings, she tiptoed across the hallway and down to the last bedroom, then crept inside the door. She walked around the bed and began to dig inside her fathers bedside drawer and pulled out her most important evidence yet.

An old postcard that was inside an envelope addressed to Walter and his daughter. No return address or name, but writing that said:

I miss you, Dixie Anne & Walter Alvarez

The postcard was from an old ghost town named Chalk Mountain; only a couple hours drive from where Dixie lived. Surely, she thought, this was her mother trying to reach out for them. Walter hid this from Dixie for as long as he had it and didn’t know that she had come to find it. She pretended along with his scheme until the day would come that she would go for the gun, and that day had come.

Dixie shoved it into her pocket of her overalls and crept back down the hall to her room. Quietly, she shut the door and packed the last item she required for her journey; the envelope. All that was left to do was wait for the sun to set and the cicadas to sing.

A determined stomp came through the hallway and into a nearby room, followed by a door slamming shut. Her father has gone to bed in a mood; not unusual. Dixie carefully picked up her bag and looked around her room to make sure she didn’t forget anything, then saw Marigold’s old blue messenger cap. She picked it up from the back of her desk chair and pulled it down over her thick hair.

That was the day that Dixie disappeared.

She scurried out of her room and slipped out of the green kitchen door that didn’t have a hinge. She rounded the house corner and slid her dirty socks into her dirty boots and took one last look at her house. Part of her hoped she would feel some sort of remorse as she walked away from that rickety old porch, but all of the memories seemed to sour as they remained inside of those walls.

Dixie ignored her fathers dog that barked at her as she left; that dog always hated her. She ignored the crow that had waited outside the door for her and cawed loudly as she fled. She ignored the porch light when it flicked on along with her headlights. She turned up the radio when Walter called out for her; and she watched the red dirt that her tires threw while she peeled away turn him into a far away shadow in her rearview and never looked back.

Her 1998 Toyota Avalon screamed down the road, her music turned up louder than the whine of her engine, while Dixie steered with her left knee and read the Atlas with her hands. The postcard sat in her dash in front of her fuel gauge and rattled along with her suspension; she needed the reminder that she isn’t just running away from something, she's running towards it.

The drive was long, bland, and without sights to keep the driver entertained. The red dirt and the caprocks that towered over her made for a beautiful sunset in the evening, though; orange reflecting on orange.

Sooner than she expected, Dixie rolled up on a large formation of mesas that framed the two-lane road she’d grown to know so well on this adventure. It began to feel claustrophobic as the red rocks grew closer over top of her, almost forming a vague shape of a tunnel. She turned down her music and felt the hairs on her neck stood on end, something in her head screamed at her like a siren that she was close.

The rocks dispersed slowly and began a clearing of buttes galore across the cactus plains. Dixie emerged over a hill that overlooked a few damaged structures ahead of her, hidden in the darkness. She pressed onto the gas and sped up while she stole glances back and forth between her map and the barren road, the realization soon to hit that she was at her destination.

“What…what the hell?” Dixie said aloud to no one but herself.

As Dixie crept closer to the town in shambles in the night, her eyes struggled to make out the shapes in the distance that seemed to change too rapidly for her brain to comprehend. They looked abandoned and gutted but also in perfect shape and full of humanity.

She felt like her eyes were playing tricks on her; that she must be exhausted from her drive in the middle of the red nowhere. The wind began to pick up enough to slightly push her car towards the shoulder, even though she was below the towering red rocks that surrounded her. Dixie’s vision began to only grow worse when the red dirt began to kick up against her windshield, with no help from her windshield wipers.

Streetlights ahead flickered with just enough occasional illumination through the dust cloud to shadow the silhouettes of the shambled town that seemed to change from old and abandoned to brand new and populated along with the bulb.

Once Dixie was able to make it out of her dirt cloud and out of the parted rock, she felt her shoulders be relieved of all the tension she was holding onto. She cranked her shoulders back and settled down into her seat with a deep breath.

With one last glance at her map and back to the road, Dixie slammed on her brakes to a screeching halt. A slender and tall man stands alone in the middle of the deteriorating road, hands by his sides and a calm look upon his face.

The tall man offered a gentle wave of his hand as a ‘hello’. Dixie warily waved back after a double-check that her doors were locked. They stared at each other for a moment; her internal voice told her to throw it in reverse and get the hell out of dodge, until the man began to approach the vehicle like a shadow that flashed in and out of her headlights.

When the man grew closer, the voice in her head began to mutate and change into one that was not her own. The pitch grew deeper, the verbiage changed, and even her fear of the stranger slowly faded away.

“Welcome home, little one,” The glooming voice said in her head. The stranger was at her window, bent down to look inside. The voice spoke again, but the stranger's mouth lacked any indication of speech: “I hope the world was kind to you.”

[mt-musings]

The Last Silverboughs

Halsin struggles to put his past to rest, but it's haunting him in more ways than he realizes. He'd thought his time in the Underdark was long behind him, an unpleasant pitfall of youthful hubris, but remnants of his captivity remain, the youngest of which unwittingly stumbles to his rescue.

Lythra can't stop running from her past--hasn't, since she managed to make it out of the Underdark. She has no love for Menzoberranzan, or her House, or anything she left behind in the dark. Or nearly anything.

Still, she'd rather die than return--a prospect all the more likely with a tadpole jammed behind her eye. But perhaps, with the help of a renown druidic healer, she can go back to what remains of her half-life in the sun.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16

Read on AO3

Lythra woke slowly, in an unfamiliar tent—she never slept in a tent. It was much too easy to be snuck up upon and murdered in the night. She wasn’t alone, either—she was curled against Astarion, her head on his shoulder, his arms wrapped loosely around her.

“I—oh! I’m—I’m sorry. I didn’t, I didn’t—I’ll go,” she said, stumbling over her words as she pushed herself away, heart hammering against her ribs. She didn’t remember going to Astarion’s tent, didn’t remember much of anything after she’d mortifyingly ruined his shirt with her tears. Gods, how humiliating—she remembered his irritation at her presence after the tiefling party, at her clinginess, his disgust at his pathetic she’d been. And he’d been right, it was foolish and unbecoming and—

“You don’t have to. I was rather enjoying the cuddle.”

She froze, staring at him. Astarion sighed.

“You cried yourself to sleep. You didn’t think I’d leave you out in the brush, did you?”

“No,” she replied, though she wasn’t sure. His jaw twitched slightly. Her doubt must have shown on her face. 

“Come here. It’s still early and you hardly slept,” he said, reaching out to gently tug her back into his arms. 

“You—you don’t have to—“

“Of course I don’t,” he said breezily, combing his fingers through her hair, his nails scratching soothingly on her scalp. 

“I—I should go—“

“You could stay.”

She didn’t want to go. She didn’t want to be alone right now, even if it was all a scheme. Maybe she could let herself pretend, just for a little while, that it was okay, that there wouldn’t be a tab to pay for this moment of comfort. 

She let her head nestle into the crook of his neck. They sat in silence for a long time, the only sounds that of their breathing and her heart.

“You don’t trance,” Astarion said finally, voice soft. Her stomach twisted.

She shook her head without looking at him. There was no point in lying anymore. 

“Have you ever?”

She shook her head. 

“I suppose that has something to do with the way in which you acquired that magic of yours.”

“They say people who use the Shadow Weave, they can’t—it’s taken from them as punishment,” she said dully, thinking of the old professor she’d tracked down when she’d arrived in Balder’s Gate, the absurd amount of money she’d had to pay to learn she was cursed, that she could never be fixed, that she deserved it. 

 “The Gods are funny like that,” Astarion said, almost bitterly. “They hardly ever punish the people that really deserve it.”

“It hardly matters,” she said quickly—Astarion had suffered much worse, had much more taken from him and she was complaining about losing Reverie. 

It was nothing compared to losing the sun, losing his autonomy, being made a slave for two hundred years. 

He shifted to peer at her face. She kept it neutral. He frowned.

“Don’t act like some sort of silent-suffering martyr. It’s irritating. You should  be mad about what was done to you,” he spat. 

“I’m not trying to—“

“Then you must be naturally disposed. Honestly, if I’d been carved up like a roast and forced to wield a magic that made me wretch up my own, rotting blood, I’d hardly stop raging about it. Gods—the taste alone,” he said, in his usual theatrical disgust, but for some reason, it made her feel just the tiniest bit better, even if he’d inadvertently confirmed what she’d feared—that the magic was causing her to rot from the inside out. 

~~~

Lythra felt the power rising in her with every step closer to the Towers, felt it clawing to be let off its leash. Something inside had strong connection to the Shadowfell and to the Curse.

And she’d wager she knew who it was.

She swallowed hard, balling her hands into fists. 

“Are you alright, darling?” Astarion asked, his voice low, so as not to carry. He took one of her hands, uncurling her fingers and examining the livid half-moons she’d pressed into her palm. Gale and Lae’zel continued ahead of them, unaware that she and Astarion had slowed.

“I’m—I’m fine,” she said, with a quick smile. He didn’t let go like he usually would have, didn’t let her brush him off. “I—It’s harder, the closer we get to the Towers. To remain myself, I mean. I’m fine though.”

“Then perhaps you should go back to camp. We could grab one of the others—“

“No—I’ll manage. It’s better I go, if something goes bad.”

He stared at her, hard, but didn’t argue. Nor did he let go of her hand until they approached the bridge. 

She was glad for it. 

By then it was overwhelming, the weight of it making it difficult to even draw breath. She focused on forcing air into her lungs with each step, focused on anything but the incessant hissing of the shadows, on the thrum of their power, pushing her into the stone with each foolish step—

Her tether snapped, and she straightened, rolling her shoulders back. She felt something wet dripping from her ear, but she ignored it. 

This was a homecoming. Here lay the seat of the Curse, the seat of her power in this plane. 

She only wished she had come to claim it sooner. 

~~~

Astarion glanced over at Lythra, who wore a dangerous, yet serene smile, her eyes black as pitch. He’d watched the magic take over this time and it left him feeling sick, as if it had removed all the infuriating bits that made her her, leaving only a husk of a predator in her place, seething with power and utterly unknown to him. 

She stared up at Ketheric Thorm with calculating interest, but there was something cruel about her expression, something that didn’t belong on her face, that felt so utterly wrong on her features. 

“You, True Soul. You have seen what these creatures are capable of and you have seen their inadequacies—isn’t that so? What is your judgement?”

“We did as we was told! We’re loyal to the absolute! Tell ‘im!” One of the goblins pleaded. Lythra surveyed them coldly. 

“Just kill them. They’re worthless,” she said.

“You stinking bag of shit!” The goblin who had plead for mercy howled, wrenching a halberd from one of the guards and launching it at Ketheric. It buried itself in his chest, blood splattering the ground in front of it.

Ketheric’s blood was black—black like Lythra’s. 

He pulled the halberd from the wound and stood, dropping it in front of the goblin. 

“Try again,” he said, his voice mild. The goblin hesitated before stooping to grab it and swinging it into his neck. He pulled it out once more, unfazed. Then he knitted his fists together and smashed the goblin into the floorboards. 

“See to the rest of them—or better yet, have the new True Soul do it,” he said, and crossed to the stairs, as if nothing had happened. 

“Here, in the seat of the Absolute, they will obey any command given,” said the half-orc woman, watching them with a cruel sort of amusement. “Report to me when you’ve dealt with them.”

Lythra nodded before turning her attention on the remaining goblins. There was no amusement in her black eyes. Astarion was sure the half-orc had meant for her to give them some sort of awful command they were forced to obey, like splitting open their own bellies or denying them breath until they turned blue, but instead, she raised a hand, and with it a ring of shadow. With a twist of her wrist the shadow turned black flames, seeping the heat from the room and consuming the goblins until there was nothing but ash. 

“By the Hells,” Gale said, swearing under his breath.

“What?” Astarion asked sharply. 

“It’s blackfire. That’s—I’ve never seen it cast. She—there’s no way she should have been able to cast that. Especially silently,” he hissed, careful to keep his voice down. 

“It can’t be that—“

“It is,” Gale said, staring at her with something almost like fear. 

She sagged, suddenly, and he darted forward to wrap an arm around her shoulder. She stood, breathing hard, her eyes locked on the ash that had been the goblins. When she finally looked up there were rivers of black blood running from her eyes, her nose, from her ears, her face white as a sheet. He watched her make a face as she swallowed a mouthful down, rather than drawing the attention of the guards by spitting it out on the floor. He smoothed back her hair, unsure of whether he was trying to keep her calm or himself.

It was more blood than usual, more blood and he could hardly smell her through the rot, that wonderful edge of night he’d come to associate her with. Instead all he smelt was death, the realization turning his stomach.

How much more could she take, before it was too much? Before her little body gave out—Gods, he couldn’t help but think of her on that damn operating room floor, her skin grey from how much that damn surgeon had bled her, staring up at him with dull, half-dead eyes. 

He hadn’t felt that sort of fear in a long, long time. 

“Gale!” He hissed, and the wizard glanced at her face, quickly removing all traces of her blood with a quick prestidigitation. 

“He’s—he’s gone. Further than he should be able to. I am—I am myself once more. I’m sorry,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper. She trembled, in his arms.

“Are you alright?” He asked, and she nodded quickly. He didn’t believe her. He didn’t push it, not in the stronghold of their enemies.

~~~

“Araj Oblodra, trader in blood and the sanguineous arts. It is a pleasure to stand before a True Soul and your pale companion,” the drow woman said with the slightest incline of her head towards Lythra. She didn’t return the gesture

“Oblodra? That House was destroyed a century ago,” Lythra said wrinkling her nose. Astarion wondered if she too could smell just how foul the drow’s blood reeked. 

“Thankfully, I wasn’t in at the time. My cousins did like to boast about their view over the Clawrift. Now their bones decorate the bottom.”

“Ah,” she said with a forced smile. “I’m sure you did so look forward to serving them.”

Araj smiled back, the expression practically acidic. Astarion glanced side-long at Lythra, amusement quirking his lips. He was rather sure what she’d said was a bigger dig than he realized, but he knew admittedly little about the interworkings of drow society. 

“I’d like to offer you my services, if you’re willing.”

“I’m listening,” Lythra replied, though he’d guess by the tension in her shoulders that she wished she wasn’t. Still, to the drow woman, she appeared perfectly pleasant. 

“Put plainly, I’d like your blood. A vial of a True Soul’s blood, to be specific. With one drop, I can brew a rathe potent potion for you. The rest, I keep for myself.”

“I don’t think so. Now, if that’s all—“

“Actually—there’s one more thing. Your friend. He’s a vampire, no? Or one of their spawn, at least.”

‘Oh, don’t worry. We’re all friends under the Absolute. I won’t bite,” Astarion said quickly.

“Oh, I’d prefer if you did,” she replied before turning back to Lythra. “I assume he belongs to you?”

“Excuse me?” Lythra said, bristling. “He’s his own person.”

“Oh, I’m sure he believes that. Do you have a name, spawn?”

“Astarion, but hold on,” he said, reeling back. Lythra took a subtle step in front of him, putting herself between him and the drow, eyes locked on his face. He shook his head, subtly—it wasn’t as if he were incapable of holding such a creature. 

“Good. Now, Astarion, I’ve dreamt of being bit by a vampire since I was a young girl. I’ll even compensate you—a potion of legendary power that forever increases the strength of the one who consumes it. It’s not for sale, but it’s yours if you bite me.”

“I will have to decline,” he replied politely, despite the urge to gag at the thought of how her blood might taste. 

“Excuse me? I’m offering a once in a lifetime opportunity and you’re squandering it.”

“I gave you my answer,” he snapped back. Lythra’s eyes flicked to his face, brows furrowed, still questioning. That was, until the drow turned to address her. 

“Can you please deal with your obstinate charge?” The drow spat at Lythra who turned to glare at her, the air around her suddenly turning electric in the way it did before her magic took her over. Astarion placed his hand subtly on the small of her back, silently willing her to hold the magic at bay—he wasn’t sure she could channel much more of it today and remain on her feet. Her shoulders relaxed, slightly, the air losing the electric edge, though her fury hardly dimmed. 

“My—he told you no. Ask again and I’ll carve the answer into your skin so you won’t forget.” 

Astarion watched in mild shock as she flicked a small dagger out of her sleeve to punctuate her threat, hissing something in what he assumed was whatever foul language Drow spoke in, judging by the fact that the other woman clearly understood what she said and was supremely offended by it. She rolled her eyes as she turned away, muttering about wasting once in a lifetime opportunities. Lythra just ignored her, turning back toward the rest of their group, face surprisingly stormy. 

“Let’s get out of here. We have to check back in with Halsin anyway,” she said, slipping the blade back into her sleeve as she stalked out of the room. Gale glanced at him, brow raised. He just shot him a dirty look. 

Astarion was quite sure if he still had a living heart, it would be beating out of his chest. He kept staring at the back of Lythra’s head, replaying the conversation over in his head.

She could have asked him to bite that drow—should have, for a potion like the one on offer. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t have done it and dealt with the consequences. But she hadn’t even considered it. She’d been offended on his behalf, had threatened to mutilate the drow for ignoring his refusal, and probably worse, considering she’d switched to Drow to say it—Gale never did appreciate her more colorful threats. 

For two hundred years, his body had not been his own. He’d been at Cazador’s whim, a mere thing for utility or cruel amusement. He’d lost track of all the awful things done to him, the hapless idiots he’d been forced to bed, the way it had ceased to even feel like his sometimes. 

She didn’t see him like a tool to be used. Even though that was how he used her, how she expected him to use her. 

It made him feel rather ill. 

[bobathirstaccount]

Fated Ch 6

Y’all - you did it to me again and did 1:1 for the vote! I had to flip a coin lmao. Anyway, let’s see what happened… 😂

***

You turned around and circled into a vendor’s stall. Pretending to check out a sarong, you watched them talk. He seemed to make a purchase and leave. Once he was well out of sight, you shot over in an embarrassingly straight line to the woman’s stall. She was selling jewelry. Finely made, too.

“Can I help you, dear?”

“Uh, yeah. I wanted to buy something. But, I don’t know where to start. What did your last customer buy? …for inspiration.” You wondered how believable your lie was. She seemed unbothered either way.

“Ohh, what a gentleman! He needed so much Help. He wanted something for a lady friend, but similarly to you, didn’t know where to start. He was so good looking, too,” she swooned.

You stayed calm. After all, weren’t you the ‘lady friend’ he was referring to? You gulped. Maybe.

“Anyway, he bought the last piece I had with this off-world gem. Very pricey. Lucky lady,” she complained.

Smiling to yourself, you found a reason to leave her stall abruptly. Time to eat and then back to work. The faster you were back at work, the faster your day would be over. Then, you could message Boba and seem casual about coming over.

***

“Anyway, what did you do today while I was working away?” You and Boba had decided to combine the drink with working on your bikes. You were lovingly disassembling your old bike so you could transfer some parts to your new bike. Meanwhile, Boba was ripping things you didn’t need off the new speeder.

“Oh, bit of this, bit of that… you know, retired guy stuff.” He heaved and pulled off the ugly fender. “Now, that looks better already. And, more aerodynamic.”

“Take it easy on the new baby,” you laughed as you stopped to sip your libation. Boba had surprised you by mixing fancy cocktails.

“Ah, it’s tough. It’ll be alright,” he tore something else off and tossed it casually aside.

“What color you painting this one?” He sipped his drink, holding the tiny umbrella still.

“Oh, I like my current color scheme. Think I’ll keep it.”

”Oh. What about a nice green shade?”

”Hm?”

He seemed amused with himself, “Nothing. That’ll look really nice.”

You put your empty glass down and crawled under your old bike. You heard Boba ask, “Refill?”

”Yes, please,” you mumbled, busy.

You heard him come over and kneel down next to you. Picking up your glass, he squeezed your thigh lightly. “Hi,” he purred. Then he was gone, leaving you slightly flustered.

You heard the sound of drinks being mixed. You put a bolt in your mouth to keep it from getting lost as you pulled a piece off your old bike. Suddenly you realized it was deathly quiet. You took the bolt out of your mouth. Just as you were about to call to Boba, you heard him say, “Now, why are you here?”

“Get what I’m owed!” An aggressive masculine sounding voice called.

“I already explained. I didn’t cheat you at Sabacc; you just suck at it. Plus, I’m pretty sure You were cheating. So it defies logic why you’re here.” Boba actually sounded friendly.

“Kark you, you nerfherder, you steal from Me and now you say I was cheating? I won’t take this insult!” You heard a weapon being drawn. Did you stay where you were? You were pretty sure he couldn’t see you from where his voice was coming from. Could you help?

Being held at blaster point didn’t seem to phase Boba. He replied calmly, “Honestly, this isn’t a great time… for me to kill you. Can we reschedule?”

The man was so mad he made unintelligible noises for a moment. Then he said darkly, “Well. It’s actually is a great time, for me to kill you. Imma take your ship! And these two speeders!”

You lithely slipped out from under your bike and crawled behind it. Did you stay put or try to help Boba?

[rachelkaser]

Masonry Monday: The Case of the Green-Eyed Sister

Mason’s latest client, Harriet Bain, is beset by trouble from all sides, as her sick father is being blackmailed and her fiancé seems interested in her stunning stepsister. Then the ex-partner behind the blackmail is murdered, and Harriet’s fingerprints are all over the murder weapon.

Who’s Who

Perry’s client: Harriet Bain, a plain girl who gets involved in a blackmail scheme to protect her father, which spirals into a murder

The victim: J.J. Stanley, a grifter who once helped Harriet’s father embezzled $50,000 from a bank and who’s forced to blackmail him ten years later

Suspects: Sylvia Bain, Harriet’s stepsister, who’s unusually controlling and stern with her sister and encourages the wayward fiancé's interest Ned Bain, Harriet’s father and Sylvia’s stepfather, who’s supposedly too sick to get out of bed . . . until he needs to see his blackmailing ex-partner Arthur West, an unscrupulous private eye who’s the primary instigator of the blackmail scheme Addison Doyle, Harriet’s roguish fiancé, whose mercenary interests in Harriet become a little too apparent after she’s arrest

The Setup

A man sitting in the lobby of a boarding house follows a drunk back to his room and rudely wakes him. The man introduces himself as a private investigator named Arthur West -- and he knows the drunk is J.J. Stanley. West says he knows that J.J. embezzled $50,000 from the Texas National Bank ten years previously. West says J.J.’s partner in crime was a now-successful businessman named Ned Bain. Texas National would reward West if he tells them, but he thinks he can get more money out of Bain. While J.J. is reluctant, West bullies him into complying.

A young woman, rather unflatteringly dressed [Editor’s note: I’m not being mean -- I promise this is important.] in a Citroen car arrives at the Colegrove Apartments and goes to 2A. West, who lives in the apartment, plays her a taped recording of a phone call between Ned Bain and J.J. Stanley. On the recording, Bain tacitly admits to the embezzlement charges. The woman is Harriet Bain, Ned’s daughter, and she’s horrified and runs sobbing from the apartment when West thwarts her attempt to destroy the tape.

Sometime later, in Perry Mason’s office, Della is getting some plane tickets together for him. Gertie tells her a woman wants to see Perry, and Della goes to ask if she can help instead. The woman is Harriet, who is devastated to hear Perry is shortly to leave for an extended trip to Europe. Seeing how upset Harriet is, Della invites her into the office and offers to listen to her story.Harriet calms down and tells Della she’s engaged to a man named Addison Doyle, whom her sister introduced her to.

Della asks her what’s wrong, and Harriet tells her about the blackmail. Her father has a heart condition and Harriet takes care of him, hence why she took West’s call. Not only could her father’s condition worsen if the blackmail proceeds, she’s afraid Doyle, who’s from an old money family, will break off their engagement if there’s any scandal. Della is sympathetic and, shortly after, pleads Harriet’s case to Perry.

While Perry’s not pleased to put off his trip to Europe, he’s intrigued when both Della and Paul have opinions on the case. Paul knows West by reputation, and he’s pulled this trick before: He pretends to negotiate the blackmailer’s price to the victim, then charges the victim a fee for acting in their interest, so he gets paid by both of them. He tells Della to postpone his flight (she already did that), to tell Harriet to meet him, and to get him the most powerful magnet possible on short notice that can fit into a cigarette case.

Enter Perry Mason, Attorney at Law

Sometime later, Perry and Harriet are back in West’s apartment, listening to the recording. He tells West he wants to inspect the tape to make sure it isn’t spliced. West won’t let Perry touch the tape, but he hold it out for inspection, and Perry leans in while taking out a cigarette. He asks how much J.J. will take, and West offers to bargain him down from $25k to $20k. He asks to hear the tape one more time, and this time the tape is completely silent. Perry and Harriet leave, saying they’ll reconvene when West gets the tape working again. After they go, West takes out a booze bottle and takes the recorder across the hall to J.J.’s room.

Back in Perry’s office, he explains he used the magnet to wipe the tape. Della asks if he destroyed evidence, but Perry’s convinced it was just a copy, and he wants to force West to use his original recording. West calls and asks Mason to visit, revealing he has the original copy. Harriet enters, upset -- her stepsister, Sylvia, angry that Harriet hired a lawyer, told their father. Ned Bain wants to meet Mason. Della calls the airline and postpones Perry flight again.

At the Bain house, Perry meets Sylvia Bain, who’s rather glamorously attired and says she’s against involving a lawyer in a family matter. Addison Doyle enters and Harriet introduces him to Perry before they go upstairs to meet Bain. Bain, who’s bedbound, says the blackmail is fraud -- J.J. backed him in a wildcat oil scheme that hit pay dirt made full return on the investment. He’s not going to pay the blackmail, but he won’t go to the police for fear of a scandal disrupting Harriet’s marriage.

Perry promises to return the next day, and asks if Bain knows where J.J. lives -- Bain says he doesn’t. As they’re leaving, they catch a glimpse of Addison and Sylvia, laughing and leaning in a little too close to each other downstairs. Harriet looks sad, but not surprised, and returns to her dad’s bedside. Perry goes downstairs, interrupting the liaison, and walks out. Doyle asks Sylvia why she let Harriet, whom she supposedly controls, get Mason involved.

Just past 11pm that night, Ned Bain gets out of bed, fully clothed. He picks up a monogrammed briefcase and sneaks out of the house. Harriet just catches a glimpse of him as he walks out of the front door. Bain arrives at the Colgrove Apartments and rings J.J.’s doorbell, across from West. J.J. lets him in, and Bain tells him that he’s going to finish this whole mess that night, and shows J.J. what’s in the briefcase. Downstairs, Bain’s cabbie notices a Citroen car pull up behind him. Bain returns, sans briefcase, and asks the driver to take him home.

The Murder

The next morning, Paul tells Perry that he’s discovered J.J. lives in the apartment across from West’s. They’re meeting Harriet at West’s apartment. He offers to accompany Perry and Della to the meetup, but Perry doesn’t think there will be trouble. At West’s apartment, a note tacked to the door has Perry’s name on it. In the note, West says he’ll be late and for Perry to let himself in. Della senses a trap, as West sounds like he wants them to search the apartment. They’re about to leave when there’s a loud scream from inside the apartment.

The door opens and Harriet comes flying out into Perry’s arms. She found the body of who she thinks is J.J. Stanley in the kitchen. Perry confirms this was a trap and goes to check the other apartment. It’s unlocked. He tells Della to stay in the hallway, and to pretend if West returns that they just arrived and were reading the note. He enters J.J.’s apartment and looks around. He notes the massive deep freeze full of food in the kitchen.

Della signals to him, and Perry sees her, Harriet, and West enter the apartment. He follows them in a second later. West says he was at a poker game and goes to make coffee. He enters the kitchen and sees J.J.’s body on the floor under the table. West goes to call the police, and Perry tells Della to cancel the trip. Later, Tragg and the medical examiner look over the body -- the latter gives a preliminary finding of death by ice pick to the neck, with the time of death around 3am that morning. An officer comes in with just such an ice pick, which he found in J.J. Stanley’s apartment. Tragg tells him to examine it for prints.

Later, in Perry’s office, Paul reports that Tragg knows Perry searched J.J.’s apartment, thanks to West leaving a tape recorder running by door. Tragg also fingerprinted the entire Bain family. Perry gets a phone call -- Ned Bain’s just had a heart attack, and they fear it might be fatal. He rushes to the Bain house, where the doctor tells them Bain will just barely pull through. The doctor says a shock or exertion could have caused it, and then he hands Harriet a tape he found under Bain’s pillow. Perry says he’ll take it for safekeeping.

Perry asks Harriet if she heard her father leave the house the night before, and Harriet says she didn’t. Downstairs, they meet Doyle and Sylvia, and Perry asks where the latter was the night before -- Doyle admits on her behalf that she was at his apartment, to Harriet’s shock. She walks Perry to the door, where they meet Tragg. He relieves Perry of the tape, and arrests Harriet on suspicion of murder -- her fingerprints are all over the ice pick.

Mason visits Doyle’s shoebox apartment, and reprimands him for not visiting Harriet in jail. Doyle says he’s not interested in comforting her, as despite his family name he’s a very poor man. He outright admits that his hipster writer vibe is just a mask to attract a rich woman, and that he’s prepared to shift his attentions to Sylvia. Perry warns him Sylvia might not be as interested as Doyle thinks. Later, Della tells Perry she’s ordered a copy of a specific book he wants and will bring it to court.

The Trial

In court, Burger asks Tragg about the ice pick and enters it as People’s Exhibit A. Tragg says it was an implement from the Bain family’s kitchen, and had Harriet’s fingerprints on it. They also found Harriet’s cigarette lighter in West’s apartment. On cross, Mason notes it's not unusual for Harriet’s fingerprints to be on an ice pick from her own kitchen. He asks if the police were able to transport the ice pick without destroying Harriet’s prints -- they were. Mason asks then, if they could do it, why not someone else who wanted to frame Harriet?

Burger then questions the medical examiner, Dr. Hanover. The doctor found two puncture wounds in the front of J.J.’s neck which caused death by hemorrhage. He also says the ice pick has bloodstains on it, the blood being J.J.’s rare AB blood type. At Burger’s request, he explains postmortem lividity and rigor mortis, and how he used them to determine the time of death at 3am. On cross, Mason asks about other factors, and Dr. Hanover says he also used body temperature. Mason asks if his calculation could be thrown off by environmental temperature changes, and the doctor says they could. 

Burger then asks for the court’s indulgence, as his next witness is coming in on a stretcher. Mason, realizing this is Ned Bain, immediately objects to the cruelty of bringing a sick man to court, but Burger hands the judge a doctor’s affidavit that Bain can testify. The judge allows it, though he quells Burger’s intent to treat Bain as a hostile witness. Bain is brought into court and sworn in. Burger asks him about the blackmail scheme and whether it was based in truth. Bain won’t answer, even though the statute of limitations has expired.

The judge asks about the relevance, and Burger clarifies that, if Harriet knew the allegations were true, she’d have a motive for murder. Harriet stands up, sobbing, and admits that she knew. Burger asks when Bain last saw Stanley, and Bain says it was the night he was murdered. On cross, Mason asks why Bain saw Stanley, and Bain says it was to pay him off. Mason asks if Harriet knew he was doing this, and Bain says yes -- she got the money from the bank. Mason thanks him, and notes this means Harriet had no motive to kill Stanley.

The next witness is the cab driver who drove Bain to the apartment building. He said he was tailed the whole way there, and noted the Citroen’s license number. It was Harriet’s car. On cross, Mason asks the cabbie if he could see the driver’s face, but the cabbie says it was too dark. Paul shortly after enters with the book Perry requested, and hands it to him as Burger is questioning West on the stand.

West claims he was approached by J.J. with the tape, and admits that he was party to the blackmail scheme. Burger tries to identify this as Harriet’s motive. On cross, Mason has to be pulled away from his book to question West. He asks why West was paying for J.J.’s apartment and food -- and why he bought the deep freeze in the kitchen. He submits an alternate theory: Whoever killed Stanley placed his body in the freezer in order to phony up the time of death and make themselves an alibi. The judge is intrigued, and says he’d like to examine the freezer personally...

In Summation

Harriet Bain unfortunately joins the list of Perry Mason clients who lie to their brilliant lawyer for seemingly no reason than to make his job more difficult -- she lies that her father left the house and that she knew the story behind the blackmail was true. However, some other points of the episode are less clear, and that’s where the case becomes so confusing as to be tedious. But we’ll get into that shortly.

This case possibly has the greatest proliferation so far of unlikeable characters. Addison Doyle, Arthur West, and Sylvia Bain are all obvious in their unpleasantness. But even Harriet doesn’t get off unscathed, as it’s not even clear why she’s lying to Perry about the truth behind the blackmail when she’s the one who brought him in to deal with the blackmailer in the first place. Ned Bain sucks for not simply sending a rat like Doyle packing. Ironically, the only person who comes off easy here is the murder victim, J.J. Stanley.

Actually, now that I think of it, the opening scene doesn’t really make sense. Stanley point-blank refuses to help West blackmail Ned Bain, even saying he’d rather go to jail (and, judging by his living situation, he’s not really that far removed from three hots and a cot) West retorts, “For once in your life, you’ll do as your told,” and I fail to see why that would change the answer at all.

I know jealousy is a real emotion that people feel, but something about the way it’s portrayed in Perry Mason, at least with regards to women, always rubs me the wrong way. It’s almost always an older woman who wants the attention of a man who hasn’t noticed her, being jealous of the younger female lead who’s succeeded. This episode is even titled after said jealousy -- and I won’t spoil, but we later find out that the motives of the older woman in this case aren’t what they appear to be.

One of the reasons this episode doesn’t really work for me is the way they talk about Harriet. Everyone acts like she’s uglier than a warty toad, could never have a chance of marrying, and should do everything she can to hold onto Doyle’s superficial attention. But she’s played by the lovely Virginia Vincent, and even the most unflattering clothes and makeup can only do so much to make her look plain. In the final scene, the “makeover” she gets from Della only consists of a little makeup and taking off the cloche hat she usually wears.

The other reason is that the tape in question, which is the impetus behind all of this, isn’t as incriminating as the episode behaves. Ned Bain never outright admits on it than he embezzled money -- both he and J.J. are just vague enough that I am hesitant to believe it would hold up in court. The worry is not that he’ll be prosecuted, but that the bank will bring a civil suit against him. I still doubt that the tape would be enough evidence to hold up, even in civil court.

Which bring me to another question: Why was Ned Bain planning to pay J.J. off directly? The whole thing was West’s idea — it’s not like there’s any real way to cut him out when he’s the one holding the blackmail evidence, dubious though it may be. Also, it’s never explicitly stated how Bain was able to get dressed in a full suit, take a taxi across town, pay off a blackmailer, return, and then wait almost a full day before he had a heart attack when the doctor says he was in such delicate condition he couldn’t even walk to the bathroom.

This is the first time a judge in a Perry Mason case has gone to the scene to inspect evidence personally. As I have stated before, I’m not a lawyer, but even with my decent layman’s understanding of the law, I have no idea if this is a thing they can do. I would presume that, with the judge, bailiff, and clerk present, all the necessary court elements are there. The only time I’ve ever seen this happen is in a few episode of the old Animal Cops show, where a judge ruling on a case involving horses would go to the stables to see their condition.

One final note: This final scene of the episode might be one of the silliest ever. First we see Della waylay Perry, who’s finally about to depart on his long-awaited London trip (how a legal conference can go on long enough to outlast a murder investigation and trial is beyond me) to show off the “makeover” she’s given Harriet. Then she mentions that she got Harriet onto the same plane as Perry, and apparently expects her employer to be Harriet’s chaperone on a European vacation (Paul, briefly enchanted by Harriet’s new look, apparently thinks she means him at first). I know Della and Perry’s professional relationship is fairly tight, but I think that’s crossing a few boundaries.

The Verdict

Judgement: ⚖ (one scale out of four) A “homely” woman who’s beautiful is the least of this episode’s problems, and the case is a mess from the outset as there’s insufficient evidence behind both the blackmail and the murder conviction. The side characters provide the only real color in the whole episode.

[theredhoodoutlaw]

199 Malcolm X Boulevard Harlem, New York City.

9:30 AM

9:30 AM in the morning and he hasn't even had a single Pop tart, a bowel of Lucky Charms or a slice of bacon - and here he was bloodying the corrupt, running on two hours of sleep. He could really go for a pop tart, chocolate chip, he thought.

Harlem's Paradise a nightclub founded by Buggy Stokes and Quincy McIver. It became the base of the criminal activities of the Stokes Crime Family and a front to launder its dirty money. Cornell Stokes aka Cottonmouth, now operates the club and has positioned himself as a notorious crime lord in Harlem.

Spewing cries frantically as the felon stared down the barrel of the Red Hood's pistol, pleading, begging, for his filthy life.

Thug: "I-I...t-told..you everythin' I kn-know... don't fuckin' k-kill me...my baby mama need me!"

Red Hood: "How touching. Did she tell you that after you beat her for the third time, or before? Hm?" He stated with sarcasm." Look, I'll tell you what- run. Run away and never return." He mimicked Scar from the Lion King.

As the thug sprinted to his feet, the dawn chorus of melodic birdsongs was interrupted with the grim, loud, deadly sound of rapid gunfire piercing the hasty sprinter's flesh eliminating him from the living, leaving his corpse behind the peaceful nightclub.

"Checkmate," Jason joked.

The thug sang like a canary, informing Red Hood that Cottonmouth had linked up with Black Mask and brokered a deal with an old enemy of Cage(Tombstone aka Lonnie Lincoln). Tombstone possessed superhuman strength, stamina, durability, and reflexes. He was extremely violent and had a history with Cage dating back to his time as a gangster.

After his last run-in with Batman, Jason was instructed not to return to Gotham until he abandoned his extreme measures of justice. Far as Jason was concerned Batman and Gotham deserved each other. He was sick of his enormous ego, antiquated sense of morality, and poor battle methods that proved to be ineffective in the grand scheme of things. The Black Mask burned Gotham shortly before he made his return, Joker killed and maimed countless people and Batman still had this psychotic infatuation with pretending that therapy can help him. The hell with them both.

Selina Kyle, Helena Bertinelli, Mia Dearden, Bucky Barnes, Roy Harper, Frank Castle & Luke Cage. He respected the likes of them.

While Selina was getting a massage, Jason left her a message.

"Hey mom, it's me. Your favorite birdie," he said dryly. "I know Luke is there-- so tell him to give me a call. I'm leaving the States tonight so make sure it's sooner rather than later. Out."

@blkcnt

[mrfancyfoot]

Raphael x Evie (f!OC) | Fic Rating: E/Varied | Chapter 1 on AO3

.

Chapter 11: Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice "An exhausted devil just wants a break."

True to Evie's prediction, Raphael begins offering her favorite tea when they're together. She picks up on other small changes made and sees that gauge moving ever closer to friendship. Raphael may be entertaining other plans, but two steps forward, one step back, right?

.

Ch. Rating: T / SFW Ch. Word Count: 3.6k Ch. Tags: POV Evie; Fluff; Humor; Character Analysis Ch. Warnings: Implied Violence

.

Read under the cut or on AO3-

Reflexively glancing out the windows beyond Raphael’s desk, Evie absently noted the perpetually crimson sky and the light cast on what mountains she could make out from her vantage of sitting on the floor in the middle of the office.  Avernus didn’t have a traditional ‘night time’ where it got dark, according to him.

Although she had only been in the House of Hope a couple of times during what would be day time back at camp, it seemed like Raphael still followed some kind of ‘evening’ routine.  Sometimes his office door was open and she could make out extinguished wall sconces.  Her ears told her that there were plenty of others around but out of sight at this hour, and he made no secret of the fact that the place was often bustling with his debtor servants.  Maybe most of it was actually their routine or for their benefit.  Maybe it was his habit from all the ‘dallying’ he did with mortals.  Maybe he, like many others, just liked having a slower, quieter period of hours.

She had pieced together that, while Raphael did indeed sleep, he didn’t require it anywhere near as often as she did.  He’d sometimes mention periods of reflection that sounded like meditation or the trance elves had.  Did devils need sleep?  Or maybe it was a cambion thing to need some degree of it?  Did that change as they aged or gained power?  She knew he didn’t actually need to eat ‘mortal’ food but still did because he liked to - and offering or connecting over food was an easy way to win over and lower the guard of targets…  There were a lot of things she wanted to ask that she worried were too personal or might cross some line she didn’t know about.

But it hadn’t escaped her notice that Raphael was becoming more casual around her.  He’d always had a ‘purposefully relaxed’ air to him - like putting on the mask of a languid lion.  A being who held great power but whose intentional mannerisms could lull you into a false sense of security.  It also reminded her of the coyotes that would pretend to be playful towards pet dogs to lure them into an attack, but ‘lion’ seemed more fitting than calling him a ‘coyote.’

He’d lost the tension behind his performance of being relaxed and now just…was.

Less stiffness through his shoulders.  The swagger in his step was less exaggerated.  Looser posture as he sat.  And though he still gesticulated a lot while he spoke, it was less out of a practiced storytelling and rather simply because he spoke with his hands.

Could scheme, ‘I’ll Make a Friend Out of You,’ actually be working?

She just had to make sure the lion she was trying to befriend didn’t maul her face off.

It was especially helpful that Raphael had actual interest in her technical knowledge and various random things from her world and experience - that was something of high value to him that she could leverage.  She’d been keeping track in her head of what seemed to perk his ears as they talked, getting smarter about how much she shared so that hopefully she still had bits to dangle in front of him when needed.

There still was a kind of unsaid ‘trade’ game going on - there was the exception of specific intel he seemed to be feeding her, but she was increasingly of the mind that there was something in all this illithid and Absolute business that he ultimately wanted, whether a thing or an outcome or something like the right person in the right place at the right time...  As long as she spoke fairly freely and of things of interest, so did he.  Towards the beginning of all this, he’d once revealed this game, stating, in so many words, that he wouldn’t share more information without something of equal value in return.  Sometimes this meant simply moving on from a topic if a ‘paywall’ was hit, other times it was scrounging through their pockets for ‘loose change’ info to keep the other talking.

But while he occasionally still got that look on his face like he was calculating something, those scales had definitely become far more lazy of late.  The devil liked to hear himself talk as often as she found herself rambling, though she did wonder if he simply saw it as investing in an outcome rather than keeping on ‘nickel and diming.’

It wasn’t like that wasn’t how many other interactions and relationships functioned - it was just more…codified with the devil.  If anything, it was easier for her because his expectations were generally upfront.  He never hid what he was.  She could count on him to be a scheming devil but also to extend the same level of respect that she gave.  Supposedly.

Her head swung to where he sat at the table near the fireplace.  “Evening!” Evie greeted as she slipped off her camp shoes and stood to walk towards the door to leave them where a small decorative gold rack had been added.  The guestbook flew up in her face as she turned, prompting her to flusteredly scribble her name on the blank entry presented before shooing it away.

She then made her way towards him to take her usual seat with the fire at her back.  Now that she was thinking about it, the chairs had crept closer together at some point, too, being placed on the same side with the table no longer between them but next to them.

“Long day?” she asked.  Raphael looked put together but his hair had the slightly disheveled appearance of him having run his hands through it often and he was just shy of slouching.   He might not need it as often as she did, but he definitely looked like he needed sleep.  Maybe that was why he’d summoned her so early this time?

“All of my days are long, dear fox,” he replied, pulling a face at her again sitting cross-legged in the chair though forgoing mentioning anything.  But the disapproval faded and he returned her greeting with a cordial nod, “And good evening.”  Picking his battles tonight?

And he was already drinking something that looked stronger than wine.  Evie crooked a knowing brow at it before surveying the offerings laid out on the table.  Breads, spreads, fruit…

There was a tea set.

Crimson with accents of gold and black, like much of his chosen decor.  She set her journal aside and pressed the back of her hand to the kettle curiously, finding it to be hot.  Gingerly picking it up and placing it closer, she lifted the top off to check if tea had already been brewed.  The caddy was prepped with everything she’d said she preferred with her tea and then some.

“You don’t have to summon me if you’d rather relax.  Self-care is important and I know you work hard.”  Evie picked up a teacup for herself and looked over to him, asking, “You want some?”

He didn’t have to summon her at all.  It was a ‘handshake’ agreement that these meetings were for as-needed mutual exchange of information pertaining to the current goings-on but that could have been couriered by Korrilla or something.  At least…that’s what they had started as, along with the unspoken, thinly veiled purpose of continued attempts to tempt her into signing away her soul.  Yet, while they had started pretty brief, they began to grow longer and longer.  He used to send her back the moment he determined there was nothing further to speak of or whenever he'd get exasperated by her or had other work to move on to, and then it became whenever she started fighting sleep.  And she let it happen…

He declined with a shake of his head.  “And break our routine?  I’ve come to enjoy our time together.  Is this not relaxing?”

She wasn’t sure if the question was rhetorical or not.  “Maybe just the introvert in me.  I don’t often do this much talking.”  Which was true and a testament to how well he was doing at getting her to talk - her own curiosity was a beast difficult to tame when humored and being comfortable meant higher chances of verbal vomit.  But though she once dreaded being dragged here because being on constant guard was abysmally draining, now that she was getting an idea of the ‘rules,’ she couldn’t deny that it was a nice break.

Especially now that he was cheating by offering her favorite tea.

At the raise of his brow, she realised how her words must have sounded and stumbled to rephrase before he found some offense in them, “Point of clarification: enjoyable, yes.  Relaxing, no.”  There was no reason to lie about either point.  Raphael hated lying and to deny that she had begun to find enjoyment in these meetings felt insincere - plus, he’d totally call her on it - especially when she was trying to stay on good terms with him.  But to let her guard down here completely even she would say was dumb.

“What isn’t relaxing about being in the Hells and keeping the company of a devil?” he asked with a chuckle.  Okay, that had to be rhetorical.  She was picking what she wanted from the tea caddy when he followed up with, “What do you do to relax, fox?”

Evie paused to consider the question.  “These days, if I’m lucky, finding a quiet place to read.  Sometimes cooking.”

He dismissed that answer with a wave of his hand and exaggerated frown.  “No, no.  Tell me of your before.  Of how you took leisure in the old life you had established before your unceremonious rehoming.”

“Finding a quiet place to read.  Sometimes cooking,” she repeated humorously.  She carefully poured herself a cup of the black tea.  His eyes followed her hands as she worked quickly to add everything to her taste and stir it in before the tea cooled too much.  “Hm…quiet nights reading by the fire…with tea or hot chocolate.  Or, replace ‘fire’ with bubble bath.  Music.  So much music.  Yoga.  Sometimes video games are relaxing.  Depended on what I was playing at the time - and with who.  If I was really out of it, I’d watch someone else’s stream or TV.  I did these little puzzle build things when I had downtime from work.  Gardening - I do miss my herb garden.  And my orchid collection.  And the buggies.  Uhm…getting lost in data sheets.  Fishing.  Hiking.  Taking my housemate’s dog for a walk.  Oh, there are botanical gardens in my city I’d visit.  Though the landscaping place had a lot of the same stuff and was far less crowded, so if the parking lots at the gardens were looking full, I’d often turn around and go there instead.”

The tea was rich, silky and both soothing yet energizing.  Maybe a hair too much clove.  Hopefully the caffeine at whatever hour this was didn’t fuck her over.

“There is certainly something to be said of an evening by the fire with a fine drink in hand and pleasant company.”  He tipped his glass towards her with a tired smile that was nonetheless charming.

“What else do you do for relaxation and leisure?”

“I am a devil of many pleasures, dear,” he drawled.  “Fine drink, fine food, fine clothing, fine décor, fine flesh.”  She rolled her eyes at the overly broad and obvious answer.  He took the silent, ‘You can do better than that,’ jibe and gave a more fitting reply, “At times, arranging all the little pieces for a contract is akin to sitting down to a puzzle or game of lanceboard.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Evie said after a moment picturing that.  She further prodded, “Any favorites?”  She wanted to know more about how the whole contract process worked, but that felt like trying to get him to spill trade secrets.

“You mean other than the one with my favorite associate that could be prominently on display within my archive?” he asked with a leading grin and vague gesture towards the door.

“Mhmm!”  She nodded.

Raphael shook his head and made a show of faux remorse.  “I’m afraid that I cannot share the details of contracts made with others.”  Her crestfallenness made him laugh.  “So disappointed!  Are you that interested in the depravities and desperations of others?  Then again, it is mortal nature to be curious of the secrets and skeletons others keep hidden.”

“Like that isn’t in your nature, either?” she countered.  “I find many things interesting that I don’t necessarily condone.  It’s not like ‘bad’ and ‘interesting’ are mutually exclusive.”

“A reasonable perspective.”  Raphael eyed the cup in her hands.  “I trust the tea is to your liking?” he asked after she had taken a few sips.

She could almost swear he looked relieved when she happily nodded.  “Kudos for the attention to detail.  Thank-you, Raphael.”

A satisfied smirk pulled at his lips.  “You are most welcome, Evie.  One could say that is my specialty.”  Oh, he practically preened, sitting up a bit straighter and smoothing away a wrinkle in his doublet.  He even said her name, something he rarely used over his preference for some vulpine endearment.

If there was one thing she could say the man fussed over, it was being seen as an exemplary host.  He adored opportunities to show off his status and wealth and knowledge and power via the accommodation of a guest’s desires - all in the name of furthering his own desires.  She got the impression he didn’t get many genuine compliments, though.  In his ‘line of work,’ it was doubtful there was much else than hollow words and desperation.

Evie giggled, biting back a yawn.  “I’ll give you the pun.”

He proceeded to tell her - well, brag about - the trade origins of each spice he’d come to acquire and she nodded along with rapt interest.  She would have to remember the info to write in her journal later so she could hunt them down in the future.  Thankfully, Baldur’s Gate was a port city with lots of trade, though if that didn’t work out for her, it was beginning to sound like Waterdeep might be a good place to explore for trade and business.

They were something she took for granted to find affordably in practically any grocery store where she lived in the modern era, but it was easy to forget that spices often drove trade hundreds and more years ago in her world.  No wonder he was showing off - they were a status symbol.

Raphael lazily pointed at the last one, dark brown pods jutting from a small jar.  “And the vanilla is from the jungles of Maztica, across the Trackless Sea.”

“It’s a type of orchid!” she added on excitedly.  “Mine’s taking up a good portion of a living room wall in my house- or, what was my house.  Assuming my housemate hasn’t managed to kill it.”  She’d babied the thing for nearly five years and had only just begun to get small pod harvests to process the last couple.  Shaking her head sadly, she said wistfully, “Maybe I’ll get another to grow some day.”

“Exotic spices, tea, even plants…  You have quite indulgent tastes, fox.  How do you plan to continue living with such luxury?” he questioned.  Every time he looked at her like that - like a know-it-all who’d already determined that whatever she was going to say was wrong - she had to disgruntledly fight the urge to reach over and pull at his cheeks.

Would her death be quick?

His question was one she did actually think about often.  What could she and couldn’t she live without?  What things here would become her new luxuries?  What things of her old ‘normal’ did she want to pursue if they did not exist here as she was accustomed to or at all?  There was a growing list in her journal.

“They’re so commonplace now where I’m from, many of these aren’t even really regarded as exotic anymore even though they technically are.  I’d come across some of these out and about so it hadn’t occurred to me that they may be imports.”  She bemoaned, “I might have to be a bit stingier with what I have.  But I’m sure I’ll manage.  After all, knowing where to source from is most of the trouble.”  She smiled into her tea.  And that had just been free info.

“Perhaps I am spoiling you too much.” He heaved a dramatic sigh, not appearing at all bothered by her insinuating that she would use his information in potential future procurement of her own fineries.

She nodded solemnly in agreement.  “Definitely for someone convinced I’m gonna burst open with tentacles at any moment.”

Raphael pressed a hand to his chest and learned forward as though offended.  “Oh, now, I am ever the optimist!”  But his expression turned sharp and that little glint of wicked returned to his eyes.  “I have full faith in your word that you will find a solution to the worm wriggling away in your brain.  After all, I would be most disappointed should you turn from a fox into a squid.”  Spoken in a tone laced with a peculiar venom and sardony.  She did not doubt that he would be upset if she fell to the blight.  All this work for nothing.

“Aww, can’t have that!” she pouted playfully, ignoring the slight prickling sensation of the hairs along her spine and tail raising in a warning of ‘danger!’  “You’d have to find another cute face to wax to about Cormyrean theatre.  Truly, tragedy.  But y’know what they say about tragedies- with time, comedy.”

He scoffed and she wondered if she caught him off guard.  Raphael took a swig from his glass as he reclined once more, the tension passing from the illithid reminder.  He tipped his head back towards the ceiling in contemplation.  “You do amuse me.  I once considered simply devouring your soul.  Succulent it would be - it would sustain me for some time.”  Despite knowing full well what souls looked like now because they drifted around the House, her mind couldn’t help conjuring the unsettling imagery of being cooked and served up.  His eyes drifted down and he stared through her in a way she’d come to learn meant he was looking at her soul…and probably not her boobs.  “However, there, too, is value in proper entertainment.”

And there was a new angle: please him and even if she did have to sign away her soul, there was a chance that it would simply be more of this when collected upon her death.  At least until he grew bored of that.  And ‘entertainment’ could mean literally anything, including eternal torture still.  She remembered the very broad pre-mortem clause of servitude - with disobedience being subject to discipline - in the first contract he had tried to get her to sign before she just rejected the whole thing.  After having gotten to know him better, she figured that was something he tried to slip into a lot of contracts as a trade for a soul should have been enough for most things without also serving him.  It was something he only benefited from by including it - even if many challenged it, enough people wouldn’t read the whole contract or know they could negotiate terms that it was a simple way to grow the number of those in his service.

But it was proof that their relationship had evolved from one of simple acquaintance!  She had no idea what she’d call whatever this was now. ‘Friend-ly’?  What had he called her earlier?  His ‘favorite associate’?  Was he seeing this as a partnership now and not just a ‘client’ transaction?

He even admitted that he enjoyed spending time with her!  Another point for Evie!

Evie shrugged in a good-natured dismissal.  “I can respect the hustle.”

“I would not be so flippant were I you, love.  There are fates far worse than being a cherished trophy,” he warned, brown eyes illuminating with a flash of the hellfire glow of his devil form.  It was difficult to tell if he was angry at the rejection or if it was something else.

She balked at the phrasing and implication - the potential of being paraded around and treated like some prize pet - though he was technically right.  The world was harsh.  But her pride would never allow for that.  There were fates better.  She didn’t want everything just…handed to her, nor could she live under the whims of another.

There was a quick rap at the door, halting anything further either of them were to say.

And she watched all that missing tension return to his body in a blink.

Raphael looked to the door from the corner of his eye.  “Enter,” he snapped.

The door opened and his Archivist took a step in, fear obvious in his eyes as they flicked between Raphael, her, and the floor.  He took a steadying breath, but his voice still trembled as he spoke, “Master…she has returned.”

A sneer twisted Raphael’s face.  Throwing back the rest of his drink and setting the glass on the table with a harsh clank, he stood and strode angrily from his office without a word, slamming the door in his wake and narrowly missing the Archivist scurrying after him.

Evie startled at the sound of a scream moments later and had to dab a spill of tea from her lap.  The Archivist?  Not knowing what was happening and feeling her heartbeat hasten, her ears continued to follow his footsteps that suddenly became heavier as he crossed to the other end of the hall - he’d transformed.

Others were making themselves scarce before Raphael crossed their paths.

She wondered who ‘she’ was.

She had never seen him this angry before…

It was a sobering reminder of what he was.

❤️ Thank-you for reading! ❤️

[kigendragon]

She wouldn't pretend the events that separated them previously weren't frustrating... If not for the obvious that she could've been useful, for slightly more selfish reasons. Part of her knew they just didn't want her getting involved, for her own safety, and to potentially avoid the outburst that opened the portal to Wonderland. She understood that...

However, she couldn't shake the frustration that came from the issue as well.

It may have been selfish, no, it was, but she felt it regardless; Trying to make her stay made her feel alone. Alone, with no one to turn to. It wasn't as if she had family to turn to at home, the man she had once loved was dead due to Gaudium's actions, and she had no friends to turn to. She felt as though she was left alone without a chance to clean up the mess she helped make in her anger.

She wouldn't pretend she hadn't been reckless, but it didn't feel fitting regardless. And, while selfish in the grand scheme of things, she still felt she had every right to feel this way. They may have been trying to look out for her, and for the situation at hand, but in doing so they still managed to neglect what they would've been doing had she truly stayed behind.

She couldn't be entirely angry with them, but it was upsetting nonetheless.

Not to mention being somewhat kept in the dark to the true nature of all of this, which she feels is proven in him asking about Kaze. Kaze will either be blunt with her or won't tell her anything at all. It was hard to say which side of him she'd get. The silent, or the sharp tongue, that didn't worry about what was being said or if it sounded too harsh.

"I hope they are... They deserve to be alright and away from any mess here or at home... And yes, I don't really know how long exactly, I suppose I should've tried harder to keep up with how long it has been, but maybe it doesn't matter anyways..."

She thought for a moment before continuing, her gaze shifting to the ground with a sigh, as she closed her eyes to brace herself for her own words.

"No, he and I haven't spoken just yet. I'm sure we will eventually, although I imagine he won't be happy to see me. Even if I think he was wrong before, that doesn't mean his opinion of the situation has changed," she began, finally looking back up at him.

"Kumo, I know things are in disarray. I cannot be kept in the dark about anything if I'm going to help... I want you to be totally honest with me, please. Otherwise it will come to light some other way, and I'd much rather you and Kaze just be honest," she said finally, like the words were forcing themselves out, like she couldn't hold her tongue any longer.

"I don't know if you two are just worried about me, or me being reckless like I was before, but I can help. I will help. However that has to happen," she stated. There was a cracking in her voice, solely at the thought they maybe they wouldn't want her help, or would attempt to keep her from doing so again.

But she wouldn't let that happen. She didn't listen to Kaze before, and she had no intentions to do so now if they tried to refuse her assistance. She wasn't there for no reason, and they couldn't change that.

"I can't make you tell me anything you don't want to, but... I want you to know that regardless if I'm told of the full extent of what's happening or not, I will find out, and I'm here, even if you two don't like it."

He's changing the subject. Damn.

She so badly wants to talk about the issue. It warrants a discussion, more than what they've said already... However, she also knows that he and Kaze are not ones to sway from their actions. Both seem to go all in. If he did not wish to discuss it further, she was willing to wager that she wouldn't get a word out of him if she pushed the issue.

Precautions? Him and Kaze, take precautions? Grown accustom she could see, but taking precautions wasn't quite in their track record. The closest they got that came to mind was trying to make her stay on Earth, and even that was done recklessly by Kaze...

"I'll trust you two can handle it, at least for now. But I am here now and have no intention of sitting back and watching if things start getting out of control," she informed him, leaving that the last say on the subject.

The children... It had been a while... The last she could remember seeing them was during the mess on Earth, before she destroyed the pillar... She couldn't think of a time after that that she had seen them. Granted she wasn't sure how they could've come to Wonderland once she got there. She was fairly certain she had succeeded in closing the portal...

Realizing she had gotten herself lost in thought she shook her head lightly, a sigh following the motion.

"No, I'm afraid I haven't seen them since I came back to Wonderland... I've been on my own trying to get back here... The last I saw of them was when everything happened on Earth," she told him.

She somewhat dreaded the inevitable conversation of her returning despite being told not to, but she honestly didn't see another way to go about things. There was no sense in staying on Earth, and the portal had to be closed somehow...

But come to think of it, she wasn't sure if she had succeeded. It had taken so much energy to do so, and she had passed out afterwards. When she had gotten up, it was a little difficult to remember fully if the portal had closed before she passed out...

Gods she hoped she succeeded.

"I do hope they're alright though... Now that you mention it, I guess I really can't help but worry about them..." It was true; she often found herself worrying about Ai and Yu, despite being fairly certain they were safe, or at the very least she hoped they were.

[clairecrive]

hi!!! can I ask for darkling smut after he and the reader get in an argument? like it starts out angry but by the end they're super passionate and cuddly? thank you and congrats on so many followers!!

A/n: you ask and you shall receive, hun! I love writing this so so much. I hope you'll like to read it too. Thanks for requesting and for your words xx This is also for this anon.

Warnings: angst, smut, fluff at the end

Word count: 2.9 K

Tags: @blackst0nes7077, @thefictionalgemini, @louweasleymalfoy @jupiterandbutterflies , @for-bebbanburg, @tarkanelima-blog, genre), @pansysgirlfriend, @acciorudolphx, @kaqua , @hannaxmaria, @vintagebitc, @deardiarystuff (if you want you can add yourself to my taglist by filling this form)

SHADOW AND BONE MASTERLIST

“You will not believe what-” y/n had the habit of not knocking before entering his room. The general had been more than annoyed with her initially, but she insisted that it was a way for him to distinguish her from everyone else.

Hear the door open? You don’t have to guess who it is, you’ll know it’s me, she used to tell him.

Now, however, she was wishing she didn’t have that habit in the first place. Stumbling into a room, your partner’s room, to find him standing way too close to another girl, wasn’t on her list for tonight. Maybe a warning would have been nice but at the same time, if she had knocked she wouldn’t have found them this way.

Her initial enthusiasm at the prospect of sharing this gossip with him had suddenly vanished. The smile on her face turned into a frown as Alina cleared her voice and took a step away from the general for decency’s sakes. Too late, y/n wanted to tell her.

It was painfully clear what she had interrupted. She willed her face to set into an emotionless expression but she couldn’t help a glance in Aleksander direction. Arms behind him, he looked nothing but proper and collected. But y/n knew him, probably better than anyone else in this world, and had learnt how to read his body. His jaw was clenched which meant that he wasn’t as calm as he wanted to appear.

Good, y/n thought, let him drown in guilt and misery.

Clearing her voice, she realized she had been standing there without saying anything for too long.

“I’m so sorry, General, I didn’t know you were busy. I should have knocked,” she excused herself without looking at them. “I’ll leave you to it.” With a slight nod, she added before hightailing out of the room.

She could feel Alina’s questioning gaze on her back as she closed the door behind her. There were already rumours going around about her supposed relationship with the General. No one knew for certain, neither y/n nor Kirigan had ever bothered confirming or denying them. Now though, she knew that words of this little encounter would spread, further cementing the already existing gossip.

Oh well, she thought as she walked to her room, by the looks of it there wasn’t going to be a relationship to gossip about anymore.

Her bedroom had lost every sense of familiarity and comfort a private space like this should have. She hardly ever slept in it anymore. Not since she and the general had become a thing. She only went there to change and so slipping into the bed felt weird and anonymous. As if she was in someone else’s bed and not hers.

Her sleep was doomed to be restless, she knew. However, tomorrow’s busy schedule prompted her to at least try and get some sleep. Even if it only was a couple of hours. Shuffling to change position she tried to keep Aleksander out of her mind.

An unachievable task, she was aware but she tried nonetheless. Things between them had been tense ever since he had come back to the Little Palace with her. y/n knew of his plans. She knew why he needed to do certain things and how Alina was involved. That didn’t mean she was fine with it though.

Not only did it bother her the fact that he was stripping the girl of her will and powers eventually but it also bothered her that he had chosen to get to her by manipulating her feelings. They had had countless fights because of this but nothing ever came out of it. A centuries-long existence meant that he was stubborn beyond belief and there was no way of making him change his mind once it was set on something.

After what she had witnessed today though, y/n wondered if the jokes were on him and he did end up feeling something genuine for Alina. Y/n herself had met her and spoke with her a couple of times and she had to admit begrudgingly that she wasn’t that bad.

Lost in her thoughts, y/n was snapped out of it by a loud knock at her door. As soon as she started to wonder who could be bothering her at this hour, the door opened and she stopped guessing.

Of course, it was him.

“I’m in no mood to talk to you, Aleksander. Please go.” She spoke, not bothering to turn towards where she knew he was standing. Y/n knew that while she couldn’t see him in the dark this wasn’t true for him. Shadows didn’t hinder his view like they did everyone else, they were an extension of him.

He didn’t speak but she also didn’t hear him walking away. She let out a sigh and that was the only way she was willing to acknowledge him. He wanted to stand in the shadow and stare like a creep? Fine, two could play this game.

Set on ignoring him, she stubbornly stared ahead of her. She was very aware of his eyes on her, stinging like needles. If sleep was arduous to achieve before now it was impossible. In any case, she closed her eyes and pretended to be at least. He wouldn’t know the difference and would leave her alone at some point.

But of course, she knew him well enough by now and he wasn’t as easily deterred. She didn’t know how much time passed but her eyes flew open as she felt her bed dip. Her breath hitched and she laid on full alert.

Then she felt the shadow of his touch on her neck and knew that he was close. Way too close that he should be. He was probably propped on his arm as she felt her pillow dip too.

“We don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.” He whispered close to her ears, his lips suggestively tracing her earlobe.

Despite the chills that his touch would usually send to her body, y/n stifled a treacherous gasp. Instead, her body stiffened and she almost pushed him away but she wasn’t sure that touching him wouldn’t backfire.

“If you think I’d let you lay a finger on me after you touched her, you’re sorely mistaken.”

“Who says I did?”

“Please, stick to manipulating one girl, okay? Move. away.”

He didn’t reply but the hand that was on her neck moved to her shoulder and pushed back so that she was laying on her back and facing him. Well, the darkness was too thick for her to actually see his face but she could feel his breath.

“Do not push me away.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.” Y/n bite back.

“You’re well aware of my plans, don’t act so betrayed now.”

“Well, maybe I’m tired of being a pawn in your schemes.”

“A pawn isn’t aware of its role nor of the whole plan.”

“Being smart with me won’t help, Aleksander. You want Alina? Fine, go get her. But leave me out of this.” Pulling her face free of his grip, she turned on her side. The shadows around him had dissipated a bit, allowing you to glimpse at his face.

“You cannot do this, y/n.” he growled, pushing her on her back again, “you said you were in this. You said you wanted me, that you were going to be by my side always. You can’t just change your mind. You can’t.” His voice was strangled with emotion almost breaking on some words.

Y/n had never heard his voice so filled with sorrow. Because that’s what he must be feeling. She thought that he was also feeling betrayed by her but then she realized-- no, he was afraid. Afraid of losing her.

He knew what he did and he also was aware that y/n was not one to mess with. She was just as stubborn as he was and just as prideful. What she had seen had hurt her and it was only what she felt for him that prevented him from being mindlessly dismissed and removed from her life. She had not resisted him more forcefully because she cared, because the wound was still french and that meant that there was still a tiny hope left.

“That was before you fell for another woman. I can’t stand by and watch you be with her. You can’t ask that of me.” She whispered, meeting his eyes. No matter how much she loved him, that was simply something she was not willing to put herself through.

“That’s not what I’m asking. That’s not what's happening.” He pledged. Y/n didn’t know if it was a trick of the moonlight seeping in from her window but she saw his eyes well with unshed tears.

“Isn’t it?”

“It isn’t.” He insisted, his hand on your jaw holding it closer. “Alina is a pawn, Alina doesn’t know what is going to happen, she doesn’t know me.” Heaving a sigh, Aleksander held her face, his thumb caressing her cheek.

“There is no one on this earth that has ever seen me more clearly than you do, solnishko. I know what you saw, I know what it looked like because that was intentional. But I trust you to know the difference between what it’s really happening and what it looks like because they’re not the same.” His eyes were alive with an intensity y/n had only seen a few times before. He was ancient and he was skilled at manipulation amongst other things. She always tried to keep that in mind but now, looking at him, she couldn’t help but feel like he was being genuine.

Why would he want me near? There wasn’t an ulterior motive for wanting her by her side. Yes, she was the only one who knew about his plans but that wasn’t it. If it was, he would have simply killed her. Took less time than this. Also, y/n knew that the power was in her hands. If she said no, that she couldn’t do this anymore, she was sure that Aleksander would let her go.

“But the way you were looking at her, Aleks, I just-” a lump formed in her throat as she recalled the look on his face, “you’re spending more and more time with her and I can’t help but fear that- I mean she’s literally the embodiment of sunshine.”

“You’ve never seen the way I look at you, then.” Thumb trailing over her lower lip now, he gave her a weak smile. “I swear that there’s no one dearer to me than you.”

“I’m not sure I can’t stand the idea of you kissing and touching her, Aleksander, I’m sorry.” Y/n insisted as well because she knew him and she knew that the way she worded things was crucial.

“That won’t happen then.” He assured but she was still not fully convinced.

“I promise it won’t come to that.” So Aleks rephrased. It was better but still not good enough. But they could work on that surely.

“It seems to me though, that I have not done a good job at showing you what you meant to me. I need to reinforce it, don’t you think?” He proposed, using the hand on her face to pull her closer to him.

“I agree.” y/n mumbled on his lips before they smashed together. She didn’t wait for him to initiate the kiss. She thought she had lost him tonight and had already been trying to plan her life without him. She wasn’t willing to waste any more time. She was going to show everyone that he was hers and only hers so as not to leave any more doubts around them. Fuck gossip.

Propping herself on her elbow she used it as leverage to reach up to meet him. The hand he had on her face moved backwards to hold her head while her hand did the same in his hair. Both of them pulled the other impossible close, not willing to leave the smallest of spaces between them.

Sitting up, y/n used her other hand to first the lapel of his kefta. She quickly unfasted the buttons to get rid of it before she pushed him on his back.

“She thinks she has a chance, uh.” She taunted as she straddled his waist, roughly gathering her sleeping gown around her waist while his hands instantly shot up to rest on her hips.

“She thinks she’ll be as lucky as seeing you like this?” she continued, her hands caressing his naked chest, “that she’ll have the chance of touching you? kissing you?” she leaned down, one hand at the nape of his head to make him meet her halfway. It wasn’t a long kiss, she needed to make a point after all. Pulling away, she bit his lower lip earning a moan from him.

“To feel you like this?” she whispered in his mouth as her hips wiggled over his clothed member. His hands tightened his hold on her hips, pushing her down on it increasing the pressure.

“She’s delusional,” Aleks gasped as her mouth trailed kisses along his jaw and neck where it nipped and sucked.

“Mh,” y/n agreed, “let’s make sure she knows.” She promised before her mouth went back to sucking a few hickeys on his neck. Aleks only moaned and gave her more space to work on. His hands trailed up from her waist, cupping her breasts before playing with her nipples.

As her mouth lowered on his collarbone, Aleks decided that enough was enough. His hands roughly gripped the end of her gown before hastily pulling it up and off her body. One arm snaked over her waist pulling her flush against him as he sat up.

“Enough teasing,” he warned as the hand that wasn’t on her quickly discarded his undergarments.

“As you wish, moy sovregni,” she whispered sultrily on his lips knowing fully what effect those words had on him. Aleksander growled on her mouth, his hands kneading her ass cheeks as he gently lowered her on him.

Gasping as she felt every inch of him enter her, y/n gripped his shoulders as she started to move. Aleks’ hands guided her as she set a steady pace.

“She’s never going to feel your hands on her body,” she breathed as Aleks’ hips snapped up, setting a rougher pace.

“You’re mine.” She growled possessively on his lips as her hips met his.

“I’m yours, y/n. Just as you’re mine.” His tone matched hers. He sealed his promise with a bruising kiss. The trusting was becoming more and more frantic and Aleks’ could feel y/n clench around him.

With no previous warning, he lowered his hands from her ass to her thighs so that he could hold her while he changed their position. Guiding her legs to wrap around his waist, Aleksander leaned on his knees while he pushed her upper body down with his chest. Y/n gasped on his lips not knowing if it was for the movement, for the change of position that meant that he was now able to reach deeper than before or because she could feel her orgasm approaching.

Whatever the reason may be, Aleks swallowed her gasp as his lips refused to leave hers. Snapping his hips, he moved his hands from her legs. One went to stimulate her clit while the other choked her lightly. He knew that this combo would prove to send her over the edge. Not long after, as a matter of fact, he felt y/n’s nails on his shoulders as well as her walls tightening around him. He was not behind.

While y/n whimpered his name over and over as her orgasm hit her, Aleksander’s thrusts began to falter. With one deep thrust, he emptied inside her, obscene sounds leaving his mouth.

He leaned over y/n’s body, both of their breaths heavy, they basked in the afterglow. Aleks’ head rested over her chest, comforted by her steady heartbeat while y/n’s hands trailed over his back.

Once their breath had levelled and they could regain control over their limbs, Aleks propped himself over his elbow, his nose nuzzling y/n’s making her giggle at the soft touch. She loved these rare moments of softness and intimacy between them. If she could, she’d never let them end.

“I promise you’ll never have to doubt me again.”

“If you keep this up, it’d be impossible for me to.” She chuckled, referring to her limp body. She couldn’t trust her body to move. Sex with Aleksander always had this effect on her.

“Good to know I can still satisfy you.” He smirked as he leaned down for a small kiss. Giggling on his lips, y/n pulled him close, making him rest his weight on her rather than his elbow.

“I’m thoroughly sated, my love. You have nothing to worry about in that department.” Aleks couldn’t see her but could feel the smirk on her lips. Intertwining their legs, he got more comfortable on her. Her arms held him in a tight embrace.

“You’ll do well to remember it, dearest.” His voice came out muffled since his face rested between her breasts but y/n got what he meant anyway. Laughing at the idea that she could ever need anyone else, y/n held him closer to her chest. The embrace her form of a promise to him.

She had everything she’d ever need right here in her arms.

[yandere-daydreams]

Title: Closed Casket.

Commissioned by the very lovely @99shadowcat99.

Pairing: Yandere!Demon Brothers/Reader (Obey Me).

Word Count: 2.4k.

TW: Toxic Relationships, Dehumanization, Codependence, Threats of Violence, Mentions of Death, Implied Imprisonment.

It was a closed-casket funeral.

For such a small detail, it bothered you more than it had any right to. You hadn’t been the one to arrange it, the one to speak to the undertaker and evaluate the damage – that was a responsibility that fell to her fiancé rather than you, a distant cousin, only brought up in conversations about postponed friendships and quickly thinning family trees. You’d done what you could to help, what a last living relative should do to help - paying for flower arrangements, speaking to financial advisors, sorting through her belongs and trying to guess at what might’ve held some sentimental value to someone more present in her life, but you never saw the body. No one ever offered, and you hadn’t known how to ask. She was gone, now, dead and buried, and you'd never gotten to see her, even if everyone who had said that it was probably for the best.

And it probably was. They were probably right. You wouldn’t feel any better, if you had.

And yet, you found it difficult to believe you could feel any worse than you did now, either.

Belphegor was curled around your arm. He had been since you came back from the Human World, slotted against your side, draped over your shoulders, and currently, splayed out on top of you, his face buried in the flesh just above your shoulder blade, his body forcibly tangled with yours in a way that was too awkward to be comfortable for both of you, a sacrifice he seemed more than willing to make on your behalf. You’d tried to shrug him off earlier, when he first decided there was enough space on the smallest loveseat in the common room for his strange, daily ritual, and when that failed, you’d tried to talk him into letting go, into loosening his grip enough for you to slip away when he fell asleep, into relocating to somewhere else, somewhere softer, somewhere with a pillow that could easily replace you when he was too busy tossing and turning to care, but Belphegor had always been so frustratingly picky when it came to where, how, and when he chose to sleep.

He’d chosen you, and he’d chosen like this, and he’d chosen now. There was little you could do to change his mind, after he’d already made it up.

Still, you tried. He wasn’t asleep yet, caught somewhere between permanently half-conscious state and a sleep deep enough to warrant medical concern for most living creatures, supernaturally inclined or otherwise. “Belphie,” You called, gently, pushing the temptation to try more forceful methods into the back of your mind. “Think you pick another spot? Just for today?”

“Can’t.” It was a simple response, his voice heavy with sourceless exhaustion, just as short and just as blunt as it had been the last time you asked. You weren’t sure what you’d expected, honestly. “You were gone. I can’t.”

Your frown deepened. You’d left for a week – nine days, at most. And Belphegor couldn’t have been awake for more than half of that. “That’s not--”

“He was lonely, sweetheart.” It was Asmodeus, this time, as he perched himself on the loveseat’s arm. He wasn’t any better than Belphie, nimble fingertips soon tracing aimless patterns over the side of your neck, the dip of your shoulder, taking up the space he could occupy since the space he’d like to was already in-use. “He’ll get better, in a few days. Once it sinks in that you won't be leaving again.”

You were out of practice. A month ago, you would’ve known better than to respond, than to ask questions to someone who took as much delight in festering doubts as Asmodeus did. A month ago, you would’ve brushed him off and found your way to Purgatory Hall for the rest of the night. But, it wasn’t a month ago, and you were tired. You were still thinking about that casket, and you couldn’t seem to think of much else. “What do you mean?”

“Oh?” There was a pause, a laugh, light and melodic and fluttering. You’d always liked his laugh. You could bring yourself to enjoy it, though, not right now. “No one’s told you, yet?”

“Don’t tease ‘em.” You hadn’t noticed how full the common room had gotten, not until Mammon spoke and you reflexively turned to face the sofa opposite to yours. He was standing, leaning against the back, his hands clasped in a way that’d put his anxiety on display far more transparently than his voice ever could. Beelzebub, too, his arms crossed over his chest as his attention shifted idly between you, the console in Leviathan’s hands, and the book splayed out in Satan's lap, his scowl serving as evidence of his annoyance. It always bothered you, how easily he grew frustrated by situations he chose to put himself in. It bothered you a little more, today. “Might as well spit it out, if you’re going to bring it up,” Mammon went on, shifting his weight, letting his eyes fall to the floor, then rise to the ceiling, then drift back to you. “There’s no point putting it off.”

“Weren’t you supposed to tell them, Mammon?” Beelzebub chimed in, absent-mindedly. If it'd been Satan, if it'd been Lucifer, it would’ve been pointed, malicious, purposeful. Beelzebub just sounded like he was trying to remind his older brother of something he’d forgotten. “You said you should be the one to do it, since you met them first. Then, when Lucifer said you wouldn’t be able to do it, you said that if the human threw a tantrum, you could just--”

“I didn’t say shit.” Mammon cut him off, his tone hostile, but it was a half-hearted anger, more petty than vengeful. “I said I could, not that I would, and Lucifer shot me down. If he hadn’t, there’d already be a deadbolt on every fucking door in the house. We wouldn’t be sitting around, talkin’ about it.”

“Every door?” Beelzebub looked confused. Then, he looked concerned. “I thought we agreed to just seal the exits.”

“I still think we should just use their bedroom,” Leviathan chimed in, never looking up from his hand-held. Something tightened in the back of your throat. Experimentally, you tried to pull yourself out of Belphegor’s arms, but he only held you tighter, and Asmodeus’ nails dug into your shoulder, rooting you back into place without a single word. “It’d be cool, kinda like a permanent save-point. We wouldn’t have to worry about baby-proofing the entire house, either.”

“We could use a leash,” Asmodeus suggested, never breaking his stare. He didn’t look away. You wished he would. You wished they’d, if nothing else, have the courtesy to wait until you’d left the room to start talking about things you didn’t know and didn’t want to know. “So we can make sure they’re always close by! Or, we could have Lucifer enchant a collar – having to hold a tether might get in way when I have to--”

“He’d never do it.” It was the first time Satan had cut in, but it was clear he’d been listening. His book was still open, his expression still concentrated, but he was tapping his foot, the disruption soundless against the thick carpeting, and you couldn’t remember the last time he thought to pretend to turn a page. He was listening, but he didn’t want to be. He was a part of this, but you doubted he’d every say as much out loud. You doubted he’d ever let himself admit he’d stooped to that level. “And if he did, we’d never hear the end of it. In a week, there’d probably be a new kennel in the catacombs, right next to Ceberus’.” He stopped, for a moment, shaking his head. For your own sake, your chose to believe the envy lingering behind his voice was his attempt at a bad joke. “You would prefer a bedroom, wouldn’t you, (Y/n)?”

He asked you a question. He was talking to you, now, directly, which was more than you could say for any of his brothers. It should’ve been an improvement. An opportunity, if nothing else, a chance to ask why Asmodeus was looking at you like that, why you could feel Belphegor’s careless smile pressing into your skin, but you hesitated, something catching in your chest. It felt too solid, too heavy, too rough and too jagged. It felt like it’d hurt to swallow down, later on, once the unease passed and you got over whatever scheme they’d planned out, while you were gone.

“I… What?” You weren’t sure what you wanted to say, but it came out as a question regardless, your reluctance blending messily with your confusion. “This isn’t funny. If you’re going to act like this every time I visit the Human World, I might have to stop coming back.”

Finally, Satan glanced up from his book. If you didn’t know better, you might’ve said he was smiling. “Right. Because you still think you're allowed to leave.”

The rest of the room fell silent. Or, maybe it didn’t, maybe it was louder than it'd ever been. You didn’t know. You couldn't hear anything, not over the sudden ringing in your ears. “I’ll have to, eventually. It’s not up to me.”

Beelzebub shifted in his seat, suddenly uncomfortable. “It’d be safer if you stayed in the Devildom. We can’t protect you in the Human World.”

Leviathan’s grip tightened around his console. In the background, you could hear the plastic shell start to crack. “We wouldn’t be able to see you. Not all the time. Not for more than a few weeks at a time.” He was quiet, for a moment. Then, he added, “It wouldn’t be the same. It wouldn’t… It wouldn’t feel like it does when you’re here.”

Mammon looked away, letting his head lull to the side. “You belong here, with us. You’re supposed to be here. We’re just doin’ you a favor. No one wants to watch you figure out how fucked you’d be on your own.”

And, finally, Belphegor groaned, exhaustion heavy in the gravely sound. He untangled himself from you, but the freedom was temporary, fleeting, his arms snaking around your waist, instead, his face soon gracelessly buried in your chest. His eyes flickered open, but barely, just enough to let him stare up at you through his eyelashes, a thoughtless grin pulling at the corners of his lips. He wasn’t divided, not like his brothers were. He didn’t try to pretend he was above holding you against your will. “You're not leaving again.” It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t even a threat. It was just a fact, to him. It was something that wouldn’t happen, that couldn’t happen, if only because his older brothers were willing to work so hard to make sure it didn’t. “We’re not gonna share you, anymore. We’re not gonna have to.”

You didn’t want to hear anything else. You didn’t want to be here, anymore, not if this was what it meant, not if it was going to feel like standing in front of that closed casket all over again, the urge to run and sob and scream silencing every reasonable thought you’d ever had. You didn’t bother trying to talk to Asmodeus and Belphegor, you didn’t bother trying to coo and edge and skirt around their anger, their unspoken threats, not anymore, not when your body was already standing on its own, shoving at Belphegor’s body and swatting at Asmodeus’ hand as he reached out, aiming to cup your cheek and tell you so gently to sit down and shut up. Beelzebub leaned forward, Mammon flinched, and you could’ve sworn you caught a row of long, pointed fangs flash across Satan’s sneer, but you didn’t care. You wanted to hit something. You wanted to yell. You’d wanted to ever since you came back to this damned house and its overly affectionate occupants.

“You don’t get to share me.” You couldn’t be shared. You weren’t theirs to share, even if they already seemed geared against the idea. You weren’t theirs to trap, either. You never would be. “I don’t need your protection, and you don’t need to see me, and the only place I’m supposed to be is the Human World. I don’t know what got into your fucked-up heads while I was gone, but you can’t just--”

“Sit down, (Y/n).”

You stopped mid-sentence.

Right. You’d almost forgotten Lucifer hadn't gotten a chance say his piece, yet.

He didn’t give you time to cooperate. There was already a fist curled around the back of your collar, dragging you back into your seat, the action so much more aggressive than Belphegor’s oppressive dead-weight or Amsodeus’ sweet, sickly temptation. You couldn’t see him, but you could feel Lucifer looming over you, standing tall, towering above his younger brothers as he took control of the room. You wondered if he’d been here the entire time, if he’d heard everything, rather than just your sudden outburst. You wondered if you should hope that he had.

“We missed you, while you were gone.” He didn’t sound mad. He didn’t sound mad, but none of them did, none of them sounded like they were plotting to keep you away from your home, your friends, the life you had outside of demons and angels and magic. None of them sounded dangerous, either, save for Lucifer. He’d always been easier to trust when he wasn’t pretending to be kind. “We’ve all been alive for centuries, and yet, you went and made a week feel like a small eternity. Do you know how difficult it is for a human to inflict that kind of suffering onto a demon?”

You didn’t answer. Across the room, Mammon laughed and Satan bristled. Belphegor melted back into your side, more than happy just to have his resting place scared into immobility.

“You’ll stay.” It was an order, this time. Not a suggestion, not a passing concern, but a command, something you would be expected to obey. He had the nerve to use that low, calm cadence, measured and pre-meditated. He didn’t want to let you convince yourself he was as prone to bluffing as his brothers were. “You’ll stay because we want you to. We’re willing to use force, but there’s no need for that. Is there, love?”

You nodded, your body tense and your eyes glassy, and Lucifer rewarded you with a breathy chuckle, a row of knuckles delicately pressed to your cheek. A miserable reward for such an unwilling sacrifice, but Lucifer didn’t seem to mind. It certainly didn’t stop him from leaning in, his lips brushing against the top of your head, his voice falling just low enough to make something sharp and cold shot down your spine, as he went on.

“It’s not like you have anything to go back to, anymore.”

[bastillewolf]

Shinigami Eyes (II)

Pairing: Corpse Husband / Reader

Summary: After you distastefully kill Corpse in a game of Among Us, he wants you to make it up to him and invites you to come over for the week.

Notes: Thank you so much for the love on the previous chapter, I’ve never gotten this many notes before. I hope you enjoy, and maybe leave an ask if you want to? I can’t promise I have time to do them, but I’ll pick out a couple.

Also, I might rewrite this. I kinda rushed it because I wanted to finish it by tonight, but there will be a final and third chapter to this afterwards. Please do let me know what you think.

Tag list CLOSED!

Shinigami Eyes - Pt. II

5… 4… 3… 2… 1…

Impostor

You were teamed up with Sean.

Your fist violently slammed down on the desk. “Goddammit! I don’t want to be impostor anymore! This game has no compassion for my poor nerves.” It was the third time in a row now, and you were really craving to do normal tasks now without all the scheming. “Fuck it, I don’t care if they kill me. I’m just gonna do my thing without thinking about it.”

You decide to follow Toast for a bit to watch him do some task. You kill him in Laboratory. You vent back to Launchpad and take your time walking towards MedBay while the kill button restores. You meet up with Corpse, and follow him while pretending to do wires in the Y-hallway. You watched the green bar go up, and continued. Sabotaging and then fixing lights, you made sure your place with Corpse was settled. Then the body of Lily was reported.

As you expected, Corpse easily vouched for you as he’d seen you do a task. The round was skipped, though Rae was sussed for ‘chasing’ Sean, by his own words.

“Corpse, you’ve grown weak,” you muttered to chat.

You were in Greenhouse, and decided it would be best to kill him there and sabotage Reactor. “Sorry baby, but I can’t keep following you around.” You quickly set off Reactor and murdered him in front of the plants. “Your blood shall keep the plants hydrated.” You did an evil laugh. “Pretty sure that’s not how it works, though.”

You vented down to MedBay and as you walked out you met up with Rae. She’d be the vouch who would confirm you weren’t anywhere near Greenhouse. “I’ll just have to fix my own sabotage so they’ll never suspect me.” You helped her with the handprint, and noted Sykkuno and Felix being there. Sean sabotaged lights, you killed Sykkuno, and ran out to follow Lily into Laboratory. Felix reported the body.

“Holy shit,” Rae gasped. So far, five people had died. You only needed to kill one more person. “It was Felix!”

“Wait, what?” the man in question asked. “I was fixing Reactor!”

She mentioned that only you, Sykkuno, Felix and herself had been there and that you’d helped her do handprint. “Sykkuno must have fixed it, and then you killed him!”

Sean asked if you’d seen anything.

“No, the lights were out. I followed Rae into Laboratory after the scan.” Your voice didn’t tremble or raise, a tactic you’d taken up from the best lair in the group. Well, the one who was now dead. Oops. “I haven’t seen Felix this entire game, though.”

He was evidently at a loss for words, so the group was quick to vote for him.

Pewds was ejected.

Victory.

You thanked Sean for a good game who was laughing his ass off. “I can’t believe you did Corpse like that! Poor guy!”

“I deadass thought you were innocent,” Corpse replied, “I’m hurt.”

“Why do you still sound dark and menacing when you say something like that?!”

You agreed with Sean heartily, “He’s just salty I’ve bested him at his own game.”

“Hey now, no need to actually insult me.”

The group laughed. You decided to call it for the night, right before Corpse did the same.”

 ***

He was calling you again. “What is it this time, you salty?”

“Salty? Nah, never,” he said, but you weren’t convinced.

“Then why you calling?”

“What, I can’t call my friends after playing a nice round of Among Us?”

“Not when you lost the game and you call the person who you lost to. Kinda sus, dude.”

“Alright, maybe a little salty.” You smirked.

“Aw, you need me to make it up to you?”

He laughed. “What did you have in mind?”

A bunch of thoughts, most not rated PG-13, crossed your mind. You were suddenly starting to feel uncomfortable. This was probably just something innocent, which got twisted in your fucked-up mind. You shrugged, “Uh… I don’t know.”

“I got an idea.”

“What is it?”

“Come over this week. You said you needed a break, right?”

“That sounds more like you’re doing me a favour instead of me making it up to you.”

“I don’t have any friends. You’d be making it up to me by being the first physical person here in years. I usually don’t invite people over.”

“Wow, I’m flattered. So, you don’t consider me to be your friend after all?”

“You know that’s not what I meant,” he chuckled.

“Sure, sure. Tell me that again when my presence suddenly brightens your life making you not want to get rid of me, ever.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

 ***

You walk through the gates following a hoard of people, all the while still feeling drowsy from not getting any sleep during your flight. At least you didn’t have any turbulence and landed safely. Glancing around here and there with no result, you figured Corpse would be waiting outside, until you spotted a figure clad in black a little ends away by the escalator. You were glad you were still awake enough to have found him, because he appeared to silently linger halfway behind a fern.

At least, you hoped it was him. The only indications were his clothes, mask and dark hair. You saw him run a hand through it, and identified the chipped black nail polish and familiar rings. Oh yea, that was him alright.

He seemed to be paying more attention to the floor until he saw two feet appear in his line of sight. “Hey,” you awkwardly greeted. A bit taken a back, he replied, “Oh, wow. Hey.” A mask was covering the bottom of his face, but as far as you could see his eyes were a very dark shade.

“Wow?” you repeated. He chuckled, scratching the back of his head. “Yea, sorry. It’s a compliment.” You held your elbow out in a safe-distance gestured hello, but he shrugged you off. “You’re gonna be staying with me anyways.” Suddenly in a daze, you felt him wrap his arms around your waist and instantly hugged him back. His baggy sweater felt warm and soft to the touch, and strands of hair tickled your face. You very much tried to repress your smile and blush, but how could you? Hugging someone wasn’t supposed to feel this good. When he pulled back he reached down to take your suitcase from you. “I don’t own a car, is it okay if we take a cab?”

“Y-Yeah, of course,” you stuttered, “But it’s on me. Same with food and stuff.” “Don’t worry about it,” he chuckled. “No, you’re letting me stay with you and a hotel would’ve been a lot more expensive than this. It’s my treat.” “Yeah, we’ll see.” He gave you a look and even with the mask you could tell he was smirking underneath it.

It’s about half an hour drive to his apartment complex, and it’s rather nice. “All that YouTube money paying off, huh?” you asked in amusement. “You’d know,” he replied. You insisted on carrying your suitcase up the stairs yourself, which he silently shook his head at, until after a few flights he noticed you struggling and settled on carrying the thing in between the two of you. “How many clothes did you bring?” “Oh, it’s mostly filled with bricks I might need to throw at your head.” He laughed at that.

His apartment was simple, but cosy. “Home sweet home,” he said, almost sarcastically. You furrowed your brow at him. “I’m sure you could’ve had it a lot worse.” He reluctantly agreed.

He helped you set down your luggage in what appeared to be his bedroom, where the curtains were still closed and the black bedsheets fresh. He had a few pieces of fanart up on his wall, and some on his closet. You turned to him and gave him a look. “You’re not sleeping on the couch.”

He quickly shook his head, “You’re not sleeping there. If you won’t let me sleep on the couch I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“If you’re sleeping on the floor, I’m sleeping on the floor.”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” he murmured. “What?” “Nothing.”

He suggested playing video games as you were both too tired to do anything else. You’d landed quite late yet were still confused about what time it actually was. Flying is weird. You hopped onto his couch and grabbed a controller.

He sat down next to you, but suddenly seemed tenser than before.

“You okay? You can just go to sleep if you want to.”

He shook his head, “Nah, I don’t sleep a lot. It’s fine.”

You didn’t stop looking at him, though. He was still wearing that mask. “You don’t have to take it off, if you don’t want to. I understand if it makes you uncomfortable.”

“It’s not that, I just…” He took a deep breath. You hadn’t expected him to take it off then and there. You stared at him, your mouth slightly agape, controller barely held by your numb hands.

“Disappointed?”

It was as if he was expecting you to make a face or something, but you didn’t give him anything, except for a blatant “Nope” and an “Are we gonna play now or what?”

“You don’t have anything else to say?”

You shrugged, and looked him up and down again. “You’re kind of what I imagined you to be.”

“What’s that?”

“Handsome.”

Neither of you could stop smiling for the rest of the night.

You eventually forced him to sleep in his own bed, even going as far as to shove him into the room and keep your weight against the door so he couldn’t get out, so he eventually relented. “Inviting you here was a mistake.” “How come? All I’ve done so far is look after you!” “You’re a nightmare.”

You mostly stayed in for the week, which you didn’t mind at all. Being in such a closed-off environment with someone you got along with was nice. He attempted to get you to lift the weights in his room and succeeded for around fifteen minutes until you nearly dropped a dumbbell on your foot. You ordered take-out from his favourite restaurant, watched horror movies until you adapted to his sleeping schedule because you were too scared to close your eyes now, and even streamed a bit together with your friends.

“Wait, is Corpse with you?” Rae had asked.

“No, I’m at Corpse’s. He’s sitting across from me so I can’t see his screen but we’re gonna have to share the Discord unless you want to hear an echo.”

“Ah, man! You got to see his face, too?” Sykkuno whined.

“Stop simping, Sykkuno. You get enough attention from him already.”

“Don’t worry, I still love you,” Corpse said.

“Huh?”

It was probably a good thing that you got teamed up again, because you could indeed start to see his hands shaking right as the word ‘impostor’ appeared on the screen. You reached over and stroked it with your thumb. He smiled gratefully back at you.

“Just please,” he pleaded later that day, “Sleep in the bed. If only for one night.”

“No. I’ve heard about and now seen your sleeping habits. If you take the couch you’re never going to get any sleep.” You made a real effort to show him how comfortable you were – even though your back had started to hurt already after the first night – by crawling underneath your blanket and rubbing your head into the soft pillow. He snorted.

Next thing, you feel yourself being lifted by an arm underneath your knees and one around your back. “Corpse! Put me the fuck down!” you shrieked. You knew he lifted weights, but how the hell did he still have the energy as an insomniac? He ungracefully dropped you onto the matrass and turned the lights off. “Good night.”

You quickly got hold of the back of his hoodie before he could leave and pulled. He fell down next to you with a low huff. “Fine, I’ll sleep in the bed. But only if you sleep here too.”

“I snore.”

“Don’t care.”

For some reason, there wasn’t any tension or awkwardness. You were comfortable, and the soft rhythm of his breathing seemed to soothe you. He called out your name, to see if you were still awake.

“Hm?”

“…Thanks for coming over.”

“Any time.”

This was how you would spend the rest of the nights, and whenever either of you woke up suddenly curled up around the other, you didn’t mention it or move away from it. It was the first time in years Corpse got a few nights of complete rest.