#sorry the alternative spellings are just wrong you guys are both wrong okay?

[memento-mariii]

OHHH so THAT's why my high school USAmerican english teacher asked me if I'd ever been to New Zealand!

The best thing about new zealand english is we get to pick and choose what we like from american english and british english.

The bad thing is that sometimes we choose wrong.

Like. Americans have fries and chips vs brits have chips and crisps. Both valid.

Here? We have chips and chips.

Youd think it'd be fine and that you can figure out which one a person is talking about from context but trust me a good percentage of the time you cannot. And often the person will try to differentiate them by clarifying they meant "Potato chips" only for them to realise a second later that both chips are made from potatoes

[gayhotpriests]

Thank you so much for tagging me in 'send me a prompt and i'll write you a fic!' May I please request Buck and Eddie prompt where Buddie is already together and Ana makes a comment about Buck or the tsunami? I'd love to see protective Abuela and Eddie ❤❤

hey! i'm sorry i couldn't fit abuela into this but I hope you like it! i had a great time writing this prompt, and it turned out to be almost pure fluff. enjoy! send me a prompt and I'll write you a fic.

this right here, in a grocery store. [one shot, 1.4k, buddie, ao3]

Buck stares alternatively at the two boxes in his hands, taking his sweet time deciding which pasta brand to buy. He and Eddie are getting groceries for the week, along with Christopher, who is happily seated in the cart and has very seriously accepted the task of organizing the items in categories. Eddie has left them in the pasta aisle to go look for Christopher’s favorite cereal and they have agreed to meet at the fruit and vegetable section in two minutes- Buck has to make a quick choice, or else, Eddie won’t get him his quinoa chips.

“What do you think, Superman?” He calls out for Christopher’s attention, showing him both boxes, “Fusilli or farfalle?” Buck asks. The boy scrunches up his nose and rubs his chin between his fingers, thinking hard. It is a hard question, after all.

“I like the little bowties better,” Christopher answers in a serious tone, “I want that one.”

“Farfalle,” Buck corrects softly, handing him the box so he can place it between the bread and the tomato paste cans. “Alright, let’s get rolling.”

Christopher giggles as Buck pushes the cart and makes car noises, reaches out a hand to pat Buck's when they pass a shelf stocked with chocolate on sale. They share a knowing smile as they grab a couple of bags of M&M's.

They are reaching the fruit and veggie section, with Christopher babbling about wanting to get kiwis and tangerines when Buck spots Eddie, a beautiful looking woman standing next to him, facing Eddie so Buck can't see her face. She's sort of tall, slim, and tan, and her long dark curls cascade down her back, shiny and perfectly styled.

A strange feeling of uneasiness settles down in Buck's stomach- he's never been the jealous kind, but his relationship with Eddie is still kind of new (the romantic aspect to it, at least), and they haven't really announced it to the world yet, so he wouldn't blame him for getting hit on at the grocery store. Still, something's not right, and the feeling intensifies as they approach Eddie and Buck takes note of his tense shoulders and a tight smile. He's uncomfortable, eyes flicking from the woman in front of him and the end of the aisle. When Eddie finally sees them, he relaxes for a second before panic flashes in his eyes and he turns back to the woman, scratches his neck, and looks at his son and Buck again.

The woman turns around.

“Miss Flores!” Christopher exclaims, genuinely happy to see her, and she smiles wide, eyes crinkling cutely and all. Buck stops the cart a few steps before he crashes it against them.

“Hello Christopher,” she says, voice syrupy sweet and a little on the edge of childlike, and she crouches down to be on Christopher’s eye level, “long time no see.”

“Hey, Ana,” Eddie clears his throat, “you know Chris, and this is, uh, this is Buck. Buck, meet miss Ana Flores.” Ana directs her thousand-mega-watt smile at him now, and Buck tries not to cringe.

Eddie didn’t introduce Buck as his boyfriend, which, okay, fair, he can’t imagine how awkward it must be for Eddie to run into his ex-girlfriend who doesn’t know he swings both ways at the grocery store, but still. Buck has to pretend that his stomach isn’t tied in knots and slap a fake smile on his face, his mother’s ‘be nice, Evan’ echoing behind his thoughts. Buck takes a deep breath. He’s going to be nice; he can be polite and get out of this as fast as possible.

“Nice to meet you, I’ve heard a lot about you, Buck," she says, but there’s something wrong in the way she says her name, laced with something Buck doesn’t have the time to dissect right now.

"Likewise," he manages to choke out. His skin feels like it's being crawled by ants.

“Miss Flores,” Christopher interrupts, and the three adults turn to look at him in the shopping cart, “Buck is the one who saved me from the tsunami!”

Buck’s stomach drops, suddenly

“Sure, sweetie,” she replies lightly- and God should strike him with lightning if that dismissal didn't make his blood boil- then turns back to Eddie as if Buck wasn’t there, and asks “He’s your best friend, right?”

Eddie bites his lip, his eyes flicker to Buck. He nods, silently communicating that he’s okay with whatever Eddie comes up with to protect them. Buck knows Eddie is not ready to come out publicly, and they decided to keep it inside the family for now- Christopher knows they are together, but they also had a very extensive conversation about what that meant and about talking to other people about their relationship. Their kid is amazing, and they never ask him to lie about their family- but Christopher does understand that his dad needs to be the one to tell people, for now. Buck would never let Eddie hide anything from his son or make him believe that there is anything wrong with their relationship and that it is something to be ashamed of.

Buck trusts Eddie, and that’s all that matters.

“Yeah, no, actually, we’re together now,” Eddie says, twisting the plastic bag he’d been holding in his hands nervously, “Buck is my boyfriend.”

“Oh,” Ana’s face falls, and Buck’s heart speeds up. She looks nervously between the two of them, before settling in Buck again, only a trace of her fake smile left. “I’m happy for you, guys.”

“Thank you,” he utters, completely at lost for words- this is the last thing he expected. “We’re really happy.”

“Buck is the best!” Christopher says, tugging on Buck’s hand, so he lets go of the shopping cart handle to hold his small hand back. Looking down at the kid and his warm smile, every insecurity he has ever had vanishing and replaced by the overwhelming love he feels for him. The way Christopher loves him is something no one could ever take away.

He looks up, finding Eddie's eyes, giving him one of those looks, all soft and fond. It makes Buck feel seen, not just because Eddie had come out to his ex-girlfriend in the middle of a grocery store. They smile at each other, and for a second nothing else exists in their little bubble.

“Wow, yeah, I think- I think I better leave you to it,” Ana twists a curl behind her ear and clears her throat, breaking the spell.

“It was nice to see you, Ana,” Eddie replies with a relaxed smile, steps around the cart, and slides an arm around Buck’s waist. His chest swells with pride, he’s not ashamed to say he loves that Eddie feels comfortable enough to show not only Ana but everyone else around them that Buck is his partner. Buck leans into his boyfriend's hold, smiles brightly at the woman in front of him.

And, well, if he’s also enjoying the fact that Eddie is showing him off to his ex… well, that’s his business and no one else’s.

“You too, Edmundo. Take care,” and with one last smile and wave, she’s gone.

Buck lets out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding, the last knots in his stomach dissolving. He turns to Eddie and what he sees is probably the most adorable thing ever- a blush spreads all the way from Eddie’s neck and cheeks, avoiding Buck’s eyes, checking out the label of Buck’s pasta.

“What was that?” he asks smugly, just to pick on Eddie. He’s so fucking proud of his boyfriend right now, but he’s going to take advantage of his flustered state, or his name isn’t Evan Buckley.

“Well, you’re my boyfriend, aren’t you?” Eddie retorts, still not looking up, and Buck shares a glance with Christopher, who has turned in his seat and is covering his mouth as he giggles, and winks. Sneaking a hand around Eddie’s neck, he pulls him closer and places a wet smooch on his flushed cheek, mwah sound included.

“Gross, daddy!” Chris laughs, and Buck exchanges a look with Eddie- both thinking the same, a mischievous glint in their eyes- and instantly lean down to attack their kid with kisses all over his face.

Right here, Buck decides he doesn’t want big, public declarations of love or expensive gifts. Just this, their family, the reassurance of his hand on his waist and spending time together in something as mundane as grocery shopping with Christopher. Taking small steps together- coming out one person at a time, making Eddie feel safe enough to do it, to even hold him and kiss him in public.

This is all he needs.

-

taglist: @buddiextarlos @eddie-diass @sunbeambuck @twofirefighterdads @justsmilestuffhappens @firefighterhan @agenderbuckley @allison-usn126

[darkacademicfrom2021]

Away. So, so far away.

<<Previous part Masterlist

Alternative ending with Bucky>>

Alternative ending with Loki>>

Word count: 2,2K

Warnings: angst, incarceration, jealousy, alcohol, minor cursing.

5

Loki felt alone. In solitude, he thought of you more often than he would've liked to recognize. Magic was of no use for him to leave, but he was still able to conjure a few things. He kept going back to that picture you had hung on your apartment, hoping you'd be back and notice the picture was gone. Hoping you'd ask more questions to Thor, enough for him to lose his mind and tell you everything.

That picture took him back to the beach it was taken in. He remembers that moment so well, it's imprinted on his brain, tattooed so it'd never leave him. It was in one of the first missions you two went together.

He was in denial. He didn't want to be your friend, much less get close. You tried, you tried a lot, in different ways. You got him things that reminded you of him from other missions. You teased him, trying to match his sarcasm. You listened to him if he wanted to talk. He had started to care for you but he was still taken aback with all of those… feelings, he was cultivating. Mere seeds you were growing in his dried garden of a heart.

The mountain excursion was not a one-time thing. You did that with almost every mission, periodically searching for moments to steal and roam around the place. In that exact mission, you stole some nights on a nearby beach.

You went alone every night, and came back refreshed. Hair wet, shoes leaving a trail of sand through the hotel room, your blankets always uncomfortably sandy. Loki stayed in his bed, two individuals, reading the whole time. He didn't fall asleep until you were back. It was a dangerous place, and you left at night, after all. It was the least he could do, he thought with a sour taste on his tongue, like admitting he cared made him disgusted.

The second night you came with a handful of colorful and pointy shells, each one different from the other, picked carefully and thoughtfully. Most of them shined, or had golden lines, which very obviously reminded you of your asgardian roommate.

"They're for you", you stated excitedly, leaving them at his nightstand.

He remembers he scoffed and, without taking his eyes off the book, he said something among the lines of "you shouldn't bother being childish with me".

You didn't get mad over it. You were used to him being cold, at that time, where you were alright sharing a room and talking but he wouldn't actually talk. He was reserved, you'd say. You had a liking for quiet people, despite your explosive and loud self.

You kept the shells to yourself and didn't bring them up again. Except, the night that followed, you came back with more shells. Leaving them at his night stand, you didn't say anything and got your things ready to shower. He didn't take his eyes off the book and started saying,

"Again with that? I told you…", but as soon as he watched them, he went silent. You smirked.

"For Your non-childish Highness".

The shells were all black. All picked with especial detail to be the most pure form of black you could possibly find.

He still has those. Somewhere in the apartment he's not allowed to step into.

The last night of that mission, he joined you. You didn't even need to ask him, he just proposed to walk by your side to take some fresh air and stretch before bed. You walked around the beach, and even convinced him to dip his feet on the sea. If you would've been closer at the time, he was sure you'd thrown him fully clothed to the water.

That night he realized he could possibly care a lot more for you than he had initially thought.

He sighed, staring at the picture from his cell. Nobody was around yet. Too early —or too late. He missed you. He thought of leaving a note, and he even wrote it down many times. He is not so sure they got to you. It was part of the punishment and he had to be constantly reminded he couldn't be with you anymore.

He missed you so, so much.

"I'm so, so done with you!!", you yelled to the God of Thunder sitting across the room, just by the long bar of Stark's Tower. "You lying piece of shit, you damned…".

Thor flinched, and then frowned. It wasn't usual for you to lose your temper, much less to him. Bucky and Steve quickly grabbed you by the shoulders and told you to calm down in between whispers.

"Stark, get them a lemonade", hurried Steve.

"No, no. I want to watch this unfold", he laughed and Bucky gave him a dead glare.

"They's too drunk. This is unfair", he said, and Tony sighed.

"They doesn't get drunk".

"Damn fucking well I'm not. Get away from me, I'm trying to talk to this silent asshole over there. Come here, you fucking dipshit", you got rid of their grip and almost jumped to Thor's side.

"Very well, tiny avenger. What would you want…", he began, cheeks red from his own asgardian-sized drink.

"It's been an entire month and a week. Tell me everything you're not telling me", you demanded. He laughed obnoxiously. Loki, watching from the cell through the sphere, boiled in rage.

"Loki… is not worth your time, mortal. You should just get together with sergeant Barnes already", he spat like it was the obvious thing that should happen. Loki decided he'd stab him six—no, seven times as soon as he got to see him, with his sharpest and longest dagger.

"What on Earth do you mean by that?!".

"Calm, calm. The thing is, to save you some more pain, get over him because he's not coming back".

"What have you all done to him? I'll go get him myself".

"Don't be so imprudent. He's not coming back to you, that's for sure".

You insisted. And insisted. And Thor didn't wish his brother to look bad in your eyes, but in his opinion… he looked for it.

Thor was still extremely upset at Loki for going to Jötunheim looking for a throne he very obviously did not deserve, and then had the guts to call himself a rational man. Thor had been reprimanded by Loki himself as a careless oaf for waging war between realms a few years ago, but Loki had just done that —except he was even thirstier for power, and had more to lose.

To Thor, Loki looked for it, and you shouldn't suffer because of it.

So, he decided to lie. To save you some pain, and probably out of pity too.

"My brother took the chance and went for Jötunheim's throne", he said, and you scoffed.

"I knew that. I don't know why he isn't…", you began, and stopped as Thor raised his eyebrows. "I knew he did it after, okay? It's not like I could actually stop him. Now tell me what's next. Why hasn't he come home?".

"He… he got the same answer, that he needed the possibility of leaving an heir, so he…".

Loki watched with extreme attention. Thor wasn't going to actually say something like that, right? He knew his brother was upset, but… he wouldn't, right?

"So he what, Thor?".

"He just married a Jötun woman. She's with child. He has no intentions of coming back ever again".

Loki laughed, incredulous. You wouldn't believe that, would you? His heart was beating so fast he felt it burst open.

"He what? No, no. He didn't, you're lying".

"He did. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner".

"No… it's not true. It's not. He loves me, and I love him".

"He loves the throne even more".

You had to sit on the floor. Bucky ran to your side and you broke down in his arms. You cried so loud, Loki's chest felt like blowing up for sure this time.

He summoned an energy blast that broke every single furniture on his cell, accompanied with a scream that he was sure you would've heard from there if his cell wasn't silenced with blocking spells. He couldn't keep his anger for himself anymore.

He forgave Thor for many things. But now… He will never, ever in the almost four millennials they have left to live, forgive Thor for that.

On the roof of the compound, the sunsets were better, you always said.

You laid your back against the tiles and watched the sun with puffy eyes from last night. Loki was watching you with the half-broken sphere, and, lost in thought —much like you— didn't seem to notice James getting on the roof too. He rubbed your back comfortingly and you greeted him with a sad smile.

"Hey", he said. He spoke like you'd break down again. "How are you feeling?".

"I'm sorry about yesterday", you hurried. "I was very drunk. I don't have filters and get all intense and emotional when I drink too much".

"Don't apologize, you were right to feel that way. Loki's an asshole".

Both you and Loki flinched at that. Loki, because the damn soldier was right. To your eyes, Loki was now an asshole.

"I don't feel like I should believe Thor", you mumbled. "But Thor has never lied to me".

"It sounds crazy, I know… you were such a couple. I don't think I've ever seen that guy smile if it wasn't with you", he said, and placed a hand over yours. You let him. Loki sighed.

"I just… I can't imagine him being like that. I know he's done bad things in the past. I know his whole history with betrayal. But he's different now. I want to believe he's changed".

"Because of you?", Bucky raised his eyebrows, and you chuckled in embarrassment, nodding and putting your lips in a tight line. "Don't get me wrong, you're great. You're… wonderful. But…".

"But nothing is the direct cause of someone changing. I know. I didn't mean to sound so egocentric".

"I know. But I meant it when I said you're wonderful. That's what I've been saying all this time. You don't deserve to be stepped on like this".

Loki could feel his heartbeat race. He knew what followed now. You'd soon forget him and fall in love with the sexy supersoldier that held your hand and complimented you and treated you like the world you were, because Loki wasn't there and Loki hurt you enough to be vulnerable to everyone's eyes.

Loki was sure you hated him now.

"It's just that… I love him so much, I feel my heart shrink a little each day".

Bucky sighed, and hugged you with only one arm —the warm one. You put your head on his shoulder. He kissed your forehead.

"You'll be fine, sweetheart. I promise".

Loki stopped keeping count of how long he's been locked up. Between the time differences in Asgard and Midgard, and the fact that he had no other way to tell than to scratching a fucking wall every day, he's not so sure how long it's been.

He doesn't have the sphere anymore. He hasn't had it for a long time, now. It felt long. He isn't sure how long. His mother found it missing and went to him. His mother wasn't upset. She knew why he took it. Why he needed it.

Loki isn't sure if it's been a few months, a year or if you're already buried deep inside a grave. He shudders and flinches at the thought. But it would've happened with or without him. After all, you're a mortal. Or were.

"Loki, my son", called Frigga. He was still laying on the bed, staring at the roof. She was carrying a handful of books.

He looked up and scanned her. She was dressed up.

"The Ball", he stated, and his heart weighed even more. The Ball happened, for Earth's chronology, every ten years. He now knows, he's been locked up for five. "I assume you're planning on keeping me here for at least another… three days", he said, looking at the books.

"Loki", she warned. How could he sass her even in his current position? She thought.

"That's all you've been saying. You come here, and look at me disappointedly, and call my name with its various pet names. I beg you to stop pretending you don't know what to say. If you're biting your tongue, free it, or bite it enough to draw blood".

"It's already bleeding, Loki", she frowned, tossing his books through the walls of the cell. "I have many things I'd like to say to you. I don't think it's wise anymore".

"When am I getting out?".

"You're not getting out any time soon, son".

"I know that. I'm asking when exactly. A decade? A hundred? A millenia?", she sighed, and Loki raised his voice, "TELL ME!!".

Loki hadn't had enough time. If he were to ever see you again, he had to get out right now. And even then he was sure you'd never receive him back again.

"Now, watch your tone, boy".

Loki growled animalistically, and tossed himself back to bed.

"Leave".

His mother left. She came back a few weeks later, only to find an empty cell.

(Taglist: @lucywrites02 , @louieboo87 , @the-departed-potato , @jesuswasnotawhiteman , @idontknow296 , @beksib , @spythoschei , @geekwritersworld , @whatafuckingdumbass , @mysticunicorn7 @shadowolf993 , @joscelyn02 , @t00-pi , @selfship-mishaps , @sallymagnoliaposts , @deadgirl88 , @enderslove, @theonewiththenerds, @vicmc624 )

[daydream-believin]

Recipe For Disaster 2: Electric Boogaloo

Summary: Jim is NOT happy about his sister’s boyfie. (not a part two despite the confusing name)

Warnings: swearing, a gilmore girls reference, divorce kids got daddy issues

Word Count: 5560, my longest yet woohoo

A/N: here it is im finally done with this. i- im tired. i love jim he was my favorite until doux came along but he can be a little bitch boy sometimes. and the word of the day is giggle im so sorry

tags: @alovesongshewrote​ hope i can deliver now that you have expectations lmao

It was a good Saturday. The trollhunters trio had gotten an early start on training, and thus Blinky had released them for an early lunch. It was a particularly successful day, with Claire really getting the hang of the shadow staff, so they decided to not make poor Jim cook for once and go out for a treat. And Toby really wanted a sandwich from Benoit’s.

They opted to walk to downtown instead of biking, as a way to cool down. Plus, it would give them time to digest their food on the walk back, before they returned to training once again. Although that was more of a problem for Jim and Toby, since Blinky wanted Claire to start reading a certain book this afternoon. She’d be in the library, quietly sitting while the boys go back to running around and fighting. The spring flowers had just started returning to Arcadia Oaks. The flowerbeds that decorated town added a cheery air to the day. Happily, Jim ran up in front to kick a pebble as they came up towards the bistro around the corner. He stopped in his tracks.

“Is Y/n’s boss flirting with her?”

The other two teens came around Jim to see. Y/n laughed at Douxie’s dumb joke and put her hand on his shoulder.

“And is she flirting back?” Jim asked incredulously.

Claire didn’t take this the same way Jim did. “Aww, that’s so cute.”

“No it’s not. It’s weird. And wrong.” Jim asserted.

“What are you talking about,” Claire lowered her brows with an annoyed tone.

“No, no. he’s right. Y/n doesn’t flirt. Or date. I’m not even sure she crushes.”

Claire shook her head, “That can’t be true, TP. She’s like, old. You two just didn’t notice it.”

“Oh, no, we noticed it. She went to every school dance alone, even senior prom.” Toby added. “It was kind of sad to be honest.”

“Remember that time that big movie star came into town? He was the prettiest guy I’d ever seen, and Y/n was just like ‘eh he’s okay, I guess’. We literally had a fight over that one.” Jim chuckled.

“I literally can’t imagine Y/n in a relationship. She’s just too all over the place.”

Claire rolled her eyes and gestured her hands towards the scene in front of them. “Well, she seems to be doing just fine now.”

Jim didn’t know why, but this made him a little huffy. “Whatever. It’s just a crush, anyways. She’ll get over it soon enough.”

Douxie leaned over to give Y/n a quick peck goodbye before he headed into Mr. Benoit’s to start his shift. He had swapped shifts with one of his coworkers for the day, so he could have the evening off. Y/n headed back to the bookstore. She tucked her hair behind her ear as she left, smiling to herself. The three trollhunters still stood right where they were, staring.

“I don’t think it’s just a crush, Jimbo.”

Jim was outraged. How. How was this happening. He could understand her not telling her family, their mother could be a bit nosy sometimes when it came to her daughter’s personal affairs. But his sister had often said she didn’t have enough time to pursue a love life whenever their mother probed her. There was no way she just started having said time. Right? It was curious, too, that out of all the people she could have chosen in Arcadia, she chose Douchey. That guy had girls fawning over him wherever he went. There was no way Y/n was into that.

Come to think of it, Y/n had been acting really strange ever since she had gotten that job at the bookstore. It was so easy to make her laugh now. She was actually wearing her hair in different styles instead of her signature. She actually enjoyed Barbara’s cooking. Or at least complimented it a lot now. Still a baffling action nonetheless. It was if she was experiencing the side effects of something. And that bookstore reeked of magic. Magic had the power to drive people out of their minds. He’d had plenty of first-hand experience with that. This whole situation was fishy.

“Well, I think it’s so cute they’re together now.” Claire said cheerily. He loved her but she wasn’t exactly the best when it came to making judgement calls. Hell, the fact that she was dating him after all he’s put her through was enough proof of that.

“Well, I think its magic.” Jim deadpanned.

“What.” Claire snapped.

“He’s got a spell on her! Some sort of enchantment. A charm!”

Toby was too tired from training today to deal with this. “I’ll agree, he does have charm, have you had him as a waiter? But not the kind of charm you’re implying here, Jim.”

“Douxie is my magic teacher, Jim. I promise, he’s a really nice guy.”

“Nope. There’s no way my sister would be into a guy, let alone a guy like,” He tried to find the right words but just sputtered, “Like that!” he motioned to poor Doux, who was changing the specials sign out front. Douxie was one of those bistro employees who always got asked to draw up the sign because his calligraphy was so good. Doux had to admit, his handwriting was messy compared to Merlin’s standards, but to Mr. Benoit’s he was a calligraphy god.

Toby looked Doux up and down. “I don’t know man, Y/n is kind of alternative.”

“Yeah, who do you think helps me dye my hair all the time? And sneaks me into concerts?” Claire added.

“Okay. I get that. But he’s just not good enough for her.” Jim said through gritted teeth.

Toby sighed. “Then who is?” he asked wearily.

Jim got defensive. “I don’t know! A prince, maybe. One that’s in line to be king. Not one of those waiting-for-a-brother-to-die ones, but a real one.” He nodded his head like any of that was realistic. “Definitely not just some wizard who works in a bookstore.”

“She’s just some wizard who works in a bookstore, though.”

There was no getting through to Jim. “Think about it guys, my sister, suddenly getting cozy with a magic man? Bushigal. She’s under a spell. I’m going to fight him.”

“No, no you’re not,” Claire asserted, “You’re going to have lunch like we planned AND you’re going to be civil.” Claire and Toby both grabbed one of his arms and dragged him towards the bistro.

***

The hostess guided them to the table. Claire sat across from Jim and Toby. They were handed the menus. Claire showed interest in the lunch specials while Toby flipped to the sandwiches. Jim just brooded while he stared unblinking into the first page. And by chance, and by the fact that this scene would be boring and or pointless if not, Douxie was the waiter for said table. After handing off the check to one of his other tables, he waltzed over to the trio, happy to see his protégé.

“Ello lads, how’s it going? How’d that test go today, Claire?” Douxie ruffled her hair. Jim narrowed his eyes at the sight.

“Horrible! I bombed it for sure!”

Toby rolled his eyes, “You say that about every test, Claire, and then it turns out you aced them.”

“No I mean it this time, TP. I didn’t even finish the last three questions. It was so bad!”

“Yeah, okay, I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Douxie chuckled. Oh to have the problems of these youngsters. Claire and Toby got into some sort of glare match where they both just made more and more aggressive funny faces at each other. Both finally conceded and they fell into giggles. Douxie was glad to see Claire having so much fun, but he noticed someone else at the table who was not having said fun. His apprentice Claire’s boyfriend, his master’s champion, and his darling Y/n’s brother, looking like his dog ate his homework, or whatever teenagers got angry about these days.

“Cheer up, lad.” Doux grinned at Jim, “Hangry? I get that. You look like you could use a good meal.”

“Well strangely I am in a cafe”

Claire kicked Jim under the table. He tried his best to stifle the grunt of pain. “Don’t mind Jim, he’s a tad grumpy from a bad training session. And we’ll take waters all around.” She smiled. Doux hurried off to go get their glasses.

In the end, Toby couldn’t pick a sandwich. He had three favorites and couldn’t decide between them yet. Jim and Claire had his back. They both got one of them and he got the third. Then they would all share the halves. A good plan. And it was a delicious one. Toby was thankful for his partners.

***

After finishing up training and walking Claire home, Jim and Toby went their separate ways. Toby had promised his Nana he’d go with her and her boyfriend to see a play in the next town over. Jim had promised his mother he’d be home for a family dinner. He wasn’t able to be home in time to cook, so this was going to be a roulette wheel when it came to food. He was betting on Y/n. As he came to the front door, he cracked it first and smelled the air before going inside as to make sure his candid reaction wouldn’t be bad. The aroma coming from the house was heavenly. Alright, Y/n. Jackpot.

Jim swung the door open wide as he strutted in. Everyone was in the kitchen, it looked like. He put his bag up and called to his family that he was home. Which was met with the two voices he had expected, but one he hadn’t. And it was a voice he didn’t want to hear right now. Douxie. Hisirdoux fucking Casperan. In his house. In his kitchen. In his territory.

Jim immediately felt his muscles tense up. He took a deep breath and put on his best fake smile before heading into the kitchen. Y/n was sautéing something over the stove. Barbara was stirring something which meant that she had insisted on helping and Y/n had done the equivalent of giving your younger sibling a game controller that wasn’t plugged in. The offending wizard was leaning over the bar counter from the other side, chatting away as if he had any reason to be here.

Once Y/n caught sight of Jim, she bubbled. “Jim! How was hiking? You three have fun?” she knew where he actually spent his Saturdays but they had to keep up the rouse for their mom. While Y/n particularly didn’t care for the lying, she also agreed with Jim that some things are best kept from worrisome mothers. Barbara gave her enough shit already for her frequent homecomings from bars and shows in the wee hours of the morning with scrapes and bruises. If their mother knew about Jim’s marginally more dangerous late-night escapades, she might actually have a nervous breakdown.

“Oh yeah, it was great. We saw a deer. It had a baby with it.”

“Majestic.” She turned and gestured to the man at the counter, “You remember Douxie, right?”

“Of course,” Jim said through gritted teeth forced into a smile. “In fact we just saw each other at the bistro earlier today.”

A timer went off. Y/n expressed her delight that something in the oven was done. Barb got some plates out of the cabinet, while Y/n pulled the main course out of the oven. She handed Jim the plates and silverware and sent him to go set the table. Jim supposed this was better than having to talk to Douxie. Until Douxie insisted on helping him. Great.

“So, Jim, I’ve heard a lot about you-”

“I’m sure you have.” Jim cut him off. Douxie was a bit confused, but figured he was still grumpy like he was earlier at the bistro. He’d leave the moody teen alone then. Perhaps he be in a better mood after getting some food in him and spending time with his family. Doux would try for conversation again then.

Jim did not get any less grumpy, to Douxie’s dismay. And Y/n’s. Y/n really needed both her family members to like her boyfriend. They were all each other had, and any strife would put a strain on their tiny closely-knit family unit. Y/n loved Douxie, and she wanted Jim and Barbara to love him to. To accept him. It would help put a validity to her feelings. If they liked him then she had made the right choice. She could never be with someone her loved ones hated. And as a bonus, it would be nice if she could give Douxie the family he never had. He deserved as much.

Luckily, Barbara had taken quite a liking to Arcadia’s most charming waiter. Jim however, was subtly hostile. Or at least he thought he was being subtle. It was very apparent to the other three at the table. As Douxie was animatedly telling Barb some story that she was laughing very hard at, Y/n turned to glare at her brother. Jim tried to feign innocence. Y/n rolled her eyes and put some more salad on her plate. Jim noticed the bracelet on her wrist. Funny, she had never been one for jewelry before. But she started wearing this one everyday right around the time she started working at the bookstore. Interesting.

Douxie finished up his story and turned his attention to Jim. He’d try once again to engage the trollhunter. He knew how important this was to Y/n. Douxie was going to make this little man like him if it was the last thing he did.

“I saw the school play you were in a couple weeks ago, Jim. You were quite the actor, and I know Shakespeare’s tough. Have you ever thought of going into it professionally? Claire’s told me she wants to. You two could be one of those celebrity power couples.”

Jim just offered a short thanks that was less hostile but not exactly enthusiastic either. Well, at least Doux was getting somewhere. It’s a start. Y/n was content with this. Jim would warm up to Douxie eventually. It didn’t have to be right away, even if she would have liked that.

After the dinner conversation had died down and the food long gone, Y/n set out to clear the table and clean the kitchen. Barbara also went to help her, but Douxie assured her he’d take care of it. He was a world class waiter after all. He stacked up the plates as Y/n grabbed the dinner dishes. And so the two set off to the world behind the wall, to clean or canoodle or whatever. Jim wasn’t too keen on thinking about it. His mother pulled him into the living room to sit on the couch and preceded to ask him twenty questions about Claire. He was almost happy when the lovebirds came back.

And then his mother made them all play some card game for three hours straight. All while the lovebirds flirted away right in front of them. It was like they had no shame. This guy just had to have Y/n under a spell or something, Jim was sure of it. There was no other explanation. As she giggled at another one of Douxie’s stupid jokes that weren’t even funny, Jim felt sick.

Finally it came time for that douchebag to leave. Jim rolled his eyes at his mother and sister fawning over Doux as he made his way to the door. He slinked over behind them to watch the guy leave and make sure that he left. As Douxie went through the door he gave Y/n a quick peck and said the stupidest line Jim had ever heard. Who does this guy think he is. Once the door was shut and Doux had indeed walked away, Jim scoffed.

“Bet that guy has a bank of pickup lines he’s memorized. There’s no way he came up with that on the fly.”

***

Jim was furious. He fought like a madman during training. Draal was just making it worse by encouraging it; he really liked the kid’s fire today. Draal had no idea what was up with him right now, but Jim was giving it his all. The trollhunter was rarely this aggressive. Blinky looked on as Jim growled and shouted with every strike. He hadn’t seen his son frothing at the mouth like this before. It was glorious. Keep this up and Angor Rot won’t know what hit him.

Claire and Toby were also training, with Arrggh, albeit with not even half as much gusto as Jimbo. They were also a wee bit distracted, trying to wind Jim down from said gusto. He came over to where they were to get some water. Taking this opportunity, Toby tried appealing to him once again.

“Dude, give it a rest, this is just like how you got all pissy about your mom dating Strickler.” Toby was exasperated.

“Y/n can’t date guys, my mother can’t date guys, no men should be frequently invited into our household! No boys allowed! Me and Toby are the only boys allowed!” Jim growled. He stormed off across the keep to go land another hit on Draal.

Blinky blinked. He was taken aback at the hostility from his charge. “So, do either of you have any idea as to what that was about.”

“Right now the winning theory is that this is like, about how heartbroken his mother was when his dad left, so now he doesn’t want that to happen again or something,” Claire sighed. Her teacher really was a good guy. Lonely too. Just like Y/n. They were going to be good for each other. Her boyfriend should be happy for them. Jim took a particularly dirty swipe at Draal. Toby grunted in sympathy. “Or maybe Douxie just poked Arcadia’s most possessive bear.”

***

Jim and Toby were walking downtown, enjoying their free time after a trollhunting mission on this fine Sunday afternoon. That is, until they came in sight of the bookstore. Jim felt that bitter feeling in his stomach again. He knew Y/n wasn’t working today. Douchey would be all alone. Now was his chance to confront this and end it before it got any worse. Toby noticed the malice in his eyes as he stomped towards the bookstore.

“Woah dude, what’re you doing?”

“I’m just going to have a little chat with Mr. Casperan that’s all.”

Toby threw his head back in exasperation. “There no talking you out of this is there?”

“Nope”

The bell jingled as they walked in. The bookshop smelled like Christmas. And Jim was about to try and talk politics with his racist uncle at the dinner table. Douxie came over and greeted them cheerily.

“Good afternoon, lads. Looking for any book in particular?”

“I’m not a part of this. I just happen to be with him physically.” Toby quickly asserted. Douxie quirked a brow at the odd statement. Jim pushed forward aggressively. Doux had the sense to back away from the boy.

“I’m onto you, wizard. Just what did you do to my sister? Did you slip her a love potion? Is that bracelet she’s been wearing charmed?” Jim growled. Toby cringed on the sidelines.

Douxie blinked. “Excuse me?”

“There’s no other explanation for your ‘relationship’. You’ve got to be magicking her. And I won’t just sit here and let it happen. That’s my sister and it’s my job to protect her from creeps like you.”

Douxie took in the boys words, and a deep breath. He tried his best not to sound too defensive and provoke the kid further, “Okay, wow. That’s quite an accusation there, friend.” He moved away from where the boy had backed him into a bookshelf. “You know, out of all that you just implied, the part I think I’m most offended by is the fact that you’d think I’d mess with Y/n’s free will like that.”

Douxie straightened some books on a nearby display. “You know Jim, when it comes to love-” Jim stormed out of the bookstore before Doux could take his lecture any further, grabbing Toby by the arm so he’d follow. Toby mouthed a big ‘I’m sorry’ to Doux as he was pulled out of the store.

***

Jim’s pencil felt abused. He was furiously scribbling the answers to his homework with a heavy hand. He still had a lot of pent up rage, even after accosting poor Doux. After snapping his lead for the seventh time in the hour, Jim decided that switching subjects to Spanish instead of math for a bit might help him calm down. He moved to his bed to start the assigned reading. He laid on his stomach, propping up his head in his hands to see his textbook. His blue eyes perused the paragraphs punctuated by cheesy cartoons. He was halfway through the third page when a knock came at his door. Taking a deep breath, he called for whoever it was to let themselves in. His sister stepped into view.

Jim ran a hand through his dark hair. Here comes the scolding. He didn’t even have to ask if Y/n had heard about what he’d done today. If Douxie himself hadn’t told her then Tobes certainly did. Jim wasn’t proud of it, now that it was all said and done. He knew he deserved whatever Y/n was about to dish out. He sat up and crisscrossed his legs. She pulled his desk chair over and sat backwards in it so that she was facing him on the bed.

That’s it. No scolding came. She just sat and looked at him, neutral faced. He squirmed at the nothing. She lifted up the coffee mug in her hands and took a slow sip, not breaking eye contact with him. Jim began to sweat. He tried to avoid her gaze by looking down at the floor, but he could still feel her eyes upon him. Sighing, he had to admit defeat.

“Okay, so I do feel bad about what I said to Douxie today.” He looked back up to meet Y/n’s eyes. She raised a brow. “It was wrong of me to jump to conclusions like that, I’m sorry.”

Y/n appeared to be satisfied by that. A smile spread across her face and she nodded to him. She stood up, and ruffled his hair on her way out. Still refusing to break her silence, she motioned for him to follow her downstairs.

***

Y/n set her coffee cup down on the table. She pulled another mug out of the cabinet for Jim. Grabbing the coffee pot from its nest under the coffeemaker, she filled Jim’s mug and topped off her own. Sliding the mug across the table to Jim, she sat down. Jim could smell the aromas of the several colorful dishes baking that he could see through the screen of the oven door. Strange, it was already half past nine. There was cinnamon in the air, so at least one of those dishes contained dessert. Jim’s stomach growled at the thought.

“You know I’m not the one you should have to apologize to, Jimbo.”

“I know, I know,” He looked at the ground, “I’ll go talk to him tomorrow after school.”

Silence filled the kitchen again. Y/n took a sip of coffee. This conversation was going to be hard. She wasn’t particularly looking forward to it. She opened her mouth to speak, but stopped. She took yet another long sip of coffee to figure out a good enough way to word this. She took a breath.

“So, uh- listen Jimbo. I- I know it’s tough, ya know, with it just being us. And our family’s tight because of it. But you can’t get so protective that new people can’t join it. Or even try.”

Jim took a breath, “I know it’s just, I-, what happens when we, when you, get so attached to him, and he decides that he doesn’t care for you anymore. When he turns out to be bad. When he just disappears. Like- like they do.”

“Oh, Jim,” She reached across the table for his hand. “That’s my risk to take, Jim. I fully recognize that what I’m doing is hazardous and I could get hurt really bad. But I still chose to do it. I choose it every day. We all do, when we fall in love.”

Jim took a sip and lingered, staring into his cup. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” He chuckled, “I know I’d be devastated if Claire ever wizened up and left me.”

“Look, you gotta trust me okay? Douxie isn’t dad or Strickler. I promise. He’s kind. I trust him. After you apologize, I think you really should start to make an effort to get to know him. If not for me, for Claire dude. And I think you’ll really like him. Promise you’ll give him a chance?”

Jim sighed in defeat. “Alright. I promise.”

She stood up and stretched out her back, making those stretching noises that people do. She checked the food in the oven. The buns were ready, but the quiche still needed a few minutes. She took out the pans and put them on the cooling rack. After fanning them for a few seconds, she turned to Jim, “So you want a spinach bun or a cinnamon bun?”

“How is that a question?” Jim laughed.

“Spinach bun it is then,” She teased as she tossed him the cinnamon one.

“What’s all this for anyway?” He gestured to the oven and the buns.

“Oh, uh, its actually for a date tonight?” She looked warry of how he’d react.

“Okay,” He guessed now would be as good a time as ever to start letting this go, “You crazy kids have fun.” Y/n laughed, relived.

Douxie had just finished up the sweeping and was ready to close up. As he headed to towards the front doors, he took one last look around the place to make sure he didn’t miss anything. All clean and tidy. Whoever opened tomorrow would appreciate it. He flipped the neon sign from open to nope and started locking up. Which is when his girlfriend pounced on him and almost gave him a heart attack. She just appeared out of thin air to tackle him into a hug. Scared the living daylights out of him. Y/n apologized profusely when she noticed him freak out but was still snickering between sorries so she probably didn’t mean it. He asked her just what the hell she was doing here and she picked up a picnic basket that was on the ground to show him.

“I just knew a certain wizard hadn’t eaten yet tonight.”

***

Y/n felt the ground beneath her back through the picnic blanket. The new spring growth had made them a cushion of sorts. Her head rested in the crook of Douxie’s shoulder as his arm was wrapped around her. It was nice here. Comfy. She could smell his hair and feel his chest move as he breathed. Their heartbeats made a nice rhythm to accompany the cricket song and the noise of the trees swaying. The stars were so lovely tonight. Stellar.

Douxie broke the quiet. “So I brushed up on my astrology.”

“Oh yeah?” Y/n quirked her brow. Astrology was one of her biggest interests. She’d loved it since her grandmother had given her a book about it when she was small. It was a well-worn, well-loved book. Her grandmother had handwritten things in the margins too. She’d been talking Douxie’s ears off about it during work earlier that week. Something was just so fascinating about how there were gorgeous balls of light in the sky that could tell you the future. There really was magic embedded in the fabric of the universe. It was sweet that he would care enough to learn about her interests. Very sweet indeed. The fact that he went out of his way just so he could talk to her about something she loved? Tooth-rotting. She wasn’t sure if her heart sped up because she was excited to talk about astrology or because of the sugar rush he just gave her.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve needed to look at constellations, we do have GPS now, but I think I remember enough,” He pointed to the sky, “That’s Pisces, right?”

“Yes!” Y/n couldn’t stop herself from smiling so wide her cheeks hurt.

“And that’s Aries, which marks the beginning of spring,” He looked back at Y/n who nodded to him, “oh, and look! We can see Venus tonight.”

“Hey Douxie, I love you. And You’re really making me want to kiss you right now.”

He chuckled and wiggled his eyes brows teasingly, “Ah, yes, I am aware of the effect I have.” She rolled her eyes and put her hand on his face to push him away. If he saw the blush creeping up on her, he’d just get flirtier. She wasn’t sure she could handle that. Something caught her eye and instantly stole her attention.

“Look! A shooting star! Make a wish Doux.” She pointed to the streak of light that flashed.

“I don’t need wishes when I’m here with you, Love.” If her face was pink before it was bright red now.

Y/n hid her face in her hands, “No! You were supposed to say something silly,” She came back up to look him in the eyes, “not something that makes me want to kiss you even more.”

He leaned his head in closer, “Well, what’s stopping you, Y/n”

Well, that was obviously a dare. She couldn’t not kiss him now. So she did. They melted into it instantly. At first it was sweet and slow, but they got a bit hungrier, and the kiss got a bit sloppier. Douxie smelled like the bookstore, Y/n loved the smell of the bookstore. It was everything safe in her life. He was everything safe in her life. Her best friend. He brought his hand up to cup her cheek. He loved how her lips just fit together with his perfectly. Y/n Lake was everything he’d been waiting for all these years. Soft and kind, with such a beautiful heart. Not to mention, a badass. Yet, even with all his ancient baggage, she still cared for him. Made him feel like new again. Out of all the wizards of Arcadia Oaks, she chose him. He still couldn’t believe it. They pulled apart way sooner than either of them wanted, but they did have to breathe, so it had to be done. Locked in Douxie’s gaze, Y/n broke the intensity to giggle.

“But really, I was setting you up for a joke. You know what you could have done with that, Doux?” She teased.

“I’ll remember that for next time, Love.”

“Ah, they’re super rare. This is the first time I’ve ever seen one in all my stargazing years.”

“Well, we’ve got plenty of time to see the next one. And the next one. All the shooting stars you want. Only seeing them every few decades could make them a special little thing for us.” He said so nonchalantly, as if he hadn’t just implied that he expected their love to last for countless decades. As if it were a given. Suddenly it hit her. She could live thousands of years by his side. She would live thousands of years by his side. This was it. She wasn’t even sure humans could turn this vivid a shade of red. Y/n’s heart was gonna pop if it beat any harder.

“Stars, are you just hellbent on making me combust tonight? It too hot out here for this.” Douxie just laughed, a twinkle in his eye. She focused on her beloved stars to calm her down. She sighed, “The stars really are beautiful tonight.”

“You know what else is beautiful?”

“Me?”

“You- aww, you’ve heard that one.”

Y/n’s snort rung in the air. So, he does just have a bank of pick-up lines he’s pulling from. Interesting. Guess it must be tough having to be Arcadia’s most charming waiter. They stilled again. The comfortable silence embraced them. And they could have basked in it all night, if Douxie had not a burning question he had been waiting to ask his beloved.

“So- uh,” She looked to him expectedly, “Do you think there’s life out there?”

Y/n tried not to laugh too hard with Douxie’s very serious tone, “Yeah, yeah I do.”

Now it was Douxie’s turn to smile so wide his cheeks hurt. “Really?”

“Yeah,” She said, “I think it’d be kinda arrogant to assume that with all that vastness up there that we’re the only ones who exist.”

“That’s a really good point.” Douxie said excitedly. He pulled her tighter into his embrace and snuggled. “I think I’m going to use that on Zoe next time she tries to tell me that I’m crazy and aliens aren’t real.”

“Yeah Babe! Win that argument!” Y/n encouraged.

She peppered his face with kisses. That big smile stayed on his face as he closed his eyes in delight. He repaid her with a nose kiss. And she repaid that by starting another snogging session.

***

Little did they know that shoot star was really aliens akiriddion spaceship crash 3below wait shit the akiriddions landed in like season two and ive set this in one ugh just pretend like this makes sense hfhadhiufs

[olde-scratch]

So I watched LUCIDS 1-4 without any prior knowledge...

and here were my thoughts. I didn’t watch any backstory or anything so enjoy my suffering.

PART 1

“So what happens when the people inside of their dreams go to sleep?” They die

“What happens when we wake up? Do they go on living while we’re not there?” THEY DIE-

“Who are they anyway?” they’re faces that our brain catalogs and stores for later use, although it’s also arguable that every time we dream we go to an alternate reality and inhabit the body of another version of ourselves. Now, were you in a car accident and trapped underwater or-

Are they twins?

(Me tuning out to do something)

“-the squirrel in spongebob was your soulmate, making you a Sandy simp-”

Me, snapping back to the video: hold up-

[missed the part about the worksheet, realized it when i rewatched 10 mins later to make this post]

yall speakin gibberish idk what youre saying-

“I’m gonna go to bed.” bro it literally looks like morning-

“You should get some sleep you look terrible.” i get six hours of sleep a night minimum and i look worse than him shut up bro-

“jump into someone else’s dream” ah i know this con-

why they all got the same face-

haha funni meme

“--an interruptiion can create feedback and tear them apart.” Death. I long for thee.

Is that Karl Jacob’s jacket?

“a second grader” makes me think this is a different school system. [i was wrong? i think?]

“[get him to] eat your apple”

[in the dream sequence] weird dream, but ive had weirder. now, Why Pamper’s-

why does he suddenly have a knife-

“You put a filter on the Dreamscape feed?”

“Technically, you are seven years old.”

???????????

the second hand embarrassment is UGGGHHH

[reading the description] you mean like the guy who was knocked out for 2 minutes on a football field and woke to find he’d dreamt 17 years of his life? oh this shall be Fun

PART 2

[I check the description] “jasper cult” what the fu-

how many camp camp references can i make during this

Is the apple a reference to religion or does the creator just really ilke apples?

“meal.”

“meal?”

meal????

Wait why couldn’t that guy eat the apple? If he wanted it in the fruit bowl, wouldn’t there be a chance of the guy eating it anyways?? Why can’t the guy who brought the apple eat it?

well he’s Dead

[debating if I should read the backstory}

n a h h h h h -

Was he gonna feed the dead guy the apple or something? Why is he upset about the apple in this scene???

oooo the grownups are fightinnnngggg

Is he an antagonist?

HE WROTE A BOOK???

oh now i want food

ESTABLISH JUSTICE ENSURE DOMESTIC TRANQUILITYYYYYYYYYYYYY

“I watched all those aforementioned shows” what shows did i miss something what-

man why you gotta hate on her jane austen fanfic let her live bro

string theory! i can get behind that! sorta-

o no he found the memes-

BOY GOT KNOCKED OUT-

kim there’s people that are dying-

is SHE an antagonist?

quinn? calling himself jasper? u sure hes not just nonbinary? is this just a metaphor for transphobic parenting?

“He died... but somewhere, he grew up.” So is your plan to take a Quinn from a different universe and make him your own, thereby robbing another version of yourself from happiness? When does this ever go well?

Yknow most people, when they lose a kid,,,, kinda,,,,,,, dont go on a ceaseless quest to find another version of their kid that grew up without knowing that another version of his mother was invading other peoples’ dreams to find and kidnap him,,,,,,,, like aint u got a therapist-

“Once you get past the point of not knowing what’s real anymore, you realize it doesn’t matter.” Well, I Got Called Out-

PART 3

“you’re real, oliver.”

aRe yOu sUrE aBoUt tHaT-

“you’ve been infected by the anti-love parasite of Mandadon” the amatonormativity is strong

so anyways ive been infected since birth hbu-

“James Jasperson, creator of Japple” did you mean to Fancy Well-Educated Man in a Black Turtleneck? cause the only FWEMBT i allow near me is prof. hidgens

“are you winning?” says the capitalist

why did you rewind to see his face?? you have the same face????? is this just bc the creator doesnt like working with other people cause in that case same but???????

“it’s a bad idea. i’m not gonna do it.” we’ve all been there. and we’ve all done it.

looks like me trying to study. (i say, a person who has studied a total of five minutes throughout their entire life.)

your “Spartan trial” looks like a bunch of guys standing on a hill pretending to be something they’re not. Let The Man Bring His Snacks.

eat the apple.

is this your first existential crisis or something what a loser lets all point and laugh

“One of you should be spared, the other shall’nt.” did you mean shant or was that a choice-

yall gonna get called out for talking shut UP

“sorry if this is too personal, btw. are you okay?”

me, confused and half understanding what’s going on and also needing to sleep cause its almost one in the morning but wanting to finish what i can find of lucids which i only starting watching cause i saw an animatic of ranboo and dream w audio from it: i don’t know anymore

“i just want my life back... i was gonna get married-” AREN’T YOU LIKE SEVEN-

ay man if this is a sacrificial cult yall gotta get daniel-

UPDATE: I  H A V E  N O T  F O U N D  I T -

“oliver”

I  F O U N D   I  T -

WHICH ONE IS QUINN?? WHO’S JASPER???? WHICH ONE IS BENJAMIN???? I THOUGH BENJAMIN WAS SEVEN BUT I THOUGHT HE WAS THE ONE GETTING MARRIED WHAT-

oliver. eat the apple.

“Can you still have memories even when you’re dreaming?” One time I woke up to my alarm and fell back asleep and in my dream I remembered that I had class in a few minutes and my dream self woke my real self up so fast I thought I was gonna get whiplash. Anyways, I was late to class bc of my computer but that doesn’t matter.

NOPE I FOUND IT. HERE’S THE AUDIO. THE ANIMATIC ONE. FINALLY.

im thinking car crash. but also maybe murder. but also maybe both? is it raining or was he drowning? is he in a coma? hmmmmmm?

wait olivers the one with the apple does that mean he’s the one dreaming? is the ending gonna be him and jasper (quinn? idk) fighting against ben and mrs hills about jasper eating the apple to save oliver from the dream? hmmmmmmmmmm-

waitwaitwait i thought oliver was 7 how is benjamin 7 years younger than him if they look the same age what what what explain america explain what you mean arkansaw-

are the cuts on his nose plot-relevant or

“What if you hadn’t been driving?” So I was right about the car accident but Mrs. Hills still said he was seven so did i mishear her say that BENJAMIN was seven? but even then oliver would be 14 and that would still be illegal-

“How are you feeling?”

“Like you’re a pretty bad therapist.”

mood

“--it makes it all bearable to have power over the stories we write in our heads” that’s why i write fanfiction

HE’S GOT THE NOTEBOOK HE’S GONNA WRITE SOMETHING ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US

WHAT YOU MEAN AN EXPERIMENT THAT’S HIS NAME-

[upon reading the description] so i was right.

wait was that supposed to be the twist in part 2 about the apple in his pocket is that what the existential crisis was about i thought it was because he was introduced to the multiple worlds theory-

PART 4

wait wasnt the other one january 2018 why we going back to 2017-

appol

“--the future and the past all already exist” mhm yep figured this out long ago

there was simultaneously a point in time in which i hadn’t known about this, had been looking it up, had been watching it, and had been writing an ending to this post, and had been posting it the next morning before class. that time is both now and not now. Welcome To The Multiverse Theory or whatever its called-

“--my favorite scene of the movie is waking up next to you.” Mine is eating fast food as I listen to AJJ and play Minecraft. We are not the same.

Now I’m hungry but it’s 1 in the morning and i already put my retainer in god fu-

[reading description] what do you mean previously??? she did that in the first episode????????

[still on description] WHAT DO YOU MEAN WILL QUINN BITE THE APPLE AND GO TO BENJAMINS REALITY ISNT THIS OLIVERS REALITY AND HE HAS TO GET BEN TO BITE THE APPLE WHY IS APPLE CAPITALIZED IS THIS THE DOING OF THE FWEMBT

i should have watched the backstory i should have watched the backstory i should have watched the backstory i should have wa-

[description] oh ive been spelling quinn right the whole time nice

i hope she rejects you /j

WAIT BENJAMIN WAS THE ONE GETTING MARRIED TO ISABELLE

ISNT HE IN SECOND GRADE-

HE IS SEVEN YEARS OLD HOW IS HE GETTING MARRIED ARE THERE TWO BENJAMINS THAT WE’RE FOCUSING ON-

bro get out of the road ull get hit

how do you knOW WHICH ONE IS QUINN THEY ARE THE SAME PERSON-

so

wait

hills wants ben to feed quinn the apple bc in his mind, that will give hills and quinn a happy ending and she doesnt want ben to see the apple bc thats gonna mean ben will know that his reality isnt reality at all. so then oliver has to,,,, not let anyone eat his apple? he just has to wake up?

IS HILLS THE VILLAIN AFTER ALL ORRRRR

wait but if ben sees the apple wont he realize that his reality is wrong and his reality will change, making it so that hills doesnt get her son? or is there some time-based rule that says they’re only transported to the reality that the person believes at that moment? or is this another stab at the multiverse thing where an infinite amount of hills gets their happy endings while an infinite amount of hills doesnt and etc etc?

i should have watched the ba-

oooo dramatique

they’re in a time loop?

nope thats a new powerpoint

wait so theyre,,,, no-

wait-

nvm-

IS THE BEN WE KNOW AN ADULT GETTING MARRIED TO ISABELLE OR NOT-

“they were actually pretty nice” didnt they throw someone off a cliff-

oh so it got confusing THEN??? NOT BEFORE?????

“it all seemed so real.” is that Not the point of vivid REM sleep hallucinations-

is oliver gonna show ben the apple and ruin hills’ whole operation

WHO ARE ALEX AND RYAN-

“what’s 25-8″ bro dont do this to me-

yep hes gonna show the apple

ayyy the guy who stole karl jacobs jacket it back

the second hand embarrassment is back and I Hate It

all that happens in episode ONE??? bro get some better writers that is bad pacing

“it’s the best!” wait until season eight. no show has a good season eight.

quinn knows about the apple thing w the dreams and multiverse and realities dont he

YOU KILLED HIM

NOT KARL JACOBS NOOOOO HES ALREADY DIED ONCE

oliver is v relatable

wHaT iN tArNaTiOn-

lemme hear that explanaton again-

is bill cipher gonna show up? i hope bill cipher shows up. i miss gravity falls

“ah! a tree! ah! a tree! ah a tree!” moooooooood

did hills murder quinn

is your family the jasper cult

TOXXIICCCCCC get that lady out of your life quinn that is so toxic

“ ah! a tree! ah! a tree! ah a tree!  ah! a tree! ah! a tree! ah a tree!” mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT’S THE END NO WHAT WHY NO

The Adventures of Benjamin and Oliver

he is Not Good

ope-

wait so ben is equal parts an adult AND a child?? okay that clears a lot up

I MEAN HE WAS RIGHT THO BEN U CAN’T REALLY ARGUE ON THAT-

ew get off the floor

butterfly effect, multiverse theory, memory decay, and your imagination ALL exist yall gonna ignore that cause you wanna be famous?

“We already know what the future looks like!”

aRe yOu sUrE aBoUt tHaT-

to add to the list of bad things: Cats (2019)

YA BOI THINKS IT’S NOT ALREADY FIFTY YEARS TOO LATE TO START FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE FFFFF

BINGO BABYYYY

get what what

what mapped-

awwwww he thinks THEY’RE creating the multiverse

you gonna dismiss the multiverse theory bc of something you created in your current reality? loooserrrrrr

ABUSE YOUR GODLIKE POWERS

she draggin that seven year old

a lot makes sense now why didnt i do this first-

Jasper

the food shortages-

bro that calculators like 90 bucks at walmart

imagine meeting a stranger and they know Everything about your life like that’s gotta be so weird

what’s even weirder is them telling you you’re the deity of a cult that sacrifices animals

THAT FOURTH WALL BREAK WAS-

KARL JACOBS IS DEAD NOOOOOO

ooohhh there’s context for that

OOOOHHHH THERE’S CONTEXT FOR THIS TOOOO

w h a t -

w  h  a  t  -

W   H   A   T   -

Conclusion:

it’s 2 in the morning and i need sleep but hOOOOO MY GODS THAT WAS GOOD IS IT OVER OR NOT IDK ANYMORE IM TIRED THAT WAS CRAZY I HOPE QUINN AND JASPER GO ON TO BE VERY GOOD FRIENDS, AND I HOPE BENJAMIN AND OLIVER STAY VERY GOOD FRIENDS AND I HOPE HILLS FINDS A THERAPIST WAS A LITTLE CONFUSING BUT I ENJOYED IT

if i dream about apples im suing /j /lh

[normal-thoughts-official]

A Dis-ass-ter

Rating: M

Pairings: Simon Lewis/Maia Roberts; Simon Lewis/Raphael Santiago; Simon Lewis/Meliorn; Maia Roberts/Raphael Santiago; Maia Roberts/Meliorn; Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood

Summary:

Simon and Maia find out what the Mark of Cain is in an... Alternate way.

Namely, they can't get their spanking session on.

The squad is called in to help.

Read it on Ao3

It's nothing they haven't done a thousand times before.

Really, it's not even complicated. The safety precautions are all very basic, and Maia already knows the drill like the palm of her hand. No pun included.

What could possibly go wrong?

Apparently, this is what.

She tries to land another strike, this time, going extremely slow, making sure she is following the movement of her own hand with her eyes so she isn't missing anything. Just as it was supposed to, Maia's hand lands on Simon's ass the loud slap echoing in the room.

And then she feels the pain on her own ass.

What the fuck?

"Maia? What is going on?" Simon asks, turning his head towards her, which is really pointless, since he is blindfolded. "I hear slapping, but I can't feel anything."

"Well, I can feel it," she says, frustrated.

Simon frowns, which is a really funny look behind the blindfold, and Maia would probably be more endeared if she weren't so lost.

At least I'm a switch, Maia thinks for a second, because she tries to look at things on the bright side. Still, it feels weird to slap her own ass, especially when she has partners who could do that for her.

"Can you explain me what's going on?" Simon asks, sounding genuinely lost, before adding, "...please, Mistress?"

"I can't slap your ass," Maia answers, because that's really all she can say.

Simon sounds alarmed. "Shit, do you need to safeword? That's alright, baby, you should have just told me. I'll just need you to uncuff me and we can do something else, some aftercare, I know you like to watch movies-"

"No, Simon. I physically can't slap your ass!"

"...Do you want me to get it higher up?"

"No! Whenever I do, I feel it on me instead. See?" she says, slapping him again, "Can you even feel it?"

"...Are you sure it is my ass you're slapping?"

"Yes, Simon, I'm sure it is your ass. I did it really slowly to check."

"That's weird."

An awkward silence falls, because that sentence sums it up perfectly and there are no words left.

"Maybe there's a portal on your ass," Maia mumbles. "Did you open a portal in your ass?"

"No??? Why would I do that?? Or how? I can't use magic."

"I don't know, some elaborate prank?"

"Well, I'm missing out on a spanking, so no. Also, you know I suck at pranking, I'd have started laughing before we even took our clothes off."

"Shit, that's true. Then who opened a portal on your ass?"

"I feel like we shouldn't rush to the conclusion that there's a portal on my ass."

"Well, what else could it be?"

"I don't know? The possibilities are endless. I'm a newbie in the Shadow World, remember?" he says, wiggling his butt in an outraged way. "Maybe we should call a specialist."

"A specialist in ass portals?"

"Again, I feel like we are rushing to conclusions here."

"Magnus did invent the portal."

"Sure, call Magnus."

*

Magnus is about to begin very similar activities when Maia calls.

It's been a while since Alec last had a day off, and Magnus was really excited about the new handcuffs (they suppress his magic and his ability to cum. Unless! Alec! Lets him! Yes!), so he almost considers not picking up. But when people come for his help, it tends to be serious, and besides, this is Maia, so he can't make himself. He looks at Alec apologetically, but all Alec does is smile up at him as he passes him his phone. He makes an "I'll be done in a minute" gesture, but Alec doesn't look fooled.

Well then.

"Hello?" Magnus says, in his best I-am-totally-not-naked voice. Alec snorts, and Magnus almost throws something at him, but there aren't many objects available in his bed. "Maia?"

"Magnus!" she says, sounding distressed, and Magnus perks up, alarmed, "I can't spank Simon's ass!"

"Oh," he says, finally relaxing, seeing the way Alec, who had been going for his bow, mirrors his actions, looking curious. Magnus extends him a placating hand, signing to him that it's nothing major. He's glad this is just some teenage drama, not something overly complicated involving, say, magic and the Seelie Queen. Now that would be a problem. "That's alright, dear. I'm sure Simon will understand. Not everyone is into that. I, for example, am strictly into s-"

"No!" Maia screams, still distressed, and Magnus falls silent fast, "His ass is broken!"

Okay, that is definitely more worrying, but Magnus placates himself by thinking that, again, at least it's not related to some complicated magical plot Daylighter thing. "I'm afraid I need more information, dear. What exactly happened? Have you two done research before practic-"

"No! I mean, yes! Of course we've done research. But that's not the problem. I think there's a portal on his ass."

"Like, inside the-"

"No! Just the cheeks! Well, I mean, actually, I don't know. Simon, is the portal inside your ass?"

"There is no portal in my ass!"

"I think we'll have to check."

"Ok," Magnus says, and waiting room music starts playing over the line. Hm, Frank Sinatra, exquisite. He much prefers the original version of Garota De Ipanema, of course, but that is still not bad. He never expected it to be quite Maia's style, but then again, she is pretty eclectic, and-

"I can't fuck his ass!" Maia says, picking up the phone again.

"Ok," Magnus says, scratching his head a little, trying to think. "You said something about a portal. Does it lead anywhere that you can see, or-"

"No," Maia says, and for a second, Magnus has nightmarish visions of mundane television broadcasting the mysterious penis that showed up midair in the middle of Mumbai, but then she continues, "I just can't get in. It goes back. When I tried spanking him, it slapped my ass! Why is his ass leading to my ass?"

"That doesn't sound like a portal," Magnus says, calmly. "It might be some sort of blocking spell. Like a shield. They can't really differentiate between, uh, friendly and unfriendly intrusions." Then he pauses, "Although it is weird that the pain came back to you. Are you sure that you are not the one cursed?"

"Me?" Maia asks.

"Yes. I know a hex like that, every time you try to inflict pain, it is inflicted on you instead. Not that difficult to pull off, I should be able to undo it easily. We should move fast, though, because if the person plans on attacking you, it means you can't defend yourself," Magnus says, magicking some clothes on. Looks like the plans are officially cancelled. He can see Alec nodding, putting the handcuffs, blindfolds, vibrators, plugs, paddles, collars, wax, condoms, gags, and dildos they had selected for today all back in the box. "But we need to be sure. Where are you?"

"Uh, we are home, but- give me a minute, I think we need to test. I'll call you back?"

"Of course, my little pretzel."

He can hear her smile on the other end of the line. She sounds more calm when she says, "okay, bye."

"Looks like I'm on call," Magnus says, shaking his phone a little bit for emphasis. "By the way, Maia likes my nicknames."

*

Maia stares at her phone for a second, thinking of who they can ask for help with this. She never considered she could be the hexxed one. Fuck.

"What if it's Russell?" she thinks, a little scared. "Do you think he would do that?" It sounds pretty cowardly, making someone unable to fight you like that. It's not like she and Russell ever came to that before. Then again, she would totally kick his ass.

"I don't know. You know I don't love the guy, but it doesn't sound his style," Simon says. "Maybe we should test, like you said." He adds, trying to go for calming and cheerful and hitting unsure and slightly hysterical right on the head.

"Yes, you're right," she says, running her hands through her hair. "How do we do that?"

"Well, could you untie me first? It's weird that you're just, like, talking to my ass."

"Right, sorry."

*

They come to the conclusion that they should call someone else for Maia to slap and to slap Simon, so they can check which one of them is it about, or if it's about the both of them somehow. Meliorn is the obvious choice, since, well, they've done this before.

"Mel," she says, "I need you to come here and slap me and Simon."

"I do not wish to inflict harm on either of you," Meliorn answers, in the tone of someone who is looking up at a tree and trying to figure something out and is not interrupting that activity to talk, but is still paying attention to the conversation anyway. Meliorn has very precise entonations.

"No, I know, it's just a quick slap, just to test something. Please? Si- I- We might be in trouble."

Meliorn shows up in front of her. Maia turns off her phone, sighing, and feeling just a little safer with them there. She really hopes Russell isn't planning anything. At least with Meliorn she'd have someone to protect her.

"I resent that. I literally have superstrength, of course I'd protect you too," says Simon, who apparently can read minds now.

"Yeah, but I mean, still. Meliorn has magic, that's always more helpful."

"So my cool powers mean nothing to you, huh?"

"I fail to understand how slapping could help either of you," Meliorn interrupts, looking very calm and ethereal-like as they stand in front of Simon's Naruto poster.

"It's just for a test. Actually, I'd have to be the one to slap you, then you'd slap Simon," she says.

"That is only a minor difference," they reply, but nod. "Any preference for a place?"

Maia extends her hand, looking at her hesitantly. She just looks back at Maia, immobile. Maia bites her lip.

"You have my full permission," Meliorn says.

Maia slaps her shoulder. Not too light, since tapping Simon had no effect, but not too strong, either. She doesn't feel anything on her own shoulder. Or her ass.

"So?" Simon, who apparently can no longer read minds, asks.

"Nothing unusual," Maia says.

"Nor on my end," Meliorn replies. "Should I slap Simon now?"

"Yeah, sure."

Meliorn slaps Simon's shoulder, and then makes a little noise.

"I didn't feel anything." Simon says.

"So it is you who are hexxed," Maia says.

"Yeah, thank G-d," Simon replies. Then he adds, "what? At least it's not you,” when Maia looks at him weird.

"You are the sweetest, did you know that?" she asks.

"Careful, we're going to start being disgusting again."

"Okay, so this is definitely some kind of shielding spell," Maia agrees. "Should I call Magnus again?"

*

Magnus says that he doesn't know any spell quite like that, at least not any that allows it to be done without being initiated by the person spelled. He still shows up to check on Simon, though, which leads to seeing some unfortunate items they forgot to put back on their places and also the diagnosis that whatever it is, it is Seelie magic, not a warlock's.

"Seelie magic? Could it have anything to do with the weird ritual the Seelie Queen performed on me?"

“No, I’m sure it’s something else,” Magnus says, dryly, “The Seelie Queen performed an unknown ritual on you and you didn’t even consider it might have something to do with that before??”

“Well, I mean, nothing in particular happened at the time.”

“And you thought maybe the ritual was just for the shits??”

“Well, no, but Maia was staring at my forehead for a really long time trying to figure it out, and then I said, ‘I mean, even if you figure it out, what are you going to do, kiss my booboo away?’ and then she kissed my forehead, so we started being all cute and stuff, and I forgot.”

“Why am I only now hearing about this?” Meliorn says, sounding distressed, because obviously they had nothing to do with the ritual or anything about that particular plotline, since that would be ridiculous. “And why didn’t you come to me before?”

“Simple: I am a himbo,” Simon says.

“Simon,” Magnus sighs, pressing his fingers to his temples, and thinking that maybe he should send Alec a text to let him know that his totally super quick visit to Simon’s place, babe, I promise, seriously there’s no need to raincheck do NOT put it all back in the drawer I’ll be right back will actually not be that quick and maybe they will have to raincheck. Maybe. "Can you explain to us what exactly happened?"

So Simon describes the whole thing about how the Seelie queen branded his forehead with the help of some totally not-Meliorn seelie (again, why would Meliorn do that? That would be ridiculous and OOC) and all that pizzazz, finishing the whole narrative off with a "crazy, right?"

Magnus and Meliorn look at each other, and Maia is totally expecting that they will say, "of course! We know exactly what this is and it is very easy to solve and Simon's ass will be fuckable again in no time," but instead they say, "we will need to do research. I've never heard of anything like this before."

As Magnus' portal closes, they can hear him say, "Alexander, I'm afraid we'll need to raincheck," to which Alec deadpans, "no, really?". Meliorn leaves a kiss on both of their foreheads and says that she will get to the bottom of this before disappearing with her own portal.

So it's just Maia, Simon, the messy bed, and the ropes and blindfold they need to put back under his bed again. And there is nothing they can do but wait.

*

Simon is like, spectacularly drunk.

That is not too hard to happen, of course, because he is a known lightweight and Maia's bloody Marys (ha! That's right, they have blood) are strong. Still, after a week with no relevant news from either Magnus or Meliorn, it looks like Simon was even more helpless to the effects of alcohol. Either that, or he really needed an excuse to scream,

"THE SEELIE QUEEN HAS CURSED MY ASS!"

At the top of his lungs in the middle of Hunter's Moon.

The rest of the clients ignore him, because they have heard all about it before. Raphael, who is beside him, nurses his own bloody Mary with a way too amused smile. He looks absolutely fond, which is a weird way to react to Simon mumbling, "what does she even have against my ass?", but that's Raphael for you. At least Maia doesn't have to worry about Raphael having a weird time at their triple date. Then again, she's sure he already knows how weird they are at this point.

"Has he been whining like this ever since?" Raphael asks, doing a shit job of hiding his laugh as he takes a sip.

"Yup," she replies, checking a cup against the light to make sure it's dried. "Tried everything to make him look on the bright side, didn't work. Guess all we can do is wait for Simon and Meliorn."

"We can trust them," Raphael says, sounding absolutely serious. "They will figure it out."

She smiles at him. "Yeah, of course they will," she answers, ruffling his hair a bit, because she can't help it. Raphael lets her, because he also can't help it. "We'll just have to deal with him up until then."

"Labour division," Raphael nods. Maia laughs.

Simon continues with his rant. "I am completely unfuckable. No butt business at all, nada!" He says. "We tried everything. I have THREE whole partners, and NONE of them can fuck me!!"

"Well, I have never fucked you," Raphael points out, unfazed.

"Yes," Simon says. He then turns towards the camera to look directly into your eyes as he continues, "That is true. Raphael and I don't fuck, and we never will, because he is asexual and sex-repulsed and is not interested in that, with me or anybody else. He won't fuck any of his other partners either, and that is wonderful and valid and should be respected by the fandom." After that, Simon turns back to Raphael and says, "but that is not the point! It's not about you, it's about my ass!!"

"Of course, my apologies," Raphael deadpans.

"Simon, come on. We'll figure this out. We just need to… Talk to the seelie queen," Maia says, her voice faltering at the last words. "I mean, what she's gonna do? Kidnap us again? That's gotta have gotten old by now."

"You shouldn't test her like that," Raphael says, voice serious and eyes hard. Maia can see the way his fists clench as he says it, and she can't help but smile as she takes his hand and places a small kiss there.

"We'll be fine, I promise," she says.

"You'll let me know if you need help, right?" Raphael asks, instead of taking Maia's empty promise.

At that moment, Simon's phone rings.

*

"It's something called the curse of Cain," is the first thing Simon says after he hangs up his phone.

"The Daylighter curse??" Raphael asks.

"Yes- wait, you knew about this? And didn't tell me?"

"I knew what the curse of Cain is, I didn't know that's what was. All you told me is that your ass was 'sealed shut', there was nothing about that in the spellbooks."

"So Cain is withholding information," Simon mumbles.

"Maybe that just wasn't his priority," Maia suggests.

"Maybe he never tested," Raphael adds.

"Maybe he just left me to perish," Simon counters.

Raphael rolls his eyes. "Come on. Let's get you home. You need to be sober when we go talk to the Seelie Queen."

*

A whole commission was sent on a diplomatic mission to get Simon's ass back, including Maia, Raphael, Magnus, Alec, Meliorn herself, and even Cain, whom had not been seen by anyone in millions of years but Simon was able to track down in the New York sewers that very same week. How convenient!

Meliorn designed their strategy for talking to the Queen, and her and Magnus led the negotiations. Raphael also spoke in the name of all of the vampires, saying Simon's interests were theirs as well, which Simon thought was totally sweet.

Magnus and Meliorn's speech was very in sync, a result of long rehearsal, and everything went down smoothly. Cain offered to let the Seelie Queen observe him in Simon's place, so she wouldn't miss out on her shiny, unique toy. They all kneeled before her as Meliorn finished her speech, saying, "we beg of you, my queen, let the Daylighter make his own choice."

The Seelie Queen then said, "k lmao," and undid the spell.

*

It isn't until Simon is back in the safety of the regular realm that he throws his arms up and says, "my ass is back!", promptly leading to a montage of celebratory cheers and hugs among the commission.

"We should celebrate!" Maia suggests, "Finally, Simon will stop crying about this."

"I agree," Meliorn replies, smiling slyly at the both of them. "We should celebrate."

"Alright, I'm out," Raphael says, because he is a sex-repulsed ace and not interested in that type of celebration. "Have fun," he adds, because he is happy for his partners.

And have fun they do. Once Magnus and Cain leave as well, of course, because otherwise that would be weird.

[zigsexual]

various yule ball shenanigans (trr hogwarts au)

drabble about yule ball drama and dumb idiots who can’t communicate for the trr hogwarts au. in a perfect world, there would be some prior context for how this all came about, but an au drabble is an au drabble and i need to stop obsessing over making it into a full fledged fic lmao.... hope this tides u guys over until i finally post my mawell fic aslkdfj im a rat sorry lov u all!!

They’re sitting in the common room when it happens. It starts innocuously enough, Drake practicing his levitation spells for Charms (still failing) while Maxwell watches and provides exactly zero helpful input. Riley has only just entered, nose pink from the cold, unwinding a scarf from around her neck.

“Hey Riley,” Maxwell calls as she passes by the both of them, heading towards her room. “We’re meeting up tomorrow afternoon for extra bludger practice with the alternates. Just confirmed it with the Captain.”

“I can’t tomorrow,” she says, breezing past in an unusually casual way.

“Hold up.” Maxwell makes a face at her. “What do you mean, you can’t? You don’t have other plans. I would know.”

She pauses, turning around to look at him in annoyance. “You don’t know everything about me. And as a matter of fact, I do have plans. I’m going shopping with Hana for a Yule Ball dress.”

“You’re going to the Yule Ball?” Maxwell raises his eyebrows. “I thought you were protesting.”

“I was,” Riley seems to savor answering, looking him square in the face while she does. “But then Liam asked me.”

Drake drops his spell immediately, the tea falling along with it, but Riley merely raises a hand and deftly redirects the mug to a nearby side table. Maxwell, meanwhile, is outright staring.��

“Liam?” He says, flabbergasted. “Drake’s Liam?”

Riley bristles. “He’s not anybody’s Liam, he’s just himself. And he asked me, so I said yes.”

“Why?” 

“Because I wanted to.” She frowns, folding her arms across her chest. “I don’t see either of you asking me, anyway.”

“When did he ask you?” Drake says, too taken aback to even bother with Maxwell’s line of questioning. “Today?”

“It was a few days ago, actually.” Riley is clearly trying to act casual about the whole thing, fiddling absently with her wand, yet the furtive glances she keeps sneaking at the two of them are anything but. 

“A few days?” Maxwell repeats. “You never said anything!”

“I’m saying it now, aren’t I?”

“But... why did he ask you?”

Her eyes flash. “Is it so hard to believe I’m likable?”

“That’s not what I meant—“

“I’m going to bed,” Drake says, standing abruptly. He doesn’t meet Riley’s eyes, only sweeps up his things from the table and moves briskly towards the sleeping quarters. He can feel their eyes boring into him as he leaves, but it’s better than having to spend one more second in that room wondering how on earth he could’ve been such an idiot. 

Riley. Of course it would be Riley. Spunky, intelligent, athletic Riley, with her long dark hair and ever-present laughter. Why else would Liam spend so much time with them, go to their matches, stay for holiday? He’d probably asked Hana to introduce them in the first place. 

Drake tosses his bag on the ground next to his bed, sitting down on the mattress with a sigh. He stares across the way for a moment, eyes unfocused, before falling back onto the comforter. 

He can’t even be mad. She’s his best friend. 

Maxwell finds him like this not too soon after, barging into their room in that unceremonious way he always does, instantly taking up space. “Can you believe that?” He says, as though they’re merely continuing a conversation from seconds ago. “And she’s not even lying. I checked.”

“Why are you upset?” Drake rolls onto his side, watching as Maxwell splays on top of his own bed across the way. “It’s not like this affects you.”

“I’m not upset,” Maxwell counters, frowning up at the ceiling. “I’m... it’s on your behalf. I’m upset for you.”

“I don’t need your manifested pity, but thanks.”

“How do you have any friends, Drake? Seriously.”

Drake lifts his head up to frown in Maxwell’s direction. “Aren’t you supposed to be cheering me up or something?”

“No, I came in here because I’m upset.” Maxwell pauses, seemingly realizing what he’s said a moment too late. “Upset for you. You made me upset.”

“Sure.” Drake falls back down against his pillow, closing his eyes. 

“It’s just so weird that she didn’t tell us,” Maxwell continues, seemingly oblivious to Drake’s disinterest. “I mean, that’s big news, right? You’d expect her to tell us, wouldn’t you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you think she likes Liam?” Maxwell sits up at this realization, looking over at Drake with wide eyes. ���What if she’s going with him in like, a romantic sense?”

“Christ, Maxwell, I don’t know.”

Maxwell bites his lip, looking out into the distance, suddenly pensive. “I just don’t get it. I don’t get why she wouldn’t tell me. We tell each other everything.”

He goes quiet, still staring at nothing in particular, brow furrowed. The silence stretches on long enough for Drake to actually hazard a glance over in his direction. As much as he loves moments of solitude, they’re few and far between where Maxwell is concerned. 

“You okay?”

Maxwell looks down at his hands, twisted together in his lap. “I don’t understand girls.”

---

At Quidditch practice the next morning, Riley sidles up to Drake before their huddle, resting a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry,” she says, her voice as gentle as a whisper, and equally as soft. “I don’t know why I didn’t say anything to you, I just…”

He focuses intently on his broom, not quite ready to meet her eyes. “You don’t have to apologize. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“But it feels like I did, you know?” She frowns, looking down at her hands. “I owe you more than to act like that.”

Drake shakes his head. “You don’t owe me anything. You’re my friend.”

“I owe it to you because I’m your friend,” she insists, “It was shitty of me, okay? It was.”

He isn’t quite sure what to say, so he just nods.

She sighs, running her fingers through her hair, somehow leaving it even messier than before. “If it makes any difference, I don’t feel that way about him. I’m not that much of an asshole, I promise.”

“I know,” Drake says, “but... maybe he feels that way about you.”

“It would be stupid of him. He doesn’t even know me, not really.”

Drake shrugs, shoving his hands in his pockets. “He doesn’t know me either.”

Riley turns to look at him, jaw set in determination. “Well, he should. Because I know you, and I think he would be lucky to have that privilege.”

He shoots her a small smile. “Thanks, Brooks.”

“I’m serious. You and Max are some of the only people who’ve never judged me for where I come from, not for a second. Maybe you don’t think that’s a big deal, but when you’ve never had a family and then you get the chance to go to this incredible place filled with actual magic, only to be called ‘mudblood’ by half a dozen assholes before you’re even off the train…” She sighs. “It means a lot, okay? It means everything.”

“Riley—”

“Look, I’d never jeopardize our friendship for anything. I’ll tell Liam I can’t go.”

“No, don’t do that. It’s okay, really.” 

He can tell by the way she looks at him that she doesn’t believe him, which is fair, because he doesn’t believe himself either. “You’re sure?”

The Captain interrupts before he can answer, perhaps a saving grace in itself. “Brooks, Walker — if you’re quite finished?”

[wendibird]

SPN 15X19 Observations

So, here we are. Second-to-last episode of this show and what has been said will be the Season Finale. (While next week’s is the Series Finale.) 

Without further ado...

I don’t even know what to think going into this second-to-last episode. I don’t expect a “happy” ending to this show. But I can’t help hoping for a fitting one. One that makes some kind of sense. That does the characters justice. We’ll see how it goes. (Also, I want some GOOD content for Sam. *LOL*)

(Also, my notes might be sparse because I want to concentrate on the show.)

- Everyone’s gone.

- Except these three.

- Does Sam and Jack know about Cas?

- THEY DON’T KNOW YET!!! *crying* (To be clear, not upset that Dean didn’t tell them sooner. Since obviously there had to be a phone conversation at some point, or at least texting so they’d know where to meet up. THAT kind of news isn’t something to tell over the phone if you can help it.) 

- The music is really playing this up well.

- Oh Jack….. 

- And he’s still killing plants.

Commercial Thoughts:

I’ve said this again and again but I still don’t like how Chuck is being written. He might as well be rubbing his hands and cackling evilly. 

That being said, this really is sadistic. One of the few things that’s kept Sam and Dean going through all of this has been the people they’ve been able to save. (Crowely caught on to that in S8 and used it to good effect. But he was like a sniper, precise with it. Chuck is like a fricking nuke.) 

And Sam losing hope always makes me sad. (Have noticed the looks Dean keeps giving him. Still checking on him and how he’s doing and worrying about him.)

- This camera work is weird. Dream-like?

- DOGGY!!!!!

- omg Dean’s happy about a dog!

- WOW. That’s a new low.

- So, no animals? (Guess they’re gonna have to go vegetarian eventually if this doesn’t get fixed.)

- Michadam!!! 

- WHAT?! (No Adam?! HOW DARE CHUCK!!!)

Commercial Thoughts:

Okay, Chuck taking Adam is a really REALLY low-blow! (But then, that might be what pushed Michael to decide to help them after all.) 

Not surprised that Michael can’t open the book. Wondering if Jack can? Or they could call some reapers and see who wants the job of the next Death. *LOL* Hold interviews. “What will you do for us if we give you this promotion?” (crack thoughts, don’t mind me.)

I’m not sure if Chuck has realized that they have nothing left to lose. And that’s generally when people are at their most dangerous. (I mean yes, they have each other, but in the wake of what’s been lost? Literally the whole world? They can’t let that go. They can’t just sit back and treat it as a vacation. It’s not how they are.)

- CAS?! 

- WTF?!?!?!?! (Did NOT want to see Lucifer again tbh. And apparently neither did Dean. *LOL*)

- Okay, so Lucifer promoted the next Death.

- Is he actually dead this time?

- One can only hope.

- YEY! LUCIFER IS DEAD AGAIN!!!

Commercial thoughts:

So…. what was the point of all that again? 

Okay, I get that in the end, the book is open and now they can hopefully read it. Seems kind of convoluted. (Also, do NOT get me started on the whole “God and the Darkness have no pull in the Empty”. Unless God just replicated Lucifer, like I theorize he did with Lilith.) 

Wondering if they just did all that to have Luci and Mark P. back one more time.

- Sam being his super-smart self! <3

- What is Sam not saying?

- Hey! Isn’t that the lake where Jack was born?

- FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! Fricking Michael.

- Bloody winchesters

- That’s what Sam wasn’t saying. I don’t think they trusted Michael.

- Sam figured something out.

- Wow. That is some poetic justice!

- I’m actually impressed with that.

- So now what?

Commercial Thoughts:

Wow. Okay, that was a weird twist of a way to get there. But I’ve honestly got to say that I like it. It works. (I’d always hoped Jack would still be the key to Chuck’s downfall.)

I still feel sorry for Amara though. Like, is she just nothingness? Is she an alternate personality deep inside Chuck now? 

And what about Jack? Can he put things back to how they’re supposed to be? Bring everyone back? Did he get Chuck’s knowledge as well as his power? At least of who all he took away? 

Guess we’ll have to see.

Also, usually I’m not a fan of the trope of the “Good guys” sparing the villain who’s killed tons of people because “they’re above killing”. But in this case? It really was fitting. And a worse punishment than killing Chuck would have been.

- OH GOD I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!

- Sammy’s cafe!

- (Okay I’m getting a little misty)

- His smile!!! 

- OKay, I might cry now.

- They raised God.

- Awwww….. (The names)

- Okay, so, I’m not okay! (But I’m okay with it, so… good thing?)

- So it ends with them doing whatever it is they want? 

- I wonder if the Apocalypse World people were brought back? And their other friends. (And Eileen? I’m sorry, I know not everyone ships it, but I do, and now Sam doesn’t have the great Plot of the Universe conspiring against him.)

After-Show Thoughts: (After I’ve had a few hours to ponder things)

Let me just say, the music in this episode? Like, just even the background music? It was amazing! It did such a good job of invoking the emotions that were being felt by the guys. And their choices of songs used were also good. :) 

Michael: So, in some ways his character shift in this episode seems odd after the last time we saw him. But then I thought more about it, and I think Adam’s death had a lot to do with it. In the previous episode in which we saw them, of the two of them Adam actually seemed to be more stable, and often had good, grounding advice for Michael. Now with him gone, all Michael had was himself. And at heart, he still wanted his father’s love, despite everything that had happened. And I still think he’s an interesting Parallel/Contrast to Dean, who also had the same father-worship for a long time, but over time he’s come to understand that John was wrong about a lot of things, and he needs to make his own way. I don’t think that’s something that Michael ever REALLY learned. Not deep down. 

Lucifer: I found his presence here to be annoying. I get that he moved the plot along. And I get how much at least half of Buckleming love him. I am glad that his part was brief and that he didn’t get a redemption arc. I do wish Sam had been able to kill him. (I know, he couldn’t have because only another archangel with an archangel blade yadda-yadda. STILL though…) Or that there had maybe been SOME meaningful interaction between him and Sam for old time’s sake, since that always gets nice and spicy. (Because Jared and Mark P. always keep in mind everything that’s happened between them and put that into their performances.) But time limits and all that. Also, why were there no wing-shadows on the floor when Lucifer died? There were wing shadows on the floor of the friggen church at the end of S13 and he died like 15 feet up in the air. *LOL* I mean, then whenever Sam looked at the floor in the Library he could remember that Lucifer is Dead for Good. 

And I just rewatched the scene again and when he died, he just went poof. Like, in the past, unless a finger-snap thing is involved that’s not what happens when angels die. If they get stabbed, there’s usually been a body left behind. Heck, at the end of S13 there was a full-on light-show. Now it almost looked like a regular angel death just with redder light instead of silvery-blue. Was that because it was just a thrown-together mock-up of Lucifer that Chuck made? (Like with Lilith? Because he’s NOT supposed to have any sway in the Empty! Dammit, how hard is it for the writers to remember the stuff that was already established?!)  

(Sorry. Continuity issues bug me. And they’ve bugged me from Season 1 on, so I know that’s not a new thing. But it does feel like they’ve gotten especially worse this season.) 

(Also, I’m starting to get tired so I’m going to try to wrap this up here. *LOL*)

I did like how they brought Chuck down. When it comes down to it, they weren’t following a pre-set plan. (Well, what happened probably WAS written in that book, but they didn’t know what it was.) Instead they found their own way with what they had. They figured out what was going on with Jack, and Sam figured out some bullshit spell to make some cool light-effects in order to fool Michael and Chuck into thinking they were setting it up for him. The only aspect of it that fell a little flat for me was the extended exposition on how they’d done it. It’s a trope that crops up a lot. The whole “Haha see what I did there!” But, on the other hand, I also realize that unless they’d shown us each step of the process as it was happening, there was no real way around presenting it that way. And it WAS more dramatic to have the audience in the dark until that moment. Also, I can’t deny the effectiveness of the scene where Chuck keeps beating them down but they keep standing up again. I mean, isn’t that an allegory for their whole lives? And at the end he’s incredulous as to why or even HOW they can still stand. What makes them keep going? True, part of it was that they knew the plan, and they knew this was part of it. (Which I think is why Sam opened it up with punching Chuck. To turn the confrontation more physical and draw it out, or he might have decided after all to just finger-snap them.) But part if it is also them just being them. They’ve both been down this road before. Like their whole lives have been this road. And they’ve both been to hell. Both suffered unimaginable tortures. And they just keep going. When one stumbles the other gets up. Or they get each other up. And they laugh in God’s face. Just… THAT was well-done. And Chuck's ending with them NOT killing him? That was absolutely poetic. Because now he's busted down to "normal" and has to figure out actual life (or just end his, but he'd have to do it himself) and he didn't even get an "ending" of his creations killing him. Because even if he did make them, he clearly still doesn't understand them. And I liked them saying "no" to the revenge game. (After making sure that he couldn't come back again as a problem. Cause they ain't dumb either. Despite what everyone keeps saying about them.) 

I also loved the scene where Jack brings everyone back. I would have liked to have seen some shots of some of the individual ones that we’d come to know being back, like Donna, some of those AU people (Eileen!) but I also get this ep was shot during Covid so they probably couldn’t get as many people back. (I hope some of them at least get name-dropped in the next episode so we know for sure that they’re back and alive.) But anyway, I thought the scene was well done, that song was a GOOD choice for it! (But then, I am a bit biased. It’s among some of the music I grew up listening to because my parents had it.) It may not be classic rock, but classic folk is fitting for the new God. :) 

Overall, I thought there were some pacing issues with this episode, but in general I was happier with it than the previous one. I’ve just been re-watching it (because I never catch everything the first time through, especially when I’m trying to take notes) and I just noticed something. Near the end when Sam and Dean are in the Library and Dean says “To everyone that we lost along the way.” I first was a bit puzzled about that, because my mind went to the more immediate people that they’d lost recently, and whom I’m assuming Jack brought back too. But on re-watching I thought about it in a grander scale. How many people have they lost in their lives due to Chuck’s story? Because Chuck thought it would make things more dramatic? I think he was reflecting on their whole lives, not just the last 48 or so hours. And that makes sense too with what Sam said following, about them finally being able to write their own story. (And yes, I know that Cas was not one of those brought back. At least, he doesn’t seem to have been. And though I don’t ship him and Dean, I don’t doubt for a minute that Dean cares/cared about him very much. It’s okay to love your friends. But I didn’t get the feeling that he was JUST talking about one person. That held the weight of years of losses.) 

I thought the ending montage was brilliant! Honestly, if the show ended here, I would have been okay. Not saying I DON’T want another episode! I’ll take whatever I can get. And I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing where they take their story. So yeah, looking forward to the next (and final *cries*) episode.

Anyway, that’s about all I can really dredge up this late at night. *LOL* This will be the LAST time I do one of these knowing there’s more to come. It’s the last week we’ll all wait in suspense for what’s going to happen next. After next week's episode we'll be into new territory of "That's all there is and ever will be." This has been quite a journey, and I haven’t liked all of it, but overall I still love this weird little show, and even more so the characters that we've met through it. So, to quote Bobby, “Here’s to runnin’ into you guys on the other side.”

[lispunk]

Thoughts about Misha's video, 15x18 (the non reciprocal love confession and subsequent latam correction) and How the C*W* ended Supernatural

This my opinion after watching Misha's video. It's a bit long so bare with me, please.

So what if it was just a rogue translation? There's so many people who only know that version of the story and for them it will be the only one there is. I stopped watching spn in wb (I'm from Argentina) because I didn't like the translation (which is really funny now), but I think that saying this is my canon now is very valid. I was lucky enough to get to watch the show online when it aired but the truth is that am going to stick with the spanish Latin America version even if it was a lucky mistake.

(Also y'all really don't know how big it is that they made the decision to put "Te amo" instead of the platonical "Te quiero" and Dean saying "Y yo a ti, Cas". Spanish dubb in -Latin America at least I don't know about Spain- is usually very homophobic like as a rule, it's still very common to see translations turned platonic or less romantic just so it's not very gay. So the fact that they made the choice to say that is incredibly huge).

(TW: canon characters deaths; talk about suicidal tendencies -in character and the op; homophobia from network).

And the thing is that for Cas it's still a bury your gays ending whether Dean is canonically bisexual (which he is to me) or not. And we don't even need to talk about Destiel. It's also about Rowena (cutting a scene which confirmed her as bi) and Charlie (being the representation of the fandom at some extent and dying violently) and how they characters were treated. And how every female or poc characters was treated. The C*W* needs to be hold accountable for this things. They think they aren't homophobic because they have a white twenty something gay guy, and don't get me wrong they deserve representation too but it's the easiest way they can give it. They're mostly filling a quota, they don't care about them. And that's fucked up doesn't matter how you look at it.

Maybe we were wrong about an original alternative version of the love confession scene were Dean reciprocates, but we are not wrong about everything else. And I'm sure we are not wrong about the network queerbaiting us into watching the last two episodes after we got the confession in 15x18. They knew what it would mean to us and they chose to be ambiguous about Cas coming back just to keep us watching.

I understand if Misha thinks Cas ending meant so much (and I agree to some extent) but I won't be silent about how much I hate what they did to him. Cas declaration was really important and it did save the world, but I can't say that it was okay that they killed him afterwards and then we only got three mentions of his name and nothing else in the last two episodes. I would die saying that Castiel as the third lead in Supernatural deserved better than that and he deserved to be in the finale (don't even bring covid as an excuse because it's not).

Supernatural's ending sucked. If you liked it then good for you, you're very lucky but I still will boycott the shit out of it. I love Misha, Jensen and Jared and I respect them and their work (also the whole crew and cast) but that doesn't stop me from thinking the finale was disrespectful towards them but especially towards us. I don't even have to bring Destiel into this, the way Dean died it's just awful. He fought for the whole world and he didn't deserve that. Y'all really don't understand how much it affected me the fact that Dean, a character who has shown suicidal tendencies got killed the moment he was starting to enjoy life. I deal with my mental illness and my own awful thoughts and seen that just made me feel real hopelessness. That's not the way you want to portrait a mentally ill (and possibly queer) character unless you're a truly shitty network/writer and you don't really care about the characters and/or your audience.

I know I talk a lot about Dean and Cas but Sam's ending wasn't great either. Yeah, he got the withe fence ending with a wife (DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE FACELESS BACKGROUND WOMAN) and a kid, but he never got over his brother death and that's really just sad. Also one chapter he was desperate to have Eileen (his love interest through the whole season) back (15x18) and then we never hear from her again, no one even mentions her name.

They build the whole show around the idea that "Family doesn't end in blood", they have all this character growth from their leads and then it's just thrown away for supossedly shocking value and some weird idea that they should end it like they started it or how it originally was supposed to be (which literally just takes away the whole point of making the show). And they don't even mention family (besides the abusive father being in heaven, mary whom I don't particularly think is a good mother, jack and cas being mentioned once each, and bobby appearing for two minutes after like five seasons). So it just ends up being about Sam and Dean, or just Sam, and eventually his son Dean I guess. And then Sam and Dean again but now they're both dead and happy (because is great being dead apparently).

I'm going into heller mode now so if that's not your cup of tea then leave that's it for you, it's your lose.

As a queer closeted girl I've always found comfort in Cas and Dean's relationship and I tought that someday it would be their moment and it'd be okay for them to come out and then it would be okay for me too. Getting the semi canon when 15x18 aired meant so much but the truth is I still wanted more, I wanted Dean to be able to say it back because I love them both and they deserve so much love and Dean especially has always been a role model to me so I really wanted for him to get an actual happy ending and then... we didn't. But now there's this new version and truly I couldn't care lees if it's not in the original script because I got to hear it. I think it's sad how fucking desperate I am for representation from characters I relate to that I will take any crumbs i can get. Dean and Cas deserved so much better than what spn end gave them. And the truth is that I and we did too.

In conclusion: Dean is bi(sexual and lingual), he loves Castiel and his love is reciprocated. Also the ending is an ao3 fix-it fic, so yeah. That's it. I'm sorry for this ranting but I really need it to let all out. If someone is as frustrated as I am feel free to drop a message.

P.S. I really love the cast and the show, I literally wouldn't care that much about this if I didn't so i don't mean to sound hateful towards them. Just really hated the ending and the fact that I got queerbaited and robbed of so many (mostly gay) things.

P.S.2. Sorry for any grammar or spelling errors it's past 3 am and I'm not a native english speaker (self taught actually so there's probably a lot of those). Again really sorry about that, I hope I made myself understandable enough.

[stereksecretsanta]

Merry Christmas, nostalgiafan123!

For @nostalgiafan123. I didn't get any angst in, but hopefully there's enough pack interaction and powerful Stiles for you to enjoy!

For those keeping notes, this takes place a few years after an alternate 3A where everybody lives, Scott does not become an alpha, and Stiles comes into some magical powers. Scott also conveniently went to school on the east coast with Allison, while we're pretending there is a Beacon Hills University with a prestigious enough math program to keep Lydia around.

Read On AO3

*****

About to Explode

Derek was flung back and there was an ugly snapping sound as he hit the ground hard with a leg twisted unnaturally underneath himself. Derek yelled and Stiles ran to his side, heart in his throat as he put his hands on Derek, the betas closing in a protective circle around them.

"Derek, are you okay?" Stiles said frantically, hands fluttering over Derek's shoulders. Derek groaned and Stiles continued, "okay, dumb question, there's no way you're okay after what I just saw and heard. But are you healing?"

Derek sat up and straightened out his leg with a grunt of effort. He was breathing hard through gritted teeth, a sheen of sweat over paler-than-usual skin. "Working on it." Derek's voice was thin with pain, and he grabbed handfuls of leaf-litter and dirt in white-knuckled fists as he hunched in on himself.

"Shit, shit shit shit shit," Stiles chanted, looking around at the rest of the pack. They were holding their own for now, but they were quickly loosing ground -- one of Isaac's arms was dangling uselessly and Erica had a huge gash near the base of her throat that was bleeding a waterfall down her front. They needed breathing room to heal. Stiles took a deep breath and closed his eyes, feeling for the candle of magic in his core, fed by the bonds to his pack mates. He got a good mental grip on it while he got a good physical grip on Derek's shoulders, bare after Derek's shirt became one of the first casualties of the night.

Stiles shoved outward with his magic, shouting the words to a shielding spell. Magic exploded through him like he had never felt before, leaving him breathless and weak in the knees. Derek whimpered and toppled to the side, bringing Stiles collapsing down on top of him.

"What the fuck was that," Erica panted.

Stiles pried his eyes open and tried to blink away sunspots that clouded his vision. "You've seen me do a shield before," Stiles slurred as he tried to untangle himself from Derek. His ears were ringing like crazy, but he didn't hear any of the chittering sounds the creatures made anymore -- maybe they'd already cleared out.

"We've seen you do a shield before," Boyd said, "and that was nothing like what you just did."

Stiles finally managed to sit up and look around. There was a starburst of cleared earth shooting out from Derek and Stiles, and a few freshly fallen tree limbs farther away.

"I'm pretty sure there was lighting coming out of the ground up to you," Isaac said, "and you blew those little gremlins out of my hearing range." He grimaced as he pulled his arm out in front of himself and popped his shoulder back into place.

"Lightning?" Stiles shook his head. "We're not on a ley line, and I wasn't pulling from the ground, anyways, that makes no sense."

"Well that's what I saw, whether it makes sense to you or not." Isaac rolled his eyes.

Boyd knelt down next to Derek, who was still curled up on the ground. "Are you okay?"

"Tired." Derek said. "You sure that lightning wasn't coming from me?"

Isaac scrunched up his face. "Could have been, I guess."

"Sure feels like someone scraped all the energy out of me." Derek flopped over onto his back to look at Stiles. "I think you healed my leg at the same time, though."

"What? How?" Stiles rubbed his hands over his head in frustration. "I guess it's possible that I tapped too much into Derek and overdid the shield, but that should not have healed anything." Stiles set his hand over Derek's heart and closed his eyes, focusing on the packbonds until he could envision them: the betas were gold, Boyd's bright and strong, Isaac's and Erica's more dim but growing brighter as they healed, Scott's a shadowy suggestion from thousands of miles away. Derek's was faint, and a much darker red then it usually was. "Fuck." Stiles let his magical vision slip away and opened his eyes to reality again. "I don't know what I did wrong, but Derek's right, all that energy came from him and he's got almost nothing left."

"That's a lot of power you've got packed away in there," Isaac said, admiring.

"I still don't get how that healed your leg, though," Stiles frowned.

"If you unleashed all of his magic, maybe it decided to help himself on the way out," Erica suggested, plopping down to sit next to Derek and Boyd. The gash on her throat had mostly closed up, Stiles was pleased to note.

"Well, I'm sorry I did it, however it happened." Stiles moved his hand off of Derek's chest.

"I'm not," Derek sighed, "we were in a bad way."

"Of course you're not," Boyd rolled his eyes. "Ever the martyr."

"I'm also happy to be done with a broken femur without any fuss. Those take hours to heal, you know."

Isaac shuddered, knowing from experience how painful that was.

"Oh no, hours to heal a bone," Stiles laughed. "Hey Derek, can you still shift even when you're magically tapped out?"

Derek lifted a hand and put out claws, seemingly without any effort.

"Can you go all the way?"

Derek rolled his shoulders and twisted into his other shape.

"That seems weird. Seems like you should need magic to shapeshift, but what do I know."

"It's not like it's effort to shift," Derek said.

The betas all made various disagreeing noises. Stiles laughed. "Looks like you're alone in that opinion."

Derek shrugged and smirked, features fading back to human. "Perks of being a born werewolf, I guess."

"Always so insufferable about that." Erica shoved at Derek's thigh.

"You feeling well enough to walk?" Boyd asked Derek. "We need to track down where those gremlins have got off to before they do any more damage."

"Walk, maybe." Derek shoved himself up to his elbows with a groan. "Not sure if I could do any fighting now."

"They were blown off in all directions, they'll probably be wanting to find each other first before they go off to cause more mayhem," Erica said.

"Erica's right, they'll get their pack back together first." Stiles rubbed at the back of his neck. "It does make this a good opportunity to go after them, though, they're already split up."

Derek growled.

"I know, big guy, you hate being out of the action, but it's probably best if you go home and sleep off the magical exhaustion. The rest of us can stay out here and do some tracking to at least thin the heard."

"Come on," Boyd clapped a hand to Derek's shoulder, "I'll get you home and then I'll come back out to join the others."

"I don't like it," Derek said.

"Didn't think you would. But do you agree to it?"

Derek huffed and pushed himself to sit up all the way, only to drop his head and squeeze his eyes shut. "Fine," he snarled.

"There we go, alpha's very begrudging blessing." Stiles slapping his thighs and stood up. "Erica, Isaac, you both healed enough to go hunting?"

"Need a snack after all that blood loss and I'm absolutely disgustingly covered in blood, but fine other than that," Erica said.

Isaac rolled his shoulders to test out the injured joint. "Yeah, I'm back to normal."

"You need me to carry you?" Boyd asked Derek.

"Just help me stand up," Derek frowned.

Boyd hummed, a disbelieving look on his face, but he grabbed Derek's arms and hauled him to his feet.

Derek stumbled and would have immediately fallen if not for Boyd's steady hands. "Okay, maybe you have to carry me." Derek's voice was strained and even softer than usual.

Boyd scooped Derek up effortlessly. "I should be back in half an hour or so, maybe a little longer," Boyd said to the others. "Got to make sure he's fed and watered before he conks out."

"I'm still right here," Derek muttered into Boyd's shoulder, "and I'm fully capable of feeding myself."

"Yeah, not when you're exhausted you're not." Boyd rolled his eyes.

"Okay, we'll see you soon, Boyd." Erica stood on her tiptoes and pecked a kiss to Boyd's cheek, then ruffled Derek's hair. "You feel better."

Derek swiped at her half-heartedly before Boyd turned and headed back towards where they had abandoned their cars.

Erica picked up Isaac's backpack from where he had dropped it when the fight started. She tossed a water bottle to Isaac and tore open a granola bar for herself. "Need anything, Stiles?"

"I'll take some water."

Erica passed him a bottle and scarfed down two more granola bars in short order. "Alright, I'm ready."

Stiles passed the bottle back to Erica, who gulped down the rest and dropped the empty in the bag before handing it to Isaac.

"The little nasties went literally every which way, so pick your direction." Isaac zipped up the bag and slung it on his back, looking expectantly at Stiles.

"I'd head towards town," Erica said. "More potential damage they could do, and it'll be easier to pick 'em off out of the thickest parts of the woods."

"Agreed," Stiles said, "towards town sounds good to me. Just keep an ear out for humans."

Isaac rolled his eyes. "We know the drill, Stiles."

The three of them set off, Stiles trusting Erica's sense of direction to keep them on the right line. "I'm gonna call Lydia and let her know we're still alive." Stiles pulled out his phone and dialled.

"Things going okay?" Lydia asked as she picked up.

"Okay overall, not as good as we hoped. I did some kind of magical overkill trying to make a shield, blew all the beasties who knows where, and siphoned off all of Derek's magical reserves, so we had to tap him out. Boyd's taking him home, Erica and Isaac and I are trying to find a few of the horrors to kill before they can pack up again."

"Stiles, I swear to god. I thought we were done trying magical experiments in life-threatening situations?"

"I wasn't trying to experiment!" Stiles waved his free arm for emphasis that was lost on Lydia through the phone. "I was trying to make a nice, normal shield, I have no idea what went wrong. Isaac says there was lighting coming from Derek, or maybe the ground even though we're not that close to a ley line."

"Lightning?" Lydia sighed. "That's definitely not normal."

"It sounds badass," Stiles grinned. "Derek was hurt and I was touching him, so I figure that had something to do with it, got too emotional or something."

"I'll go keep Derek company and see if I can tell if anything's out of the ordinary." Keys jingled in the background of the call.

"Okay, thanks. I better hang up so my hunting dogs have all their senses sharp." Stiles grinned at the twin glares focused on him for that comment.

"Stay safe." Lydia hung up.

===

Boyd tracked the other three down before they found any trace of the monsters they were tracking. After another hour of fruitless searching they called it a night and headed back towards Derek's house. Erica let them in with her key and they found Lydia writing equations at the kitchen table while Derek slept on the couch in a cocoon of blankets.

"Find any of them?" Lydia sat up and pulled off her glasses.

"No luck," Boyd huffed as he opened the fridge and started pulling out sandwich materials.

"We didn't find a single trace of them." Erica frowned and sat down at the table across from Lydia. "It's like Stiles banished them from the whole territory."

Lydia turned sharp eyes on Stiles.

"That doesn't seem very likely," Stiles said defensively. "We were probably just looking in the wrong spot."

"We covered a pretty big swath," Boyd said.

"Waste of an evening," Isaac complained. "I dislocated my shoulder and we didn't even kill any of them."

Lydia hummed, still staring at Stiles. "Stiles, what happened when you cast your malfunctioning shield?"

"It wasn't malfunctioning!" Stiles threw his arms out. "I was too good was the problem."

Lydia waved a hand like she was shooing a mosquito. "I don't care about that. What did it feel like to you? How did you do it?"

Stiles shrugged. "Same way I do it every time. Center myself on my magic, envision the flame of it, then push it out into a shield with the spell."

Lydia stared at him expectantly for a moment before prompting, "And then what?"

"And then my magic exploded like a literal bomb, I fell over, and it took a minute for my vision to clear and my ears to stop ringing."

"Don't forget the lightning," Isaac put in helpfully.

Lydia tapped her lip with her pencil for a moment before pointing the pencil at Isaac. "You said the lightning was coming from Derek or the ground, right?"

"Pretty sure it was the ground, but Derek said it must have been coming from him. They were right on top of each other and I was a little preoccupied with fighting for my life, so." Isaac shrugged.

Lydia pursed her lips. "I've read about emissaries connecting to the magic of the land through an alpha before, that's not so far fetched."

"Lydia, that takes a bunch of very specific rituals, you can't do it by accident," Stiles said.

"Supposedly," Lydia shrugged. "You're an unusual emissary, and Derek's a born werewolf for several generations back on the same territory. Norms won't necessarily apply."

"Yeah, except how werewolves aren't natural magic conduits; that's the whole point of needing the rituals."

"Maybe full-shift werewolves are," Lydia raised an eyebrow. "The Hales are an unusual bunch; we don't know much about how the full shift affects werewolves since it's such a rare trait."

Stiles groaned and rolled his neck. "Fine, you're right, as usual. I just wish I knew how it happened -- I'm pretty sure I've done magic while touching Derek before."

"Maybe Derek was never actually touching the ground before," Boyd said between bites of his sandwich.

Isaac snorted. "Is he usually levitating?"

Erica slapped Isaac in the chest. "He's normally wearing shoes, dumbass. Boyd's got a point, Derek had his hands on the ground and Stiles had his hands on Derek's bare skin, so there was a direct line."

Isaac rubbed his chest and pouted.

"You're sure saying my name a lot in here," Derek grumbled. Everyone turned to look at him where he was leaning against the doorway wrapped in a blanket, his scowl ruined by his sleep-rumpled hair and heavy eyelids.

"Derek, how are you feeling by now?" Stiles rushed over to him.

"Fine." Derek pulled his blanket a little closer. "Just cold and tired."

"So we're back to the normal healing cool down period?"

Derek shrugged and stifled a yawn. "Seems like it."

"Good. Can I just check?" Stiles held out his hand towards Derek.

Derek nodded and Stiles shut his eyes and slipped into his magical vision again. Lydia's pack bond had joined the display this time, a thin purple thread that only showed up when she was close by. Derek's bond was still dim, but the color had bounced back to the normal fiery red and it was glowing softly.

Stiles opened his eyes with a smile. "Yeah, you're definitely on the mend. Come on, sit down. We were just talking about why my magic acted the way it did."

Derek brushed past Stiles and dropped heavily into one of the kitchen chairs.

"You hungry, Derek?" Boyd asked as he popped the last bite of his sandwich into his mouth.

"Yeah, I guess so." Derek rubbed at his eyes.

Stiles slipped behind Boyd to grab two glasses of water, one for himself and one he set in front of Derek. Derek nodded his thanks and downed the glass in a few swallows.

"Did you take care of any of the little bastards?" Derek asked.

"Didn't see hide nor hair of any one of 'em," Isaac said.

"Pity. But maybe Stiles shot them far enough away they'll regroup elsewhere." Derek leaned heavily on the table.

"We're interrupting your rest, do you need to go back to sleep?" Stiles squeezed Derek's shoulder.

"I'm fine. Need to eat something."

"And here you are." Boyd set a sandwich down at Derek's elbow and retreated to sit next to Erica.

Derek nodded his thanks and took a big bite.

Stiles dragged up another chair and sat next to Derek, watching him slowly chew his way through the sandwich.

"He's fine, Stiles," Lydia said. "You checked him yourself, I checked him when I got here, it's a normal bit of magical exhaustion, nothing to work yourself up over."

Stiles huffed, but he leaned back in his chair and stopped watching Derek so intently.

"I'm dealing with some plain old physical exhaustion," Erica yawned. "Some of us have been up since five."

"Yeah, lets everyone go to bed. We can try looking for any more signs of them tomorrow. Isaac's the only one working tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah, evening shift," Isaac said.

"I need a few hours to work on a paper," Boyd put in.

"God, me too," Stiles rubbed a hand over his face. "Let's try and meet in the morning, then, around..." Stiles glanced at his watch and winced at the time. "Around nine? And try to finish up by noon or one. Sound good?"

Everyone agreed and the betas all stood to leave, patting Derek's shoulder or ruffling his hair as they filed out of the kitchen. Derek really must have been exhausted since he didn't bother pretending to be offended by the affectionate touches.

"You need anything else before I go?" Stiles asked Derek while Lydia packed up her work.

"No," Derek shook his head. "Just need to get some more water and head to bed."

"Well I can help you with some of that at least." Stiles fetched the Brita pitcher from the fridge and filled Derek's glass, leaving the pitcher next to him. "Nothing else, you're sure?"

"I'm fine, I promise." Derek rolled his eyes.

"If you insist." Stiles squeezed Derek's shoulder one more time. "I'll be back before any of us wants to be, anyways."

Derek snorted and stood with a groan, taking the water pitcher with him as he shuffled off towards his bedroom.

"Alright, let's get out of here," Lydia grabbed Stiles' arm and towed him to the door, making sure to lock up behind themselves. "Once he's fully recovered we ought to do an experiment, see if we can reproduce the incident by making Derek a conduit again."

"Lydia," Stiles frowned, "I'm not doing that to him again on purpose." Stiles pointed back towards Derek's door as they walked away.

"Then don't do that again," Lydia said primly. "Focus more and see if you can tap into anything else beyond Derek before trying to perform a spell. We'll do it under controlled circumstances, it'll be fine." They reached Lydia's car first, and she stopped Stiles from walking away with a sharp tug on his sleeve. "Try and do some reading about those rituals, too. They could have some useful advice for how not to rip all the magic out of your alpha while connecting to the land."

Stiles grumbled under his breath, but he nodded. Lydia was right that they should try again, if he could reliably do magic like that the pack would have a lot fewer headaches to try and squeeze in between schoolwork and jobs. Unfortunately that probably meant he'd have to go borrow some books from Deaton this week.

===

Stiles saw Deaton a lot sooner than he intended; the man showed up at Derek's the next morning while the pack was getting ready to leave from Derek's and patrol the woods.

Derek answered the door, standing firmly in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Derek," Deaton said, smiling pleasantly, "good morning, can I come in?"

"What are you here for?" Derek growled. He was looking a lot better than the night before, but he was still grouchy and clearly not at his best.

"I noticed that the old wards activated last night, and I hoped you might know what caused that."

Derek went stiff, shoulders rolling a bit like he was about to shift.

"If you don't," Deaton went on, "then we might have a bigger problem on our hands than the shadow brocken in the woods."

"Wait, you know what those things are called?" Stiles asked over Derek's shoulder.

Derek growled quietly, but he stepped back and ushered Deaton into the house.

"Shadow brocken? Is that what you said? I've never heard of them."

"They're very rare; usually keep to the mountains. But like I said, that's not the most concerning thing out there right now."

"Right, the wards." Stiles wilted a little. He figured the wards had activated after years of fruitless attempts due to the maelstrom of magic he'd accidentally released last night, which Deaton was sure to be mad about.

"How do you know they've activated?" Boyd asked, zipping up their backpack with the emergency supplies.

"I felt a disturbance while I was meditating last night," Deaton said. Erica rolled her eyes expressively. "I went out to check one this morning and it seemed to be working to repel something. I visited two more that were doing the same thing before I came here."

Isaac sighed. "I guess that's why we couldn't find any of the shadow whatever last night. Waste of precious sleeping hours."

Deaton raised his eyebrows. "So you know what caused this?"

"So, I maybe had a little magical accident last night casting a shield spell and made more of a bomb spell instead," Stiles said. "Blew a bunch of shadow creatures we were fighting out of the hearing range of werewolves, and couldn't track any down after despite searching for a good couple of hours."

Daeton's eyebrows climbed farther up his forehead. "You turned a shielding spell into a bomb?"

"That's not the important part." Stiles waived a hand. "Maybe it was just a super aggressive shield, I don't know, no werewolves were thrown anywhere, but I did have more magic rip through me than I've ever felt before."

Deaton hummed, eyebrows settling back down. "Where were you when you cast the spell?"

"Not close enough to any leylines that I would have thought it mattered. Maybe five miles from the nemeton, about ten miles north of the new development on the east side, near those overgrown walking trails."

"I suppose that could have worked to activate them, a shield gone wildly off the rails. But the amount of pure magical energy you would have needed to make the spell reach that far are far beyond your normal capabilities."

"It definitely felt that way to me, believe me," Stiles shuddered, remembering how the magic burned as it surged through him.

"Most peculiar." Deaton rubbed at his jaw.

Lydia clapped her hands and broke the silence that was settling. "Change of plans for this morning, I think," she said brightly. "Let's see how many wards we can check before we have to get to our responsibilities. If Isaac is right and the wards really are keeping the creatures out then we'll only be wasting our time looking for them anyways."

"Sounds good to me." Erica jumped off the island counter where she had been sitting and grabbed Boyd's hand. "We ready?"

Derek looked around the room and nodded. "Thanks for coming by, Deaton," he said, walking towards the door and forcing Deaton to back up with him. "We'll look into the wards." He opened the door and ushered Daeton back out of the house.

Deaton went, but he was clearly less than happy about it. "We really need to look further into how Stiles was able to wield that much magic--"

"We're already doing that, I assure you." Derek smiled thinly.

"Very well. I'll continue to keep watch on the wards. Please let me know if you make any discoveries."

Derek nodded and turned to lock up.

"Thank for the heads up, Doc." Stiles raised a hand in farewell.

Deaton frowned faintly. "Be careful, Stiles. Wielding so much magic at once can be very dangerous."

"I will keep that in mind, if I'm ever able to do it again."

Derek grabbed Stiles' arm and towed him towards Erica's old Jeep, the only car they had that would fit all six of them thanks to the front bench seat and Lydia's small frame. They waited until they were a few blocks away before Isaac broke the silence.

"So the wards. If they're really active and functioning properly, that would be huge, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah," Derek said, brows knitted in a frown, "my mom always said that without them we'd never be able to have a normal life."

"So we're saying that with the wards up we maybe wouldn't have to save the town every time we turn around?" Erica asked.

Derek shrugged. "Probably. The nemeton being active might change things, I don't know. But they're supposed to keep out anything that means us harm."

"But the nemeton hasn't been inactive for all that long, relatively speaking," Lydia said.

"You're right," Derek nodded. "It had been my whole life, but my mom never talked about having trouble with it when it was active, and she was in her twenties when it was cut down."

"It would be great if my biggest worry was just passing my classes," Boyd said.

"Don't get too excited," Derek grumbled. "The wards have to be sustained -- if Stiles can't replicate his magical accident it'll be a temporary break until the things run out of juice."

"Oh, thanks, Derek, so encouraging." Isaac rolled his eyes and turned to stare out the window.

"Don't get excited." Derek crossed his arms.

Lydia turned to give Stiles a significant look over the back of the seat. Stiles groaned. "I haven't even been able to find any books, let alone read them!"

"What are you talking about?" Boyd asked.

"Lydia wants me to try the thing again with Derek."

"What thing with me?" Derek growled.

"The, you know," Stiles waved his hands around aimlessly, "the magical explody thing."

Derek heaved a sigh and turned to look out the window. They were almost to a ward now. "Fine. I don't remember how often Mom went out with Deaton or whoever to recharge them, but I don't think it was more than once or twice a month. That's... manageable."

"Okay, I'm not sucking up all your magical energy once or twice a month, and you shouldn't agree to that, that's stupid and unnecessary!"

Derek bared his teeth and turned to look at Stiles. "Then what the hell are you--"

"We're here!" Erica yelled. "Please can we have the fight while we're not all trapped in the car with you?"

Derek snarled and shot out of the car. Stiles groaned and rolled his neck before following him.

Derek lead the way away from the dirt road. It only took about five minutes of hiking to reach the ward, an innocuous, stunted little tree with glyphs carved deep into the wood and three colourful rocks embedded in the bark on the east side, facing away from the town. Today, the rocks were glowing faintly, and the air was filled with a quiet hum.

"So that's definitely active, right?" Isaac said after they had all taken a moment just to stare.

"Yeah." Derek got closer and crouched down in front of the rocks, watching the tree intently. He raised a hand to gently stroke the bark and shivered as he touched it.

Lydia circled around to bend over Derek's shoulder. "How can we tell what it's doing?"

Derek shrugged.

Lydia sighed and straightened up. "I wish we could trust Deaton."

"Look!" Erica pointed out into the woods. "There's one of the shadow bracken or whatever!"

They all followed Erica's gaze to see one of the twisted creatures snarling at them from twenty yards beyond the ward. Derek growled and the creature chattered its sharp fangs while a second of its kind emerged to twine around it, faint rainbows scattering off their bodies where the sun came through the trees.

"Does that mean it is keeping them out?" Boyd asked as they watched a third creature waddle over to the other two on its hind legs. One of the creatures took a few steps toward them before it yelped and wheeled away, running back into the woods, the two others following.

Erica whooped in delight. "It does work!"

"Worth it," Derek muttered. Stiles turned to see him smiling faintly as he took in the grins on his betas' faces.

Stiles sighed and shook his head. "Stop it with the martyr attitude. We'll find a way to keep them up that doesn't abuse you."

Derek raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"I agree with Derek on that one," Boyd said. "How are you planning to do that when you've been trying for literal years to get these up with no results?"

"Great, thanks for that vote of confidence, Boyd, really helps," Stiles said.

"Why don't you try now?" Lydia said. "Just something small, we don't need an explosion today."

"What do you need me to do?" Derek asked immediately.

Stiles groaned. "I need you to cool it so I can do more reading."

"Shirt off," Lydia said, ignoring Stiles. "I don't know how much you overheard last night, but we're thinking its the direct skin-on-skin connection from Stiles to you to the ground."

Derek whipped off his shirt and sat on the ground, digging his fingers into the dirt underneath a layer of pine needles and dead leaves. He looked up at Stiles expectantly.

"No!" Stiles crossed his arms. "I'm not doing it until we've had the time to research it. And besides, the wards are clearly working and plenty juiced up! I'm not going to hurt Derek for no reason."

"Come on," Lydia shoved Stiles towards Derek. "No one's asking you to hurt him. Just put your hands on him and see if you can feel vast reserves of magic through him."

Stiles hesitantly reached out to touch Derek's shoulders, snatching his hands away when Derek flinched.

"Come back," Derek huffed a little laugh, "your fingers are freezing, that's all."

The betas tittered and Stiles scowled at them while he put his hands back on Derek's (very warm) shoulders. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, falling into his magical vision again. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but he was pleased to see Derek's thread once again restored to it's normal brilliance, a thick rope of power feeding into Stiles' flame. Stiles focused in only on Derek and flexed his fingers against Derek's shoulders while he envisioned grabbing Derek's bond and pulling gently.

Power flooded Stiles so fast he nearly stumbled, his little candle of magic suddenly a roaring bonfire. He opened his mouth to announce his success when he heard Derek hiss through his teeth the way he did when he pulled arrows out of himself. "Derek?" Stiles said instead, opening his eyes and letting the magic drain away. Derek flinched and Stiles let go of him to hurry around and crouch down in front of him. "Did I hurt you?"

Derek kept his eyes squeezed shut and his face tipped down towards his chest. "Did it work?" he grunted.

"Yeah, I think so, but Derek what's going on with you?"

"It's fine." Derek looked up, squinting a little with watery eyes.

"It's not fine when it's clearly hurting you!" Stiles grabbed Derek's shoulder and shook him a little.

"It's fine," Derek repeated. "I can just feel the... energy or magic or whatever it is going through me. Feels like it doesn't fit in my body and it scrapes all the way up to your hands."

"Huh." Stiles sat back on his heels.

"That is fascinating," Lydia said from behind Stiles.

"I told you," Stiles turned to look at Lydia, "werewolves aren't natural magic conduits."

"I beg to differ," Lydia smirked, "this one clearly is! I felt the power flow into you through him."

"But it's hurting him."

Lydia shrugged. "So try again. Maybe it's a surface area problem; all that magic can only come up through his hands, and then has to funnel into your hands too."

Stiles sighed and turned back to Derek. It didn't seem like the worst idea. "You okay to try one more time? Then we can call it quits until after we do some more research."

"Fine," Derek insisted.

"Okay." Stiles rubbed at his shoulder. "Maybe take your pants off, too?"

Derek nodded and got up to kick off his boots and shuck his jeans. Erica wolf whistled and Derek rolled his eyes as he sat down again, stretching his legs out in front of him. "Like this?" he looked up at Stiles.

"Yeah, um, and I'll just--" Stiles tore his eyes away from Derek's body to stand up and fumble his way out of his hoodie and shirts, nearly tripping over his own feet as he walked around behind Derek again. This time he sat behind Derek, thighs on either side of Derek's hips, and wrapped his arms around Derek's naked torso, pulling Derek back to rest skin-to-skin against Stiles' chest.

"I did not think we were going to get soft core pornography when we came out here today," Isaac smirked.

Stiles tried to ignore Isaac and the way his own face was flaming. "This okay?" he asked Derek.

Derek nodded.

Stiles took a deep breath and shut his eyes, fingers flexing against Derek's skin as he tried pulling on Derek's pack bond again, focusing on being as gentle as possible. This time Derek made a surprised little sound as Stiles felt magic wash through him again.

"Is that better?" Stiles asked, concentrating hard to keep his hold on the magic.

"Yeah, that's..." Derek relaxed into Stiles' chest and tucked his face up against Stiles' neck. "That feels nice actually."

"Oh, well that's great, good idea, Lydia."

"Don't act so surprised," Lydia drawled.

"Derek, can you reach the ward?" Stiles asked.

"Probably with my foot." Derek squirmed against Stiles in a very distracting way for a moment before Stiles' magical vision was suddenly flooded with burning points of brilliant red light.

Stiles flinched at the onslaught and he felt Derek's muscles flex as he tensed.

"What's wrong?" Derek asked.

"Nothing, I just think I can see all the wards now." Stiles slowly got used to the additions to his sight and recognized the shape the wards made around Beacon Hills -- he had been staring at a map marked with the wards in his bedroom everyday for the better part of five years, so he was intimately familiar with the imperfect circle they made.

"Are they all active?" Boyd asked.

"I think so?" Stiles shrugged. "They all look lit up, but I don't know what they would have looked like before. We'll just have to come back and check every so often, I guess."

Stiles heard a chittering noise and his eyes flew open, excess magic whooshing out of him like a popped balloon. He started to look around for the source of the noise, only to freeze when Derek let out a moan and practically melted against Stiles. "... Derek?" Stiles asked.

"Sorry," Derek mumbled, head lolling to the side until Stiles could feel Derek's eyelashes fluttering against his neck, "I told you it felt good."

"Yeah," Erica snickered, "you apparently weren't kidding."

"Did you guys hear that noise?" Stiles asked, desperately trying not to think about how Derek was boneless with apparent pleasure in his arms. His voice cracked embarrassingly.

"It's just one of the shadow creatures again," Boyd pointed out into the woods while Isaac and Erica dissolved into giggles. "It's not getting any closer than the others did."

"Okay." Stiles patted Derek's chest. "You ready to get up and get dressed, big guy? I think we're done here."

"Yeah, okay," Derek sighed. He rubbed his cheek on Stiles' collarbone before slowly sitting up and reaching for his shirt.

Stiles jumped up and pulled his clothes back on, turning around just in time to get an eyeful of Derek's boxer-clad ass as he bent over to put on his jeans. Stiles barely held back a squeak as he watched with wide eyes until Derek had his pants fully up. He turned away, cheeks hot, only to meet Erica's leer. He groaned and covered his face.

"A very successful morning," Lydia said, hands on her hips and a satisfied look on her face.

"I'll say," Erica grinned. She watched the loan shadow creature snuffle around beyond the wards. "If these things really work..." she trailed off.

"It'll be life-changing," Isaac finished.

Boyd snorted. "It'll make things a lot easier, that's for sure. Come on, let's go home. If we hurry I have time for a nap before I have to work on my paper."

"Here here," Stiles said, following Boyd back to Erica's car.

Derek fell into place next to Stiles on the short walk back. "When do you want to come out and check them again?"

Stiles shrugged. "Maybe Wednesday afternoon right after my last class?"

Derek nodded. "I'll meet you at campus."

"Great, uh, can't wait."

===

Stiles was nearly vibrating with nerves by the time Wednesday came around. When he came out of his last class Derek was leaning again the building watching the stream of students pour through the doors, looking like sex on legs as usual.

Stiles waved goodbye to Gina and headed over to Derek. "You ready for this?" Stiles asked as he approached.

"If I remember right I don't have to do anything but take off my clothes," Derek smirked.

"Derek!" Stiles hissed, grabbing Derek's elbow and dragging him toward the parking lot. "Don't say things like that where anyone can hear you!" Stiles looked around, letting out a little breath of relief when no one he knew was nearby.

Derek grinned, unconcerned.

"It's your reputation that would be ruined by dating me, you'd think you'd care a little more," Stiles tried to tease.

Derek shot Stiles a wry look. "Half this town still thinks I'm a serial killer who got away with it. Don't think I can go much lower than that."

"Okay, this got depressing fast," Stiles sighed. "He threw his backpack in the trunk of his Jeep. "Did you drive here?"

"Ran." Derek circled around to the passenger side and climbed in.

Stiles hopped into the driver seat and convinced the Jeep to start after a long sputter.

"You need me to take another look at this thing?" Derek frowned.

"She's fine!" Stiles insisted before deflating as he pulled out of the lot. "But if you have the time to look it wouldn't hurt. Seems like she's taking longer and longer to start lately."

"Bring it over on Saturday. You can borrow the Camaro if you need to go anywhere."

"Thanks, dude." They drove in silence for a few minutes before Stiles asked, "You feel fully recovered?"

"Yeah," Derek shrugged, "back to normal."

"And you haven't noticed anything unusual in the general territory? Erica said she saw one of the shadow creatures sniffing around beyond the wards on her patrol, and Boyd said he saw a will-o-the-whisp near the nemeton."

"Nothing unusual. Wards are still humming. Spoke to the sprites in the creek, explained about the wards. Saw the fairy colony, but they vanished before I could approach -- wanted to let them know, too, but I guess they're not that concerned if they don't want to talk to me. I saw a couple more of the shadows, too, but they've been keeping to the deep woods."

"Should we let anyone else know about them? They'll go somewhere else if they can't be here anymore."

Derek shrugged. "Maybe. Or maybe they'll keep wandering around the edges of our territory. They're not close enough to anyone else's territory to concern them."

"I guess."

"I don't want to tell anyone else about our wards until we have to, anyways. Makes our territory too appealing to have a nemeton with protection from all the chaos that usually comes with one."

Stiles squinted at the road in front of him. "Did no one know about the wards before?"

"They knew. But our pack was strong and well connected -- it would have been too dangerous to try driving us out. Now, some might be willing to try."

"Do they not think they could activate the wards?"

Derek snorted. "They think if it were possible we would have done it ourselves already."

"Yeah, okay, that makes sense." Stiles pulled off onto a tiny dirt track, the Jeep bouncing through potholes. "How do we charge the wards if they need it?"

Derek shrugged. "You're the one who kick-started them."

"Great," Stiles sighed. He brought the Jeep to a stop at the end of the road.

"Just make another shield," Derek said as he got out of the car. "That's what did it before, why wouldn't it work again?"

"I don't know, Derek," Stiles locked the Jeep and trudged into the woods after Derek, "it's magic, nothing about it makes sense."

They reached the ward before long, another twisted little tree covered in sigles and with three glowing stones facing out into the woods, the same constant hum permeating the air around it.

"It looks fine." Stiles touched the tree and jumped, shaking out his hand after a strong feeling like static electricity raced through him at the touch. "It doesn't hurt you to touch, does it?" Stiles turned to look at Derek, only to find him already stripped down to his boxers. Stiles closed his eyes and sighed, wondering how he was supposed to deal with this every week or two without going insane.

"No, feels tingly, but it's not bad." Derek sat down next to Stiles. "Ready?"

"Do we even need to do magic? It's clearly still working."

Derek shrugged. "I guess not. But we're already here, why not plug in?"

"Okay." Stiles pulled off his shirts and sat behind Derek, wrapping his arms around Derek's warm, soft skin.

"Are you nervous?" Derek asked as he leaned back against Stiles' chest and rested his shin against the ward.

"I'm fine," Stiles said, wincing as his voice came out high-pitched and awkward.

Derek hummed and Stiles shut his eyes to escape the situation. He yanked at Derek's pack bond harder than he meant to, which made the whole situation backfire spectacularly as Derek moaned extravagantly, going limp in Stiles' grip.

"Fuck," Stiles whispered and tried to focus on the wards in his magical vision instead of the feel of Derek's skin and the way Derek was slowly rubbing his cheek against Stiles' collarbone. "I think they're fine," Stiles said, opening his eyes and watching Derek bite his lip and shiver as the magic flowed back through him.

Derek fluttered his eyes open and met Stiles' gaze. "I hope we never have to do this in the middle of a fight," Derek said breathlessly. "Do that a couple more times and I will have an orgasm."

"Holy fuck," Stiles' voice cracked as he tipped his head back and stared up at the canopy above them. "You absolutely cannot say things like that to me, Derek."

"Why?" Stiles looked back down to see Derek smirking up at him. "You wanna try and see if you can do it now?"

"Are you fucking drugged right now?" Stiles grabbed Derek by the chin and stared into his face -- his pupils were blown wide. "Is it the magic making you say this?"

Derek rolled his eyes. "No."

"Are you sure? Because you also seemed pretty slap-happy the last time we did this."

"I feel good," Derek shrugged. "Nothing more than that."

Stiles snorted. "Being drunk feels good too, doesn't mean you don't do things you regret while you're feeling good."

Derek sighed. "The wards looked good?"

"Yeah. Still bright." Stiles was a little disappointed that Derek was going to let that line of conversation drop so fast.

"So we can leave them alone for another few days. You bring your car over Saturday like we said, then we can go to dinner after I fix it. Then," Derek smirked, "we can see about orgasms after that."

Stiles let go of Derek to rub his hands over his face. "You're impossible. Are you asking me on a date now?"

"Yup." Derek popped the 'P' obnoxiously.

"Okay, fine, if you still feel the same way on Saturday, I'm all in. Now get up and get dressed, this is very awkward."

Derek grinned and hopped to his feet. Stiles very determinedly did not look over as they both pulled their clothes back on.

===

The next two days passed far too quickly for Stiles to prepare himself for the possibility of a date with Derek. The pack emergency group chat stayed quiet, and he didn't hear anything directly from Derek, either. Stiles' heart was in his throat as he pulled into Derek's wide driveway Saturday afternoon, the garage door open to show Derek at his work bench inside. He wasn't wearing a shirt because of fucking course he wasn't.

"Hey," Stiles said as he jumped out of the driver's seat, nearly tripping over his own feet.

"Stiles," Derek smiled, coming out into the driveway. "Did you change your mind about dinner tonight?"

"No. Did you, now that you're sober?"

Derek cocked his head. "Still not sure that I wasn't sober before, but no, I didn't either."

"Good, that's, ah, great." Stiles still felt like he might puke.

"Hey," Derek clapped a heavy hand to Stiles' shoulder, "relax. Eating together is not new."

"Yeah, but it's not normally followed by orgasms!"

Derek smirked. "Well we don't have to do that part if you don't want to."

"I very much do want to!"

"Come here." Derek stepped forward and wrapped his hands around Stiles' waist. "This okay?"

"Yup," Stiles said, sliding his hands up Derek's abs to rest on his pecks.

"Good," Derek smiled. He leaned in to kiss Stiles, lips soft and tentative against Stiles' mouth.

Stiles groaned and pressed back against him, sliding a hand up to grip Derek's hair. Stiles licked into Derek's mouth and Derek moaned, the same delicious little noise he'd been making in the woods. Derek pressed their bodies tighter together, and Stiles felt the weight of Derek's cock against his hip. They parted with a wet smack.

"That settle you down?" Derek asked, not moving any farther away.

"That did not make anything go down," Stiles grinned, flexing his hips pointedly against Derek's.

"Hmm." Derek bit his lip and knocked his forehead against Stiles'. "What about if we skipped straight to the orgasms?"

"As long as we still get to the actual date afterwards, yeah, I'm fine with that. And I do still need Roscoe looked at."

"We'll definitely get to all of that." Derek slid his hands down to grab Stiles' ass, rocking his cock against Stiles' hip. "What about if we moved to the backyard?"

"You're really serious about that?"

"Not kidding about how good it feels." Derek stepped back and grabbed Stiles' hand, dragging him into the backyard through the garage so he could shut the garage door on the way. "I've been trying really hard not to think about who my mom used to do that with."

Stiles choked out a startled laugh. "Careful, you'll spoil the mood."

"I think I can bring it back." Derek kicked off his boots and started taking off his pants, pulling down his boxers at the same time.

"Yeah, okay," Stiles said faintly, fumbling his way out of his clothes while staring at Derek preening in front of him. He tackled Derek into the grass, swallowing Derek's little laugh as he pressed himself full-length against Derek. He pulled back a little and shut his eyes, slipping into his magical vision again. "Let's see how loud I can make you moan."

Notes:

[fallen420]

Rebel Spy - Chapter 8: It’s Just Us Now

Description: Auroras life becomes lonely after the war ends but when a familiar Mandalorain needs her help who is she to refuse.

prologue chapter 1 chapter 2 chapter 3 chapter 4 chapter 5 

chapter 6 chapter 7

We walk into the restaurant to watch Cara beat some guys ass. I hold the kid close to me as he giggles at the fight.

"Pay up mudsuckers!" She turns around and spots us.

"Picked up a new friend Mando?"

"Cara this is Aurora."

I smile, "Hi."

"Wait like commander Aurora? Like the rebel spy?"

I laugh a little, "That's the one."

"I've heard a lot of stories about you. You're badass."

"Thanks," I say as we sit down at the table.

Din catches her up on everything Greef said.

"It seems like a straightforward operation. They're providing the plan and firepower. We're the snare."

"With the kid?" She asks.

"That's why we're coming to you," I say as I shake my leg to keep the kid entertained.

"I don't know. I've been advised to lay low. If they run my chain code I'll be stuck in a cell for the rest of my life."

"I thought you were a veteran," Mando says.

"I've been a lot of things since. Most of them carry a life sentence. If I so much book passage on a ship registered to the New Republic, I'm-"

"We have a ship. I can bring you there and back with a handsome reward. You can live free of worry."

"I'm already free of worry, and I'm not in the mood to play soldier anymore. Especially fighting some local warlord."

"He's not a warlord," I say, "He's imperial." Cara is a rebel we both fought a war to get rid of these people I know she'll be willing to do it again.

"I'm in."

-

Mando and Cara come down from the cockpit. He lets her go through his weapon collection choosing which ones she likes best. I'm refilling our med kit because who knows whats gonna happen. They talk about why are we going back.

"And you're okay with bringing the kid?" She asks.

"No," I say my head still buried in the kit.

"That's why we're bringing you," Din says. The ship starts to shake and I look around for the kid and he's not here. The med kit rolls off the table as we get thrown around the ship.

"You left him up there?!"

I somehow make my way up the ladder only falling once.

The kid has a hold of the joystick.I grab the kid handing him to Din. I sit in the pilots chair pressing a few buttons and then ship goes back to normal.

I look back at Din, "You know the kid has a thing for buttons why leave him up here."

"We need someone to watch that thing," Cara says.

"Aurora's supposed too." There's a hint of playfulness in Din's voice.

"Okay tin can was I or was I not filling your med kit? She's right though we're gonna need some help."

"I think I know somebody."

-

"It hasn't grown much," the Ugnaught says about the kid. We landed on his farm not to long ago. Wish Din would of told me it was an Ugnaught. Ugnaught's worked for the empire.

"I think it might be a strand-cast," Din says.

"No, it's a Jedi," I say, "Like I told you before."

"Aurora-"

"I've seen it before. Have you?"

"I don't think it was engineered," Kuiil says, "I've seen the gene farms. This one is to evolved. Too ugly. This one, on the other hand," he looks at Cara, "Looks like she was farmed in the Cytocaves of Nora."

"This is Cara Dune," Din says, "She was a shock tropper."

"You were a dropper?"

"Did you serve?"

"On the other side, I'm afraid." He sits down along with the rest of us, "But I'm proud to say that I paid out my clan's debt, and now I serve no one but myself."

An IG-11 walks through the door. All three of us stand up taking out our blasters pointing it at him.

He's holding a tray, "Would anyone care for some tea?"

"Huh?" I look at Din confused.

"Please lower your blasters. He will not harm you," Kuiil says.

"That thing is programmed to kill the baby," Mando reminds him.

"Not anymore."

"You reprogrammed it?" I ask.

"I did." The IG unit places the hot tea on the table.

Kuiil tells us the story of how he found the unit and reconstructed it. How he taught it everything from scratch. About how it developed a personality. By the end of the story we put our blasters away trusting Kuiil.

"Is it still a hunter?" Din asks.

"No. But it will protect."

"Tea?" The IG unit asks and I grab it out of its hands taking a drink feeling the warm tea calm my nerves.

-

Din and Kuiil are outside talking leaving Cara, the kid, and it inside Kuiil's hut.

"So," Cara says, "Are you and Mando...?

"What?" I feel my face flush I mean yeah we've shared some moments but we're not together or anything...right? "No. No. We're just partners."

"Sure."

"What do you mean sure?"

"Look I know we can't actually see his face but the way he looks at you its not a friendly look."

"Look even if he was looking at me like that. I'm-I'm sure it's against the code."

"And it's not?"

Before I can respond Din walks back in, "You guys ready to go?"

"Uh yeah."

-

Back on the ship Cara and Din are locked into an intense battle of arm wrestling. The kid and I watch intently.

"My credits are on Cara who you got?" I say to the kid.

"Shut," grunt, "Up," Din says and I can't help but laugh.

"Sounds like you're losing there target practice."

Then Cara stops what she's doing. It looks like he can't breathe. Immediately I turn to see the kid with his hand up and eyes closed. I grab him to stop him from killing her.

"That is not okay!" Cara yells

"He forced chocked her," my mind floods back to the imperial ships. It floods to all the people I watched die due to it.

"Have you seen it before?" Din asks.

I nod my head.

"Where?"

I close my eyes trying to calm the panic that flows through me as I remember, "Imperial ships." my voice comes out quieter than expected, "When I was spying."

"The kid's... evil?"

"No no. I think the kid- he just thought he was protecting you."

-

The kid and I lay in the cot fast asleep. Well, I was asleep until Din wakes me up.

"Hey," he says in a whisper.

I barely open my eyes, "What?"

"Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"You looked panicked earlier."

"Oh, that."

"Yeah."

"It's just I saw a lot on those ships and it brings up bad stuff. But I'm fine though Din really."

"Okay," he gets up. I was going to ask him to stay again but then I remember about Cara and Kuiil are here and we won't want too, "Good night cyar'ika."

"Night Din."

-

We land where Greef told us to meet him. He's outside with three other men.

All four of us walk out of the ship on the Mythosaur that Kuiil brought. We are now facing each other with the kid floating in between me and Mando in its new Pod

"Sorry for the remote rendezvous, Mando," Greef says, "But things have gotten complicated since you were last here. It appears that introductions are in order. It seems we've both provided security detail." he points at Cara, "I recommend the shock trooper guards the ship. These lava fields are lousy with Jawas."

"She's coming with me," Din says.

"But the town is now run my ex-Empire. If a Rebel Dropper and a Rebel Commander is with us they'll get their hackles up.

"They're coming."

"Fine. At least cover your tattoo. No need to flaunt it." Greef refers to the tattoo on Caras's arm. "Now, where is the little one?" Din looks at me before touching his vambrace pushing the kid's pod forward. He walks closer to the pod and my hand hovers over my blaster, "So, this little bogwing is what all the fuss was about." He picks up the kid, "What a precious little creature."

"Mando.." I whisper.

"I know."

"I can see why you didn't want to harm a hair on it wrinkled little head." He puts the kid back and Din and I both relax. "Well, I'm glad this matter will be put to rest once and for all." Din closes the pod and brings the kid back to us, "The sun drops fast on Nevarro. We can walk for a spell, camp out at the riverbank, then make our way into town at first light."

-

At camp, its dark except for the flames except for the orange flames. I sit next to Din with the kid on my lap as I feed him the meat they caught earlier. The kid coos and babbles as I feed him.

"I guess the little bugger's a carnivore," Greef says "Never seen anything like it. They were ready to pay a king's ransom for that thing. Must be for some kind of highfalutin menagerie." He chuckles.

"Let's go over the plan again," Din says.

"We both enter the common house. We show the client the bait. We join him at the table. And you kill him."

"Tell me about his reinforcements."

"They're all ex-empire. As soon as they lose their paycheck, poof, they'll all scatter."

"What if they don't?" I ask.

"They will."

"That's not good enough," Din says.

"If, for argument's sake, a few of them don't realize that I'm their best past to alternative employment and they elect to react impulsively, then these three fine Guild Hunters," Greef points to his men, "along with the battle-hardened commander and shock trooper, will cut down anyone who bucks."

"How many will there be?"

"No more then four," Greef stands up now, "He travels with, at most, a Fire Team. Trust me nothing can go wrong." Greef goes to grab a piece of meat but a vulture of some kind grabs it out of his hand with its claw. It seems to scratch him as he cries out in pain. Everyone stands up and starts shooting at it. I make sure to close the kid's pod.

They fly around us. I take my blaster out to help with the shooting. It's chaotic. There's blast everywhere these things are flying like crazy. One of them takes one of Greef's guild members.

One tries to grab Din making him drop to the floor. I start shooting at it trying to get it to let go of him. After a few shots, it does. With his arms free he points the fire from his vambrace at it. It flies away with its tail on fire. The other one follows it.

"You good?" I ask Din.

"Yeah," he says out of breath, "Thanks." We run back to the kid's pod to check on him. When I open it he just coos.

We hear Greef grunting in pain. I go over and kneel by his side.

"They got you good," I say. He has scratch marks on his arm. His arm is red as the poison spreads through his veins, I open the medkit taking out the bacta shot. Bacta shot are powerful Din and I have yet to use them because we haven't had too bad of injuries yet. "Hold still," I give him the shot without hesitation.

"How bad?" Din asks.

"Bad. The poison is spreading. Fast."

"So this-this is how it happens," Greef says as I begin to wrap his arm with the bandage to try and stop the spreading.

"Don't be so dramatic. Uh, I need another med-pack. Do we have anymore?" I look around and nothing.

"I'm guessing that's a no."

"It's still spreading. It's not working."

I look down and notice the kid next to me putting a hand out to touch Greef, "Get this thing outta here," Cara says.

"Wait." I say, "Let him."

He touches Greefs wound and closes his big little eyes.

"He's trying to eat me."

"Shut up." I watch as the wound mostly closes and the poison leaves his body. The kid sits on the ground probably tired then the wound closes all the way.

-

After walking for some time Greef stops, "I guess this is it." Greef turns around and shoots. The three of us pull out our blasters waiting to get hit but instead, the two bounty hunters behind us are dead. "There's something you should now." He walks over to the now-dead bounty hunters kicking the bodies to make sure they're dead, "The plane was to kill you and take the kid."

I knew it.

"But after what happened last night, I couldn't go through with it. Go on. You can gun me down here and now and it wouldn't violate the code. But if you do, this child will never be safe."

"We'll take our chances," Cara says.

"The Imperial client is obsessed with obtaining this asset. You tried to run, but where did it get you? Listen, we both need the client to be eliminated. Let me take the child to him and then you three..."

"No," I say, "You don't go near my kid."

"Let's just kill him and get outta here," Cara says.

Din lowers his blaster, "He's right." I lower mine too.

"What are you doing?"

"If the imp lives he'll send hunter after the child," Din says.

"It's a trap."

"Bring me."

"Bring you?" Greef says.

"Tell him you captured me. Get me close to him and I'll kill him."

"No," I say

"That's a good idea give me your blaster," Greef says and Din hands him his blaster.

"Mando what if he kills you?" I ask with fear in my voice.

"He won't."

"But what if."

"Its the only way."

"I'm coming with you."

"No, no-no. That would make them suspicious," Greef says.

"I don't care. I'm coming."

"Tell them she caught me," Din suggests.

"No, they know you have a girlfriend they know she's the Rebel Commander."

Din doesn't correct him when he says girlfriend so neither do I.

"Fine. Then Cara caught us. We all go in there together," I say,

"Okay," Greef says, "Cara can bring the child."

"No," I say, "Kid goes back to the ship."

"But without the child, none of this works!"

"I have a plan. I'm a commander I always have a plan. Kuiil, ride back to the Razor Crest with the kid and no don't come out no matter what. Once you're inside engage in all ground security protocols. Nothing on this planet will breach those doors."

He hands me the comlink, "I will keep the child safe."

"Let's go." Din hands Greef the cuffs and he cuffs the both of us.

-

We walk up to the entrance of the city. The place if flooded with stormtroopers.

"Chain code?" One asks.

"I have a gift for the boss," Greef says.

"Chain code?" The stormtrooper asks again. Greef hands it to him and he scans it, "I'll give you twenty credits for the helmet."

Greef fakes a laugh, "Not a chance. That's going on my wall."

"Go ahead."

-

"Here we are." Greef opens the door and Din and I go first. Inside there are four stormtroopers and the Imp sits at the table. He stands up when he sees me and Mando, "Look what I brought you. As promised."

"And the commander too. I'm impressed," the imp says. He looks at Din's armor, "What exquisite craftsmanship. It is amazing how beautiful beskar can be forged be its ancestral artisans." He looks at Greef, "Can I offer you a libation to celebrate the closing of our shared narrative?"

"I would be obliged."

Greef pushes me and Din to sit down at a booth. Greef sits next to us and the imp sits across. The tension in the air rises as two more stormtroopers walk in.

"It is a shame that your people suffered so. Just as in this situation, it was all avoidable. Why did Manalore resist our expansion? The empire improves every system it touches." the anger that goes through me is insane. My jaw clenches and I bite my tongue to stop myself from saying something. Din places his cuffed hands over mine has an attempt to calm me down, "Judge by a metric. Safety, prosperity, trade, opportunity, peace. Compare Imperial rule to what is happening now. Look outside. Is the world more peaceful since the revolution?"

Oh yeah, the world is worse off without the sadistic ruler.

"I see nothing but death and chaos."

That the empire caused.

"I would like to see the baby."

"Uh, Its asleep," Greef says putting his hand out.

"We all will be quiet. Open the pram," but before he can a stormtrooper whispers something into the imps ear. He stands up, "Don't think me to be rude. I must take this call." He stands up and walks over to the bar. Din carefully takes off his and mine and his cuffs slowly. Greef carefully hands us our blasters.

We look over to see what the imp is going. There's a blast. The imp gets shot and I don't really see anymore before Din is pushing me to the ground to take cover.

Once the shooting stops, we get up quietly running taking cover behind the walls as we peak out the now shot in window.

Outside are six shadow troopers.

An imperial ship pulls up and even more, stormtroopers come out of it.

"Kuiil are you back to the ship yet?" I ask into the comlink.

"Not yet."

"Get back to the ship and bail. Get the kid out of here. We're pinned down."

Out of nowhere a tie fighter lands behind the troopers. The hatch on top opens and out walks Moff Gideon.

"You have something I want," he says. I lean back against the wall not being able to look at him the memories of those imperial ships too strong.

"Who's this guy?" Cara asks.

I know the answer but I can't say his name.

"You may think you have some idea of what you are in possession of, but you do not."

"Kuiil are you back to the ship yet? They're onto us," I say into the comlink but there's no answer.

"In a few moments, it will be mine."

"Kuiil come in. Do you copy!"

"It means more to me than you will ever know."

"Kuiil are you there!?"

Din takes the comlink out of my hands and keeps asking the same questions. But its no use. It's just us now.

-

[falseroar]

Dog Days Part 9: Preparations

((Marvin and Jackie talk about some of the preparations they need to make now that Y/N is in the house.

A little shorter compared to Part 8, but setting up a few things for later.))

Marvin cracked open the door to his room and waited, listening carefully to be sure that the noise had finally died down before venturing out into the hallway. He paused by the bathroom to look in at the wet floor and the damp towels littered everywhere before shuddering and moving on toward the living room.

There he found Jackie struggling to get his soaked hoodie off, the red fabric sticking around his chest and head until he managed to free himself and toss it over the back of the couch with a groan.

“That bad, huh?” Marvin asked.

“Like you couldn’t hear all of that,” Jackie pointed out. “Funny how you suddenly aren’t too busy when it’s all over.”

The magician at least had the decency to look a little bit ashamed, but he was quick to defend himself. “Hey, I’ve been up to my ears in spells today. Adding another room onto the house isn’t exactly easy, even with my notes from last time. Did that prescription stuff from the doctor help any?”

It was the whole point of the bath, after all. The doctors said mixing it with the water would help soothe the werewolf’s burns, although apparently no one considered the logistics of trying to bathe a reluctant and temporarily blind werewolf before the bathroom turned into a water park.

“Maybe? Hard to tell when they can’t say anything, but they seem to be feeling well enough to either sulk or have fallen asleep,” Jackie said, and Marvin followed his gaze to the sliding door, through which they could clearly see the wolf lying on their back in the grass of the backyard, paws up in the air. “And I don’t have a clue what Chase or Jameson are doing with that rake, but at this point I’m afraid to ask.”

From the look of it, neither of the men outside were very clear on what they were doing either, and as Marvin watched Chase broke off their argument by pushing Jameson into a nearby pile of leaves, his laughter cut short when he was dragged down with him in a splash of red, yellow, and brown leaves.

Jackie rubbed his bare arms with a shiver as he watched, and Marvin thought he was about to go and get a dry hoodie from his extensive collection. It was rare to see him without one, and the white t-shirt he had been wearing underneath looked thin. Thin enough to make out the scars on his back and chest, which along with the matching ones on his arms normally went unseen, even if Marvin tried not to look at them too closely.

Instead, Jackie asked, “Were there some new wards among all those spells you were doing?”

“…Yes,” Marvin answered. “Y/N’s room is just as protected as the rest of the house.”

“You know that’s not what I meant.” Jackie looked back at the magician, who reluctantly met his gaze. “Tomorrow night is a full moon.”

“I checked the spell I put on them, and it’s still active. They should be able to control their self without any problems,” Marvin answered. “…But I’ve already talked to Henrik about getting Chase and Jameson out of the house, just in case.”

Jackie nodded. The two of them could handle it on their own if something went wrong, especially if they didn’t have to worry about the others getting hurt. The thought they had to be prepared in case it came to that at all was what bothered Marvin, along with the kind of wards and spells he had been researching all day. It seemed a blessing that the spell he had cast all those years ago was still holding strong, especially when Marvin wasn’t sure what the alternative would have to have been. Or might be.

The magician jumped as a laughing shriek came from the backyard, where the werewolf had suddenly sprung up to go diving into the leaves along with the others.

“Careful, Y/N, the garden’s just a few feet in front of you,” Chase warned. “JJ might have to give you another bath if you crush his petunias!”

“Don’t sign me up for that,” Jameson protested as he sat up, leaves still on his shoulder and stuck in his hair. “Remember, you told me yourself you know all about taking care of dogs, including washing them.”

Chase grimaced, remembering too well what he said before offering to get Y/N into the waiting bath, only to realize that when a wolf didn’t want to go somewhere, they tended to be a bit harder to convince than your average terrier.

“Maybe we can just hose them down in the backyard next time,” Chase suggested, only to get a huff from the wolf.

“How are you feeling, Y/N? Did the medicine help?” Jameson signed and Chase repeated aloud for the wolf’s benefit.

“I think that’s a yes,” Chase said, translating the noise from the wolf’s chest even though the fact they were currently sprawled out on their back, wiggling back and forth on the crinkling leaves like they had just landed in the middle of a soft mattress, was a pretty big hint.

Jameson looked at Chase and signed again.

“Oh. Uh, Jameson wants to know if it’s okay if he pets you?” Chase said, only for Jameson to correct him with a glare. “Sorry, hugs you.”

Y/N rolled over and sat up, their ears alert but otherwise unmoving for a second. Until they stood and moved toward Jameson, who slowly directed them toward himself before pulling them into a hug, his arms wrapped around the wolf and his face pressed up against theirs.

From outside the hug, Chase could see the brief wince from the wolf, their tense stance before they slowly leaned into it. The doctor had said it might take a while for the medicine to really have an effect, but now didn’t seem to be the time to remind Jameson of that, not when he could see the man’s eyes were shut tight and the glimmer near the corners of his eyes. Meanwhile, despite Henrik’s hopes of recovery, the wolf’s eyes were still clouded with silver, unable to read what Jameson wanted to say without help, and as much as Chase was willing to interpret, he knew there were some things that just didn’t sound the same coming from him.

Eventually, Jameson let go and the wolf leaned against his side gingerly, ears moving to follow every rustle of the leaves or caw of the crows watching from the other side of the yard like this was the most interesting thing they’d seen since Jameson tried to make that scarecrow they had promptly adopted as one of their own.

After checking that Chase was okay with translating for him, Jameson started to sign.

“You can come and go to the backyard anytime you want, Y/N.”

“Yeah, I added some ropes to both sides of the sliding door so you can pull it open yourself,” Chase added, having been eager to share that for a while now.

“And Marvin is adding another room to the house for you, if you wish to have your own space,” Jameson said, before adding to Chase, “I hope that is okay.”

“Mi case es su casa or whatever, as long as the roof doesn’t fall in, I think we’re good,” Chase said with a grin. “Honestly, having you guys living here with us has been a big help for me and Jackie. Marvin’s protections are a literal lifesaver, plus the extra paychecks aren’t too bad when Jackie eats like a horse and his…regular work doesn’t really help pay the bills.”

“Ah! I do hope to put on a show soon which might help,” Jameson signed. Thanks to Henrik, they had kind of figured out a wolf would need a lot of food to stay healthy, which they seemed to have been missing out on for a while now. Chase was quick to reassure him that it was okay and not to worry about money right now, so Jameson returned to what he had been saying. “None of the neighbors can see or hear us here, so it is private enough. Marvin has protected the backyard as much as the house with all of his spells, and although he tells me there is nothing to be done about those pesky crows, you should feel just as safe out here as inside.”

Chase suppressed a grin, knowing full well that Marvin loved the birds and was on a secret long-term campaign to befriend them that maybe involved the occasional sacrifice on the part of Jameson’s garden. “Marvin’s added spells to some of the things we carry with us to keep us safe outside of my house, like in my cap or in Jameson’s hipster bowler hat. He can probably add something to that collar if he hasn’t already so you can go out for a walk with one of us if you ever want to.”

A grumble came from the wolf at the reminder of the collar, while Jameson indignantly signed, “It is not hipster, it is vintage! I’ve had that hat since it was new!”

“Then maybe it’s time to update to something new, grandpa,” Chase countered.

The wolf swayed as Jameson lunged forward, their ears following the ensuing wrestling match with a curious and almost fond tilt of their head.

That quickly turned into a yelp of surprise when a stray pile of leaves hit them in the face, followed by the apparent determination to tackle whoever was closest and sit on them until they learned their lesson.

Inside the house, Marvin joked, “Looks like you might need to brush up on your wrestling skills for tomorrow night, just in case.”

Jackie shook his head and went in search of a dry change of clothes, leaving Marvin alone and free to chew on his bottom lip while he thought of a few more books he could check, just in case. Hopefully after tomorrow night, he could prove to Jackie that all of this extra preparation was completely unnecessary. And hopefully by the morning after, he could shake his own bad feelings about all of this and focus on finding out what happened to his friend.

Except he had learned a long time ago to trust his bad feelings. Like the one he felt every time he looked at the wolf, the quiet but hard to shake fear that they could disappear again at any second.

He still hadn’t told the others about how nearly every ward on the house activated the last night when they brought the werewolf home. Thankfully, they all held strong, but a divination spell cast while Jameson and Chase were giving Y/N a tour of the house confirmed that someone out there had been trying to find them.

Someone knew they had left the mirror, probably someone who had a hand in putting them in there in the first place. If that was the case, then Marvin wanted nothing more than to be ready with a tracking spell of his own should they be foolish enough to try again.

Marvin touched the cheek of his cat mask and forced himself to take a breath and calm down. Save the anger for later, when he could do something with it.

((End of Part 9. Thank you for reading!

Link to Part 10: Limited Supply.

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[escritorian]

How to (not) be an Adventurer by Althea Dawnwind Chapter 2 - Role models

All right, so I figure if he’s going to hear all this the first time around, anyway, I may as well keep recording.  Or...asking him to transcribe, I guess.  We talked about it.

While I take no offence to your choice of pronouns, I feel I should remind you I have no gender.

Gotcha.  Sorry.

No need to apologize.

Thanks.  Still sorry.  Wait, so is all this side commentary getting transcribed, too?

Yes.

Lovely.  Perfect.  All right, whatever.  Let’s go.

So there are a bunch of new people at the house.  Most of them are super cool, but one of them’s a total creeper.

Predictably, Julia’s hot into the creeper. (Ugh, her taste) But whatever.  Her romantic graveyard.  Let her dig it.  Besides, I’m sure Galen would never let this guy actually hurt Julia. (If he could actually hurt Julia).  It does make me wonder about why he lets this skeezeball travel with him, though.  I mean, I guess he’s not always the most perceptive, but-

Whatever.  I’m getting off topic.

Can journals be said to have an incorrect topic, properly?

Shush.  Anyway, they were all just here, suddenly, talking about the pact and my plague and my future. I wanted to scream, but I was just so tired and scared. I think I’d have accepted anything that gave me hope at that point.  

Okay. No. Wait. Not anything. They were saying in some alternate past (?), they thought I was about to make a pact with some god of entropy? And honestly, that just sounds bad all around. Like sure, okay, I was pretty sure mine wasn’t one of those cases of spell plague you live through, you know? But some things are just worse than death.

Honestly, I was- am really offended that they thought so little of me. Okay not “they,” really. I barely even know most of them, but Galen…I really though at least he’d have some respect for my integrity. I thought maybe he could see me as more than just the little sister who needs protecting and can’t be trusted to make her own decisions I only even made this pact because everyone seemed so sure it was my best shot. And I- I mean, I wanted to live. Guilty, okay? Who doesn’t?

I felt the same, Althea

Yeah. So… yeah.

It is not wrong to wish or fight for life.

Thanks, Sha- uh, do you have like, a nickname I can use or anything?

Shadhavar is the only name I have ever known.

Wow, that’s…kind of sad. For the record, you can call me Thea. It’s what everyone in the family calls me.

I thank you, Thea.

Ha. Ummm. I was about to say I was smiling, you know, to transcribe it? The idea? Feeling? But, what is it, really? Can you even smile here?

There is no physical form or structure here to demarcate itself into what you call a smile.  The underlying ideas and feelings that cause the smile, however, can be recorded.

Oh. Cool. I mean, no really. Seriously. Cool.  Anyway, what was I saying?

Is this question rhetorical?

Um, yes? I mean it was, but you can- you know.

Those who found me presented you the possibility of a pact.

Yeah, that’s pretty much it, and I said yes.

Do you regret having done so?

Pfff, no. I’m not going to pretend I understand the full implications of having formed a soul bond with an ancient, sentient sword-bridge-focus thing born from both the feywild and the shadowfell? But it’s for serious better than the alternative. I can say that with total confidence right now.

Anyway, most of Galen’s new friends seemed like they really cared for me despite having just met me. It was weird, but also kind of nice? Oh! And Galen’s girlfriend. (!)  Apparently she left after everyone else but flew here the whole way to catch up!

Bad.

Ass.

And they all helped him defeat a death priest (or something) who was after me. I mean, okay. Julia helped. That…doesn’t count for nothing, I guess. I know mom and Nicon have trained her a lot and she’s freelanced a bit without telling mom. But now I have this whole group that seems like they’re sticking around for a bit? And maybe giving me some lessons?

This. Is going. To rule.

I also intend to provide you with instruction regardless of anyone else’s actions.

Really?!

Yes.

That’s…Ioun’s Wisdom, I don’t even know what to say! This is…am I going to cry? Fuck. No. I’m not going to start crying in here. Quick. Help me out.

Focus your mind on a task. You’ve mentioned these friends of your brother, but only just. Describe them.

Y-yeah. *sniff* Okay, yeah.

Breathe deeply and slowly.

Nono, I’m okay. It’s okay. Thanks. I’ve got this. Okay, strong feelings first. Let’s start with that creeper.

So, Creeper Creepzoidington is basically like a broody shadow who shoots everyone dirty looks, and I don’t say he’s a shadow because he’s drow.  Like, that’d be rude and also really inaccurate.  I say it cause this guy loves shadows.  Like, he loooves them - practically lives in them. They’re his home and they keep him safe and warm. Nicon says he’s already stolen from them, and I think the only time I’ve heard him talk was to swear. So yeah, whatever his deal is, I am not training with him.

Then there’s this other drow, Phaedra. I mean, I only point out they’re drow because they’re supposed to be really rare.  Surface elves are, too, but not as much? And I think I’ve only ever seen one of them. And now? Bam. 3 drow. More than I thought I’d ever met in my life, and everyone’s reaction has pretty much been, “Oh, hm! What a perfectly normal occurrence!”  It's just a little bit surprising.

Anyway, Phaedra, she’s about as different from Slimeus Slimeballius as you can get. She’s really elegant and nice. She came by later that night to see how I was doing. I didn’t feel much like talking, so…um…I didn’t, but she was really calm and polite about it. I could tell she knew I wasn’t really fine, but she didn’t press it. She just…did her best to be reassuring then left me alone. I kind of didn’t want her to go, but I appreciate that she did.

And how she moves! I mean, okay, so that probably sounds weird, but you should see her! She’s like floating silk or flowing water. She doesn’t even seem human, sometimes. Well, I mean, she’s not human, but you know what I mean.  She’s just ridiculously graceful, like she’s dancing in slow motion all the time, and my brain wants to learn the secret to it so much it can’t look away. So yeah, her I would totally train with.

Then there’s this younger drow, Tsabura.  (Tsubara?  Someone keeps messing up her name, and it’s really throwing me off.)  I thought she might’ve been be their kid or something, but even without speaking the language, I picked up that was not the case real quick.  She’s super cute but really quiet, and – I mean, I don’t know if the same standards culturally apply (nor am I sure whether or not it’s rude to consider that) - she has such nice skin.  She seriously just glows. Her skin is literally, physically lustrous.  But she’s just so angry.  Like, all the time.  Also?  Really sad.  I hope we can be friends.  I guess that’s a bit random, but it’d be great to have someone to relate to on a different level while on the road (more on that later), and maybe having a friend will help her not be so sad and angry.

It's weird, though. Like, no one’s saying anything about her, but she doesn’t seem like she’s been taking lessons from anyone, and she was pretty much dressed in rags? Mom tried to give her some of my old clothes, but that didn’t go so well. Maybe that’s why she’s in rags. Or maybe it’s a religious thing? Either way, I should probably stop calling them rags. When I tried talking to her, she barely even looked at me.  Honestly, I’m not sure I didn’t just imagine the brief glances she did give me, either.  I just...I want to know why she’s deliberately making herself so distant.  It’s like a mystery my brain needs to solve.

Moving on, there’s this really cheerful gnome named Tielka.  She’s...interesting.  She’s covered in armor and has a sword that drips frost but somehow seems super approachable?  Paradoxically, that makes me kind of nervous to approach her.  She also sounded really smart.  So I guess she’s...what?  A friendly warrior scholar?  I don’t know.  I mean, the image I’d always had of paladins is super stiff and serious, all thees and thous, but this?  It’s a weird vibe.  I mean, she looks like she’s 20, but she’s got this really motherly aura making me unsure if I want to befriend her or make sure she doesn’t catch me at mischief, so she’s got that, “inspiring the best behavior in others” thing down, I guess.

She’s also got a huge dog named Axle with the best leg.  I mean, omigosh, okay.  So his natural leg would’ve been the best leg, of course, but out of potential replacements?  This thing is, literally, divine.  Like, it’s full of clockwork, but it makes almost 0 noise, and it moves with him.  It doesn’t just sit there.  I really want to know how it works.  I mean, I’m guessing the answer will be something like 50% divinity, 40% magic and 10% mechanics, but still.

And then there’s Max.  I’m getting to her last, but she’s easily the biggest personality of the group.  (As befits a bard.)  She’s pretty much the polar opposite of Broody Broodfacerson.  She’s super friendly. She’s always smiling the brightest smile.  She has a siren’s voice and sings all the time.  She has a whole troop of animals who follow her around, all of whom I’m pretty sure she actually talks to.  (I think they’re all named Annie for some reason?)  And she’s so pretty.  Seriously, everything she does is extra charming.  There’s just something about how she moves, how she talks.  Just like, everything she does is so captivating.  There must be some lesson on mannerisms in bard college that teaches you how to keep people’s eyes on you cause there are like hooks on her gestures that grab the brain and don’t let go.  Basically, what I’m saying is she definitely made the right career choice.  Honestly, I wish she were a little quieter, but, well, no one can have everything, you know?

sighs

“You know.”  I have to stop that.

This is your fifth time using that phrase in this entry.

Fuuuck, really?!

Yes. Would you like me to alert you when you use it?

Nooo. I mean- auuugh, Vecna blind it! Yes. Yes, please do.

Very well.

Thanks.  Anyway, moving on...actually, I think that’s about it.

Oh!  And Galen.  But you know about Galen.  Well, I know about Galen, but will you, hypothetical/theoretical mystery future person, know about Galen?  I guess I should talk about Galen.  I mean, honestly, though, it feels like it’s enough to say he’s the best oldest brother anyone could want. Aforementioned rudeness aside, that is.  He’s just, I mean, he’s always giving me his time and teaching me the most interesting things, and he’s smart enough The Academy was too slow for him.  So he just, you know, decided to go adventuring and-

That’s six times.

What?

That you’ve used the phrase, “you know.”

Ugggghhhh.  All right, you know what?  My brain’s clearly tired.  He’s great, and I might end up going adventuring with him, which would be the best.  The end.

…

Sooo, how do I stop...

You can do so in the same manner as you did last time.

Yeah, I’m not really sure what I did last time.

You need simply to “feel” your intent to stop.

Okay, so kind of like-

[phoebehalliwell]

A la Dency taking Chris’ place ask, what if Dency got stranded there… because like her timeline got destroyed or something idk like imagine her getting to live in the main timeline 👀 IMAGINE her meeting Cole in the seven year witch

i love just like. the logistics of her meeting cole. bc let’s say that they’re linked bc they both still have echoes of the source and therefore are tied to each other so she can see him. but she still can’t see piper bc for some reason no one could see piper in this episode. so everyone’s all running around the house trying to save piper trying to save leo when dency just sees this whole grown ass man in her living room in conversation with something she can’t see and she’s like who the hell are you who are you talking to what are you doing in my house and phoebe and paige are like sweetie,, who are you talking to and piper’s like cool cole time to pay penance and act as the messenger so i can explain exactly what’s going on and coles like wait give me a minute who are you and why can you see me and piper’s like wait you don’t know who she is and cole’s like why should i know who she is and dency’s like who are you talking to is that piper can you communicate with piper and phoebe and paige are only getting 1/3 of this conversation like what.. the fuck. what is going on and piper’s like i’ll explain to you who that is if you get my message through to my sisters and cole’s like why should i care who that is and piper’s like i’m sorry i thought you were here to make up for all the evil you’ve done not just be a dick and get on my nerves, now tell her that it’s me piper and cole’s like fine that’s piper and dency’s repeating out loud for phoebe and paige okay piper’s here and piper’s like i’m stuck with cole he’s trying to save my marriage for some reason and cole’s like she’s here with me because i’m trying to save her marriage and make up for the wrong i’ve done and dency’s like this dude is trying to save piper and leo to make up for the wrong he’s done?? and paige and phoebe are like What Guy. and piper’s like don’t answer that tell her what you told me about the psychic shock and cole’s like so if piper moves out of the void between life and death and crosses over, the leo should be able to feel it and it’ll break whatever spell the elders cast on him and dency’s like but then won’t piper be dead and phoebe and paige are like why will piper be dead Who Are You Talking To Right Now and cole’s like look leo will be able to feel her death and he’ll come save her that’s the best option and piper’s like or you guys could find a better alternative and cole’s you can try to find another way but this is your best option and piper’s like that’s not remotely what i said and dency’s like okay so if piper dies it’ll cosmically shock leo and give him back his memories all that, and then he can save piper. unless we come up with a better option and phoebe’s like okay i vote we come up with a better option i’m gonna call darryl and see if he can help us track leo down and cole’s like okay i passed along your message why should i care about that girl and piper’s like bc she’s your daughter and cole almost short circuits and he’s looking at dency and now of course the resemblance is obvious but it still doesn’t make any sense how is she here alive not the source what and dency did not get any of piper’s half of the conversation and now cole’s just looking at her like 😦 and dency’s like hey. i don’t know why you should care about me either. what did piper say. and cole looks like he might actually start crying and the words are getting caught in his throat and dency’s looking at paige whattt the fuck is going on and paige is like what the fuck is going on? and dency’s like i don’t know, i think this dude might start crying? and paige is like what and dency’s like i don’t know and phoebe’s on the phone with darryl not getting any of this and cole’s just like looking at his daughter and yeah lowkey crying and like goes to hug her but his hands just pass through her and dency’s still talking to paige all hushed like he’s trying to hug me?? and paige crumples up a piece of paper and throws it at where she guesses this mystery figure would be standing like hey! who the hell are you! and piper’s like are you gonna introduce yourself? and cole’s crying now and he not sure if he wants to introduce himself bc he’s not sure how she’ll react and he asking piper does she hate me? and dency’s like i don’t know you!! but now the gears are turning in her head bc clearly she should know this man and piper’s like she might have some issues, yeah, but wouldn’t you want her to know and dency’s like paige help me out skinny white guy, six foot something, late thirties early forties dark hair green eyes and cole’s just like my name is cole right as paige goes cole??!?!? and phoebe from the kitchen is like COLE!?!?!? and dency just straight up doesn’t react bc like. that’s her dad. that’s her dad and the former source of all evil and a man she swore she hated just like in front of her trapped in the cosmic plane between life and death crying because he met her and also trying to save piper and leo’s marriage like what. what. what is she supposed to do with that. what is she supposed to say. hi dad. i hate you for making me who i am and i hate you for everything you did to mom it’s nice to meet you sorry you’re crying i turned out pretty okay thanks for trying to save piper and leo. does that cover everything? and meanwhile paige and phoebe are having a mini breakdown in the corner like where are you! we don’t trust you you’re trying to kill piper again leave us alone! and cole’s sitting on the couch crying and piper’s like okay i gotta deal with this so she just goes up to phoebe and places her hand on her hand and phoebe starts and we hear empath chimes and paige is like what what’s going on and phoebe’s like it’s piper. i can feel piper. and piper looks at cole and cole’s just like 😢 and piper nods her head at him like get up here and cole like stands up and moves to piper like uhhhhhh what do you want me to do and dency’s looking at him like What Is He Going To Do and piper’s like take her hand, cole and so cole like gently touches phoebe and phoebe starts and she’s like cole and paige balls up another piece of paper ready to throw it again and tears sorta prick at phoebe’s eyes and she just smiles and nods a little and dency sees cole back away and then like fade into the great cosmic void and piper’s like hey what about spirit guiding me and no one can here her but phoebe just looks pointedly like don’t worry piper. we’ll get leo back. and piper’s watching phoebe stare dramatically in the wrong direction and she’s like thanks. also i’m over here.

[amelink66world]

Love of my Life

Heyy Guys!! This is my first time writing a fanfiction and I'm really nervous. But I'm so excited to share my version of AmeLink with y'all. I hope you like it. The story will solely revolve around AmeLink cause why not?! ;)

               Many of the plot lines coincide with the show but I've changed some of them. The first chapter will be up by tomorrow so until then!!

Alternative Pain Relief

It was too much for Amelia to stay in Seattle. She had just lost Betty and came to know that Teddy was in fact pregnant with the father being none other than Owen. On top of that Owen said some pretty hurtful things at the lawyer's office when they went to sign Leo's adoption papers. She couldn't even comprehend that such a thing could come out of the mouth of the man who she considered to be the love of her life. There is some fundamental part of you that is incapable of love or being loved. It caused her too much heartache. She needed a change of pace for a few days.

   

    So here she was in San Diego attending The Western States' Conference for Alternative Pain Relief. She could really use some pain relief right now and drugs were not an option! She wanted some change. She even cut her long brown tresses. Her hair was really short now, it ended just a few inches above her shoulders. She asked Bailey for a few days off, packed her bags and flew to San Diego as soon as she heard about the conference. She thought she kind of looked sexy in pant suit and earrings. She generally doesn't dress up but she she wanted to feel good today. Currently Amelia with a list of the sessions she was interested to attend was trying to find where the line to register her name was.

Amelia's PoV :

My God, there are so many sessions I can attend! Now which shall I attend first? The next generation NSAIDS panel sounds appealing. Now where is the registration line?! I never thought so many people attended these conferences. Finally giving up on my search I tap the shoulder of a tall, muscular man in a grey suit in hopes of asking where the freaking line was!

" Excuse me, is this the line...Heyy!!..", I trail off as soon as the person I asked turned and revealed his face. It was Link !! What is he doing here ?! My life is so damn awesome! The one person I was trying to avoid in the hospital apart from Owen is here !!

" Heeyy!! What are you doing here??", Link says while chuckling. There is shock evident on his face. Both of us didn't imagine running into each other here.

I forgot I had to speak. Recovering from my shock I scramble for words. " Uhhh..." I look here and there to say something and the banner of the conference comes into view. Finally finding my voice, I say pointing to the banner, " Like the banner says Western States' Conference for Alternative Pain Relief".

" I didn't know you were into this stuff", says Link.

" Yeah I'm not. I mean...I'm interested ever since that day of the mass overdose." Ughh why did I have to mention that day?! Stupid.

Link's expression changes to that of understanding.

"Yeah tough day" , he says with sadness.

" Yes. I cried at you...convulsively. You might recall?"

" I haven't seen you around much since then", Link says with creases on his forehead asking a silent question.

" Yeah that was intentional. It's hard to know where to go after that" He understands and chuckles. I can't help but chuckle along with him. Changing the subject I finally ask him why he is here." Anyway I'm newly into this stuff. How about you?"

"Uh I do like three of these a year. I'm giving um... a lecture." , he says sheepishly.

"WOW!!" I'm shocked. I can't help but stare at his face while he speaks. This is the first time I'm seeing him in something other than scrubs. I can say that he is definitely not hard on the eyes!! The fact that he gives a lecture on this stuff does not help either. I suddenly feel the same Pants Feelings I felt when I first saw him walking around the hospital with that funny looking robotics arm. " When is that?"

" Tomorow. But right now I was gonna hit up this acupuncture demo. Interested? " Again I catch myself staring.  FOCUS!!

" Well I'm headed to this next generation NSAIDS panel. No. But you know what? I think I'd rather get poked." Wait. That sounded wrong. I hurriedly add, "...with needles." I catch a gleam in his eyes. I sigh, "Nevermind. I'm gonna keep avoiding you. Have a nice time". And I take off when I hear him laughing. Stupid stupid stupid. Why couldn't I just keep my mouth shut? I just had to make a fool of myself. Ughh. I look above silently asking God why didn't He give me a filter? I whisper " Oh my God " 

I completely miss Link laughing and the playful look on his face after my ramble when he turned to look at my retreating form.

1 hour later :

Amelia is seriously thinking why she didn't just accompany Link. The NSAIDS panel was so damn boring. She is now headed to something called Sound Bathing.

         A woman leads her to a dark room with numerous makeshift beds on the floor. There were numerous people on the beds. She saw a woman in a white dress sitting in front of what appeared to be a giant instrument. She occupied the bed closest to her. As soon as she turned her head to see the person next to her, she was left speechless again. There he was! In his perfect physique and perfect clothes lying right next to her !! ' Seems like the Gods are not in my favour today! ', she thought.

" Oh. Huh. Okay. Well hello again", she says with a nervous chuckle.

Link turned her way. He really seemed to enjoy her nervousness and asked her all the while chuckling,  " You want me to move?"

" No! No of course not."  Thank God. Link didn't want to move either. He was actually enjoying Amelia's company.

Link closed his eyes and laid back down. She couldn't help but ask after a few awkward seconds. " So what does this do? "

" The frequencies respond to the energy meridians and resonate..." She doesn't let him finish and interrupts him whilst chuckling nervously, " Oh okay. Energy meridians. Oh my God. " She lays back down. He lays down too but says, " You're not supposed to talk"

She laughs and says, " Yeah I'm not supposed to be here." She gets up halfway when suddenly the woman in the white dress starts playing the instrument. Amelia lays back down hearing the sound. It piques her interest. Link slightly smiles and stares at her face for a few seconds thanking God that she decided to stay. He really was liking her company!

After the Sound Bath :

Amelia finally is comfortable around Link.

" Can I walk you back to your room? ", Link asks hoping she'd say yes. He didn't want to say goodbye to her yet.

" Yeah why not", she says with a smile. Link just stares at her smiling face for a few seconds and nods. They reach her floor. All the while Amelia felt a bit wobbly on her feet. They were making small talk when she suddenly asks, " Did that make you dizzy? Like loopy?" Still wobbly on her feet.

Link looks at her antics and answers while shrugging, " No. It just kinda chilled me out."

With a hint of playfulness, Amelia says, " I feel like I need a meeting. Ooofff. Hey could we sit for a second Link?"

" Yeah. Yeah sure. Let me just find a place..." Link immediately begins searching for a chair or a place for her to sit and trails off when he suddenly finds her sitting right there on the floor with the wall supporting her. He just stands there for a second looking at her. After a few moments he joins her on the floor with the wall behind him supporting their backs. He waits for her to speak.

" Sorry I'm falling apart here."

" No need to apologize", he smiles.

She looks content. Even Amelia doesn't know what prompted her to open up to Link. Was it his warm eyes or welcoming smile or just his calm personality, she didn't know. She told him everything about Betty. How she was an addict and she took her in to help her. She got emotionally attached to her but then her parents came back and she had to say goodbye to her. She told him she missed her and worried about her still. All the while Link was patiently and attentively listening to her.

She thought Link is judging her when he said..." You sound like a...". She yet again interrupted him and completed his sentence for him with a silent question, " A mess? "

"No! A parent. "  His answer shocked her and she turned her face to look at him properly. There was a level of softness in his eyes and a knowing and warm smile on his face while he was telling her about his mother worrying about him when he went to college just like Amelia is worrying about Betty.

They continue staring at each other. Amelia's gaze travels to his entire face. Link is observing her looking at him. Suddenly she says, " My God. You are just chiseled." This makes Link laugh loudly. She continues, " ...like a statue. It's like your chin has muscles." She leans slightly forward to stare at his chin properly. Link is chuckling and playfully says, " Well I do work out my chin pretty hard. It takes a whole day!" It makes her laugh.

Suddenly they feel like a spell has been cast on them and they can't look away from each other. They continue staring at each other and feel themselves inching closer. When their lips are just slightly away from each other, Amelia turns her head. Link is slightly disappointed that he didn't get to kiss her beautiful mouth. Amelia is a bit nervous and says with a soft smile on her face, " I should go to my room."

" And I should go..." Link trails off looking at her expectantly hoping Amelia would say what he wants her to say. Instead she says with a knowing smile on her face, "...to your room"

Link is disappointed but understands. They both get up from the floor. " You have a presentation tomorrow and I am not fit for human contact. " She hopes he would understand though she herself is not that happy with her decision but she knows it is the right one.

"See you in the morning?", he asks hopefully.

"Yeah. Goodnight.", she smiles.

" Night." He looks at her retreating form longingly for a few long moments. She turns and they share an eye contact briefly and they both turn heading their separate ways.

They keep running into each other both intentionally and unintentionally and engage in heavy flirting for the rest of the conference. They just can't help themselves as they are obviously very attracted to each other. Soon it is time for Link's speech. Her presence brings a smile to his face and stops for a second to admire her. When he continues with his speech, he knows many will be hurt with his course of treatment but continues anyway. Midway he finds Amelia leaving as she is obviously offended. He is highly disheartened as she didn't get to hear the good part before judging him.

He goes back to her room after his lecture in the hope of redeeming himself. He knocks on her door and moments later comes face to face with her. She is initially very rude to him and accused him of failing and costing a child his life. Link is hurt and tells her the rest of the story how he left medicine for a year and is now back and trying to do everything he can to fix the system.

"...maybe we can fight this thing together like Batman and...Batman." This seems to do the trick and her gaze finally softens. She smiles and takes a step towards him. " Okay "

" So you're not mad at me anymore? 'Cause it looked like you wanted go hit me for a second ", he says this sheepishly.

" I've got a bit of a hair trigger which can be scary." She smiles and apologizes for her behaviour. " I'm sorry. I've been in a weird place these days."

" I can roll with weird ", he flirts. He doesn't want to part with her yet and asks her out to dinner. He notices her eyes glazing over when she steps closer and says " Yes". But soon denies and kisses him full on the lips.

Link is astonished for a second. He feels that electrifying spark between them in that kiss that jolts through his entire body. He hungrily kisses her back. He wraps his arms around her waist and brings her body closer to his. He had been wanting to do that since the minute he saw her rambling the day before.

Amelia doesn't know what came over her. She just knew that she wanted to kiss him. No. She had to kiss him. She needed to kiss him. She wraps her arms around his neck when she feels him pulling her body closer to his by grabbing her slim waist.

He slides his hand up her back eliciting a moan from her all the while kissing her desperately when she feels him pulling back slightly. She stares at him questioningly and prays that he doesn't back out. She really needed him close to her. He rests his forehead against hers briefly before answering.

" I feel like I'm taking advantage ",he says with his eyes downcast.

" Why? "

" Because you're in a place and I think you're insanely pretty." This seals the deal. Now she knows that she isn't doing anything wrong.

" The feeling is mutual" , she smiles her charming smile. His eyes glaze over and he stares at her mouth hungrily when she moves her hands from around his neck and starts unbuttoning his coat and removes it. It drops on the floor when he leans down and captures her parted lips. He kisses her hungrily and brings her body even closer to his if that is possible, all the while Amelia was hurriedly unbuttoning his shirt.

She lets go of his shirt and wraps her hands around his neck again when her pulls her closer. They kiss vigorously when she pulls back. She just had to say this one thing. It is now Link's turn to look at her questioningly. Amelia doesn't want complicated now. She is done with messy.

" This isn't going anywhere. It's just alternative pain relief. "

" I could use some of that ", he says with a sultry smile.

Link leans in and bites her lower lip. They start kissing as if their life depended on it. He slowly starts backing her up towards the bed. She now pushes his shirt over his shoulders and it slides down. Link picks her petite body up in his muscular arms and lowers them on the bed never breaking their kiss. He pins her small body on the bed with his big bulky one and moves down to her neck eliciting a moan from her.

Their aerobic alternative pain relief continued till the  wee hours of the morning until both of them tired each other out and succumbed to blissful sleep in each other's arms. Both had content smiles on their faces excited for the future and the experiences that behold them.

Author's Notes:

Hey guys!! So this was the end of the first chapter. I remember that I said I'll post it tomorrow but I just couldn't wait!!! It's a bit long and I hope you really like it. Please share your thoughts in the comments!! I'd really like to know whether I should continue this story or not. The next chapter will be up in a few days. I just have so many ideas for AmeLink! Can't wait ;)

[jokertrap-ran]

[Gakuen K] Kusanagi Izumo Route: Polar opposite powers Translation

*Translator’s note : MC’s name shall remain as my normal (水嶋ラン) *Gakuen K Masterlist *Spoiler FREE : Translations under cut !

Izumo: ...Huh?

Ran: What’s wrong, Kusanagi-san?

Izumo: What~ The stove’s not doin’ too peachy today. The fire’s not comin’ on at all.

Totsuka: Oh, I’ll light it up for you then.

Izumo: You will?

Totsuka: I’m no good in a fight, but something like this is easily within my abilities. Besides, I want her to see.

Izumo: ...What. So you just wanna’ look cool.

Totsuka: It’s fine, isn’t it? Watch closely then.

Ran: Right!

Izumo: Whatever floats your boat, but make it quick.

Totsuka: Okaay. Here!

Ran: (Fire just erupted from his outstretched finger…)

Izumo: Thanks. I can finally carry out my preparations with this.

Totsuka: Kusanagi-san? I want to eat some omu-rice.

Izumo: This place ain’t an eatery, ya’ hear!? But well, I suppose that’s fine since you did start the fire up for me.

»» ━━━━━━━ ∘◦♔◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ««

Ran: Totsuka-senpai.

Totsuka: Hm? What’s up? Want to sit beside me?

Ran: Oh, okay. Don’t mind if I do.

Ran: The flames you made earlier were really awesome!

Totsuka: You think so? I’m glad to hear that. You see, I can’t produce large flames like Kusanagi-san and King.

Totsuka: I can manage something like a fireball if I try hard enough, but it’s physically draining for me to do so.

Totsuka: I wonder if you’re the same?

Ran: Me?

Totsuka: Yup. You didn’t quite receive the fire-controlling powers that’s basically the “bonus” one would get after entering this Club yet, but I can’t help but to wonder what form it’ll take if you did.

Ran: I think it’d be weak, considering how I can’t even control the powers that I naturally had.

Ran: It’d be great if I could freely use my powers like you can.

Ran: How do you summon up your power?

Totsuka: Me? I imagine it, I guess. I visualise it in my head and focus on my hand.

Ran: Imagine…

Totsuka: For example, I lit the stove up earlier by imagining that the fire was already on.

Izumo: Ya’ Omlette Rice’s done~

Totsuka: Yay~! Thank you for the meal!

Izumo: And here’s a Straight Tea for you. Feel free to add as much sugar and milk as you’d like.

Ran: Thank you!

Totsuka: About your power, how about you try manifesting it using the same method as me?

Ran: You mean, by visualising it?

Totsuka: Yup. All you have to do is to try it, right?

Ran: That’s true. I’ll try my hand at it!

Ran: (Focus on my hand and visualise it...)

Ran: (How should I even be imagining it to be...?)

Misaki: KamamotooOOO!!

Ran: --”Kamamoto”!?

Izumo: Yata-chan, you’re bein’ way too loud. Lower your volume.

Misaki: Ah, sorry about that. Have you seen Kamamoto?

Izumo: No, I haven’t. Ain’t he with you?

»» ━━━━━━━ ∘◦♔◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ««

Ran: Ugh, my finger’s tingling.

Totsuka: What’s wrong? Are you hurt?

Ran: No, I’m quite alright...Probably.

Ran: (My finger heated up...but nothing’s coming out.)

Ran: (I guess it’s also a good thing that nothing happened? I couldn’t help the image of Kamamoto-kun popping into my head after Yata-kun yelled for him...)

Ran: (If flames really did erupt from my fingertips, they might have actually taken the shape of a Kamamoto.)

Totsuka: From the looks of things, I guess my method isn’t an effective way for you to draw out your powers.

Ran: It appears so...Hmm…

Izumo: How ‘bout you go about it in the way one casts a spell?

Ran: A spell?

Izumo: Yup. It’s pretty common, don’t ‘cha think? That whole “Tweedly, Twaddly, do-!” kinda’ thing?

Totsuka: ...Kusanagi-san, what on earth is that?

Izumo: It’s a spell; a spell, I say!

Totsuka: I can kinda’ feel a generation gap between us…

Izumo: Attachin’ words to the power you’re trying to draw out; I’d say there’s some meanin’ to doin’ it at least.

Izumo: What the chant consists of doesn’t actually matter. Unless, well...It’s a different story if Totsuka’s going to be givin’ ya’ and alternative.

Totsuka: Uh, I guess...How about you try the while “Tweedly, Twaddly, do-!” thing first?

Ran: Got it; I’ll try!

Ran: (It’s a little embarrassing but I’ll still try it!)

Ran: “Tweedly, Twaddly, do-!!”

Totsuka: ……

Izumo: ……

Ran: ...Hmm, nothing’s really ha-

Izumo: Wha-!?

»» ━━━━━━━ ∘◦♔◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ««

Ran: A-Are you okay, Kusanagi-san!?

Totsuka: Kusanagi-san; it’s only Spring. Won’t you say it’s still too early to be playing around with water?

Izumo: As if I intended to do so! This must be…

Ran: ...It’s my ability’s fault after all, isn’t it…

Totsuka: Based on the timing, I suppose so.

Totsuka: The power to drench Kusanagi-san! I approve!!

Izumo: It just so happened to be directed at me, so it the target ain’t fixed or anythin’!

Totsuka: Really? How about we try it one more ti-

Izumo: No that’s-! That’s quite alright! It’s terrifying enough thinking about the what ifs...Achoo! I should hurry and find a towel before I actually catch a cold from this.

»» ━━━━━━━ ∘◦♔◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ««

Ran: I did something bad to him…

Totsuka: It’s fine, all’s well! It was inevitable, after all.

Totsuka: I guess it’s safe to say that the powers you have are of the water-affinity.

Ran: Doesn’t my power cause an imbalance? I mean, everyone’s wielding fire powers and all, and here I am...with water…

Izumo: Don’t think so much ‘about the odds and ends, you’ll never see the end of it so it’s a complete waste of time.

Ran: Kusanagi-san!

Izumo: You’re here because Mikoto has adknowledged you as one of us. Therefore, you’re a true, pure and proven member of the Red Club.

Izumo: ‘Sides, this isn’t the first time you’ve come to the realization that you’re different from the rest of the guys here, right?

Ran: Kusanagi-san…

Totsuka: Kusanagi-san’s so cool!!

Izumo: I know, right?

Totsuka: You’re a little un-cool with your clothes being as wet as they are, though.

Izumo: You’re so annoyin’, ya’ lil’ prick! Leave it be!

Ran: (It’s kind of surprising that a simple chant was all it took to summon my powers, but at least now I know that I can consciously use it.)

Ran: Thank you. I’ve finally begun to understand a little of my own powers thanks to the both of you.

Ran: It’s really just a little, but I’m glad I’m now a step closer to being able to control it!

Izumo: That’s right. You can just take your time and proceed on step-by-step. Take as long as you need to make it into somethin’ of your own.

Izumo: You’ll gain experience if you continue on like this, one step at a time, and you’ll be able to fully control your powers one day. I guarantee it.

Ran: Haha, thank you.

Ran: (My water powers...I really hope I can get to finally control this ability of mine one day just like he says...)

Ran: (It would be great if I could.)

»» ━━━━━━━ ∘◦♔◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ««

Next Scene: Student Days