#something something tried to make the arms transform into wings the more you went back in the thing

[elliwoods]

Tumblr.. why must you ruin quality... click for better quality I guess

Anyways last personal thing from me tonight o7 this was fun, and done on aggie lmao

[koolades-world]

OK OMG this is so fun so sorry for the long wait, also taking inspo from honkai star rail's heliobi which are basically little fire guys that take a host and feed off their emotions and uses their deepest desire against them which either kills them directly, or drives them insane! fun right?

part one can be found here if you haven't read it or want to reread it haha

dance of the haunted (part two)

Instead of running home, Satan began to run towards the Demon Lord's palace. He still wasn't sure what Lucifer could want, but he thinks it would be wisest to get Diavolo and Barbatos first. He quickly barged in the front door without knocking. Little D's crowded around him, asking what was wrong. He ignored them.

"Barbatos! We need to talk!" He yelled out. Like magic, Barbatos was behind him, a hand on his shoulder.

"What's the matter? No need to yell." He tried to quiet down the disturbed demon.

"I think Lucifer might want to harm Mc over this journal I found. I found it one time at a bookstore and it was Lilith's and it spoke to me as her and I don't really know if it was her and..." Satan began to ramble, spilling out everything at once.

"Lucifer wanting to harm Mc? That seems out of character for him. Are you sure?" Barbatos hushed Satan again.

"I think. He called me asking me to bring Mc home with me, when the matters of this journal don't concern them at all. That journal gave me negative feelings overall and it makes me wonder if it asked for them specifically. I apologize for the lack of detail and how unclear this all is, but I just don't know." Satan confessed.

"Alright. I understand. I will go with you to check this out." Barbatos agreeded.

"Let's get Lord Diavolo too. He might be able to help." Satan sucked in a deep breath to calm himself down a little more.

"As you wish. I'll fetch the young master. Please wait here." Barbatos began to walk away. Satan turned away to pay attention to the chattering, worried Little D's and when he turned back, Barbatos had simply disappeared. He tried to consul them, telling them that everything was going to be alright, but he couldn't even convince himself of that. At some point, Barbatos returned with Diavolo. Satan quickly ran through the story one last time for Diavolo, who seemed the most worried. Together they made their way to the House of Lamentation. They passed Purgatory Hall on the way there. They saw one light on in the kitchen with a shadow passing in front of it. Satan didn't know who it was, but he hoped they would remain safe. Satan dreaded arriving at the place he called home. He wasn't ready. But, did he really have a choice?

As soon he arrived, he decided to make their presence known. He slammed the door open. "I'm here, just as you requested, dearest brother." Satan snarled. A soft buzzing overhead could be heard overhead.

"And where is Mc?" Lucifer was standing with his arms crossed between the double staircases, just like he had predicted. He was in his demon form. His wings rustled, agitated.

“That’s none of your business.” He curtly answered. Barbatos stood behind him silently, while Diavolo started at Lucifer intently. "Where's the journal? I'm not here to mess around."

"How dare you hide something like that from me? Did you steal this?" Lucifer held the book in front of him, clutching it tightly.

"I found it at a bookstore and bought it. Why does it matter?" Satan was already frustrated. He let out a sharp breath of air from his nose.

"Because this is one of the few thing I managed to recover from the Celestial Realm. It went missing a while back and after finding this in your room I can only assume you are responsible." Lucifer pointed an accusatory finger at Satan.

"Don't you think you would have found it sooner? This is pointless. What do you even want?" Satan's tail lashed about behind him. He had transformed at some point. Barbatos opened his mouth, but paused as they heard a thump behind them. They turned around to see Beel with the sternest expression on his face Satan had ever seen. His arms were crossed and he started at them with dead, unreadable eyes.

"Lucifer, what is all this about? You know you can always talk to me, right?" Diavolo spoke up.

"You have no part in this conversation. You couldn't bring Lilith back to me. Nothing that comes out of your mouth matters anymore, Diavolo." Lucifer snapped back. Satan froze for a moment. He had never heard Lucifer address Lord Diavolo with such animosity. Diavolo paused too.

"That's absolutely no way to speak to your Prince, Lucifer." The tension in the room could have been cut with a knife. The way Diavolo spat out Lucifer's name was something Satan never thought he would hear, no less see them on separate sides of anything this serious. "You of all demons would know I did everything in my power to resolve the situation as best as possible. If I had done what you initially asked, we would have risked war with the Celestial Realm." Diavolo sighed, malice growing in his usually kind features.

"You took advantage of me. I knew what I was getting into but it wasn't clear that by save her, you would rip her away from me. Now, we can be together again, no thanks to you lousy idiots." Lucifer held the book out in front of him.

"Lucifer, what are you talking about?" Satan watched as Lucifer opened the green journal. A mysterious wind whipped up the pages and opened it to a specific page. A tiny woman popped out, sitting on the edge of the book. As she jumped off of it and onto the ground, she grew into a more normal size. She was beautiful, and eerily reminded Satan of Mc in a few ways he couldn't place. Looking into her eyes was just like looking into Mc's. However, instead of appearing fully fleshed out, she was opaque and flickered in and out of existence. Her hands passed though anything she touched. Her smile would have lit up the room if it didn't seem so empty. That had to be what Lucifer thought was Lilith. Based on the reactions of Diavolo and Barbatos, his fear was confirmed.

"Hello Luci!" She threw her arms around his middle. "I've missed you." Lucifer smiled a smile Satan had never seen before, something that was clearly reserved for Lilith. But, he knew that couldn't be Lilith. She had died so long ago. This wasn't his brother's sister. Like moths to a flame, his brothers began to appear, like they sensed her arrival.

“Lilith!” Asmo flung himself at her after basically leaping off the top of the staircase. Beel stepped out from behind them and stared in awe.

“It’s good to have you back.” Lucifer told her. Satan could’ve believe his eyes. Didn’t he see what Satan saw?

“I recognize those two. Prince Diavolo and his beloved attendant, Barbatos. It’s an honor to meet you.” She bowed, making Diavolo’s eye tick. “But I don’t recognize you. You must be Satan. Luci, you really should be thanking him. He freed me. He showed me that there was more than that book.” Lilith stepped into the middle of the room and reached a hand out. Satan stepped back. Lilith grimaced and stepped back to Lucifer. He put his arm around her shoulder. “Where Mc? I’ve heard so much about them and are dying to meet them.” Lilith looked around the room again.

"You can't be serious." Satan immediately knew that wasn't Lilith. The real Lilith was not only dead, but had some inkling of who Mc was, according to what they had told him.

"How dare you disrespect her like that!" Lucifer raised his arm to point, but Lilith lowered it for him.

"Pointing is rude. Maybe he doesn't believe I'm actually here. Ask me anything, my dear brother, that might make you believe me. How about your past with Mc, hmm?" She spoke with a sickly sweet tone that lured his brothers in successfully. He began to sweat, and briefly glanced at Barbatos and Diavolo. Barbatos was studying Lilith with an intesity he rarely saw. Diavolo met his eyes and nodded at him, as if to signal him to move forward with the plan he thought Satan might have.

But he didn't. He wracked his brain for a question good enough to ask that she also wouldn't know the answer to. Something small would sound stupid and probably be rejected. Suddenly the perfect question hit him like a sack of bricks.

A smile grew on his face. "This should be an easy one. This question is for Lilith, and Lilith only. Has Mc ever died?" It was so simple it was nauseating, but he knew she would not be able to answer it. The real Lilith knew about the moment her brother murdered Mc, but the fake did not. He hadn't told her when they first met, and since her brothers thought she was the real deal, they hadn't bothered to ask.

"Of course not! How else would they be here with us today? That reminds me, are they on their way? I'm just dying to meet them." The room froze at her casual response. A look of horror began to dawn on her brothers faces. Belphie seemed the most stunned.

"Lils?" Belphie quietly addressed her.

"Yes?" She turned to face her brother. Belphie opened his mouth to speak, but shut it again, at a loss for words. The faux Lilith scanned everyone's faces, realizing she had said something very wrong. Before she could address her mistake, the doors slammed open behind them.

It was Satan's turn to become horrified. Behind him stood Mc, Solomon, and Simeon. Mc looked weak, and every pact mark except his own was glowing brightly. Solomon also looked slightly drained, a slight pink glow emitting from underneath his shirt. More than anything, they both look distressed, as if they knew something was wrong with the demons they had a pact with.

"Satan! What's going on?" They stumbled in, a hand on their head.

"What are you doing here?" Satan lunged forward to catch them before they fell.

"Something is wrong. Everything burns. What aren't you telling me?" Mc groaned. He held them against himself, cradling them.

"I'm sorry, but now's not the time to explain. Just hang in there, ok? You're going to be alright." As he spoke, Mc began to visibly deteriorate in condition. Their body was wracked with tremors, trying their best to focus in on Satan's face. They placed their shaky hands on his face in an attempt to steady themselves and to retain focus on him. Solomon made retching noises and doubled over, holding his side. Satan had never seen the sorcerer react in such a way to anything.

"It's that book. You may have already realized, but that is not Lilith. It's merely a copy of her based on her memories." Barbatos spoke up and pointed an accusatory finger at the fake Lilith. A look of rage crossed her face.

"After all my hard work, all it took to unravel my illusion was a Lucifer ripoff? Ugh. Whatever, I'm almost ready anyways." She grabbed the book out of Lucifer's hand and held it to her chest. She was solid enough to touch things in the real world now. Like dominoes, the six brothers standing next to her collapsed, causing Mc and Solomon to worsen. Solomon fell onto all fours. Mc desperately looked into Satan's eyes, their grip slackening. Both of them were gasping for breath.

"Barbatos, what's wrong with them?" Simeon hoisted Solomon off the ground, lifting him like a feather. A quick look at his side where he had been grabbing showed that Asmo's pact mark had begun to dim. He searched Barabatos' eyes pleadingly.

"If I'm right about the creature we're dealing with, Solomon and Mc are indirectly having their souls drained due to their link with the brothers. Their strong emotions over being reunited with their sister allowed the creature to access their soul and in turn, the human's they're linked with. The brothers were alright for much longer due to the power imbalance. Solomon and Mc are merely humans. Solomon has so many pacts so his soul is divided, leading to 'cracks' and more weaknesses, so to say, and Mc is having most of their soul siphoned out. However, If a more powerful being, for example, Satan and I, were to channel power into them, it would sustain them temporarily, like setting up a barrier between the force and their soul." Barbatos took Solomon from Simeon and concentrated on his pact mark. It started to glow brightly, and caused Solomon to stir.

Satan wasn't sure when Solomon had shut his eyes. He was busy focusing on Mc. Their pact marks began to dim, their eyes beginning to also flutter shut for longer and longer between each blink. He didn't have to be told twice to concentrate all his being into channeling power into Mc. His pact mark began to glow brighter than he had ever seen it before.

"Young Master, Simeon. Destroy that book. We cannot keep this up for a prolonged amount of time. All of the energy we funnel into Solomon and Mc is effectively being taken by the false Lilith. We can only sustain until that book is taken care of." Barbatos looked at the two entities gathered around them. Faux Lilith was more focused on the fallen brothers than what was happening across from her.

"We won't let you down." Diavolo wasted no time charging her, sending flames that sprouted from his palms at her. They licked the book and singed her clothes. There was a noticeable stir in the grounded brothers and the humans. Simeon ran behind her and attempted to snatch to book from her. She ducked under his hands and dashed deeper into the house. After a quick glance back at the rest of the group, the two of them charged after her.

"Mc? Solomon? Are you with us?" Their grip on his face was so weak at this point, so he took one off his cheek to grip it tightly.

"Everything is blurry. Lean in closer." Mc relaxed into his arms and he got closer to peer into their eyes.

"I'm here, but I hope they hurry with that thing. At this point I feel like it might hurt less to just cut the pact mark off my body." Solomon was lightly shaking and grimacing.

"Are you in pain, Mc?" Satan noticed they hadn't said anything regarding how they were feeling.

"It feels like hot irons are being pressed to the pact marks. Don't stop whatever you're doing. It feels nice." They were quieter this time, and moved sluggishly.

"Don't worry. Diavolo and Simeon are going to put an end to this. It will get better, just hold on." They could hear the fight raging on somewhere else in the house, the kitchen based on the sound of pots and pans being flung. After they heard a shrill scream, the brothers began to stir again, and Solomon and Mc looked like they had just taken a breath of fresh air.

As Satan was about to ask how Mc felt again after the look on their face, the fight was brought back into the front room. This time, faux Lilith seemed to have a different goal in mind; Mc. She lunged at the two of them. Satan was quick to move. Barbatos hoisted Solomon onto his shoulder and moved back. She redirected to follow Satan's every move and tried to grab at Mc. Simeon and Diavolo rushed after her every time to no avail.

"What do you want with Mc?" He had his back to the faux Lilith, to hold himself between her and Mc.

"I need their body to complete my transformation. They're a real descendent of Lilith! If I use their body, I can finally be close to her again!" She gave Satan no time to think and rushed at him again. He fled up the stairs, planning to go to the one place he thought might keep her out.

He hurriedly climbed the long, twisty staircase to the attic. She was right on his tail. As he passed the threshold, he slammed the door shut with his tail, locking it. He looked around for anything that might be of use desperately, still clutching Mc to his chest. They seemed barely coherent, still trying their best to look at his face. If he tried to channel his power to use against Lilith, it would take away from what he was channeling into Mc, but it was all he had. She slammed on the door, starting to bash a small hole in it. Satan set Mc down on the bed that was always in the attic so he had time to search through everything in the attic for help. At this point, he noticed something long and shiny sticking out from under the bed. As he reached for it, he jumped back. It stung where he had made contact with it. He reached back under again, and despite the burning, he got it out into full view. He recognized it as Simeon's sword. It was blessed in several different ways, which was why he had issues picking it up. If he wanted to defeat this creature, he knew what he had to do.

As the door was finally broken through, he wielded the sword, despite the burns forming on his hand. He lunged at the faux Lilith, causing her to stumble back and onto the stairs again. She scurried past him and at Mc again and as she did, he caught sight of the book in her waistband. He knew he wouldn't be able to reach Mc in time at this rate, so he plunged the sword right into the book, and into faux Lilith. She collapsed to the floor, screaming loudly. Satan dropped the sword and hurried past her to stand between her and Mc. He watched as she disintegrated while writhing, leaving just the book behind, with a large gash right through the middle.

He jumped at the sound of Mc behind him. They were attempting to sit up, a hand on their head. "Mc! How are you feeling?" He sat beside them, holding their hand with his uninjured one.

"It feels like I got burnt, everything is spinning, and I kind of feel like throwing up but better than before. What happened?" They looked around. "How did we even get here?" They asked.

"Long story. Right now, we need to get you back downstairs to Barbatos. Everyone is probably waiting for us. Do you need a hand?" He got up and walked around to the side Mc was on.

"That would be nice." He extended an arm to them, which they took and hung off of. On their way out, he picked up the ruined book. It had begun to ooze a black substance.

"Do you mind grabbing Simeon's sword? I would, but it really stings." He opened his domainant hand to show them the outline of the sword in his hand from where he had held it.

"Satan! When did you get this?" They took his hand to spread his fingers while leaning against him for support, wincing as they did so.

"Just now. Also part of the long story. What's most important is getting you downstairs, Mc! Worry about me later, love." Mc gave him a quick glare, but did as he asked and picked up the sword. Together, they hobbled down the stairs and reunited with everyone else.

They were swarmed by the brothers who were on the ground last time they saw them. After seeing Mc hiss in pain and the holy blade, they moved back a little. Behind them was the others. Solomon was sitting on the ground, being tended to by Simeon and Barbatos.

"I believe this belongs to you." Mc held the sword out in front of them, catching Simeon's attention.

"Oh, thank you! I was wondering where it was sent when I lost it during the battle." He took the sword from them, to which it vanished after he briefly inspected it. "Now, come sit over here and let me look after you." After he saw Satan's hands, he made him sit down too.

"So, us three again, huh? Cats, am I right?" Solomon chuckled, causing the other two to laugh too.

"Do you remember anything? I just remember entering the house and staring at Satan." Mc asked Solomon.

"It's about the same for me. I remember getting here and almost throwing up, and that's it." As he was speaking, Barbatos moved around to his injured side and pulled up his shirt. "Barbatos, at least buy me dinner first." This earned him a strained, tight smile and a swat to the head. After seeing what Barbatos was looking at, the levity of the moment was drained. Over where his pact with Asmo was crusted over with a burn so deep in color you wouldn't be able to tell it was there if the pink glow wasn't emitting from the cracks in his skin. In contrast, his pact with Barbatos was baby smooth and looked refreshed.

"Is that what I'm going to look like?" With a gulp, they peeled off their shirt, and revealed the caked over pact marks. The only visible one was Satan's. It looked revitalized. Each of the burnt marks hurt to touch. The men around them looked a little embarrassed. As Simeon began tending to the burns and assessing the situation, the six brothers approached them again.

"I'm sorry, Mc, Satan, Solomon. For my reaction." Lucifer began his apology. Surprisingly, Satan interrupted him.

"It's not you're fault. It's the creature that possessed you. It's not you fault it went missing. It probably meant to find it's way back into our home. You wouldn't have known. I know this won't take away the guilt, but you just wanted to see her again. I don't blame you." He stunned Lucifer.

"I'll make it up to you. Thank you." Lucifer gently smiled at his younger brother, something he never thought he'd see. His brothers gathered around them, also apologizing. Mammon and Levi were in tears and Asmo was gripping Solomon so tightly he almost lost circulation.

As Lucifer took his injured hand, Satan looked around at everyone there, grateful to had been part of such a family.

SUPER SUPER proud of this one! honestly at first I didn't know where I wanted this to go but I am SO happy with it. I've def improved with fight scenes but I tried to avoid it because i never like them haha

but thank you all for patiently waiting! happy new year <3

all the people I promised to tag :D

@jasthelazyelf @boxofgasoline @clemtastica @cosmic-caffelatte @hananacchi @anxious-chick @smc-angl @exrellian @majesticselena @marvelous-maniac

[playedcrowd5610]

The Gift of Language - Danny Phantom x Transformers Prime

Summary: Danny's been working on a surprise for his favorite seeker

---

Notes

Set in a series where Danny finds Starscream one day and decides to start haunting the Decepticons. That's basically all the context you need but if you want more here is the rest of the series:

Haunting the Nemesis

Part 1: Chasing Stars

Part 2: Burning Rubber

Part 3: Adventures of the Decepticons' Pet Ghost Or Tumblr Master List

---

Danny had spent weeks preparing, poring over Soundwave's old files and historical records from Cybertron before the war. Danny would slip into Soundwave's storage rooms whenever the communications officer wasn't around, sifting through his archives. There were hours of audio recordings from the city of Vos, where the Seekers originated, documenting their unique language filed with high tones and clicks. 

He’d listened over and over, repeating the phrases to himself, experimenting with the cadence and pitch, trying to match the nuances of the language. The first few times he’d spoken aloud in the empty storage room, it had sounded all wrong.  It was quite different from the language spoken by the other Cybertronians on the ship. And even more different from the guttural horrifying sounds of echoing Goulish. But Danny was nothing if not persistent. It had taken countless tries, stumbling over words, getting the clicking sounds just right, and learning how to make his voice resonate higher in his head for how high-pitched the notes made it.

While most of the language had been lost over the years Danny was able to uncover some recordings of snippets of casual conversations, war cries, and even poetry. Even though some of them were corrupted Danny had listened to everyone, picking up vocabulary and phrases, trying to get a feel for how the language changed with tone and context.

Danny wanted to surprise Starscream. To show him that someone cared enough to learn his language. And he was so excited to reveal all of the hard work he put into this. He just hoped the Seeker appreciated it. 

Danny sat in his little designated area of Starscream’s room, waiting for the right moment, bubbling with excitement and barely holding himself together.

Starscream sat at his massive desk, his back turned to Danny, muttering under his breath as he sorted through datapads. His wings twitched with agitation as his, long, talon-like fingers drummed against the desk in a rapid, repetitive motion.

Danny stood up and moved closer to the edge of the shelf. With a determined smile. Swaying from foot to foot. “You’re always so stressed lately ,” Danny said, in flawless Vosian.

Starscream’s frame went ridged, his optics widening in disbelief. He turned his helm, gaze snapping to the small human across the room from him who had the biggest grin plastered on his face.

“What did you just say?” Starscream asked in disbelief.

Danny grinned wider, knowing that he had just thrown the seeker off completely. He crossed his arms and repeated himself, this time with more emphasis. “I said, you’re always so stressed lately. You should really take a break .” The clicking and high-pitched tone of the language was impossible to miss.

Starscream stared at him, completely silent for a few moments. His optics flickered and his wings twitched again, though now, Danny noticed, it wasn’t from irritation, but confusion. “You… You speak Vosian? ” His words came out more cautious now, less demanding, and more genuine bafflement.

“Yep! ” Danny nodded enthusiastically. “I’ve been practicing. Soundwave had some recordings I managed to weasel out of him, and, well… ” He shrugged nonchalantly, smiling at the seeker's baffled expression. “I thought it’d be cool to talk to you in your own language.”

Starscream stood from his desk and walked over to the small, overjoyed human, still processing what he was hearing. Vosian wasn’t just a language — it was something deeply personal, something he hadn’t had a full conversation in since the war began. His wings fluttered as he struggled to find the right words.

Starscream looked conflicted and confused as to why Danny would have put all this effort in. “Why? ” He finally asked.

Danny softened, understanding the question went beyond just language. “Because it’s a part of who you are. And I figured… it might be nice to have someone else who gets it. Who can speak to you in a way no one else here can.” 

When Danny first died, he would accidentally slip into Goulish all the time. Jazz had spent months learning it, trying to get it perfect so that whenever Danny ended up getting too emotional and switching to the language she could understand.  She may not have been able to speak it because she didn’t have the same type of vocal cords that a ghost has, but her being able to understand him, knowing that he had someone so willing to put in the effort to understand him… That was what was so meaningful, and he wanted to be that for Starscream.

Starscream blinked, and Danny could feel appreciation and joy spring up in the seeker’s field as much as he tried to stomp it down. “Well, I must say, your pronunciation is… decent. ” He looked Danny over, clearly impressed despite himself. “But it could still use some work.”

Danny just grinned wider, seeing through the glass facade. “Well, how about you teach me then.”

Starscream huffed but couldn’t help the small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. For a brief moment, the atmosphere shifted. He hadn’t realized how much he missed hearing his own language, or how much it would mean to have someone else care enough to learn it. Even if it was this strange, reckless human.

“Perhaps… you’re not completely insufferable after all, ” Starscream muttered, his wings settling into a more relaxed position.

Danny laughed, leaning back. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

The rest of the evening, Starscream abandoned his datapads and left his work for future Starscream to deal with, as he sat down with the human across from him to properly educate him on the pronunciation of certain words and the correct lilt ascribed to each one. Danny sat and listened carefully before continuing. Eventually, Danny ended up passing out on Starscream’s desk, leaning up against the con’s arm. And the Con decided not to move the small delicate human – Primus knows that human never slept enough.

Other chapters:

[uniasus]

To Die With You - Part 1

To Die With You is a DP whump fic written for @whumptober, with parts shared in order of prompts, not plot. Follow the To Die With You tag to read throughout the month, or stay tuned for the whole fic to drop on Ao3.

——-

Something shuddered in Danny’s chest. He put a hand on it, expecting to feel his heart thumping, but through his skin it beat like normal. Slow, steady, almost sluggish. Instead, he noticed an odd give to his sternum. As if the cartilage had turned to stiff rubber.  

Something shuddered again, and this time Danny felt it in a different part of his body. Still his chest, but lower. He pressed down with his pinky and ring finger and felt a rib give.   

That...wasn’t normal. Sure, his body was malleable. And ribs were just a suggestion in ghost form. But he was in the middle of English class. He was human at the moment. Ribs should be solid bone.  

The hairs on the back of his neck raised. Someone walking over your grave, he thought. Except his parents did that all the time. Danny tried to pass it off, but then his heart fully stopped.  

Again, not a concern in some situations. It was now.  

He shot a hand into the air, speaking over Star’s reading aloud of Animal Farm.   

“Mr. Lancer, I really think I should go to the nurse.”  

The English teacher looked at him, and Danny felt Sam and Tucker’s eyes snap to him. The nurse wasn’t his typical excuse to go fight a ghost. Danny shivered as his entire body seemed to vibrate. His whole rib cage now felt soft.   

The seriousness of it must have shown on Danny’s face, because Mr. Lancer nodded. “Foley, take him.”  

Tucker got up and helped Danny to his feet, who worried about his femurs going weird. He wobbled, and Tucker wrapped an arm around his waist. Sam, not willing to stay behind, scooped up all three of their school supplies. Mr. Lancer sighed, but let her do it.   

Wrong, wrong, wrong.  

Danny kicked his heart into gear, even as if he swore he could feel his bones going soft.  

Without asking, Tucker led them to the music wing of Casper. There was always a small practice room free this hour, and the small windows made them perfect hiding places.   

“Dude,” Tucker said. “Your skin is starting to sag.”  

“More worried about my bones,” Danny admitting, jump starting his heart again. “They’re going all ghostly, soft and flexible. And my -”  

His lungs went dead, refusing to push air out and over his vocal cords even as more ribs went rubbery. Tucker yelped as Danny’s torso condensed, gravity pulling his ribs down even while Tucker’s grip on Danny’s waist suddenly dug into Danny’s side an extra two inches.  

“Shit.” Sam pushed open the practice room door and Tucker hauled Danny inside, who was too panicked to do more than make sure he didn’t topple. Tucker dumped him in the chair and Danny forced his lungs to inflate. Let his bones due what they wanted, but in this form, air and blood were still something he needed.   

“Transform,” Sam commanded, finger on his neck taking a pulse. “Your ghost form is usually healthier.”  

“Kinda worried that going ghost would make everything worse.” Danny grasped Sam’s wrist. His skin was starting to sag. Not as if he’d lost weight, but as if his skin had turned into a tub of slime. “Body’s shutting down. If it shuts down complet-”  

His lungs and heart went. Danny forced them to work.  

“Plus,” he panted, closing his eyes to avoid the panic in his friends’ eyes. “Bone turning to ectoplasm.”  

“You’re dying,” Tucker said. “Like, for real.”  

“Shut up!” Sam snapped at him.  

“Look, human organs shut down. Dead ghosts dissolve. Like Dani, they turn into goop. If both of Danny’s forms are dying-”  

“Transform,” Sam barked. “We need to know.”  

Danny let go of his slowly fading organs to transform. He didn’t need them in this form, anything that made up his mortal form turning just as half alive as him. There in memory, ectoplasm holding the form and function but willing to let it go on command because a stomach and heart and brain weren’t needed for the dead.   

As soon as he was a ghost, his belly sloshed uncomfortably. He tipped sideways and vomited, acid ectoplasm burning his throat and spilling onto Sam’s combat boots.   

“Shit. Shit, shit, shit.” Sam got on her knees to look Danny in the eyes, uncaring about the mess. “Danny, Danny I think Tucker’s right.”  

Yeah. Danny thought so too. But why now? Had the portal only given him enough ectoplasm to last so long? Was this a new weapon of his parents? Some long range, radio wave thing?  

Tucker appeared on his other side. Compared to Sam’s pale, worried face his was grim and determined. “I’m gonna grab Jazz and we’re gonna drive to your place. Grab some ecto.”  

Danny nodded, unwilling to open his mouth. His bones felt less like hard rubber and more like noodles. He also fairly convinced he just threw up his heart. Or rather, the ectoplasm it had turned into.  

“Don’t let him use powers,” Tucker told Sam. “Don’t let him do anything extra.”  

“Oh, his butt is not leaving the chair.”   

“You better be a ghost when I come back,” Tucker said.   

Danny gave him a thumbs up.  

Sam and Danny watched Tucker leave, thinking fast on. He coded fast, he planned fast, he learned fast. Danny was in good hands.   

As long as he didn’t dissolve fast too.  

[deathmetalunicorn1]

Queen of forgotten as Medusa is a very interesting concept, liked she is a mother of not also the demi gods from Posidon but also few other biological children when she was married before and her other adopted children

How would Zero be when she takes him in with her and takes care of him, even telling him not to take her burden as she rather keep them then him take the burden, what more she treats him liked all her other children

Nothing but love and make sure that he survived even if he is a god

-It was surreal, seeing you win Valhalla, you were a fierce warrior, winning your match in a hard-won fight against Athena of all people. And for your victory, you won the right to wish for anything you wanted, and you chose to have all those who had fallen in the tournament brought back to life.

-You were selfless, thinking of others, and watching the reunions, seeing new those who had formed new friendships, and old friends, families, being reunited.

-Seeing their smiles through the tears made your own tears well, it made you think of your own children, your darling babies, those who had lost when you had been transformed, your life snatched away.

-You had more children after your change, like Pegasus, but many of them didn’t make it to Valhalla. There were winged horses in Valhalla, but none of them were Pegasus, the first, your darling child.

-A voice then filled your ears, “It’s you!” you turned and your eyes went wide as a child, Zerofuku was his name, leapt into your arms, his arms around your neck as he hugged you close.

-You… weren’t used to others, especially children, approaching you, especially when you looked how you did- most were hesitant to approach you until they got to know you.

-Buddha walked up behind Zerofuku as the child dropped from your arms, beaming up at you as Buddha grinned, “I wasn’t expecting that from you of all people, Y/N- seeing how you have several reasons to hate the gods, but it’s nice to see people like you have bigger hearts than the gods do.”

-You smiled warmly up at Buddha, thanking him as Zerofuku hugged you around your waist, beaming up at you, “Thank you Y/N! I’m so happy to have another chance at living life properly now!”

-You felt a pull to this child, your eyes meeting his own, your felt a deep primal urge to immediately adopt this ball of sunshine.

-Buddha grinned, seeing this, as he knew what a good mother you would be and Buddha waved over his little buddy who ran over to him and you watched Buddha whisper into his ear before Zerofuku turned to you, a huge smile on his face as he ran over, “Mama!!”

-You instantly had him in your arms, your snakes peppering his face with kisses as you hugged him close, making both him and Buddha laugh warmly as you smiled softly.

-Buddha was someone you considered a friend, you weren’t interested in him romantically, but just as a friend, something he also saw you as, you would share snacks and just hang out with each other and he knew that you had been a mother many times over and he knew that you missed your children greatly.

-Zerofuku needed that in his life, he needed that family bond to keep him not only happy but safe, and you were a perfect fit, as he would get to see Buddha a lot too since you visited your friend so often.

-Zerofuku adored you, you were so gentle and patient with him, hugging him close, cuddling him, and showering him with praise and affection.

-You would never berate him if something bad happened, only teaching him on how to prevent it from happening again, showing him how to fix things, and teaching him that it was good to let others fail so they too could learn.

-While not biologically yours, Zerofuku was your son, and you were fiercely protective of your children, so if anyone, usually one of the other gods, tried anything against your son, they had to deal with a pissed off gorgon while Buddha and Zerofuku sat nearby, eating popcorn together.

-You were so happy that your wish brought happiness to not only others, but to you as well, in the form of Zerofuku.

[katisblue]

ot7 prompt

So, Jungkook isn't entirely sure what has happened. Well, he knows three things:

something went very, very wrong during his vampire transformation.

He no longer has a sire

and 3. He is most definitely, absolutely, stuck in his bat form. Small.

and you could maybe throw a four in there, that Jungkook has absolutely no idea where or what he is, except for the intense and furrowing urge to be nurtured.

Flying is hella hard though. His little wings can barely keep him up and he's knocked into multiple trees and branches, and his entire body aches and Jungkook is just so, so tired. He lets out a quiet sound, something exhausted and desperate, and what do you know, badda bing, badda boom, he's flying snout first into something that is not a tree.

"Taehyung-ah, what do you have in your hands?!"

Jungkook can tell instantly that this old, very very old, very powerful vampire is not amused. However, the nestling that is holding him utterly beams, holding out his palms to present Jungkook to him. Jungkook, in turn, flutters his wings just a little for presentation. He doesn't want to look too eager.

(It turns out, he had flown directly into a chest of a fledgling in the forest. And whelp, he had not questioned when he had been smuggled into a pocket and taken back to their house.)

"Look, Hyung!" The nestling, Taehyung, chirps, eyes glowing, "Isn't he cute?!" In turn, tall vampire turns to glare at Taehyung's companion threatingly.

"Namjoon-ah, why the hell does our fledgling have a bat?"

Dimples vampire looks sheepish, mumbling something about getting distracted. Tall vampire sighs into his hands, shaking his head almost violently, and Jungkook lifts his cute little head just a little, to sniffle, make his eyes big.

It's then that more eyes pop up over tall vampires shoulders.

"Ooooo!" One of them coos, his mouth erupting into a heart, and then there's one with cherry red hair, squinting at him, and finally, a short vampire with cat-like eyes who slips around the tall vampire to observe him.

"He isn't... a nestling or anything, is he?" Namjoon asks nervously, and Jungkook lets out a little squeak when cat vampire presses a thumb softly just above his eyes. His brow furrows, just a little.

"No, there's no magic signature. Taehyung-ah has picked up a very normal, very much baby bat."

Tall vampire lets out a sound like he's being stabbed and Jungkook blinks at him.

"Okay, okay, take him back!"

"Hyung!" Taehyung whines, pouting, but tall vampire stays firm.

"Back! Take him back where you found him."

"I'll go with Namjoon-ah," Red vampire murmurs, and Jungkook is plucked delicately from Taehyung's hands, even when the young vampire starts to cry. Jungkook glances back as he's carried out the front door and his heart squeezes when he sees Taehyung's glossy eyes, hands reaching for him, but heart vampire has his arms around his waist and is murmuring something to him, soft and loving.

A brisk walk later and Jungkook is promptly stuck on a tree. He squeaks, tries to shuffle back into the cool hands, but the red vampire is taking them away, smiling at him sadly.

"Goodbye, little one. Be safe."

And then he's alone, Jungkook is alone again, and he- he doesn't- he-

Dawn is just threatening to peek over the hills as Jungkook finally manages to make it back to the house. It's taken all his strength, half-flying, half-crawling through the long grass, fighting his way back, but he's here, he's back, and he collapses on the deck with a squeak. Deflating like a pancake.

(Needless to say, cat vampire, who has come out to enjoy a cup of coffee alone is very surprised to find him there.)

But even more surprisingly is when the vampire sits down next to him, and Jungkook, slowly, pretending not to be doing so and not to care, slowly inches his way over the deck and into his lap. Soft fingers run down his little body as he nestles in.

"Well." Is all cat vampire says, and a few minutes later he's being cradled and carried inside, much to the squawking shock of tall vampire and the joyful cheers of Taehyung.

"It's definitely imprinted on us, Hyung," Cat vampire says with a sigh as Taehyung gently picks Jungkook from his hands, the tiny bat wriggling his way into the nestling's throat.

(What they don't realise though, is it isn't a bat on vampire imprint, haha, nooooo, it's in fact a nestling on nestling imprint, but hey, how would they know? And Jungkook, well... he's never had a home before, so he's content to play the part as a little pet, to pretend that he's a bat forever. Right...?)

MORE THOUGHTS: But Jungkook has to drink blood, right? And being in bat form makes that tricky - he can steal into a blood bag late at night, but having to hide the evidence in his small form is hard. So OF COURSE he falls very ill at one point and his hyungs don't know what to do... will he be revealed?! :0

[ask-andrew-montrose]

[Polyjuice Swap 2024]: The One Where Alsius and Lilith Are sort of Friends

(thank you @lil-grem-draws for being the mad genius behind this very special event

Disclaimer: No Espresso Beans were involved (this time)

Logically, Montrose knew he was simply wearing a different face. Logically. 

The night felt almost felt like a bit of a masquerade, and lucky for him he had the good fortune of drawing a pretty good mask to wear. After throwing back the frothy polyjuice potion, Andrew was pleased to find none other than @ask-alsius-vafer's fine bone structure staring right back at him.

His usual deep blue eyes were now much more piercing and lighter, his features were sharper, and Montrose's golden blonde had transformed to a neary white blonde. He nodded in approval.

Handsome bastard.

It was an odd feeling, but perhaps a few hours of not being himself would do him some good. A fake sort of freedom. But besides being handsome, Als's face was also a trusted one, being one of the most talented healers training in the hospital wing. Maybe he could use it to his advantage.

And maybe he could see if he could get Will to play Doctor with him later. He couldn't wait to see if his Fox would be able to tell who he really was. Will always did have such great ideas when it came to these types of events....Montrose just hoped he could make it through the night without anyone actually needing medical assistance from him. His hands were talented, but not in that way.

As "Als" walks into the Great Hall, there are several people already passing him far more friendly smiles than usual. At first, Montrose had to fight the urge to demand to know what they were looking at, but then again….he was Alsius. So Monty tried smiling back, even if it felt somewhat weird on "his" face. Did Als even smile when not around Felix? Montrose was probably biased considering his first introduction to his fellow Ravenclaw was when he was teasing their mutual friend about...erm...belts.

Finally, a familiar face distracted him. "Als" spots Lilith over by the stained glass windows, and what better test to see if he could pass for someone else than to approach the no nonsense witch? Lilith had certainly been able to see through him before, but she had no bread this time!

As he approached, he couldn't help but notice she did seem slightly preoccupied. Lilith was too busy shifting this way and that as if trying to get a better view of her thighs….��she didn't even notice "Als's" appraoch.

“Lilith, are you alright?” 

Her head snapped up, an odd noise squeaking out of her as if she had just been caught doing something she shouldn’t. 

“Yes, I'm all thighs! I mean yes, alright. I’m alright!”

Montrose wasn’t sure what to be more concerned about, how flustered Lilith looked at the moment….or the uncharacteristic blush on her face. Never the less, Lilith finally seemed to remember who she was talking to before straightening her shoulders.

“Oh, Alsius. Good to zee you. Hope your hospital ving has recovered nicely from my beans. I’ll try not to accidentally send anyone else your way tonight! ” 

Monty’s mind struggled to find any concept of what on earth she was referencing, but it was hard to tell what she was even saying through what seemed like a poor imitation of a Russian accent. 

Before he could put two and two together, Lilith punched his arm in what might have been a playful attempt, but had Montrose rubbing the sore arm that was slightly slimmer than he was used to. 

“Ow!” 

Lilith's eyes went immediately wide in panic, accent completely gone

“Oh hell - I didn’t mean to.. Are you okay?!”  Als's face just reflected a very, very raised eyebrow. Monty knew Lilith’s particular brand of tough love, and this wasn't it.

“I’m fine, Lilith." "Als" didn't bother to hide the the accusatory tone he used while saying her name. "How very nice of you to ask...." Maybe it was something in the way he had let the sarcasm sneak back into his voice, but all of a sudden Lilith’s own eyes narrowed in return.  

“Montrose?!” Lilith hissed incredulously, and he had certainly heard a certain witch say his name said that way before. 

“Theo?!”

At his response, “Lilith”  was quickly hooking her arm around his neck and yanking him into the corner hurriedly,

“SHHH not so loud!!! I don’t know if the others know yet. You got Alsius? Really? Of all the people....don't do anything stupid. People actually like him."

"Als" gave "Lilith" a dirty look before continuing with pure sarcasm, “Oh, sure. Why not!! I'll promise to behave if you can stop staring at your own thighs for one second, you’re not exactly doing a great job as passing as Lilith either.” He pointed out, effectively offended. 

Theo used the newfound strength she had in Lilith's body to bop Montrose a little harder on top of his head. “Noted.”

She gritted between her teeth, before rolling her eyes and looking around the room. “I….I haven’t seen where “I” am tonight yet….have you seen any sign of me? I’m starting to get worried….” 

"Als" shook his slightly throbbing head, “Not yet. Maybe they decided to hide in the bathroom once they found out who they were transforming into.”  He teased cooly, and "Lilith" hit him again. 

“Okay!" He hissed, "...Merlin, it’s one thing when it’s you….but Lilith’s punches hurt.” 

"Lilith" crossed her arms stubbornly, “Aren’t you a healer, Als? You’ll be fine.” 

Montrose grumbled, he was wasting precious time bickering with Theo/Lilith and had to find Will and the others. He had a lot of people to sing his own praises to tonight, after all. 

“Your concern is touching, as always. If I happen to see “you” show up, I’ll send them your way. Now, excuse me…Als has some compliments he wants to share about …well, me. Who wouldn’t trust this face, after all?” 

“Lilith” rolled her eyes again, declining to respond and deciding there was no need to put Montrose in his place for a third time. Someone else would surely take care of that for her this evening. If only she had some wet bread to smack him with to truly do her current body justice. 

For now, Theo just waited anxiously as she peered into the crowd of hundreds of faces except her own. It was going to be fine, right….???? 

“Als” left “Lilith” to her own devices, turning only to find @adallegra right by the snack table. Oddly enough, she seemed to be very preoccupied with admiring the cream on the cupcakes. “Als” shrugged, deeming it as good of a time as any to approach her. 

“Allegra, how good to see you! I’ve been meaning to find you. Did you hear what an impressive job Andrew Montrose did the other day during Defense Against the Dark Arts class? With that, and his proficiency in arithmancy ... surely he’s going to make a wonderful curse breaker…don’t you think?” 

It wasn’t until he was done flattering himself that he noticed “Allegra” still seemed more preoccupied with looking at the dairy products on the table, rather than her usual response of pointing out several areas in which Montrose could improve, or correcting him in any fashion. 

In fact, she hadn’t negated a single point he had made, which felt oddly disappointing. 

Unless it wasn’t really Allegra. Perhaps….the polyjuice potion was going to make things trickier than he thought.

With that realization, Montrose decided it was officially time to go and find @ask-elland-n-willl. Hopefully, his fox was having better luck with the potion than he was this evening….

[mysteriousmaninthesmoke]

Start - Prev - Next - Latest

Why hello there. Welcome back to my idea of what would happen if the military was able to turn its soldiers into powerful beasts with HRT. But first, let's get to my little rant you can just skip if you want.

Now I wanted to rant about Undead Unluck but that seems off-topic. but you should really go read it because you will laugh, you cry, and you hate god by the middle of part one.

I mean just look at her transition.

Anyway, I want to talk about what I was first thinking about if I went through a creature hrt. Now I was thinking of going for a crow or raven as the transformation but the more and more I thought about the more grim the ideas got. The process of my teeth becoming a beak and pushing out of my mouth, my feet becoming razor-sharp talons, whether my arms would become wings or would they sprout out of my back. And then @prettiestplatypus had to remind me of my sensory issues with her comic (which also led me to the idea of using animal HRT for medical practices but we'll get to that later) and the idea of me scratching my skin hard as feathers came out. So I decided to drop it because I did not want to go grim and bloody. I might come back to but for now, let's continue with more

Project Chimera Part 3

"Extermination across our nation, the fires are burning brighter than the sun."

Dr. Thedore Hans Erian began to slowly regain consciousness as he heard someone sing to themselves. "What happened," he said groggily. He began to open his right eye but couldn't seem to open the left one, as it swelled with pain as he tried. He looked up to see he was still in his office and that a man dressed in all black was in front of him with a bucket. "Who the hell are-"

"Oh good you're waking up. Let me help you." The man threw the bucket at the doctor, fully drenching him with freezing cold water. "WHAT THE HELL!" Dr. Thedore yelled, now fully awake. The man just stood there as the doctor began to stand up. "Good, now we can have a proper talk about you and your patients." The man said. He wore a black trench coat and a fedora, with long straight black hair running down his back. The fedora covered the man's face with shadow, making it hard for Dr. Thedore to make out his features.

The man pulled a folder out of his coat that the doctor recognized as the folder where he kept all his patient details. "Where the hell did you get you get that? Who the hell are you and why are you here?" Dr. Thedore began slowly backing away and towards his desk. He slowly remembers being punched straight in the face by this man before falling unconscious as he touched his left eye and felt a sting of pain as he touched swelling the bruise that was forming there.

"Names Smoke, a private investigator of the normal and paranormal." The man said giving his name. "And like I said, I'm here to talk about you and your patients." Dr. Thedore finally reached his desk and reached under it to grab something, but to his surprise, nothing was there.

"As for where I found this folder, it was in your desk, where I also found these." Smoke pulled out a gun and syringe from his coat. "I think these are what you were looking for." Dr. Theodore was shocked to see the man casually holding his emergency gun and his special formula for situations just like this.

"Interesting thing you got here. According to your notes, in this syringe is an extreme hormone replacer that works in seconds, meant to transform yourself into a dinosaur, in case one of your patients came after you, unhappy with what you did to them. It also seems to have some heavy painkillers in it so you don't immediately go unconscious from the pain. I'm sure some of your patients would have loved to have that type of mix in their treatments." Smoke said this last part with what sounded like anger in his voice. He then threw the syringe to the ground, shattering and spilling the formula on the floor.

Dr. Theodore was shocked but slowly collected himself and sat at his desk. "What do you want?" He asked. "Like I said." Smoke said sternly "To talk about your patients. Let's begin with this one. Eris. Seems she is on dog hormones. Let's see what you given her to help her out. Huh nothing. Not even special glasses for her degrading eyesight."

"Well that is for them to-" Dr. Theodore began to say before being cut off by Smoke "Goldie. On fish hormones. Same as last time, nothing. From what I read from your notes scales can lead to bleeding and pain, but you have given her no prescription for pain meds or bandages. Hell, it even says that taking this hormone can lead to forgetfulness, yet you have not given her a prescription for any medicine that helps with memory and focus."

"It's just that-" Dr. Theodore was interrupted again. "Kayla! On bat hormones. Nothing for their increased hearing or loss of vision. No medical earplugs or glasses." Theodore was starting to get scared of the anger beginning to radiate off this man. "Fae. Human hormones."

The doctor could swear he heard Smoke mutter "Why would anyone want to be human. We are ugly creatures ruining this planet." Smoke cleared his throat before starting again. "You f*cking ripped her off. you gave her hope and then you made that hope despair. She was suffering, trapped in a body she did not want. For 2 years she thought you had the keys to let her out, yet you dangled them in front of her and gave her NOTHING!"

Smoke threw the documents to the ground. He grabbed the doctor by the coat and picked him up "You could have used this hormone replacement therapy for medical practice. Your patients experienced improved eyesight and hearing. You freaking have notes of a patient regrowing a lost finger when using lizard hormones. Yet you went down the most profitable path. You gave people the opportunity to become who they truly were, but you never helped them through the hardships they had to go through to get there.

"You sicken and disappoint me, doctor. The dragon hormones. The people who went through that process suffered, brains slowly breaking from the pain and anguish they experienced, becoming beasts that could only walk the road of rage, running on only animal instinct. You could have helped them. Give them medicine to help them through the pain. BUT NO! YOU LEFT THEM TO FEND FOR THEMSELVES!!!"

Smoke let go of the doctor, dropping him back into his seat. "You know I wish I was here to beat you up for how you treat your patients but I have other things to do. I want you to tell me what your deal is with the military." Dr. Theodore was shocked at the yelling and accusations he just went through. He went to put on his glasses only to realize they were on the floor by the door broken. He let a sigh and said, "I don't know what you are talking about."

To his shock, Smoke pulled out the doctor's gun and pointed it at him. "Don't you dare mess with me." Smoke reached into his jacket and pulled out military dog tags with the name Private Tompson on them. "I pulled these dog tags off a literal dog who attacked me while I was investigating one of my cases 2 days ago. After that, I looked into animal hrt and saw you were the main provider and creator of it. So let's try this once again. What is your deal with the milit-"

Smoke was cut off by banging and rattling coming from the vents. He looked up and asked, "Do you have a rat problem?" "I don't think so." Dr. Theodore was glad for the sudden interruption, but suddenly the vent cover on the ceiling fell to the ground and a humanoid rat creature jumped down from the vents, screeching "YOU DO NOW!"

Hope you enjoyed this part. Thank you to @nyxisart @deadeyedfae @kaylasartwork and @welldrawnfish for letting me mention their character. I am happy that I got to vent my anger about how @ayviedoesthings doctor treats their patients and how they could have gone down the medical path, not the most profitable one. Anyway, I hope to see you next time in part 4.

[reversemoon255]

Flame Toys Go! Kara Kuri Power Rangers Dino Megazord

So much to say. Firstly, we've known about this toy since January of 2021. I remember being very excited at the initial reveal, because while it was the Dino Megazord, it was so hyper stylized and cool looking, that I would definitely own a second one for something like that. (Look at the pictures, then think about that statement for a second...)

But it wasn't until August of 2022 that it actually went up for order. And y'know what went up for order shortly before it? The ZAP Megazord. Good job communicating with your third party developers Hasbro. But I was still way more interested in this one. I even had $300 set aside to buy it. But when it went up for order, it was over $400, and I realized that I could be both the ZAP Megazord and the newly unveiled ZAP Dragonzord for less than it combined, which is how I ended up owning them... And then I caved and preordered it anyway.

But we're not done, because this thing was originally supposed to release in June of 2023. But it got delayed. And again. And again. It had multiple production delays that set it back until the last day of February 2024 (thank goodness it was a leap year). And the whole thing just got me feeling a little... jaded. I just felt like I had waited for so long, and that it had been delayed so many times, that I just didn't think it was ever going to come out.

But when I finally got that email saying it had shipped, I let out an audible gasp. The next two days we me antsily waiting for it to get here. And when it did, everything was, like, "they did that?" "Wait, they thought of that?" "That transforms, too?" It was a magical experience I haven't felt since Glacialord. So let's get to why this toy makes me feel like that:

The Good: Where to start? The T-Rex, I suppose. It puts the other three I have to shame. It GaoGaiGar's the legs, so they're able to have more articulation than the others, which fold the legs up onto the back of the thigh. It has pretty decent ankles, fully posable arms, the robot's waist, and a tail with a ton of universal joints in it (not balls, like ZAP Dragonzord). The tail can even expand and compress at every joint. Its only part with subpar articulation is the head, but that's only due to all the transforming it has to do, and even then it's still a great, unique sculpt.

If you've handled the ZAP or Lucky Cat mastodons, you'll understand what they tried to do with this interpretation, but it's just a bit more and feels a bit better. Like, it can balance on its back legs, its front toes can articulate, the trunk has a ton of joints. Its definitely the most brickish of the set, but I can't imagine giving it, say, a neck joint without encumbering it. And speaking of neck, the new head position gives it such a great identity that sets it apart from its predecessors.

The triceratops has legs! But if that's not your thing, they can flip around to reveal those usual treads. Those tiny legs are also very strong, and quite posable. Definitely the second-most brickish, but that's saying a lot considering how many poses you can get it into with what it has.

I find it really hard to get good looking quadruped articulation, but the saber-tooth tiger nails it. Pounce pose, run pose, (I haven't tried sit pose yet) any pose you can put it in looks great. It also has a really emotive neck, which helps a lot.

And the pterodactyl has the biggest glow-up. It has an actual neck like an actual pteranodon! And that head on top is very articulated, giving it a lot of emotiveness. Those wings are also very articulated, and having the hip skirt serve as actual feet makes it feel like such a better package than even the Lucky Cat's version, with the double ptera that mostly ends up as a backpack.

And onto the transformation, it's not actually that complicated. Its big thing is it has a lot of locks all over the toy to prevent certain joints from moving in different modes, but it doesn't take long to realize "if it doesn't move, look for a lock." And there are so many weird and cool transformation bits, like how the head assembles, the T-Rex's nose compressing, the mastodon toes becoming the elbow guards, the shield actually transforming, etc. It's fun.

Now, before we get to the main attraction, lets pivot and talk about the tank mode real quick. There's quite a bit of dedicated engineering for just this mode, with there being a slide in the legs, cuts in the hips, dedicated parts in the T-Rex chest and mastodon head, etc. Also, credit to this one over the others, the pterodactyl really brings it together.

And the actual Megazord is so well engineered. When combined, it feels like a solid piece; I'm not really worried about it falling apart, or untransforming as I play with it. All those locks really do make a ton of difference. And it's incredibly posable. I never had any trouble getting it into the pose I wanted; wings were super smooth to work with, arms never fought me to do anything, ankles are good, tail caused a few problems but only because I was trying not to poke my monitor. And that's the most amazing thing about this toy; that it is a toy. This isn't just some big display piece, it's playable, it's fun, and that's what probably surprised me the most about the whole experience. I was expecting to be scared that I'd shatter this thing if I looked at it funny, but it's just a super solid toy.

And everything is very self-contained, like the original. There's no extra hands, no adapters, no weird super-complex dismantling going on. The guns don't store (from what I've found), but apart from them, there are no spare parts. Heck, even the sword stores away. The sword. It's exceedingly impressive what this accomplishes.

The Bad: Two things. One, some of my glue didn't set? The front of the T-Rex pelvis, and the back of one of my hands both pop off. These aren't super important, load bearing areas or anything; I can glue them myself and they'll be right-as-rain, but I worry about other people where maybe more important areas didn't set right? Hopefully this is a rare issue and never on anywhere important.

And second it the saber-tooth tiger bit me, and it drew blood. Like, it's the next day and I can still see the mark. I also tried to set him on my lap, and his tail poked me right in the ouch. Very spiky, very pointy, be aware.

The Next: When this went up for preorder, they did also show off their grey prototype for a Go! Kara Kuri Dragonzord. And I think the only other time they've mentioned it was when that same proto showed up at a toy show. I follow them on The Twiblies, and they talk about this line maybe once a year, if that, so my hopes are not high that we'll ever get it. But after handling this, I do hope it eventually comes out. Heck, with how much work I've been putting into redesigning Titanus, this feels like the company that might actually do something interesting with it, besides the mono-boot.

Overall, I cannot sing enough high praises about this release. It's a beautiful, well engineered, very playable toy. It is incredibly expensive, though. I just hope that if you walk away from this review with anything, it's that if you do bite the bullet, you'll be getting your money's worth.

[wheresheblooms]

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟcurious little thing

jake sully x pixie!oc

plot: what if one day jake sully saw an odd creature wandering the forest.

*ೃ༄ one-shot: curious little thing. 

(part 1)- the meeting of flowers. 

Pandora, a wonderful beautiful place. Where you are welcomed with nothing but love. A place where you don’t have a life but two lives. One where you will live without Eywa embraces and the other with it—Many creatures inhabit Pandora. From the Avatars, Mountain Banshees, Viper Wolves, and so much more. There was always one creature who was so well forgotten—the pixies. 

Small, pure, human–looking creatures. With delicate wings that were opaque with their birth color, something that Ewya assigned them each at birth. They were tiny little things who could transform to the small height of five-foot if they were lucky. But usually they are at their natural height of twelve inches. Some were at least, some were shorter. 

Pixies have the power of the land they find over time what part of the land they connect well with. Some find they love the water then they are assigned jobs with that clan, others may find the sky to be more their speed, while the third group find peace with the forest—That was the case for Haven. She loved the earth and everything it had to offer. 

Haven was a pixie a bit outcast from her clan, though she was a forest fairy, she did well with all the parts of the land. The water, and the sky. Other pixies found her odd and tried to stay away from her not only for her different way of connecting with the whole land but for her smaller height. Some teased and called her runt even in her larger form she still only hit four feet and three inches. The tiny pixie never minded, she smiled widely and let rude comments roll off her shoulders. 

Haven was doing something a little forbidden some would say, she was traveling near the Omatikaya clan, a non-pixie clan where those beautiful blue giants frolicked and lived. The young pixie couldn’t lie to herself she loved them, she found those giants so enchanting, so magnificent, so eye-catching. Everytime she would see one fly pass on one of those flying Mountain Banshee she couldn’t help but flutter into a nearby tree and just admire the creatures. 

She decided to wander around the Omaticaya land, and it was beautiful. It lived up to every expectation and then some. Everything, everything was glowing. The flowers, the trees, even some of the little creatures. The water was enticing for the pixie; her skinny arm reached out to the body of water that was spewing from a rock—a waterfall. She felt the warm liquid trickle on her fingers making her little wings glow a soft pink with star constellations. So engrossed in her own little world she didn’t hear the rustling of the bushes behind her she didn’t even feel herself grow something that happens when pixies get too excited. 

The thing behind the bush was a Navi, not just any Navi, the leader of the Omatikaya clan. Jake Sully.  

The leader was confused on what that little thing on his land was. It reminded him of a human, but it had wings that were glowing a fierce pink with stars scattering all around them that were similar to his when he glowed. 

He had never seen anything like it before, it was small and peacefully playing with the water like a child. He had a bow in his hand but then picked it back up. Remembering to never let his guard down. Almost stealth like he walked carefully to the foreign creature. Being careful to not let it know he was there. 

Haven was an oblivious soul, she was just so used to the peacefulness of  her pixie land that she didn’t harm excited outside those walls. 

Once Jake was close enough to the pixie he paused taking in a breath, for a moment everything around him went absolutely calm. As if there was nothing or anything that could physically or mentally hurt him. It was a circle of peace and in it there was nothing but the sweet smells of flowers, and sugary confections. Squinting his brows he moved his braids to the side of his head revealing his chest. Shaking his head out of his trance. He bent his knees realizing how things were. His hand was bigger than its body. Choosing to use his finger he used the least amount of strength possible but still it caused the small thing to jolt a bit. 

Jumping around Haven’s eyes widen like saucers. Her large hazel eyes twinkled as they swirled like the milky-way her brows shot up as her lips turned up into an excited smile. A little squeal almost escaped the pixie’s lips, her wish to meet one of the blue giants was finally coming true. She couldn’t help but physically do a little jump. Her white freckled cheeks were dancing with a warm red as her wings were fading of all shades of pink. 

Jake, jumped back in shock, it was a young girl? He thought. A human. No. couldn’t be her ears were pointy, she had physical wings. And freckles that were glowing. Confused by her reaction he gave an awkward smile not knowing what to do. Her long hair was out and it went down to her knees. It was a golden brown with a crown of flowers. Her little white dress was cut open in the back to reveal the pink wings that were connected to her skin. 

“You’re–you're a blue giant!” Haven gushed, making Jake tilt his head at what this thing was saying. Skin of a human wings like a fairy. 

Clearing his throat he remembered he was a leader and had to keep his people safe even if the threats seem not threatening, “What is your business on this land.”

The girl shook her head furiously, cheeks puffed out, “No business sir.”

“Alright do you know you’re on Omaticaya territory,” he integrated, raising a brow he noticed his voice sounding much gentler than it usually was when he integrated foreign  creatures. 

“Uh-uh” the pixie shook her head with a small smile on her face.

The Olo'eyktan was absolutely stuck. This girl was so small he could flick her away but then he would lose her and he couldn’t lie to himself he was curious on what she was. He was lonely, after Neytiri left to fight a battle from the sky-people she never returned. Leaving him lonely, and depressed. Jake used most of his time leading so he could feel in control but nothing seemed to work. 

Haven was just looking up at him with eyes wide taking every ounce of his appearance, his beautiful blue skin that was painted with blue stripes and freckles that resembled stars just as her own did. His eyes were a type of green you only found in the deepest parts of the forest, his braids were several different sizes, the longest one trailing down his back while several smaller and shorter ones were scattered everywhere else. He had a handcrafted necklace—choker adoring his neck. He was built well, muscles bulging all over body jewelry emphasizing those parts. Haven was absolutely ecstatic to finally see one of these creatures up close. 

Reaching her palm out to his face but never touching his skin she whispered to herself, “what are you?”

“Could you ask me the same thing?” Jake said smirking, noticing the girl's attempt to reach out to him lowering himself lower he looked her in the eyes offering her his larger hand. 

Her eyes met his asking for persimmon, “May I?”

“I wouldn't have offered it if I didn’t want you to,” he joked, putting his hand out a little more 

waiting to see what she would do. 

Her tiny hands gently grasped the sides of his palm, her right hand went under his palm using all her might to hold up the weight, Jake couldn’t help but smirk a fang popping out at the sight of her struggle to lift his hand. To give her some relief he lifted his hand to show her she could do it. 

“You're very strong,” Olo'eyktan complemented more of an inward joke to himself. 

The pixie cranked her neck pausing her actions, “Thank you, my mother always said so.”

Jake got hit with guilt after her sweet reply, she didn’t hear the underlying sarcasm. What was she? He felt her tiny fingers trace the patterns in his hands getting to know him, it was how the pixie’s did so in their clans. Jake could feel his eyes close. It was like magic. Her small fingers massaging his tough skin. Lulling him to sleep. 

“You're named Jake?” She questioned finally finding his name deep in his palm. 

Pixies have many powers and some include reading any creature with their paw, hand, fin, or wing. Haven held this power. She read many things about Jake, his ora was sad, blue. His blood held trauma but it wasn’t just from this life. She felt a heartbreak, one she wished could heal for this kind soul. His life force was practically yelling at her making her almost cry for him. The navi scrunched his brows growling when she spoke his name without him telling her. 

Pulling his hand back making her teeter back and forth from the amount of strength he used, “Who told you Ngenga witch!” 

“No! No! I read palms! My people do it to get to know others!” Haven defends feeling guilty for just springing her powers on him. Looking down at her hands she pulled them into tiny fists hiding them behind her back.

Whipping her neck up, “They're all gone! See! They won’t do palm readings anymore!” 

Jake was once again put into shock from the purity he was being faced with, a creature with wings, who could read hands. Moving his long braid out of his face he put both of his palms out, “It’s alright, calm down. I shouldn’t have frightened you. So you know my name, can you tell me yours?”

His voice was gentle, being very wary of his tone not wanting to scare the poor pixie any more. Haven smiled and nodded with excitement.

“My name is Haven!” her wings glowed and spread so wide it took Jake a moment to even hear her name in the mice of his distraction. 

Jake smirked, “Pänutìng.” 

(pretty)

“Tsnì!”

(thank you!)

“You understand?” Jake asked, watching as the little pixie placed her hands in his. He didn’t notice before every time they touched her skin changes to match the color of his skin. She nodded, eyes closing using her little powers to send a wave of happiness through his veins. Haven didn’t like that every time she touched him she felt an overwhelming amount of sadness. 

Jake’s eyes widened with the amount of serotonin that flooded his senses, it was so energy inducing. When her eyes opened they were sparkling with the beautiful pink that was on her wings. The more Jake looked at her the more he noticed how pretty she was. 

Her tanned skin was decorated with freckles on every corner of her face, she was so wide and full of wonder. Her long hair blowing all over the place getting into her face a bit, he noticed she kept pushing strands out of her face every time she spoke to him. He understood her struggle, if he had his long lock out he wouldn’t be able to ride his Ikran. 

He watched as Haven pulled her hair behind her shoulders. The Navi paused, removing his hands from hers. His large finger reached out to one of her loose strands, “is this bothering you?” 

Haven looked down at his blue finger and she got that he was referring to her hair, “a bit I don’t mind” 

Jake did mind in fact it was pissing him off watching her fight off her long locks, “let me fix it.” 

The pixie tilted her head, “you can do hair!”

“Of course, I am Olo'eyktan.” Jake informed gently, flicking her forehead making the girl squeal with glee and stumble back a bit. 

Jake softly took her hand twirling her around leading her to softly sitting her down a rock. His nose twitched in delight at her sweet smell.”

“So you're the leader of your people,” Haven stated, understanding his words. 

Jake Mhmed in reply, he began to grab her long curls. It was so soft, like touching a cloud. Or what he imagined a cloud to feel like. Kneeling on both of his knees, the Na’vi began to gently part the hair into three sections. He began weaving the strands under and over one another.

“What is your role in your clan, little thing?” Jake focused on his work. Haven looked down to see a small flower, her hands gently picked it from the ground.

“Each pixie has their groups, I never was able to find one where I was completely able to belong. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to. I just loved all the tasks of the pixies and I do a bit of everything. So I wouldn’t really know where to find my role,” The pixie answered fiddling with the glowing flower. 

Jake looked down at the girl. He was just halfway done with her hair, he didn’t really know how to relate to what she said. He worked hard to become Olo'eyktan even though he struggled it didn’t take long for him to fit in. Haven was born into her clan, he thought she should be able to fit in. 

“Maybe they think you're a runt,” Jake boldly stated. 

Whipping her neck around with her eyebrows furrowed, “you calling me a runt?” 

Jake chuckled gently pulling the braid he was creating to make her turn around, “Maybe.” 

Haven huffed like a bratty child, Jake found it all too amusing. 

“That’s mean!” 

“Sorry, Nì’it,” Jake played around, still plaiting her hair. 

(tiny)

“That’s worse Jake,” Haven tutted, wrapping her arms around her tiny frame. 

For a moment the both of them were in silence. A peace settled over the both of them–something they haven’t both felt in a while. They both took a moment hearing the natural sound of pandora. The sounds of the waterfall crashing into one of the lakes that Haven ventured to. Sounds of small creatures rustling and making their noises. You could hear the wind gently blow into the branches making them crash together. At the same time they both inhaled the same fresh air. 

Jake finished off the braid tying it with a piece of grass he found taking her hand he led her to stand back up on her two feet , “let me see you.”

Twirling her in a circle her white dress spun around making the leader of Omatikaya blush a bit, he did notice something was wrong. Her little crown she wore upon her head was empty. Plain. 

“It won’t do.” he concluded, bringing her back on the rock. 

Haven tilted her neck back to see Jake picking up every flower he could see, “Jake what are you doing?” 

“This.” before she knew it the navi was placing little flowers in her crown they were glowing creating a halo effect. 

Jake gave an awkward smile as he watched Haven run to the lake to go look at her reflection. She gasped in awe—Turning her braid to the side of her head she sat there for a minute admiring herself. For once she felt pretty. 

Turning to look at Jake, she plucked a flower from the ground quickly flapping her wings to meet Jake's face. Cocking his head to this side. Feeling her small hand behind his ear—a flower. 

“We match now Jake!” the pixie squealed. 

Jake smiled a tender smile, “we do.” 

Jake wanted this for the rest of his life sitting in the forest with some foreign creature playing with flowers, and listening to the sounds of waves.  Why couldn't he have it? It was right in reach—

“Jake! We're under Attack!” 

Green eyes going wide, he looked at the pixie who looked scared folding into herself, “hide in the trees and don’t come out I come call for you!” 

Haven nodded, as she watched her new friend leave on the mountain banshee. 

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

[asleep-in-the-keep-sideblog]

Asleep In The Keep: A DP x BNHA fic

Summary: Danny Fights some Nomus

Word count: 2109

Chapter 5:

5/?

Danny didn’t know what he did to make the hero so mad. The hero tried to hide it, but Danny could tell. He was walking faster, his hands clenched, his smile a little too forceful. He no longer smiled at Danny like he did when their conversion first started. Maybe the social norms were different here. Maybe it's just this guy’s problem. 

“So, what’s your quirk?” The noise was sudden like a gunshot, Danny almost missed what he said.  

“My quirk? I mean I guess I like space and stuff, but I don’t think it’s that weird.” What type of person asks someone that when they just met?  

“No.” he sounded final, “Your power. What is it?” The man's eyes bore into Danny again. It was like when they first met, this time it went straight through Danny's bones.  

“My power?” Danny didn’t know how to answer that. The man was becoming more and more tense, he could feel it. Danny needed to answer soon, “I can go intangible.” That was the first power that Danny got, and so the first thing that came to mind.  

“Oh yeah? Show me.” The hero turned around. He had a playful smile on. Danny knew it wasn’t real.  

Danny knelt on the ground and stuck his arm through the cold concrete. He could feel how things interacted with his arm, nothing moved, but it was like he was able to feel the jagged outline of the rocks. Or maybe he thought he could feel it, so he did. Ectoplasm was weird like that.  

Fat Gum breathed in deeply.  

“Oh wow, that’s really something” Fat Gum was trying to smile wider, “Nice quirk kid. Is there a time limit on that?” He cocked his head to the side, “Or are you able to breathe while going through stuff? Seems like an impressive quirk.” there was something unsaid, What are your weaknesses?   

Danny knew what this was. He had to get away.  

“I-” an explosion was heard and suddenly people all around were screaming. Danny’s core shook.  

Protect.  

The hero had turned around at the blast, shock and horror filled his face. In a blink, Danny turned invisible and flew off, not bothering to look back as the hero turned to look for him.  

★~★

People were screaming and running through the streets. Danny followed the noise into a little shopping district and saw a…. What the fuck are those things?  

There were two of them. One of them was a weird zombie creature with only half a face and the other, a weird skin bird-man-thing. They both had their brains sticking out of their heads like one of those sad goldfish.  

They were attacking a group of heroes (anyone in a costume was a hero in this world) and the heroes were losing. Badly. They were being batted away like mosquitos. People still crowded around the area, either being frozen with fear or not fully understanding the danger yet. The only reason the creatures weren’t going after them is that they were being distracted by the heroes.  

One of the things threw an empty bus at a hero (who did not die). When it fell, an explosion blasted out and created a massive fire.  

A minotaur man ripped a fire hydrant from the ground and threw it at one of those things. The impact did nothing. He kept yelling to another man who was talking to a kid. Oh no. A kid shouldn’t be anywhere near this.   

The hero sent the kid away ( good ) and started WATERBENDING!!!!! But the one with the wings kept fanning and spreading the fire. By the time he put the big one out, smaller ones would already be everywhere.  

Danny couldn’t watch anymore (he didn’t know how he could for so long). He didn’t know much about this world, but he knew they were outmatched. The one with wings swept towards a hero, its toes ? Claws? Ready to take him away.  

“Hey Bird-Brain! Go long!” Danny threw a ball of ice at it. It distracted it enough for the hero to get out of the way.  

It roared. Do birds roar? Is that the right noise? Maybe shrieked is better.  

Not the time.  

Danny kept pelting its wing with ice. One huge chunk weighed it to the ground. That didn’t make it any less dangerous.  

“Get out of here kid” said the hero who Danny just saved. Danny glared at him, and the hero shut up. Danny didn’t have time for that (well he did not not have the time, but he didn’t want to deal with that right now). He circled around the bird thing, encasing it with ice. That should at least keep him busy.   

The minotaur was fighting the one missing half its face (what's a good name for that one? Baldy? Well, they both didn’t have hair…) but it was clear he was at his limit for the amount of hits he could take. Baldy grabbed his arm and threw him into the hero putting out the fires. Neither of them got back up. Only one hero remained. 

Instead of continuing to rampage, Baldy noticed the people for the first time and went charging towards them. Danny was able to intersect its punch as the thing aimed at a dog-walker.  

It was the most anything Danny had felt in a while. All day and the one before, he was almost numb.  

Now. Now he felt alive.  

He was able to take all the attacks that the thing threw at him and return them ten-fold. He had to be careful of its hands though. It’s punches were hard, but just as quickly as Danny dodged a hit, it would try to grab him.  

“What hero is that?”   

“I don’t know, I don’t recognize him”  

“Maybe he’s an intern or new sidekick?”   

“Who’s his mentor?”  

“Didn’t Manual get a new intern?”   

“I don’t think that's him”  

Danny couldn’t hear them. It grabbed hold of his arm and slammed him into the concrete. It left a crater and suddenly Danny felt nostalgic.  

The thing didn’t relent in its attacks. Danny was on his stomach and the thing kept hitting him in his back. He could hear screaming. His body felt like jelly, but now he was able to turn his torso around and create an ecto shield. With a break from the attacks, Danny was able to see the damage. His body was jelly. His waist was twisted around like a cloth being wrung out, and his legs were backwards from the rest of him. Okay . That's a new development. He had seen other ghosts do it before, and even himself had done it one time, but he had to actively focus on contorting his body. This, however, was like a reflex. No. Less than that. It was like twisting his wrist or his torso. It was too natural.   

The thing was still hitting his shield and he could hear the bird thing start to destroy the ice.  

Danny had to end this fast.  

Danny sent his shield back and knocked Baldy away with a screech. His shield shattered and embedded itself in the thing's skin. Then it bled. Oh this, this Danny could work with.  

He was certain that this thing wasn’t human. Or at least not human anymore. Ghost and zombie rules applied. He coated his hands in ice in a make-shift gauntlet. They were thick and jagged with more weight than he wanted, but they would work just as well in any size. 

Danny didn’t let the thing recover as he started his volley on the creature’s flesh. Each hit was heavy and satisfying. It was like stabbing pencils in an orange. The result was the same. It lay there, twitching before Danny’s feet.  

Holy shit that was a lot. Wow.   

Danny didn’t have time to think. Bird-Brain had escaped the ice and was starting to fly away. Danny chased after him, an ice blast under his skin, but it’s wings were fanning the still surrounding flames. Embers had landed on a tree and grass where a few people were hidden. Danny knelt down and pressed his palms on the ground. He sent a road of sleet towards the tree, and it traveled up the tree and coated it in an instant. That was also new. The people surrounding only had minor burns but stared at the tree with shock and awe on their faces.  

Right away he started icing down the smaller fires around him. The range of his ice had increased, and Danny realized he had yet to transform. Is there anything to change into left?  

In Danny’s haste to put out the smaller fires, he had completely neglected the initial fire. It had gotten smaller as its fuel burned, but there was a leak that it was following towards a beer and liquor store.  

Danny felt a swell of heat on his back. The fire had just entered the door and was already eating the shelves. It would only be a moment til it would explode out.  

With a deep inhale that he didn’t need, Danny’s hands started to glow brighter than before. It should be fine. Ecto ice wasn’t made out of water, nothing bad should happen.  

Danny jinxed it. Something bad happened.  

Before he was able to ice down the fire, a blast rocketed out. Using the already built up energy in his hands, he created a dome of ice. Everyone was so scattered out that it wouldn’t be big enough. Danny would be fine, he survived way worse, but the people behind him would get hurt .  

The blast was getting closer, but Danny’s attention was on how his ice was still spreading and forming. He saw in slow motion how it was able to cover the whole two-lane street. Everyone was okay.   

Dust and light debris blew away and settled peacefully as a chill filled the air. Danny couldn’t feel it. He could only feel the sharp eyes of the heroes and civilians alike watching him. Their mouths were dropped. They were looking at him like he was a monster. A freak . And Danny was. He always was .  

For so long he thought it was only just powers, that he wasn’t anything more or anything less than what Spectra said. Just a creepy boy with creepy powers . How could you accept that you weren’t human anymore? How could you accept that you had died? It was little things at first. He didn’t get cold, food didn’t taste the same, he had to remind his feet to touch the ground, and there were moments where he couldn’t feel anything physical at all .  

The big event was when he fell asleep in class. Mr. Lancer had made a sarcastic remark about Danny not paying attention, but he didn’t respond. It grew into concern when he stepped closer. Danny wasn’t breathing and he didn’t have a pulse. He woke up when his ghost sense went off at the hospital. He was in the body bag.   

“A ghost trying to fit in with humans.” Rang out in his head.  

That's all he was. No more. No less.   

But even that wasn’t true anymore . Now there was no hiding behind his human body. He had felt when he died in the fight with Pariah. He was just glad he wasn’t alone… 

Danny was starting to spiral. It would be so easy to test it, to see if he had even an inkling of human left in him. All he needed to do was transform… 

A teen stepped closer to him. Danny backed away from the movement. The teen looked at Danny. He could see frost on the boy’s breath. His face filled with resolve and suddenly the boy bowed deeply.  

“Thank you for saving us!” That seemed to spark everyone around him and more and more ‘thank yous’ were heard. 

“Thank you so much!” One woman with soot on her face yelled. 

“I was on my way home when that thing attacked. I would have never seen my husband again” Said a man.  

Danny was shocked. No one had ever thanked him so publicly. It had always been teens in private or notes left around his frequent spots. He grabbed at his chest, his core pounded harder and hard with every new voice.  

More and more people came up to him and some even shook his hand. His vision was starting to get blurry. Why did someone saying thank him make him feel like this? 

As if on cue, more heroes arrived on the scene with fire trucks and paramedics.  

Everyone was okay.  

[sinspark4]

Chapter 8 (The Living Wall) of How to Tame Your Seeker is now out on AO3.

Story Summary:

Come one, come all, to Blurr's class of how to tame yourself a seeker. How you may ask?

Food, a heavy helping of shiny objects (read: Glitter), and accidental heavy wing petting. Just bake it till you make it and soon enough you'll have one stumbling after your pedes. Even if that wasn't your intention. -------------------------------------- Blurr was just trying to get by. Sure this wasn't exactly how he imagined running a bar, but, eh, it was close enough. I mean, at least there was a bar attached to the bakery he found himself in charge of. Apparently, he's got a natural talent of the food variety.

Now he just needed to figure out how to shake this slagging persistent seeker off his arm while not pissing his handler off any more than he already has. He isn't sure how much longer he can pretend everything was fine while slinging batter around, covered in edible glitter (that has to be a food safety violation) And.... he didn't want to have to decide whether he thought the purring seeker with claws was cute or disconcerting.

Small excerpt after the cut, this may be spoilery for some.

He couldn’t help the small, self-disparaging grin from spreading his lips as he slammed open another door to another empty fragging room. When his comms went out, it solved the small internal debate he was struggling over. He hadn’t taken the time to wonder why they weren’t working, his AI had kindly supplied a simple explanation that it was likely damaged from the original blast knocking himself and Starscream into a short stasis. It didn’t matter how guilty he felt ignoring his friends hailing if he was unable to respond to them in the first place. 

He didn’t really believe in Primus. But small, inane prayers kept popping up unhelpfully in his processor the longer this search went on. Slipping back out of the room, he turned in a circle and squinted his optics against the smoke. By now, his helm and ventilation systems had begun to ache severely from the smoke inhalation. Ash choked his filters and Blurr bent over hacking, bracing his servos against his knees. Small, thin rivulets of coolant slipped to the floor from the force of his coughing as his abused systems tried to pull in clean air.

Blurr kept telling himself, empty was good. Empty was great. Empty, meant there was a chance Firespin had gotten out already. Empty, meant at least there wasn’t a body yet.

If there was a body left that is. 

The coughing trailed off into weak grunts and Blurr drug his wrist against the back of his lips. Black soot and pink energon stained the edges of the metal and he grimaced. He’d been in the smoke for far longer than he should have been by now and it was doing a number on his internals. Ratchet was going to have a field day with him if he ended up making it out of this.

Straightening up, his optics flitted around the area. The only light source in the empty halls came from his own biolights and the flames still clinging to anything flammable. Blurr faltered as the AI system highlighted a crack in the wall and started displaying structural information on his HUD. Stepping carefully, he avoided the bodies littering the floor as he cautiously made his way over to it. The energon still in their lines was dangerous, and any excess heat encountering the unstable substance could set off a new chain reaction. Something that he’d best avoid. 

After a few brief kilks of careful maneuvering, Blurr is able to get himself close enough to the crack to be able to lean in. Scrutinizing the edges, he ran a fingertip along the jagged metal. There was a nagging feeling in the back of his helm. Insistent, something that wasn’t the AI. He could feel his glossa curling and a strange weary feeling started seeping into his frame. Something didn’t seem right…… 

The AI burst to life with a massive report, information blasting across his HUD so fast it left him feeling dizzy and sick to his tanks. Groaning, Blurr stumbled back a step and pressed a servo to his helm, scrunching his optics shut as he tried to absorb the vast amount of knowledge the AI thrusted onto him. Taking a few precious kliks to regain his bearings, Blurr started flipping through the report, gradually getting more frantic as the AI continued presenting the diagnostics of the wall structure to him. 

The metal of this wall was not the same as all the others he had come across in the school. Cracking open an optic, he reached back out to the crack. 70% different make up from the others, more dense, more lead interlays. Looking closer, he could tell that it had been painted over with a color that mimicked the others in the school. Painted so well he would never have realized there was a difference if not for the damage allowing the heat to cause the paint to bubble and swell. It was made of soundproofing materials that were meant to survive severe blast damage and stay standing against an assault long enough for help to intervene. The same kind of materials that were used for interrogation rooms.  

That was….suspicious. Glaring slightly, Blurr stumbled closer as there was a strange, tickling feeling in his audial. Like he should be hearing something, but it wasn’t transmitting the information correctly through his systems. Dialing up the volume didn’t do anything to help other than make the ringing noise louder and Blurr huffed. Bringing his helm down to the crack, he tried to look through it but couldn’t see anything. Whatever was on the other side was completely pitch black. He could feel a slow breeze drifting through.

Blurr frowned. This wasn’t an exterior facing wall.

Tilting his helm, he pressed an audial against the crack and waited. 

[minarcana]

The forest's lightwarden falls. Laurel's side is singed and hurts— she tries to tell herself that Y'shtola's magic accidentally catching her was because she was standing too close to Eros and not because Y'shtola cant differentiate her from the enemy.

At least she didn't kill her, and both her resilience and Esteem kept her intact, and the warden's dead, and things are fine. Laurel closes her eyes, and the light rushes into her.

It's like eating a star. Bright and hot, cauterizing, melting into her chest and dripping through her throat. It's not pleasant, but someone has to do it. Someone has to do it, because otherwise Minfilia would be doing this, and Laurel won't let her hurt like this. Someone has to do it, because otherwise this world would collapse and the Scions would die trying to hold the sky up. 'Someone' is Laurel, because she is the [god] that defends what is [hers].

It burns this time more than the last. A roiling feeling, or a slow spin of water. It slows, it slows, and Laurel feels herself falling to her knees. The light's hot, the burns from magic already on her arm get warmer. Is she going to boil? Ah, fuck, no she won't. She won't let herself.

She can't die, because she won't. She'll reach out to—

good.

A voice she doesn't know echoes in her head. A feeling like curling shards of ice circles her chest— strangely relieving against the heat there. It squeezes, jarring her heart back to motion, jerking her away from the slow boil.

you will die only when you have reached the apex. you will die only when it is i that will consume you, fattened on trial and pain and victory. you will die then, for me, and i will not let another fell you early.

Laurel coughs, something wet falling from her mouth, and the world comes back into focus from the blinding light of nothing. She's intact, in one piece, with her friends standing around her. But first, something dark enshrouding her that isn't Esteem or Fray. A sharp thing clad in slashes of fabric and with teeth like a wildcat. It gives her what she parses as a smile, then disappears in a ravel of smoke that returns itself to her satchel of important items.

"Laurel, are you alright? What was that?" Minfilia's voice cuts through.

"'M fine, just a little uncomfortable there for a second." She's distracted from answering as she opens up the little bag. Laurel knows roughly what she seeks, and finds it in a second— a job stone, black, with an insignia on it she hadn't recognized. She had found it on a corpse in Thanalan and meant to ask any of the Scions if they knew which guild it went to so she could deliver it, but then the fainting started and she'd forgotten....

She closes her eyes and quests into it mentally. The reality of her attunement hits her sharply, a flood of other people's memories and battles hitting her in an instant. The presence of the voidsent within, which had been but waiting for someone like her, a fighter to help and raise until time to harvest....

And which would ensure her movement until that time. Well. Laurel sighs and drops the stone back. She'll have to practice with it, but. Honestly? Their goals align. She'll take it.

There's a gleaming spot of fluid on the ground, mixed with her blood. Laurel assumes that's what she'd coughed up, and has an unpleasant reminder of Tesleen's transformation. Well, nothing to do about it right now— there's no wings folding out of her and she's in full control of herself. Laurel stands, making sure to scuff over the light and blood with her boot, so no one will notice (hopefully). "All good, all good. It's hard to swallow that magic, you know?" She sighs, leaning back in an overexaggerated show of dramatics. "Waaaah, Minfilia, if you ever tried it you'd have indigestion for daaaaays. I want some real food, though, so let's head back."

[hot-hellboy]

Already Forgiven - A Percico Fanfic

Summary:

Percy says something stupid during sex, little does he know it hurts Nico more than he lets on.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3rd Person POV

 Percy always thought of Nico to be an innocent little Angel. More accurately, his innocent little Angel. But that image of his boyfriend was quickly shattered as they made out passionately on Percy's bed. Nico was on his lap and attacking his lips aggressively while his large dark wings fanned out behind him, it was a truly impressive and a sexy sight that Percy got to behold.

One of his hands crept up Nico's back and in between his shoulder blades. Percy rubbed the places where his wings met his back and Nico almost screamed in pleasure. He gasped as he gripped Percy's broad shoulders and tried to calm down but his boyfriend happened to be in a merciless mood that night. Nico's wings flapped wildly as he squirmed on Percy's lap, trying hard to ignore the intense arousal from getting his wings touched and groped like they were currently.

"P-Percy!"

He moaned loudly as the older boy continued touching him and eventually Nico went limp in his arms. The pleasure had gotten to be way too much and now he could do nothing but clutch at Percy's shirt while his whole body quivered and his wings laid still.

"You...This is so not fair."

Nico managed to say weakly as he started to cry. He was so overstimulated and Percy's cock wasn't even inside him yet. Nico felt pathetic at the moment and it didn't help the fact that Percy wore a devilish smirk on his face while his fingers dug into Nico's soft feathers.

"Am I hurting you, baby?"

Percy asked mockingly and Nico almost wanted to scream "yes". His whole body ached and he clawed desperately at Percy's chest. Suddenly, the other boy's hands left him and Nico finally got to catch his breath. Unfortunately, he didn't get a break for long before Percy flipped their positions and Nico ended up pinned down under him on his stomach. Percy grabbed his ass almost as hard as he was gripping his wings and Nico whimpered loudly into the pillows. Although he really wanted to destroy Nico that night, Percy still wouldn't forget the lube. He paused briefly to grab the bottle sitting not-so-conspicuously on their nightstand.

He roughly kept Nico pinned down while thrusting a couple fingers in him after making good use of the lube. His wings fluttered gently as Percy worked him open. He gave Nico's ass one more hard smack before thrusting his cock inside him and immediately started fucking him harshly. Nico had to keep his moans muffled into the pillow he was holding onto to try and keep the volume down. Percy didn't seem to care in the slightest and simply thrusted into him at a harder pace.

"Percy!"

Nico screamed as Percy's cock kept pounding his sweet spot.

"Did you say something, beautiful?"

He panted from behind Nico.

"T-Too much..."

He sobbed and Percy slowed to a halt. His dick was still hard inside of him and it took every bit of effort not to resume moving. He leaned across Nico's back, being mindful of his wings and he kissed his cheek while whispering soothingly sweet things to him.

"We can stop and I can leave if that's what you want."

Nico knew Percy wasn't being serious. He never was when he said that kind of stuff, but it still upset him. He didn't know why, but a big part of him was angry that Percy was threatening to leave, even if it was in a joking manner.

"You can't say things like that to me, you know."

He shot back. Maybe now wasn't the time to argue, considering Percy had complete control over him when he was in this vulnerable state.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about, Nico. You might have to break it down for me."

Percy said beside his ear. Unmistakable humor highlighted his voice. Nico winced as he rolled onto his back, his ass hurt and his wings stung and he felt like crying again.

"Oh shit, babe I didn't mean that...You know I didn't."

Apparently he noticed Nico's clear distress. About time, he thought. He turned his face away from Percy, such a childish thing to do in hindsight, but he couldn't look at him.

 "Yeah. You never "mean" it."

 Nico couldn't hide the hurt in his voice anymore. He ignored Percy's playful kisses and the hands on his slender hips. He even ignored his boyfriend's pout that usually managed to win him over many times before. Percy gave up trying to get his attention after a few minutes and resumed fucking him. Nico gasped and his mind snapped back to attention.

 "Jackass."

 He growled but it quickly turned into a highly non-threatening squeak as his prostate was touched again and again. Nico's hands reached up to clutch the pillow behind his head but Percy took this as the perfect opportunity to pin his wrists down with his own hands.

 "You were saying?"

 Percy said smugly, enjoying watching Nico fall apart again for him. Nico wanted to cuss at him, get angry and yell, but all he could do was moan and whine like a fucking whore. It didn't take much longer before he came, although he wanted to hold back his own orgasm as to not give his boyfriend that satisfaction. After cumming, Nico was too tired to do much else and allowed Percy to do whatever the hell he wanted with him. He felt boneless on the bed and he felt like falling asleep. However, Percy was finished a lot sooner than Nico thought and he whimpered as he pulled out and jerked himself off. Percy stroked his cock until his hot cum spilled onto Nico's thighs.

 He sighed, not even trying to conceal his overall contentment as he flopped down next to Nico and tried putting his arm around him. Nico quickly reacted to this and shielded his body with his giant wings. That was the cool thing about having them, they were like his own personal armor. He was still mad, and even having sex didn't make him feel any better. Nico gave Percy his back as he tried putting the covers over both of them. Unfortunately, this left his back exposed and he shivered when he felt Percy's fingertips brush over the bases of his wings.

 "I'm sorry."

 He murmured.

 "It was a stupid thing to say and it's not like I would have just gotten up and left out the door like that, Nico."

 Percy was being sincere and he hated it. He wished he was joking, maybe he thought it would have hurt less. Nico didn't say anything so Percy continued.

"I'm not expecting you to forgive me, but I promise I'll stop saying shit like that, I mean it. I guess I...I guess I never noticed how much it hurt you, and I'm sorry for that, too."

 Nico really, really, wanted to stay mad. He wanted to stay fuming but he couldn't find it in himself to do so. He still didn't talk, but he visibly relaxed his wing muscles and hoped Percy took the hint. It seemed he did because he moved closer to Nico and petted his back, running his hands over his fragile frame and overall keeping contact with him.

"I'm sorry."

 Percy said again and kissed Nico's neck with a gentleness unmatched by anything they ever did. He would be lying if he said his heart hadn't melted by then, and that's why he opened up his wings and allowed them to not be pressed against his body like a second skin anymore. Percy made a tiny sound of relief and eagerly cuddled up close to the boy. He kissed every one of the bruises left on Nico's body by him during the heat of the moment, and he made sure to hold him tight as well.

"Thank you."

 Percy whispered, nuzzling Nico's cheek as he interlaced their hands underneath the blankets. He felt very hurt when Nico started moving away from him, but quickly realized he was just turning over to face him. Nico opened up his wings a little more and wordlessly invited Percy to get closer. He obeyed excitedly and wrapped both of his arms around Nico's torso with one leg slipped between his.  Percy knew Nico wasn't great with communication, but he also knew that this was his way of showing forgiveness. And Percy wouldn't trade anything in the world for being able to be embraced in Nico's wings. Nico stayed silent but held Percy tightly in his wings. He was already forgiven long before Nico would have ever said so, but that hardly mattered. He just enjoyed the fact that Percy understood him better now.

The End.

[devildomimagines]

MC Almost Gets Abducted by a Flying Demon

Hello~

You ever just have an idea that occupies your head and won’t go away until you write it? Yeah this was one of those.

You’re out with your favorite demon brother and some demon thinks it would be a good idea to try to take you away.

Warning for angst, injuries and kidnapping attempts.

Belphegor

The day had passed without event. Belphie and you were relaxing under a tree in the park.

You offered to go buy some drinks. 

Although he was clearly comfortable, he offered to get the drinks instead.

You smiled as you watched him push himself up and trudged to the closest store. Who said he was selfish?

A few leaves had fallen on the blanket while you had been watching Belphie. You brushed them off.

As you waited for his return a couple more leaves fell. Annoyed, you brushed them off and looked up at the tree.

You were not expecting to make eye contact with a demon in the branches that was already watching you.

Before your mind could make a connection, the demon swooped down and grabbed your arm and leg.

“Belphegor!” You hollered as you clung to the branch with your free arm. The demon was strong and it felt like you would either lose your grip or be torn in half if this kept up any longer.

Belphie was back in a flash, he was already in his demon form.

He was looking between you and the demon trying to figure out what he can do when your grip on the branch faltered.

His tail shot out and grabbed your arm. The barbs bit at your skin but the tuft of soft hair at the end of his tail rested gently against your face reassuring as he moved you towards him.

Once close enough, Belphie grabbed your hand and arm and removed his tail.

The demon looked back to see what was happening and why they couldn’t make their escape. They locked eyes with Belphie’s glare and immediately dropped you to run.

Luckily you were closer to the ground now and fell onto the blanket, your arm still in Belphie’s grasp.

You tried to take a few deep breaths but when you looked up at Belphie, you just broke.

He sat down in front of you and hugged you to his body as your cries were released. Belphie whispered, “I’m sorry MC.”

He felt guilty having left you alone and then further hurting you with the spikes on his tail. The places that the demon had been pulling on you were already blooming into bruises. It reminded him of the time in the attic and his emotions are spiraling. 

When he pulls away slightly to double check your injuries, you see his eyes are watery, tears threatening to spill at any second but he was putting on a brave face for you. You tried to do the same in the moment, for him.

Beelzebub

The two of you had been walking down the street when an ice cream stand caught his attention.

You sat on the nearby bench waiting for him to return.

He was on the way back to you, his ice cream already finished and he was eyeing yours, maybe just a lick?

That is until he heard your scream. He dropped the ice cream to run back to where he left you.

You weren’t on the bench and his heart dropped into his stomach as he looked around. 

You saw him from the air and howled, “Beel!!”

He instantly looked up and found you. Beel ran through the streets transforming into his demon form until he was underneath you and the demon. With a powerful jump, he was flying straight up towards you.

The demon was surprised at the speed that Beel was approaching. In a desperate attempt to leave with their life, the demon threw you to the side and escaped the other way.

You screamed as you started plummeting towards the ground.

Beel was fast and caught you before you could fall far.

You gripped at his clothes as tightly as you could, with hiccupping sobs you whispered his name over and over, “Beel, Beel.”

He hugged you into his body firmly, “I’ve got you,” he assured as you two lowered to the ground, his wings buffering the descent.

Once on the pavement, he placed you back on your feet gently and only pried you away to assess injuries. “Are you ok? Where does it hurt?”

You rubbed your eyes and face, trying to regain composure to answer but the sensation of Beel pushing you away hurt and made you feel worse.

He promptly pulled you back into a hug, noting your crying was worse than when he held you.

“I want to go home,” you finally requested.

Beel nodded and picked you up to carry you back to the House of Lamentation.

Asmodeus

Asmo was surrounded by a group of his fans.

These encounters usually didn’t take long. They would snap a few pictures, he might sign something he collaborated on, a few more pictures or videos and they would be on their way.

This was one of the times where you weren’t included, sometimes being a human was interesting enough to warrant a picture but today’s group only wanted Asmo’s attention.

This was pretty common so you didn’t mind stepping aside and waiting while he did his thing. You were secure enough to know he’d come back to you once he appeased his fans.

With the free moment, you took out your D.D.D. to check the time. 

You two were still ahead of schedule so another moment for the fans wouldn’t be an issue.

That is until your snatched into the air. You dropped your D.D.D. in surprise and screamed.

Asmo was looking for you and spotted your form struggling in the air.

He was angry and the fans backed up a few steps when he changed into his demon form.

One bold fan tried to hold him in place for a quick picture and he brushed them off.

His attention was completely on you and he jumped into pursuit.

His wings were out of practice but he still gained on the demon.

You cried out for him and he tried to offer you a reassuring smile that you would be safe soon.

The demon looked over its shoulder at Asmo’s chase and when their eyes met, Asmo began charming them. “Release MC~”

The demon slowed and started letting you go.

Asmo swooped in and caught you as the demon completely removed its talons from your clothes.

“It’s ok, it’s ok,” Asmo began soothing as he flew as far away as he could.

“Asmo,” you whimpered into his neck.

“I know MC, I’m so sorry, that must have been really scary.”

He held you close all the way home and for a long time after.

Satan

You had been enjoying your time with Satan at an outdoor cafe.

He went inside briefly to get refills. As he was reminding the barista what you each had, he heard a commotion, broken glassware and chairs scuffing the ground, “another fight?” a tired employee asked.

Then you screamed Satan’s name. His breath stopped as he pushed people out of his way to get back outside.

Your table was on its side and you were fighting the demon that was dragging you along by your hair and an arm.

You happened to look back and found Satan. “Help!”

You didn’t have to ask, he turned to his demon form in a fiery flash. Most other demons vacated, no one wanted to stick around the warpath of Wrath incarnate.

His tail whipped the demon’s leg holding your hair. The demon screeched and released its hold.

The release was enough for you to throw your weight away from the demon, that and another whip of Satan’s tail had you freed.

You stumbled towards Satan and he caught you.

“You’re hurt!” he observed, scandalized and new rage bubbling. If you didn’t need medical attention, he’d be hunting the demon.

You were shaken. Your trembling hand went to the scratches and punctures on your arm and shoulder. Although it came away bloody, you didn’t yet feel the pain, “huh.”

“MC?” Satan asked, now worried about your lack of response. He started smoothing your hair while searching your eyes.

“Hm?” You responded but your eyes were glazed over, not really seeing him.

“You’re in shock,” Satan determined, “Let’s go home, ok?” He took your hand on the less affected side and began leading you.

“Ok,” you repeated.

About halfway home it started to hit you. Your legs got heavy, the pain in your shoulder and arm started throbbing, and tears threatened to escape your eyes.

When you began slowing, Satan turned to check on you. Your watery eyes and uneven breathing were dead giveaways your shock had worn off. “Come here,” he pulled you into his arms.

“Satan,” you whined, him being sweet was pushing you over the edge.

“I know,” He adjusted his grip and you realized he was getting ready to carry you so you jumped slightly to wrap your legs around him. “I was so scared,” Satan admitted, “I can’t even imagine how you felt.”

With his confession of being afraid, you broke down into a hard cry.

He held you tightly as he carried you the rest of the way home.

Leviathan

Levi had ducked into a store to check if they had the new release of a game. You stayed outside sipping your beverage and scrolling through your D.D.D.

You hadn’t even seen the demon until it had you in its grasp.

“Levi!” you yelled. Would he even hear you from inside the shop? “Leviiii!” You poured everything you had into your next, “Leviathan!!”

He rushed out from the store looking around for you in a panic.

“Over here!” you cried. You tried to undo the claws holding onto you.

The demon wasn’t flying very high, maybe to keep a low profile.

Levi ran through the crowd, gaining ground on you and the demon. He was already in his demon form and his eyes never left you.

As soon as he was in range, his tail extended and wrapped around the demon’s ankle holding it in place.

The demon struggled for a minute but decided you were not worth the head-on fight with one of the rulers of the realm.

The demon dropped you and you fell the short distance to the pavement, your legs weren’t ready and you collapsed.

Levi was in front of you in a second. You looked up to see he was flustered, angry, and searching you for injuries.

Your shoulders throbbed and your ankles and knees beat in the same rhythm but that wasn’t why you were crying. No, you were crying because, for maybe the first time in the Devildom, you were scared.

Levi wasn’t sure what to say but he couldn’t stand by and watch you cry. He crouched down and held you for a moment before picking you up off the floor.

You wrapped your hands around his neck seeking comfort in his familiar presence.

Your sobs quieted as he walked you two home. When the roaring in your ears died down, you could hear he was talking, maybe rambling. 

You still weren’t in a mental place to make sense of what he was saying but you could tell his words were filled with love trying to distract you.

Mammon

It was flea market day, which meant the two of you were browsing the selection.

Mammon was fond of the flea market because, “Ya never know what you’ll find and one demon’s trash is another’s treasure.”

The stalls lined the street and Mammon flitted from side to side checking out the vendors.

He was totally in his element, bargaining prices and sifting through piles of goods.

You mainly walked along the middle path, maybe following Mammon up to a vendor if something caught your eye. Right now you were at a separate stall but still close by.

Unfortunately not close enough when a demon decided you were the prize of the flea market.

They swooped down and picked you up into the air by your waist.

The pressure made it hard to take a big gulp of air so your call to Mammon was too weak to hear over the crowd.

You tried to pour all your magic ability into your pact with Mammon to alert him.

It worked! Mammon was in the middle of the street looking around for you.

You tried yelling again, “Mammon!”

He looked up and locked on to you.

You never saw him turn into his demon form so fast. He was airborne in the next second.

The demon grunted when he realized he was being followed. They looked down to see it was Mammon.

When they made eye contact, Mammon growled loud enough, even from a distance, to show how angry he was.

The demon must have decided you weren’t worth the hassle and dropped you.

Finally able to yell at full capacity you wailed for Mammon. You landed in his arms.

“I got you,” he comforted as he watched the demon fly away. He wouldn’t let this go, no one steals his treasure.

At the sound of your crying, Mammon looked down at you holding onto his collar and hiding your face in his neck.

“I’ve got you MC,” he reminded, softer this time. He shifted you so you could properly hug him as he started towards home.

Lucifer

He looked away for only a second when someone called out to him. His grip on you loosened and then he let go as he dealt with the person who had drawn his attention.

It was long enough for the demon to swoop in overhead.

The shock took over at first and you were frozen as the demon’s talons clawed at your shoulders.

When you regained some semblance of recognition, you called “L-Luci-” but the demon wrapped its tail around your mouth to silence you.

You tried to get the tail off to try calling again when you caught his face in the crowd, slowly getting further away.

He saw you hold a hand out for him with the other still desperately trying to pull at the tail from around your head.

Lucifer quickly transformed into his demon form and jumped into the air.

The demon was quick, dodging between other flyers, and through architecture, they clearly had planned their escape to some degree.

The demon had not planned on how fast Lucifer was in the sky. He doesn’t usually fly around to get from one place to another but he had centuries of flight experience under his belt.

He was close, maybe five feet away. He could hear your muffled cries and could see the tears staining your face.

The rage and hurt you found on his face was unlike anything you had seen on his features.

Lucifer had caught up without the demon realizing, you gripped at his arms as he silently gauged how he could free you. 

When you started crying harder, he opted for the straightforward answer, he wrapped an arm around your waist and grabbed the tail that was wrapped around your head. The flesh under his hand sizzled and the demon yelped. Instantly, the tail unwrapped your head and the talons released you.

“Lucifer!” You cried as he adjusted his hold on you, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“Shh,” Lucifer tried to calm you and his rage, it wasn’t directed at you but it must have left a bad taste for you to apologize. “It’s not your fault.”

“I, I,” but you couldn’t finish the sentence before breaking down once more.

Lucifer felt the tears fall on his neck and shoulder and it hurt as if his own heart was breaking.

He started towards the House of Lamentation silently. He couldn’t think of anything to soothe so he rubbed your back as he supported you in the air.

Once you had calmed enough to find your voice, you asked, “Can we go home?”

“Of course,” Lucifer smiled softly. His heart warmed to hear anything but your crying but especially that you thought of the HOL as home. “We’re almost there.”

[mc-lukanette]

Have you considered writing a "Truth" fix-it with Marinette admitting her secret to Luka? Maybe he could be a confidant like Marianne was for Fu.

Truth was having a terrible, awful, rotten, very bad day. If he could use his powers on the universe, he would've asked what he did to deserve this kind of treatment.

It started with his girlfriend keeping a secret from him concerning her ditching their dates, then escalated to Jagged Stone - who'd been his idol for years - turning out to be the father who abandoned him, and now he was fighting Ladybug and Chat Noir in Marinette's room after he’d been told by multiple people that Marinette’s supposed “secret” was that she was in love with Adrien, as if he hadn’t already known that and they just wanted to mock him.

His civilian self had never been never someone to presume, but now it's all he could do. Marinette must've ditched him because she didn't really love him, Jagged probably never even felt bad about abandoning him, and despite Adrien never even trying to win Marinette's heart, he was just better than Luka in every way, because the rich model with all the connections Marinette could ever want would always outmatch the "guitar boy" who worked a part-time job, lived on a houseboat, and had parents who either kept secrets from him or flat-out didn't want him.

Had it not been for his akumatization working to drive him towards a goal without interference, he would've cried. He wanted nothing more than to wake up and think the whole thing was just a bad nightmare, with dating Marinette just being brief highlights of it that kept getting shot down with a reminder that he wasn't good enough.

He wanted it all to be over.

Chat Noir was still trying to banter with him, but Truth wasn't having it. While going after Ladybug first wasn't ideal, as she was the smarter out of the two, it was easier to get rid of Chat Noir and deal with the heroes one at a time.

Thus, when Ladybug had run across the room to use her Lucky Charm, Truth acted. He managed to grab Chat Noir and throw him into the chest that Ladybug had been hiding in before, then locked it tight to prevent Chat from escaping. That done, he went after Ladybug, who was stunned but nevertheless prepared to fight. Chat Noir being out of the picture didn't impact her ability to fight, but Truth had Pharo on his side to knock Ladybug around when it was too hard to get a spotlight on her.

Finally, he managed to tackle her, her lying on her back and him pinning her arms down. The chest nearby rattled in protest, but Pharo shined its spotlight on it, preventing it from moving anymore.

Truth watched as Ladybug looked around for a method of escape, but she came up empty. Her eyes widened in the realization that... this was it. This was the end.

"Now," Truth said, clamping down harder on her arms as he leaned down, "tell me the truth!"

Ladybug tried to shut her lips tight, but he could see her struggling, her body shaking as she tried to free her arms to stop herself. It was only a matter of time.

Then, her mouth opened, and out came the words, "I love you, Luka!"

He froze, his fingers twitching in his confusion while he could only stare down at her in shock.

"And I'm so sorry! I'm sorry for everything! I wanted to tell you - I always wanted you to know - but I couldn't, and you deserve so much better than a hero who can't give you the time you deserve!"

A cold realization washed over him in form of a shudder. Those words could've been interpreted in so many ways, but he was the only one who registered their real meaning: that Marinette was Ladybug, her "ditching" had been her needing to fight akuma, her keeping secrets had been out of a desire to protect him, and he—

...He had only caused her more problems by getting akumatized, being no better than all those that had interrupted their dates. She loved him, and he gave into Shadow Moth to go against her.

Ladybug continued rambling, oblivious to his internal crisis, "You're incredible, and I just love you so much. I knew you were special from the day we met, when you called me—"

Truth clamped his hand over her mouth, preventing her from spilling any more secrets. He could feel Shadow Moth's influence in his mind, demanding that he remove his hand, but Truth ignored it, just as he'd been ignoring so many of his commands. The energy from akumatization that once made him feel powerful now made him feel disgusted with himself, guilt swirling in his gut and making him regret everything.

He reached up with his other hand, grabbing at his necklace and tearing it off. Ladybug's brows rose at the crunching of his akumatized object, and the last things he saw were the akuma flying free and Ladybug's expression turning to something...

thoughtful.

—————

Marinette de-transformed in a nearby alleyway and headed down towards the Seine, having not yet processed all of her feelings from that day. She had a little time left, given that Luka had quietly asked to walk back home himself, but she’d gotten no closer to clearing her mind since leaving her house. She was still a jumbled mess of "what if"s and "but maybe"s, and ultimately knew that it was going to be a matter of essentially winging it and just saying everything that she had on her mind.

As she approached the Liberty to wait for Luka, she paused as she noticed another figure already standing there. After all, Jagged Stone wasn't exactly someone you could not notice.

Before she could debate on whether to approach him, Jagged seemed to sense her and glanced over to make eye contact. She stiffened, only able to wave awkwardly and pretend like she didn't know why he'd be there.

"Hey, frockstar," Jagged greeted tiredly, his smile not quite reaching its usual lengths. "What are you doing here?"

"Um..." She walked over, standing next to him and staring in the direction where Luka was going to come from. "I need to talk to my boyfriend."

"Ah." It took a few seconds for the words to actually register with him, at which point Jagged turned to her, mouth agape as he grabbed her shoulders. "My son's your boyfriend?!"

She didn't quite have the energy to feign total surprise at the “son” comment, but she didn't have to. Jagged immediately pulled back without really looking at her, regaining his composure just as quickly as he'd lost it.

"You... wouldn't happen to be able to put in a good word for me, hm?" He grinned sheepishly, jabbing at Marinette with a hopeful elbow. "Haven't exactly figured out what I'm gonna say yet."

She was torn between being upset with him on Luka’s behalf and feigning sympathy because it was not only none of her business, but she was in a similar boat and felt like she had no right to judge.

She went with the latter, smiling weakly and jabbing him back. "That makes two of us." Then, she frowned as her nerves came back. "And... anyway, I don't know if he'll want to keep being my boyfriend after tonight."

For once, Jagged didn't pry or ask questions, the atmosphere probably felt even by him. They just stood there, waiting.

After a few minutes, Luka finally walked into view, staring at the ground and seeming defeated. Marinette felt ill at the sight, her fingers clutching at the fabric of her capris to find a sense of stability.

Should she approach him? Let Jagged go first? Or, maybe that would seem evasive, so—

She felt a pat on her shoulder, looking up at see Jagged urging her forward with his eyes. She wasn't sure if she should be grateful or consider him to be the evasive one, but Luka's akumatization was also mostly because of her and thus it only made sense for her to go first.

She ran the distance to get to him, Luka glancing up at the sound of her footsteps and stopping as she got to him. The usual light in his eyes wasn't there, and she had to force herself to even say a simple, "Um... hi."

"Hey." He hesitated, then rubbed the back of his head. "I'm really sorry, Marinette."

"Huh?"

"I got akumatized, and I was in your room when I woke up." His brows furrowed with uncharacteristic anxiety. "I didn't have to hear the song to know what the notes were. I must've gone after you."

Marinette blinked, having not even thought about him feeling guilty over the whole thing. She shook her head, reassuring, "No no! I mean—you told me to run! You didn't go after me, not really!"

She wasn't technically lying; he never sought her out to her knowledge, and even as Ladybug, she'd always had to chase him.

Luka sighed in relief, though his expression didn't change much. "I'm glad."

He met her gaze again. She yearned for the way he used to look at her like he wanted to get lost in her forever, but his eyes soon darted elsewhere as he noticed Jagged Stone standing not too far away.

Marinette tried not to get discouraged, stepping back into his vision and waving her hands to try and divert his attention. "Ah—don't worry about that! Look—" She paused, needing a moment to breathe, then lowered her hands and shifted to seriousness. "Can we talk? And walk? It's... really important."

She couldn't imagine the conclusions he must've been coming to in his head, partly because he didn't voice any of them. His eyes merely searched hers, seeking nothing in particular.

"Sure, Marinette," he agreed.

She managed a smile, happy that she made it this far at least. She reached out to take his hand, but stopped herself at the last second and simply walked past him, Luka taking one look back at Jagged before following after her.

The walk was tense and quiet, the only sounds coming from the evening ambiance and their footsteps. The uncertainty of it all gave her anxiety, but she'd been sure of that uncertainty since she first decided to talk to him about this.

Because, whatever the future of their relationship was, it would be in his hands.

—————

As they arrived at her intended destination, Marinette heard Luka briefly stop behind her, perhaps processing where she just took them. It was the Canal Saint-Martin, also known as the place where they'd first agreed to date, and now it was potentially the place where they'd break up as well. Marinette vaguely pondered if that would be for the best, like the memories would just cancel each other out and Luka could forget about it altogether if he wanted to.

Nevertheless, she walked over, glancing at the bridge for reference and sitting in roughly the same place she’d been all that time ago. She then tossed Luka a hopeful look, and he walked over to sit next to her.

Steeling herself up, Marinette took a breath, inhaling until she couldn't take in any more oxygen and then exhaling for just as long. At least a little more emotionally prepared than she was before, she finally spoke up.

"I...I'm sorry, Luka. I'm sorry that I got you akumatized—" She saw that he was about to interject and cut him off. "—and I know you don't blame me, but it doesn't matter—I mean—it does matter, but I'm still sorry anyway, okay? You had a right to be hurt and maybe if I'd explained myself better, then things would’ve been different."

He still seemed to want to argue, but was holding himself back so she could continue, which she appreciated.

"It's not that I didn't trust you. If anything, I—I trust you more than anyone else. You've never betrayed me and I know you'd never tell anyone if I told you my secret. You understand me even when I'm being the disaster that everyone laughs at - everyone but you - and..."

She sighed, pulling out her phone and navigating to her text conversation with him. Mentally wincing, she tapped on the photo of her Adrien wall that Ziggy had sent, then presented it to him. He leaned in to make sure of what it was, then looked back at her, clearly not understanding where she was going but knowing it wasn't her being spiteful or rubbing it in.

She said as much, "You don't assume anything, like when you got sent this dumb picture. I know it was obvious that it was an accident, but you didn’t have to go with it and you did. I wouldn't have blamed you if you got mad, but you didn't. Whenever I'm stammering and being an idiot because I'm scared or nervous, you don't judge me for it or think that whatever comes out is what I actually mean. That's so important to me, Luka, you have no idea."

She settled the phone between them and kept the picture on-screen. Her gaze flickered down to it, silently encouraging him to look at it too, then glanced back up at him.

"How much do you know about fashion?"

He tilted his head, thrown off by the sudden question, but answered anyway, "Only what my sister's ever talked about."

"Do you know why fashion trends die so quickly?" When he shook his head, she explained, "Part of it is the over-exposure. When people hear about what's in at the time, suddenly everyone starts wearing whatever it is, so everywhere you look, you see it, and then people get tired of it."

There was a flicker of understanding in his eyes, Luka looking back-and-forth between her and the phone like he was piecing a puzzle together.

She confirmed it for him, "That's why I have so many. I don't feel that way about him anymore - I don't think I ever did - but I just don't know how to act around him. I hate how the whole idolizing thing took over my life and I already tried everything else, so I figured this might work." She groaned. "And of course it blew up on me and you got sent that without any context. Of course."

He gave a look of concern at the exasperation in her tone, but she tried to ignore it, not wanting his sympathy.

"My point is..." She gestured vaguely at the phone. "I stammer about him, but it's not because I'm in love with him, it's because I've never really been his friend and I don't know how to do it. I'm not dedicated to him and I'm getting better at not doing the stuff I used to."

His eyes flickered again and she wondered if he was thinking about that day on the Liberty where she was late to Kitty Section playing, where she ignored Adrien entirely. Just for emphasis, she tapped her phone and deleted the picture, adding on, "I'm only dedicated to you, Luka. I—"

She shifted in place, hitting the wall behind her feet a few times with her heels to ease off the anxiousness. It was so much easier when she’d been Ladybug, though granted that she was under the influence of Truth's spell at the time. She and Luka were dating, yet she was sure he'd ask her to end it, making putting herself out there all the scarier.

"I..." She met his gaze. "I love you." He gaped at the confession and she continued on, "I love you like I haven't loved anyone else before; definitely not Adrien. It's the kind of love that actually makes me happy, and comfortable, and my life is better with you in it."

She bit her bottom lip, hands curling into fists at the tight feeling in her chest. She turned, placing one hand on the ground as she began to push herself up, her other hand landing on Luka's shoulder to wordlessly insist that he didn't have to stand with her, so his gaze merely followed her as she moved.

"But that's the thing." She took a few steps away, back turned to him as she stared up at the sky. Her stomach twisted itself in knots at the words in her throat, but she nonetheless admitted, "I don't think it's mutual."

Luka's voice took on a sharp, offended tone. "Marinette—"

She spun to face him, cutting him off, "—and I know that you're going to say something sweet and heartfelt about how everyone has a place in your life and then something about how bad notes can still make good songs, but... Luka, you don't understand."

She turned away from him again, this time pacing as she counted off events. "Bullies and liars target me, and sometimes that means going after people I care about. I'm clumsy and a stuttering mess and you wouldn't believe the mistakes I made that I couldn't have even seen coming. It seems like I draw bad luck wherever I go; I mean, your mother is one of the most chaotic people I can think of, so you'd think she'd get akumatized a bunch, but it was only the day I showed up that she did. Even the other boys who only loved me for a little bit either got akumatized over it or became an anxious mess until they found out who they actually liked, and that last one would've at least been really useful to think about if I'd just made the connection back then, but I didn't!" She paused, then met his eyes with a pained expression. "And then there's you."

"What do you mean?"

She stopped in place, not knowing whether to be touched or not by the fact that he either hadn't noticed or was pretending not to. Throwing her arms out, she explained, "Things go bad whenever we hang out! I already mentioned your mom, but then there was the ice rink; even without me getting distracted when all you were trying to do was make me feel better, there was an akuma and you probably got frozen solid by him. When we were hanging out on the Liberty, Adrien just happened to show up on that day with Kagami to turn me into a mess, and then Desperada came to make everything worse."

Marinette couldn't remember when she'd started thinking about such things or feeling guilty for everything that ever happened. There was just a point where it felt like she was always apologizing for something, no matter how small it was, and stuff being her fault became par for the course by then.

"Then, both times you got akumatized, it was because of me—and I know you don't blame me, but I'm always involved! You were ready to leave the TV station, but because I tried to put up a fight, Bob Roth threatened me and that was your last straw. Today was the same thing; you were already upset about what happened with your dad and then it was me who sent you over the edge!" She shut her eyes tight, the memories painful to relive. "You're always putting up with me, Luka. You put up with me crying all over you and even dropped your guitar for it, and then you had to protect me from Miracle Queen's mind control! I'm supposed to protect you!"

He recoiled at the volume of her voice, then furrowed his brows, his eyes darting back and forth as he seemed to process something particular about what she said.

"I'm supposed to make you happy, and I can't. Out of all the people in Paris who should be able to keep you from getting akumatized, it should be me, and all I've done is hurt you. You're the calmest person I've ever known and then I came along and gave you feelings you didn't ask for. Sometimes—" She shook, choking briefly on the words. "Sometimes I wonder if it would've been better for you if you never met me."

Luka's gaze sharpened. He didn't reply, but turned fully to her, pushing himself up as if to approach.

However, she stepped back, his look then flashing to hurt. She took a breath, expression determined as she said with her whole chest, "I'm Ladybug, Luka."

He froze, his body going stiff and his eyes blinking rapidly at either the reveal itself or the way she’d so firmly said it.

"I'm Ladybug," she repeated quietly, this time with an ache in her voice, "and I'm telling you not because I trust you—I mean, I do trust you—but I also believe in you; that you wouldn't sell me out to Shadow Moth even with all the mind control in the world. You've always had my back and supported me even when I didn't deserve it, and I want you to know. It's dangerous and I don't know what'll happen and I'm scared but I want you to know it." She put a hand to her chest. "I'm the one who has to save Paris whenever something happens, and that's why I always had to ditch you. I'm the one who messed up and lost you your identity as Viperion. I'm the new guardian of the miraculouses, and the kwami don't even listen to me; they invaded my privacy and it was one of them that took and sent you that picture."

She realized that her vision was staring to blur and looked skywards, trying to fight back tears.

"I-I'm not a normal girl. I can't be a normal girlfriend, or give you everything you'd want out of a normal relationship. It's my fault that you got akumatized because I just—I wanted you. I wanted to be in a relationship and go on dates with you, but Ladybug isn't supposed to want things. She's supposed to be selfless and only worry about everyone else, but... you made me happy, and I wanted more of that. You were the first person I really felt like I could be myself around without being scolded or lied to and I thought it would be okay..."

She noticed him moving and quickly turned her back to him, at least able to let the tears fall now without him seeing them.

"I'm sorry I dragged you into this. I always think I can handle things but then it goes wrong and I end up hurting people. If I'd just gone home the day of the music festival instead of complaining about Adrien not being around, then none of this would've happened." She sighed in frustration, wiping her eyes clean of tears, and she was so focused on forcing her words out that she didn't hear the footsteps coming from behind her. "I-it's okay if you want to break up, Luka. It wasn't fair that I kept you in the dark, and I understand if you're mad, or you want to date other people, o-or if you don't love me anymore—"

Her voice cut off with a gasp as a pair of arms wrapped around her midsection, pulling her against a familiar, warm chest that had an unfamiliarly pounding heartbeat. She tried to look up at him, but his hair was shadowing out his eyes and left only his trembling lips visible. In fact, his whole body was shaking, as if it were winter and no amount of layers could keep him warm.

"L-luka?" she called, confused.

"Stop," he begged quietly, the hug tightening briefly to give her a squeeze. "Please."

"But..." She trailed off, acknowledging the request. She'd never heard his voice just break like that.

"You've already sung your part of our duet, Marinette. Now it's my turn." He paused, taking an unsteady breath before continuing, "I'm glad you told me your secret. I know you're worried about me being in danger, but it makes me happy that you can rely on me now. Music boxes aren't meant to stay shut, and you deserve someone who you can open up to, even if I hate that you have to mute yourself in the first place to keep everyone safe."

She opened her mouth, wanting to say that it was okay and it was just her job, but kept quiet to respect his earlier request.

"My life isn't worse because I met you," he murmured, an unspoken plea in his tone that told her to never think that way again. "I felt things with you that I never have before. My song started out as a flatline, then we met and you made it move. Music isn't exciting if it doesn't change but you did that for me. What you might see as bad notes is my passion for you, and I won't apologize for it or make you apologize for messing up just like every person does. I'd never wanted someone before you, and even if you never wanted to date me, I'm grateful that I got to know you; to fall for you."

Marinette blinked in an attempt to stop oncoming tears, Luka pulling her closer for comfort when she whimpered.

"All that mattered to me is when we were together, just the two of us. That's when your melody plays the clearest and when I get to see you. Those two weeks when we were preparing our music video were some of the best two weeks of my life because I got to see you in your element. I've accepted every break in the tempo because I've heard you, I've heard the Marinette you've wanted to be, and I want to be there for every beat of it." Then, he exhaled, adding with a somber tone, "I can't imagine how much pressure you must be under, or how awful things are and how impossible it must be to sing when you can't even take a breath without something going wrong. I just... I want to help you be happy. I don't care what you, your kwami, or anyone else says; you're allowed to be happy, Marinette, and I'd drop a thousand of my guitars if it meant that you get to play happy notes one more time."

She let out a sob, blushing pink as her hands unconsciously raised to rest on the ones around her waist, Luka sighing in content and nestling further against her.

"So I don't want to break up with you, Marinette. Not at all. I just want to find ways to make it easier on you - on both of us - and if that means finding ways of planning our dates around akuma attacks, or not planning at all and going wherever the rhythm leads, then that's what we'll do."

She tried to keep quiet, but couldn't help voicing, "W-what if... what if it doesn't work? What if I have to bail on you every now and then? People will think—"

"I was never worried about that," he retorted immediately. "I'm a Couffaine. My clothes are ripped, I carry my guitar in the basket on my bike, and I live on a boat. I stopped caring about what people thought a long time ago."

He was unbelievable. Marinette didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so she did both. He just held her there, his heart still beating against her back but now serving as something to calm her.

"The only opinions that matter in our duet are yours and mine," he said. His hold loosened, though hesitating like it was physically painful to release her. He let her go nonetheless and held his hands out in front of her, palms facing the sky. "So what about you, Marinette?"

She stared at his hands, then slowly raised her own to hover over them. She breathed up, then slid her fingers across his palms until their calloused fingertips met, neither making any move to pull away.

"I...I want to make it work," she whispered, leaning back against him. "I want to be with you, Luka. I'm at my best when I'm with you. I just..."

She stopped, knowing that he would have an argument for anything she said. If she apologized for the failed dates that she can never fix, he'd argue that it'd be worse to leave things off a sour note, and that not every good song starts out good. If she tried to suggest other people for him to date or imply that it'd be easier with someone else, he'd say that his guitar plays only for her and he wouldn't change that even if he could.

"...I'm sorry," she said, smiling her first genuine smile of the night. "I won't doubt myself anymore."

Even though she couldn't see his face, she knew he was smiling too. "Do you feel better?"

"Yeah. Do—do you?"

"Yeah," he replied, voice thick with emotion.

Wanting to see his face, she slowly dropped their hands and turned to face him, silently hoping that she didn't look awful from her earlier tears. However, to her surprise, she noticed that Luka's eyes were watery despite his smile, just like her. Realizing something, she raised a hand to her shoulder, where his face had been hovering over ever since he'd hugged her from behind.

It was wet.

"Oh, Luka..."

She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him against her. He returned the gesture, squeezing her lovingly and giving her back a few rubs that she responded to with a happy hum. They held the position, the warmth of the hug completely negating the slight chill of the night air.

Even when they pulled away, it wasn't far nor for long. Marinette wasn't sure which of them initiated it, but one moment they were staring at each other and the next they were kissing. It had been long overdue and she idly thought that it was better than she would've imagined their kiss at the cinema to be.

She breathed in his scent, her fingers blindly reaching up to slide into his hair. She almost felt like crying again, though this time in relief that everything had actually worked out for once and they were kissing without interruption. Even though Luka was more subtle in showing his emotions, she could tell that he felt the same from the way his hand on her back shook, practically vibrating with happiness.

The kiss eventually broke with a soft click, though she kept her hands on him for the sake of stability. They were both breathing a little hard from the emotional toll of the conversation yet not necessarily in a bad way.

And the love in his eyes - the life that she missed so much - was back. She honestly thought she wouldn’t have seen it again and she was tempted to just keep kissing him in relief, part of her aware that he definitely wouldn’t have minded it.

It took her a few tries to get the words out, hesitant to break up their wordless exchanges of love. She knew what revelation was waiting for Luka back at his houseboat - maybe he'd already guessed it - and she wanted to be there for him, so she asked carefully, "Do you... want me to come back to the Liberty with you?"

Eyes half-lidded, he gave her a soft smile and gently squeezed her hand. "Yeah. Do you want to sleep over?"

She nodded. "Mm, I'd like that."

Holding hands, they began making their way back to the Liberty, the ambiance of the night finally coming through to soothe them. Marinette glanced down at their joined hands, then at the wide smile on Luka's face, the latter clearly caused by the former.

She looked ahead at where they were walking, pretending that she hadn't just been admiring him. "We could always go out for breakfast together. That might work out."

"That sounds amazing." Luka feigned a look of thoughtfulness. "Maybe Shadow Moth doesn't like mornings?"

Marinette squeaked mid-giggle. "You'd think that'd be the case from the name, huh?"

He chuckled, covering his mouth with his free hand, and the conversation remained light from there. Any bad feelings from the day had evaporated, leaving only smiles and hope for the future in its place.

Everything was going to be okay. For once, Marinette could truly believe that.