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maxilsmaster · 4 years ago

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found an ot3 meme thing and decided to do it.

allow me to explain under the cut. be forewarned, many headcanons follow.

THE SHIP: Errinkmare.

THE LACK OF DRAWINGS: I’m using a mousepad instead of an actual mouse.

THE SHITTIER THAN NORMAL WRITING: Mousepad, no text thing on Chrome Canvas.

THE NICKNAMES: Ink calls Error Glitchy and Nightmare Nighty. Error calls Ink Squid and Nightmare Octopus. Nightmare calls Ink Inky and Error Spider.

MISADVENTURES: If one starts trouble, the other two are bound to follow, and they all get into trouble a lot.

HOW IT HAPPENS: Slow burn. Ink hardly recognizes it, Error tries to deny it. Nightmare acknowledges that he likes them, but doesn’t really feel like acting on it.

HANDLING CONFLICT: Error and Nightmare start a bunch of arguments and are both stubborn assholes about it. Ink doesn’t start that many arguments, and tends to forgive quickly.

RELATIONSHIP ATTITUDE: Error likes to keep things casual, and he’s pretty reserved. Ink tends to be pretty casual, and most of his reservedness comes from his lack of soul. Nightmare doesn’t give a shit, he’s gonna shower his dumbass boyfriends with as much love and affection as he can in his own way, preferably away from people.

THE SMALL Xs AND THE BIG Xs: i changed brush size midway. that’s all.

BUDGETS: Ink and Error do not know how to budget. Nightmare does.

MAKES DECISIONS: Ink is terrible at decisions. Error and Nightmare are not.

PLANS DATES: Nightmare would rather stay at home. Error would also rather stay at home. Ink would rather go out on the best dates his boyfriends have ever been on.

COOKS: Error is the only one who can remotely cook. Anything Ink and Nightmare cook will probably end in smoke alarms going off and someone getting badly burnt.

CLEANS: Ink doesn’t give a fuck about cleanliness. Nightmare and Error very much do.

FIRST TO CONFESS: Ink is unsure he actually even likes them. Error still refuses to acknowledge his feelings. Nightmare is like “hey, we all like each other, so why are we still beating around the bush?”

FIRST TO APOLOGIZE: Explained earlier.

BEST CAREGIVER: Ink would be clueless. Error would also be clueless. Nightmare knows how to treat various common illnesses.

MOST OF THE SPEAKING: Nightmare and Error are hella introverted. Ink is a bit on the introverted side, but falls under ambiverted.

SENSITIVE TO CHANGES: Ink is bad at noticing things. Error is good at noticing things. Nightmare is excellent at noticing things.

ONE WHO PROPOSES: Ink, for sure. Error and Nightmare wouldn’t know how.

WOULD DIE PROTECTING: They’d all die protecting each other.

HOGS BLANKET: Error and Nightmare are blanket hogs.

TICKLISH: Error loathes touch. Nightmare is only ticklish in one spot. Ink is very ticklish, but only upper body. He’s immune to foot tickles.

GOOD KISSER: Come on. Error has what, five tongues?

IRRESPONSIBLE ONE: All of them. All of them are the irresponsible one.

BIG SPOON/LITTLE SPOON: Self-explanatory.

LENDS CLOTHES/BORROWS CLOTHES: Entirely theoretical, as Ink and Error basically wear one outfit and can make their own, while Nightmare is covered in goop and mostly any outfit he wears would also be covered in goop.

DOESN’T USE PET NAMES/LOVES PET NAMES: Error doesn’t feel the need to use pet names, nor does Nightmare. Ink likes using pet names.

INTROVERTED/EXTROVERTED: All of them are on the introverted side, but Ink is much closer to ambiverted. Error is very introverted, while Nightmare is a goopy ball of social anxiety.

SCREAMS ABOUT BUGS/SQUASHES BUGS: None of them will scream, but Ink will be the first to squash.

DRIVES THE CAR/CAN’T DRIVE: Ink is good enough to have a license, but not good enough to be professional. Nightmare has no depth perception and is completely blind in his right eye. Error is... well. Don’t let Error drive.

WILL POISON YOU/MASTER CHEF: Error won’t necessarily poison you unintentionally, but he can’t cook very much. Nightmare and Ink are equally horrid at cooking.

OVERPROTECTIVE/CHILL: Nightmare is the overprotective one. Error can be protective at times, but doesn’t care too much. Ink is chill.

HAS MORE EXPERIENCE/HAS NO EXPERIENCE: Error knows basically nothing, except what he does from Undernovela. Ink has absolutely zero experience. Nightmare has no idea how the fuck to relationship.

SLOW BUILD UP/POUNCES: I think I explained this earlier.

COMPASSION/TOUGH LOVE: Ink is more on the compassion side, while Error and Nightmare deal in tough love.

DIRECT/INDIRECT: Ink is like “what is love baby don’t hurt me don’t hurt me no more.” Error is like “okay so um what the hell do i say.” Nightmare, I’ve explained.

CUDDLE AT HOME/GO ON ADVENTURE: Nightmare and Error would rather stay home. Ink is like, “ADVENTURE! YEAH!”

EMOTIONAL/DETACHED: Despite how he may act, Nightmare is in constant need of validation. Ink acts detached because he’s not exactly confident about relationships, and Error is, well, Error.

CONFIDENT IN PUBLIC/EMBARRASSED IN PUBLIC: Error is the one who doesn’t give a crap about what others think. Ink also doesn’t care, but once again, doesn’t exactly know how to relationship. Nightmare just hates people and wants to go home before he fucks something up.

VERBAL AFFECTION/PHYSICAL AFFECTION: Error is not one for physical contact, as is canon. He much prefers giving verbal affection. Ink is in the middle. Nightmare prefers cuddling.

TAKES INITIATIVE/DOESN’T TAKE INITIATIVE: Self-explanatory.

EASILY GETS JEALOUS/DOESN’T GET JEALOUS: Error doesn’t get jealous very often. Ink does get jealous, but shows it by giving his boyfriends more attention. Nightmare gets jealous very easily.

NEEDS SPACE/NEEDS ATTENTION: Error needs his space. Ink and Nightmare are willing to respect that. Sometimes he may join in on the attention, but that’s pretty rare. However, like Nightmare, Ink needs validation, but to a slightly lesser extent.

link to the original: https://riessene.tumblr.com/post/190497871560/there-are-many-ship-dynamic-memes-out-there-but

#errinkmare #meme #ot3

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cyborgsquirrel · 4 years ago

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Sanctuary: Chapter 7

Pairing: Wolfstar

Summary: The epic tale of Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, from their first meeting until their happily ever after.

Link to Prologue

Link to All Chapters

Thursday, 2nd September 1971, 10:44pm

Sirius lay in bed listening to Peter snoring on the other side of the room. The rhythmic rumble was the only sound in the otherwise silent dormitory, but the peace was soon broken by James' voice on the other side of his bed curtains.

'Sirius, are you still awake?'

Sirius sighed, he'd known this was coming. 'Yes,' he whispered.

James pulled back the curtains, climbed onto the bed uninvited, and pulled the covers over himself. Sitting back against the headboard, he looked down at Sirius where he was still lying with his head on the pillow.

'So, what was all that about earlier, with Filch? Why were you so scared?'

Sirius sat up and leant back next to James. Looking down at his hands, he sighed again.

'It was nothing, mate. Don't worry about it.'

James frowned and crossed his arms.

'No, Sirius. I'm not having that. I'm your friend, and friends help each other.' He sighed. 'Look, you don't have to tell me why if you don't want to, but at least tell me what I can do to help.'

Sirius glanced up and searched James' face. His expression was sincere. He was only asking so he could help. There was no sign of an ulterior motive in his eyes. Dare he tell this boy about the thoughts that worried him? That he felt there might be something vile and rotten in his family? Sirius had only known him for a day. Could he trust him? Something deep inside him, some extra sense, screamed that he could and that maybe James could help him.

Sirius averted his eyes before he spoke. The intensity of James' gaze unnerved him.

'What do your parents do if you misbehave?' he asked in a quiet voice.

James hesitated before answering.

'It depends how bad it is. Sometimes they tell me off, you know, explain what I did wrong, why it was wrong and what I should have done differently. They think it will help me "learn", but it's just annoying, really. They never bother to ask why I did it, so their advice doesn't help.'

James shrugged.

'If I do something really bad though, then they might take something away from me for a while. Like when I flew my broom through the house and broke my mum's favourite vase. They took my broom away for a month. Worst month of my life, I didn't do that again. I got them back though, put dungbombs in their bed,' James said with a laugh.

He looked over at Sirius, and his smile disappeared.

'Why? What do yours do?' he whispered.

Sirius hesitated, wondering how much to reveal to his friend. This boy who thought losing a treasured possession for a month was the height of harsh punishment. Who was so unafraid of his parents that he would dare retaliate with dungbombs when they punished him. James would be horrified if he told him the worst of it. Something small then. A single event in the life of Sirius Black, but something that wasn't actually done to him.

'When I was eight,' Sirius said. 'I asked my father for a pet. He thought it was an excellent idea. Thought it would teach me responsibility, so he bought me a dog. I named him Snuffles. He was big and black, and he was my best friend. He followed me everywhere.'

Sirius paused and looked up from his hands. He wanted to see James' face when he told him what happened next. He needed to know if it was as bad as he was beginning to think it was.

'When I was nine, I was rude to my mother. Answered her back when she was listing all the ways I'm a disappointment to the family. She killed him. She cut Snuffles' throat with a severing charm, and he bled to death in front of me.'

Sirius watched as James swallowed. His brown eyes filled with tears, but he didn't break eye-contact.

'Sirius. I am so sorry that she did that to you.'

James reached out and pulled him into a hug. Sirius felt something strange, wrapped up in James' arms. An odd warmth spread through his body, combined with a peculiar, fuzzy tingle.

'It's not right. You know that, don't you, Sirius? What she did. What she does to you.' He squeezed Sirius harder. 'It's not right. But you have me now.'

Sirius' eyes watered when he realised what he was feeling, and the tears spilled down his cheeks and onto James' shoulder. It was understandable that he hadn't recognised it because he had never felt it before.

He felt safe.

-o-o-o-o-

Friday, 3rd September 1971, 8:25am

Remus arrived early to Defence Against the Dark Arts and, choosing a desk at the back of the classroom, he settled into his seat before pulling parchment and a quill from his bag. With everything ready for the lesson, he turned his attention to examining the odd classroom.

The classroom was in the dungeon and had the usual set-up of student desks in rows, facing the professor's desk at the front of the room. In this classroom, though, the teacher had positioned his desk on the left of a raised stage area - rather than in the middle. At the back of the stage, there was a sizable pool edged with white stone. He could see the Black Lake through the window behind the pool. The water's surface was level with the lower edge of the glass. Remus thought there must be an opening in the wall, below the window, which allowed lake water to flood the pool, but why?

The Professor was sitting at his desk doing paperwork, his head bent low over the parchment, and Remus could see a bald spot in the middle of his short, black hair. When Remus had entered the classroom, the professor glanced up from his work long enough for him to notice a lined face and glasses but nothing more. All the teachers knew his secret; it was necessary so they wouldn't make a fuss about his absences and draw attention, but Remus was worried about this one. The Defence teacher would be the most aware of how dangerous he was. He just hoped he wouldn't be too obvious in his dislike of the werewolf in his classroom.

The rest of the class had trickled in while Remus was lost in thought, and when he became aware of the noise and activity around him, he noticed that Sirius and his friends had taken the surrounding desks. Sirius was to his left with James as his partner and Peter was in front of them sitting alone. His eyes met Sirius' and the other boy winked at him before turning back to James. Remus couldn't understand why he seemed so friendly now when he was so awful before. He shrugged, maybe he was misreading the signals. He had no experience with socialising, so it was a distinct possibility.

Remus was startled from his thoughts when the other chair at his desk was pulled out and Lily plonked herself down next to him.

'You don't mind, do you? The girls in my dorm have already partnered up, and I don't know anyone else,' she said, shuffling her chair a little further away from him.

Realising her movements were intended to make him more comfortable, he was flooded with affection for the girl. Perhaps it didn't matter that she was friends with Snape after all.

'No, it's fine. I don't know anyone else either.'

Remus turned his attention back to the front when the professor called the class to attention and introduced himself as Professor Hawthorne.

'I previously worked for the Ministry in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and that is the topic we will be focusing on this year. You will learn all about the various magical creatures you may encounter in your lives, their distinguishing features, traits, strengths and weaknesses. Most important, you will learn how to avoid encountering them at all and how to defend yourself if you do.'

Remus swallowed hard. His dad had worked for the DRCMC too, before the attack. If Professor Hawthorne held similar views, this would be a difficult class for Remus.

'I have recruited an assistant to help me with these lessons. Quite an unusual assistant. But before I introduce them, I will explain. On my arrival at the castle two weeks ago, it did not surprise me to find out that the Black Lake,' he waved his hand towards the window behind him, 'was home to several species of magical creature, but one in particular did catch my interest. I'm sure you have all heard of the giant squid, but I doubt any of you are aware that she is, in fact, a kelpie.'

Several students around the room gasped, including Remus.

'There is no need to be frightened. She is quite friendly, I assure you.'

'But, sir,' James said, 'kelpies are dangerous. They lure people into the water and kill them.'

'I'm aware of the stories. But answer me this. Would you be more likely to tell someone if you saw something dragging people into a lake, or if you saw some people sitting by a lake having a pleasant conversation?'

'Well, the first one obviously, sir.'

'Exactly. There are good and bad members in any species capable of higher reasoning. Unfortunately, people only tell stories of the bad, because the good don't create stories worth telling.'

He looked around at the class, his gaze pausing on Remus for a moment. Remus felt a fluttering in his stomach. Was the professor telling him he would give him a chance? That's what his words seemed to imply, any species capable of higher reasoning, that must include werewolves, he thought.

Professor Hawthorne continued, 'I spoke with Emhio at length. Her home was destroyed by muggles. A previous headmaster allowed her to make a new home here, where she would be protected. She has been living at Hogwarts for over a hundred years and has never harmed a student, but has rescued many that have found themselves in the lake. She is lonely though, and eager to help with your lessons. Please give her a warm welcome.'

Professor Hawthorne waved his wand, and the sound of stone scraping against stone screeched through the classroom. The surface of the water rippled and Remus watched as a young woman emerged from the pool. She had long brown hair and wore a pale pink robe which clung to her skin.

'Hello, students,' she said as she climbed from the water to stand on the stage. She waved and the students all murmured greetings in return, still a little shocked by her presence.

Professor Hawthorne spent the rest of the lesson lecturing on kelpies, and towards the end, Emhio demonstrated their shape-shifting abilities and invited the students to ask questions. Before dismissing the class, Professor Hawthorne instructed them to write an essay on kelpies for homework, due Monday afternoon. Remus groaned, he would have to get that done now if he wanted to hand it in on time.

'It's a free period next. Do you have plans?' Lily asked as they packed their things.

'Thought I'd go to the library, get this homework done so I'm free for the weekend.'

'That's a good idea. Mind if I join you?'

'Not at all,' Remus said.

-o-o-o-o-

'Guess we better get to detention then,' Peter said as they left the Defence classroom.

'At least we're already on the right floor,' Sirius said.

He was still nervous despite James' reassurance the night before. They had received their detention slips at breakfast, informing them they were to present themselves to Professor Slughorn in the potions classroom at 9:45 for an hour-long detention. Sirius had also received a ranting letter from his mother. The contents were no surprise, but they cemented his decision to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas and Easter. Best to put off that confrontation for as long as possible.

'I think it's this way,' James said, pointing down the corridor.

Remus had been absent from breakfast again, Sirius mused, as they hurried down the corridor in the direction they hoped to find the Potions classroom. He hadn't seen him at a meal since the Welcome Feast. The boy must be starving.

They arrived at the right door and James knocked, loud, confident, and unafraid. Sirius wanted so much to be like that.

'Come in,' Professor Slughorn called from inside.

James pushed the door open and walked in, followed closely by Sirius and Peter.

'Ah, hello. Wonderful. You're here for detention, yes?'

'Yes, sir,' James said.

'Right, well. Since your crime involved making a rather large mess, your punishment is cleaning. I have twelve cauldrons in need of a good scrub, the muggle way mind you. They need to be free of any traces of magic.'

Slughorn led them through a door behind the teacher's desk and into a large potions lab. Along the back wall of the room were several brewing stations, complete with cauldrons, some bubbling with potions, others under stasis and a few empty. In the centre of the lab there was a vast work station for preparing ingredients. The ingredients themselves lined two of the other walls in jars, bottles and vials, and sealed behind glass doors. The fourth wall held a cleaning station and Slughorn herded them in that direction, where fifteen cauldrons were stacked in various states of cleanliness.

'Right, I'll leave you to it then. I'll be in the other room if you need anything.'

Slughorn left, and Sirius poked at the cauldrons. He felt relieved. Cleaning cauldrons was the most painless punishment he had ever received. It was barely even a punishment. There was nothing to fear. The Hogwarts teachers wouldn't hurt him and his parents couldn't reach him here. Something changed within him. Something significant. It was as if the sun had risen on his world for the first time; the shadows that had darkened his way for as long as he could remember faded, and he saw the vast expanse of life laid out before him.

Freedom.

The freedom to make choices.

The freedom to be himself.

The freedom to not hurt.

He turned to the others, his friends, and allowed a wolfish grin to spread across his face.

'Twelve cauldrons, three of us, that's four each. Shouldn't be too difficult.' He looked back at the cauldrons. 'How do muggles clean things exactly?'

James and Peter laughed.

'What? You've never had to clean anything before?' Peter said.

'No, we have house-elves for that.'

'Oh. Well, it's not difficult. I'll show you.'

Peter showed Sirius how to scrub the cauldrons, and they worked in silence for a while. Sirius was aware of James and Peter chatting beside him, but he blocked it out as his mind drifted back to his worry for Remus. As far as he could tell, the boy hadn't eaten for over twenty-four hours, and he didn't look like he could afford to skip one meal, let alone four. In Defence, he had looked even sicker than he had on their first day.

'Guys, have you noticed Remus hasn't come to any meals since the Welcome Feast?' Sirius said, interrupting their conversation.

'Huh, I think you're right,' James said. 'Do you reckon he's avoiding you?'

'Merlin, I hope not. It's bad enough that he thinks I hate him. I don't want to be responsible for him starving to death.'

'Maybe he has an eating disorder,' Peter said. 'He didn't eat much at the feast, did he?'

'No, just some rice thing. He didn't seem to enjoy it either,' Sirius said. 'Um… what's an eating disorder?'

'I saw it on TV. Sometimes people stop eating. Because they think they're fat, or they want control over something in their lives, or some other reason. They stop eating or they eat just enough to stay alive.'

Sirius stared at him. 'Okay. But what's TV?'

Peter laughed. 'It's a muggle thing. It's like a box with a window. The muggles record something, and everyone who has a TV can watch it through the window at the same time.'

Sirius blinked.

'That sounds brilliant. But are you sure? My mother says muggles are stupid. How could they make something like that?'

'Ever think your mother might be wrong, mate?' James asked.

'Every damn day, Jamesy boy. Every damn day,' Sirius said, putting his arm around James' shoulders and dropping a wet kiss on his forehead. 'So, if Remus has an eating disorder, what can I do?'

James wiped Sirius' slobber from his forehead and scowled at him, while Sirius just grinned back.

'He might just be avoiding the hall so he doesn't have to see us. We should test that first. Maybe take some food back to the dorm for him?' James suggested.

-o-o-o-o-

Remus strolled down to the kitchens for lunch, thinking about his last lesson. He had been looking forward to History of Magic; he had thought it would be interesting to learn about the past. When the Professor had arrived through the blackboard, he had been even more hopeful that the lessons would be good. How could a ghost teacher possibly be boring after all? Oh, how wrong he had been. Professor Binns must have been the most boring teacher to ever exist. His voice droned monotonously and had a soporific effect on the students. Half the class had fallen asleep, and the professor hadn't even noticed.

Remus had struggled to stay awake himself. It was only two days until the full moon, so he was drained, but he had managed to pull through and get down some decent notes. Near the beginning of the lesson, he had sensed someone's gaze and looked around to find Sirius examining him. That boy paid him far too much attention. He would need to be careful.

He arrived at the painting of a bowl of fruit and let himself into the kitchens. An elf scurried up to him at once.

'Good afternoons, Master Remus. Breen has prepared your lunch for you over here. Follow me, sir.'

'Good afternoon, Breen,' Remus said, following the elf to a small table in the corner of the kitchen.

Teely, the elf in charge of the kitchen, had assigned Breen to Remus duty, and the elf had questioned him extensively on his likes and dislikes the day before. So, Remus was sure whatever he had prepared would be enjoyable. His stomach growled in anticipation.

He sat down and Breen presented him with a plate of steak and cheese sandwiches and a goblet of pumpkin juice. The steak was still warm, and the cheese melted, gooey and delicious. Remus thanked the elf and began eating, Breen stood to one side, waiting in case Remus needed anything else. Remus felt a little uncomfortable with the elf watching him eat in silence. He didn't even blink, just stared at him with those big, green eyes.

'So, Breen. I know the house-elves do all the cooking. What else are you responsible for at Hogwarts?' Remus asked, hoping conversing with the elf would make the situation less awkward.

'Oh, lots of things, Master Remus. We does the laundry and cleans the dormitories and common rooms. We fix or replace broken things and make sure the fires is all lit. I can show you if you wishes?'

Remus agreed, delighted. It would be interesting to see how the elves did things, since he never saw them in the castle, and it would make him feel less like a museum exhibit if he ate while Breen showed him around. The elf led him through the kitchen, the other elves moving to clear a path for him, and to a door at the end.

'This is the laundry room,' Breen said, pushing the door open.

Steam billowed out, and Remus stepped into it and looked around. There were over a hundred baskets lined up in rows against one wall, each labelled with a house name, gender, year and dormitory number. In the centre of the room were several vast buckets of steaming hot, soapy water, the contents swirling around of their own accord.

'We could clean the clothes with magic, but hot waters and soap does a better job,' Breen said, pointing at the buckets, 'so we use magic on the water instead.'

At the other end of the room, wet laundry was heaped on a long table and several elves were drying the items, folding them and sorting them into piles. When a pile got too big, an elf vanished it.

Seeing Remus watching, Breen said, 'We sends the clean laundry to the clean laundry basket in the owner's dorm.'

'How do you get the dirty clothes?' Remus asked.

'The students put it in the basket in their dorm room, when we is ready for it we calls it to the basket here.'

'Fascinating,' Remus said.

'Would you likes to see the storage rooms now?'

'Yes, please.' Remus said, popping the last bite of his sandwich into his mouth.

Breen led him back out of the laundry room and through another door in the kitchen.

The storage rooms were much bigger than Remus had imagined. A network of rooms and corridors that housed every type of furniture you could think of, as well as fixtures and fittings, decorative items and soft furnishings. All of it was clean and ready for use despite most of the items appearing quite old. Remus was not surprised when Breen led him into a room where several elves were busy fixing broken furniture and sewing damaged curtains with enchanted needles. It was clear they preferred repairing to replacing. When he had seen everything there was to see in the elves quarters, Remus thanked Breen for the tour and left.

He climbed the steps to Gryffindor tower, beginning to wish he had been placed in Hufflepuff so there would be fewer stairs involved in his daily life. He needed to retrieve his Herbology equipment for fifth period, and there wouldn't be time to get all the way up to the tower and back down to the greenhouse after Transfiguration. When he reached the common room, he checked the time on the clock above the fireplace. There was only five minutes until class started. He was definitely going to be late. After dashing up to the dorm, he pushed the door open and was pleased to see an empty room.

Remus grabbed what he needed from his trunk at the end of his bed and turned to leave, when he caught sight of something strange out of the corner of his eye. He turned back to get a proper look and was surprised out of his rush for a moment. There was a sandwich sat on his bedside table. He sniffed the air. It was bacon. How odd. He stared at the out-of-place food for a few seconds before mentally shaking himself. He needed to get to class.

-o-o-o-o-

Saturday, 4th September 1971, 1:00am

Something was poking him in the side, and it had better bloody well stop if it didn't want to be punched in the face.

'Sirius, wake up.'

That was James' voice. Why was James speaking to him now? He was sleeping for fuck's sake.

'Come on, Sirius, we have to set-up the joke,' James whispered.

Right. The joke. How could he forget? It was going to be brilliant. Sirius forced his eyes open and blinked at James' face hovering above him.

'Okay, I'm awake. Go wake Pete,' Sirius mumbled.

'He's already up. Can't you tell by the lack of snoring?' James asked with a chuckle.

'I thought it seemed a bit quiet.'

Sirius hauled himself upright and swung his legs out of bed as James jumped back out of the way.

'Get dressed, we'll meet in the common room.'

Sirius grabbed some clothes and went into the bathroom to dress. When he was finished, he tiptoed down the stairs to meet his friends for their first big practical joke. The first of many, he hoped. He felt much better about it all after serving his first detention. The punishment for misbehaviour was so mild compared to what he suffered at home that it was laughable. His anxiety about getting into trouble had vanished, and in its place was excitement and a sense of freedom. He was bubbling over with energy like an overheated cauldron.

'Here he is, excellent,' James said as Sirius rounded the last bend of the staircase. 'Are you both ready for this?'

'Yes, sir!' Sirius said, standing to attention. Peter copied him, and then they all giggled, their excitement overtaking them for a moment.

'Right, I have the balloons, and I have something else too. You remember the thing I took from Filch's filing cabinet?'

Sirius and Peter nodded.

'I had a chance to examine it earlier, and it's perfect for this joke, just you wait and see. Right, everyone get under the cloak, we don't want to be caught on the way there.'

They all crammed themselves together, and James swung the cloak over their heads. Walking with caution, they made their way down the stairs to the Great Hall. They saw no one along the way, the halls of Hogwarts were deserted and eerily silent.

Sirius and James left the cloak with Peter at the doors to the Great Hall and went inside. James pulled out the box of balloons, opened it and placed it on the nearest table, which happened to be Gryffindor's.

'Let's get started then,' he said with a cocky grin.

Sirius grinned back and grabbed a balloon. He pulled out the tag, and the balloon began to inflate. As it grew, its shape formed into that of a purple tiger, complete with lime-green stripes. The tiger expanded until it was three times its natural size. When it stopped, Sirius released it and let it float up to the enchanted ceiling, where it bumped against an invisible barrier.

'They're all different, you know, each one is unique,' James said, releasing a gigantic bright yellow mouse into the air.

They continued inflating the balloons for over an hour. At one point, Sirius had inflated a balloon shaped like a black and green striped pig, and it reminded him of the bacon sandwich he had left for Remus in the dorm. He hadn't eaten it. After a tedious afternoon spent learning the theory behind object to object transfiguration and planting wormwood in greenhouse one, they had returned to the dorm to find the sandwich still sat there, cold, stale and unappetising. Sirius had never realised that something as small as a sandwich could weigh so heavily before today.

When the hall was filled so tightly that they could barely move, James turned to him. 'Now for the finishing touch.' He pulled the door open a crack and hissed, 'Pete, get in here.'

Sirius felt the air move against his arm and then Peter appeared, pulling the cloak off.

'Right, watch this.'

James pulled a small vial from his pocket and held it aloft. Inside, turquoise smoke spiralled, creating intricate patterns momentarily, before swirling away into a new pattern. It was mesmerising.

'When I take the cork out, we need to leave fast. As soon as the smoke is released, it will start to animate everything it touches. By morning everything in this room will be acting as if it is alive,' James said with more than a hint of glee in his voice.

'How long will it last?' Sirius asked.

'Depends on the quality. Up to a week.'

'Excellent.'

'Ready?'

Sirius and Peter nodded. Both had their hands on a door handle ready to flee, and James placed the vial on the floor, holding it with one hand while the other gripped the cork.

'Three, two, one, now!' James yelled, pulling the cork out at the exact moment Sirius and Pete pushed the doors open and dashed through. James spun on his heel and hurried out, Sirius and Peter slammed the doors closed and they all breathed a relieved sigh and grinned at each other.

'We're not safe yet, still need to get back to the dorm,' James said.

Peter pulled the cloak out and swung it around their shoulders, making them invisible, and they crept their way back to Gryffindor tower.

Chapter 8

#wolfstar #wolfstar fanfiction #remus x sirius

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maraudersinparadise · 6 years ago

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Squid-Potter

Lily's POV on the pivotal post DADA O.W.L. and James's attempt to apologise and make her laugh

FF.net /\ AO3

It was just so stupid. All of it.

Severus Snape and how he had most definitively gone to the wrong side.

James Potter and that ridiculous hair of his.

The rest of the Gryffindor’s fifth year boys – Peter Pettigrew for laughing, Sirius Black for encouraging Potter, and Remus Lupin for doing nothing to stop the other three.

All of the Hogwarts students who had laughed at Potter’s idiotic antics.

But the most stupid of all, Lily thought, was herself for feeling so rotten about it.

It was not exactly news that Severus leaned towards the Dark Arts. She had desperately watched as her childhood friend listened more and more to the rubbish that the likes of Mulciber and Avery babbled all day, and less and less to her warnings.

He spent more and more time with those Slytherins, plotting against people like her, and then saying to her, ‘it’s just for a laugh, Lily, I’d never do that to you’.

Until he did.

She had been quite happy just a few hours earlier. Enjoying the end of another O.W.L., when summer was nearly there. Mary MacDonald told her to stop fretting a bit about the exam and relax, proceeding to take off her shoes and socks, and cooling her feet on the lake’s water. Lily saw the other girls doing the same, so she shrugged and imitated her friends.

Lily really was content. They were laughing about nonsense, anxious to get home and free from that terrible year. She worried a bit about going home and rowing with Petunia, but the thought of seeing her parents was overwhelming.

And the fact that she would not have to deal with James Potter and his shenanigans was also a silver lining.

She had noticed him and his friends on the edge of the lake; he was showing off with a snitch (how and why had he gotten it anyways? Wasn’t he a chaser?) to Pettigrew while Black acted like he was God’s gift to humanity, and Remus read a book.

She was, however, quick to return her attention to her friends, ignoring the immature group.

And then they made her notice them.

Well, he made her notice them. The second the nickname ‘Snivellus’ loudly came out of his mouth, Lily looked at the commotion and cursed.

“You’re going there, aren’t you?” Mary asked, resigned.

“Of course I am. Honestly, couldn’t the prat leave Sev alone for just a couple of days? Then I’d be free of them,” Lily replied, huffing impatiently as she put her shoes back on. Mary sighed and followed her.

It was not that she hated her fellow Gryffindors. Remus was a perfectly nice bloke. Peter usually kept to himself. Sirius had that arrogant air on him, but was funny to talk to. Potter… well, he was funny – when he was not humiliating other people, that is. Unfortunately, it happened quite a lot, which made Lily furious.

Sev was choking on soap (‘Really, Potter?’) when Lily got near the boys. There was already a group around them, watching excitedly another session of humiliation by James Bloody Potter.

“Leave him ALONE!” Lily exclaimed angrily. Potter and Black turned immediately, the former automatically running a hand through his hair.

“All right, Evans?” Potter asked her. Had she not been so incredibly annoyed at the situation, she might have noticed that something had changed in Potter’s voice when he addressed her.

“Leave him alone,” Lily asked again, glaring fiercely at Potter. Why, oh why, was he such a prat? “What’s he done to you?” She asked instead.

“Well…” Potter said, making a scene of deliberating the subject, “it’s more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean…”

Many of the students surrounding the group laughed, like it was actually funny. It was so not funny. The joke Potter had told four days ago on the Common Room about the troll on a bar, when she came back from round with Remus – that had been funny. This was just plain cruel.

“You think you’re funny, but you’re just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone,” she said again, which was not completely wrong, but was very close to the truth.

“I will if you go out with me, Evans,” Potter said quickly, like he had not even thought about it. “Go on… go out with me and I’ll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again.”

Shock was the first of the emotions that hit Lily by then. Was that boy even real? She could have sworn he liked him as much he she liked him – which was almost nothing at all. Why all of a sudden was he asking her out? And like this? Was he so caught up on his own little world to think that she would be blackmailed to go out with him? While he humiliated her best friend, no less?

“I wouldn’t go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid,” Lily spit back. And she meant it. How delusional could that boy be?

“Bad luck, Prongs,” Black replied instead. Potter still looked directly at her glare, and they did not notice Sev regaining his controls until Black screamed, “OI!”

But it was a bit too late – the seconds of distraction facing Lily resulted in Sev managing to hit a spell on Potter, and a bloody gash appeared on his cheek. The next second Sev was upside down, robes hanging over his head and his underpants showing for the whole school to see.

To be honest, the whole situation would be slightly funny (which the rest of the students agreed, seeing as they were all joining the Marauders in their laughter), and even Lily had to hold back her smile – because it would be slightly funny if done to a friend, not with the sole intention of demeaning the other person.

And intentions counted so much to Lily.

“Let him down!” She ordered them, angrier by the minute.

“Certainly,” James complied, and Sev fell to the ground in an awkward fashion. He had barely put his wand up when Black pointed his wand at Sev again, paralysing him.

“LEAVE HIM ALONE!” She shouted, drawing her own wand and pointing to Potter and Black. She was losing her patience, and the wary glance the boys gave to her wand showed they remembered how she had hexed Potter the previous week for a similar stunt.

“Ah, Evans, don’t make me hex you,” Potter pleaded. She knew he was good too; he had a lot of practice, and would probably be capable of getting one hex past her. But she knew he also had been raised by older parents, who taught them not to hex girls.

“Take the curse off him, then,” she replied. Potter sighed deeply (he had to be so dramatic at everything he did?) and freed Sev.

“There you go,” Potter said, watching Sev fumbling to get up, “you’re lucky Evans was here, Snivellus-”

The rest of the threat was clear – Lily knew Potter and Black could be downright cruel. It made her crazy. It made the professors crazy. It made anyone on the end of their wands crazy. As Sev was constantly on that position, his hatred for Potter and Black (and Remus and Pettigrew, come to think of it) was well founded, and Lily knew that. She fought for Sev against the bullying.

And that’s why it hurt so much when he did it:

“I don’t need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!” He said what he promised to never say about her.

Lily blinked. Had he just…? It could not be. Not when she was… defending him! She could not believe it!

But he had.

And instead of being transferred, her anger simply doubled – directed at both Potter and Snape now. She registered quickly the shocked look that Potter sported, but quickly shoved it aside.

Mudblood.

“Fine,” she said with the coldest tone she could muster. She could not – would not – cry in front of him, “I won’t bother in the future. And I’d wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus.”

Mudblood. Years of friendship, and he still thought this of her. The blood was pounding in her ears, anger stopping her from losing it right then, right there.

“Apologise to Evans!” Potter shouted angrily, pointing his wand at Snape.

Lily snapped.

“I don’t want you to make him apologise,” she screamed. No one should have to make him apologise, much less Potter, “you’re as bad as he is.”

“WHAT?” Potter had the audacity to sound outraged, as if he had not been the one to push Snape to the edge, to make him call her- “I’d NEVER call you a – you-know-what!”

She ignored that he was right – Potter could be a lot of bad things, but blood prejudice was not something he possessed. She just wanted to hurt the people who had hurt her.

“Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can – I’m surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK!”

She screamed everything she always had wanted to and even more. Maybe it was uncalled for, since Potter had tried to defend her on the final bit. But she felt her anger diminish, and what came after was hurt and pain and tears.

So she simply ignored Potter calling her name and headed to her dorm, slightly conscious of Mary following her. She was so stupid to care, but she just could not stop caring.

Mary said soothing words and even offered to bring her food from lunch. She thanked, but she had lost her appetite. She arrived at last minute on the practical DADA exam, successfully ignoring the entire student body.

She pretended not to see Remus’s worried glance and Potter’s weird face (was that guilt? Pity? Worry? She did not care at the moment) – she was not fine, and her red eyes showed it. At least she did not see Snape, and she left as quickly as she could.

“So how was it?” Mary asked when she arrived at the dorm, a plate of food on her hands. Lily smiled her thanks – she was a bit hungry, but not enough to go down and eat supper with the rest of the Hogwarts population (which, as aforementioned, she judged to be stupid).

“How was what?” Lily asked, eating some bread.

“The exam!”

“Oh,” she replied with a shrug, “it was fine, I suppose. Guess I’ll get an O.”

Mary shook her head in disbelief.

“Only you could get an O after what happened earlier.”

Lily raised her eyebrows and cleared her throat, while Mary grimaced.

“Sorry, that was rude,” Mary apologised, “wanna talk about it?” She asked, and Lily shrugged in reply. It meant a lot about how great of a friend she was, considering what she thought of Snape.

“It’s just… we argued just the other day, not about this, exactly, but… he was complaining about us not being as friends anymore, and I said that it was because of the company he kept…” Mary nodded. She did not need to be remembered who Snape was friends with, “and he wasn’t actually listening to me, y’know? He was more worried about trashing Potter and the others…”

“Well, there’s history there, Lily. It’s not the first time he complains about James and the rest.”

“I know that. It didn’t surprise me either, and I always overlooked some of the stuff Sev did…” Lily sighed. “Not now, tho. Now he’s crossed the line. I won’t tolerate it anymore. I’m done with him.”

She watched in confusion as Mary grimaced again.

“He’s down there. At the portrait. He wants to talk to you.”

Lily blinked and gaped.

“That’s not gonna happen.”

“I told him that already, I swear I did!” Mary replied. “Well, after giving Potter and Black a good shove so they wouldn’t try anything with Snape… he says he’s gonna sleep outside the portrait hole to wait for you to come out tomorrow.”

Lily sighed. Maybe she should get it over with?

The Common Room was already deserted at the time she put on her robe and decided to end it. She expected not to feel anything, but anger quickly came back when she saw Severus. Her former best friend, now gone to the Dark Arts – excited to join the Death Eaters.

It killed her to know that, but – as she told him – she was tired, so tired of making up excuses for him.

And even when she went back to the Common Room, swearing she would not care about it anymore, the tears could not be stopped. She climbed on a couch and hugged a cushion, keeping her sobs quiet.

She did not know how long she spent there until she heard a noise from the boys’ dorm. Quickly she tried to erase all traces of tears from her face and prepared her glare – if it was Potter…

However, the shadow that accompanied the steps told her it was not Potter – not because she knew Potter’s shadow, but because it did not resemble a human’s shadow in any form. It was a bit pointy on top, and it had… projections on the bottom? What the actual…?

“You said you’d pick the squid over me, so I had to turn into it to leave you with no choice…”

Then the thing came to her vision and could not believe her eyes.

James Bloody Potter had fashioned himself a squid costume, tentacles included! She could see his face where the squid’s eyes should be, and he wore a smirk.

The ridiculousness of the occasion was too much for Lily – she laughed, and hard. For a few minutes she could only laugh, allowing Potter to come closer and stand near her (she figured he was not able to sit, which only made her laugh more).

“You’re so stupid!” She said (also an aforementioned fact). James grinned.

“Well, I think you made that very clear, thank you.”

“Well, you deserved it, so welcome.” Lily shrugged. She did not regret what she said earlier. “What are you doing here, Potter?” Lily asked, with a tired edge on her voice.

“Heard the git had threatened to sleep outside and had to make sure he wouldn’t – well, at least not unscathed, that is…” He replied smirking. Lily sighed.

“Why do you have to be such a toerag?” Lily asked.

“Because some people deserve it.” He replied simply. “Not you, tho. I’m just really stupid around you.”

“You didn’t even know him when you started with him,” Lily remembered him. James raised his eyebrows.

“He insulted Gryffindor. Really, Evans, what else did I need to know?”

Lily decided she would have laughed any other day, but not tonight.

“So you were planning on scaring him on this?” She asked instead, gesturing to his ridiculous outfit. Looking at his face, she noted a distinct blush. What in the world…?

“Well, no. I noticed you were down here and I came to… y’know…” he trailed off. Lily raised her eyebrows.

“Ask me out?” She asked.

“No! Well, yes, a bit. If you say yes, that is.”

“Really, Potter. I’d rather the squid.”

Potter glared.

“I’m a squid. That’s the whole point. Or you only take the giant ones?” He asked, wiggling his eyebrows and smirking. Lily blushed at the innuendo and shook her head.

“And you wonder why I keep away from you…” She mumbled. Potter sat beside her (so he could sit!) and sighed.

“Look, actually I wanted to say I’m sorry.” He said. Lily narrowed her eyes. “I mean it. Not for what I did – that git deserves it and more – but because you lost a friend, even a lousy one like Snivellus. He’s rotten company, Evans, and I’d say, ‘I told you so’, but I won’t, because losing a mate’s bad enough.”

Lily was a bit confused and surprised. She considered to pinch herself to make sure she was not dreaming. Potter saying he was sorry for her and Snape’s falling out?

“And you needed to wear… that?” Lily asked in a whisper. Potter smirked.

“Oh, no. This was to make you laugh, which I did.”

Lily could not hold her smile. Had Potter come down to check on her?

“I think I’ll save this, tho. Maybe next term, when you’re free from his greasy and toxic presence you’ll see reason and go out with me…” Potter said, a silly grin on his face.

“Yeah, well, the head’s still too fat for my liking…” she replied with a shrug. Potter laughed and backed away.

“We’ll see, Evans. We’ll see.”

Only years later she would admit to stupid James Potter how much him dressing as that squid had meant to her, which caused him to do it again on the Hallowe’en of 1980, just for her laugh, which lead to some kisses and some moans, and in July of 1981, lead to a new Potter.

But that is a whole different story.

#Jily #Lily Evans #James Potter #jily fanfiction #jily fandom

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splattershotsundae · 8 years ago

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Better Eight Than Never--- Chapter 27: Lego my Eggo

~This chapter contains spoilers for the lego movie, but if you haven’t seen it by now you probably don’t care.~

“What the fuck is a lego?” Hachi asked, sitting down on the couch.

“Please don’t use that language when my parents are around...” Toda said quietly, then started to put the movie into the player. “They’re little plastic building block toys, the bumps on top help hold them together when you stack them. The humanoid-like ones are called minifigures, or just minifigs."

“Oh, that artificially created stuff.” She nodded. “Like some of your cups, and the bottles.”

“Yeah, that stuff.” He said, then grunted and sat down in a chair. “Ready?”

“I suppose.”

Toda nodded, then started the movie, though… something was different about this one. It felt so three dimensional.

“Wait wait, did people draw this too?” Hachi asked, leaning forward a little.

“No, this is CGI.” Toda said, paused, then added. "Computer animated; they make virtual models of things on a computer and make them move a little bit at a time."

"Hm..."

This movie was moving much faster than the other one, there were already so many things to keep track of- did that guy just make birds out of the ground? How? She gave Toda a bit of a confused expression, but he wasn’t paying attention to her. Wait, they just skipped ‘Eight and a half years’!? That was… She used her mask to calculate... 3094 shifts! That was such a long time, how could they just skip through all of that like it was nothing? At least they’d shown Simba getting older in the last movie! “Toda, what happened?”

“Hm?” He asked, looking toward her.

“What happened to the other guys? One of them got kicked into a chasm!” She exclaimed. “Wait, is the other guy on the television? Why?”

“It’ll all be explained.” He reassured. "Just keep watching."

“What’s a taco?” She asked.

“A taco is... well, it's meat, cheese, and vegetables inside a crunchy tortilla shell thing." A brief pause, then. "And tortilla is like a flat kind of bread."

“What are those things following that lady on the street?”

“Cats...” Toda said, sounding a bit irritated. "Small furry animals that some people keep as pets, they’re a bit hard to come by."

“I thought you squids didn’t sing while you worked.”

“We do in movies.”

Hachi sighed and slumped. This movie didn’t make any sense… The main guy, the construction worker, was just as he was supposed to be, following the rules, living a perfect life. Wait, he spotted a person in the ruins. Yeah, that’s right, report her.-- Wait wait wait, this person was a pretty girl, and he was getting distracted. “No no no, don’t break the rules...” She said quietly. “You’ll get in trouble…!”

It was hopeless, he tried to chase after her and instead fell into a rather painful pit. She cringed as he slammed into surface after surface, and then weapons. How was he even alive? And immediately once he’d landed he began to break the rules yet again. “WHY?” She demanded.

"It's for the sake of the story." Toda said with an amused expression on his face.

She was going to reply when a strange sequence of images flashed across the screen, and the protagonist woke up in some sort of prison facility. Her attention began to wane, but she yelped in fright when the person initiating the interrogation spun his head around to reveal another face. “AAHHH!” She screamed, then fell off the couch. Toda’s resulting chuckles made her scowl in frustration.

"That's one of the cool parts about them being based off the toys, you get to do stuff like that and it's not that out of place; some minifig heads do have two faces on them." He said.

“Yes, that’s very cool.” She muttered sarcastically.

“Sorry...” He mumbled, then turned his attention back to the TV.

What did he care? He’d just been making fun of her…

{“I’m not an evil mastermind, just ask my friends!”} Said the protagonist.

{“Oh, we did.”} Replied the officer.

Hachi paused a moment before sitting up and looking back up at the TV. Everyone that he’d been talking to earlier… didn’t even care about him.

{“Wait, does he work with us?”} {“A bit of a blank slate I guess.”} {“Everybody’s something and Emmett is… nothing.”}

She felt a twinge deep down in her chest. Did anybody even miss her back home…? Oz cared that she’d been left behind, right? Did anybody else even know she was gone? They couldn’t contact her… but had they even tried to? She wouldn’t be surprised if her mother had no idea she was going to die up here, it wasn’t like they even talked since she’d moved out… Her gaze dropped from the screen. Orion had turned out to be a backstabber... what about everyone else? Her hands clenched into fists and she stood up, running into the entryway. She took a few deep breaths, then sank to the floor and hugged her knees, trying to keep the tears from coming back. She didn’t need to cry two shifts in a row…

Eventually the sounds in the other room stopped, and she heard Toda unevenly hobble over to where she was sitting. “Hachi? Are you okay?” He asked.

“Go away.” She snapped.

"O... okay. Sorry… Should… Should I get Bato to come up?” He continued, in a horribly meek fashion.

“… Yes.” She croaked, a little mad at how weak she sounded.

“Alright.” He replied. She listened as he brought out that little phone and tapped quickly on the screen. “Okay, he’s coming.”

“… You have friends, right?” Hachi asked.

“Um...” Toda said slowly. “Yeah, of course I do. Why?”

“What would you do for them?” She continued. “What would you do if… for a random example, we took one of them underground, into a place you’d never even heard of. What would you do?”

“… That’s… a big question...” He said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “I mean… I’d try to get them back, of course… I just don’t know how.”

“… The pink one is Simon, right?” She asked. “Why… do they use ‘they’ pronouns exactly…?”

Toda inhaled sharply. “Well… That’s… a bit of a big question.” He glanced over his shoulder for a second, then sat down nearby. “See… um… your gender and your sex are not the same thing. When you hatch, you're 'assigned' a gender based on your sex, either boy or girl. And for some people, that's it, that's what feels right to them... but for others, it doesn't. Like, for example, someone who was assigned as a girl at birth might actually feel like a boy, or vice versa. But that's not the only way it works; gender isn't just two options, although some people-" He glanced towards the dining room again irritably, "-Like to try and insist that it is. It's a whole spectrum; some people might feel like something in-between the two, or something completely outside of that binary, or not like any of it at all. And that's all valid.”

Hachi thought about this for a second. “Those people must be pretty few and far between…”

“Not as few as you might think.” Toda said firmly. “Just because you’ve never heard of them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”

“How many are there?” She asked. “Fifteen?”

He snorted and shook his head. “Fifteen probably doesn't even cover how many is in just this one city."

She froze. “… One city?… How many cities are there?”

“Um...” Toda paused, then pulled out his phone. “Hold on… There’s at least… 1,500,000 cities in the world.”

“… H… How many people are in this city…?”

“Last I heard there was around 37 million, why?”

Hachi opened up the calculator again, putting in an equation.

37,000,000 X 1,500,00 = 555,000,000,000,000

Five hundred trillion people!?!? That couldn’t be right!!! That how could there was what how why

“Hachi?” Toda was asking, gently shaking her shoulder. “Hachi, are you okay?”

She found herself laying face-down on the floor, she must have fainted. “… You can kill me now...” She said.

"... What?" Toda asked.

"I quit. I'm done." She continued. "That's it, that's too many. I... I-I… We’re all doomed, we stand no chance.”

"... Um... the 37 million count aren't all inklings, you know." He said. "Mostly inklings, I think, but there are other people living in this city, too. Like Jellyfish, and Shrimp, Tuna--"

"E... E-Even if th-that's... true, y-you said that there w-were at least a million cities, and.. I-I tried t... to do the... the m-math..." She stammered, so caught up in her conclusion that she couldn’t even understand what Toda said next. Her tentacles began to writhe in her hat as she felt herself break down. “I-I'm already dead, we've l-lost already we're going to be wiped out that's itwe'reallgoingtodiethere'snothingleftI-I-I-I"

“Whoa… H-Hey, take it easy...” She heard Toda say, a hand resting on her shoulder.

“T-Take it easy!?” She demanded, balling her hands into fists to keep them from shaking. “Y-You're the one who has it easy! Y-You're the one who has 'microwaves' and-and-and 'movies' and-and you can afford to spend all day fighting FOR FUN! Y-You don't have to worry that on a daily basis it's going to be the day you fuck up and die, you don't have to worry about a cave in, you've never been down there in an outage, y-you haven't seen what it DOES t-to people! We're DOOMED." She scrambled to her feet, then fumbled with the front door’s lock in an attempt to get it open.

"Hachi!” Toda yelped, grabbing her arm.

"Let go of m-me!" She snarled.

"Hachi, stop, you have to try and calm down.” He said.

"Why should I listen to you!?" She snapped as she tried to pull her arm free. “I’m doomed, I don’t care what happens anymore!”

"No, you're not." He said quietly but urgently, his grip on her arm quite firm. "But if my parents catch us like this then we'll both be. We could both get in trouble, especially if they see what you really are. Please, take a moment to calm down before they get suspicious!"

She paused, looking him in the eye. She almost felt like she could stay. Maybe she would actually survive if she stayed up here… in the world of squids. The last of her kind. What sort of existence was that? She had a chance to save all of them if she went back home… if she told them they were outnumbered. “… Tell Bato I say goodbye.” She said softly, then lashed out her leg twice, kicking him once in the leg, and once at the groin. He let go immediately and crumpled into a ball on the floor, looking very in pain. She almost felt bad, but she told herself it was the only way she could escape. She undid the lock, and ran out into the hall. She’d done it, now she just had to take the elevator down to the lobby, and she’d be free. For real this time. She smashed the down button on the elevator, just in time for the doors to open and reveal…

Bato.

That’s right, he’d been coming up to check on her.

For a second, the both of them were motionless, though Hachi’s brains felt like they were churning at mach speed. When she’d tried to escape last time, Bato’d beaten her to the lobby, there must be another way down. She turned her head a little, and her mask locked onto the word ‘stairs’ on a door a short way down the hall.

There we go.

She barreled toward the door, grabbing the handle and flinging it open as fast as she could. She heard Bato calling after her, but she wasn’t about to slow down now. The stairs were concrete, and went back and forth to head downward toward the bottom floor. Even running this far had left her back screaming at her, she didn’t have many choices to progress onward. She ran down the stairs, skipping as many as she could, though the momentum caused her to slam into the wall whenever they reached a switchback. She couldn’t let it get to her, she had to escape, no matter what. Her entire species depended on her. They might not care about her, or even acknowledge that she existed, but they needed her!

She kept up fairly well, but it was on the third floor landing that her back finally gave out on her, sending her crashing to the floor and smacking the mask against the floor.

[Error: cloaking transmitter offline]

Of course…

“H-Hachi!” Bato called, she could see his feet coming into sight out of the edge of her vision, and then felt him pin down her arms. It was all over… "What... why are... what's going on?" He asked her between gasps.

She shudder, then she sobbed, unable to hold back any longer. “J-Just kill meee-eee...”

"... What?" He said, sounding startled. He knelt down beside her, still holding her arms. "Why do... what... Hachi, what's the matter?"

She sniffled, then turned her head away from Bato and had her tentacles pull her hat down over her eyes so he couldn’t see her mask. "Y-Your kind o-outnumbers... U-Us a m-mi-’ She stopped to gasp for air. “-llion t-to one... Th-There's no hope."

"Where did you hear that?" He asked.

"S-Squid-hat" She said. “T-Toda.”

“Toda? Calm down a little, alright? Then you can try to explain what happened...” Bato reassured, rubbing her arm.

“There’s no point, w-we’re all d-d-d-dead already...” She sobbed.

"... Hachi, I'm completely lost here." He said quietly. "I don't know what happened. What did he say exactly?"

She took a deep breath, trying to get her thoughts in order. “H... He said th-that there a-are 37 m-m-million p-people in this city... A-And there are e-easily a m-million... c-cities… That’s t-t-trillions o-o-of you… N-No army w-we can manage can take a-a-all of you on, w-we'll die t-t-trying."

"... Oh..." His grip tightened on her shoulder a little. "Okay... yeah, there are 37 Million people in this city, and there are hundreds of thousands of cities spread out over the world, but there aren't 37 Million people in every one of those cities. There aren't nearly that many people in the world, believe me; I'm pretty sure Inkopolis has the highest population of people in the world right now, and by quite a bit too. There are only a few billion people in the whole world."

“’O-Only a few billion’” She muttered. “H-How can you say that s-s-s-so easily, this c-c-city alone outnumbers my people!”

There was a long pause. “How many octolings are there?”

Hachi swallowed. By now what further harm could she do? She pulled up the last update she’d had on the Octoling population count before she’d been cut out of the system. “… There are 636,752... That's all of us. Children, elderly, my defective ass... I-it's all in that number..." She sobbed. "And we're all going to die."

"... Wow..." He said, trailing off.

"... The domes are breaking down." She said slowly. "And we can't come up here... There's nothing we can do. What’s the point?"

“Maybe... maybe they figured something out while you were up here? Or they're close to figuring something out? You never know." He said, sounding reluctant.

"... They don't know how many of you there are..." She whispered.

"I'm... I'm sure they have some sort of plan for if they get outnumbered." He tried.

"Just stop." She replied. "I'm not alright." She turned to look at him, tentacles snaking out to lift the hat and the mask up so she could look him directly in the eyes. "You're just saying that so I'll go back upstairs with you. It's not happening. I either go home or I die."

He held her gaze, then looked away with a sigh. “We can’t let you go home. And you’re not dying either.”

“I know...” She sniffled, tentacles wiping away her tears.

“Wait, how did you get your mask?” Bato asked, frowning.

She glanced away. “… I pretended I went to the bathroom when you made breakfast. The domes have locked me out of the mainframe, I’m not t-telling them anything...”

He nodded a little, still frowning, then said, "I don't suppose I could ask you to give it back anyway? After yesterday... well, you remember what happened. And anyway, you can't really just walk around with that thing on, even with your tentacles hidden it'd still be too much of a giveaway; it's too different from anything we have."

Her tentacles wrapped around her mask instinctively. “Bato, this mask is a huge part of my… life, my… culture. It’s… I shouldn’t have expected you to understand… My entire life is saved on here… Every picture I’ve ever taken… A log of every shift I’ve worked, it’s everything I have left… let me have this one last piece of myself… I swear, I can’t contact home, let me keep It in my pocket...”

He stared at her for a long moment, then sighed. “Fine. You can keep it in your pocket. But you are going back up there."

"I don't like Toda, and I hate his parents, you aren't making me go up there." She scowled. "And what are you going to do if I don't, anyway?”

“Well I could probably drag you up there, that would hurt a lot.” He pointed out. "But we don't really have a choice; you can't stay at my place again, my Moms are getting suspicious enough as it is."

"If you take me back, I will take off my hat in front of them." She threatened.

"That would be more dangerous for you than it would be for either of us." He told her. "We could always say we didn't know."

“You think I care anymore?” She scoffed. "Either way the sirens would hate you for letting it happen."

He sighed, rubbing his forehead, "Look, if there was another option right now, I'd consider it, but there really isn't. You can't come back to my place, and I don't think the twins are up to watching you tonight either, and it's really too late to be making that trip anyway. It's late enough you could probably tell Toda's parents that you want to go to sleep and they'd leave you alone."

She paused for a moment. “… I kicked Toda where it hurts, I’m not going back up there.”

"... You what?" He frowned at her.

"I had to get him to let go of me." She continued to mutter. “Another reason I can't go back."

"You don't have a choice." He told her again through gritted beak. "We'll come up with some excuse."

"Would you like the same treatment? I'm not scared of you." She huffed.

"And nor I of you," He replied, glaring at her a bit.

She grunted, then started to sit up. “Then let's go a round, see who comes out with less bruises! It’ll be just like back at the soldier academy!"

“I didn’t go to a soldier academy.” He said, keeping her arm firmly held behind her back. “Besides, your back is still hurt.”

“I don’t care!” She snapped, then tried to pull her arm away. However, his grip was firm, and her other arm was secured as well.

"Hachi, just give it up, please.” Bato said with a sigh. “As much as I wish there were, there isn't another option, you HAVE to go back up there."

"Stop! Being! So! Damn! Nice!!!" She shouted. “Insult me for fucking once!”

"I don't think I could come up with anything good enough, you've already set the bar fairly high." He said.

“So you don’t have any insulting customs either? How boring do you even get, you disgusting casserole masher!?” She demanded.

"You see? That's what I mean." He said, almost like he was trying to hold back any sign of amusement.

“How will you get better if you don’t try, huh!? Hit me where it hurts!” She said.

He sighed a little, shaking his head. "Fine, if you insist, beluga breath."

“With feeling, you blasted bobfin!” She huffed.

He rolled his eyes. "You know, I'm pretty sure most people up here wouldn't ask to be insulted like this, mudfish mouth." He commented.

“Back home I wouldn’t have to grubby fingers.” She pointed out, letting her tentacles take off her mask.

He raised an eyebrow. "So you all insult each other on a regular basis, then... twisty tentacles?"

She nodded a little. "Yeah, it's normal you moldy cricket, and thanks for the compliment."

He chuckled a bit. "I'm trying my best here, you little worm."

She couldn’t help it, she laughed quietly as well. “I’m not sure what I expected from a dimwitted hogfish. I need one of my hands.” She waggled her mask using her tentacles.

He chuckled again. "I told you that you set the bar pretty high." He hesitated for just a second, then let go of one of her arms, grip still firm on the other. "You'd better not try anything, little miss cod."

"Well I don't feel comfortable with you putting your hands in my pockets, vile teuthida." She replied, taking the mask and replacing it with the sunglasses.

"Eh, fair enough. Can you stand alright?" He asked. “You ah… simple-minded goldfish.”

"I.... I don't know. I fell hard, my back hurts as much as if I looked at your ugly face." She said, straying away from name-calling.

He sighed a little, shaking his head, "Just as it was starting to get better, too. Whatever happened to taking it easy, huh?" He slowly started to stand, though he was taking it slow enough that he wouldn’t hurt her. It was strange, the lengths he’d go for an enemy… If they both hadn’t been dragged into this situation, would they even be enemies?

“I… I panicked.” She said, managing to stand, though she felt a little bit of ink trickle down her back.

"I'll take a look at it again once we get back up there." He told her as he kept her upright.

Hachi groaned. "I never said I'm going back up there… But I am..."

"Yes, yes you are." He replied.

She glanced at him, then feigned a horrified expression. “Ahhh, my eyes! It’s unbearable!” She said, breaking into laughter by the end of it.

He laughed a little as well. "Hey, you're not exactly easy on the eyes either, I hope you know." He said as he began to take her to the 3rd floor elevator. “You got an apology yet?”

“I’m working on it...” She admitted. “We were watching a movie… And I sort of want to finish, even though it’s a bit… strange.”

“Oh? Which one?”

“The ‘lego’ movie. You… want to join us?”

“… Yeah, I think I would.”

Saturday: Blackbelly Skatepark Sunday: Flounder Heights A failure Monday: Camp Triggerfish Picked up a new ‘friend’ Tuesday: Rainmaker I need a break… Wednesday: Break Did not get a break. Thursday: Real break. We’ll just have to train extra hard tomorrow. Friday: Kelp Dome Saturday: Game on

Bato and Toda are Knitter’s characters

Hachi and Simon are Shuckle’s characters.

Splatoon belongs to Nintendo.

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#Splatoon #SS Simon #SS Toda #SS Bato #Octo Hachi #Octoling #Better Eight Than Never

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