#the brain worms are BAD w this one chat

[raiiner]

pov i am showing you my favorite little guy (he would kill me) (i’d forgive him)

[queenofallimagines]

Satan if you were a satanist before you arrived in the devildom

A/n: listennnn in between getting dragged by the Lucifer chat bots, writing two really long fics and having brain worms about this Au I’ve had so many thoughts and Satan has landed in my radar☺️ asmo and Simon are NEXT bc guardian angels are a whole DIFFERENT can of worms

I’m gunna use like ACTUAL satanic lore mixed in w the game lore

Satan:

- okay so boom

- Right off the bat he can tell you are different

- Sitting back waiting to see how you react to everyone

- Takes note you’re much more respectful to him than the rest

- Thought you were walking on eggshells because you were terrified of him but you ain’t scared at all

- You see through all his pranks

- “He’ll probably see that coming a mile away. Try moving it over here Lucifer don’t check there.”

- Color him impressed

- Does see you don’t really freak out like his brothers when he goes into one of his little rage fits

- When he offered to make the pact with you to piss Lucifer off you were really caught at a pass

- Like for one you technically already have a soft pact with him being a devotee

- But also you don’t want to disrespect him by saying no

- Choosing to not get on Lucifer’s bad side because you still do have a mission to do in that attic, soyou politely decline

- “I’m sorry, but I’m not going to make a pact with you that isn’t built on a mutual trust and understanding”

- He’s always told you to sniff out a trap and you were NOT falling for it

- Blinded by rage for not getting his way, that’s when he lashes out

- He feels something weird in his chest when he looks at you in that moment but he can’t quite understand it. Like a tugging feeling at the back of his head trying to tell him something

- When you get caught I. The middle of the whole “they’re the same person thing” you just roll your eyes

- “No shit they’re not the same person🙄😒 Satan and Lucifer couldn’t be more different, Lucifer is the morning star and Satan is more tricker than anything :/ crazy how yall don’t do research”

- Ngl he almost fell for you right then and there

- He cannot STAND that especially when humans call anything and everything Satan and refer to him and Lucifer like they’re the same person.

- Looks at you with star eyes for a second before sticking to you like glue. He’s very fascinated with you and wants to study you under a microscope

- Ask you if you’re like Solomon and have been studying for years

- Did you manage to get your hands on some devildom textbook somehow?

- Maybe even some texts form the celestial realm

- “Not really but that would be super cool to read.”

- He himself hates misinformation so you be correcting all the demon brothers with the quickness

- Lucifer is very annoyed and Satan is elated

- Notices you looking at him a lot, like you’re analyzing him

- Ofc he’s blunt and isn’t gunna beat around the bush he asks you what you’re doing starring at him like that

- “It’s really nice to see what you actually look like… if you’re shape shifting all the time and this is the form you stay in full time it’s… nice to see you face to face”

- Confused for a second because he doesn’t often make trips directly to the human world even for a summoning

- “Well I mean, in the human world we don’t actually know what you look like. The only book that has a description of what you looked like and are has the pages mysteriously ripped out and have never been found. I assume that was your doing?”

- Shocked pikachu bc he fr forgot he did that in his younger years

- His mischievous tendencies have been delegated directly to Lucifer, he understands the value of books now

- “Ah,,, I do recall doing that. It would make sense why you’re starring at me so hard.”

- Blushes when you call him a pretty boy

- Like he’s in his room kicking his feet giggling

- You bring him his offerings directly

- He won’t even realize you’re doing deity work with him and is just excited to spend time with you

- Whenever you come back home from class or whatever you give him little things you got in your way back or snacks he likes

- Nobody has ever seen satan smile this much

- Lucifer peeps when it’s your turn to cook dinner you just so happen to favor foods Satan likes and uses ingredients he does to cook too

- Will be very suspicious of you mirroring his behavior

- Satan is none the wiser truly he’s assure at familiar feeling is like some star crossed lovers stuff and you were meant to meet by fates hands

- Has so many cute cat themed things in his room from you

- Lucifer is not liking how you seem to be trying to gain his trust for your own reasons but he can’t sense anything malicious.

- He can’t pinpoint any alternate motive for this behavior

- Satan will not notice until someone points it out to him

- Lucy straight up asks you why you’re getting so friendly with him

- Mammon also chimes in that you seem like you’re sucking up to him, and Satan feels conflicted be he doesn’t like how they’re accusing you but also the fact that you might be just being nice to him because you want something is setting his nerves on fire

- Rolling your eyes you shoot back at Lucifer that you’re just worshiping Satan like you usually do

- The old man is takes aback and Satan is like…. I beg your pardon?😀

- “Satan has been my patron for years now, the only thing that’s different is that I can give him my offerings and ask him for help directly”

- Mammon is chewing the carpet he’s supposed to be your first man!

- Satan is flabbergasted and is searching his memory for this information

- Before he remembers

- “How did I not notice??”

- “I thought you knew??”

- “NO???”

- Dinner is wild bc now asmo asking for embarrassing memories of you

- Rip bc Satan gon tell it ALL😭

- I feel like he’d be the type to keep a log so he might not remember every single face and name because he does fuck with some people who summon him

- Grabs your notebook from his room and starts reciting shit BAR FOR BAR

- “Oh yeah i remember this! You were quite a rowdy child picking fights with everyone. Your temper was awful”

- “YOU DO NOT GET TO FUCKING SAY THAY TO ME!!”

- laughing because he’s taking a stroll down memory lane and he’s dragging you along

- Can feel your anger a mile away, he’s in your ear now more than EVER going “don’t you want to go apeshit?”

- Constantly encouraging you to loose your temper on Lucifer

- He feeds off your rage and it feels almost euphoric to him, because he’s an instigator if anything😭

- “Where the fuck is your rage?? Lucifer was definitely disrespecting you👀👀”

- Exhausting

- Lucifer will get on him about having you up for hours on end reading and studying when you need to sleep

- You will NOT fail any class not on his fucking watch! He’s gunna make sure you excel in this exchange program academically

- Even if he’s not who you ask for things he’s helping you

- “Do NOT as belphie for help with dream interpretation I’ll help you!!”

- Very proud to show you off

- “Y’all see MY human?”

- Mammon is trying not to start problems on purpose

- He will probably bend you over Lucifer’s desk bestie it’s inevitable

- If you’re intimate before he knows he’s really gentle and makes sure to take his time with you

- If it’s after he will be rough and mean

- He definitely cares about you and loves you but he will pretend he’s using you as a toy

- As if he’s your god and you’re nothing but a lowly mortal designed to be used and filled up by him

- Choking you out and breeding you for hours on end

- Will be so incredibly gentle with aftercare it’s almost like he’s a different person

- “Look at you drooling and can’t even keep your eyes focused. Pathetic. You’re too stupid to think of anything other than how I’m ruining you”

- Makes you struggle to walk every time

- Gets carried away and marks you everywhere like diavolo asking you why there’s a hickey on your ankle😭

- Almost buys you a collar if Lucifer didn’t stop him

- Wants you to know you belong to him and you’re his little follower

- Tells you how good you are for him and gives you a nice reward

- “You’re so good for me, so eager to please and make me happy. My human deserves a reward hm?”

- Cocky asf for no reason PLEASE humble his ass!!

- Gets off on it when you pin him down and call him pathetic

- “The great avatar of wrath Satan himself bouncing on my lap like a whore desperate to get off.”

- He’s literally turning to mush for you

- Whimpering and looking at you with teary eyes

- “P-please I need to cum I’ll do anything”

- Bites back a moan when you coo at him that he’s so pathetic needing a mortal to get off

- He can feel how mean you are and your anger through your pact and it’s making his body buzz with excitement

- Panting and wiggling his hips he’s begging you to fill him up

- Call him a good kitty and he probably won’t be able to last

- Likes when you punish him like best his ass fr leave bruises make his ass bright red!!

- He’s really just attached to you and will cause a big issue when you have to leave the devildom at the end of the year😅

[yomiurinikei]

tsurugi for the ask meme?

god the cws for this damn boy. uhh neglect and also i can’t see kinjomae as healthy w/what happens in the game and that’s discussed so. yeas

- My identity hc for them

gay little beast. he and kouhei had Something going on btw. anyways i also hc him as trans, it’s not one of those things i feel could actually fit into canon. but idgaf!! to me he is trans because i’m trans and so is my boyfriend (do u know him?) and every cool person is trans. tsurugi isn’t cool but i think he deserves a win once so he can have one in the form of getting to be trans!!!

- Thoughts on their home life/family

ogh. im using this bullet point as a chance to talk about stuff i’m not otherwise able to/which i don’t think i’ve shared? but like. agh…. how can anyone put into words literally anything about this little worms life. my hc for his mom is currently that she walked out when tsurugi was fairly young and isn’t interested in. any of it, so it’s just him and juu? so i think tsurugi started being left home alone Very Early, and going with his dad to work was like.. a nice treat away from being by himself for the majority of the day. which probably helped contribute to tsurugis entire identity and existence and everything revolving around his work as a police officer. aaaaaaa.

- How i feel about their canonical writing/handling

i don’t like what linuj did to him in sdra2 because amidst all the other controversies that arose with that game it really just felt lazy and like icky stereotypes. there was better ways to handle a tsurugi who had gotten worse/wasn’t doing well/etc past what happened in sdra2. i don’t like it and it doesn’t feel accurate to what should have happened if we were going to go the route of “tsurugi didn’t magically decide to go to therapy and heal”. i completely understand that people and especially fictional characters can get worse and have negative character development. but it’s the way in which tsurugi acted that felt lazy and ooc to me.

so anyways to retreat into the dark recesses of my brain. he’s so scrunkle… wet dish rag i am wringing all the water out of. i like him in dra i like the narrative role he plays i honestly think he’s v fun. i’ve waxed poetic before (not publicly i think? not about the thing i’m thinking of rn) about the tragedy of what happens to him and how u can read things as all being set up to screw boy over. but it’s just very interesting. i want to squeeze him so bad.

- The one thing i’d want to make canon about them

he and kouhei had frequent sleepovers at kouheis place. i don’t CARE if it doesn’t fit with tsurugis childhood i think kouheis parents were nice to him and cared about him. overall i just think all my thoughts on kouhei and tsurugi should be made canon. i should write a fic…

- My number one favorite ship for them

mmmm… right now it’s tsuhiko but all of the chatting about kouhei makes me wanna say tsuruhei. tbh i’m very versatile in who i ship tsurugi with i think he fits well with a lot of people (in non despair) and so long as there’s someone by his side i don’t really care who it is or if he holds hands with them or not.

- …Now everyone else i ship with them

mmm. kinji obviously, i still like teruya w/tsurugi in some aus, yamato but i’ll be honest i’m kinda weird about them. i think they’re separated. not divorced but separated. but also they’ve never dated they’re just besties. but also they have the most tender interactions. not to use this line but i think they should just have a weird very queer coded friendship where they both Know what the underlying vibe is and both choose to not broach the subject of how charged things are.

- The thing i will NEVER ship

tsurugi undeniably had feelings for yuki and while u can argue about how authentic yukis feelings were (ie were they just there to incentivize him to get closer so as to further damage tsurugi) it was definitely mutual. just again. how Real things were for yuki depends on how separate u view him from utsuro. uhhhhhhm. but just because feelings were there doesn’t mean it’d be good or healthy for them to date !. 

- a dynamic/relationship i wish was explored more (in canon, or in fandom)

on my hands and knees fucking begging u all for more kouhei. if i make a p2 of my kouhei hcs will that be enough propaganda. what do u all want from me. uhhh also if there’s one thing i miss from old sdra fandom days it’s tsurugi + kizuna worsties content.

- thoughts on their design (appearance-wise)

ah… i definitely prefer his dra color palette over his sdra2 one but that could be because something about his look in sdra2 just feels very off to me. that in mind i fucking hate his pants why are they that shade of blue linuj get off ur knees for that shade of blue. it’s too fucking bright it stands out so much. anyways i understand the uniform but i’d like to see him in like… maybe smthn professional/more formal, but not? the dress shirt and tie. 

- A music-related thought- a song that reminds me of them, or what their music taste is, etc

oh god oh fuck if i don’t find a good song this is going to be. so miserable for me and i will get cyber bullied again. uhhh. wires - the neighborhood bc lol make sure u tell him the right wire to cut tsurugi! don’t fuck it up lol! haha it can’t be that hard surely this is the same as all the other bomb diffusals right? right tsurugi? im the ceo of intentionally misinterpreting songs to fit my vision. mkay that’ll work. damn i need to listen to more music before i go do more ask memes

[coweye]

Guys My Age - PT.1

Pairing: Francisco ‘Catfish’ Morales x Miller!Reader Word Count: 1.5k

Summary: After four years away, you return home to realise that maybe everything you’ve been looking for was right in front of you all along.

Warnings: Mention of depression, Slow burn - no smut yet but it will eventually be horrifically filthy 18+ only pls gang, LEGAL Age Gap. 

Note: This bad bois been worming its way to the surface for a while now, hope you enjoy! 💕 I apologise in advance for the slow burn.

⇢MASTERLIST

Life was strange sometimes.

Here you were, back in the hometown you’d sworn never to return to after four years away, flanked by your older brother Benny. 

Two thirds of the Miller gang back together, reunited or at least you had been.

“I’ma get us a table, you order the drinks.” Ben muttered distractedly whilst scouting out potential tables.

“Hey, I’m supposed to be destitute, the least you could do is get the first round in.” The sad thing is, you’re only half joking. He rolled his eyes at your expense, before handing you his credit card and continued on his journey to get a table, presumably with a great view of the blonde woman he’d spotted upon entry to the bar. Benny was predictable if nothing else, it was part of his charm. 

So, you pushed your way forward through the throng of warm bodies, Friday night at Flanagans was a nightmare but you had agreed to be sociable as Santiago was in town, so you’d made the sacrifice and took a night off from your crushing depression to don a nice t-shirt and apply makeup for the first time in the two weeks since moving into Will’s back room.

You smiled what you hoped was a somewhat friendly lift of your lips at the bartender and ordered two beers, as you were waiting you heard the familiar call of Santiago Garcia - the man who you’d spent your teen years obsessed with. 

He was gorgeous inside and out, though your crush had morphed into something a lot more wholesome and you had a genuine platonic love for the man, as an extension of your brothers.

“How have you been, guapa? God, long time no see!” He all but cried, clearly already a couple of beers in as wrapped you in a strong hug, pulling you onto your tiptoes. He wasn’t lying, you hadn’t seen Santiago in two maybe three years ago now. 

Time had gotten away from you and your visits had become less and less frequent, especially with the boys being deployed, you couldn’t say you were happy to be back, but it was certainly nice to see them all again.

“I know, damn, you got old!” You chuckle as his face straightens out in feigned hurt. “Like fine wine, Santi, Fine wine!”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stop flirting, you two.” Will grumbles as he slides through the crowd to lean on the bar beside you, lifting three fingers up to the bartender who had already placed the pints of beer before you. 

“Where have you been?” You question raising an eyebrow “I’ve been back at least two weeks.”

“I’ve been in Australia for a little while, it's nothing serious but-”

“Pope’s got a girlfriend now, Squirt.” The low voice is a new one, but only one person used to call you that awful nickname. 

You turn to see Francisco Morales behind you, his eyes are older than the rest of him but still irrevocably kind and he has an easy smile painted on his lips. You can’t quite remember him being this handsome as your eyes drink him in, perhaps you’d been blinded by the effortless beauty of Santiago as a teen but my god, Catfish had almost floored you. 

“Frankie!” You smile - all teeth, trying somewhat successfully for an air of normalcy despite your brain processing the change that five years has had on your taste in men and pulling him in for his own hug. 

You tried to stop yourself, you honestly did but as you breathed in, the smell of him overtook you, the spicy scent of cinnamon and sweet vanilla; the man somehow smelled like a goddamn cupcake and you had the biggest sweet tooth. 

Locking your inner sex offender deep down inside a box so as to not assault the man you’d held in a hug for what was becoming longer than appropriate, you pulled away. 

“A girlfriend?” You question, your brain scrambling for something to talk about other than those brown eyes. You can’t help the smirk that sneaks its way across your lips as you tease the man before you. “Santiago Garcia, have you gone soft on me in your old age?”

He huffs as he grabs his beer. “Fuck off, baby Miller.” 

The three of you chortle in response to his defeated tone as he walks towards the table Ben has secured. Will grabs at his wallet, hand coming out to stop you in confusion when you hold out a card to pay. 

You shake your head and shrug. “Ben’s treat.” 

That kills any argument on his tongue as he picks up his drink and follows Santi’s lead. You can’t help but chuckle at your brothers, you had missed them both so much. 

You’re very quickly aware of Frankie lingering to your left, waiting for you to finish paying, ever the gentleman. 

You turn to him as the machine processes the transaction. 

“Your-”

“How-” You both chuckle, the two of you have always been the quiet ones of the group, more observant with witty one liners thrown in than the loud mouths currently chatting at your table. 

It seems years apart haven’t helped either of your awkwardness.

“You go…” You dismiss with a quick laugh when he waits for you to speak.

“I was just gonna say, it's nice to have you back!” He shrugged before gesturing to side of him “After you,” 

Frankie creates a barrier with his body for your fellow thirsty patrons who want your spot at the bar. You pick up yours and Bens drinks and turn to find the guys. 

Frankie’s hand finds your lower back as he guides you through, its innocuous enough, hell if you hadn’t been drooling over the man minutes before you wouldn’t have given it so much as a second thought, but that palm guarding you from the brunt of the crowd was like molten lava slowly burning your flesh. 

“W-Well, it’s good to be back! I’m not going anywhere in a hurry!” You pretty much shout over the deafening ambient chatter around you. His low voice is in your ear when he replies, you force yourself not to close the distance and push your spine into his chest, Frankie isn’t like that; Hell, he has a girlfriend and baby at home.

He’s just being friendly - he’s known you since you were seventeen. 

“You miss your friends back home?”

“They’re not my friends. None of those assholes let me sleep on their goddamn sofas.” Trying to break the tension only you seemed to be feeling with a joke, it seems to work as he chortles.

“Well you’re more than welcome to my sofa if Will ever gets too much, Squirt.” You couldn’t explain the things that this man saying the word squirt to you was doing. No matter the context, even if it was because you squirted slurpee from your nose when laughing too hard when you were a teenager. 

“I may hold you to that - he bit my head off the other day because I didn’t wash a glass the second I used it, I swear-” You’re cut off when you find the booth rather quickly, the raucous laughter from the rangers acting as a siren call.  You slide in beside Ben and turn to your other brother “-I was just telling Frankie, how much of a control freak you are.”

And because God hates you, Francisco slides in beside you. 

…

You were a grown woman and you had a ridiculous infatuation.

It wasn’t for a lack of trying either, after sitting in that bar you had made an effort to block out the sensation of his thigh against your own or when he leaned back against the plush fabric and wrapped his arm around the back of the booth.

But so help you god you were only human, you couldn’t help but laugh a little harder at his jokes than the others or the warmth that flooded your belly when you’d meet his eyes as you told a story and find his chocolate orbs transfixed on you as if you were telling a great tale - rather than an anecdote about how you dislocated your tailbone last year when you were drunk on some stairs.

It wasn’t even as if it was just his looks - though you were big enough to admit that initially that had been a large part of it.  It was the ease you felt around him, the kindness you could see clear as day painted on his face. 

Though you knew, deep down in your toxic heart of hearts, buried beneath your daddy issues and depression, this deep desire was because he wasn’t all that interested. 

It wasn’t as if he ignored you, no. He was friendly, but he had no interest in you besides just that, being a friend. 

He had a baby and a girlfriend and you weren’t a home wrecker.

He was your brother's best friend, an extension of your family. 

These were all things you reminded yourself about as you lay in bed alone staring up at the ceiling the morning after.

You could just be his friend, right?

⇢ Next Part

[strawberrymilkgeorge]

Part Five. "You guys gossip about boys without me?"

warnings: swearing, mentions of emotional abusive/manipulation word count: 3.2k (not including pictures)

behind the screen (irl dream x f!reader) series masterlist ultimate masterlist

.

Y/n dropped her phone on the bed and slowly rolled off and onto the ground with a soft THUD. She grunted, falling harder than she expected but the dull pain now present in her right shoulder felt deserved somehow. Why did she think she deserved it? Maybe because she was an unconfrontational worm even when the person needed to be confronted because he hurt her more than anyone ever had.

She closed her eyes and wiggled to get comfortable on the thin carpet in her room. Laying on the ground was relaxing to her, forcing her gamer back to straighten to how it was intended. It helped her think, being on the floor. She didn't know why but she didn't question it. Just laid on the floor in acceptance with the dirt and forgotten candy wrappers.

Why didn't she want to respond to Peter? Well, years of being with him and even the months of not being with him had taught her that her ex liked to get his way and liked to take his anger out in her verbally when he didn't.

You could say she's heard some terrible things over very simple inconveniences.

Y/n slowly pattered to her desk and slid on her headphones, finding the discord server Dream said he and George were on. It was a server that a lot of their friends were in, one that Y/n hardly went in since she still hadn't met a lot of them and wasn't super comfortable with talking in it yet.

She scrolled through the various text chats, one for boredom, one for stream questions, one for memes, one for pictures of pets, one for.... discussing the inevitable takeover of rats...? Y/n wasn't sure what that was about but she knew she didn't want to find out. The list went on. She was pretty sure they had made a channel for every possible message someone could ever send.

There were equally as many voice channels, most of them titled with the names of different games for when they only played with each other and didn't stream. Some of them were just random names and she noticed there was one to match the rat takeover text channel. Okay, who was responsible for that?

After what felt like an entire scavenger hunt and with many new questions in her mind, Y/n finally found the voice channel Dream and George were in and clicked on it. It was called memerz-only.

"I'm not a memer, am I allowed in here?" she asked. She hadn't realized how messed up her voice was since she hadn't talked all day.

"Holy shit, Bug, you sound awful."

She scoffed a laugh. "Thanks, Dream. Really means a lot." She did sound pretty scuffed. Her voice was a little scratchy from not talking literally all day.

"You doing okay, Bugsy?" George asked kindly, to which she hummed.

“I just have one quick question...”

“Mhm?”

“This is simple, please don’t elaborate further. There’s a channel on this server... did you guys mean rat as in BadBoyHalo’s dog or rats as in rats?”

Neither of them spoke for a minute before George understood what she was referring to. “Oh! Rats as in rats.”

“Okay, thank you.” 

“Yeah, Quackity—“

“No!” she interupted. “No! I said I don’t wanna know. I really don’t. I’m too afraid to understand.”

“Wha- HA, okay.”

“Good choice, Bugsy. I wish I didn’t know what it’s about. It’s a lot weirder than you’d think.”

“Now that that’s settled,” Dream said with a laugh. “How are you doing, Bug?”

"Neither of you are streaming, right?" she asked, doubling checking the twitch app on her phone to be sure.

"No."

"So I don't have to pretend to be happy and bubbly?"

"No, you can be as mundane as you'd like," Dream said. "We don't mind."

"Yeah, honestly, most of the time when Dream and I are on calls alone it's just us being super boring and hardly talking."

"That's..." she paused to find the right words and decided with, "actually really cute. You guys just enjoy each other's presence."

George scoffed and Dream giggled. "See, even Bug says we're cute, Georgie! Why can you tell me you love me?"

"I'll leave right now if you don't stop," George threatened. "Can we go back to how Bugsy's miserable?"

"I'm not miserable, I just..." she hesitated. She had already told George about why she was having a bad day, but Dream?

She didn't want to tell Karl because she knew he would yell at her. She didn't want to tell Sapnap because she didn't trust him not to tell everyone (on accident, of course). For some reason, it was a different kind of hesitation than with the others that made her not want to tell Dream. She didn't want to tell him because she didn't want to be... embarrassed? Maybe that was it. She thought it would be embarrassing to tell Dream about how her ex-boyfriend treated her like shit and how now he wants to get back together with her. Plus, she knew how everyone else individually would react but Dream was a complete mystery. Maybe he'd yell at her too and say she's stupid for being affected by an ex. Maybe he'd break down crying for some reason? Who knows?

"You don't have to tell us," Dream stated. "Seriously."

"It's embarrassing," she said, tucking her feet beneath her on her seat. As she said the words, she decided they felt right. She was embarrassed. "But George already knows."

Above everyone else, Y/n was okay with telling George about her situation because he and her tended to talk about their troublesome relationships quite often. He always came to her for advice and she to him. They were very similar in their ways of thinking and seemed to have lots of similar dating stories, even if neither of them knew what the hell they were doing. She knew he'd never judge her for thinking unclearly since he tended to do the same.

George hummed, not knowing what to say since she hadn't said much. She could tell he didn't wanna say something that might make Dream more nosey and start hounding her about telling him.

"What hap—never mind. Not my business," Dream said quickly.

"No, I mean, I kinda wanted to talk to George about it again anyway so I guess you can join in on the gossip." Guess my mouth decided for me on this one, she thought.

"Wait, what? You guys gossip about boys without me?"

"Oh my gosh, don't say it like that, Dream," George groaned. "Bugsy and I talk about relationship problems a lot, yes. Not just boys."

"How did I not know this?"

"Because you don't know a lot of things?"

"It's normally George sending screenshots of text conversations with girls and asking me how to let them down gently," Y/n explained with a giggle.

"Or Y/n talking about her asshole ex."

"George! What do you and Karl not get about not calling him names?"

"I'm so lost," Dream mumbled.

Y/n sighed. "Okay, well," she cut herself off with a groan. "It's so embarrassing. Basically, my ex asked me to 'chat' this morning which is code for he wants to get back together—"

"Do you know that for sure?" Dream asked.

"Yeah, we already decided that," George snapped. "Let her finish."

"Sorry."

"So he wants to get back together and I feel stupid for wanting to listen to what he has to say."

"How is that embarrassing?"

"Because he hurt me and I feel like an idiot because him even suggesting that means he doesn't realize how badly he hurt me. It makes me feel like, I don't know, like all the time I spent being upset was for nothing," Y/n explained in a soft voice. "And because his simple, like, five word text made me freak out all day to the point of exhaustion."

"I don't think you should be embarrassed, Bugsy," George offered.

"Have either of you, uh, have you ever considered dating an ex?"

"Didn't you just say he hurt you badly?" Dream asked. "You aren't thinking of getting back with him, are you?"

"No... but I want to stay friends so maybe I should hear him out?"

"Well, I've never gotten back with an ex," he said bluntly. "But to be fair, all my relationships have ended badly or for bad reasons so I've never wanted to see any of them again. Staying friends depends on why you and he broke up, I guess, but..."

"Um, how do I put this..." she trailed off. "He was mean to me."

"Then no? Simple."

"But I've forgiven him and I think he's changed."

"People don't change that easily. Didn't you break up like, a few months ago?" George asked.

"Yeah, but—"

"Honestly I think if a guy was ever mean to you he doesn't deserve any more of your attention," Dream decided. "So, no. Don't even be his friend. Don't listen to a single thing he has to say."

"That's what I told her," George agreed.

"If that were the case, you guys shouldn't be friends," she argued. "You're mean to each other all the time."

"But we know it's a joke," George defended.

"So you're saying if someone is ever purposefully mean to you just once, you drop them forever?"

"Well, no," Dream said. "Not exactly. But it sounds like he was super mean to you since it's why you broke up."

She took a deep breath. She didn't want to go into detail. She was already uncomfortable enough talking about her personal life so much, but she trusted both of them and needed to get it off her chest and they were there and willing to listen. They had already established wanting to listen to her if she wanted to speak and right now, she wanted to speak. Maybe not the full story, but at least some. "He, um, well, the mean things he said, he said because he was trying to get me to see what he thought was the truth about myself."

Both of them were silent for a few moments. "I'm still confused," George admitted.

"Me too... But you don't have to tell us." Dream explained again. She thought it was sweet that they kept reassuring her that.

"I know, but I want to. If it's not too much for you guys..."

"No, go ahead, if you want."

"Uh, he lowkey emotionally manipulated me by telling me I wasn't good enough for anyone and stuff and how he was the only one who could ever love me. The second part he said truly believing that he was being romantic. There are a lot worse and specific things engraved in my brain but that's the gist of what he would tell me. He made me believe that I could never leave him because I could never be loved by anyone else. But he said it all in a way that... he thought he was just... letting me in on something no one else had the guts to tell me."

George gasped. "What?! Bugsy, I'm so sorry, I didn't know it was like that."

"Woah, what the hell? No. Absolutely not. Don't give this guy a second thought. Cut him off for good," Dream said sternly, angry that anyone would say that to anyone, especially to someone like Y/n. "Wait, so, you broke up with him?"

"Yeah. After Karl yelled at me a lot and explained his outside point of view, I finally realized Peter was gaslighting me and emotionally abusing me and stuff so I dumped him. I guess right now I'm just upset by it because I thought we were past this and I was healing and him reaching out affected me again. I'm just emotionally exhausted. Like I said, it hurts to know that he doesn't realize what he did to me."

"I'm really sorry, Bug," Dream said softly. "Gimme his address and I'll punch him for you."

She laughed through her nose. "That's okay. Thanks."

"Yeah, she can go set his house on fire if she wants. She's proven that already."

"Shut up, George," she said with a small laugh.

"Wh......at?" Dream stuttered and George briefly explained.

"Well, Bug, just so you know, in case you weren't aware, you're really cool and sweet and funny and we really like having you around–" Dream started.

"Oh, ugh, no don't do this," she tried to joke but he ignored her as he continued his speech.

"–and you're way too good to be hanging out with either of us, and whatever that asshole was showing you wasn't love. 'No one could love you like he did' because what he was doing was not love, it was abuse." Dream's voice had a certain gentleness to it as he spoke that comforted Y/n and made her believe him. He was blunt but it didn't stab her in the heart like it should have.

If Y/n ever cried, she might have just then from how sweet they were both being. But she didn't because that wasn't something she did. She never cried over anything Peter said, never cried during movies, and didn't cry then. But she did smile very fondly at the Discord screen in front of her.

"Thank you, Dream."

"You know I'm not good with words, but, yeah, what Dream said," George said. "I'm sorry you had to go through that thinking it was normal. Please, please, do not get back together with him and please don't be friends with him."

"He's fine as a friend though."

"Bug. Whether he's fine as a friend doesn't matter, he doesn't deserve to have you as a friend. He treated you like shit, it's okay to be a little cold to him."

She sighed. They were right. "Okay." There was a long pause before, "thanks, guys. Sorry for coming in here and dumping my problems on you—"

"Don't be sorry," George said. "We're the ones that asked you to come in and share. We knew what we signed up for and don't regret it."

"Seriously, Bug, we care about you. You're allowed to, you know, talk about yourself." How did he know that's what she meant by that sentence? The way he could read her mind was heart-warming.

"Also, George knows this but Dream, there's a strict no-telling policy about this kinda thing. Please don't tell anyone."

"I wouldn't even think of it," he promised. "My lips are sealed."

"Good."

A soft animal noise came from one of their mics and Y/n strained her ears to listen. "Was that a cat?"

"Patches has entered the chat," George joked.

Dream chuckled. "Yeah, my cat just jumped on my lap."

"Aw, you have a cat? Lemme see lemme see lemme see!" Y/n begged. "Partly because I would love if we could stop talking about my ex-boyfriend and the other part because I love cats."

"There's pictures of her in the pets channel on Discord—"

"No, no I want a picture of her on your lap. Is she all snuggled up?"

"Yeah, she is."

"PleASE, Dream. I need to see the snuggly cat."

"Fine, fine, if you insist. Give me a second."

A few moments later, she got a DM from Dream and smiled at the picture. His room was dark but the computer screen cast a cold glow over a ball of fur on a lap clad in sweatpants. "Awww, she's so cute."

"Dream, I wanna see it too," George whined. "Send it to the pets channel."

"I'm literally making this my lock screen," Y/n informed, making Dream laugh.

"No, George, it's only for Bug. She's had a bad day so she gets exclusive Patches content."

"What? That is so messed up."

"You know what's messed up, George?" Dream asked. "You never come to me with advice on how to reject girls. We're on the phone for 12 hours a day but you can't talk to me about girls? Do you know how that makes me feel?"

"You'll just make fun of me."

"Why would I? What makes you think that?"

"Because Sapnap and I make fun of you? So obviously you and him would make fun of me?" George said with a laugh.

"....that's fair."

Y/n locked her phone and clicked the home button to admire her new lock screen. "I love her," she whispered.

Dream and George both laughed. "I'm regretting sending you that. You're gonna, like, make a shrine or something."

"What would be wrong with that? She's precious. She deserves a shrine."

"Yeah, Dream, you're the one that feeds her gormet cooked food," George teased with a laugh. "You probably have a shrine."

"That's normal! That's what people feed their cats! That's completely normal!"

"I don't," George countered.

"Then what do you feed your cat?" Dream asked.

"I dunno, normal cat food?"

"Wait! You have a cat too??" Y/n asked. "I feel like we're missing a huge detail and it's that George never told me he had a cat."

"And a dog."

"WHAT? GEORGE! Send me pictures!!!!!"

"I can't right now, it's like three am. They're sleeping. Look in the pets channel."

"You're the worst," she grumbled, clicking and scrolling to find his pets. She saw a lot of cute pictures of other peoples pets along the way but couldn't find George's.

"Hey, do your animals have English accents?" Dream asked, making Y/n laugh.

"What?" George scoffed. "You're so stupid."

"How would that even sound?" Y/n asked.

"Like..." Dream thought, preparing to test out how it would hypothetically sound. "Meow," Dream meowed in his best accent, failing miserable.

"Oh gosh, never do that again," Y/n begged.

Dream laughed into his mic. "That was disgusting. George, I really hope your pets don't have accents."

"They're animals, so probably not. And if they did, it definitely wouldn't sound like whatever that was."

"Oh come on–"

"OH I FOUND THEM." Y/n announced as she found a message from George in the pets channel with the message 'heard we're sharing our pets'. "GEORGE. THEY'RE SO CUTE."

"Are you gonna make them your background picture now?" George asked.

"What, no way! It's Patches!" Dream scoffed.

"Yeah, I'll make George's pets my home screen. Oh, what a good day." As soon as she said it, a metal bowling ball fell to her stomach, reminding her of all the reasons it was, in fact, not a good day.

She got off after a while, feeling the weight of a particular idiot man's stupid simple text catch up with her again. She thanked Dream and George for letting her join, they invited her to always hang out with them, and she went on her way.

Y/n fell on her bed and curled up under the covers as her mind started to wander from Peter to Dream. She was really glad she met him. He was a really good person and he was always so incredibly kind to her. George and Sapnap and Karl were all great friends, so caring and understanding and always looking out for her, but Dream was different and she didn't know why.

Maybe it was because he seemed untouchable still, like he had no reason to hang out around someone like her. But he wasn't untouchable in the celebrity was since he had a large following, because all of her friends did and they didn't seem untouchable. Then what was it? What set him apart from, say, Karl? She trusted Karl with her life and had known him for quite a while. She knew Dream for maybe a few weeks and almost trusted him the same amount.

Why?

She picked her phone up off the bed and pulled up Twitter, deciding to DM Dream since he was already existing in her mind rent-free. Might as well make him pay his rent by bothering him.

*********

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A/N: EEEEEEEE I hope that all made sense lmaaoooo basically yn ex = gaarrbbaaagggeeeee and ruined her self-worth a lot!! not poggers!!!!!!  THANK U GUYS FOR BEING SO SWEET ALL THE TIME ALL FOR ALL THE POSITIVE FEEDBACK ON ALL THE  CHAPTERS!!! I love seeing you guys make predictions and tell me how aljkDFB chapters make you feel bc same :/

taglist: OPEN (at the time) @hydrate-tion @loraleiix @tinaswagbd @charsdummb @smileyyuta @1ghoste1 @cerberus-hellhound @gaysludge @queestionmark @carnations-red @letsloveimagines @the-fictionwriters-hairdo @boiled-onionrings @a-cryptic @fee-btheweeb @letsloveimagines @erwinss @just-a-stan @axths @kayleigh2703 @furiouspockettoad @sometimeseverythingsucks @powerpuffyn​ @itshaileyn @millavalntyne @automaticcomputerpaper @nikkineeky @fivedicksinatrenchcoat @sprucekot @jabby16 @mae-musicbitch @hungoverhellhound @dreamyteam @kuroo-icedtea @stuffforreferences @menacingaesthetic @sapphic-soot @fangeekkk 

[ghostly-cabbage]

Frigid (Chapter 5)

Genre: Horror, Angst, Enemies to Friends (to maybe more??? ohoho) 

Chapter Rating: T (Language, Canon Typical Violence, Brief Mention of Underage Drug Use) 

Word Count: 6,554

AO3 FFN

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The black and white dashed pavement was all Wes saw. It moved underneath his clumsy feet in slow motion. 

Someone was holding his hand; he could feel the heat of their palm enveloping his. His hand was small in theirs. His shoulders were heavy, weighed down by a backpack. 

He wrung the padded red strap with his free hand. The person leading him tugged him along after them, insistent, but not unkind. When he looked up, he couldn’t see who it was. The sun was too bright, glinting in his eyes and allowing nothing but the dark impression of a silhouette. 

He had to get home, Wes remembered faintly. They had to get home or they’d be in trouble. An odd feeling crept up his legs, and he stumbled over an untied shoelace. The person with him made sure he didn’t fall, pulling up on his arm. 

“Silly Wesley, I thought you said you knew how to tie your shoes?” The person said. Their voice sounded muffled, like he was underwater. It sounded… familiar. Somehow. Like Wes should recognize it. 

They kept walking across the street, the far side growing no closer.

Wes swallowed, his throat dry. 

“Something’s wrong,” he said. His tongue felt clumsy in his mouth. He tried to look up at the person guiding him. They weren’t looking at him, and the sun drove his gaze away again. He looked back at the road, then over his shoulder where the blurry shape of school became more distant with every step.

 “Please listen to me this time, something isn’t right,” he tried again. His voice was small in his throat. His chaperone ignored him, or maybe they just couldn’t hear him. 

Cold panic seeped into him and he tried to resist against the person guiding him. He dug his heels into the rough hot pavement. He twisted and pulled at his hand, gripping the person's wrist in hopes he could slow them down. 

“It’s okay, Wessie! Your friends will be there when you come back,” came the voice, happy and completely oblivious. “I know it’s sad, but you’ll see your friends again, you’ll see.” 

“No,” he protested, the fear condensing into a lump in his throat. “No, we can’t keep going.” He didn’t know why. He just knew they had to stop. 

They had to stop before it happened. 

It ached deep in his bones, the dread and the sirens. His vision swirled and he blinked furiously against the tears. 

“Please,” he pleaded. “Please, stop, you have to.” He yanked on them, but they showed no sign of being inconvenienced. A wail rose in his throat. 

Why were they not listening?

“Maybe your Mom will let us have some fruit snacks when we get there, how’s that sound?” 

And then it was too late. 

His guardian gasped, and yanked him back. It sent a painful jolt through his arm. He stumbled backwards and hit the ground so hard it rattled his brain. 

The sound he could never push from his memories filled the world. The squeal of tires and a wet crunch. A squeal: high pitched and girlish. The solid thunk and crack of a body hitting the pavement, skidding and rolling and breaking and—

Wes sat bolt upright, strangling back a scream. 

Panic tingled over his skin and he clutched at his chest, fingers curling into the cotton of his nightshirt. His breath came in rapid gulps and his eyes darted around his room. Like he was expecting to see— 

He screwed his eyes shut and bit into his bottom lip until he tasted blood. God… He hadn’t had one that bad— that vivid in a long time. He focused on the beat of his heart for several long seconds, forcing his breathing to slow. 

God. He hated nightmares. 

He opened his eyes, taking in the dimly illuminated shapes of his dresser, desk and footboard. His curtains were drawn, and the weak light of morning tried in vain to worm it’s way into the room from behind the fabric. 

Wes reached for his phone on his bedside table. He unplugged it from the charger and winced against the light of the screen, 6:31 a.m. Friday. 

They’d had the last two days off from school due to damages to the plumbing system, but apparently it was all fixed up because school hadn’t been cancelled today. 

After that, going back to sleep was a lost cause. 

He shook his head and peeled his covers back. Might as well get an early start on getting ready for school. With a yawn he opened his door and glanced down the hall. 

Kyle’s door wasn’t open yet, which wasn’t surprising. Kyle was late most mornings; he liked sleeping in about as much as he liked weed… he slept in so much because of the weed more specifically. 

The house was chilly and quiet. 

That was until Wes heard footsteps and the sounds of drawers opening and closing in the kitchen. 

His right hand slid along the guide rail, the polished wood still smelling of lemon. Reaching the bottom of the stairs he poked his head around the corner of the wall and into the kitchen. He blinked. 

It was his dad. He was standing at the toaster, a butter knife held in his hand. Neatly ironed suit already on. 

Wes walked in without announcing himself and went to the cupboard. His dad jumped, catching a glimpse of him over his shoulder. 

“Oh, Wesley.” He cleared his throat and shifted towards him. “You’re up early.” 

“Yep.” 

He got a box of cereal and closed the cupboard. He turned his back to his father to get a clean bowl. 

“Right. Uhm. Did you… want toast?”

Wes nudged the cupboard door closed with an elbow. 

“No, I don’t want toast.” He put his bowl on the dining table and filled it with cereal. His dad watched him. 

“There’s eggs in the fridge too if you—” 

“Dad, it’s fine.” Wes didn’t look at him, and put the cereal box away. He got the jug of milk from the fridge and poured it over the sugary monstrosity that had the audacity to call itself a balanced breakfast. Other than the sound of the milk glugging, the kitchen was tense and silent. Wes screwed the cap back on the milk and put it back in the fridge, getting a spoon next from the silverware drawer. 

The toaster popped, and his Dad startled. 

Under different circumstances Wes might have laughed. 

He pulled out a seat at the table, its legs scraping over the hardwood floor. He sank down into the cold chair and started eating. He pulled his phone out from his sweatpant pocket and scrolled without really paying attention to the images and text that slid past. 

“Aren’t you late for work or something?” he said. His dad stopped scraping the butter on his toast. 

“Now that I’m finally settled into the office a bit more I don’t have to be in till seven.” 

Wes clicked his tongue. “Oh. Joy.” He shoveled another spoonful of cereal into his mouth. His dad sighed, and he could see his shoulders slump out of the corner of his eye. 

“Your uh, tryouts are today, right?” 

“Why’s it matter? Not like you ever have time to come to my games anyway.” He said it hoping it would hurt. It was childish, Wes knew it was, but he just wanted his dad to get it for once.

“Wesley, kiddo... I know this has been hard on you and your brother—” Wes snorted. His Dad pressed on. “But this job was an amazing opportunity, I really think it could do a lot of good for us.” 

“We were fine with the job you had.”

“I thought a change of environment would help after everything that happened. I’m only doing what’s best for the two of you. For all of us, as a family.”

Wes laughed. It was empty and brittle. 

“Well, that’s news to me. We’re hardly even a family anymore.” 

“Wesley,” his dad’s voice took on a stern edge. 

“You didn’t care about us, if you did you would have asked what we wanted.” 

“And this is exactly why I didn’t.” His Dad gestured jerkily towards him with the butter knife.

“What’s that mean?” Wes slapped his phone down and glared up at his dad.

“It’s clear that you’re still too immature to deal with this like an adult. I’m doing this with your futures in mind, Wesley.” 

“By ripping us away from home? From all our friends? From Grandma and Grandpa? Uncle Ronnie?” Wes’ heart was thumping in his ears and he wanted to scream, flip the table over, something to make the pressure in his chest go away. 

His dad scoffed. 

“Don’t raise your voice at me. I told you when we moved that we would visit for the holidays.” 

“That just makes it all better. Doesn’t it?” he pushed through grit teeth. He squeezed the handle of his spoon in his fist, the cool metal pressing indentions into his skin. 

“The world doesn’t revolve around you and what you want. It’s no one's fault but your own that you’re choosing to learn it the hard way.” 

“You’re such a fucking hypocrite.” 

“Wesley!” his dad snapped. “One thing you won’t do is speak to me like that under my roof, you understand me?”

Wes held his dad’s gaze, not backing down.

“After tryouts you come right home and stay here for the weekend.” 

“What? Seriously?!” 

“Yes, seriously.”

Rage whirled in his throat and he bit down on his tongue. He stood up, his chair skidding backwards. Fucking bullshit. It was fucking bullshit. 

He threw his spoon down onto the table. It clattered and bounced off the side of his bowl. He snatched his phone and stormed away from the table and back up to his room. He slammed his door behind him and stood there seething, his hands balled into fists. 

He stood there as the seconds ticked by, eyes roaming over his room for something he wouldn’t mind breaking. The buzz of his phone distracted him, and he looked down, turning on the screen.

If it was from Dad he was gonna—

Alien Fucker: ? 

Oh. Right. 

It made sense that he’d probably woken up Kyle. He typed a message back into their chat. 

Basketball Freak: Nothing

Alien Fucker: Didn’t sound like nothing 

Basketball Freak: Dad grounded me again 

...

it’s whatever at this point  

Alien Fucker: F in the chat

…

want me to talk to him?  

Basketball Freak: no, its fine 

Alien Fucker: K just lemme know 

Kyle always felt like he had to be the mediator. In the year leading up to the divorce he was the middle man between Mom and Dad, despite Wes telling him that it was ridiculous. Their parents were grown-ass adults. They shouldn’t have fucking needed their seventeen-year-old-son to deliver messages back and forth because they couldn’t stand to talk to each other. And Dad called him immature. 

Kyle hated the tension, he took on the peacekeeper role like a job, trying to hold them all together in vain as the family crumbled around him. Wes probably hadn’t helped any, looking back. 

He picked fights with Dad like it was his job. 

And Mom… He still didn’t talk to Mom. 

He tried to get where Kyle was coming from, he really did. But pretending that shit wasn't fucked wasn’t going to unfuck it. 

Their parents deserved to know what they'd done was wrong. And if hating them was what it took, then goddamnit, Wes was going to do it.  

Wes tossed his phone onto his bed and started getting dressed for school. 

***

The school day passed by uneventful. Mia had the scoop about some couple that had broken up over the two day break that Wes hardly paid attention to. He helped her set her shutter speed and they took pictures of fast moving objects outside. 

At lunch he sat with Kyle and his stoner friends. 

In chemistry, Wes got there after Danny. He set his stuff down, scooting his stool away from him. They ignored each other the best they could as people got settled for class. 

 Wes bounced his leg on the stool’s rung and kept an eye on the clock. Two more classes until tryouts. 

Mrs. Merriweather erased the notes on the board from last class and once the bell rang her iron gaze flicked over the class to make sure everyone was where they were supposed to be. 

“Once I take roll, you’ll work on writing your findings from the last lab in a short essay.” An unenthused murmur filtered through the class. Wes glanced sideways to see Danny grimacing. 

Hah. Served him right. 

“Mr. Fenton. You can make up for your absence last class in an hour's detention after school today.”

Some of their classmates turned to look at Danny, half smiles and shared glances. Nothing was more unifying in a classroom than someone who wasn't you getting in trouble. 

Danny hunched his shoulders and sighed.

“Yes, Mrs. Merriweather,” he said.     

Sucked for him, but really, what did he expect? Skipping class was a risk he decided to take. 

Wes used his notes from the lab he’d done by himself, and started writing his short essay. The class quieted and the only sound was the occasional whisper and the shuffle of papers. 

Danny was quiet, fiddling with a pencil and looking at his phone under the table when Mrs. Merriweather wasn’t watching. Wes couldn’t tell who Danny was messaging, but if he had to guess it’d be the other two-thirds of his friend group. Eventually, Danny pulled out papers from a beat up binder and started working on it. From the corner of his eye he’d guess it was history homework.  

All Wes cared about was that Danny didn’t bother him. He wrote his essay with his mind half on the words and half on the growing excitement of hitting the court. Finally, finally he’d be able to do one of the only things he was good at. The minutes dragged past and around the fiftieth time he’d glanced up at the clock Danny shifted next to him. 

“Dude, chill out, you’re making me nervous,” he said quietly. He didn’t even look up from his homework when he said it. 

Wes lifted his head from his partially done essay and narrowed his eyes. 

“Mind your own business, Fenton.” 

Fenton rolled his eyes but said no more. 

Class wrapped up twenty minutes later, Wes turned in his sloppily written essay and bolted out of the room. The hallways swelled with students as they poured from their classrooms. Econ was all that stood between Wes and tryouts. He swung by his locker, grabbing his books. 

He was about to turn to leave when he bumped into someone. They both stumbled back and Wes recognized the pungent smell coming off the other person. 

“Whoa man, sorry ‘bout that.” Said a guy with blond hair and a beanie slouched over his head. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Wes said, trying to get around him. 

“Hey wait, you’re Wesley, right? Kyle’s lil bro.” 

Well, that explained the smell. 

“Uh, yeah that’s me. Sorry, but I’ve gotta—” 

“Dude, sweet. Name’s Robbie, I’m pretty chill with your brother,” he said. 

“That’s nice. Well, nice to meet you and stuff.” Wes stepped around the stoner and headed towards his class. 

“Yeah, totally! I wasn’t here for lunch but Kyle said you hung out with the group today—” Robbie said, following after Wes. 

He pushed a breath between his teeth. Great, guess this was happening now. 

“—but like Kyle’s told me a lot about you, man.” 

“Cool?” Seriously, why was this guy talking to him? 

“Yeah, I just wanted to say the group’s mega on your side.” 

“Uh-huh. Cool.” 

Wait. 

“On my side about what?” Wes slowed his pace.

“The ghosts, bro!” 

“What about them?” 

“Pf, bruh. We’ve lived in Amity Park for like, ever? We’re trying to convince him that this ghost stuff is legit.” 

Wes scoffed. “Good luck with that. I’ve been trying since I was like six.” 

Robbie shook his head. “I know what’cha mean, bro. Dude’s like a steel trap... or however that saying goes.” Robbie shrugged. 

Wes chuckled. “Let me know if you guys make any progress with him,” he said. He’d meant it as a joke, but Robbie nodded seriously. 

“Hell yeah, dude, that’s what’s up. You can count on me.” He held out a closed fist to Wes. 

He rolled his eyes but didn’t hide his grin. He fist bumped Robbie. 

“Okay, well… I’m going to class now.” 

Robbie held up his hands. “Oh, yeah, totes. I should probably do that too, now that I think about it.”

“Probably.” 

Robbie turned and walked away in the opposite direction, a single textbook swinging in his grasp. Kyle’s friends were always friendly. Even if they were a bit annoying. 

Wes was almost late for Econ, thanks to the fact the class was on the other side of the building. He slipped into the room and sat down, letting out a breath when the last bell rang thirty seconds later. 

Mr. Brown took his place at the front of the class, voice as monotonous as ever. His button-up was wrinkled around his midsection, and he ran his hands over it like that would help.

“Alright class, we’re going to start talking about the stock market today,” he said, pulling up Google on the projector.    

Wes hardly absorbed a word from Mr. Brown’s lecture, which was a total snooze-fest. The stock market wasn’t exactly riveting stuff. He bounced his leg under his desk, watching the clock.

Mr. Brown was in the middle of describing the homework: picking three stocks and tracking their ups and downs through-out the weekend, when the bell rang. Wes had been about ready to start pulling his hair out. 

He shot up from his seat and was first out the door.  

Wes made a beeline for his locker. Or at least he tried. He got stuck behind kids walking at a snail's pace three times. He got a few dirty looks for pushing past people loitering in their groups. 

Eventually, he made it to his locker and fumbled with the lock. Once open, he stuffed his books and notes anywhere they’d fit. Papers crumpled and his notebook creaseed down the center. He pulled his bag from the hook and slung it over his shoulder. He headed to the locker rooms at a jog, back to bobbing and weaving around people in the halls.  

“Mr. Weston, no running in the halls!” He heard Mr. Lancer call after him as he went past the English room. He slowed down to a power walk, not caring that he looked stupid. 

He got to the locker room and got his gym clothes out. He changed quickly, ripping his shirt off and almost tripping over his jeans. 

There were other guys in the room, some he recognized and others he didn’t. Before he put his phone away he checked it, the screen lighting up. At the very top of the lock screen was a message notification. 

Mom: How was the first week of school?

His fingers tightened around his phone, pushing the blood away from his fingertips and leaving them pale. He stared at it until the screen dimmed. 

He didn’t want to think about it, not now—not at all. He tossed his phone into his bag and zipped it up. 

Out of sight out of mind. 

He locked up the rest of his stuff and left the locker room. He followed a few other guys into the gym. 

The overhead lights reflected in bright streaks on the polished wood floor. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the smell of cleaners and old set in sweat. He scuffed the toe of his sneaker on the floor. The high pitched sound echoed around the room; it felt like home. 

Mrs. Tetslaff was standing by the bleachers, writing something on a clipboard. A few students that looked like freshmen were wheeling out a wire cart heaped with basketballs. 

Wes walked towards Tetslaff, coming to stop a ways away. He shifted from foot to foot in anticipation. Within a minute or two there was a loose ring of guys waiting around. A majority were talking amongst themselves, joking around. Clearly they were last year’s team, bonded by hours of blood, sweat, and tears. Wes was on the outside. He felt a sour twinge in his stomach watching them. He wondered how his old team was doing… None of them had messaged him since he left. Not even Cole or Adam.

“Ay, new kid!” 

Wes turned to see a guy with short black hair and olive brown skin. The guy was a bit taller than him. He came up and clapped Wes on the back so hard it stung his skin. He stumbled forward a bit before catching himself. 

“I hear you played point in Cali.” 

Wes tapped the toe of his shoe against the ground a few times. “Yeah?” 

The guy smiled, dark eyes sparkling. He had a nicely structured face, the stubble on his chin making it a reasonable guess that he was a senior. 

“I’m José. Wesley, right? ” He crossed his arms over his chest. Wes didn’t know if he was intending to show off his biceps or not, but it certainly seemed like he was. “I was point-guard last year, and ain’t no way in hell some lanky California kid is gonna yoink my spot.” 

Wes carefully gaged for any hostility, but there was none. José was all smiles. A friendly challenge? 

“I guess we’ll just see about that, won’t we?” He smirked back. 

Somehow José’s smile got bigger. He laughed, his posture breaking into something more casual. 

“I like you already, Wesley.” He stuck out his hand for a handshake. Wes obliged. José grabbed his hand without mercy and shook so vigorously Wes thought he’d lose his arm.

“Just ‘Wes’ is fine,” he said with a wince. José released his hand. “Ow,” he muttered, shaking his hand out. 

“C’mon, you can hang with us, save you the embarrassment of mingling with the Freshmen.” José slung an arm around his shoulders and steered him into the inner circle of guys. He followed, mostly because he didn’t have much of a choice. As they got close the group looked up, varying levels of welcoming. 

“Wes, this is Mark,” he pointed to the dude the farthest from them. He was shorter than Wes, long brown hair tied behind his head. 

“‘Sup.” 

“Next we got Joseph.” José motioned to a guy with terrible posture, it made it hard to tell how tall he was. He looked familiar and it took a few seconds for the light bulb to come on. It clicked and Wes remembered he had Homeroom with him. “We just call him Jo or Joey though.” The guy in question threw up a peace sign. He had light grey hair, obviously the product of a good chunk of money and some bleach. 

Now that Wes thought of it, living in Amity Park, it was weird how many people didn’t have crazy bleached or dyed hair. Maybe it was more of a west coast thing? Or Amity was just behind on the times. Probably both.  

“This is Anthony,” José moved to the next guy. He was about Wes’ height and he had neatly cut and styled almond brown hair. He looked like he belonged in a boy band. His eyes were hazel green, and he looked Wes up and down. 

“Hey,” was all he said. Wes tried not to stare too long as José moved on. 

“Last but not least we got our boy Isaac.” He had black hair, shaved on the sides and longer on top with loose curls. He had dark skin like José. Isaac pointed finger guns at him. 

“Yo, man, pleasure to meet ya,” he said. He had more of a detectable latin accent than José.   

José broke away from Wes to clap hands with Isaac and pull him into a one armed hug. 

“This here our inner circle, Joey and Mark are Juniors like you, but the rest of us ’re Seniors.” 

“It’s nice to meet all you guys, God, you don’t know how long it feels like I’ve waited for today,” he said. He rubbed his upper arm.  

“I just hope you ain’t rusty. I heard you got game.” Isaac said.

Wes shrugged a shoulder. “I mean…” 

“Humble,” José nodded. “I like that about you, Wes. I’m ‘bouta smoke you, make sure you stay that way.” 

The rest of the group let out a chorus of “oh”s. The gauntlet had officially been thrown down in front of witnesses. Wes didn’t fight his smile as he sank into the familiar feeling. 

“Cool, dude. Just don’t cry when I dunk on your ass, okay?” 

The group oh’d louder this time. 

“Dammnn, new kid! You got spunk, never would have guessed from class,” Joseph laughed. “Seriously, in Homeroom he never talks to anyone,” he told the rest of the group. 

“Hey, no judgment, Anthony’s been needing another introvert to keep him company.” Mark grabbed Anthony by the shoulders and gave him a rattle. 

Anthony waved him off. “Shut up.” 

The sound of a whistle pierced through the gym. They all cringed and turned to look at the source of the noise.

Mrs. Testlaff had her hands on her hips. 

“What’re you all waiting around for? You know the drill, warm-ups first.” She clapped a palm against the back of her clipboard. Her voice boomed through the gym.  “Two laps around the gym, go!” 

***

The amount of drills they did had to be criminal. Wes’ muscles burned and his hair was spiked with sweat and water from the fountain down the hall. He’d forgotten his water bottle at home, which he wholeheartedly blamed on his dad.  

It took a while, shaking off the rust and sinking back into his comfort zone. It felt like the court snapped into focus and all that mattered was the squeak of shoes and the fleeting touch of the ball against the curve of his palm. His body moved the exact way he wanted it to. He spun and dodged, nailed three point shots more often than not, felt like he was riding a high.

They practiced individual skills before they moved onto mock games. José was no joke. He moved like he could read the offence’s mind. It was frustrating and exhilarating at the same time. 

The group’s synchronicity of their plays made their history together obvious. 

The practice games were intense and competitive. For every layup and three pointer Wes scored, José would score the same. The others weren’t pushovers either. Isaac would shut him out with a shit-eating grin and Anthony was way faster than he looked. 

José blew past his sophomore defender and jumped, slamming the ball through the basket and holding onto the rim for a few seconds before he dropped. He bounced into a jog, whooping in triumph. Isaac and Mark high-fived him while Joseph and Anthony, who were on Wes’s side, groaned.

Mrs. Tetslaff blew the whistle and everyone stopped, turning towards her. 

“Alright, gentlemen, good job today. Take a five minute break. Go get some water and then we’ll move into cool downs.” 

Wes sighed, his shoulders sagging. Admittedly, he was tired, but he didn’t want to stop. His new friend group walked towards the corner of the gym to a bench where they had water bottles and towels. Wes, who had neither, just went for the company. Issac grabbed his shoulder as he neared. 

“Shit, man, you can actually play,” he said, giving him a shake.

“So can you guys,” he breathed. Wes grabbed the hem of his shirt and used it to wipe the sweat off his face. “You didn’t take it easy on me that’s for sure.” 

“Mrs. Tetslaff was impressed, I could tell,” Joseph said, sprawling out on one of the benches. 

“You think so?” Wes glanced back at the stern woman who was in the middle of yelling at a pair of Freshmen across the gym.

“For sure, bro. The way you played you might jus’ make varsity,” José said, smacking the cap of his water bottle closed. 

“‘Might’?” Wes quirked a brow. 

“Homie, yer gonna have to get past us to make varsity,” Isaac pointed out, gesturing to the rest of the guys. Wes blinked, looking at the five of them. 

“Damn, guess you’re right.” 

“It’s okay, you can take Joey’s spot, he won’t miss it,” Mark said, snapping his hand towel at Joseph. He squawked and rolled off the bench onto the floor with a thud. 

“Asshole! And what the hell d’you mean I wouldn’t miss it?” He pushed himself up to glare up at Mark. 

“Bruh, all last season you cared more about flirting with Tiff than showing up to practice on time.” 

Joseph’s cheeks flushed pink. 

“So? I still got better stats than you did. Plus who doesn’t lose track of time when flirting with a cute girl?”

“I dunno, man. Sounds like a straight problem,” Anthony said from Wes’ other side. Wes looked over at him, a little surprised. 

Joseph pushed himself up. “Shut up, Anthony, as if you haven’t been late because you’re flirting with some guy.” 

Anthony snorted. “At this school? Gimme a break.” 

“Whatever, dude, at least I don’t wanna fuck a ghost.” 

That managed to get a reaction out of Anthony. He stiffened, cheeks tinting red. His gaze darted around the ground before his expression hardened.

“If I remember right, Joseph, you retweeted Dash’s ‘Its not gay if he’s dead’ tweet just like everybody else,” he shot back, lifting his chin.

Joseph’s eyes widened. 

Isaac, Mark and José spluttered from behind Joseph. Anthony smirked and crossed his arms over his chest. 

“Because it was funny! It was a meme, dude!”

“No need to get defensive now, it’s okay. You can admit that Phantom made you have a gay awakening.” Anthony had an evil twinkle in his eye, like a shark that’d caught the scent of blood.

“What? Dude, no I— Guys come on, help me out here.” 

Isaac stepped up next to Joseph and threw an arm around him, pulling him closer by his neck. 

“Homie, no cap, I wasn’t bi till I moved here. That probably ain’t no coincidence, know wha’m’sayin’?  

Joseph looked stricken, like he could feel himself losing the argument. 

“Oh come on—what about you, newbie?” 

All eyes turned to Wes and he swallowed. Oh, God. Why were people in Amity so goddamn weird? Attracted? To a ghost? 

“Uhm… I mean. Uh. I’ve only seen him once…” He twisted the toe of his shoe against the ground. “Also he’s technically dead, right? Isn’t that like, messed up?” 

Everyone who wasn’t Joseph just rolled their eyes or puffed out a breath. 

“He’s new, give him a while, he’ll come around,” Isaac said, sharing glances with the guys in support of literally thinking a ghost was hot. Wes tried to hide his bewilderment. He seriously doubted he’d “come around”. What was wrong with these people? 

Joseph shoved himself away from Isaac’s grip and interlocked his arm with Wes’. 

“Fuck you guys, Wes is my new bestfriend now.” 

“Boy, you literally out here with silver hair, who’da fuck you think you foolin?” José said, jabbing a flat hand towards him.

“...Elliot said it’d help me get girls’ numbers,” he said softly, lifting his hands to tend it with a frown.  

“You actually listened to that clown?” Anthony grimaced. 

“Bro, I thought you said you liked it?” 

Anthony rolled his eyes. “Whatever.” 

“Oof, Anthony hit his word limit, guys.” Mark said. The guys broke into laughter. For the first time since moving to Amity Park, Wes actually didn’t hate being there. 

But because it was in-fact Amity Park, of course that’s when shit went sideways. 

There was an explosion from above them. Wes flinched, whipping around towards the source of the sound. The overhead lights flickered, and debris rained down on the center of the court. There was a gaping hole in the ceiling of the gym, sunlight streaming through. A huge shape flew down through the hole, stopping to float thirty feet up. The being glowed unnaturally and had what looked like a mohawk of green flames. The thing looked around, and then flew straight towards Wes and the group. Wes stumbled back into Isaac, his brain short circuiting.

“What the hell—” 

“Ghost!” someone screamed, and that’s all it took for the gym to descend into chaos. People scattered, fleeting through the nearest exits. 

But Wes and his new friends had nowhere to go. They all backed up, pushed against each other in the corner.

“Oh shit,” José said, voice hushed. “It’s Skulker.” 

“What? Who?” Wes whispered back. 

“Dude, shut up! He’s coming closer,” Joseph hissed, slapping a hand over Wes’ mouth. He didn’t even have time to be pissed about it before the ghost was right on top of them.

It grinned. The air felt heavy and Wes’ heart kicked in his chest. Its body was grey and sleek like metal. Out of all the ghosts that they could have, of course Amity had a fucking cyborg ghost. 

The ghost loomed over them. “Have any of you feeble little humans seen the Ghost Child recently?” Its voice was gruff and low, echoing horribly against Wes’ ears. Its eyes were disks of solid green burning into them as it stared. It was still smiling, jagged metal teeth gleaming in the dim reflected light. 

Wes wanted to say “no”, maybe that would make it leave, but Joey’s hand was still firmly over his mouth. The ghost leaned closer, its glare narrowing. 

“Well? Speak, you sniveling humans,” it growled. 

There was a moment’s silence, then: “recently? No.” 

Wes, along with the rest of the group’s attention snapped over in dismay to Anthony. He looked nonchalant, or would have if not for the rigidness of his arms and the tension in his brow. Their gaze slowly craned back over to the ghost, terrified of its reaction.

But the ghost leaned back, demeanor doing a complete one-eighty. “Huh, you haven’t?” Its eyes went cartoonishly big. He looked at a panel that appeared on the back of his wrist. “My scanners say he’s in the area.” The ghost tapped in the scanner a few times, before he gave up and shrugged. 

“No matter.” The cruel smile spread over its face again. “All I have to do is stir up a bit more trouble and my prey will surely appear.” 

Wes watched in horror as long wicked green blades extended out from the ghost’s arms. It closed the small gap between them, a chuckle building up from its throat—or whatever ghosts had. 

“Why hasn’t someone hit the Ghost Alarm?” Mark whispered. 

“Shh,” José snapped. 

Wes swallowed, his mouth going dry and his knees shaking. 

Yeah, he absolutely hated it here again. 

The ghost lifted a blade, resting its tip just above his collarbone. Holy shit, holy shit, holy—

Wes caught the sight of movement from behind the ghost: a flash of black and white. 

“Skulker, leave them alone,” came another echoing voice. Instead of feeling hot and stuffy a chill spread over Wes’ skin as the temperature of the gym dropped. 

The metal ghost spun around, its absence opening up the group's line of sight enough to see none other than Phantom. He was floating some ten feet away, arms crossed over his chest. He paid them no attention, his eyes fully locked on the hulking metal ghost. 

“Oh thank fuck,” Joseph breathed, relaxing enough to release Wes. 

“There you are, Ghost Child,” the cyborg said, sounding pleased. “I was wondering when you’d decide to—” Phantom became a blur. The next thing Wes knew, the huge ghost was sent flying, crashing into a wall on the right side of the gym. 

Phantom was now occupying the space the cyborg ghost had just been. He shook out his hand before curling it back into a fist. “Seriously, how many times do I have to tell you not to drag people into our shit, Skulker?” There was a beat, and Phantom looked over at them, like he’d just remembered they were there in the first place. His eyes flicked over all of them, and Wes couldn’t suppress his shiver when the ghost looked at him. 

“Oh, ‘sup. You guys might wanna, ya’know...” He jerked his head towards the closest exit. And then Phantom was gone, reappearing across the gym. The group didn’t need to be told twice, the next second they were moving. They scrambled out of the corner, practically tripping over one another. 

Wes felt like he was frozen in place. He stared dumbly at where Phantom and the metal ghost were now locked in battle. 

“Dude, what’re you waiting for? Let’s go!” José said, grabbing Wes by the arm and hauling him towards the doors. 

“Wait—” he objected weakly. His legs felt like jelly as he moved. He wanted to see the fight, see Phantom. He didn’t know why, but something in the back of his mind was screaming at him. 

He had questions.

But his new friends didn’t stop until they’d dragged him out through the metal swinging doors of the gym and into the hallway. The door slowly swung back closed, and Wes caught a glimpse of green bolts streaking like comets through the air and Phantom colliding with the ground.  

[afterthelastreset]

Rules Of One’s Soul Ch20 Date P4

(Warning: Past abuse mentioned, Plus minor panic attack. Mak belongs to @wasted-church )

"And then so I put the ace in the trunk Seam had levitated and pulled, pulled him out without anyone knowing. It used to be one of Queen Heart's favorite, favorite tricks of mine, mine. I think I also saw you there a few times, times."

"I was, but I nay had any time for shows with thine king's giving me so many duties to perform."

The floating jester next to him hummed and smiled brightly next to the duke. The two had been chatting about Jevil's old shows he'd perform along with some of Rouxls's old jobs and encounters with the younger royals. Or more specifically Jevil was talking and the duke went ahead and listened to whatever he had to say of course. He didn't mind the constant chattering, he was used to the King of Clubs many heads doing the same thing or Lancer babbling his child mind out. But he was surprised he wasn't more tired.

Well, he guessed it was official now. Rouxls Kaard, Duke of Puzzles, advisor and caretaker of King Lancer- Had finally fallen off the deep end or at least given up and accepted his fate of being surrounded by mad people and the chaos they bring into his life. But he had to debate really quick in his tired mind. Either let Jevil take him out on whatever hopefully not so chaotic outing he wanted and get it over with, or argue for hours until his lungs were burnt out only to be dragged off against his will or fight all over again. He believed the latter was more obvious. Hopefully it wouldn't take too long. But knowing Jevil it would take anywhere from a few minutes to the whole day, hopefully this'll be enough to suffice him. At least for the time being. Right now be had a resting tired and bored face as he allowed himself to be guided along upon the path to who knows where.

But much to his credit, though he'd hate to admit it, Jevil was at least behaving himself. The little imp had offered the poor tired duke his arm, which Rouxls politely declined for personal reasons and opened the door for him. Very gentlemanly- Which raised the worm's suspicions by tenfold. It wasn't like Jevil to be so...calm for more than a few seconds. He knew he wouldn't be acting like this for a good reason, but what for he wouldn't know. Which begs the question. Shouldn't he be more suspicious right now? He's been feeling unusally calm as of late, different from the start of this week or....Well everyday he could remember before this week. It was weird. He still felt suspicious and if he were to be honest a little scared of the whole thing but...He couldn't help but find it strange, so he shrugged it off for now. It was just probably his mind subconsciously becoming more adapted to his new surroundings or maybe he really did need a break from it all.

'There. See? This isn't so bad. It's a nice day and Jevil's sure to make it worth your while. Look at the giant smile on his face-' 'Silence worm! I still has to keepeth mine guard on in case somethinge happens!' 'Still afraid over what happened with her? It was so long ago-'

"HE CLAWED MY FACE!!''

A surge of anger erupted from the deepest depths of his soul and whatever was going on around him halted in a second. His soul thumped from within his chest and he took a few breaths just staring at the ground to pay any real attention that Jevil had stopped talking about whatever he was going on about and staring dead at him. The floating jester blinked in shock at the heaving duke and froze at his reaction. He could feel the sudden spike of anger come from the glossy eyed worm at he stared dead at the ground, but as quickly as it came it seemed the duke remembered the other person there and slowly turned his glossy eyes towards him. Jevil couldn't make out what the duke was thinking just staring at him- No. Not staring at him. Staring through him. Almost like Rouxls was in some kind of stuper.

"...Rouxls, Rouxls?"

....The duke blinked, it seemed his brain had caught up with his brain and his blurry vision of three Jevils turned into one worried lookinh gremlin reaching his hand out to him. To which he instinctively took a few quick steps away.

"I-I amst fine!" His eyes quickly looked away as he still breathed deeply. "I-I...I just need a few moments."

Jevil didn't look the least bit convinced, but stayed silently staring at him. Rouxls knew the imp was staring at him but didn't let it show, instead straightening himself out and beginning to walk away on jello feeling legs. Jevil right beside him of course. The two walked in very uncomfortable silence for a moment before jevil looked back over to him and silently stared at the duke with a quizzical expression. ...This reaction of staring at nothing and freezing like a cornered rabbick was something he had seen before. Pretty small when he spooked him and he'd freeze and smile, but this was something a whole lot different. It was almost the same reaction he had from a few days ago, minus the sudden outburst just now- His yellow eyes grazed over the few scars across his face-

".....Rouxls?" The worm didn't look at him but made a small hum sound indicating he was listening. The fool nervously bit his bottem lip, maybe he shouldn't be asking so early into his date, heck. It could ruin the whole mood altogether. But-..."Are you feeling, feeling alright?"

".....I willst be fine."

"If you say so, so-"

"I do."

His tone told Jevil that was the end of that discussion, well for now at least. He now had a very concerned and curious idea about his reactions now, but to make the duke more comfortable and hopefully feel better he'd let it go for now. But he made a mental note to figure this out later. Putting on a smile he acted like what happened hadn't even happened, if there was one thing he was good at it was entertainment!

"I heard, heard you enjoyed knitting!" He smiled wider when then the duke's head slightly turned to him. At least that caught his interest. "Little Lancer had showed me, showed me your many scarves and sweaters you made him, him!" He pointed at him. "And you did, did buy wool, wool from Seam. I assumed you did it as a side hobby, hobby."

Rouxls gave off a chuckle and turned his head to him with a soft smile. "It tis. Overtime I just sold extra stock of mine skills to other's who clearly needed them."

Ah. There it was, the duke's pride starting to peek through. Something he loved to poke at and get his reactions out of, but for now he would build his pride up to make him feel better. Which is why he put on mock shock. "You're the one who made, made all those colorful comfy creations, creations? Very impressive.~"

The worm have a couple chuckles and gave him a smile. "Thoust really thinketh so? Tis just a simple hobby to earnest a few extra darke dollars to spoil myself with."

Jevil chuckled. "Well it certainly seems, seems you made a good profit from it."

Rouxls gave a slightly bigger smile and nodded. "Yes, but if I mayest be so bold to ask. Exactly where art thou taking mineself?"

Jevil's ears perked up and he let out another long stream of giggles Rouxls was so used to hearing by this point, he might as well just use giggling as his own language by this point. A lot of emotion was told through his giggles. Childish glees, amusement, happiness, excitement, and sometimes if he was stressed sadness and a few other feelings. It was really quite impressive to say the least. But he didn't answer the question, wherever they were headed must've at least been exciting to Jevil. Because the fool without so much as a second though wrapped a hand around his arm and began tugging him in a direction off the beaten path. He inctinctively froze at the first touch but the way Jevil pulled was strong enough to force the Duke to follow along whether his body told him otherwise or not, the jello feeling in his legs had mostly gone away but he still stumbled trying to match speed with the floating menace pulling him away from sight. A part of his brain should've been worried about this, but he guessed his curiousity had gotten the best of him. It took those blue eyes a moment to realize that the two were still going down a path, but it looked overgrown with dark grass and Dark candy trees all round them. Clearly no one had come down here in a long, long while. But that didn't seem to change the mood of the flying jester who never stopped tugging him forward. Trees passed and the path was slowly starting to open up ahead of them. The trees parted ways to make a small clearing in the middle of the forest, not too big of a clearing. It looked about the size of one of the Rudinn houses he's seen. And smack dab in the middle of this random clearing was a small tree. Compared to the other trees in the surrounding forests this one was considerably smaller and had a smaller trunk than the others. This one must've been a younger one. Couldn't be older than fifty years at most. He was easily pulled through the black as night grass and up to the small tree than stood proudly in the middle of the night grass. The air smelt heavily of grass and sweet, sweet marshmallow making his head swim slightly. His eyes mezmorized by the calmness of the area but blinked with curiousity back to Jevil.

"W-What is this place?"

They gradually came to a stop under the tree and Rouxls took in the sights of the brightly colored tree in front of them. Jevil giggled letting go of his hand and gesturing a hand to the spot they were standing.

"Lancer's friends, friends told me about this place, place. A vender once sold them an egg, egg once." He reached behind him and out of no where pulled out a flat round circle of some sorts. "Now-" Rouxls blinked and looked at him, making him smile. "How about a little magic, magic?"

Rouxls's curious head tilt was all the ok he needed to go ahead and punch his other hand into the blank circle. It went through and with a 'POP' sound the back popped out into what was reveled to be a top hat, with his hand still inside the hat he reached about elbow deep inside rummaging around a little before his hand quickly pulled back out. A pure white blanket rippled out and Rouxls rose a brow at him. What was Jevil going to do with that? Well, his question was answered when the hat was made to levitate in mid air and he lifted the blanket up and over neatly. It came down and.....completely stopped in mid air. Rouxls had to blinked a few times to actually register what he was seeing. The blanket had stopped in the EMPTY mid air and Jevil was currently soothing the wrinkles out like he was placing a tablecloth upon a table, before turning around casually back to the hat and reaching back in like he did this everyday- Meanwhile, the worm blinked and held his hand out to the floating cloth as if unsure what he should do, after a moment of reluctance he finally placed a firm hand on the blanket...and jumped when he felt a solid surface. He thumped his hand onto the table...Then again, and again. And then bent over lifting the cloth back...And his jaw opened in confused shock she he saw not only the underside of a table, but four neat table legs going all the way down to the ground below. The sound of imp giggles reached his ears and so he looked up only to stare in more shocked wonder at the table. Two plates, silverware, and of all the ckeeky things a golden candle holder. Jevil was in the middle of pulling long white candles out of his hat and placing them into the holders onto the table before he finished and looked at Rouxls with a wide mischevious grin. The worm still stared in dumbfounded wonder at the sudden appearance at the whole set up. "You might want to stand back, back." Before Rouxls could ask what he meant Jevil turned back to the candles, sucking in a breath between his fangs making it sound like a hiss sound. His cheeks slowly puffed out until each looked about as big as his fist. Rouxls rose a brow and opened his mouth to ask what he was doing, but Jevil had already opened his mouth...And a sudden bright light spilt from his mouth. A yelp was earned out of him from the sudden stream of warm blistering fire shot out and in the directions of the candles. Jevil could breath FIRE?! When has he been able to do that?! No sooner as it was said and done was there three simple little candles a blaze on the table completing Jevil's little scene. With a smile he turned back to the staring worm and giggled getting his attention back onto him. With a flick of his wrist the hat disappeared and he gave a small bow to his one man audience. "What do you think, think?"

He opened his mouth, but blinked and looked back the display before him. "Tis....a-a remarkable showmanship of magic. *Ahem* I applaud thou's efforts. V-Very well done."

Jevil looked relatively pleased with himself and gestered to one side of the table he had conjured up. "Please have a seat, seat."

"There are nay any-" He shut up the moment he looked over at where he was pointing and saw a chair that clearly wasn't there before. Jevil giggled and he made a small frown, but did hesitantly go over to the small chair and slowly sat down in it. He stared down on it with a weary expression for a few seconds before moving his eyes back towards the still floating Jester. Jevil currently had himself in a crisscrossed sitting position and giving him a weary smile.

"Do you like it, like it?"

"It is...not exactly what I was expecting so early in thine morning-" He gave a small smile to the loon. "But tis a b-better surprise then I thoughtest is wouldst be."

Jevil took that as a compliment and put an almost smug look on his face. "Of course, of course. I knew asking King, King Hearts was bound to be a game changing play, play.~"

This time the duke snickered and rose a brow playfully. Slightly leaning on the table. "Oh. Don't tellest me that THEE Amazing Jevil who couldst doth anything needed some advice on something as simple as breakfast with mineself?"

This time it was Jevil's turn to pause...before coughing and tapping one of his hands on his leg. "Well, well....Sometimes to play the game of hearts one must gather a few game plans, plans from other's who has experienced such things before. We all have different approaches, approaches to achieving the checkmate."

"Oh? And I don't supposeth this grand checkmate tis mine affections tis it?"

"Correct, correct."

Jevil wasn't even trying to be discreet about it. That could be a good thing. At least he wasn't hiding anything, being blunt and forward must've been how he usually do things. It would make sense with his big, loud personality. Seam was the one who seemed the more likely to use trickery as he had unknowingly agreed to go with him to the silly ball, but I digress. Perhaps this wouldn't be so bad- No sooner when he thought that a loud rumble came from below and the duke winced undignantly, putting a hand to his stomach. Well, he was certainly a fool for skipping breakfast now wasn't he. The rumble certainly got the attention of the imp because he gave a cheeky grin and his tail wagged behind him.

"Oh? Are we hungry, hungry?"

"M-Mayhaps a bit."

"Hehehe. More shine to dazzle, dazzle any audience!" He giggled before holding his arms out to where they were pressed together and in the middle of the table. Before slowly moving his arms wide like expecting a hug-...What the fucketh?! As he slowly moved his arms, a few portions of food appeared slowly as his arms passed upon the table. When Jevil's arms finally reached the ends of said table, he retreated them back to his sides and giggled at the wide eyed worm again. "You like, like it?~"

"..." With wide eyes he slowly looked back up to him with wonder. "How didst thou-"

He was silenced by Jevil holding up a finger. "Ah, ah, ah. A true magic maker never, never kiss and tells....Maybe a small reward, reward for this would be enough?~"

His purr made a shiver run down the duke's spine for some unknown reason and he destracted himself from Jevil's gaze by looking down at what he happened to summon up.....Wait a second. His eyes blinked down at the food upon Jevil's plate, the familiar star shaped black marshmallow scented candies were all he had on his plate and the duke gave him a questioning look, as if to say, "Are you seriously eating nothing but candy for breakfast?' Jevil chuckled at the duke's obviously disapproving face and casually pointed to his side of the table. Rouxls rolled his eyes and followed the direction of the pointing claw and blinks. The own plate in front of him was filled with the very, VERY unbelievable sight of steaming palace deluctables he hadn't laid eyes upon within the ten grueling days he had been he had been in this excile of the vacation on his existance. OH SWEET LIGHTNER!! The smell! It was heavenly like a river of honey that made his mouth water and he couldn't help but widen his eyes at the sight before him. Jevil raised a hand about to comment on how comical his expression was, but was silenced by the sight of the duke, in a not so very noble upper class way mind you, started digging into the food resented before him with vigor. Black and yellow eyes blinked in shock as he watched the un-Duke-ly sight before him....You'd think Rouxls was starving himself with the way he was contently eating the food placed before him with a pleased hum. ...Well wasn't this a familiar sight, his smile stretched back, he remembered a certain little round prince happily humming and shoveling down food whenever he was given a snack. Like father like son. His giggled must've caught the worm off guard because he froze and stared at him like a deer in headlights.

"Someone, someone likes my cooking, cooking?" He leaned his head in his hand staring at him sideways with a cheeky grin.

Rouxls cleared his throat and immediately straightened up into a proper pose, with a serious face. "W-Well when one has been eating nothing but fat inducing sweets and whatever mediocre substinance Seam selleths within his shoppe for days on end, one would greatly miss thine..." He stopped and stared at the grinning menace, then down to his food and back. "...THOU haseth cooked this??"

His shoulders shrugged without changing his position and with his other hand flicked his hand and a dark candy floated off the plate and up to his face. "I used to help, help my dear mother cook for Queen Heart many, many years ago.~ " He purred with a far away look as if remembering a memory, the candy tossed into his open jaws with a snap. "I may have picked up, up a few things from my times helping, helping. You like it?"

"Tis..d-delightful. Thank thee."

A silence peacefully fell between the two as they stared down to the set up in front of them. Well at least Rouxls did, he felt the beady eyes of the other man studying his every move but decided against engaging. The quicker this finished, the quicker he could be back and ready himself to go back first thing in the morning. Just the sight of his boy excitedly running up to him put a smile on his face. You bet that smile didn't slide past those watchful black and yellow eyes who smiled back at the prospect of pleasing his soulmate. It made his soul thumped with pride. Though this silent staring contest was something he started to find boring, if he could he would stare at the duke all day, but that's not what his interests were at that moment. But the silent pause did give him a good chance to look at Mr. Kaard in a calmer state. The candlelight make his already shiny white hair glimmer, and highlight the pure white lashes blinking downwards, his dark blue skin with the few white specks which he assumed were Rouxls's kind's aquivilant of freckles. Over all he was very pretty. It was easy to see why the sweet talking duke had so many admirers...The thought of anyone else taking him though made a jealous tight feeling come from his throbbing soul but was pushed aside for now. He was trying not to come off as crazy after all. ..But looking at his face, he could still see the few scars that lined his faces- This time his frown was imminate. The shout from earlier came back crossing his mind and he hummed.

The pointed blue ears caught that hum and despite him gut feelings he looked up and paused at the yellow eyes studying him up and down. He had a bad feeling about this. "...W-What?"

"...Nothing, nothing. Just admiring, admiring how delightfully different you look."

A confused brow rose, his mind contanplating whether he should take it as a compliment or not, but settled on an unsure smile. "W-Well of course!" Rouxls sat up proudly and placed a hand to his chest. "Not many are able to matcheth thine likes of mineself.~"

Making Jevil giggle a few time but he went back to a more slightly concerned looking face. The repeat of Kaard's yelling on loop throughout his mind and his other half calculating his enevitable approach to this. His conscious was already crawling up his back, and he had a sneaking suspicion there was something lingering behind that smile the duke always put up in times like this. And the sudden outbursts of yelling was a big give away for that. Well this would definitely throw a monkey wrench into his plans, but luckily he thought of a way to hopefully get to the bottom of everything- Why don't they play just a teeny tiny little numbers game?~

Jevil giggled, his face lighting up as a lightbulb went off in his head. And his head came down to rest ontop of his clasped hands. "You know, you know.~ We never got to finish that game, game you started in my old little freedom.~" The worm stopped halfway through bringing the fork to his mouth and raising a brow to Jevil. A giggle escaped his lips and he proceeded. "It's just a simple numbers, numbers game.~ Nothing too complicated."

The worm slowly put the fork back down onto his plate and gave him a suspicious look. "..And pretail what are thine rules of this 'game' thou speakest of?"

Well that wasn't a no.

His smile got wider and he chuckled yet again. Inspecting the claws on his hands and shrugging casually. "Ever played the game, game truth or dare?" The duke now looked even more suspicious but slowly nodded his head. He had played this ridiculous game with Lancer once or twice when he had (forced him into going) invited him to his sleepovers. The game was utterly ridiculous, but considering whatever Jevil was comparing it too- He grinned and looked at him. "It's like, like that but with no dares."

"So, thou only askeths the truths?"

"Correct, correct." His smile promised nothing but mischief in the worm's eyes. "Ask, ask each other five questions, questions each we shall do. And with each question comes, comes the complete and full honest to lightner truth. ...How about it?~" Rouxls was looking at him as if he had just asked if his face was a mask and to pull it off. Him?! Playing a one sided game of truth and dare with Jevil?! Oh golly gee wizz! How could this go wrong? Jevil must've noticed because he held up a hand assuringly. "I promise, promise I will be as honest and truthful as long as you are, are. And they won't be too, too difficult to answer. Lightner's honor!"

Rouxls still stared blankly at him with a flush look, but after a moment he let out a shaky sigh. Was there anyway around this? Perhaps. He vaguely remembered that the loon promised to respect his boundaries and yet...The promise of getting any information out of this confusing little monkey was honestly very tempting. He could ask what he had planned for this petty soulmate game. He could find out why he insisted they were meant to be?....He could ask how he was taking care of Lancer. That last one perked his interest entirely. The wide eyed realization on his face making Jevil smile wider almost to his ears. But soon enough a professional 'Ahem' came from the Duke and he stared at him with a stern business meeting face.

"Jevil. I willst accept thine uh-...'game', but on thine condition. Thou willst not asketh me any question that art of no concern to thou. If thou knowest what I meaneth."

He giggled. "Agreed, agreed. Shall I go first?" The duke nodded professionally and gestured to him the go ahead. OH! This made his tail wag faster in undeniable fashion. OH! The possibilities of what he could ask! But he had to remember to keep composure. Wouldn't want to scare him after all. He already had one question he had on his mind for a while. "Why does the little, little King refer to you as his sire?"

The worm blinked, completely thrown off at the question. He was fully expecting something childish but- "What?"

"You can't deny my curiousity, curiousity. It's quite obvious you two are not blood, blood related," he said while motioning his hand to him as if to point out their clearly different features. "Yet he looks at and speaks of you like you were. Adoption, adoption like Mak and Seam you are?"

The duke's eyes fell back down to the plate and if Jevil wasn't mistaken, a hint of sadness fell upon those mitch-matched eyes of his. "I-....I madest a p-promise to someone I...c-c-cared about to looketh after him. A long...longeth time ago."

A small silence fell on the two, and it accured to Jevil that that was the most he was going to get out of that question as the duke picked away at the obviously suddenly interesting food. Ok. Maybe a bad question to start out with but he had to-...How did Lancer say it?- roll with the punches? Was that it? Strange expressions.

"I believe, believe one turn earns another."

"Hmm?......OH! R-Righteth. Um..." Blue fingers tapped on the table as the question of what he desperately wanted to know. "What of Lancer? Didst thou follow all thine rules I gaveth thee?" His eyes narrowed at the floating loon.

Jevil sighed and rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes. Make sure he ate healthy, read him a bedtime story every night, make sure, sure the pawns-...servants, servants cleaned his room." He examined his claws and glanced at the slight scowl Rouxls was giving him and sighed with another eye roll. "Baths. Totors, totors. Playtime. And of course, course no where near the dungeon." He gave him a smile. "But of course he's been handling, handling any king duties with help from the other Kings. Have more faith in me, me."

Rouxls hummed and still gave him a suspicious look but relaxed back just a tiny bit. "We shall see upon mine return tomorrow."

"Correct, correct." He smirked. "And that counted as two questions.~"

"WHAT?!" The worm's famous annoyance flared across his face but it did little to nothing to intimidate the floating loon who just giggled. "That nay counts!!"

"Ah, ah, ah.~" The same finger came up to wag at him. "Now, now. We agreed to five, five questions each, each. You never said you or me could ask more than one, one in a row. You only laid one rule and one rule I have followed indeed."

Rouxls growled and mumbled under his breath but let his shoulders slump defeated and said, "FINE!! But thou couldst best considerate and doth the same with thine next pair."

He giggled turning to lay on his side in mid air. "Fair enough. Fair enough. And after my two that will make us both, both just an equal two of hearts to go.~" He ended that sentence with a wink and Rouxls gave an embarrased mumble at that. But seriously back on the topic the gremlin hummed and tapped his fingers against each other. What infinate details of the duke would he want to know most in the world right now? He had quite a few, the scars being one. But he wanted to calm down that anoyance from earlier. So why not a realatively normal and safe one? Or two. Turning back to Rouxls, he asked, "What do you like, like about myself if anything at all? Or Seam for that matter?"

Another silence fell upon the two from that question. Rouxls stared and blinked at the ever patiently waiting Jevil, his brain trying to process the questions just asked to him. He wanted to hear what? Praise from him? Did he want to point out all the good details, the few he even saw, and tell them to him. His soul gave a giant leap at the idea and it seemed his mind flooded with the sudden thought of 'Hey! This is a good idea!' no matter how much his rational brain told him otherwise. Here we go again.

But no matter what happens he would stay professional. So he shrugged calmly. "What tis there to really say about? Thou art very troublesome there's that," He looked back to his food to avoid the small frown slowly appear on Jevil's face. "Thou art also very clingy, bothersome...but very determined." Jevil blinked as the duke's expression became thoughtful. And he...chuckled. "Thou art worse than Lancer. Once a thought appears thou nay stop til thine job is done. And making so many things appear-.." His fingers drummed against the surface of the table again as if not quite beleiving it was still there. "..Tis fascinatinge. I amst impressed with thine magical capabilities thou has demonstrated. And Seam haseth his own magically surprises. He tis very calmeth and can holdest a decent conversation, very good from thine castle staff." He chuckled a memory going back to that awkward small hug just a few days ago. "And I meant what I said. Thou art a funny little man."

He chuckled at the mischieve making Lancer would usually do around the castle and- OH! Oh, no. He certainly hoped Jevil's bad influence hadn't rubbed off on him too much, then he would have a real problem on his hands. Chuckling his eyes glazed back up to Jevil and blinked. The imp was almost limply sitting in the middle of the air, silently staring at him. His eyes wide, his ears drooping, and a light purple flush dusting across his cheeks. For a moment the worm thought he had upset the gremlin, and a small feeling of gult throbbed from somewhere within his body. Until a small sniff came from him and he went into full blown panic that he had made Jevil cry-

"T-That's..That's the most..*sniff* nicest t-thing you have ever, ever said about m-me." A shaky smile came over his features and if it weren't for the table between them he would've lunge at him in happiness now.

Rouxls held out a hand hesitantly. "A-Art thou ok?"

"Y-Yeah..Im fine, fine." With a flick of his wrist a tissue appeared and he blew his non-existant nose into it. "My, my world is just revolving with my heart."

Rouxls chuckled and smiled at the sweet sight before him. It was honestly kinda sweet. Oh! He was forgetting something. "Mayhaps I couldst casheth in another ask in our 'game'?"

"Go ahead, go ahead."

"Why is it thou speakest in double tongue?" Jevil blinked confused behind wiping his face. "Why doth thou repeat words?"

Jevil shrugged. "I know not. I have done it, done it for as long as I could remember, remember. A habit I shall keep I suppose."

Well that was probably the most straight forward answer he had gotten such far. He wondered how many more he would receive. A part of him wondered how many of the answers were actual truth and if he was actually being truthful at all, but for some reason he felt as if it was truth somehow.

"Why do YOU speak, speak the way you do?" Rouxls blinked at him. "It's only fair I ask about your own, own strange way of speaking."

Rouxls...looked back to his plate for a moment. "....Tis h-how mine family used to speakest. T-They wereth very...tradional of olde ways. I guesseth olde habits nay die hard." Jevil could sense a hint of sandess within his words but didn't have a chance to linger on the thought when Rouxls's eyes looked back to him with interest. At the mention of family it sparked some kind of curiousity, as he remembered he had never seen any other person like Jevil and beleive me. Being the royal advisor for over a hundred years attending royal meetings with other kingdoms, and meeting many, many different darkner people he had seen the oddest people on this plain of existance. But he had never seen someone like jevil. Literal spring neck, constant flow of powerful magic obviously considering how often he can just float in mid air, and other strange features were something he hasn't ever seen before. How was he even eating- Perhaps he hailed from a different dark of the Dark World? And before he stop himself the words tumbled out. "What art thou?"...Jevil tilted his head obviously confused at what he meant and Rouxls cleared his throat. "I-I mean. Thine species. I shan't remember ever seeing anyone like thou before."

Jevil paused, but smiled taking his exotic looks as another compliment and flattered the duke would take notice of such. And so a string of giggles came out and he leaned forward with a purr. "Very wise observation, observation, Dear Duke.~" He then shrugged. "To stay honest with our game, game I haven't the faintest close of most that make up my lineage, lineage. But I do remember my dear mother having the same spring, spring in her step as I and my sire, sire was of the Joker lines."

Rouxls stared at him for what seemed like an eternity, before blinking. "Art thou saying that thou tis a mix of other Darkners?"

"Yes, yes. Very spot on, spot on!"

Well...This certainly explained things. Darkners of mixed lines were certainly of no rarity but he never suspected Jevil to be one of them. With the power he had demonstrated he was sure he was at least of Tarot Kaard decent, but maybe he still was. He did say he was of Joker Kaard decent, well no matter. That cleared up a lot of his confusion and curiousity at least.

"But that was six questions, questions in total, total!" More excited giggles. "You're all out now. But I have one, one left to ask of you."

Rouxls sighed and shook his head. One more question and one more silly answer to give. But he could bare it. He made a gesture for Jevil to go ahead and finish this silly thing once and for all.....But silence stared it. Those Yellow and black eyes glazed over his face and the toothy smile upon his face slowly disappeared the more he stared. Kaard stared back blinking and his brow raising the longer Jevil stared. By now the only sound was the leaves of the leave above and around them as the wind gently pushed through them. It was quiet....Too quiet. Very unlike Jevil. The pit in his stomach from before started to creep back in now-

"Rouxls, rouxls." The sound of his voice made him jump, and the sheer tone of dead seriousness dripping from it was suprising. Jevil was staring at him with a calm, serious look before letting out a long sigh. "How did you receive those markings?"

He suddenly felt like he was falling. Oh no he hoped he didn't faint again. The only that might've kept him up was the sheer shock of the question asked or maybe the sheer serious no nonsesne face on the happy go lucky jester. His soul thumped hard against his chest and his eyes quickly fell back to the table to avoid eye contact from the stare from the other man. Jevil just stared silently, as if one had all eternity to wait for this silent haired man.

".....T-That tis n-no concern to thou." He finally forced out.

"Corection, correction! We agreed nothing that didn't concern, concern either of us. But I think this does, does." His head lowered turning sideways. "You already answered that question partically earlier, earlier though. Did you not?" Rouxls's ears drooping was all the answer he needed. "...Is that why you are so against this. this?" One of his hands gestured to the table and everything on it.

Rouxls still remained silent. Eyes still staring blankly on the table- "Tis was of mine own foolish young feelings." Jevil blinked when he finally stared up to him a frown on his face. "Tis...my own fault. I f-foolishly....Foolishly thought that it wouldst be-...That she wouldst...The...Q-Q-Queen..."

His teeth gritted together and his hands clenched up! A lot of things hit him at once, anger, regret, sorrow. He could write a whole sonata of things. His eyes once again stared blankly again and his visio blurred. His soul radiated sadness and he wasn't the only one who sensed it. He didn't see the wave of clawed hands, or notice the dim lighting from no more candles, or the fact that the smell of any foof beyond the candy on the trees were gone, or that everything on the table minus the cloth had suddenly disappeared. What he did notice, was the gripping of his hand, which he jumped at, his rapidly blinking eyes clearing up enough to catch the sight of slightly smaller hands grabbing his. And looking up into the silent face of the the small loon.

Tis funny how one's face could give off thoughts without saying anything at all. It read "I know now. I know exactly what happened." Which made him internally wince. But at the same time it read, "I know exactly how you feel."

"...Im sorry, sorry for your loss. I felt empty, empty too when I made, made the mistake of cheating life's game and thrown into my small freedom, freedom. ....I put Seam, Seam into a difficult situation of choosing moves and he made the right one...one." His voice was almost hollow with sadness despite the small smile he tried to put on for him. ".....I lost, lost my oldest friend."

"But...t-thou art still friends now, and all is forgiven. A-Arn't thou?"

He gave a small chuckle. "Heh. Yes, yes. But only because Seam is a forgiving, forgiving soul. Im very fortunately he decided to do so, so."

Another small pause, but Jevil blinked and looked down when he felt the blue hand squeezing him back, then looked up to Rouxls in surprise question. Rouxls gave him a ...small smile of his own.

"Mayhaps....we art more alike than I thought. Jevil, thou art a o-oddity I shan't ever understand fully...but t-thou art a kind and ...perhaps I darsay misunderstood man...And I thank thee f-fully for that."

He stared at the worm in front of him, this silly silly worm with the beautifully glowing hair and the cute small gap between his teeth in his small smile. And the cool water balloon like skin gripping his own at this very sweet moment. If he was watching this game as an outsider, he would've laughed at how they were literally arguing over this less than five days ago, but right now it didn't seem any of that or anything else mattered. Not Seam. Not adorable little Lancer. Not the game or the threat of Seam winning even in the slightest. Not even the topic they had been discussing just a few seconds ago. The wind blew some more rustling the leaves and driving the intoxicating sweet marshamllow scent around them more. And blowling some of that pretty hair into his face, which he immediately reached to pull away and Rouxls made no move to stop him from doing that. Or removing the hand that now cupped his cheek. Maybe it really was a mutual madness they both shared or some form of chaos in their lives, but right now....With them being so close...And so vulnerable. It was only natural of course-.. It's what soulmates do-.. Of course they would since-...

They kissed.

******************************************************************************************

The sheap was peaceful today. No customers had come in today and he was good and content to just relax in his favorite armchair in the back room and lazily watch the fire. Cup of warm catnip tea in his paws. Beside him the small child laid on their stomach drawing with some strange objects called crayons or the like, he once took a peek over to see what they were drawing and smiled upon seeing a funny looking purple man who may or may not have looked familiar to someone they both knew, surrounded by attacks of every suit and wearing what looked like a crown made of spoons. ...Or maybe that was just because his one eye vision wasn't the best. He chuckled and went back to watching the fire in front of them. It warm glow made his cotton fuzzy and he sunk back down into the chair more-

The clear sound of the sheap's flap opening and closing made him blink and sit back up. Oh? A customer perhaps? When he turned his head he caught sight of a floating imp he knew all too well and he smiled.

"Well, well. Back so soon?..Or I guess not. It has been almost seven hours by now Old friend."

The child excitedly bounced up catching sight of the jester dad and spilt the drawing tools in their hurry to bounce up to him and excitedly shove the picture into his face. "For you!"

The jester paused looking at the paper, before taking it with a smile and giving the child a couple patts on the head. Which they laughed at and ran off to a different corner of the room to do whatever they usually did, Jevil smiled watching them go before looking back to the picture with a smile....Then it slowly dripped to a frown. Seam caught wind of that and gave a hum. He wasn't looking so happy. Maybe the little plan didn't end in victory like he wanted? The imp looked into the prying eyes of the cat and floated towards him, still holding the paper.

"I take it the little outting was not a pleasant one?"

Jevil shook his head. "On the contrary, contrary. It was quite breathtaking."

"Then why the long my friend. Did the duke not return what you were hoping for?"

Jevil gave him a serious look which he hummed at. Must've been something really important to get that look in his eyes. "We need to discuss, discuss something of upmost importance this instant."

"Enlighten me, friend. Im all ears."

[pink-hao]

college! namjoon

masterlist

cutest dimple boy in third year

majors in bilingual and multicultural education

thought he could flex in his first year for knowing 3 languages

sike babe plenty of people know at least that many in this major

was a little intimidated

but bounced back soooo quickly

is constantly craving to learn more 

even now, years later

yall met in an italian class 

it was his second year but your first

yall were in that class because you had passed level one of italian

you picked it up pretty easily

he had a little bit of trouble

so he made his way over to your seat

and wormed his way into your heart that very first day ! 

he smiled the cutest dimple smile you’ve ever seen ugh

it was over for you

anyways now you’re in a coffee shop together the next day

trying to study and take notes together

after almost an hour you’re all like

“let’s take a little break i feel like my hand’s gonna fall off” 

and he chuckles and ADWFHK its so cute 

so he asks you about your major and how many languages you know and all that

and when you talk you notice he seems so into whatever comes out of your mouth

like he’s hanging onto every word, trying to soak it in or smth ? idk man but he looks super cute when he’s focused

and then he starts talking about himself and his dreams

you must’ve looked like the hooked one now

because you were ! 

he sounds so sweet and sincere when he tells you he just wants people around the world to be opened up to a cosmopolitan education

he tells you he is a firm believer of the fact that anyone, regardless of their race, nationality, religion, orientation, can and should be taught equally

he wants the kids of tomorrow to be able to communicate with each other openly and lovingly and he says that the first step in doing that is breaking down the language barrier ! 

you are just there like

w o w

this guy is like AMAZING

you end up forgetting about italian LOL and just keep chatting until Joon’s phone goes off

you are kinda sad when he says he has to go

but you are b e a m i n g when he tells you to put your number in his phone !!!

he’s all like

“i’ll text you so we can go out again”

and FLASHING HIS DIMPLES

and you’re all like

ILLEGAL “okay totally heh”

when you’re walking out of the cafe you replay what he said in your head

he said he wanted to go out with you again ? so he had a good time

but does go out mean just spend time or like study or was this like a DATE or smth 

you’re brain is like ????

but you try not to dwell on it

so whatever you end up texting him and studying together 

at his place

he tries to cook for you

(it doesn’t work out well)

you end up taking over in the kitchen but he feels bad so he still tries to help

h e ’ s  a  l i t t l e  h a n d s y

yall are blushing and having a good time

until

joon’s hyungs show up IBIDUHWIUD

they’re all like ....

and yall are like ...

its fine though

they introduce themselves and rEaLiZe tHey hAVe tO Go sOMeWhErE nOw 

so yall are alone again

but you try to stay levelheaded this time so you can get cracking on the studytime

yall ate the food a little later and it was pretty good

you just have the best time with joon and it doesn’t ever seem forced

when you go back to your dorm later you’re like 

babe yk you like this man

and he knows he likes you 

when you leave he’s giddy and he won’t stop thinking about you !!!!

he’s a Boy in Luv (ya see what i did there)

yall get this casual thing going on for the better half of the year

towards finals yall are closer than ever

lots of “studying” (dates)

he takes you out to this lunch one day after finals to thank you for everything

and you’re like “oh stop i was way more annoying to you, always in your hair..”

he was all like “i’d love to have you around more often actually...”

and you’re taken aback for a SECOND

and then you’re all confident, like “well then ask me”

and he’s like

h u h

“ask me to be yours”

and he’s just staring at you like :o

but finally he gets his sh*t together and is all like

“will you be mine”

and just like that you’re his and he’s yours

(even though he’s been yours since the first time you laughed at one of his bad jokes)

yall still “study” (you actually make out in the back of the library YOU CHEECKY KIDS)

the boys LOVE you two

and you both passed italian ! he likes to call you his tesoro because he thinks you are his treasure

hes the luckiest guy to have you

but you’re luckier with this guy HE CARES ABOUT YOU SO MUCH

yall are so cute IUNIUWDU

[thickwamuu]

Pick me (yandere!Ghiaccio x reader)

Pairing - [Ghiaccio x reader] (stands? - no)

Words - 1489 (not proofread)

Warnings - general yandere-ness, swearing, (extremely) graphic violence/body horror (you’ve been warned 👀😗 I love horror, this is meant to be scary), dumb post name that definitely I hate myself for

Scenario - you go skating for a first date at a rink you frequent and it turns out that he’s a bit of a douche. A certain mouthy employee who has made a habit of observing you doesn’t like that.

When you overheard your tinder date throwing cheesy lines at someone else as you approached your meetup spot, you already had a pretty good idea of whether you’d be asking for a second date or not. Picking out the ideal partner wasn’t your forte, sure, but you couldn’t let that stop you in your pursuit of love- and it certainly wouldn’t stop you from enjoying the rink after you had already paid for your admission.

Actually getting on the ice seemed to be a far away goal though as he threw his arm around you and directed you to the food stand, chatting obnoxiously.

“Ah shit,” your date cursed, patting his jeans and jacket pockets. Oh boy. “I only brought enough to get in, and I’m starving could you-“

“What do you want?” You rolled your eyes walking up to the vendor. He smiled and playfully got you in a headlock. “I knew blowing off my plug for this date was a good idea. I met someone as kind as you, kid.”

Plug for what Exactly? You weren’t particularly interested in finding out.

Practically inhaling his food, he washed it down with a sip of your drink before scrunching his nose up and wiping his mouth. “What the hell was that?”

You raised an eyebrow. “Dude, it’s just coffee...”

“You drink that shit?” He remarked before pushing his shoulder into you and giving you a coy look, accompanied by a wink. “Don’t worry babe, hopefully my good taste will rub off on you.”

You deadpanned and let out a loud sigh as he laughed at his own statement, making him stop and guide your chin to look at his odd version of a puppy dog face. Nice, his fingers had sauce on them. “C’mon, baby, I was just joking around.”

He leaned in the rest of the way for a kiss and with dinner plate eyes you pushed him away. “What’s your problem?” You whispered sternly, not wanting to draw attention. “I don’t have a problem, I’m just trying to lighten the mood. You’re not making it easy.” His tone was mocking and louder than necessary, making you duck your head and blush.

“Look, I don’t think-“

“What the fuck?” Your date interrupted before chuckling maliciously and nudging you in the ribs, pointing to a man you presumed to be a maintenance worker hunched over a janitor cart, scowling at the two of you and mumbling. “Hey four eyes! Do I got something on my face?”

The man’s face turned a shade of red that could rival his bright cherry glasses and with widened eyes, he turned around began to walk away.

“Hey! I wasn’t done!”

Your face definitely mirrored the poor employees when your date hurled your half full coffee cup at him, making you bolt up from your seat and rush over to him. Supporting the trembling man now cradling his head and clearly failing breathing exercises, you turned to the culprit with distress cutting through your words. “Why are you being like this?”

“You’re on that losers side? He was the one who was-“

Ignoring him, you turned to them man, squatting to look up at his face. Worried that he was crying, as he didn’t look particularly strong willed, you were very surprised to see him quite literally shaking with rage. “Sir are you okay, did you get hurt.”

Snapping his wild eyes on you, he began to slow his breaths as he straightened himself up, attempting to gain composure. Standing up yourself, you noticed you were the same height as him, if not taller.

“I’m fine.” He breathed out curtly as the colour of his face began to look more like an actual human skin tone. Your thoughts were cut short as a rough hand clasped onto your shoulder, grabbing your attention. “I don’t know why you suggested this place, it sucks. Lets get out of here.”

“Wait.” A quiet, cold voice cut in making your date stop before rolling his eyes and opening his dumb mouth. “Don’t you know when to stop? I thought glasses meant you were smart.”

A vein popped in the employees neck as he silently pointed to the lanyard around his neck that read ‘MAINTENANCE AND SECURITY’ in bold letters before pulling the radio on his belt to his mouth, mumbling something and looking back up. “You’re coming with me for disrupting the public until police get here.”

“Whatever, it’s not like this was even a big deal. Kind of an overkill reaction, but clearly you don’t have enough power in your life and need to compensate.” Your date scoffed, complying with the employee.

Maybe he did have one brain cell after all.

The man shifted his tense gaze to you making you freeze up, already thinking about how far away the commute to the next closest rink was. You should have known better than to bring a stranger here, god forbid you actually have a good date or once in your life.

“You.”

His strained tone made you wince.

“Next time you come here... tell them Ghiaccio said you’re allowed a session for free and to radio me if that’s an issue... you clearly didn’t get to use this skate time.” Despite it’s harsh sounding delivery, the offer he extended to you made you blush, perhaps that was just his default tone.

“Thank you, you’re too kind.” You smiled at him genuinely before flipping like a coin and shooting a glare to your date. “I’m going home. Lose my number, asshole.”

Making your exit, you thought about the employee- Ghiaccio. ‘Even his name fit him’ you laughed to yourself. Although a little quick-tempered and bad with kind words, he really seemed decent. Maybe your luck in love was changing for the better.

-

“Weren’t you bringing me to security?” The leech asked, looking around at the locker rooms and various storage closets littering the hallway.

“Shortcut.” Ghiaccio bit out, pushing him through a door. “In here.”

“Through the second rink? Is this where the team plays?-” His insufferable voice silenced with a grunt as the employee smashed a shovel used to maintain the ice into the back of his skull and got to work.

When he came to, the first thing he noticed was how cold the ice felt- next, how very naked his body was. Attempting to get up, he realized ice picks were keeping him from moving his hands in the way that they pierced straight through the middle of them, a massive pool of blood now staining the ice below. Finally, he noticed the man in the standard blue janitorial coveralls looming above him with heavy work gloves on and the all too familiar red glasses dawning his face.

“W-what do you want from me, man?” He sobbed out, the numbing of ice and adrenaline fading away with every second.

This seemed to set Ghiaccio’s fuse. “You say the dumbest shit! Why the fuck would I want anything from you? do you think I’m the beggar in this situation? do I look like I need something? On top of that, it’s been bugging me the whole time I was setting up, Your insults don’t even make sense.” He yelled out, his words bouncing off the rink glass.

“Setting u-up?...” the worm whimpered pathetically as he was forced to listen to the madman’s critique of him.

“-at world does ‘four eyes’ even make sense? I clearly have two eyes! Two eyes! Two! Are you so dumb you can’t even count?” He ranted, kicking the mans head to the side, his face lulling back and forth with the movements pitifully.

“I’m gonna shut that idiotic mouth for good.” The employee spoke, squatting down with a vicious smile as his gloved fingers snatched his victims tongue and pulled it out, chin involuntarily clashing into the sub-zero surface.

The parasite shook his head as he garbled out cries for help, hot, fat tears effectively marrying his skin to the ice.

His scream ripped into the cool air as the sharp pick was forced through his wet muscle, Ghiaccio dusting himself off as he moved to tighten the coarse rope around his bare ankles.

“At least they’ve smartened up and started bringing the obstacles to me. I’m so fucking tired of having to track you scumbags down in my free time.” His voice rose as he climbed onto the zamboni, starting it up. “I’m so fucking sick of guys like you getting to spend time with them! It doesn’t make sense! No fucking sense! It should be me! Fuck!”

After smashing his fists into the wheel of the ice resurfacer, he remembered the breathing exercises he read about when he decided to reign in his anger as not to scare you away when he got too heated. Heaving in and out, he found his center and sat up straight, slowly accelerating the machine forward with its precious cargo in tow.

[blessedthot]

Otome in the devildom

hello! this is a chp from my fic on ao3, hi my name is MC i have a dnace battle tomorrow (long ass name i know), i hope you enjoy!

________________________________________________________________

The Devildom. How did you end up in this situation? Who knows. (I know ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°))

It was your first day at RAD, and after returning to the HOL (House Of Lamentation was too long of a word for your lazy ass) (@ narrator can you stfu), you were sat in your room, blankly staring at your ceiling. You didn’t have any tasks, and you had finished reading the parts your teacher had asked you to. And now? You were bored. You might have appreciated the boredom, especially after so many impossible things had happened. (getting kidnapped by hot demons? It’s more likely to happen than you think)

So now what? Miel was busy. You weren’t close to any of the demons here. (yet ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)) What must a girl do to get rid of this boredom and stop her mind from wandering to dark places that would most likely cause another mental breakdown? (can we get an F in the chat)

“Who knew living with demons would be so boring.” You muttered to yourself. Suddenly, your phone (you refused to call it a DDD because that’s dumb) beeped, signaling a text.

Levi: hey normie

Levi: are you free rn

Leviathan? Why would he be texting you? He hadn’t even introduced himself at breakfast that morning. Miel was the one who told you his name. You stared at your phone bewildered, thinking before typing out a response.

Me: yeah

Me: why ??

Levi: there’s this new game I have

Levi: so u better come over fast

Huh. That’s surprising. You hadn’t expected him of all the demons you’d met to invite you over. He seemed like a person who…disliked, social interaction. And for him to invite you to his room? Suspicious. What if this was a trap? What if he wanted to steal your soul? (if only you had one lmao) (@ narrator can you stfu x2)

Well, at least you wouldn’t be bored anymore. However, there was one problem. Your hand-eye coordination. Or rather, the lack there-of. But you weren’t gonna tell a hot demon that you sucked ass at video games because that’s totally not cool! First impressions are important. Must appeal to the demon, or he might eat you.

Me: ok chile but like,, why do I have to be there ??

Hopefully, he’d think you were too dumb and not ask you to play something that could embarrass you. Hopefully.

Levi: the game needs two players

Well shit. You tried to worm your way out by pretending not to know anything, now he probably just thinks you’re dumb and not good at reading social cues. (I mean, where’s the lie-) (@ narrator why must you hurt MC so)

Me: oh

Me: um,, I suck ass at games tho,,

You really did. Anything other than Mario Kart, and you’d break the game. You’d even managed to fail at Animal Crossing. Animal. Crossing.

Levi: even a normie like you can play this game

Levi: so you better come over fast!

Levi: the door’s unlocked

Levi: but it won’t be for long

That’s…ominous.

Me: is that a threat

Me: hello ??

You know what, never mind, he was probably just dicking with you anyways. And besides, your bed was warm. And nice. And you didn’t want to get up. And you-

Levi: be faster !!!!!!!!!

Levi: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-better get going before you die on your second fucking day in demonville.

You arrive at his room pretty quick, being on the same floor was an advantage. You knock once before letting yourself in.

You’re stunned. His room was…beautiful. Bathed in a soft blue light, the most striking feature of his room was the giant aquarium. Your lips parted in wonder as wide eyes took in your surroundings. How rich exactly are these hoes, you grumbled to yourself as you tried to mentally calculate the money it might cost you to have a room like this back at home. So maybe selling about, both your kidneys, an appendix, and maybe your uterus?

“Finally! Took you long enough.” Leviathan’s voice shakes you out of your quickly morbid-turning thoughts.

“Sorry.”

“Ah, whatever. You’re here.”

He was sat in front of his TV, game console plugged in and ready to play. A pink glow from the screen in front of him illuminated his face. Damn, why are all of them so hot, you thought with a small sob. (horny 100)

“Your room is really pretty.”

“Oh. Um. T-thanks.”

You walked over to where he was sat on the floor, plopping down beside him. Well, not too close, because your brain would go ???  if you were too close to a pretty person. Unless you wanted to short-circuit when you played whatever you were going to play, it was in the best interests for your heart and brain to leave at least one bible distance between the two of you. Leave room for Jesus.

It was silent for a while, with both of you staring at the floor before you decided you might explode if this suffocating silence continued.

“So, what are we playing?” you asked, turning to him.

“Devilish Messenger! It’s a dating simulator where you get kidnapped by demons and you have to plan a party to be free again! It’s a really popular game and,” his eyes light up as he continues to ramble about the game. You on the other hand, are lost in your thoughts.

That sounded fun. But wait a minute. The plot of the game sounded awfully familiar…

Suddenly your eyes widened.

“FUCK!”

The demon next to you jumps 50 feet away from your now crumbling form.

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh shit, how many chatrooms have I fucking missed, I don’t have the hourglasses for this, oh god I’m gonna get a bad ending-” you ramble as you realize you hadn’t loaded a save file to protect your progress in the game you were playing in the human world. (can we get an F in the chat x2)

Levi watches on, slightly terrified but also a bit…curious.

You were a strange human. He had been observing you since your arrival. As scared as you were to be here, you didn’t seem to close off to them. You probably also had no self-preservation instincts, considering you had agreed to come to his room. All alone. But he didn’t have any intentions of hurting you. Quite the opposite in fact. Ever since you’d arrived, he had felt a strong urge to protect you. To…get closer to you. (sO BABY PULL ME CLOSER IN THE BACKSEAT OF YOUR-) (@ narrator can you stfu x3)

“-viathan? Leviathan!”

“Huh? W-what is it normie?”

“Can I download Mystic Messenger on my…uh…” Shit, what was it called again?

“DDD! Right! DDD. Can I download Mystic Messenger on my DDD?”

…

…Mystic Messenger?

[icharchivist]

I was rewatching DGM hallow and I remembered that Lavi and Bookman occasionally engage in telepathic conversations. How come I've never seen this talked about more in all the years I've been in this fandom? This is really weird. Even most of the Noahs think it's weird/creepy when someone reads their thoughts/talks in their head. The more I think about the Bookman the creepier they get. I'm not implying they're evil. Just really weird. 1) Telepathic w/each other. 2) Not only against attachments-

2 but against having a heart (not even the past Jedi at their most radical taught padawans to not feel anything). 3) If Bookman and Lavi are the standard then they either think they're above humanity or hate humans or or just indifferent. 4) they have SO many secrets that they keep to themselves no matter what. 5) they will never feel loyalty for anyone/thing that doesn't further their own ambition and even then they can easily drop you like you mean nothing to them. 5) They routinely erase-

3 each other's minds and none of them remember their birth names. 6) they swap identities so many times their own growth as individuals is trivial. 7) Ever single (possible) bookman we have met has either exhibited creepy or hostile behaviour. 8) they take to neutrality so strongly you can question if they even think to care what will happen to them if the Earl's plans succeed. 9) Are they even self aware? I'm not expecting a complete disaster. But I am expecting the bookman to weird me out.

Okay so for the telepathy i will have to come back to it when i will re-read it bc i don’t really remember it in Hallow and I think the scene I think should be that one??? Is the fact that ii’m almost certain i remember it being confirmed that Lavi and Bookman talk a whole other language. Apparently the Bookmen would have had their own language and I think i remember that in the manga it was translated by having weird bubbles to specify they were talking in that language (and it is possible that, due to the fact the anime couldn’t just pull a new language that was a work around to still have one of their Bookmen conversation being visible using telepathy).

But i really don’t remember the scene in question in details so i will have to check that out again but I THINK it is Bookman Language related more than telepathy and that the telepathy was a way for the anime to translate it

THAT SAID if the idea of Telepathy is a thing (which tbh could still be??? Bookmen already messes with minds a lot with the whole deleting memories thing who knows the hell they can do) it could explain also a lot of much more silent looks that we kinda justified so far by “they know something we don’t”. It might have been conversations we missed. 

Still unsure though i’ll get back to that when i will properly have re-read those parts bc this is really intruiguing me now

I know the fandom had talked about the Bookman’s language though but i’ve never heard of telepathy before now?? Idk 

And yeah like you say this is very weird bc putting them on the same level as Wisely is... very weird. Besides considering how much Lavi still struggles to get people around him i am fairly certain that if telepathy there are it i between the Bookmen only, not all knowing as Wisely.

But yeah aside from that, mood. The Bookmen are seriously a creepy brunch. Not in a bad way, but in a “this is extremely shady and I get you’re doing that to be neutral but i’m not sure those means are actually legally or morally applicable”

I agree with all your points. 

and i’ll elaborate under cut bc i might have gone carried away,

well 1) i just discussed it there, either Telepathy which would be a whole new can of worm, or a whole other language that would still applies that they have a special language to keep secrets in. And tbh it would also make sense that they would write down records in a secret language since they don’t actually let people Read their reccordings: Bookman specify that it comes with the part to “chat a lot”, they won’t share the written reccords (which they MUST HAVE for the the survival of the clan), so “Secret Language no one else in the world know” rings as shady to me.

4) NOT TO MENTION we know that Bookman also keeps secrets from Lavi (when meeting Cross’s altered akuma, Bookman specifies it was only something he (and Cross) knew about.). And it’s not to mention secrets that the Bookman in charge keeps from the rest of the Clan (see again, how Lavi’s eye is only known by Bookman Sr, not anyone else in the clan seems aware of that)

6) Apparently about their switching identities, something very creepy that came out of the latest Komui corner too is that the name they have during a war is the name that the recording will officially get. Meaning it’s not even that “Lavi” calls himself like that for the people around him, it’s that even after Jr would have moved on or died or anything, the Records of the Holy War would still be called “Lavi”. And we know that the names picked seems to have meaning that applies to each wars (as Wisely smugly smile realizing Lavi’s name’s meaning, but doesn’t tell people). So even more of a disconnect with their sense of humanity since they have to be distanced from their own names, as their names become history as it goes. Which makes Jr’s identity crisis over how “Lavi” is “him” even more creepy tbh, bc it extends that “Lavi” isn’t just a reccord name anymore, it is not just the Holy War anymore, it is part of Jr as a BEING. And to me that’s even creepier that it’s even something Lavi has to worry about.

8) this is honestly one of my biggest questions. If the Earl’s plans work, all humanity will die. Or at least there had been no mention so far of any “saved people that would go through the Ark”. (there had been speculations about the real purpose of the Akuma and how its evolution process would be perhaps a part in creating supperior beings to salvage during the Flood like the original Ark did, and i’ll need to get back to the chapters tha thints that there are more secrets to the Dark Matter than it just reversing the innocence, BUT personally I have issues with this theory because of how easily the Noah do torture and kill the Akuma at times and seem to look down on them. But I would agree there seems to be a bigger purpose to the Akuma and the Dark Matter that we cannot even imagine.)Regardless, I don’t see anyway for the Bookmen Clan to survive, else the Noah would have found way to keep them on their sides and not torture them like they do now and exclude them. Yet we know at some points the Bookmen were “on the Noah’s side”. So what the hell do the Bookmen expect to happen with the Flood? Is their neutrality so important that they are ready to litteraly go down with this ship when the end of the world come? Yet we know they have some self preservating instinct it seems, so why? It just enerves me so much!

9) Yeah same, basically.

One last thing i will add: How the HELL did Bookman manage to find himself and Lavi innocences he knew they would be accomodator to when they decided to join the Order? Bc the Corner mentions that Bookman decided to set them into the Order to watch BEFORE they even got in contact with the innocences, and Lavi mentions that “Gramps just knew we’ll find innocences we would be compatible with” and how????? How the hell??? You can’t just make it that easy for the two of them to randomly connect with two random innocences (and we know they’re the one who have shown the least actual connection with the innocence) after arcs and arcs proving that the innocence is picky and sentient, that its own personality affects who they end up picking, that even the synch can change depending of how the innocence feel to their acomodator, and Especially, that the Order had DECADES of experimentations that were basic human rights violation due to how desperate they were to not be able to have enough people synchronizing with the innocence.

You  cannot have a full arc of telling us the Order did an entiere experiment about bringing fallen exorcists’s brains back in new bodies in hope the innocence would synch with said bodies, while letting those bodies decay under the pain of the innocence, for the sLIGHT CHANCE an innocence could be compatible again, only to then tell us “oh yeah we wanted to join the order so we ended up finding two innocences that we could connect to.”

For exemple: Take the Crows. it’s obvious the Crows want to help the holy war, as the Third Exorcist project proved a whole brunch of people were ready to put Dark Matter in their body to fight back the Akuma. And from all those Crows, from all the experiments we know the Order have carried on, somehow, as long as we don’t know of a “Former Crow Exorcist”, it means it’s not that easy. Not when you have a whole military branch who would be willing to be God’s apostles. And it’s not even counting how others Orders’s soldiers like the Finders would or not jump on the occasion.

So how the hell did they do that? How the hell did Bookman find those? bc even if they don’t connect to their innocence on an emotional level, they seem like proper innocence. Else Allen would have commented about how the souls don’t disappear like planned, like when he saw how the Third Exorcists killed the Akuma. Besides, we also know Bookman fears Lavi’s innocence could turn into a crystal type, so it confirms this is legit innocence, and that Bookman doesn’t have full controle over it.

How could Bookman be so sure they will become accomodator BEFORE finding any innocences? It raises seriously worrying implications considering all we know about the innocence and how hard it is to find accomodators for it this far in the saga. 

*take s a deep breath* anyway that said,

tbh part of me understand the feeling of “wanting to disconnect your feelings” when you watch history happens, because history is goddamn overwhelming. For having studied history for a few years i’ve personally had a few breakdown just over thinking about the amounts of horrors you read about one year after the other, so to have to remember all those horrors AND reccord current horrors, I understand in principle the thought that shutting those emotions down is the easiest way to record it. 

In principle.

Because in practice this is (a lot like you compared) nearly impossible witout losing their humanity and even losing perhaps an important part of how to understand and translate human experiences through emotional lenses. That’s the major issue with this logic.

had they done that for so long they don’t even question it? Or are they perfectly aware that it’s exactly why they cannot afford emotions? what are their view on the world and it coming to an end? How far are they willing to go in order to keep their own secrecy and status squo? Do they even realize the possible irony of them “not meedling with history” while the only fact that they are meddling by taking the dispositions they do to remain hidden/uninvolved? Not to mention that wanting it or not, Bookman and Lavi had meddled in the Holy War. Would they remain fully neutral, Bookman wouldn’t have had to tell everything he knew about the Noah to Komui in his first appearance for exemple. 

Lately it seems like they seem more interested in the Noah losing (self preservation kicking in) but that does raise the question of how far they are willing to share the secret history and how much is considered “medding with history”? Because this “secret knowledge no one should have” IS changing the course of history by being shared.

Do they even realize or do they really see themselves as walking books who can deliver information if pressed a the condition it doesn’t require to dig in their secrets? Where do they draw the lines?

I have HUNDREDS of questions about the Bookmen and it drives me insane. I won’t exclude that i might be overthinking it bc man, gotta wait between chapters huh, and that perhaps it won’t be that complicated or deep, but the more you get to see how shady the Bookmen are the more you wonder how and why?

Anyway that fascinates me. Bookmen pls unlock your secrets,,

[miraculously-fangirling]

Springtime Connection - Chapter 5

Adrien dashed down the stairs to the school kitchen. Plagg peeked from behind Adrien’s over shirt with a rumbling stomach. The cat kwami sniffed around as Adrien opened the fridge with the notepad still under his arm. He felt something missing, but couldn’t put his finger on it as he entered the walk in fridge filled with bulk packages of local foods. Adrien wasn’t really sure what he was supposed to look for so he wandered aimlessly around the metal racks. Plagg took his chosen’s distraction as a chance to float around and look for a midmorning snack.

Back in the classroom, Marinette quickly showed the teams the various sketches and notes her and Adrien had made. There weren’t many questions but plenty of excited chatter (save for Chloe and Sabrina’s stubborn grumbling).

Relieved, Marinette returned to her seat to look over her checklist. After the design was decided on, she just needed to relegate work. The class buzzed for a moment before Marinette noticed Adrien’s pen by his seat. Great, she thought. He couldn’t possibly write anything down without a pen. She looked around for Alya, but the brunette was busy chatting with Rose about the design of the web ad.

Marinette gave Alya a worrying look. The pen being there meant that Adrien had forgotten it and he needed it. But she didn’t want to give it to him alone. Anything than that. She wouldn’t be able to deal with it. Alya gave her friend a quizzical look as Rose rambled on about fragrances and different types of flowers. The brunette looked to Marinette with her hopeful bluebell eyes and then to the discarded pen. Dots connected and she smirked. Marinette sighed. Looks like she was going alone.

Marinette grabbed the pen, making sure to stick her tongue out at Alya as she walked out. Alya chuckled to herself before turning back to her conversation with the perfume obsessed blonde. Should they have perfumed advertisements?

Plagg bumped into cold trays and door handles as he floated around the large refrigerator. The kwami continued to wander around the various trays and corners until he came upon a circle of prepackaged cheeses. He slipped behind the door to fight with the tin foil packaging with his stubby arms. Kwamis didn’t really have thumbs, or fingers really.

Marinette’s heart hammered as she descended the stairs to the cafeteria and kitchen. Her manicured nails dug into her palm as she clutched the pen. Was this really necessary? Of course. I mean, she got to talk to Adrien so it wasn’t all bad. But, at the same time, she has to talk to Adrien. What if she choked like usual? He would think she was  a bigger dork than usual.

She walked into the fridge, searching for the model’s signature blonde locks. She passed by the fruits and veggies, nothing. To the dairy she went, but her heart stopped when she came near the cheese wedges. A small black cat was busy pulling at wrappers, drooling on the tin foil as his stubby hands slipped. Marinette’s breath hitched as she retreated behind a corner. She figured that the kwami was with Chat Noir, but for it be at school must mean…

“Plagg, where are you?” Adrien whispered, quickly walking through the maze of refrigerator and carts. Marinette’s heart went from 0 to 100 as she heard Adrien open the magnet sealed door and call the black cat a pig.

Adrien was Chat Noir. Shy, polite Adrien was that overly flirtatious cat!

Marinette looked down to her bag where Tikki looked up to her with big blue eyes. The kwami wasn’t expecting her life long partner to be this close. Chat Noir being her chosen’s one true love was too big of a stroke of luck even for the superhero. Usually Plagg’s chosen was a bit more removed from Ladybug in real life. The heavens must’ve really loved this cycle.  

But what was Marinette supposed to do now? Just come out and say hi? No, of course not. He’d freak out and she’d probably faint at least a little.

“Marinette?” Adrien piped in. He blinked at the girl, heart racing. Did she hear? He thought of course she didn’t. She probably just got there, but he did wonder why she was kneeling on the floor staring at her purse and clutching a pen. His pen. Oh, he must have forgotten it.

Marinette shot to her feet, not looking him in the eye. “Oh Adrien!” she squeaked, “that’s where you w-were. I was looking for you. Not like stalking anything. I mean, yes of course. Umm you forgot this.” She stuck out the pen, almost whacking the model.

“Right.” he said, gently grabbing the pen and scratching the back of his head. His usual habit. She was acting normal, for Marinette at least. Maybe she didn’t hear or see anything, right? That’s what Adrien hoped at least.

Unluckily for him, Marinette only saw her partner’s smirk behind his polite smile. That’s all she could think about. She just kept thinking that her partner was before her in normal clothes, not flirting or messing around. Her partner wasn’t some playboy, just a friendly, overachieving model. Now she felt bad about putting down all of his advances. But now she was thinking about all the times that they had been piled on top of each other or tied together. How close they had been to each other. How close she had been to him. A faint blush crawled into her cheeks. She had been so close to Adrien on so many occasions.

The bell rang, pulling Marinette out of her spiraling pool of embarrassing superhero memories.

“We should head back,” Adrien said, walking towards the door. Marinette nodded and followed her clueless partner back to the classroom where Chloe fumed at her desk and the rest of their classmates settled down for class.

Marinette scurried to her seat and hid behind her folder as Ms. Bustier called for the class’ attention. Alya bumped Marinette’s elbow but nothing could bring the young girl out of her flurry of racing thoughts. Her mind quickly sifted through all of her memories of Chat Noir. Where was Adrien in all that smugness and overconfidence? She couldn’t see it, but he was the one in that black cat suit.

“Hey, girl. What’s up with you? Finally confess your undying love?” she teased with a bright look in her eye and wide smile. Marinette just side glanced her friend as she vigorously shook her head. Alya shrugged before Ms. Bustier allowed in the physics teacher.

The school day went on as usual, but Nathalie -- no Mistress Mind’s -- day was anything but normal. Mr. Agreste gave her civilian self the day off so he could focus on other things. Mistress Mind internally grimaced at the sound of her old name. It was just too normal for her tastes. She took the opportunity in stride though. With clipboard in hand, she strolled into the heart of Paris. Many young parents were out with their children while couples walked around. How should she use her newfound power? She had to bring out the super duo somehow. She couldn’t have Adrien going to a neglected life, right? How could she possibly get the Miraculouses? She got it. With a smirk, she headed to the park. With the clipboard in front and her best professional smile pasted on, she approached an arguing couple. She tapped on one of the women’s shoulder.

The woman whipped around, her blonde ponytail nearly smacked Mistress Mind in the face. She brushed off the woman’s irritation and simply placed the clipboard in front of her thighs.

“Hello there, miss,” Mistress Mind greeted with a warm grin. She just needed some eye contact, that was all.

“Yes?” the woman sighed, futilely trying to conceal her brewing frustration. Her wife rolled her eyes before going on to her phone.

“Nothing much, just doing a quick survey.”

“A survey?” the woman lifted her eyes for the first time and Mistress Mind locked eyes with her. With gazes locked, words appeared on her page. The arguing woman blankly stared at Mistress Mind with violet circles around her eyes. With a smile, Mistress Mind scanned the woman’s priorities. Her work was at the top, followed by a woman’s name and finally a boy’s name. She quickly moved the boy to the top before breaking her spell. The woman blinked a few times before running off. Her wife looked up from her phone confused before running after the first woman. The woman would go to the nearby elementary school and pull out her young son to just spend the day with him.

Mistress Mind had her plan and she soon set off to work on it. She went to the various adults wandering through the park and nearby shopping centers posing as a survey taker. As the day went on, she managed to put children at the top of many priority lists.  

__________________________________

Marinette’s mind never wandered too far away from her morning revelation as lessons tried to worm their way into her brain. None of it stuck. There were more important things on her mind. The fact that the blonde sat right in front of her was not helping matters. He just kept thinking about his father’s weird change in behavior, but those thoughts were reserved for between lessons. Everything was normal for the most part. For the most part was the key word there.

Lunch came around and Marinette quickly left school grounds for her usual lunch spot, home. The only thing that managed to pull her out of her head was the abnormal amount of laughter in the air. Children were running everywhere with their parents not far behind. Was there some kind of federal holiday? Why was no one in work and why were fifth graders not in fifth period? She thought it strange but dismissed it to nothing more than early dismissal. Maybe there was some sort of accreditation needed at the local elementary school. Yeah, that would make sense.

A long line greeted Marinette as she approached the bakery. Children pointed to wanted pastries and parents willingly gave into the request. Whatever happened to nutrition? Marinette thought it weird but she just slipped through the side entrance to avoid the impatient children and parents. Many of them were shouting and she frankly couldn't deal with rude customers at the moment.

“Oh Marinette, you’re home,” her father called from the bakery, covered in fresh flour.

Marinette looked up to her father. “Oh hello, Papa,” she said, pulling herself from her thoughts. They really were busy. Maybe she could help for a bit before heading back.

But first lunch. She headed to the kitchen where she fixed herself some leftovers. Tikki took the opportunity to zip out of Marinette’s bag and float before her eyes.

“Marinette, what are you going to do?” the small kwami said as she settled herself at the table’s edge.

Marinette shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Should we say something?”

“Should I tell him?” Marinette squeaked.

Tikki looked down. “You’re identity must stay secret, you know that.”

Marinette scraped at her food. “I know, but it’s Adrien. I see him everyday.” The young girl picked at her food a bit more before her mother came in and Tikki zipped back into the purse. Marinette knew she had to pick up the pace. How could she explain to her mom what was bothering her? She quickly shoveled down the food before picking up her school bag again.

“Done already?” her mother said while grabbing some coin rolls from a nearby cabinet. There were too many customers with big bills and change was becoming an issue.

Marinette quickly nodded. “Yeah, I wanted to umm, do some homework before heading back,” she said, gathering a tighter grip on her bag’s strap. Her mother smelled something fishy but stopped herself from questioning the teen. Marinette wasn’t one to keep secrets so she would come around and tell her about it later. That’s what Mrs. Cheng thought at least. But Marinette’s mind was swimming in secrets and backstories and alter egos as the young girl climbed into her room.

[shiroe-is-my-baby]

Mysterious Woman

Summary: A mysterious woman appears, and suddenly everyone (specifically the males) are acting strange. Jealousy grows, diving formed relationships and slowly ruining new ones. In this chapter, Marielle plays matchmaker and Shiroe asks for another chance at a date

W: self-insert, fluff, awkward flirting

((Part one of my little fic I came out with. It’s all really for humor purposes and an excuse to write some jealousy! This is going to include a lot of canon characters, as well as my self insert! <3))

Biting my bottom lip, I leaned against the bench but didn’t quite sit down. The woman beside me watched with a soft smile on her face as she watched me gawk at our friend across the way. I felt pathetic staring at Shiroe like this, when he was barely even a few feet away. Sometimes he’d catch my gaze and smile at me. I felt my cheeks blushing hard when we made eye contact. Why was it so herd for me to just talk to him?

Marielle, who was sitting on the bench beside me, was teasing me with that smile of hers. She knew who I was staring at. She knew full well by the soft sigh that escaped my lips every so often. She was one of the first ones that found out about my crush on Shiroe. It became a secret between us until the rest of both our guilds found out about it. After that, it was like I wasn’t safe anywhere.

Shiroe eventually found out, and we went on a not so romantic first date. After that day, he and I don’t really act the same. He’s never actually told me that he likes me or asked me to be his girlfriend. We just kind of… get together and sometimes talk. That’s the extent of our relationship from what I can tell. Everyone else, though, seems to think we’re a thing.

“Go talk to him, Ash,” Marielle said, smiling gently.

I shook my head frantically, quickly sitting dow beside her on the bench.

“I can’t. Besides, he doesn’t want to talk to me.”

“You don’t know that! He could be dying for you to come over there and talk to him! He keeps looking over here at you. Like right now!”

I chirped, seeing his eyes flicker to mine as he smiled and looked back to Naotsugu who was chatting away. Swallowing hard, I hid my face behind my hair, whispering to Marielle beside me. It was quite obvious that I was trying to hide myself. It was hard for me to be nonchalant, especially when it came to Shiroe. He just brings out a weird side to me that I don’t really like.

Marielle giggled, scooting a little closer to hear my whispers and to whisper back. She was enjoying this. The first time I told her about my feelings, she immediately wanted to help set us up. I knew she was just trying to help, but I was already a nervous wreck. I didn’t think Shiroe would ever like me like that. Everyone else seems to think other wise.

“He’s totally into you,” She said.

“No, he’s not. He’s just being nice to me. As a friend would do.”

“See, I would agree with you, if he wasn’t talking about you to Naotsugu right now.”

“He is not talking about me. You’re insane.”

Marielle smirked wider, shaking her head. She looked at me with pity in her eyes, making eye contact with Naotsugu. She winked, almost like sending a signal to him without using words. He smirked, shoving his hand into his pocket and leaning closer to Shiroe. I could tell he was saying something to him in confidence. The two men turned towards us, and I almost died.

“Marielle! The hell are you doing!” I shouted under my breath, seeing that Naotsugu was ushering him over.

“Helping you get your man!”

“Marielle! Marielle!”

I shouted after her, grasping her arm as she hopped off the bench. Huffing a sigh, I watched her skip over to the two men as giddy as ever. Sometimes I feel like she pretends a little too much. But she might actually be that excited to see Naotsugu. I don’t see why.

I smirked at the thought, trying to mask over my embarrassment. Marielle seemed very keen on the idea of setting us up, and she had somehow wormed Naotsugu into this. Between the two of them I will never be able to relax. They won’t stop until they make it extremely uncomfortable for the both of us.

Standing up from my spot on the bench, I slowly trudged over to them with a forced smile. My heart was pounding in my chest, and I tried hard to hide my shaking hands. This wasn’t that big of a deal. I can do this. It wasn’t like Shiroe and I were sleeping together or anything. We’re just really good friends that may or may not like each other.

“Ashley was just telling me how she had fun on your date last week,” Marielle said to Shiroe.

I was moritified. Why in the hell would she say that?! I wasn’t saying anything like that!

Shiroe turned to me, stammering and chuckling nervously. I let out a sigh, glaring daggers in her direction. Great. Now he’s going to think I’m absolutely insane. I can’t handle if he thought less of me.

“I-I had fun too…”

“Really??”

I didn’t mean for that to sound too excited, but I was. Marielle looked at me with a sly grin, grasping Naotsugu’s arm. They both look liked proud parents, although Naotusu looked weirder about it. Rolling my eyes, I watched her pull him along as she chirped happily.

“We’ll leave you two alone!”

“Wait-”

Before Shiroe and I could protest, they were off, racing down the street. I huffed a sigh, feeling my shaking becoming harder. I was now alone with him for the first time since our date. It felt strangely awkward and weird. Neither of us knew how to push the conversation along, and for a while it was just nervous stammers.

“I-I’m glad you had fun… I thought it was a little awkward, to be honest,” I said, cursing myself for my brain that’ was speaking on autopilot.

“No… It was probably my fault. I’m not really… I haven’t, uh.”

Shiroe pressed a palm to his forehead, his cheeks turning a soft pink from embarrassment. He was finding the words rather difficult, and I felt kind of bad. But it also made me happy knowing that we were both nervous. I wasn’t alone in this feelings.

He sighed, pursing his lips and firing my eyes once again. He laughed at himself, smiling warmly and making my body vibrate. “I’m not an expert when it comes to dating,” He admitted.

“Oh, neither am I. That was honestly the first date I’ve had like probably ever.”

We both laughed, mocking our equal inexperience. It was true I had never been on a date in my life. That wasn’t for lack of trying either. No one just really asked me on one. I’ve had boyfriends but none of them had tried to take me out on a nice date. I wasn’t at all surprised either that Shiroe was kind of the same. I expected him to be inexperienced in that department.

Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I kicked at the ground and tried to steady my breathing. The silence fell between us, bringing the tension back all too quickly. I clicked my tongue, trying to find something to talk about. Anything to fill this awkward silence.

“Let’s try it again,” Shiroe blurted out, causing both our eyes to snap up towards each other’s.

“What?”

“Lets try again… the date. Give it a second chance.”

“I… uh… are you sure?”

Shiroe nodded, smiling softly and making my knees go weak. He wanted to go on another date with me? I was extremely happy, but also nervous that he was pressure into it. Marielle had already expressed her excitement at the possibility of us getting together. This could just be his way of piting me.

My throat suddenly felt dry as I silently agreed. Shiroe chuckled, pawing at the back of his neck nervously. He gave me the details, telling me to meet him at Log Horizon later this afternoon. I couldn’t believe he was already planning this tonight. Although, a part of me was glad that I didn’t have to wait.

“I’ll, uh, see you then,” I said with a small smile.

“Sounds good.”

Shiroe said goodbye, and we parted ways. I felt my breathing quicken as I hurriedly sped walked towards Crescent Moon. I had to tell Marielle immediately. She was going to be excited and would most likely want to pick out what I wear. Honestly, I’d let her. I was way too happy to be having another chance with him.

Maybe Shiroe liked me after all.

[survivor-kalymnos]

Ep. 9 - “im running on borrowed time”- Franco

Michele

I would love to see a full list of who everyone voted for. Its VERY fishy and a complete blindside. Makes me feel worse about disadvantage next round

lenny

Right when cranjes becomes my ally, they get kicked off. lol. what is happening in this tribe rn? I want to get to the bottom of it.

michele

ive never felt more alone in this game. people clearly lied to me.

lenny

according to dusty, Franco and Eliza flipped for the split vote. yuck! what to do now? I don't know. I think if I have any chance of getting Eliza or Michele out, I have to make a new alliance. 

lenny

Dusty just said that her franco rain and worm were the ones to flip and that makes me very anxious and I don't know if I can trust rain fully :/ that makes me sad. I really hope I can. 

lenny

so michele and I are talking which is v heartwarming. I apologized for being cold towards her. I hope we can work together. 

Dusty

Well that was messed up LMAO That’s the second time Eliza has flipped on me and taken out my closest ally...anyway I will not be working with her anymore. But I’m gonna make her believe it. And thank you to my amazing acting skills she gave me her half of the super idol..........ma’am. I’m so sorry. She expects me to give it back to her after this round but Idk if I can do that if she isn’t in the game anymore! She also told me that it was her and Franco that flipped with rain and worm. So now I’m trying to work with Lenny and Michele who seem to be on board, and it seems like I’ll also have to working with frank and Sasha. And with this blind round there’s a fear of voting for someone that won immunity buuut at least I have a 10% advantage to help me out :) Wish me luck!

michele

kinda blew up a little so gonna lay low for strategy. i also sometimes take things too personally which is why i only do like 1 org a year so that last tribal got to me a lot. franco messaged me saying he doesnt trust me and even tho his instincts are completely correct idk it just feels weird. i think i just hate general confrontation 

Frank

So I’m shocked Cranjes left but I’m quite happy about it. He was leading a lot of things so to have him go is wonderful. After tribal, Michele approached me about getting out Eliza or Franco, so we stan that. Once one of them is gone though the other needs to be taken out as well since they’re both strong and we don’t need one of the having a story of, oh my partner got out but I still made it through so much. After that get rid of Dusty and then Lenny at some point bc who. I’m fairly quiet but Lenny is practically a ghost. Right now the only person I actually trust though is Sasha, which is not something I thought I would say but here we are.

Franco

Blind rounds are so SCARY. Mainly the part about no one knowing who wins immunity. Like, we got out 2 idols last round by blindsiding Cranjes and flushing Frank's, but theres still more out there. And no one is going to know how tribal is going to play out Michele was kinda pissed at us for leaving her out of the vote. But? Sis left us out of her alliance with og Plati, and didnt give us ANY information last round despite knowing I was a target. Eliza is also.... Kinda not smart. She gave her half of the idol to Dusty because she wanted to reconcile. Which is nice and all! But thats a direct chance for him to get back at us and take a shot at us. Keeping the idol separate was best for everyone. So I just gotta pray Eliza knows Dusty as well as she says she does!! I dont expect to win this challenge. Im gonna chat around, but I think Im going to have to play my idol this round to save my skin. My name has been thrown around 2 rounds in a row, im running on borrowed time. We'll see how today goes!

Frank

So Franco messaged me about if I’m gonna vote him this round and that he doesn’t understand why I’m going after him. So I did the kind thing and explained it and said that I don’t want to work with him because he’s working with everyone and that I don’t see that as being beneficial to my game. So Franco is my target again and michele messaged me last night to get rid of him so we stan. I’m probably gonna get votes but who could be shocked by that.

Franco

surprise!! my name is going around AGAIN!! i'm so. not shocked. Frank has it out for my for some reason?? I confronted him this morning, let him know his """allies""" are throwing him under the bus and offered to exchange information or work together in some capacity but he literally turned it down. first rule of survivor is never shut down lines of communication like that!! he is denying any chance of game relationship we could have and thats such bad gameplay. I bombed the challenge because I'm dumb. And now that I know my name is circulating I'm going to have to play my idol. I just have to hope that whatever happens is good for my game. It's so hard to orchestrate votes during an invisible round, everyone is playing strictly for themselves because there's no reason not to. I really really finally want Frank gone. This is the THIRD ROUND in a row I've said that. but seriously I'm over him. he's gotta GO.

Eliza

Dear diary... Literally can’t believe we pulled that blindside off! I had to do some damage control with dusty and because I know what kind of player he is I gave him my half of the super idol. I told him I’d give it to him for this round to prove that the cranjes vote had nothing to do with him and that he is still someone I want to work with. He seemed shocked but obviously took the security and I think I have at least some of his trust back, I mean this IS the second time I blindsided him and voted out his closest ally. Now I know you’re probably thinking, ellie you’re a dumbass, and that I am but I know how dusty works at this point in the game and it’s gonna take a bold move like that one to get ANY of his trust back. Franco didn’t think it was the best move but I can’t just play according to Franco’s standards. The invisible round is absolutely terrifying, everyone agrees that it’s frank but we all know that he could 100% win this challenge. Obviously everyone with a brain wants to split but some of these people won’t wanna split again after they got out smarted, Franco might be playing his idol because we all know frank wants him out but frank has also said I need to go and I have absolutely no security rn so yeah, I’m fucking scared. Let’s see what happens!

Rain

So... I haven’t been around much today. I abstained from immunity. My depression is kicking in and even tho I’m doing well in the game, I can’t be bothered to get into it, as much as I want to. So I’ll ride Franco and Eliza’s coattails until either I pull out of this funk or I get voted out. The move tonight is to try to get frank. Except he’s kinda good at challenges (although, tbh, hasn’t been that great since returning - maybe the idol was holding him back?) so we think he may get immunity. I think voting Sasha would be better - like come on, I don’t even think he’s trying (is that hypocritical to say?) and he only talks to his allies. The other side (oh is it just dusty, Sasha, and frank now? Fuckin sweet) doesn’t even attempt to socialize with me. Dusty to some extent, but talking to Sasha and frank is like talking to a fucking wall. I’ll be happy if either of them go. But tbh at this point I’m ready to join the jury. I’m going to keep playing and keep trying because that’s what jay and the people I’ve voted out deserve to see, but whenever I go home, I know I played a good game for my first game in over a year. 

lenny

not feeling confident about this challenge or good in general. Rain is most likely working with franco and eliza. I hope I can trust dusty. oof

Worm

So last round seemed to have back fired. I think I have alienated myself even more but I'm not sure if saying people not talking to me is showing that. They weren't talking to me before anyway so I guess nothing really changed then lol They goal this round is to target Frank which is okay with me cause I think people will start going after bigger targets next round like Eliza and Franco. Michele seems really mad at me which i can't fault her for so my goal if I survive this round is to talk to her and get her back on my side. Maybe reuniting the alliance of dusty, her, and I could make a huge impact. This challenge is really difficult so I don't think I had any chance of winning. I kinda hope I do for just in case reasons. If I being told the truth and everyone is targeting Frank then it should happen pretty easily. His idol got flushed last round so it should be simple to get rid of him. But until those votes are read I do believe that I will be the one going home.

Frank

Watch Franco have an idol and I go home. That would be funny, tbh I guess it just would be. But oh boy I am gonna get myself a nice snack if Franco goes...although let's be real I'm gonna have a nice snack no matter what. But I just want to stay and have Franco or Eliza leave since that would benefit my game to an extreme since they KEEP TRYING TO VOTE ME OUT. Or at least saying my name which is enough for me. Like if you say my name, get out!

rain

Tribal is in a few minutes, and I’ve just had an emotional chat with Franco He is truly an incredible ally and I really look forward to being in the reunion w him and finding out who he is irl (although I have a guess) Anyway, I just wanted to give him some positive edit, because I’m sure he’s very N as the villain of the game :P 

Dusty

This is crazy idek if I won immunity or what’s happening I changed my vote like 3 times LMAO i voted for Eliza I don’t know what’s happening i think I’m freaking out for no reason. My only fear is michele being very quiet. 

michele

being quiet worked i guess. wasnt really a game move but i didnt get voted out so yay

Sasha

I really just gave up on trying to have my own strategy/game and just voted how people told me to huh

Eliza

Dear diary... It was a tie between me and frank, this might be the last time I write in confessions but hopefully I was able to make some sort of impact in the game. Wow this sucks

Dusty

jflkdsaiof okay a tie well michele being quiet all day meant that she didnt get the chance to know the vote was for eliza... which just made me think someone decided to not flip against eliza/franco so in the revote i reached out to worm and rain to try and get them to flip which they both denied. ugh im so stupid, they would know regardless that i flipped, but now it seems like i was soooo adamant about her going... oh well. Franco is going to be pissed anyway