#traumatized immortals should not have the grasp on my heart that they have

[space-rat-baby-cry]

Okay but does anyone else see the parallels between Rafayel and the 10th doctor? No? Just me...

[redrobin-detective]

because I could not stop for death

because I could not stop for death / he kindly stopped for me / the carriage held but just ourselves / and immortality ~ Emily Dickinson

Danny Fenton was dying, properly this time.

Somehow, in the back of his head and in his worst nightmares, he knew it would end this way: bleeding on the floor of his parents’ lab where it had all began. He was so hot he felt like his skin was on fire, blood and ectoplasm were dripping all over him and his lungs and heart were working overtime to try in vain to keep him alive a moment longer. He’d imagined at the time that there would be more screaming but death, in the end, was turning out to be a quiet little affair. A lonely table set for one.

“Danny, Danny come on, you-you gotta slow down your breathing, just relax, for me, please,” Sam moaned, more than making up for his lack of noise. She was shaking and touching him all over, his chest, his face, his hair. Normally she jumped right into action but she had to know, deep down, that there was nothing she could do. All that was left was to watch her panic and cry, it wasn’t his favorite image. 

“Vlad!” He heard Tucker scream cry into the phone, “please it’s Tucker, Danny’s dying I think. The Fentons had some new invention, something about his core, please we don’t know what to do!” 

Ugh Vlad, he was probably going to be so happy Danny was on his way out. He wasn’t looking much forward to his last images being his archenemy gloating. Tucker hung up and reached down to grasp Danny’s hand so hard it hurt. “Don’t worry dude, Vlad’s coming. He knows so much about you half ghosts that you’ll be fixed up on no time.” Right, Danny was already dead. If calling Vlad, feeling like he did something, helped Tucker move on then he’d deal with it.

Danny tilted his head to the side where Sam’s fingernails were carding through his hair. It was getting harder to see with the blood pouring out of his eyes but he looked at her, and tried to memorize her face. He’d never been able to tell her how much he loved her, that any day spent with her was a blessing. Tucker too, his best bro and a part of his soul. His best friends in the whole wide world, through thick and thin. God, he was going to miss them.

“Glurk,” he said, trying to convey those feeling but the fluids in his mouth and airway made it impossible. “Blerh.”

“Shh shh shh,” Sam soothed, “it’s okay, don’t try to talk.”

“Daniel!” He heard Vlad’s voice shriek as he materialized in front of the portal. Sam and Tucker were violently pushed out the way. Danny wanted to be angry at his loved ones being taken away in his final moments but anger was for the living, he barely had the energy to breathe. This death was too long and too short all at once. He made eye contact with Vlad who all at once lost the frantic edge to his tone and and instead knelt on the floor. “Oh my dear boy. What did they do to you?”

“What is going on?” Sam demanded, shoving her way back in. Danny was glad, he could see again like this. “Why aren’t you doing something!”

“There’s nothing to be done,” Vlad said in a flat, monotone, he picked up one of Danny’s hands and patted it gently. “His core is dying, it’s like a ghost’s heart. It contains their very essence, it is from which everything they are comes from. If Jack and Maddie somehow disrupted it then there’s nothing anyone can do to save him.”

“But he’s human too,” Tucker defended, grabbing Danny’s other hand. His human warm skin burned but the contact felt so good, he twitched his fingers closer to his friend’s. “He-he doesn’t need a core, he’s already got a heart. So, so he doesn’t have powers, we can do normal again.”

“You-” Vlad hissed before taking a calming breath. “The accident that made Daniel like this irreparably altered him. His core was as much a part of keeping him alive as his other organs, without it, his body is shutting down.” Vlad turned down to look Danny in the eye and saw true, genuine grief in those hateful red eyes. 

“I cannot imagine the agony you are going through, I’m so sorry. I’d say it will be over soon but,” a hitch that sounded almost like a sob if it was coming from anyone other than Vlad. “But you’ve hovered on the edge of death for years, son, and you’ve always been such a fighter. You have minutes at most but those minutes are an eternity when you’re suffering.”

Sam and Tucker’s sobbing blended together in the background, Vlad was saying something with a miserable, stunned expression. The swirling of the portal in the background seemed louder than anything, louder than his heart beat pounding and pounding as it ran it’s last race. 

“Daniel, Danny,” he focused his eyes back on Vlad who had a stubborn, unhappy set to his brow. “Do you want me to make the pain stop? An ectoblast to your chest will end your life instantly.”

“Don’t you dare touch him,” Sam shrieked, coming back into view and looking like she was trying to fight Vlad off. “You do anything to him and I’ll kill you!” Tucker just sat and stared at him, like he too was trying memorize Danny’s face.

“It’s a mercy, Samantha or do you want his last moments on earth to be drowning on the blood in his lungs.”

“Sam, he has a point. I don’t- I don’t think we can fix this.”

“No! No we always fix things, I’ll do it myself if I have to!”

Danny’s vision was starting to go, more black than anything else. He closed his eyes and readied himself for the inevitable. 

“Time Out,” Danny opened his eyes and found he was no longer in pain. He was standing up and apart from where he’d previously been lying. Sam had her hands in Vlad’s face and the older hybrid was snarling something at her. Tucker was midmotion trying to stand up, presumably to get Sam but the three of them were frozen in the moment. Danny turned and found Clockwork floating, looking very out of place in his parents lab. “Good evening, Danny.”

“You that short on cash that you work part time as a grim reaper?” Danny quipped out of habit. He looked down at his body and grimaced a bit, that wasn’t a pretty sight. No doubt traumatizing for Tucker and Sam. God how were they going to explain this to his parents? “Gonna ferry me across the River Styx? I don’t have two pennies but I think I have a bloodied $10 on me.”

“You’re core is dying and you have 17 seconds left in this world before all your organs give out and finish the process you began when you turned on your parent’s ghost portal,” Clockwork explained as he changed into child form. 

“O-okay,” Danny said shakily, trying to be brave even when he was so, so scared. He was going out whether he wanted it or not but he refused to leave crying. “Nice of you to come say goodbye then but, uh but unless you have something to say then you should let me go back. No one knows better than me that you can’t outrun death. Thanks but I’m uh I’m ready.”

Clockwork stared at him for a bit, not sure how long, time was weird like this but he changed forms a few times. “You’re quite the remarkable young man, Danny Fenton.”

“Uh thanks,” Danny added, once more looking at his body which had, according to Clockwork, a 17 second expiration date. “What’s going to happen? Am I going to become a ghost? Does heaven or hell exist for someone like me?”

“I don’t get to decide what happens, I merely see options,” Clockwork stated easily, taking his time. “If you die naturally you’ll become ghost, a mere shadow of who you are now and one who would fade fairly quickly. You don’t have strong enough anger or regrets to tie you in the real world for long.” Not great but okay he supposed, hell for his friends and family though. “You could let Plasmius deliver his mercy kill, destroying what’s left of your ghost core and ensuring you do not come back.” Better, probably won’t help the Fruitloop’s instability but he can’t save everyone.

“That one comes with it’s own caveat but I’ll get to that in a moment,” Clockwork explained. “There is a third option where you get up off the floor and walk away.” Danny blinked then looked back at his body which certainly wasn’t walking anywhere but into a plush casket. Clockwork opened his hands and the Ghost King’s Crown materialized in his hands. “If you accept your claim to the King’s Cown, it will revitalize your core and your life would be saved.”

Danny blinked.

“By sealing Pariah Dark, you won by proxy and established a legitimate claim to the throne. The Zone has been without a king for millennia, most have forgotten the old rules. Those who remembered were not too keen on a half-ghost child assuming leadership and kept you in the dark. If Plasmius ends your life then your claim transfers over to him, which he is aware of. It had been his plan all along to trick you into defeating Pariah so he could steal the Crown from you at a later date, a much easier opponent.”

Danny’s mind was overloaded with information, he didn’t know what to focus on first. He stared at his 17 seconds from death face and tried to process it all. Crown? Claim? Vlad?

“Of course,” Clockwork tutted, “he didn’t plan on your dying and in such a gruesome fashion. If he kills you and takes your claim, he would spend his remaining years ruling the Ghost Zone in a just, controlled fashion for your memory. He destroys all the stable portals and keeps the ghost and human worlds separate.” Clockwork became and old man and titled his head, “it’s not a bad timeline, all things considered.”

“And if I take it?” Danny asked quietly.

“You’re compassionate, brave and motivated, you have all the makings of a revolutionary king,” Clockwork smiled. “The Zone would experience and unprecedented era of peace, there would be positive interactions between human and ghosts for the first time since life and death split into two. Your name would spoken with reverence for the rest of time.”

“But I don’t want to be king,” Danny frowned.

“I know, I’m sorry,” Clockwork stated. “Which is why I am giving you the choice. If you pass peacefully there will be no one to claim the Crown and life will continue on, ghost attacks and all. If Plasmius kills you, he becomes an effective but unmemorable king. If you take the Crown, you can get the chance to tell Sam and Tucker how much you love them.”

Danny rubbed at his face, he didn’t want to die but he’d be sealing away his entire future with a move like this. He didn’t even know if the Crown would let him go with death, maybe he’d die and be stuck as the Ghost King until his core finally gave out lord in who knows how long. Eternity was an awful long time to carry such a responsibility. He couldn’t bring himself to ask, too afraid of the answer.

“Is there ever a timeline I became an astronaut?” He asked instead. Clockwork hummed, seemingly unsurprised by Danny’s non-sequitur. 

“Yes, in one of the few universes where you never walked into the portal. You never go into space what with human politics putting a halt on the programs but you work for NASA. You leave Amity Park at 17 and don’t come back save for your parents’ dual funeral.” He paused and Danny felt read down to his very bones, “from the moment you became half ghost you were always heading for this moment. The circumstances varied but it always came down to you and the Crown. Time is straining to continue, to see how this drama plays out. Will you accept it and all the joy and grief that comes with it?”

Danny looked over at Vlad, still mid-sneer but there was a scared desperation in his face. He and Vlad sniped at each other all the time but Danny didn’t really hate him and he didn’t think Vlad did either. Leaving him alone, plus making him be king was a heavy burden to put on his enemy. 

Sam and Tuck probably wouldn’t recover from this, he’d put them through so much already but he just knew that they’d never be the same. Could he do that to them? Take the easy way out and leave them to suffer? Mom and Dad didn’t deserve to come home to a dead son, the truth would come out and they’d never forgive themselves. Jazz certainly wouldn’t, she was 2 states over at University but he could already hear her angry, grief-stricken screams. 

Death, death was quiet. It was quiet and merciful and sad, but it was also easy. And Danny Fenton had never once taken the easy route. He reached out and took and the crown before shakily placing it on his head. He gasped, throwing his head back as his core swelled, taking up residence once more right next to his heart. Clockwork smiled, looking like the cat who ate the canary. 

“The Crown of Fire, pardon me the Crown changes with each core, the Crown of Ice is now yours as is the Zone. Your reign begins now but so too does the rest of your life. People are waiting for you. Time in.” Danny slammed back into awareness on the floor of his parents’ lab, the floor he’d almost died on twice. 

He sat up as cold radiated off his body, causing frost to crawl down his arms and along the floor. Sam, Tucker and Vlad, who’d been frozen up until now, jumped back to life. There was a new, familiar weight on his head that he didn’t dare acknowledge. 

He squeezed his eyes shut and said a silent goodbye to a quiet, normal life. It wouldn’t be all bad, he could be happy like this but the Crown still felt like a iron manacle around his neck. But he got used to the ghost powers, he could get used to this too. Maybe one day he won’t look at the stars and say ‘what if?’

“Danny!” Sam shouted, throwing herself into his arms soon followed by Tucker. Their warm weight, their relieved sobs, their shaky breaths in his air, now this was something worth living for. He squeezed them tightly.

“But how dude, you were at death’s door!” Tucker asked, still not letting go.

“You accepted the Crown,” Vlad said evenly, “I wasn’t aware you even knew about your claim. Who told you?”

“You don’t know everything, Vlad,” Danny sighed, sitting himself upright. Ugh his shirt was covered in blood and ectoplasm. He needed to trash these clothes before his parents freaked. And find a way to hide the floating ice crown on his head. 

“Even an old man can be surprised every now and again,” Vlad said wearily. He stood up to his full height before startling Danny by dipping down to one knee. “Then allow me to be the first to welcome my new king and wish him well.”

“I thought you wanted this,” Danny questioned.

“I do, I did,” Vlad said, unusually off balance. “To be quite honest, I’m not sure how to feel about it but, right now, I’m just immeasurably happy you’re alive, little badger. Now I best be off, enjoy your kingdom, my liege, I’ll be sure to come bother you some time soon.” Vlad disappeared in a swirl of pink leaving just him, Sam and Tucker still clinging to him.

Danny may have a kingdom, a job he didn’t want and his whole life decided in a spur of the moment choice, but he also had something very important. He squeezed his friends tightly.

“I love you guys, thank you for being my friends even though I have the worst ideas for activities. Dying? On a Sunday night? How lame is that?” Sam laughed, a bit hysterical but it was real and it made Danny feel weightless. 

“Don’t do that again, buddy,” Tucker breathed into his shoulder. “So you gonna explain what just happened and why you’re apparently the Ghost King or something?”

“Yeah, yeah I will but let’s get changed first. Mom and Dad will be home soon and I think I’m going to need to have a conversation with them about my new job.” 

[fangirlincorporate]

Happiness Doesn’t Last Forever

Just a little fic I wrote. I normally don’t post this kind of stuff on my tumblr page. I like to keep it on my AO3 but I’m really proud of it. I think it’s cute and wanted to share 🥰 so if you like Yatori fluff here ya go! Added the link as well just because.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33487336

*warning my writing isn’t the best. I write because it’s fun not necessarily because I’m good at it*

Hiyori walked behind Yato and Yukine, bouncing along behind them in her half-phantom form. The two were arguing over something silly, but it still brought a smile to her face. She had offered to take them out for dinner now that school was over. Unfortunately, she lost her body along the way so Yato had to carry her. She enjoyed these little moments with her friends. Cherished them even more than before since the traumatic events that occurred recently.

After the fight with Rabo, Hiyori's thoughts were constantly on the fact that she had forgotten the two of them. Guilt filled her chest every time they smiled at her. Despite knowing Nora had everything to do with that deep down she had a fear she really would forget them. She couldn’t bear the thought of it.

She didn’t even mind that Yato hadn’t fixed her body. Hadn’t brought it up for weeks. She was immensely happy that she could have more time with them. More time with him. A blush crossed her face, and the two boys ahead stopped to look back at her in concern.

“Hiyori?” Yukine asked, a small frown on his face.

She hadn’t realized she had stopped and was now standing in the middle of the sidewalk. Her eyes met Yato’s striking blue ones. She sucked in a breath like she did every time. Momentarily she forgot Yukine had even spoken. Not wanting to worry the two she plastered a smile on her face claiming to have gotten lost in thought rushing forward to catch up to the two. By the look on Yato’s face, she knew he didn’t buy it, but he played along.

His shoulder brushed hers in what she hoped was for reassurance, and she nudged him back ever so slightly. This has become a frequent thing between the two of them. She had been the one to initiate it. Despite having lost her memories she remembered how desperate he was to get her to recall those same memories. She has yet to forget the look on his face that day he stopped her in the crosswalk. Those blue eyes were filled with not only desperation but fear that rocked her to her core. She knew that Yato could disappear if he was forgotten. If he no longer received wishes. Kofuku told her about it.

In an attempt to reassure him she started to hang around more. Touched him more than she had before. Fixing his jersey even when it didn’t need to be. Brushing the hair from his eyes. Lingering closer than what was necessary. When he started to reciprocate that’s when she started to realize that it was her fear that had sparked the interactions.

She was terrified that he would just be gone one day. That something else would come around and kill him for good. Hiyori wasn’t sure if Yato had caught on to her feelings yet, but there was something in the way he would look at her that made her feel that he knew. He was an “all-knowing” God after all.

She watched them eat, and for just a moment allowed herself to relax. Glancing out the window having already finished her food she watched the birds in the trees.

Yato had brushed up against her leg sending shivers down her spine. Her eyes drifted in his direction, and she had to swallow a lump in her throat. They sat there staring for a moment, legs resting up against each other.

He was still here. Little did Hiyori know that the God in question was thinking the very same thing. Yukine had finished his meal looking between the two. Groaning as he rested his chin on the table stretching his arms out in front of him.

“If you guys want alone time you can just say so.” He mumbled. A red tint to his cheeks as he glanced away from them.

Hiyori’s face heated up in embarrassment. Of course, Yukine would notice the change between the two of them. She stared at the table long enough to burn a hole through it.

“It-It’s not like that!” She squeaked out.

Yukine rolled his eyes. “Sure, and I’m leaving now.”

Yato hadn’t said a word during the interaction watching as his Regalia left. His knee pressed ever so gently against Hiyori’s.

Yato opened his mouth to speak, but fearing what he might say, Hiyori beat him to the punch. “We should go after him.”

Rushing up to the register to pay for their food Yato followed behind. Not really caring where Yukine had gone, Yato knew he would be fine. Yukine was right about him wanting some alone time with Hiyori. There was something bothering him about her behavior, but he humored her and followed her along as she went looking for Yukine.

At some point the God started to lose his patience. Now they were on the outskirts of the city walking through a park. Yato was about to grab Hiyori to get her to stop walking when she tripped. Before she could hit the ground though Yato had pulled her into his arms.

She clutched his jacket tightly dazed for a bit. He still hadn’t let go, and Hiyori didn’t mind when he held her just a little tighter. Taking a deep breath to calm her racing heart, his sweet scent filled her senses. Enveloping her entirely, and he didn’t mind when she leaned closer resting her forehead against his shoulder. He was intoxicating.

They stood under the light of a street lamp. The sunset grew darker as night drew closer. “Hiyori.” Yato called her name, and she would be lying if she said she didn’t like hearing him say her name like that.

She pulled away to look up at him, and her breath caught in her throat. Those eyes were the same ones she saw standing in the crosswalk. The eyes she never wanted to see again, but there they were. Staring into the depths of her soul. Electric blue meeting her own magenta ones. She reached up, putting a hand to the side of his face. Subconsciously he leaned into her touch wanting it just as much as she did.

“Don’t look at me like that.” Her voice was just above a whisper.

“Like what?” He asked, his voice tight.

“Like you’re scared. Terrified. Desperate. Like I’m going to forget…again.” Her voice dropped, and all her guilt bubbled to the surface once again. “I’m not going to forget you. Ever.” She whispered the last word, dropping her hand back down to her side.

“Is that what has been bothering you?”

She nodded her response, already feeling tears forming in her eyes despite every effort to stop them. She didn’t want to cry. Not now, and not in front of him.

“Hiyori, what happened wasn’t your fault.” Yato put his hands on her shoulders. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“I know.” She whispered, “but it scared you didn’t it? Yukine too.” She blinked, and one of the tears she was holding back slipped down her cheek. Yato wiped it away with a stray thumb.

“Of course it did. You’re the only human who has remembered me. The only one who has seen me.” A lump formed in her throat at those words. “However, I believe in you. I believe you will remember me and continue to. So don’t cry Hiyori.”

“You’ll be sad though.”

“What do you mean?”

“If we stay friends, Yato. I’m going to grow old and die. I’m going to leave you eventually.” Hiyori clutched his jacket. “I don’t want to leave you knowing you’ll be alone again.” She gripped his jacket so hard her knuckles turned white. Her own desperation shining through her tone.

“I know.” He said resting a hand on her head. “And that’s okay too.”

Her eyes widened in shock at his words. She looked up to meet his eyes. Finding a sadness there that she couldn’t fathom. “Human lives are fleeting compared to us immortals, but I could disappear at any moment. I’m a nameless God. Hiyori, you have brought a light into my life that I wouldn’t pass up for anything.” He cupped her cheeks pulling her just a little closer. “I’d rather be by your side and be sad later on than walk away now only to regret it for the rest of eternity.”

Did he really mean that? Her heart fluttered at the thought. She was enamored by him, and everything he was. He captured her heart with those words, and she was left speechless. A God was confessing he would give anything to stay by her side. Her, a mere human.

“You’d give anything to stay with me?” She smiled cheekily at him. His words made her guilt fade to nothing.

He seemed to realize what he had said. He nearly stumbled back blushing furiously. “W-Well just about…anything.” He mumbled turning to the side so she couldn’t see his face.

Feeling a surge of confidence Hiyori reached up to his face, pulling him down gently. She stood on her tippy toes to place a light kiss on his lips. She spun on her heels turning away from him so she couldn't see his reaction. Her embarrassment overruled the confidence she had as her face heated to new levels. Meanwhile, Yato stood with his mouth hung open in shock staring at Hiyori’s back.

“Let’s go find Yukine.” She called back to him, turning to glance at him over her shoulder.

Yato stood with his fists clenched, and a blush dusting his cheeks. He couldn’t believe she kissed him. He wasn’t upset, he just wished he had been the one to kiss her.

While the moment was still fresh Yato tugged Hiyori into his embrace, lifting her chin, and returning the kiss. The kind that left your lips bruised, your mind hazy, and your body craving more. She leaned into the kiss grasping fistfuls of his jacket to steady herself. One of his arms snaked around Hiyori’s waist pulling her flush against him. She sucked in a breath of surprise which granted him more access. Hiyori was a little overwhelmed by the kiss, but didn't want him to stop.

Not sure what to do, she followed his lead. Their tongues danced, and she grew hot from the new sensations. Subconsciously she started to grind on him in her haze. He pulled away breathless and his own body started to feel the effects of kissing Hiyori.

“Let's-” He cleared his throat. “Let’s go find Yukine. He is probably at Kifoku’s by now.”

“Yeah. Let's do that.”

The two were blushing furiously as they walked in the direction of their friend's house. Hiyori wanting to hold his hand, but too afraid to ask. Yato, thinking his sweaty hands would gross her out, kept his in his pockets as they walked side by side. Every so often they would bump into each other only to turn red once more.

[mdzsgildedfate]

Gilded Fate - Chapter 1

{In the case of souls who lived traumatic lives and died violent deaths, regaining those memories in the next life can have dire consequences. With the need for cultivators having died with the reign of the gentry clans, Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi apply their skills to locating these reincarnated souls and guiding them through Awakening.

Meanwhile, Jin Ling investigates a mysterious surge in Yin energy accumulating in the mountains where Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen reside.}

In a moment of weakness… I lied… And in a moment of weakness… I said yes… ` Xiao Xingchen… My Daozhang… Please, forgive me…

Darkness brought with it a certain kind of peace. Fingers were numb. Eyes were rested. The body stopped aching. The heart was at peace. It was impossible to tell how long had passed in the darkness. Minutes? Years? The clock ticked by while his brain muddled through fuzzily. Memories of his life had disintegrated like sand falling into a rushing stream. It felt nice to forget. What good had those memories ever done?

In the blink of an eye, the light came rushing back, blinding and painful and unwanted. Everything hurt. His fingers, his eyes, his skin ached like he’d fallen off a cliff. If he could remember how to cry, he would. God, why did his eyes hurt so much? What was this horrible pressure against his back?

“Xiao Xingchen?” The words came through deafeningly loud. Without meaning to, he brought his hands up to his ears to cover them.

The words came again, but they held no meaning to him. All he could think about was how his head was spinning, his neck was screaming, and there was some annoying force grasping at one of his hands. Reluctantly, he forced open his eyes, squinting at the light that came rushing in. As was to be expected, nothing was familiar. He was in a white room with white curtains and white furniture and soft blue accents.

“Xiao Xingchen, can you hear me?”

His eyes followed the sound of the voice, settling on an unfamiliar face that grimaced at him with some unfamiliar expression. He grimaced back, despair filling his heart as he came to the horrible realization that he was alive. What cruel force had chained him back to this existence?

“Xingchen… don’t you remember me?” The voice asked again.

No, I don’t… leave me be…

The man reached behind him, fumbling for something beyond Xingchen’s line of vision, before turning back to hold up an object for him to see. He stared at the unfamiliar sword, confused further at why he was suddenly being presented a weapon. Did this wretched human really summon him to carry out revenge for him? Could the living not leave the dead to rest in peace?

He pushed the sword away from him, casting his gaze instead to the other figure standing in the room. One unfamiliar face after another. At least this one wasn’t staring at him with pleading eyes. In fact, compared to the one at his side, this one was quite pleasant to look at. He had soft, youthful features and passionate eyes that looked quite satisfied with the events transpiring before him.

“Good to see you again, Jiujiu.” He smiled, the expression lighting up his whole face.

Jiujiu…?

He grimaced again. He had no memory prior to the darkness, but he was certain he didn’t want to be here. Some horrible feeling of despair sat in the pit of his stomach as a reminder to that. Carefully, he brought one hand up to his neck, letting the tips of his fingers graze over the old injury. He frowned. The ghost of a face could almost manifest in his mind.

“Xiao Xingchen? Say something, please…”

He turned his head to meet the other’s gaze once again. “...”

“Wei Wuxian, what’s wrong with him?”

The other figure simply shrugged his shoulders. “It has been a decade since his death, he might not remember who you are.”

“Wei Wuxian-!”

“Don’t blame me, I told you there were some risks. This is a brand new path of cultivation, the only ones to broach this territory are myself and Xue-”

“ Don’t say his name.”

Wei Wuxian shrugged again. “I’m just saying. I did what you asked, and as far as I can tell, it worked. Anything else is just going to be a side effect of having been dead for so long.”

Xue…. Xue who? Why can’t he say his name? His eyes flickered between the two men, finally settling on the one at his side. He reached out one hand, letting it hover over the man’s eyes. Something seemed wrong about it.

“Xingchen?” The man said his name, sounding much sadder this time.

He narrowed his gaze, trying to figure out why his attention was drawn to this person’s eyes. Why did that name echo in his brain when the two men in front of him drew no memories forth? He clenched his jaw. Some deeply buried Yin energy bubbled in his gut, urging his hand to reach out and pluck the eyes out of this man’s head.

“...Mine.” He managed to say, surprised by the sound of his own voice.

The man looked taken aback, shuddering slightly. “Y-yes… These are your eyes, Xingchen.”

He let out a hum of approval, nodding his head slightly.

“Do you remember me?”

He clenched his jaw again. His head hurt. How many things did he have to remember today? He already felt exhausted.

“My name is Song Lan. You remember me, don’t you?”

Xingchen hummed again. The name sounded strange to him, bringing forth a swirl of different emotions.

“Zichen, give him some time to adjust to being alive again.” Wei Wuxian warned. “Don’t rush him all at once. He’s back now, you don’t need to force things.”

Song Lan let out a defeated sigh, nodding his head. “I know. You’re right.”

“You guys have the rest of your lives. Which, considering your conditions, is pretty much forever.”

Forever. Xingchen shuddered at the word. Forever? He had to be alive… forever? He frowned at Song Lan. This was his fault. Whatever reason he had, he’d ripped Xingchen from blissful nonexistence and forced him back into the harsh, painful world of the living.

~X~

No matter how many reincarnated souls Lan Sizhui encountered, the feeling of dissonance never faded. Several milleniums had passed and the world had become utterly unrecognizable. The cultivation clans of old had been completely forgotten- even myths and legends no longer existed. The Immortals had long since gone into hiding, shutting out the rest of the world. Were it not for Jingyi and Jin Ling, Sizhui would have been left alone.

As it were, they provided no help when it came to identifying reincarnated souls. That was Sizhui’s work. Most of the time, it was easy. Souls who’d passed naturally and reincarnated peacefully- those souls untouched by the corrosion of traumatic death- those souls could be recognized easily. Over the centuries, he’d easily identified fellow Lan clan members, friends from the Nie and Jiang sects, even some of Jin Ling’s distant Jin relatives.

But the souls who had suffered in death, those souls who’d been corrupted and changed and took time to heal enough to reincarnate, those souls were more difficult to identify. That was Sizhui’s very problem now. This man that stood before him resonated a strong spiritual energy, one that felt forebodingly familiar to the Lan Immortal, but had changed so greatly he was struggling to place a name to the face.

“Professor?” The man urged, pulling Sizhui from his thoughts.

“I’m sorry, Xinyi, but your attendance in my class has been too poor for me to pass you.” Sizhui repeated the words he’d already spoken to the student. “I’ve offered all the extra credit I can, my hands are tied on this.”

Xinyi let out a frustrated hiss but bit his tongue, eyes glued to the floor.

“I do hope you take this more seriously next semester.”

Xinyi raised his eyes, biting back what Sizhui could only assume were some pretty colourful insults. “Professor, I do take this class seriously, I just-.”

Sizhui held his gaze, waiting patiently for whatever explanation the younger man could come up with.

“-I just… Nevermind.” Xinyi spun on his heel quickly, snatching his books off the desk behind him and rushing out of the lecture hall.

Sizhui shook his head. This soul’s identity was on the tip of his tongue, but this student was getting on his last nerve. Maybe it was both. Maybe this soul was someone Sizhui truly couldn’t stand in his past life. He let out a sigh and shrugged his shoulders, packing his own belongings to head home for the night.

[JY]: Any luck with your latest project? [LS]: None. He’s hopeless. Truly, students these days lack discipline. If we’d slacked off our studies like this kid does, Hanguang-Jun would’ve left us outside all winter. [JY]: I meant with figuring out who he is. [LS]: I know… No progress there either… He’s infuriating [JY]: Are we sure Jin Ling didn’t die? Could be him… [LS]: I think we’d know if Jin Ling suddenly died after 8,000 years [JY]: Any ideas as to what Sect he was at least? [LS]: None. I’m not sure he was from any of the major clans. [JY]: But you’re sure you knew him well? Who did we know well that wasn’t from a major clan? [LS]: No one that I can remember. He just… unnerves me. [JY]: Maybe it’s Hanguang-Jun [LS]: ….

Sizhui rolled his eyes and shut off his phone, tossing it into the passenger seat of his car. Jingyi was never any help. He knew just as well as any of them that Lan Wangji had disappeared into the mountains with Wei Wuxian half a dozen millennia ago, along with the rest of the remaining Immortals. If he’d died, they would have felt something. The passing of an Immortal threw the whole energy of the world into imbalance, it was impossible to miss.

No, this soul was definitely not Lan Wangji. The feeling he got was not that kind of familiarity. Driving home, his mind wandered, and he couldn’t help but wonder if he should even pull on this string. Wang Xinyi unnerved him enough as it was, knowing could make it worse and make it impossible to continue on as the unassuming moral philosophy professor.

~X~

Xinyi paced back and forth within the confines of his shared dorm room, muttering under his breath with no regard to his poor roommate. He paused every so often to stare out the window or flip through one of his textbooks or simply to throw his backpack across the room in a fit of sudden rage.

“Take this class more seriously, Xinyi- It’s a fucking moral philosophy class, how seriously can I take it?” He grumbled to himself, fishing his textbook out of the trashcan, having thrown it away twice already tonight.

“Why are you even taking that class?” His roommate grumbled back, half asleep.

“It was supposed to be an easy anthropology course.”

“I thought you hated anthropology.”

“I fucking do! But apparently I need a degree in it to take over my family’s collection.” Xinyi huffed, finally falling back against his bed.

“Collection? You mean all those creepy fucking swords and scrolls all over your parents’ house?”

“They’re not creepy, Chen.” Xinyi huffed indignantly, folding his arms over his chest. “You realize those swords and scrolls are thousands of years old, right?”

“That means they could have thousands of years worth of ghosts attached to them.” Chen shrugged, pulling his blanket up to his chin.

Xinyi sighed and slumped down onto his bed. He switched the bedside lamp off and resigned himself to sleep, or what little he could get in between the dreams. Ever since starting college, he’d been plagued by them nearly every night, and they’d only gotten worse as the year was ending. He could only consider himself lucky that the one night he’d actually woken up screaming, Chen had been staying the night somewhere else.

Some horrible vision of having his hand run over, so real it still ached long after he’d woken up. Xinyi blinked at the ceiling in the dark, squeezing his left hand at the memory of the dream. After a moment, he shook the thought from his head and rolled over, closing his eyes and hoping that he’d get some half-decent sleep before packing up his car in the morning to drive back to his parent’s house for the summer.

The long, white robes billowed in the wind like a pair of butterfly wings. The stark contrast between the pristine clothes and the black hair that cascaded along them was almost breath-taking. Even though only the back of the figure could be seen, it was a sight more beautiful than any he could remember. His fingers twitched with the desire to touch this person, but the hand that reached up was a bloodied, battered mass.

“You… are truly disgusting…”

The words echoed back, over and over, sounding too distant and too close. Blood gushed from his wounded hand, pooling at his feet. Blinking twice, the blood had crept up to his ankles, showing no indication of stopping anytime soon. He looked back up, practically nose-to-nose with a ghostly white face and jet black eyes- a man’s face growling back at him. His mouth opened and closed as if trying to say something, but only blood came out, adding to the lake of blood that had now reached their knees.

Xinyi finally got his legs moving, taking steps back with much effort, as though the blood was as thick as butter. The ghostly man in front of him moved back, mirroring his movements for a minute before falling straight back into the blood, disappearing beneath the surface. Xinyi tried to call out, but his voice was barely a whisper. Looking down at the lake, which was nearly his chest, half a dozen hands shot out and grabbed the front of his shirt and dragged him down.

When his eyes finally shot open, Xinyi was drenched in sweat. He kicked his blankets off onto the floor beside his bed and sat up, ripping his shirt off over his head. The dawn light was pouring through the cracks in the blinds and he was surprised to see that his white t-shirt was not red with blood. He tossed it down with the pile of blankets and looked at his hand, relieved to see that all five fingers were still there. He let out a ragged sigh and rolled out of the bed to walk to the bathroom.

“Fuck, man, do you ever sleep anymore?” Chen grumbled, his voice hoarse from having just woken up.

Xinyi jumped, startled by the voice. “Did I wake you up?”

“Yeah. From a really good dream too.” Chen rolled onto his back and stretched for a few seconds before looking back to his left to check the clock on the nightstand. “Fuck.... I need to get up anyways.”

Xinyi groaned and kicked his blankets out of the way. “Guess it’s officially summer.”

~X~

“Three months really isn’t enough time between school years.” Jingyi grumbled, his face pressed against Sizhui’s back.

“You sound like the students.” Sizhui laughed. “Being a teacher was your choice you know. You could spend your immortality doing something else.”

“I know that.” Jingyi pulled his face back, running his hand over Sizhui’s hair a few times to smooth out where he’d messed it up. “But then I’d see you less.”

Sizhui shifted to the side so he could look at Jingyi. “Am I really your whole purpose in life anymore?”

“Of course you are. We can’t all be dedicated to finding reincarnated souls.” Jingyi shrugged, taking a small sip from his wine glass.

Sizhui was quiet for a long time, watching Jingyi with soft eyes. “It feels like doing cultivation work again… you know? We don’t have as many ghosts or yao to deal with anymore, but it’s nice to guide souls on the brink of remembering.”

Jingyi folded his arms over his chest and nodded very seriously. “I can’t argue that, of course. It’s at least more respectable than what Jin Ling is doing.”

“What’s wrong with what Jin Ling is doing?” Sizhui laughed, giving Jingyi a small shove.

“What’s wrong- A-Yuan, come on, don’t try to defend his little Ghostbusting business!”

Sizhui just laughed harder. “It works though! It’s a little dressed up for the modern age, but he is still cultivating.”

Jingyi just waved his hand, as if airing away Sizhui’s words, and sipped from his glass again. Sizhui rolled his eyes and leaned forward, planting a kiss on Jingyi’s cheek. Before he had a chance to pull away, Jingyi wrapped an arm around Sizhui’s shoulders and pulled him back, pressing their lips together. The wine glasses and empty takeout boxes were left, forgotten on the floor, as the two entangled with each other, enjoying the last night of summer before returning to campus.

And then Sizhui’s phone started ringing.

“For fuck’s sake.” Jingyi hissed. “Let it go to voicemail.”

Sizhui shook his head, picking himself up from the floor and out of Jingyi’s grasp. “It’s Jin Ling.”

“Are you serious? Even when he’s not here he’s bullying me!”

Sizhui chuckled softly and answered the phone. “A-Ling, it’s unusual for you to call so late.”

“You know the weird energy I’ve been investigating outside the city?” Jin Ling’s voice came through loud enough for Jingyi to hear.

“Did you find the cause?”

“Yeah. You’ll never guess who I just fucking saw at a tea shop.”

“You saw someone familiar? Reincarnated, or…?”

“A-Yuan. I saw Song Lan Daozhang.”

Sizhui and Jingyi exchanged shocked looks, both at a loss for words.

“Hello? A-Yuan? Did you hear me?”

“Y-yes, I heard you. Are you sure it was him?” Sizhui asked.

“I haven’t seen a Fierce Corpse in at least 5,000 fucking years, I’m pretty damn sure.” Jin Ling hissed, sounding just as indignant as ever.

Jingyi grabbed the phone from Sizhui’s hands and put it to his ear. “Jin Ling. Can you never just say things nicely?”

“Shut up! Give the phone back to Sizhui!”

Jingyi ignored Jin Ling and put him on speakerphone instead. “Have you already talked to him?”

“No, I wanted your opinions on it first.”

Sizhui nodded, his eyes narrowed in thought. “It’s not a problem that needs resolving, but it might be nice to have a meal with him. It’s not every day we run into people from back then, he might welcome it as well.”

Jingyi nodded. “A-Ling, since you’re already there, you should try to meet with him again and see if he’s interested.”

~X~

With Autumn on it’s way, the weather was perfect for a casual hike. It was finally starting to cool off and the leaves on the trees were beginning to change colour. With eyes closed, Jin Ling could almost imagine himself on Dafan mountain with Jiang Cheng, or in the back paths of Lanling with Guangyao. If he didn’t pay too close attention, he could almost imagine the husky following closely at his feet was Fairy.

“You don’t really seem like the type.”

Jin Ling’s eyebrows twitched downward. He could almost imagine. But the young girl trailing alongside him was a constant reminder of where and when he was. Which was part of the reason he kept her around, but, of course, he’d never been much of a people person and she poked and prodded at his nerves just like anyone else.

“The type for what?” Jin Ling asked, opening his eyes again and looking down the trail.

“You know, the ghost-hunting type.” She replied, laughing softly. “Paranormal investigation. You’re so uptight, I thought you’d be more skeptical.”

“Is that so?”

“What happened?”

Jin Ling slowed his pace, sucking in a breath of air. “What happened to what?”

“What happened to make you take up ghost-hunting? You see a ghost or something?”

Jin Ling furrowed his brow, tossing a puzzled look at his acquaintance. “MingYue. I’ve been doing this for years, if I hadn’t seen a ghost by now, I wouldn’t still be doing it.”

MingYue skipped a few times to catch up to Jin Ling on the trail. “Well yeah, but what about the first time?”

“The first time…” Jin Ling turned his gaze forward again, letting memories flicker through his mind. “Hmph… I suppose, there was that time in Yi City.”

“Yi City? Never heard of it.”

“You wouldn’t. It’s a ghost town.”

“Fitting.”

Jin Ling rolled his eyes. “I doubt there’s any remnants of it still standing, it was almost completely abandoned when I visited.”

“So?” MingYue urged, taking a few large strides and turning around to face Jin Ling, walking backwards along the path.

“So what?”

MingYue smiled, though her eyes had narrowed slightly. “You’re doing that on purpose, quit avoiding the point.”

Jin Ling smirked slightly. “What do you think happened? I saw a ghost of course. My friends and I were taking shelter in this old shop, and my uncle, who thinks he’s so funny, tricked us all into looking through this hole in the paper window. Made it sound like there was some amazing sight on the other side, only for it to turn out to be the bleeding face of a ghost.”

MingYue looked up at the sky, looking as though she were thinking very hard about what Jin Ling had said. “I don’t believe it.”

“You don’t believe in ghosts? Find someone else to follow then!”

“No, I mean, I don’t believe you’ve ever had friends.”

“You-!” Jin Ling raised a hand as if he wanted to hit her, only eliciting a series of aggressive barks from their canine companion. “Gongzhu, hush!”

To Jin Ling’s relief, MingYue fell silent in favour of finding sticks to throw for Gongzhu to run after. Despite how she’d angered him only moments before, he smiled softly to himself as he watched them play. As the sun started to descend in the sky, the trail finally opened up to reveal the valley below. According to some of the locals in town, there was an abandoned temple nestled in the valley. Jin Ling figured if the ancient Daozhang were to be hiding anywhere, that was the most likely place.

Another hour passed, and then another, and finally they were reaching the bottom of the mountain. The sun had disappeared behind the high horizon, but there was still plenty light to see by. Though they were both feeling the exhaustion of hiking all day, they both quickened their speed, keeping their eyes peeled for any indication that the temple was close.

“Gongzhu- hey, what’s wrong?” MingYue knelt down, attending to the dog who’d suddenly gone stiff, her neck outstretched towards the East.

Jin Ling watched carefully, wiping the sweat from his forehead. “We must be close.”

“How can you tell?”

Because she’s a spiritual dog, of course. “Because she’s trained to know things.”

MingYue just smiled back- the same look she always gave Jin Ling when he was being purposely vague and irritating.

“Just quit asking so many questions.” At that, Jin Ling stood back up, signaling the end of their brief rest.

MingYue followed suit and Gongzhu resumed her trot as though nothing had happened. “I have to ask questions, that’s the point of being an apprentice.”

Jin Ling scoffed. “You’re not my apprentice, you’re my dogsitter.”

The farther down the trail they got, the more the husky trotted circles around them anxiously, occasionally darting ahead out of sight before sprinting back to them. MingYue kept glancing at Jin Ling, expecting him to say something about Gongzhu’s erratic behavior, but he stayed silent. It wasn’t until the gate of the temple finally came into view that he broke the silence once more.

“MingYue.”

She turned to look at him. “Gege?”

He grimaced at her. “Don’t call me that.”

She smiled back.

“Just- Keep an eye on Gongzhu, and don’t ask questions while we’re here. Assuming the person I’m looking for is here, it’s likely you won’t understand a lot of what we’re talking about.” Jin Ling explained carefully, making eye contact with the girl. “Mind your manners in Song Lan Daozhang’s presence, he’s hidden himself away in the mountains for a reason. Don’t make me regret bringing you.”

MingYue considered saying something, but Jin Ling rarely showed this degree of severity in his words, so she thought better to hold her tongue. They continued on through the gate and into the temple court, rousing the attention of the two Taoist priests sitting across from each other at a small table.

“This temple is not open to the public.” Song Lan called to them, barely turning his head to look their way.

“What about to fellow cultivators?”

The two men turned their heads now to look at Jin Ling and MingYue. Jin Ling set his hands out in front of him and bowed deeply. After a moment, Song Lan stood and crossed the court, studying the two faces. After a moment, a small look of recognition crossed his features and a small smile appeared on his lips.

“You’re one of the young disciples from Yi City.”

Jin Ling returned the smile. “My name is Jin Ling. My companion is MingYue.”

Song Lan bowed his head in greeting.

“I apologize for the intrusion. I saw you in a tea shop in town about a month ago and couldn’t help seeking you out.”

“Understandable. It’s not common to encounter other cultivators these days. Is your friend…?”

“No.” Jin Ling shook his head. “Though, two other disciples you met in Yi City live nearby in Beijing, they were hoping to meet with you again.”

Song Lan looked at him thoughtfully, considering the proposal. “I suppose it would be appropriate. I’m sure Xiao Xingchen would be grateful for the company. It’s been a long time since we’ve had guests.”

[imprvdente]

@covetxus | Cont. from here

The strong ocean breeze caused Faustus to regain enough of his senses to understand what she was saying - but the melancholy feeling that always accompanied his intake of alcohol made him sombre && he closes his eyes for a fleeting moment, taking in nothing but the smell && the sound of vast ocean around him.

He felt as if he understood her when she spoke of immortality - or at least he liked to tell himself he knew what it meant to have lifespan far longer than any mortal could dream of - despite the fact that he’d been on this earth for 58 years. It was by far the most alluring aspect of being a warlock to him - the fact that he would not die of natural causes, that he would not see his body wither away while there was still vigor left in his heart && he was still too young to grasp what it would truly mean to be immortal. But of course, Faustus wasn’t immortal by far && it had been his very mortality that had caused him to p a n i c k  && stumble whenever the notion of death became just a little too close for comfort.

❝ I’m not afraid for myself. ❞ he answers eventually, his brow frowned in concentration as he tried to discern for himself whether or not that statement was true.

❝ It matters, because as you’ve pointed out yourself, you will eventually forget. My coven - should it have been allowed to thrive, could have been around for centuries to come && even when inevitably time would disband with it altogether it would have earned its place in history. A fugitive hardly ever finds such recognition - much less one without hopes of fulfilling his destiny. ❞

A grave statement && a tone of desperation that hadn’t didn’t seem to fit Faustus as for a moment, he resembled the young man who’d found out he’d been orphaned only days after returning to the Academy to start his second year. Not long after that traumatic event, the Dark Lord had first made himself known to him. Not directly at first, but through signs and promises, steering him further in the direction of a carreer within the Dark Church. It was the Dark Lord who had proposed him to bring his followers to the New World && it was his master who had guided them whenever hunger or disease struck their coven.

Now the Dark Lord remains silent, no matter how Faustus prays for guidance. No matter how he sinks into despair – because for all his leadership qualities, he now realizes he is above all a follower. A servant to the Dark Lord. He had never stood to think for himself, think outside of what was thought him was the way && now that his leader shunned him, he felt   h o p e l e s s .

“People die every day, Faustus. If I didn’t forget, I would turn mad. I have seen Joan of Arc burned at the stake; I have witnessed massacres. And I’m rarely able to help. Oh, I’d love to save everyone, wouldn’t it be invigorating?”

“Your coven is gone. You need to mourn and move on.”

She bit her lip. Was she too harsh? Perhaps. 

Was it resentment? No, she thought. He had paid his price. Anger was pointless now. Then what? Was it just because she saw herself in him? 

The rotten ambition.

She sighed.

“You won’t bring them back from the dead. And you won’t be able to change what happened. But you’re still very much in control. You’re a fugitive to the Old World, but nobody knows you in America. You have a second chance. A fresh start. You can reinvent yourself totally, build yourself from your ashes.”

“I don’t know what your destiny holds, and truly, only fate does. But you’re a driven man, Faustus. I’m not worried.”

She sat down next to him.

“But right now, you’re drunk. You can’t really think straight, can you? So, you can be a little worried if you want.”

Her chuckle got lost in the roaring of the waves. 

[rangeri]

Wizard and Demon Society

Spoilers for my story, but this is just for my own reference--don’t mind me

Wizards

Magnus tells Yamase that demons and white wizards aren't actually separate entities from humans.

He states that wizards and the demons stem from humans who experience extreme emotional conditions.

If the emotion was related to one of the seven deadly sins, the human became a demon with no memory of being a human.

If the emotion was one of the seven heavenly virtues or if the human died living according to the SHV, they were (forcibly) recruited as wizards.

Wizards can live up to 550 years old, though there have been older.

Four natural wizards are born every century (called quartets), Magnus was the second to be born in his time.

Wizards are ranked as follows:

Wizard     – weakest, people who have learnt/grasped magic by themselves without     formal education. They usually specialise in one ability from the ability     tree: Nature, Light, Dark, Fire, Ice, and Conjuring.

Grey Wizard     – slightly stronger than wizards, received formal education (most wizards     don’t go beyond this status) 

White Wizard     – exceptionally talented wizard, a genius, received formal education. While     any wizard can get here with enough practice, it takes years that most     species don’t have. As such, it is a given that all Quartets become White     Wizards eventually. There are approximately only two hundred of these in     existence, Syria is the youngest to attain this level so far at 100 years     old. They can use all abilities in the ability tree, but tend to     specialise in one. 

Silver Wizard     – The most powerful form of a wizard, capable of feats that can almost     reach Yamase’s calibre. Only natural-born wizards can reach this level,     formal education is disregarded. Currently only five are living. However,     they are all very old and thus very frail physically. 

ABILITY TREE:

Nature: Healing via speeding up body’s natural healing      ability. Once they have been trained they have power over most organic      material.

Light: Can manipulate light/energy. Once they have been trained they can create electricity, power others, or weaken others. Telepathic.

Dark: Can curse enemies. Once they have been trained      they can possess, reanimate and cause pain.

Fire: Can emit balls of fire, create warmth. Once      they have been trained their abilities expand.

Ice: Can create ice projectiles, create cold. Once they have been      trained their abilities expand.

Conjuring: Can create objects infused with magic. The      more training, they have, the more powerful the object.

Any ordinary human can also become a wizard, though they would never be able to reach "Silver" status

Ordinary humans cannot become demons.

Demons

 There are lots of different species of demons, the most common of which is the minion class.

Minion class:     ogres, orcs, goblins, gargoyles etc. Basically, non-human entities,     weakest of the demons, powers usually rival ordinary wizards but strength     varies so in some cases they can rival Grey Wizards.

Shape-shifter class: not to be confused with wizards who shape-shift. These demons can     give themselves a humanoid appearance regardless of how they originally     look. They can also change themselves into any other living thing, while     retaining their intellect. Their powers rival the Grey Wizards.

Ramforr Ethset:     These demons can possess people, create fire, control shadows, make items     spontaneously combust, seal souls, shape shift etc. Though most of them     only have one of the aforementioned powers. Exceptionally talented ones     can use up to four of these abilities, or master one ability to such a     degree that they can become ‘overlords’. They are said to rival wizards     with the White status.

Overlords:     The most powerful class of demons. They specialise in one particular     ability, but they do it well. They have direct control of all lower forms     of demons—so it is difficult for a demon to stand against them. There are     only nine of them in existence, each presiding over a different layer of     the Demon Realm. Collectively, they are known as the ‘Agency’ and they     live in the centre of Demon Realm. When one dies, the next strongest demon     takes their place. They are very nearly immortal, but as a price,     they may not use their full power. Should they use their full ability they     will either die of over exertion or through being defeated by the more     powerful being.  

The Demon King: The     strongest of all demons. Ordinarily, the Demon King does not exist, as the     Demon Realm is run like an Authoritarian State with the Overlords deciding     everything. The Demon King ran the realm before being overthrown by the     Overlords. There are rumours that he has arisen again, but there is no     conclusive proof.

  Unique Creatures  

Unlike demons, wizards are not born wizards. Most things in the Wizarding Realm have some innate magical ability, but they must choose to become wizards. Some creatures have abilities unique to their race which gives them an edge if they decide to become wizards.

Satyrs

Centaurs

Werewolves

Werecats 

 Elves:     most naturally adept at using magic. All elves have some degree of magical     proficiency. 

 Drows:     Dark elves, so also naturally adept at using magic.   

Humans:     Only some humans are born with magical abilities, and they are usually     recruited to join the wizards as soon as their abilities manifest. They     are very adaptable though, and humans without magic have found ways to     defend themselves through weapons and armour.  

Mermaids:     Can survive underwater and on land due to adaptable gills. Known for     eating humans or magical ability. 

 Dryads:     Have almost complete control over their natural surroundings. They can     travel through trees and talk to other creatures (even those of lesser     intelligence) telepathically. 

 Seraphim:     Basically, an Angel. Nearly invulnerable. Do not engage. Dragons:     Self-explanatory. Like to hoard things such as gold or bone. 

Animus 

Chosen

The Chosen is a special being who was created with the intention of being the strongest. Aspects of both demons and wizards were combined and forcibly inserted into foetuses of various ability by the Drows. Only one survived: a human, experiment 658XFF. To this day, nobody is sure how exactly this baby managed to withstand the insane amount of magical ability and so many scientists wish to study it. This baby became known as Joseph Trench, and his power was transferred to Yamase after his death. The Chosen has many unique abilities such as:

Nullification: can convert/revert demons/wizards     into humans for indefinite periods of time. Can also ‘nullify’ entire     worlds.

Creation: Can create something out of nothing,     essentially—breaking all known laws of physics.

Immortality: Their ‘Creation’ ability allows them     to regenerate their body indefinitely, constantly, without expending any     energy. As such, Chosen are considered immortal. However, if a Chosen     relinquishes their power, they become an ordinary human and can die—this     can only be done if the Chosen so chooses.

 Kai’s story:

Loki was one of the Overlords, when the elves (the race before humans) decided to attack. They planned for a dejected elf, Edeth, to scout and spy just a few months before the attack was due. The plan backfired, and Edeth ended up getting raped and nearly killed. Loki left her on the verge of death simply saying, "If you're strong enough to live, then live with a curse."

Edeth lay for many hours pondering the meaning of his words, as the darkness consumed her. She was surprised to wake up in the same place, over a week later, with all her injuries healed. She didn’t even need to think what that meant. She was going to have a demon baby. Not willing to give Loki the satisfaction, she vowed to love the baby no matter how ugly or evil it turned to be.

 After hearing about the baby, the elves decided to suspend the attack to observe how the child would grow and see if it could be used against the demons. Much to everyone’s surprise, the half-demon baby was born as something vaguely resembling a donkey. As time went by (a week to be exact) the baby gradually changed into an elf-like figure. Weirder still, the child, though hated by all, did not possess qualities typical of demons despite a short temper and little patience. Weirder still, by the time he was two; the half-demon could solve complex puzzles and read through an entire section of the library in one day with his crazy curiosity. Physically, he was as strong as every other four-year-old, but mentally he had an IQ of over 300. The elves decided to use him, and that’s when tragedy struck.

 The demons caught wind of the exceptional half-elf, and lured him into a trap which destroyed nearly every shred of good he had in his heart by tattooing a sign saying “evil” on his cheek and down the entire right side of his body. To prove his loyalty, the demons made him watch Loki kill his mother before his eyes in an incredibly brutal manner over one hundred times. According to Kai, after the first few times he had cried all his tears, and by the twentieth time, he was already numb from shock. The times after that he became harder and harder until he could sit through the entire thing as if it were a casual thing. Inside however, he was boiling. He resolved to destroy Loki to avenge his mother. Overtime, he blocked out this traumatic memory, but it shaped his entire world view—all he was left with was his rage toward Loki (motive forgotten). Then he decided to hate his mother for giving birth to him, and hate her for not letting him die, and hate her for making him love her and then going and getting herself killed. Then he decided, “Screw it! I’ll just hate everybody.”

 Once in the demon realm, Kai did not cooperate with any other demon. He joined the Agency and became an assassin, but with an ulterior motive: his aim was to collect enough power to overthrow Loki through the use of an enchanted skull. Crafted by a dwarf, it had the ability to suck the soul + magical ability of nearly any being that Kai defeated. He could then activate it, and gain the power of that soul for a brief amount of time, at the expense of the soul. With just this necklace, and no prior experience, Kai took on Loki when he was sixteen. The battle was intense, but Kai was victorious. He unintentionally came the new Overlord of Loki’s Realm; however, he was never identified as the one who killed Loki. As such, the Agency, assuming he was a grunt, still sent him on assassination missions: his latest one—killing Yamase before her powers could activate.

 “You’re here at last to kill me I see.”

Kai stepped out of the shadows, clutching his necklace with shaking hands. In his eyes was the stench of pure hatred.

“I never expected you, the renowned “Elven-slasher”, to be so---“

He gazed at the boy in front of him, his face dissatisfied. He expected someone bigger, brawnier, more intimidating. But here was just a boy, thin as a stick, without a scrap of meat on him. To look at him, you’d just think he was a normal teenaged elf. But Loki didn’t doubt for a moment that this was the boy who sent him the message: his strongest body-guards, dead at the door, their necks sliced from their bodies and hanging shamefully from his throne as if to say, “I’m watching you.”

“I honestly expected more.”

The boy didn’t talk, he simply let go of his necklace. In the distance, the screaming of tortured souls could be heard—no—not in the distance. They were near, oh so near, but their voices were barely a whisper to Loki’s ears.

“A normal creature would not be able to hear them.” He remarked thoughtfully.

Kai seemed taken aback, “You mean people don’t hear their screams? Their horrible wailing that haunts me when I sleep? That sound that made my ears bleed, and drenched my mind with nightmares? Nobody hears them?” A sadistic smile spread across his face, “Good. Let them suffer. As you shall soon.”

The eyes of the skull set ablaze, and an ominous red light filled the room. Loki looked around with great interest, “Is this how you killed them? It won’t work on me.”

“No. All that before… those were practise runs; I was practising to kill you.” Kai’s words were empty, as if there were no real intent in them. “You won’t die as they did.”

No. He wasn’t doing this because of hate.

Loki smiled, reaching for his staff, but a sharp pain sprang through his body. He gazed down to find his torso impaled on a claw and at the base of the claw was a terrifying monster. Loki didn’t seem phased, “Oh. You’re one of mine?”

“The souls of those elves, their hatred for me, I’m pouring it all into you. They will destroy you as they wanted.”

He was doing it for fun.

“You’re distinctive, boy. You have more hate within yourself than all these elves have for me. If we were to use your reasoning, you’re killing yourself as well. Such an odd fellow.”

“My hate is my own. I graciously accept my burden, I accept my fate. But unlike you, I am not gonna let it end me before my time.”

“That sounds familiar---that is just what one of my victims said before I killed her.”

“Just die Loki!” The monster retracted his claw, and Loki fell to the floor. He was bleeding black, and the screams were loud inside his head. He felt his feet dissolve first, slowly. “I remember you now.”

Kai turned his back to the dying god.

“You’re that elf’s kid? It was odd you turned out the way you did, when I killed her and you cried…that was not something a demon did. I thought, maybe this kid is something special.”

“You realize you’re close to death, so you want to spill your guts? Don’t bother.” The monster began reverting back into an elf. He walked like a drunk-man, and Loki concluded that attack took all the boy had. What a weakling. But he was talented, no doubt about that.

“You’re smart kid; you’re cold and ruthless as well. But you lack motive. If you had that, you could become more powerful than me.”

“I’m already more…powerful…” Kai caught hold on a stone gargoyle, conveniently placed nearby, as his legs gave out. “But you know…I think I’ll get this ‘motive’ thing you talk about. Maybe I’ll…be able to fill this hole...” Kai gazed into Loki’s eyes for the last time as they disintegrated, and then he was gone.

  Magnus’ story:

Born to a rich, arrogant, spoilt Seranian (From the wizarding country “Seraphia”) aristocrat and his ordinary wizarding wife, nobody expected much from Magnus from the start. Even if he did become a wizard, he was expected to be mediocre at it like his mother. That was why people were surprised when he was dubbed a quartet: one of the slightly rarer ‘pure’ wizards who could use magic from birth. But even so, his abilities were constantly underestimated as he was assumed to be a spoilt, lazy aristocrat like his father. When he was 45 (roughly seven in human years), he proved to the Seraphians that he was not going to be mediocre when he was admitted into a wizarding school.

 Despite being from a rich background, Magnus worked harder than most of the other pupils of the school and within a year he had already unofficially reached “Grey Status”, a status reserved for graduates. Perhaps because of his rich background, many of the teachers didn’t appreciate his natural talent and kept him behind. Magnus was openly bitter about this because of his young age and many of the other wizards tended to avoid him, mistaking his bitterness for arrogance and cockiness. As a result, Magnus had no friends throughout school.

 Only when he reached 100 years old did people start to appreciate him. By this time, he had already reached “White Status” and his skills were widely sought after. He was hired as a special operative to work in the prophecy section and was allowed to teach other wizards. Although many were jealous as well. His entire family had long since passed from old age. From that day forward, Magnus was truly alone (Incidentally, that was also around the time Magnus stopped smiling). Unsatisfied with life, Magnus left Serania when he was 120 years old to further investigate the prophecy. He joined an academy in Nathia where he taught basic wizarding skills to beginner wizards when he realized the one mentioned in the prophecy was himself. For approximately 10 years, he trained while teaching, all in preparation to meet the Chosen. When he finally met the Chosen, he instantly formed a bond, recognising a kindred spirit. However, it was short lived. Magnus felt like a failure, unable to protect the one thing he had spent his entire life training to protect. He vowed that he would not make the same mistake with the next Chosen.

  The Wizarding Realm

  Wizard continents:

1)    Nathia – Known for being very, very cold, humans settled here when they first arrived.

2)    Seraphia – Known for being sunny, home of the elves.

3)    Estabia – Known for being very tropical, home of the mermaids.

4)    Wyndia – Known for being Mediterranean, home of the dryads.

5)    The Central Continent – A large land mass in the middle of the Realm where the Wizarding Academy is situated.

Certain creatures are native to certain continents, but human expansion has connected all of them.

  The prophecy:

Stronger than the seven seas

The wildest wind blows

At its core

A heart of stone, yet glass

Elf-borne halfling, Quartet of White

All work for thee

Revert to the start

To end the beginning

And destroy the world

[magical-agatha]

I'm enjoying houkago no pleiades so much. I can't believe i didn't know about it until just now. For goodness sake it's a mahou shoujo by gainax. It's brilliant. It's definitely got their flair. It's a fucking high concept abstract scifi magical girl show. They referred to redshift!!!! The astrophysics thing!!!!!! And part of the plot involves timelines merging and flowing together. Time and space reorienting themselves so that specific versions of the five main characters exist in the same universe. Keeping in mind that there are infinite universes. And it plays on the core mahou shoujo theme, well one of them, that they are powerful because they're undecided, they're at a point in life where nothing is certain so by that they have unlimited potential. Madoka played with that too. Remember in madoka how kyubey or however you spell that awful rat's name, he explained that they chose teenage girls because they were going to have the most varied and traumatic experience. Well, he says they're at a stage in their life where they're emotions are most intense or something. But if you're familiar with madoka and where the witches come from. It means he picked teenage girls because it would supposedly be most difficult for them. If the goal is to make them suffer, of course he wouldn't pick an adult. Wow epiphany. What a bastard that vile rat was, or is i guess. Back on track. Houkago no pleiades is great. It definitely reeks of gainax. All the gainax shows I've seen were full of themes and ideas about the universe being fluid and abstract. Gunbuster dealt with how space travel would affect time. So did diebuster, but diebuster was also where humanity began realising spiral power, which i think can be summed up as bending the universe and forcing it to do as you tell to by pure willpower, or simply choosing your own fate. And then gurren lagann! No explanation necessary really. I never finished eva but that was full of this stuff. It's very cool to see those themes applied to a mahou shoujo. Oh and of course flcl. The one i don't like, but it's completely relevant. You know i read a theory that shinji and the mc from flcl are just alternate universe versions of simon. And it makes sense i think. But i need to finish eva. Ho hum. Kill la kill held on to these themes. But lwa hasn't as far as I'm concerned. Which is such a shame now that i think of it. I should watch more trigger stuff. Kiznaiver is next on my list to watch after pleiades. You know there are several anime series, namely gunbuster, diebuster, gurren lagann, madoka, kill la kill, yuuki yuuna, and a few others, which are very dear to me. When i watch these shows my heart feels close to bursting. And my blood feels hot and ethereal. Seeing these people start with nothing and reach incredible heights by pure willpower makes me feel incredible. I want to be like them. Of course i do. I'm a depressed trans girl who has no self esteem. I don't eat or sleep properly, or look after my health, because i think so poorly of myself. On a very basic level i don't think i deserve to be happy. Not only that but i seem to be intent on punishing myself. As if i deserve to be miserable. As if i don't deserve to get better. So of course i look at these incredible people who can reshape the universe by willpower alone, and i cling to them. I watch these shows and for a few hours i can believe that things will get better. But the way some of these shows ended was a punch to the gut for me. Simon got old and forgotten, ryuko went back to living a normal life, they gave up their power. That kills me. It's a reminder that eventually everything ends. One day everyone dies. One day no one will even remember me! I don't want to disappear. I want to live forever. I want to burn brightly. But that's a really bad choice of words. Because burning means you're consuming fuel, which means you can't burn forever since the fuel is most likely finite. And the brighter you burn the faster you consume the fuel right? So these powerful characters burn brightly for a few moments and return to normal. It only makes sense. Even stars go out. Even the universe will eventually fade. You know this reminds me of humans in dark souls. You basically either live as fire, and actually live, but you're mortal. Or you live as a hollow, without even a tiny spark, immortal but never truly alive. My goodness gracious that's such a perfect analogy for what I've done to myself. Over a few years i cut all ties, stopped making friends, stopped taking chances, stopped trusting, and just started to hide myself more and more. I'm wrapped in layers and layers of things that let me hide. The logic being that if i never let myself be vulnerable no one and nothing can hurt me. So I'm a hollow right now. I'm safe, I'm 'immortal', but I'm not truly living. How absurd!!! Look at how pathetic i am!!!!!!! Look what I've done to myself. Isn't this proof that i am worthless? That i do deserve to be miserable? But then I'm not the root of this. It's a lot of different things. Some of my mental illness was apparently inherited, if you take a good look at my family, we're all crazy and miserable, it's no surprise. But my mother suffers badly as well, which meant she did some things raising me which were certainly traumatic, but she never meant to hurt me, she was trying her best. Plus primary school where i was excluded on so many different levels, i sat at a separate desk about 10m away from the rest of the class in kindergarten up to grade 4 because i was disruptive because i was mentally ill, and i was very strange and had a lot of trouble maing friends. The 'friends' i made were actually quite cruel. They spent a lot of time entertaining themselves by bullying me. Initially highschool was similar. My friends were all outcasts. But i was a really soft spoken kid who was desperate to please. Of course they abused that. Then when i got tall and reasonably pretty they kicked me out and i died a lot inside. They were quite cruel. But i just wanted them to like me. So for a year at least i had 1 friend total. But he was also very harmful. He was fun and i don't think he ever meant harm. But he was manipulative and childish. I bent over bacmwards trying to please him. And when i realised he was hurting me, and tried to first communicate that with him, and them cut ties, it went so badly. I tried reconnecting later when i was desperate. He’s a year older than me and he's so pampered and deluded. It's tragic. Tertiary education was better. Likeminded people. Friends of a sort, although i was so scared and bad at socialising. But that was when the gender dysphoria started to really hurt. And also when my mum was still intent on making all my decisions for me. And she was sure i was just in a phase. No way was her son transgender. She rejected me. I completely stopped trusting her. I should note that i hadn't totally trusted her since i was under 10. She was so controlling. She was never willing to change her views or accept that she was wrong. Everything was an absolute. Yes or no. Wrong or right. She forced me to complete a tafe course i hated. I don’t know about that though. Maybe i gave up because it was too hard. Or maybe it was to hard because i was struggling with a witch's cauldron of mental illness. A perfect storm. A divine practical joke. It all compounded from there. Until the present day. There are a few things I've missed. Like working in a kitchen under a verbally abusive chef, which definitely did severe damage to my perception of my self worth. I mean details aside, it's really no wonder I'm where i am. All of these experiences plus lacking treatment for my mental health. I shouldn't blame myself. It's really not my fault. But blaming myself is so ingrained i wonder how I'll ever be able to accept that i deserve to be happy. There are light years of difference between being able to logically say something and actually believing it. Here's a good analogy. If i told you the moon was made of cake, would you believe me? That's what my awful brain is like. Except even though i can prove that I'm not to blame for where i am, that i deserve to be happy, my brain still rejects it as something stupid and silly, like the moon being made of cake! It's hilarious isn't it!! What a nightmare i am!! I'm so thoroughly broken. Look at that!! See! I don’t believe in any of the things i said. This is a stream of consciousness post right? Unedited, writing down my internal monologue. So a second ago i was proving that i don't deserve to be miserable. The logic is right in front of me. But i don't believe it! What a joke!!! If there's any kind of greater power, then i must be hilarious to it. And if there's not that's even worse. Because if there's no god there's certainly no afterlife. The question i think is why bother living if you're only going to be nothing one day. It's a problem for me. Why should i live. What's the point if nothing lasts. Why should i get better. If I'll just disappear one day. My consciousness will just evaporate. Even that's too dramatic. It's more like a light switch. But without even a click to tell you it's off!! I won't be there. I might as well never have existed. We don’t live in a world where incredible power like these shows i cling to exists. There's no spiral power. No magical girls. No power of any kind. We're just wasting time. We're nothing. Nothing at all. We are tiny irrelevant lives, on a tiny irrelevant rock, in a tiny irrelevant spiral around a tiny irrelevant hole. And the scale!! It's mind blowing. It's crushing. The pure unfiltered emptiness of space. More space that we can even comprehend. It's dead and empty!! No!! Dead implies it was once alive, it wasn't and never will be!!!! It's a void!! An abyss!!! It's the most pure nothing!!! So much nothing we can't even grasp it. Why bother with lovecraft when you could just think about space!! Cold and empty!! Nothing living except maybe a handful of places like us. That don't matter even to you or i because if they exist we'll never see or reach them. It takes too long for light to travel to us. If we can see them they'll be dead when we arrive!!! Why do we bother living!! Do you know?? It's stupidity and ignorance. We look at the night sky and see pretty lights. We fantasize about science fiction and aliens that we can't ever meet. We are alone!! And we have nothing to look forward to but death!!!!! Why should i bother living! Why shouldn't i Give Up. And i mean the kind of giving up you can't take back. I'm scared of it. I can't even say the word. I don't want to die but what's the point in living. Look at that!! I'm such a fucking joke! This was supposed to be a short comment on houkago no pleiades. I'm so broken and crazy. Goodness gracious. "Let me see you grit those teeth". I keep thinking about that scene. How did he do it. How did kamina believe in himself and simon so much. Was he just an idiot? Whatever he had. I need it. The desire to live. The willpower. The self confidence to move the universe. I need something. Some small fragment of what he and simon had. Goodness gracious I sound deranged. I wish i had some kind of power. Something to prove that i have worth. The core of all of my problems is that i don't believe in myself. And i don't have a Kamina. There's no 'believe in the me that believes in you', because there's no one that truly believes in me. This hole is so deep. How will i ever climb out of it. I need something new. I need something new to enter this situation. Something to change things. I need something to save me and push me forward. I keep looking for an answer. But i can't find one. It's a silly analogy, but maybe i need a drill so i can tunnel out the side of the hole and up. I need a new angle.