#teddy and teagan

[closingwaters]

TIMING: Today, Afternoon

PARTIES: @eldritchaccident @closingwaters

SUMMARY: On the way to try to get some treats to the Wormmates, Teagan runs into Teddy and they set out to finish the bridges together. It's a gooey mess.

WARNINGS: None

It was ominous, walking around town and seeing the petrified faces of people frozen in time. Their last moments forever etched onto their visage for all to see. It made Teagan bristle, the eerie energy causing a sharp, cold shiver down her spine. Perhaps venturing out to get a pumpkin treat wasn’t the best idea, but being cooped up in the cabin with not even the ability to see Wynne or Arden was beginning to drive the nix mad. The video calls helped, if only a little, to quash the discomfort that came with the creeping loneliness.

“Okay…” Teagan sighed, eyes widening and her mind growing alert at the sound of something skittering about in the darkness of the alley by the building she was trying to get to. Another shiver crawled beneath her skin, and she quickly made her way into the shop to make her mission quick. She was happy to find that there wasn’t much of anyone around, making quick work of buying everything that looked tasty. Which was to say, Teagan bought one of almost everything. 

She figured if she could get to Wynne and Arden’s apartment, they’d be happy to have a new snack, so she left the business quickly and got her driver to get as close to the goo as he could. Teagan was disappointed to find out that he couldn’t get very close at all. She was left blocks away from her destination, and now that skittering sound was behind her. 

Looking around, nothing seemed out of place. Just more buildings and a few passerby, but there was one who caught her attention. They looked like they were on a mission, heading straight toward…a fire escape? Teagan made her way to them and tapped their shoulder, giving them a quizzical look. “Excuse me, what are you doing? Are you trying to get into Worm Row?”

The conversation online with Emilio had been light, jokey, jovial. A bit more “I plan to prove you wrong” than the actual “I’m fucking terrified that anything would happen to you, Wynne, or Arden” that it was. Teddy abandoned all research almost immediately. The ritual was not a fixed point. It would happen whenever it would happen and Teddy would die and it would be fine because the world didn’t need people like them. It needed people like Emilio who could actually help save people. It needed the kindness of people like Wynne. It needed the hardheaded curiosity of people like Arden. 

The car (finally retrieved after weeks of avoiding the place where they were duped and subsequently had a brand new part of themself chopped off) was puttering along with the weight of the beams and boards. Comically sticking out the front right and back left window of the little yellow volkswagen beetle, they added yet another challenge to the road. Avoiding the large puddles of goo, avoiding the people who had been petrified by… touching it? It was hard to say what they were doing, only that their frozen faces made for an incredibly eerie sight. 

Ted had to stop a few blocks away, and had already made a few trips up and down with the lumber after finding a fire escape that wasn’t coated in the viscous substance.They weren’t expecting to find anyone else here, and certainly weren’t expecting anyone so… calm? The blonde was a little shorter than them, looked a little spooked, but more confused than anything. 

“Ah– yeah” There voice was still pretty raw and ragged. They hadn’t actually spoken to anyone out loud since the incident with the stranger. Void below, they knew they weren’t talking to Levi. Too scared to make the disappointment greater, or to somehow make a bigger mess. Getting in their own head about it. The tail was the same. Why tell anyone when it was their mistake? Their fault. Most thirty-five year olds know not to get into cars with strangers. Not Teddy. 

“Few of my friends are trapped in an apartment.” They continued, eyes flicking between the bright spot of yellow just a few yards behind the woman. “I’m building a way to get them out.” 

Teagan’s curiosity was piqued, a wave of sympathy also washing over her features once she registered how tired the stranger looked. Perhaps she could help them conquer their mission while subsequently doing the same for her own. The more hands they had, the better. At least, that’s what Teagan thought.

“I…” She trailed off, the skittering distracting her once again. What in Fates was that? Couldn’t be a hunter, could it? No, that wasn’t it. Rolling her shoulders, Teagan refocused, blinking the paranoia away. “Well, I-Sorry. Bit distracted, I guess.” She took a deep breath, shifting the bags of treats around from one arm to the next. “I also have some friends stuck in an apartment. My girlfriend and her roommates.” Raising the treats, she presented what she wanted to deliver. “Wanted to try and get to them so they could have some treats to pass the time.” 

Skitter…patter, patter…screech!

There was that noise again, only it was accompanied by others far more eerie. Teagan tried her best to keep her composure, moving on from the sounds quickly. “I’m Teagan, by the way. My people are in that apartment over there.” She pointed, "The one with the bricks missing at the top.”

Teddy was far too focused on their task and distracted by the woman (and her melodious accent) to notice the skittering. There had been noises all over during these treks. But nothing had come close enough to warrant a second glance. The rescue mission was far too important. The same one, apparently, that she was on. “Teagan!” Their expression brightened. “You are in luck my new friend cause that’s right where I’m headed to.” A wry laugh escaped the demon as they visibly relaxed. For some reason, the idea of having two sets of hands and two pairs of eyes trying to engineer their way across made the whole thing a lot easier. Hell, even just having someone there to talk to while they did it would make it better. 

“I’m Teddy. Trying to un-stick two of the nicest people I know and one of the grumpiest, but still the best.” A compliment added, as if the sullen slayer was going to somehow hear the joke, and choose to stay behind. Sounded like something he might do honestly. Spite worked overtime for Emilio Cortez. “Who are your friends? What apartment in there? Don’t tell me it’s Jeff. No offense if it is but that guy is the worst.” They met the man like once, and it was not pleasant. 

“Well it’s a pleasure to meet you, Teddy.” A grin spread across her face and she tucked her hair behind her ear. Their energy was welcomed, a bright and warm thing. Teagan couldn’t believe her luck that they both had the same destination. “So I’m guessing those boards are to make some sort of bridge then, eh?” She chuckled, a bit hopeful. With two people working on such an endeavor, the task would surely be done that much quicker.

“My friends are definitely not Jeff. Besides, I’m a lesbian. Would not have a man to save.” She scrunched her nose playfully, placing the bags of treats on the sidewalk. The chittering was much easier to ignore then. “My girlfriend is Arden, and her roommate that I know is Wynne. Don’t know the new additions. My focus is really those two.” Teagan shrugged, turning back to Teddy with her hands on her hips. “So,” She walked up to them, eyeing the boards. “Ya gonna let me help or what?”

"That's reductive, lesbians can be friends with guys." Teddy replied with an obvious grin on their face and a laugh in their heart, as they extended a hand towards Teagan. "And yes, bridge making. Got the first bridge to that building up and secured. Almost got all the materials up and over to get to their place." The demon paused for a second, gleefully balked, and began to bounce in place. Their hands joined, excitedly dancing because they just couldn't keep them still. Just absolutely incredulous at the sheer luck that they'd run into someone trying to get to the same people. 

"Yeah!! Wynne and Arden!!" They were practically jumping up and down by that point. Giddy and filled with an energy they'd been lacking the last few weeks. Teddy motioned for Teagan to follow and grab the last load of lumber from the car. "And my bud Emilio too, but man. Small world. Or town I guess. I'm hella happy to have a hand. You have no idea how many screws I lost to the goo trying to hold them, the boards, and the drill all at the same time." 

Teagan snorted, shaking her head and covering her face with faux bashfulness. It quickly turned into glee that matched her new friend’s, the two of them bouncing as realization took them both. They were like kids who’d had too much candy, kindred spirits feeding into one another despite the way acid began to build and ache in Teagan’s throat at the mention of Emilio. Arden and him were friends, and it was just the way it was. She’d tolerate him if it made her happy. It’s not like she had to speak to him to help save him anyway.

Quickly following Teddy, the nix put the muscles she had been refining with Andy to use. Balance was getting easier to manage, and in a matter of two hours, the pair had created sturdy paths. There was just a small stretch left, but Teagan needed a moment before they continued. 

“Need a short break. Getting hard to keep my eyes open.”  She laid on the ground and attempted to slow her labored breathing from all the work. Teagan’s sleep hadn’t been the best since having Arden in her bed wasn’t an option, and it didn’t feel right to use the quilt while her partner suffered. “I won’t be long. Once I’m good, I’ll grab the treats and we’ll make our way to victory.” She offered Teddy a tired grin, looking up at them a moment before she closed her eyes to rest. It was supposed to be for just a minute or two, but before Teagan knew it, sleep overcame her, glamour falling completely.

Well that was a little unexpected. Not completely, not in a town like Wicked's Rest, but the… well she must have been a nix or a nereid right? She was so exhausted that she conked right out. In a way, Teddy felt a swell of pride that Teagan felt comfortable enough to do that in front of them. Unless it had been unintentional, the actually sleeping part. Taking a quick breather and taking a nap were two very different things. Ted had to admit, they were feeling the adrenaline begin to wane. They still hadn't recovered from the mines, or the incident with the—

Shit. 

Teagan's tail! 

It was sliced not too differently from Teddy's own. The demon removed their cherry red glasses, dropping the illusion that they were human too. Blue skin, bright teal eyes, sharpened canines. Their more aquatic features were unfortunately hidden beneath their shirt and shoes, but the webbing between their fingers was enough to show the kinship. Part of them wanted to wake the sleeping fae and ask her all about it, what she remembered, how did she get away? But it was clear she was exhausted, they were too. But goddamn how many similarities did they share with this lady? Using all the patience at their disposal, Teddy waited. Sitting beside her protectively as the minutes passed. 

The nap was dreamless, thankfully, and when Teagan finally woke up, she jolted up. She immediately glamoured herself, goosebumps raised at the way she stupidly fell asleep. For all she knew, Teddy was human, and she very well could have put herself in danger. “Teddy?” She looked all around herself, eyes landing on something else. No, it was someone else.

A toothy grin began to spread across the nix’s face, realizing that many of Teddy’s more human features reflected in their new ones. They were beautiful, absolutely magnificent, and Teagan couldn’t help but pounce forward to tackle them into a hug. “I’ve never seen someone quite like you! Dear me, you are gorgeous!” She kissed their cheek, nuzzling into them while she let her glamour fall again as if she’d known them for years. 

“What are ya? Can’t be fae. Don’t sense you.” Scanning Teddy, her smile grew further, heterochromic eyes gleaming. Maybe they weren’t a nereid or nix, but the webbed hands and texture of their skin was enough to scream that they were a child of water. “Oh this is a cause for celebration, isn’t it?! We can-we can save our people and then-and then—” Teagan was far too giddy to finish her thoughts for a few beats, squealing with excitement before gasping with an idea. “We can get the treats and come back up to gather our strength with some food and conversation! Yes! Magnificent! What say you, darling?” 

A joyous laughter echoed through the alleyway, muffled only by the leagues of goo that lurked around the corners. Teddy hadn’t expected quite that reaction either but it was welcome. Few people expressed their bliss so vividly, and Teagan was technicolor. “There ain’t anyone else like me in the whole ‘verse.” The demon returned her affection by wrapping long gangly arms around her, rustling her hair like she was a kid sister or something before bonking against her forehead slightly. 

“Don’t meet too many nixies or nereids on land. You can absolutely smack me for this but I genuinely can’t remember which axolotls are from. That’s what you– Fresh or salt I mean. They’re like salamanders right? So probably freshwater but–” Teddy was jabbering, making a bit of a fool of themself. But when weren’t they? Couldn’t help that they were just overflowing with excitement. Only magnified by the exuberance on display. “Ah I mean, you’re the expert, clearly just look at you!” She was beautiful. It took a hell of a lot of restraint to not want to run off and go find somewhere to swim together. 

Ah, but… Well that brought back an unfortunate realization. Teddy’s expression soured, combined with the second question and the unavoidable response if they wanted to give her the truth. Which they did. She deserved that. But not even Arden knew about Ted’s probability of untimely demise. It felt too heavy a thing to place on an already full plate. “The answer is a long story, and might be ending soon anyway. But don’t you worry about that. We have lovely people to save and treats to deliver.” There was a pause, and Teddy’s attention flicked away again. Maybe it was an excuse to change the subject, or maybe it was curiosity peaking once they saw the blunt cut on Teagan’s tail from a different angle. 

“That wasn’t an accident, was it?” It was the first of their statements that sounded sure. Sounded like they knew something else, the context without knowing her or what happened to her. “I thought I was the only one– I–” Teddy offered something of a sympathetic smile. “We can talk about it later though, you’re right. We should save our people first.” 

Teagan snorted, shaking her head and connected her forehead to Teddy’s. “Oh, you’re so lovely that I’m gonna let that slide.” When she pulled away, she offered another smile, “I protect freshwater bodies, so we’re clear. And yes, like salamanders, indeed.” Rolling her lips over her teeth, Teagan licked her lips and continued to smile, watching the way Teddy met her with the same level of noise. It truly was as she thought; water, salt or not, was all connected. Her new friend didn’t need to be fae to be kin. But her smile quickly faltered at the mention of her tail, and Teagan looked down to avoid Teddy’s gaze. 

“Aye.” She sighed shakily, “Not an…not an accident.” The image of the hunter crashed through her mind, and Teagan wrung her fingers together to deal with the overwhelming anxiety that began to eat at her body. When Teddy continued, cementing themself further as her kin, Teagan let out a choked sob, trying her best to hold back the tears. And they were right. They could talk about it later. With people to save, conversation mattered very little. “Right. Let’s, um…let’s grab the bag of treats and then finish up. Been seeing people eye the bag anyway.” She smiled wanly, cupping Teddy’s face briefly before turning and heading back to the road. Luckily, the bag was still untouched despite how much time it had been left alone.

“All right…” Teagan picked up the bag, eyes still misty and red from her sorrow threatening to rush out. She hoped her smile was enough to show that she was trying to move past it. “The treats are—” Skitter, skitter! There was that sound again. “Did you hear that?” The nix’s head whipped around, finding nothing moving about. Nothing. Nothing that could cause that sound. She shuddered, wanting to leave. The goo was making her uncomfortable, probably getting to her, she thought. “Forget it. I-um…yeah! Treats. Let’s g—” Screeeeech!

“What fuck is…!” A gooey creature latched onto the fae, causing her to stumble back. She caught her footing enough to not fall into the goo, much to her relief. “Twll dy din!” Speaking in her native tongue, Teagan attempted to get the claws off of her, but the creature persisted, forcing her to scramble about and drop the treats. Its legs dug into her body, finding painful purchase in her flesh. She winced and tugged, frantic to get the thing off of her as she noticed it’s goo hardening on her skin. “Teddy! I—” With one more attack to her face, Teagan fell backwards, landing herself in a pool of goo and sending the creature somewhere else. Fear overcame her, and she stood quickly only to realize that her entire body, even her face had been covered. She was lucky that the hand that once carried the treats had remained untouched, and she quickly reached out for Teddy. 

“Teddy, it’s hardening. I can’t move my legs.” Her voice remained oddly calm, but her body betrayed her. It trembled, continuing to tug, to fight for survival. After all, that’s what Teagan did. She survived. But maybe, she wondered, maybe that was the ending she was always meant to have. Maybe she doomed Arden from the beginning because monsters didn’t get happy endings. It was awful, really. She wanted to live, and for the first time, she was beginning to process and try to heal. Reach that life her and Arden dreamed of. It was a cruel fate, but it was a battle she was quickly losing while her outstretched arm became rigid. “Teddy. Listen to-to me. Give this ring on-on my hand to Arden. Please. Tell—” Her lips were getting harder to move, her breath quick and frantic. “Tell her I love…” She trailed off, no longer able to speak. Frozen and damned, with only a dangling, clawed hand remaining free. 

In an instant the moment shifted. Going from one of mirth and shared exuberant experience to a nightmare of panic and ichor. Teddy didn’t have time to react properly, their seated position and strain on their already tired muscles made them slow. “TEAGAN–” Too slow to do anything about the insectoid creature that leapt from the shadows and onto their new friend’s face. Shock wiped the smile from their face as they tumbled forward trying to grasp for Teagan as she was pulled backwards and then– then… 

Before the demon could blink, the goo was… encasing her. Changing her. Siphoning life from each spot where it touched. “No no– C’mon NO. NO PLEASE. FUCK.” Their voice was raw, ragged. Screams loud enough that the apartment next door would probably have heard. Enough that Emilio definitely would have. Enough that the dumbass slayer would try and come to their ‘rescue’ if they didn’t get up on the roof to show that they were alive. “We’re gonna–” They choked on tears and panic.  “–gonna get you out of there.” They’d been able to save Ted from the crystals, maybe this was the same maybe it was– 

Teddy’s breath hitched in their chest, hyperventilating while somehow not getting any air at all. Their head whipped around to find the bug, still skittering around nearby. It seemed smug, almost. Or maybe that was just how their brain interpreted it. Carful to not touch the vile thing, they grabbed the closest blunt object, a spare board they hadn’t needed to bring up the fire escape and swung it with every ounce of supernatural strength left in their body. It crunched and squished into a fine paste, but Teddy kept slamming the board down anyway. Fury rising up where it normally lay dormant. 

The alley was too quiet after that. All that was left of Teagan was the hand, clawed and pinkish white. Teddy grabbed for it, carefully. They slipped the ring off, and looked at her frozen face with shaky eyes. “We’ll figure this out. You’ll tell her. You can do that, you have to be able to do that and– it’s gonna be okay. I’m gonna get them out of there, I’m gonna keep them safe– I’m sorry.” They couldn’t take their eyes off the statue. Couldn’t bear to. It was only the thought of losing anyone else to this mess that finally pulled the demon from this awful impromptu vigil. 

They were going to fix this. They had to. 

[oceansrevenge]

Marina and Teagan with a Teddy in the distance.

Thank you so much @eldritchaccident for the absolutely stunning art and bringing Marina's true form to life exactly how I imagined.

Aside from being INCREDIBLE, this is a reference for what Marina's true form looks when she's not using a glamour.

[declinlalune]

[pm] Are you sure? [...] Teddy. I've heard that name a few times in the past few days. They were with Teagan when she You were staying in a bar? Really? You could have told me. I'm sure you could have stayed at the cabin or something if you wanted. Puppyeye needed to hangout with Perro anyway. That's kind of funny, as long as they were doing it to be funny and not actually harm him. I'm not sure if that counts. Sounds like you're there volunteer voluntarily.

[pm] I have more friends than Leticia and you. I have many friends. People like me. [...] Staying with my friend Teddy. Was staying in a bar before that, but they got all bent out of shape about it and made me come to their house. Bought whiskey, though. [...] Let me know if I can help, all right? Don't mind doing whatever you need me to do. Maybe dyeing Kaden's hair pink would help. I think we should try this. Yeah, came by when I wasn't there and grabbed him out of the room I was staying in. Ass. Used him to make me come out to their house, now I'm stuck here. Does that count as kidnapping me, too? I can hold it over their head more if I say they kidnapped me, too.

[sageceleste]

MUST HAVE FEMALE CC FINDS with LINKS💕 | Sims 4 Custom Content

In today's video, I went over some of my favorite female custom content! You can find the links for all the outfits below ♡

Outfit 1: 

AHarris00Britney Britney Hair

ImVikai Jennie Top

Jolibean Picnic Skirt

Serenity Marfa Boots

Pralinesims Earrings Choco Lover

LVNDR  Summertime  Nails

Serenity Antonia Tights

Outfit 2: 

AHarris00Britney Misa Hair

Jolibean Limoncello Top

Clumsyalien Molly Pants

CloudCat Copperdale Shoes

Joliebean Heart Emoji Earrings

Joliebean Regina Necklace

Jius Knitted Socks 04

Outfit 3: 

Arethabee Bubbles Hair

Clumsalien Lelia Blouse

Clumsyalien Teagan Pants

Solistair Calf Boot Hibiscus

Joliebean Summer Flow Cola Necklace

Outfit 4

Arethabee Narcissa Hair

Arethabee Myra Top

Clumsyalien Ciel Pants

Arethabee Alex Shoes

Jius Knitted Socks 04

Outfit 5

Aladdin Marie Hair

Arethabee Candy Top

Trillyke Silent Cry Pants

Arethabee Alex Shoes

Clumsyalien Blossom Earrings

Outfit 6

Dogsill Liliya Hair

Arethabee Teddie Jeans

Oakiyo HSY Cropped T-Shirt 

Jius Leather Boots

Christopher067 Lustre Earrings

Outfit 7

Simstrouble Gloria Hair

Joliebean Blair Dress

Madlen Yasu Shoes

Boonstow Luna Moth Earrings 2

Caio Tara Socks

Outfit 8

Simstrouble Millie Hair

Trillyke Love Spell Dress

Serenity Rina Sandals Monochrome

Christopher067 Delicate Earrings

Outfit 9

Okruee Lipa Hair

Adrienpastel Heartbreak Top

Clumsyalien Esme Overalls

Caio Valentina Boots

Christopher067 Delicate Earrings

Outfit 10

Simsenshi Kaiya Hair v2

Sentate-2022- Cleo Top

Serenity Cameron Pants

Serenity Ashley Shoes

Caio Heart Earrings

[minato-division03]

A Tale of Christmas Miracles Day 1: A HypMic Holiday Shuffle Concert Track 1

01.) Opening Number: Mary Did You Know

Queen Card

"Ladies and gentlemen! I welcome you! Tonight, the theater presents to you: The Queen Card, the card in a deck of cards to avoid taking, for I inflict penalties on the players!”

"First and foremost, I must thank you all for taking time out of your day to gather here for the first day of this year's Christmas Concert!"

"In celebration of the holiday that is so very loved throughout the world… we present to you a Christmas tale! A story and tale told through various hymns and songs reimagined by the esteemed artists I have gathered for you all… Please! Enjoy the rest of tonight's performances and raise your hands in applause for our next performers! And a Merry Christmas Eve!"

02.) Believe In Christmas

Yuuya Kanata “ARROW”

Naoki Hamasaki “Stage Queen”

Kotan Anchikar “Kamuy”

03.) To Smile

Maki Umemoto “Professor Z-3”

Azusa Furukawa “Onna-Musha”

Saigo Fuyugami “Tsukumogami”

04.) Naughty or Nice

Sanyu Inouye “MC Rogue”

Taria Chinen “Misfit”

Sumire Shinomiya “Diabla”

Issey Nishizawa “MC N1K3”

Saya Yoshie “Skye”

Makina Setsukura “Screen Shot”

05.) Christmas EveL

Ryuunosuke Sekiguchi “Fist N Fury”

Rintaro Himura “Ignis”

Eiji Mizoguchi “MC KRATOS”

Ax “Commander”

Masuzo Shinomiya “Malphas”

Tetsuya Yashiro “FЯE4K”

Oki Teagan “ATLAS”

Ryuko Umemoto “Mista Z.B.”

06.) Angels We Have Heard On High

Kira Chinen “Huntress”

Eldrid Iwasaki “Valkyrie”

Tonae Tsukamoto “ABBYS”

Ted Bridges “Teddy”

07.) O Holy Night

Yuriko “Black Dahlia”

Yuki Kuraokami “Ice King”

08.) How Great Our Joy/Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (+ Ensemble)

Shisuta Heisha “The Saint”

Sayaka Miyuki “Rhopalocera”

Itsuki Kamiko “Tsuki”

09.) Santa Please

Eko Seishin “Aoi”

Kokomi Morozov “Snegurochka”

10.) Magic Moment

Tomi Choten “High Class”

Atlas Kazanari “Off-Chart”

Shuu Edogawa “Men-H”

Elliot Shimizu “MC Nanashi”

Asahi Tomoharu “SWEET-T”

Yoichi Shujo “Jekyll”

Yorii Sakuma “Sireen”

@naradivision @naha-division @hakodate-division @suginami-division @taito-division @fukuokadivision1 @ota-division @shinagawa-division @aichi-division @akihabaradivision @akihabara-division03 @katsushika-division @nagasaki-division @kagoshima-division @ginza-division @adachi-division @edogawa-division @sapporo-division @fukuokanodivision @aoyama-division @setagaya-division

[uenodivision]

Hypnosis Mic Shuffle Team, Vol. 4 (Part 2) (Cont.)

The Power of Justiceマジックパラディン! (Paladin Solo)

7 Wonders of HypMic

Akihisa "Azrael" Mashiro

Maki "Professor Z-3" Umemoto

Shuu "Men-H" Edogawa

Rintaro "Ignis" Himura

Yoichi "Jekyll" Shujo

Ren "Vox" Nakashima

Kaiji "Jinx" Sano

Hypnosis Break (Welcome to Our Realm)

The Fatherless

Kunio "James Moriarty" Chōten

Kokomi "Snegurochka" Morozov

To the Motherf*cker of My Sperm Donner

The Nemesis Council

Tomi "High Class" Chōten - "The Gentleman of Crime"

Reiaki "Black Cat" Suzubayashi - "The Cat"

Nadya "Vipera" Kuromiya - "The Master of Fear"

Iwao "TRIXT4R" Masuda - "The Prince of Puzzles"

Reika "Belladonna" Aichi - "The Green's Chosen Warrior"

Yuno "Kiiro" Kamora - Professor Strange

Tasuku "Katame" Kawanoe - Harvey Dent

Eko "Aoi" Seishin - Basil Karlo

Akihisa "Azrael" Mashiro - "The Fastest Killer Alive"

Max "Ōkami" Soukoku - "The Demon"

Eiji "MC KRATOS" Mizoguchi - Waylon Jones

Ryuko "Mista Z.B." Umemoto - Roman Sionis

Rashaad "Straight Up" Young - "The Man Who Never Missed"

Aoba "Guinevere" Yamamura - Victor Fries

Oki "ATLAS" Teagan - "Lover of Venom"

Rinko "X-Tasy" Kurosaki - Harleen Frances Quinzel

Kanon "Mz. Hyde" Hojo - "The Clown Prince of Crime"

Woe to Gotham

Digital Demons

Reiaki "Black Cat" Suzubayashi

Criss "Paradox" Hiromi

Joey "Joker" Kurusu

Eiji "MC Mogul" Noguchi

Yuriko "Black Dahlia" Kuromiya

Village of Nightmares

Lady Luck's Charm

Yorii "Sireen" Sakuma

Lola "Aphrodite" Takahashi

Makina "Screen Shot" Setsukura

Hoàng "MC Lotus" Diệu

Evelyn "SPIRIT" Rose

Sakura "Renegade" Kito

Kotono "Shiki" Ohara

"Queen Card"

Gambling Freak

Kiya Kara

Ryūzō "Kage" Mizutori

Kotono "Shiki" Ohara

Takumi "GUTS" Wakaba

The Sannin

The OP League

Tetsuya "FЯE4K" Yashiro - "The Son of Sparda"

Ryūzō "Kage" Mizutori - "Jack the Ripper"

Seiji "Avenger" Tsukimoto - John-117

Oki "ATLAS" Teagan - Doom Slayer

Aika "VeeXn" Yumi - "The Umbra Witch"

Shian "Ready or Not" Meizono - "The Guardian of the Galaxy"

Kaiji "Jinx" Sano - "The One-Winged Angel"

Aoi "Blue Wolf" Yamamura - "God of Wrath"

Ryuko "Mista Z.B." Umemoto - "The Raging Demon"

Ted "Teddy" Bridges - "The God of War"

Zakari "Icarus" Hiroya - "The Champion of the Jötnar"

Why We Can't Be Beat

HypMic's Best Friends

Tasuku "Katame" Kawanoe

Shisuta "The Saint" Heisha

Sayaka "Rhopalocera" Miyuki

Maki "Professor Z-3" Umemoto

Ririko "2Cute" Akihara

Eden "Ember" Yamamura

Saigo "Tsukumogami" Fuyugami

Anika "Rush Hour" Kiyozaki

Kensaku "Dr. K Tone" Morimoto

Itsuki "Tsuki" Kamiko

Everything is Connected

Hikikomori Hip-Hop Clan

Aoi "Blue Wolf" Yamamura

Ryūnosuke "Fist N Fury" Sekiguchi

Zakari "Icarus" Hiroya

Joey "Joker" Kurusu

Yano "Y-STARR" Ietsuna

Ace "MC Patriot" Douglas

Tasuku "Katame" Kawanoe

Makina "Screen Shot" Setsukura

Yuuya "ARROW" Kanata

Eko "Aoi" Seishin

Eiji "MC KRATOS" Mizoguchi

Kaoru "Arachne" Shinozaki

Eiji "MC Mogul" Noguchi

Yorii "Sireen" Sakuma

Tetsuya "FЯE4K" Yashiro

Lyall "Corvus" Shiba

The Book of Otakus

@obihiro-division @katsushika-division @suginami-division @sapporo-division @kobedivision

@kumamoto-division @hakodate-division @minato-division03 @minato-division01 @shizuokadivision

@fukuokadivision1 @naradivision @aichi-division @okinawa-division @ginza-division

@adachi-division @akihabaradivision @kanazawa-division @edogawa-division @setagaya-division

@saitama-division @akihabara-division03 @sendaidivision @kagoshima-division @niigata-division

@aomori-division @nakanodivision @toyama-division @kyoto-division @fukuokanodivision

[declinlalune]

[pm] If there is something to find out, we'll do it.

Right. Teddy and Emilio [...] Don't know Teddy personally, but Emilio, yeah. Glad they got out. [...] We'll figure it out, Arden. We'll get her out. She's not going out like this.

[pm] Aside from literally everything? Erebus, at the moment. [.....] I Thank I really appreciate it. I'll be looking into it, too, but, yeah, honestly, I don't know if there's anything to find on this.

[...] Yeah, Teddy helped get us all out. Emilio, too, I know you guys are friends. In as much as anyone can be friends with Emilio [........] I know it's not their fault but [....] Right. I hope so I don't Like is she ali Fuck [user takes a moment] I Thank you, Andy. Really.

[gemmahale]

You’ve got mail! 📨 Share 3 songs from a fic’s playlist. Then send this mail along to another! 📤

Stelle, I am about to break your heart, and I am so sorry.

....I don't have fic playlists. 😅

Playlist development has never been a strong suit of mine. 😬 I leave that to people that are better than I at remembering songs and matching meaning to them.

(Sidebar: @/syoddeye is the GOAT for fic playlists in my book.)

However, I can give you what I tend to listen to while I write and a few songs that make me think of WIPs of mine.

When I'm writing:

I prefer music that fades into the background, but doesn't become too repetitive. Two artists that come to mind are:

Space Banjo (YouTube | Bandcamp)

I love all of their music. It hits the right spot between twangy and lofi without putting me to sleep or making me want to throw something. They have such a diverse catalogue too, with different themes and such.

Blurred LoFi (YouTube | Soundcloud)

Blurred has just the right amount of variation to keep me from wanting to scratch my ears out and all of their work is theirs, or work they've collaborated with someone else on. They have lots of themes and variations and it's not hard to find something that works.

Songs that make me think of WIPs:

Useful Girl: Teddy Swims - "Lose Control"

Useful Girl: Teagan and Sara - "Closer"

Useful Girl: NoMBe - "Freak Like Me"

Okay, they're all Useful Girl. Bite me. Maybe I should start a playlist.

[eldritchaccident]

@stainedglasstruth replied to your post “[pm] Hey, Teddy. Um Just Teagan's okay. Dr...”:

[pm] Yeah. She's doing okay. I guess she was kept in a stasis of some sort? It didn't seem like any time had passed for her, but her body weakened. It's gonna take a bit to get back to normal. And then a bit longer probably because she's too goddamn stubborn. I know I said it before, but I am really sorry for how I reacted at first. I kinda took it out on you, and you didn't deserve that.

​[pm] She messaged me too. Fuckin hell that's rough. But I guess it's better than experiencing everything the whole time. Good. You make sure she does, okay? Then I'm gonna invite you both over for dinner only once she's 100% [....] Hey no, you didn't [....] it's fine Arden. Honestly. You were stressed. I get it. I [....] it was my fault. I don't care what she says I should have done something

[pupsmailbox]

STARTING WITH T

MASCULINE︰ tad. tadeo. talbot. talon. tanner. tate. tatton.��tatum. tayler. taylor. teagen. ted. teddie. teddy. tel. tennyson. terance. terell. terence. terrance. terrell. terrence. terry. tevin. tex. thad. thaddeus. thane. thatcher. theo. theobald. theodore. thiago. thom. thomas. thorburn. thorley. thornton. thurstan. tibby. tiger. tim. timmy. timothy. titan. titus. tobias. tobin. toby. tod. todd. tolly. tom. tomas. tommie. tommy. tony. topher. torin. tory. trace. tracy. trafford. tranter. travers. travis. trent. trenton. trev. trevelyan. trevor. trey. tripp. tristan. tristen. tristin. triston. tristram. tristyn. troy. tru. true. trueman. truett. truman. tucker. turner. ty. tye. tylar. tyler. tylor. tyrell. tyron. tyrone. tyrrell. tyson.

FEMININE︰ tabitha. taelynn. tahlia. tala. tali. talia. taliah. taliyah. tallulah. tamara. tamsin. tania. tanya. tara. taryn. tatiana. tatum. taya. taylor. taylyn. taytum. teagan. tegan. temperance. tempest. tenley. teresa. terra. tess. tessa. thalia. thea. thelma. theodora. theodosia. theresa. therese. thora. théa. tia. tiana. tianna. tiffany. tilda. tillie. tilly. timber. tina. tinley. tinslee. tinsley. titania. tomasa. toni. tori. treasure. treva. trinity. tru. trudy. true. twyla. tyler. tyria.

NEUTRAL︰ taelyn. tai. tailor. taiwo. taj. takoda. talent. tali. tally. talon. talyn. taryn. tatum. taunt. taxi. taylen. tayler. taylin. taylor. taylow. taylyn. taytum. tea. teagan. teagen. teal. tear. techno. teddy. teegan. tegan. teigan. teigen. tempt. tennessee. tenzin. term. terran. terri. terry. texas. thai. theo. theory. therefore. thorn. thrifty. thriller. thunder. thyri. ticket. tide. tie. tiger. tilden. timber. time. tinker. tint. titan. tobi. tobias. tobin. toby. tommie. toni. tonight. tony. torch. torn. tory. tower. townes. toxic. trace. tracy. trainer. trance. treasure. trek. trinity. trip. triple. tristin. tristyn. trouble. tru. truce. true. trust. truth. tuesday. tulip. turbo. turner. tussle. twilight. twin. twist. tylee. tyler. tylin. tyme.

[birdhcuse]

I decided create a hypothetical adoptive daughter deliberately designed to make Teagan's life a living hell because I thought it'd be a fun thought exercise.

I'll call her Beatriz for now.

Beatriz's mother went out for milk and her father is dead. She's still in denial about her mother never coming back. Her relationship with her father was...complicated. She was pretty much on her own even before he passed away, being more of a caretaker to him than he was to her. There'd be occasional good moments where he'd actually try, but mostly, he drank and got into fights. After her father’s death, the government seized the house she was living in. It was put up for sale, but she refused to leave anyway.

Teagan, who finally has enough stability to own a home, moves into the house with Nicolau. Beatriz still refuses to leave...so she gets to stay.

Beatriz doesn't like Teagan. They get on her nerves and she can tell they find her off-putting, regardless of how sweet they try to act. (Her love of seafood and surfing hits Teagan's trigger points, especially when she goes surfing during storms.) Beatriz also is put off by Teagan's doting. She calls Teagan by their name...when she's in a good mood. Otherwise, it's "fuckwad" and "dumbfuck". She'd do that thing Teagan did to Jasper, where she interprets everything in the least charitable way possible and makes them out to be worse than they are. Whether Beatriz actually hates Teagan or is just trying to keep herself from getting attached is a mystery to the both of them.

Nicolau, however, is someone Beatriz would warm up to. She thinks he's "much cooler" than Teagan and makes more of an effort to bond with him. It helps that they're closer in height (even when she's fully grown, she'd be Nicolau's height at most, probably shorter though), so it makes him feel more approachable than the giant, suffocating teddy bear that is Teagan. I can see Beatriz being comfortable enough with Nicolau to eventually call him "Dad", which is a huge thing for her. Teagan would be happy for Nicolau, but low-key hurt that they can't seem to connect with her no matter what they do.

[mrhaitch]

*pull out thick baby name books for boy names starting with T*

Is it..

Theodore

Thomas

Thiago

Theo

Tyler

Tucker

Timothy

Tristan

Tobias

Tate

Tyson

Tanner

Titus

Travis

Tatum

Troy

Tripp

Trevor

Tadeo

Taylor

Trey

Trenton

Tru

Tony

Ty

Tommy

Trace

Titan

Tomas

Talon

Thatcher

Thaddeus

Truett

Turner

Terry

Trent

Tristen

Terrance

True

Toby

Tzvi

Teo

Terrell

Torin

Teddy

Taj

Tahj

Tiago

Terrence

Taylen

Truth

Tylan

Tayden

Tyrone

Tariq

Thorin

Tristian

Truman

Tyree

Teagan

Tayson

Townes

Todd

Tyrell

Trevon

Tyce

Thor

Tevin

Tamir

Triston

Taylin

Tobin

Tahir

Tiberius

Tylen

Treyson

Tymir

Tegan

Tytus

Theodor

Tayson

Truitt

Taha

Tom

Trae

Thompson

Tye

Tyrus

Tyshawn

Tai

Theron

Tayvion

Theoden

Tristin

Tyrese

Tenzin

Treyton

Terence

Travon

Tylin

?

(Please tell us dad!🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺)

Trevor T Tidyhaüs.

[wickedsrest-rp]

Welcome to our WRW! We do these weekly to provide plot drops, challenges, and highlight starters. Anyone is welcome to use these bullet points. Let us know if you want us to include one of your setting-related plots in here for next week by sending us a bullet point!

Is that a giant beak? Our current plot of the week sees the town invaded by… weird little guys. And they sure brought their friends.

Look out for our seasonal Fall event coming this weekend!

Someone noticed that one of the maps posted Downtown has a small offshore island on it -- unnamed -- that isn't on any other map. Maybe someone should verify if that little island is out there... and what's on it, if it exists.

Birdsong is heard across town each morning, which is a lovely thing. Except one flock is actually singing songs... about Felix Mendoza. They might even by spying on Felix because they seem to know a lot, down to how Felix thinks. Weird! But such lovely music. The Grit Pit is considering catching some of the birds and using them to hype up the crowd before Felix's matches.

Someone found a small cave with beautiful bioluminescent mushrooms filling it wall to wall. Tourists are excited to go see it. That sounds like a fun, safe way to spend a day. Probably?

Complete challenges and claim prizes!. You can read more about how they work and what prizes are available here. Bonus challenges are an opportunity to earn an extra point per week but are harder or weirder.

This week’s challenge:

On dash, have your character talk about a rumor they heard.

Bonus challenge:

Have your character intentionally start a rumor about another character.

Maggie is hoping the September rain will bring some extra excitement to her life.

Hey party animals, where's the best place to go for all your fun loving needs? Xó would like suggestions.

Mateo is looking for trouble and wants to bring you along! Are you brave enough?

Do you love snow globes? Do you want a free one that is definitely not cursed? Contact Felix today!

Teagan is ready for fall and that hot cocoa that comes with it.

The police may be looking into this so if you want to check out some shady items Siobhan has for grabs I would hurry.

Kieran refuses to not have a brat summer birthday theme this year!

There's a new bar coming to town and Teddy is looking for some people to work for them. Make sure you message them if you need a well paying job!

Isa must have missed that last post because she's looking for a new job herself. Who's hiring?

[mortemoppetere]

TIMING: current LOCATION: a pond in wicked's rest PARTIES: @closingwaters & @mortemoppetere SUMMARY: teagan makes good on her offer to help emilio with his problem. CONTENT: mentions of past parental death, sibling death, & child death

Lucio had picked up on the first ring. Breathless, like he’d run to answer, like he’d been afraid if he were a second later, he’d have been met with the dial tone. It wasn’t an unfounded concern. Emilio had spent half an hour staring at his phone before dialing, another fifteen minutes with his fingers hovering over the ‘call’ button once the number had been typed in. This was the first time he’d been the one to reach out to Lucio since learning of his uncle’s survival and, if things went the way he hoped they would, it would be the last. 

On some level, he wondered if that was unfair. He hated his uncle for saving his life. Some might call that cruel, he knew. Some might say that Emilio was being unreasonable, that Lucio deserved a second chance. But God, Emilio couldn’t look at him without feeling the dried, crumbling blood beneath his own fingernails. He couldn’t hear his uncle’s voice without hearing his daughter’s screams, couldn’t have a conversation with him without bodies flickering in the corner of his vision. 

There wasn’t a world where Emilio could have a relationship with the man who’d raised him without being reminded of the man who’d denied him the chance to raise his own daughter. Not when those men were one and the same. It wasn’t good for him, for whatever was broken in his head. He was backsliding, falling back to where he’d been two years ago. And he didn’t want that. He wanted to get better, to be better.

So he dialed the phone, and Lucio answered. On the first ring, breathless and full of hope. And Emilio ached a little, but it was necessary. It was what he needed.

He arranged for both Teagan and Lucio to meet him in Gatlin Fields. Near a pond, which he thought might make Teagan feel a little more… secure. Lucio wouldn’t attack her, not if he thought it would piss Emilio off, but he figured she might want the added level of security, anyway. Emilio stood at the edge of the water, absently fiddling with a loose string on his shirt. It was one of Teddy’s. He hadn’t told the ex-demon where he was heading, hadn’t wanted them to ask to tag along because he would have said yes if they’d asked and he didn’t want them here for this. It was a shitty thing he was doing. He knew that. It was the kind of thing his mother would have been ashamed of, the kind of thing that would make Rhett hate him even more if he ever found out, the kind of thing that would make his friends frown even if they wouldn’t say anything about it. He was punishing someone for saving his life. He was punishing himself for being saved. But there was nothing else to be done.

Lucio arrived first. It wasn’t much of a surprise, given how eager he’d been. He approached carefully, hands at his side. Emilio tensed at the sight of him. He didn’t used to. The change was something Lucio noticed, and he swallowed and looked away. It was funny — this was the man who used to be a safe place to land, used to be the one opening the door to the shed where Emilio had been locked away for hours or days or weeks or years or lifetimes and letting him back into the sun. Now, given the choice, Emilio thought he might pick the damn shed.

“Mijo,” Lucio greeted, and Emilio flinched at the word. Lucio noticed that, too, seemed to hesitate a little. “What’s this about? Why are we here?”

There was a flash of Flora’s corpse at the edge of the pond. Emilio didn’t let his eyes dart to it, though it was a near thing. Instead, he forced himself to look over his uncle’s shoulder at an approaching figure. He moved past Lucio in favor of greeting Teagan with a nod.

“I didn’t know how to tell him,” he said lowly. His voice was small, and he felt small. He felt like that fucking six year old kid, just waiting for someone to let him out of the shed. There was a reason, beyond giving Teagan the security of the water, why he’d chosen to do this out in the open. The walls couldn’t close in on him if there were no walls at all.

“Milio.” Lucio spoke from behind him, and Emilio tensed. “Who is this? If — If you’re going to kill me, I’d think you’d do it yourself. I’d think you’d at least give me that.”

—

Helping a hunter wasn’t ever a gesture the nix ever conceived doing. It felt like a betrayal to her family, in a way, but there was something to be said for a man like Emilio. Though given the title of a slayer, he modified the teachings he was taught from childhood, enforcing the idea that the beasts he was meant to hunt were people too. And they were, all of them. Even those like Teagan who spilled blood for the sake of nature or their calling. It was never black and white, from what she had learned and had been living within. It was for that reason that she found it so easy to help the man take care of his own blood without spilling any of it. 

Out of every hunter Teagan had met, Emilio was, by far, only of the only that stood in the grey area, and she wanted to stand there with him. By a pond, of all places, which made the nix’s stomach flutter with gratitude. He understood what she could do mere feet away from it, which meant she had his trust and permission to do what she needed if things went awry. In doing so, she thought it was only fair to give hers to him to keep the balance, and she hoped he could see the resolution and determination in her eyes as she walked up to stand next to him while the other stood ahead. 

“Well ya could’ve told a lady a warnin’. Now I gotta explain myself.” She greeted quietly with a playful roll of her eyes, trying to relieve some tension and then standing quietly. There was something in the man’s eye that didn’t quite sit right with the fae, making her stomach sink and her nerves burn. Her instincts were rarely wrong, but they were forged in the fires of a past she could hardly let go of. Perhaps, Teagan thought, relying on them at that moment wasn’t the best course of action if she was going to venture towards healing. Ideas to make one particular warden pay, be damned. 

“Not here to kill, don’t ye worry. And you don’t gots to know my name either. Just…a friend.” She sniffled, patting her eyes dry as she made her way toward to water until her heels touch the edge. With her hands raised as a gesture of peace, Teagan paused just before urging the water to lap across her feet as a way to reassure herself. As long as the water was near, she was safe. They were safe. But Teagan didn’t think Emilio’s uncle had any intention to attack. He seemed all too keen on mending their relationship. If there was one to be saved at all.

“Anyways, go on, then. Don’t mind me. I’ll just be back here until ya need me.”

A friend. Was that what they were? Emilio didn’t feel the need to correct the term, didn’t feel like he should deny it. A short time ago, he would have. Months ago, just after that shit at the lake or Teagan’s encounter with Ren that had sent her spiraling backwards in her own attempts at growth, he would have been quick to speak up. Even to Lucio, even when it didn’t matter. Emilio’s stubbornness would outweigh his logic every goddamn time, and he knew it. But that desire to reject the notion of friendship didn’t exist here the way it had back then. He didn’t know if it was because of the heaviness that had settled over everything since his uncle’s reappearance or if he really did consider Teagan a friend now. He liked to think it was the latter, but maybe the former was more likely. Old dogs and new tricks didn’t go together, after all. 

Lucio continued to eye her warily, eyes darting between her and Emilio with a question curving into his brows. “You need a friend here for this? I don’t recognize this one.” Which meant he hadn’t found anything about Teagan when he’d been digging into Emilio’s life, hadn’t seen any presence of her in his contacts. It made sense. Until just a few weeks ago, he was pretty sure she’d had him blocked on most of her accounts. 

“Yeah, well, you scared all my other friends,” Emilio bit out, trying not to think about the messages he’d gotten while his uncle had been making his rounds. He’d scared Emilio, too. He could still feel a phantom stutter of it in his chest, like his heart hadn’t yet caught up to the fact that he wasn’t in danger.

(What a stupid notion. He was always in danger.)

Glancing to Teagan, he nodded his head. She’d wait. She’d let him do what he needed to do, and then she’d help him close the chapter. He felt a surge of gratefulness that he didn’t dare voice, and he turned back to Lucio. His uncle watched him expectantly, glancing down to the water at Teagan’s feet and the slightly unnatural way it was moving. 

“She’s a nymph,” Emilio confirmed lowly. Lucio let out a sound of quiet surprise.

“I doubt Everett would approve of —” 

“He’s not here,” Emilio snapped, anger and grief swirling together in his chest. “You made sure of that, didn’t you?” Lucio looked almost apologetic, and Emilio continued before he could voice an apology that he didn’t want to hear. “I need you gone, tío.”

“I told you, I don’t —”

“No. I need you gone. With you here, it’s like —” He cut himself off, hands trembling as he brought them up to push the hair off his forehead. It was sweaty, in spite of the cold. He let out a slow, shaky breath. “I held her, you know. After, when I found her in — in that damn room. I held her, and there was no heartbeat. It took me weeks to get the blood out from under my nails. And you — You’re here, and I can feel it sticking to my hands. I can feel the weight of it. So I need you gone, Lucio. And if you give a shit about me, the way you say you do, you’ll give me that.”

A silence stretched over them. Even the lapping of the water at the edge of the pond seemed muted, somehow. Finally, Lucio spoke. “What do you need her for, then?”

“For you to promise.” He glanced to Teagan, offering her another nod. “You promise. She makes sure you stick to it. And — And we all go on with our fucking lives. You walk away, and I stop seeing my daughter’s corpse around every corner.” It was saying too much, he knew. It was telling Teagan something that so few people were aware of. But she was here, and she was giving him this. She could know if she wanted to know. She’d earned that much.

“You know this won’t stop that,” Lucio said. Emilio only shrugged. It had to be better, didn’t it? It had to be better than carrying on this way.

—

Emilio’s partial tale felt all too familiar, stoking a pain that never quite went out for the nix. She knew, if only a little, that the slayer had experienced great loss, but she’d never cared enough to ask. Or maybe she respected that heavy burden enough to leave it alone. Regardless, Emilio’s story was a tragic one, and it intersected so closely to Teagan’s that she couldn’t help the hitch in her breath as he spoke. Whoever he held, whether it be a friend, a lover, or child, they were important, and he was reliving that awful tragedy over and over again. 

Teagan knew a thing or two about that. She’d held dead bodies, too. In arms much too small to keep them fully wrapped in an embrace. She felt the blood caked in her clothes, heard the screams until they faded into an endless silence. Even in that moment, she could, and she was surprised to feel sympathy for a hunter that knew exactly how that felt. The water reacted in earnest, a few ripples turning into large laps against the edge of the pond. With a swallow, a tear cascaded down Teagan’s cheek and she quickly wiped it away, looking at Emilio with a somber and apologetic look before looking at his hands. 

How tired were they? And how many lives had they taken? Did they feel the same as hers? Mentions of a promise forced Teagan back into the conversation, and she shook her head and blinked her thoughts away. Musing would have to wait.

“Mind the words, dear.” Stepping forward, the water loosely followed, never thinning too much to remain near her feet. “Every corner. You’re causing more harm than good here, and by the sounds of it, he’s done letting you harm. A little too good at that harming, aren’t ya?” Teagan knew her tone had a little too much attitude, as if she were defending a friend, but that was exactly how she wanted it to be heard. She was a protector. They both were. It just so happened that Teagan was taking the reins that time around, and she was happy to do it. Her. A hunter killer. 

The tides really have changed. 

“So,” Teagan cut to the chase, not letting herself get too preoccupied with her thoughts. “Promise me you’ll leave come morning, and you won't come back.” She took a small step forward, eyes darkening as they locked with the man’s. “Promise me you won’t come looking for him in this town again, or in any place he decides to live. Because…” She scoffed, shaking her head, “You’ve already destroyed his life once. Don’t go on being daft and ruining it again.”

Lucio looked stricken, and Emilio wondered if it was real or not. There was a time when he wouldn’t have doubted it at all, a time when he’d taken everything Lucio said and did at face value and accepted it all as the truth. As a young boy growing up without a father, he’d found it easy to allow his uncle to slot into that empty space, hadn’t questioned it at all. Lucio would never lie to him, because Lucio loved him. Lucio would never hurt him, because Lucio was on his side. 

And then, the streets were filled with blood and his daughter was dead in his arms and his uncle stood in the middle of it all with apologies that solved nothing and good intentions that led them both into Hell.

Funnily enough, he believed the look on Teagan’s face without the same swirling of doubt in his gut. Teagan looked empathetic, and even though Lucio had been on those bloodstained streets, even though he’d lost the same people Emilio had lost, he found Teagan’s empathy far more digestible than his uncle’s. Whether it was simply because she hadn’t been present for the massacre in Mexico or because she’d been in his position when it was her family who was slaughtered was hard to say. 

Lucio looked at her, too, eyes darting over her face like he was trying to puzzle out what her expression meant, what her tone implied. He’d never been good at reading people. He’d never needed to. Elena was the one who’d unraveled intentions and viewed situations with a critical eye to plan their resolution; Lucio was the steady hand. Teagan’s expression was a mystery to him, Emilio knew. He didn’t have the tools to understand any of it.

So it was no surprise when his eyes shifted back to the more familiar variable, searching for a chance to meet Emilio’s gaze. Emilio refused it, focusing on a spot in the distance instead. “I never meant for any of this, Milio,” Lucio pleaded. “You have to know that. I’m sorry. I loved her, too. You know I did.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Emilio choked out, clenching his fists so tightly that he felt his fingernails digging into the palms of his hands. “It doesn’t matter what you meant to happen. She’s dead, Lucio. They all are. And you — All you are now is a reminder. A reminder of the worst thing that ever happened to me. And I’m fucking tired, man. I’m tired of being reminded. You said you wanted to help me? This is how you do it.” 

It was quiet, for a moment. Lucio kept looking at Emilio, and Emilio kept looking anywhere else. Then, with a defeated exhale, he turned back to Teagan. “I’ll do it,” he said quietly, “if you promise me something, too.”

“That’s not —” Emilio’s protest was silenced by a sharp glare from his uncle, that old lesson of speak when spoken to flooding back over him and filling his lungs, choking off any further words he might have wanted to say. He felt like a child again. Funny how good Lucio was at making that happen.

Looking to Teagan again, Lucio tilted his chin up. “You promise me… You promise me you’ll look out for him. Don’t let him… Don’t let him die for my sins. You care about him, too. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t. So… promise me you’ll do everything you can to make sure he’s okay, and I’ll do what you’re asking me to do.”

—

Teagan was baffled at the amendment the man was requesting, and she grit her teeth to prevent herself from reacting harshly. Rolling her shoulders, she shook her head with a few disappointed tuts. “Why are you lot so horrible at weaving words together? Not just that, boyo, but you lost the right to request anything a long time ago.” She inhaled deeply, a little shakily as she found herself actually considering the proposal. That in itself was a feat for someone like her, someone who’s vengeance was toward anyone like Emilio. Her heart raced, at odds with itself as it ran in circles trying to find the right place to take a rest. 

Taking the man’s amendment would be stupid, what with Emilio’s self-sacrificial nature. No one could protect him from himself or his need to reunite with his family without taking another way out. Still, there were other things he could be protected from, and it could be done. Teagan just had to alter the request slightly so that the smallest of injuries wouldn’t send her careening into death’s arms. Because she always saw worth in protecting, and to her surprise, once again, she wanted Emilio to fall beneath her arms. He was her friend now, and maybe it’d take a while to consider him someone she loved, but she did care about him, and by the Waves, she understood what he needed. 

“Promise me you won’t come looking for him again or contact him, and I’ll be there to help him and protect him from death as best I can, when I can. Can’t stop him from being himself.” Teagan shuddered, a tear falling that she didn’t realize was brimming in her eye. The man was a blurry mess of colors and blobs, and for a few moments, she kept quiet to wrap her mind around the fact that she was doing this for a hunter. One she actually wanted to keep from harm, though she knew that would be like trying to keep her from the water. 

“Deal?”

Lucio’s insistence at getting something out of the deal was hardly surprising, though Emilio doubted it would be accepted. Teagan owed him nothing and owed Lucio less. He half expected her to laugh, or to simply walk away, and he prepared himself to argue his uncle into complacency. He needed Lucio gone, and if this option didn’t work, all he’d have left was the knife in his pocket. He didn’t want it to end that way; he didn’t think Lucio did, either. It was a good bargaining chip, a decent threat. Do this, or I’ll kill you. Wasn’t that the only thing either of them ever really understood?

But, to his surprise, Teagan didn’t leave. She didn’t demand that he talk sense into Lucio, either. Instead, she wove together a promise, and Emilio let out a small sound of protest. “You don’t have to do that,” he said quietly, looking at Teagan. “I’ll get him to agree either way. You don’t have to do that.”

“You’ll get me to?” Lucio sounded half amused, the way he used to when Emilio was a kid going on and on about how he knew he’d be able to kick Rhett’s ass if it came down to it, or insisting that he had no idea who’d kicked a hole in the wall of the shed. Back then, that fond amusement in his uncle’s voice had filled him with warmth. Now, like everything else, it only ached. Emilio shot him a glare, but the world felt too heavy for him to put any kind of heat behind the expression. 

Lucio looked away, settling his gaze on Teagan instead. He seemed to consider her for a moment before nodding. With one last glance to Emilio, he spoke. “Okay.” He was looking at his nephew as he said it, though the word was clearly meant for Teagan. “Okay. I promise. Give me until the morning to get gone, and I’ll leave. I won’t reach out to my nephew again, and I won’t look for him. But…” He looked back to the nymph now, a hint of curiosity in his expression. “This won’t prevent him from reaching out to me, will it? If he chooses to.”

“I won’t,” Emilio bit out. “I won’t choose to, so it doesn’t matter.”

Lucio paused for a moment before sighing. “Okay,” he said again. “It’s done, then?”

—

Of course Emilio would want to argue. Whether it was to keep Teagan from doing something stupid or to keep himself from having someone take care of him, she wasn’t sure. Regardless, she stood firm, quieting Emilio just as quickly as he protested. “It’s my decision.” The two men went back and forth again, and it wasn’t until Emilio’s uncle finally complied that Teagan inserted herself back into the conversation again. “It won’t, but it’s as he said, it doesn’t matter so long as it’s his choice.” She rolled her eyes and backed away, water following closely again. The negotiation was at its end, and if Teagan was reading Emilio correctly, he needed his uncle gone from his sight as soon as possible.

“It’s done.” The pond lapped with increasing force, idling for just a brief moment. An eerie silence fell around the trio, and as a smile grew on Teagan’s face, the water struck Emilio’s uncle. Not with enough force to hurt. Just a little push for him to leave. A small sentiment, considering how the nix’s and slayer’s first interaction went. “Now leave. If you’re not gone by morning, who knows what’ll happen to ya. Hope you don’t got too much to pack.” 

Sauntering back over to Emilio, Teagan patted his shoulder, offering a slightly amused smile. She trailed along the edge of the pond, landing herself a few feet from the two men in an attempt to give Emilio the space to give whatever goodbye he wanted. If there was going to be one at all. At this point, Teagan wouldn’t be surprised if Emilio left his uncle on the ground in a sputtering mess to get the water out of his mouth. Alone. Just as he had left Emilio after his horrendous mistake. 

There was no kind of outward sensation accompanying the bind. No physical feeling, no tangible proof. There hadn’t been any when Siobhan bound him, either, hadn’t been any way of knowing that it had been done beyond the knowing. Even so, as Lucio made his promise and Teagan confirmed that it was done, Emilio felt a rush of relief wash over him so thoroughly that it felt like a physical thing, like the waters of the pond Teagan stood at were rushing over his shoulders and washing the blood off his hands at last. His shoulders slumped, and he nodded. 

Lucio took a step away from the water, looking down at his feet and swallowing. “I won’t change my number,” he said, trying to meet Emilio’s eye. Maybe it was childish, the way Emilio refused to raise his gaze and allow it. Lucio stopped trying after a moment, sucking his teeth. “If you ever wanted to talk, I won’t change my number. I — I love you, Milio. I mean that. It won’t change. So I won’t change my number, and you can call me. Okay?”

Emilio didn’t respond and, after a moment, Lucio took off. To pack his things, maybe, the way Teagan suggested he do. The moment he was gone from view, Emilio released a breath, letting himself take a step backwards. He trudged over to Teagan, hands stuffed in his pockets out of view as he fiddled endlessly with the ring on his finger. He could feel his hands trembling, but the rest of him was, too, so what did it matter?

For a moment, he stood beside Teagan in silence, looking out at the water. The waves lapped around their feet, and he wondered how much of it was her and how much of it was nature. He closed his eyes, listening to it. He thought it might be peaceful; he didn’t know for sure. Peace wasn’t something he was familiar enough with to recognize. “You —” He broke off, inhaling shakily. “You told me you owed me a favor, once. After the shit with Arden in that barn. This was it. We’re even. You don’t owe me anything, I’ll say whatever I need to say to… get rid of that. This was…” He trailed off, shaking his head. “Thank you. For this. I know — I know what it means, saying that to you, but I’m saying it. I mean it. I appreciate it.”

—

The man continued to babble, and there was no sense to them, as if he’d lost all of it to the conversation he’d had with Emilio. Or had it left him a lot sooner than that? Perhaps, if Teagan knew how long ago Emilio had lost everything, she’d be able to give an estimate in years, but that mattered very little right then. Next thing she knew, she and the slayer were standing alone by the pond, and she had to stop herself from scoffing at the show of gratitude. Friends didn’t need to express that, but Teagan understood the sentiment, especially after how strained and uneasy their relationship was.  She chose to ignore it, anyway, linking her arm with Emilio’s in a show of compassion. 

“You hear that?” Without saying a word, the nymph gestured for Emilio to close his eyes again. She’d seen his attempt to listen to Mother Water, and she hoped with a little help from her, that he’d be able to hear what she was offering. After what he’d been through, Teagan felt like he deserved to know what that peace was, and how to listen for it when he was alone. “Water is your friend now, and it’s always been a part of you. No need to fight it. There’s even a bit of water in that whiskey you like so much.” 

She chuckled lightly, clearing her throat. “But really listen now, okay? He’s gone, and this is what you’re hearing now, after all of that. He’s gone and you can let yourself relax next to the one thing that holds memories far longer than you and I will exist. In some way, the cycle continues, but it’s the bend that you have to focus on. Hear it? Hear how the water trickles and bubbles and treads against itself?” Teagan gave Emilio’s arm a squeeze, closing her eyes with him as she guided them both through the sounds. She could feel the water’s strength thrumming against her skin, and the pull of its love in her chest. Emilio couldn’t feel it, but maybe, just maybe, he could hear what she meant. “The bend has many directions, and water always flows. It’s peaceful, that’s what it is. Focus on that, and know that you can go anywhere now.”

It still felt like the world was closing in. Like his lungs were constricted, like he was locked in something so much smaller than that training shed, like he was bleeding out on the living room floor. How long would it take for the healing to feel like healing? Teagan’s family had died over a decade ago, and it was still etched into her skin. How many times would Emilio have to relive that day? How many more times would he wake up on that living room floor?

Teagan’s arm linked with his, and she didn’t mention the thank you. Emilio didn’t know if that meant she hadn’t bound him; it was hard to care much about it. After today, after what she’d done for him, there were certainly worse people to be bound by. He tried to listen to the water, tried to imagine it the way she was saying — something that was a part of him, a part of the whiskey in his glass and the people in his heart. There was some comfort in it, even if his chest still felt tight. Even if the world was still closing in.

He nodded along as she spoke, even if he suspected it made more sense to her than it did to him. Naturally, Teagan understood water and nature far more than Emilio ever could, and he’d never pretend to believe otherwise. Still, it wasn’t completely incomprehensible, what she was describing. And the fact that she was taking the time to say it, to try to offer him some kind of comfort? That meant a lot. “I’m going to… hang here for a while,” he said quietly, and it came out hoarse. “You don’t have to stay. I’m all right. I just… need a minute.”

—

The emotion in Emilio’s voice was all Teagan needed to know that he’d listened for what the water offered, understood what he had now, if only a little. It was a lot to experience, and for someone who wasn’t connected as she was, he certainly seemed to wade the settling waves and be tethered to them. As much as he could without being a nymph, anyway. Seeing that is what allowed Teagan’s heart to accept his request to be alone. Because she’d had to listen and wade many times before, her entire life, really, and she knew Emilio had to do the same. 

Much like him, or exactly like him, she’d had to listen for the bend while she accepted her new life, her new place with fewer siblings and more grief than she thought possible. Teagan let herself be swallowed by it as she rolled and tumbled within, and she was disappointed to admit that she didn’t allow any room for peace like she urged Emilio to search for after letting the man who essentially killed his family leave. That realization burned like acid in her throat, and it trickled down into her stomach until nausea hit her like a truck. 

“Okay.” 

Emilio let go of a murderer in some way, but she could not, and maybe she never would. There were too many to allow to live, and closure wasn’t something Teagan knew how to find in that bend she listened for. Not yet. But maybe if Emilio had let go and chose to find a path that suited him better than the weight he forced himself to carry, then she could too. Eventually. For the moment, Teagan didn’t let herself linger in her head or in Emilio’s space, and she walked away feeling a little heavier, but appreciated knowing the slayer let her take a piece. He wasn’t so bad. For a hunter. 

[closingwaters]

TIMING: Current

PARTIES: @mortemoppetere @closingwaters

SUMMARY: Teagan convinces Emilio to go to the ren faire with her, and the two end up having a great time!

WARNINGS: None!

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining overhead, fae from all over town had gathered, and after much convincing on her part, Teagan had gotten Emilio to not only attend, but dress up too! It also helped that there was an abundance of alcohol to consume at the event, which she offered to pay for as long as he played along. As grumpy as the slayer was, he sure knew how to have fun when it counted. Teagan even considered surprising him with a battleaxe. One crafted by the most magnificent hands, with the most ferocious material. She smiled at the thought, yanking Emilio to her to follow through a small crowd.

“You look like an absolute beaut in that crown, mun. Could almost kiss ya!” She bounced her brows, “Almost.” With a wink, Teagan led the two to a booth filled with usable weapons and targets, figuring it would be best to start Emilio off with something he could enjoy before moving on to things he wouldn’t normally consider. “Think you can beat me in a battle of precision?” She slapped down a few precious looking rocks and beetles, along with a few actual dollars. The leshy took the payment happily, making the nymph’s smile grow. 

“Looks like we both get five tries. Try not to be a sore loser when I win.” Teagan giggled, excitement growing. It’d been too long since she’d been to an affair as large the faire, and she was full of pride that fae had put it together. All fae were free to be in their true forms while surrounding themself with kin and enjoying the spoils of so many trades. If it had been humans, she would’ve still been unglamoured, but it would’ve most definitely been half the fun.

“You ready?”

This wasn’t something Emilio had ever really seen himself doing. Large gatherings filled with big crowds weren’t really places where he tended to feel comfortable, and dressing up in strange clothes that sat a little too heavy on his skin made him feel a little uneasy. He didn’t feel as if he’d be ready to jump into action if he needed to, though he thought the crown on his head would probably make a decent projectile. He still wasn’t even sure how Teagan had convinced him, really; there had been the promise of alcohol, he knew, which he was looking forward to. Maybe part of him still knew that he owed her for what she’d done for him with his uncle. That wasn’t the kind of debt you could ever really repay, after all.

“Ay, don’t get handsy,” he replied with a roll of his eyes that was closer to fond than irritated. Curiosity flickered across his features at the idea of a precision battle, his head tilting slightly to the side in a way that was almost reminiscent of Perro’s reaction to the word treat. “They have that here?” Maybe this place wasn’t as bad as he’d originally feared it would be.

Allowing her to pull him off to a table, Emilio inspected the setup. Knives, hatchets, and other throwable blades lined the walls of the booth, with targets set up for tossing. “I’m good at this,” he warned her, eyes lit up with excitement. “You might not win.” She was probably good at this, too. This whole event seemed to be made more for people like her than him, really; all around him were unglamoured fae, more than he’d ever really seen before. He took a moment to be glad that Rhett was no longer in town, took another moment to feel guilty for that thought. Then, looking back to Teagan, he nodded. “Ready,” he confirmed. “Do we go at the same time? Or one first?”

—

The way Emilio spoke leaned toward familiarity and friendliness in a way that made Teagan’s chest warm. Their friendship had blossomed despite their differences, once they realized just how similar their anger simmered. Almost in unison at times. “You’re getting soft, mun.” She replied, watching affectionately how he rolled his eyes. Yes, he was definitely getting soft. “Teddy’s been good for you. Love’s got a way of sanding down those edges, makin’ those sharp margins just…” Teagan scrunched her nose and let her gaze fall onto the flower crown Emilio wasn’t even attempting to remove. “Right.” She smiled softly and it quickly turned into a grin as her slayer friend grew excited at the array of weapons. 

“I’ll let you go first. You know what that saying is, right?” The nix bounced her brows, a mischievous edge forming on her smile. “You gotta size up your opponent and assess before you make your move.” Teasingly, Teagan bumped her hip to Emilio, twirling a knife in her hand as an idea brewed in her brain. None of the rules on the board said you couldn’t sabotage a player, and even if it did, Teagan was certain the Sylph behind the counter wouldn’t mind a fellow nymph playing a trick. “Now, go on.” She rolled her lips over her teeth, waiting for her opportunity to strike at least one of Emilio’s attempts down. 

“Show me whatcha got, enaid.”

Years ago — months ago, even — the statement would have sounded a lot more like an accusation. In the mind of Elena Cortez, soft was the worst thing a person could be. She’d accused Emilio of it plenty of times, had flung it in his direction like a weapon more times than he could count. It was one of the many things she’d cited that made him useless, and it cut like a knife each time it found its mark. She’d hate him if she could see him now; he’d lost all doubt about that a while ago. It still hurt far more than he was willing to admit, still stung in a way that was hard to explain. But coming from Teagan, it didn’t sound quite like a barb. The mention of Teddy, too, sent a warmth through his chest, made him feel a little less on edge. “Don’t let them know that,” he warned, fondness still present in his expression. “They’ll get a big head. Bad for everyone.” 

Scanning the table, Emilio ran a finger absently along some of the weapons there. Knives were the most familiar; he had practice throwing them. Axes were fun, too. He picked up one of each, weighing them in his hands. “Ah, assess all you want. It won’t help you much,” he warned, wriggling his brows as he placed himself in front of the target. Tucking the hatchet into his belt, he took aim with the knife first, rearing back and letting it fly towards the wooden bullseye in front of him.

—

“I quite like their head, actually. Even if that ego of theirs could fill up a room if it could manifest physically.” She grabbed for her goblet and took a drink of her mead, delighted by the roasted honey notes that permeated to her nose and excited her taste buds. Licking her lips, Teagan put her drink back down onto the table and watched Emilio take in the targets. 

It was always fascinating to watch concentration lock on one’s features. How a body tensed in preparation, moving on instinct and muscle memory. Although Teagan knew how a man like Emilio was manufactured, like a machine set to murder without a chance to have a say, she could see that he made the best out of it. He was using his skills in a game, with a target not made of flesh, but of hay and paper. She could see him almost relax, ever so slightly. He was even participating in playful banter, which only served to motivate Teagan to execute her plan.

“Sure, ‘ol grump. Sure.” She winked, even if he couldn’t see it as he cocked his weapon. “Let’s see if the odds are in your favor!” As Emilio released the blade, Teagan released her own, timing it just so. The blades collided, and the Sylph giggled along with the nix while she gloated and bumped her hip to Emilio’s. “How’s my assessing then, huh?”

“Eh, so do I,” Emilio admitted with a shrug. It was nice, actually, knowing that Teddy had a friend in Teagan. She could probably understand them in ways Emilio never could, probably got things that seemed far too foreign for him to grasp. Teddy deserved someone like that, he knew, deserved a level of understanding that Emilio himself would never be able to give them. (On his worst days, he thought a lot about all the things Teddy deserved and just how incapable he was of providing them. But today wasn’t one of his worst days; today felt a little more like one of his best.)

It felt a little better when he let that knife fly. There had always been something a little freeing about letting a weapon make a controlled exit from his hand. Maybe it was a shitty thing to admit, considering where most of those weapons tended to end up, but he’d always found a little bit of strange comfort in it. It was a way of letting go, a method of taking control away from yourself in the most controlled way possible. The illusion of freedom, in many ways, was more comfortable than the real thing. You could let the knife fly and, even without feeling the weight of it in your hand, know exactly where it would end up.

Unless someone knocked it out of the air.

Emilio narrowed his eyes with a small scowl, turning to raise a brow at Teagan. “Didn’t know we were allowed to cheat,” he said, more amused than accusatory. “My turn to ‘assess’ next, is it?” If anything, this new challenge made the game more fun. It was like Teddy talking his ear off as they threw axes, trying to distract him by turning his mind to… other things. Emilio was pretty good at this game, too. “Go ahead, then. Take your shot.”

—

“Oh, I bet you do, lad.” She replied, happy to see Emilio blissfully attached to someone she knew was inherently good. The two of them were good for each other, if Emilio’s undying smile was any indication. He was still a grump, and always would be, but Teagan knew that his days of bitter loneliness were over. Even his self-sabotaging nature couldn’t get in the way. Not if she or Teddy had anything to say about it. 

Love had a way of doing that, at any level, and the nix felt fortunate enough to understand what that felt like between the hunted and the hunter. She was at peace with that, in a way. Sometimes the acrid taste of her family’s death tightened Teagan’s throat and clawed its way out in terrors at night, sending her out into the darkness as she slept, but she knew she could count on Emilio to be a friend now. She knew it was the same for him. She knew they shared a similar horror. And she knew she could even rely on him to be entertained by her antics. 

Teagan snickered to herself, and then the Sylph joined along again when Emilio made a face. The two of them had come a long way since their introduction by the lake. No longer did Teagan want to drown the slayer in water, but in fondness and joy. It’s what he deserved after what he’d lost. A man that bore the weight of death needed to find a way to release the burden on his shoulders and feel his strength return. Now that the two of them saw eye to eye, Teagan wanted to provide that aid, hoping that one day, Emilio would put it all down and let himself stand tall, without the weight crushing him tenfold.

Smiling more, even. As he was then. 

“All right, enaid.” She teased, standing closer and getting into Emilio’s face to taunt him playfully. “You’ll have to be…” Without looking, Teagan lifted her knife while Emilio was distracted and only pulled away from the goading to immediately throw the knife. “Fast!” She finished, a bit miffed to see she had not hit the bullseye. In fact, she had missed it by a whole two inches.

“Well…you didn’t block it.”

He rolled his eyes again at Teagan’s comment, though it was just as fond as it had been before. It was strange, this dynamic they’d built. It wasn’t one he’d ever seen coming. But most of the relationships in Emilio’s life now were like that, weren’t they? Maybe his friendship with Wynne was a predictable thing, but the rest? He’d hated Teddy to begin with, started off thinking Zane belonged on the other side of one of his stakes. He was pretty sure Teagan had wanted him dead at the start, thought she probably would have seen to it if Arden hadn’t been there to stop her. Most of his friends now weren’t human, something that would have his mother rolling in her grave. But Emilio felt less and less like it was a bad thing to love the people he loved. He wasn’t sure what it said about him. He wasn’t sure if the guilt that sometimes clawed at his chest because of it was warranted or not.

Maybe you didn’t have to feel guilty for being a little less miserable than you used to be, even if that was a hard thing to remember. Maybe you were allowed to hold someone’s hand and smile and wear a crown of flowers on your head even if you knew you’d probably lay awake later with something eating at your insides and the memories of all the people who wouldn’t do any of those things again because you had failed to save them closer to the surface than they had been in a long time. Maybe, in cases like this, all you could do was let yourself enjoy one moment at a time.

So he’d let himself have fun. He’d joke with Teagan, he’d throw knives at paper instead of flesh. And later, if he thought about it too much, it would hurt. He’d get stuck on the thought of his daughter, who hadn’t been given nearly enough moments of pure, innocent fun, or of his wife, who might have liked something like this if her relationship to him hadn’t gotten her killed. The storm clouds would return, because they always did. But right now, for this moment, it was sunny. Maybe it was okay to enjoy that.

Teagan was fast, letting her knife loose before Emilio could prep one to knock it from the sky. But there were tradeoffs with things like this — if you moved too quickly, you sacrificed accuracy. Emilio snorted as her knife missed the target, the grin on his face a wide and shit-eating kind. “Don’t need to block it if you can’t hit it without me messing you up,” he teased. With her hands temporarily empty of knives, he pulled the ax from his waistband and reared back, tossing it at the target and grinning at the resulting thunk when it found home. “Maybe you need to be faster, too.”

—

There was always a twinge of sadness that came along with Emilio’s smile. His eyes held the tragic tales of his family, an abundance of pain that became endless nightmares when he shut his eyes. Could he dream again? Could Teagan? Were they allowed to try after all that time? More often than not, she was afraid the answer was no. And now she found herself afraid that Emilio would fall prey to the same ending after being better than the upbringing he was given. 

His eyes pleaded for that reprieve, but his shoulders tensed with guilt, as if ready to bear it forever. Maybe he would. Maybe they both had to prepare for a grief so infinite because who they were died along those they loved. Or perhaps, Teagan hoped, because they had loved again, because love was the root of all grief, they had the hearts to always find themselves again. To grin with a playfulness long thought lost, at a game that was trivial at its worst, and bridging at its best. 

So, Teagan stepped onto it, without hesitation. She crinkled her nose and stuck her tongue out to tease Emilio as she lightly shoved his flower crown down to obscure his vision. It gave her the chance to throw her next knife with much more accuracy, even if it landed at the edge of the red bullseye. “All right,” Teagan snorted out a chuckle, “This doesn’t mean you win. I mean, look! The hatchet is much bigger than the knife.” The Sylph shook their head in disagreement, and Teagan rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on!” She huffed, though there wasn’t any real grief in it. No, she was lost to the glee she felt being with her friend.

The flower crown came down over his eyes to obscure his vision, and there was a time when it would have been enough to make Emilio panic. There was a time when the world would have closed in on him the moment he couldn’t see everything around him with perfect clarity, a time when he would have made a swing without thinking just to make sure no one came too close before he could see clearly again. There was less distance between himself and that time than he’d have liked to admitted to. He didn’t think it would ever be far from him. It had a way of returning, after all, a way of rising back up from the depths of his chest and wrapping cold fingers around his throat each time he’d thought he’d escaped it. 

But it was absent now. In this moment, on this day, he wasn’t that thin collection of paranoia and grief. It was still in him, of course — at this point, he was fairly certain it always would be — but there were other things there with it on days like today. There was the warm thought of Teddy waiting for him at home, the amused huff that came with Teagan’s attempts at sabotage. Today, at least, he was fine. He just needed to try to hold onto that.

Lifting the flowers from his face, he grinned at the sight of Teagan’s knife just at the edge of the bullseye. “Ah, bullshit!” He laughed, grin only widening when even the sylph in charge of the booth agreed with his victory. “Don’t be a sore loser.” Had he lost, of course, he would have been just as ornery about it, but that was neither here nor there. “Three more goes, though. I’ll use a knife this time, so it won’t matter how big it is.” He swiped one off the table, brow furrowing for a moment as he pretended to have his attention captured by something just in the distance. “The fuck is going on over there?” He asked, letting a hint of feigned concern seep into his voice. When Teagan turned to look at nothing, he quickly loosed the knife at the target.

—

“All right, all right,” Teagan put her hands up in a small truce, reaching into her pocket shortly after when she saw a woman with a platter full of drinks. “You tricked me, but unlike some people, when I point out that there’s something to look at, there’s actually something to look at.” She offered a few shiny rocks and old coins that she had polished, along with a gemstone she was lucky to find in the lake. From what Teagan could gather, it was a beautiful piece of agate, and she knew a fellow nymph would appreciate an exchange with it. 

“Mead platter coming our way. Give ‘em this—” Taking Emilio’s hand, she placed the items in it, and pointed out the gorgeous Anthousa. “Ask for two drinks. I’m runnin’ a bit low.” While he was busy with that, Teagan eyed the hatchet on the table and picked it up. She tested the weight of it and tutted to herself, deciding to use up her next two tries as quickly as she could before the drinks came up. The hatchet landed home, as did the knife, but Teagan knew she was coming up short when it came to the possibility of winning. Whether she liked it or not, even if she hit the next bullseye, Emilio was the winner. 

And he was going to be so smug about it.

“Okay, take your next three turns. I already admit defeat and will be buying the next few rounds of mead.” She paused, “But only if you don’t act like a wanker and rub this win in.”

Following her gaze to the woman with the mead platter, Emilio couldn’t help but grin. He’d give it to Teagan — she knew how to distract him properly. This time, at least, he was willing enough to let it happen. He’d already proven his point with the ax and the knife in the target, pleased enough with himself to let Teagan have a few uninterrupted tosses while he fetched the drinks. Especially if Teagan was the one buying. Emilio couldn’t pretend to understand the currency at this event, but with Teagan footing the bill? He didn’t really have to.

He approached the anthousa, who chattered idly at him as he handed her the stones and coins Teagan had handed him. Emilio wasn’t much of a talker, something the nymph seemed to recognize quickly enough. After he’d successfully gotten the drinks, she trotted off to find someone else to chat with, and there was some relief in that. The hunter knew he didn’t quite fit in here. More than that, he knew that there were plenty of people here who might like to take his head off if they knew a little more about him. It was better, he thought, to stick with the only person at the faire that he was fairly confident didn’t want to kill him. He returned to her, pushing one drink in her direction and taking a swig of the other.

Grinning as Teagan admitted defeat, he picked up one of the knives from the table and tossed it, hitting the bullseye with a flourish. Something told him they both knew he was still going to act like a wanker. 

[snuggerudism]

https://www.tumblr.com/jimmyssnuggs/745933349295702016/jimmys-mom-referring-to-hallie-as-her

how does jimmy’s mom meeting hallie for the first time go?

really, really well!! she absolutely adores hallie, and thinks she is the cutest little baby. she missed having a baby around the house, so it’s fun for her. hallie sits in her lap at dinner and it’s the cutest thing ever.

hallie loves her and is showing her all her teddy bears and toys, having her play with them alongside her

jimmy and teagan couldn’t be more happy