#we went on a loooong walk my feet hurt a lot but

[argentinagp]

living like 5 blocks away from your best friend is one of the best things that can happen to u

[a-tiny-frog-girl]

To Mars and Back ch. 3

previous // first // next (ao3)

Two things before reading, one this is a loooong chapter lmao and two, this is where I start to imply the darker stuff. Please read at your discretion. I have chapter 4 written too, and I'm working on 5, so if you're following this story, there'll be more before you know it. Comments and reblogs feed my soul <3

warnings: injury mention, blood mention, death mention, fearplay (still accidental), negative self-talk, implied physical and s.xual abuse, dehumanization (also accidental)

words: 3,326

summary: Mars attempts escape and meets some newer humans.

Mars added in her mind to a short list of things that she liked a lot. The sky at night, friendly borrowers, the smell of outside, a good sleep, and chocolate chip cookies. She'd never had anything this sweet before, and as far as she could tell, right now they were hers. She recognized it as a bargaining chip that the humans could hold over her head (literally), but for now, she couldn't care less.

A loud noise coming from the door scared her out of her cookie world and onto her feet. One of the humans went to the door and another, Doctor Spencer Reid, got back down to her level.

"Can you sit back down for me, please? Your leg is hurt and I don't want it to worsen." He asked gently. She complied, but something in her mind reminded her that her leg had healed fine before and she hadn't been sitting. A doubt snuck in, what if they just wanted to control her with as little fight as possible?

"Thank you." He said, before following the rest of the humans to the door. True to Aaron's (Hotch's?) words, three new humans entered. The humans she knew shut the door, but didn't come back immediately. Maybe it was time to leave.

Mars got back up with a wince. Apparently, the hurt leg was finally feeling like real pain. As quietly and slowly as she could, she walked toward some shelves not too far away. It had been a while since she climbed and she wasn't sure she'd ever climbed without a hook and a line to climb with, but she would get by. She had to.

With a jump, she caught the first shelf. She quickly checked to make sure no one had seen her yet, then hauled herself up onto the shelf. If she could do two more, she could make it to a cabinet and either hide or find a borrower hole and get out. She jumped again, hissing a little as something on her back started burning. She started to pull herself up again, but suddenly the shelves tilted. Not a lot, but enough to know they were unstable. But dropping now was far more dangerous than continuing up, so she tried to ignore the wobbliness she could now feel under her and got onto the second shelf up. She turned to see that the humans were starting to walk back to the counter. No! She thought. She just needed a bit more time..

But if it was the risk of being caught easily or hiding, she knew to pick hiding. She would not make that mistake again. She speed walked to the back corner of the shelf and sat down. The dust swirled a little in the air, but she hoped it wasn't enough to be noticed.

"Hey, where'd the vic go?" SSA Derek Morgan asked.

Mars tucked herself in further and crossed her fingers as tightly as she could. Please, just let her be free. Please.

"What do you mean? She's--" There's a shuffling and then silence.

"Hey kid, can you please come out? I- We promise it's safe!" SSA Derek said, louder than he had been since the car. She'd heard rats more convincing than that.

"She couldn't have gotten far with her leg. Look around you guys." Doctor Spencer Reid said. She knew that he wasn't as nice as he was pretending to be. Although she felt justified knowing she was right, it still hurt her a little in the back of her mind. He had promised.

For the next few minutes, Mars could hear them moving stuff and talking in low voices to each other. Occasionally they'd call out to her, but she ignored them every time. She could also hear the new humans asking what was going on and not getting an answer. Maybe if she just stayed out of sight, she could keep it to four new humans knowing that borrowers exist. She kept her eyes shut tight and kept her breathing quiet. Please just forget about me, she pleaded in her mind.

"Hey, guys? There's some blood trail that ends here." SSA Emily Prentiss said. Mars held her breath, her heart racing. "Do you think she's.." SSA Emily trailed off. Yes, please think I'm dead, Mars begged silently.

"No, I don't think so." Doctor Spencer Reid answered, his recognizable voice directly below her now. The room was quiet for a moment more and then the sound of a hand tapping against her shelf made her finally jump out of her hiding position.

"Hi." Doctor Spencer Reid said cheerily, popping up in front of her. Mars backed away, but misjudged the distance between her and the wall, making her hit it with her open wound much harder than she'd like. She hissed in pain, falling forward onto her hands and knees.

"Oof, that looked painful." Doctor Spencer winced as if he had been the one to hit the wall. "If you come here, I can help you with it." He offered.

Mars sat up onto her knees and stared anxiously at him, her arms resting near her hurt leg as if ready to protect it. Her eyes were so blank with fear, it was impossible to tell if she had even heard.

"C'mere, bud. Let me fix that for you." He tried again, a little softer this time.

Mars' head was hurting worse than ever, and so was most of her body. She was so tired that she could just give up. So she did.

She stood up, wobbled a bit (was it the shelf or her leg?), and toddled over to the edge of the shelf, where Doctor Spencer was waiting. There she found where he had put his hand palm up as a gesture to show her he meant well. It was still sitting there, unmoved as if he was afraid to scare her off. With a heaving deep breath, she stepped into his hand and let her legs give out.

Slower than any snail or slug she had ever met, he pulled his hand off the shelf and back towards himself. He turned around awkwardly, then pushed off of where he had been sitting on the counter with his legs. Mars squeaked at the surprise fall and leaned away from the drop and onto the Doctor's chest, where he had braced her. As he walked away from the counter, Mars noticed how smoothly he walked and kept his hand from being bumped. She wondered if it had been like this when he carried her in earlier, but she had just been too scared to see anything but her own tears.

He leaned down and gently slid her onto another surface, just as hard and cold, but not so high up. It was like a mini table, right next to the couch. If she hadn't been so tired she'd be wondering what the hell humans were thinking making stuff like this. But instead, Mars stifled a yawn.

"She's a little shaken up, so be careful." Doctor Spencer Reid said. "I'll be right back."

She turned her focus to the group squished onto the far too small couch. Even in her sleepy state, a prick of fear found its way into her stomach. She broke eye contact and wrapped her arms around her good leg and put her chin on top of her knee.

"Ohhhh my goodness you are the cutest thing I have ever seen!!" Squealed one of the new humans. Mars flinched a little at the volume but managed to keep her fear under control. "Quieter please, Garcia," Aaron called from where he was standing next to the couch. From the mini table he looked so cold and disinterested, she could barely believe he'd been one of the best around her.

"Right. I'm Penelope Garcia." She put her hand out in front of her, stopping mere inches from touching Mars. Mars tilted her head at the hand, then returned her gaze to the human it belonged to.

"I don't think she knows handshakes, baby girl." SSA Derek said with a chuckle.

"Right." Penelope Garcia said again sheepishly and instead waved at Mars.

Mars waved back nervously, still keeping her hands close to her body. It seemed like the correct response, though, because Penelope lit up. Somehow it didn't make Mars feel any better and she just curled her arms back around herself. She kept a careful eye on the humans, especially the ones she didn't know. Not that she knew any of them that well, her logical brain and anxiety said at the same time.

"So... what's her name?" One of the new humans with black and grey hair turned to Aaron. For a moment, Mars was back in her element and she almost sighed in relief.

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Aaron responded, gesturing towards her. That didn't last very long, she noted anxiously. These people were so confusing, she could never guess their next move.

"What's... What's your name?" The black and grey-haired human turned to Mars but kept glancing back at Aaron every few seconds, as if expecting him to answer.

"My na-name's Mars." Mars' voice was quiet and shook a little. She was a little surprised that her voice still sounded almost as sturdy as it did before they took her. It had been a while since she had talked to anyone, let alone a human. She could feel every new human's eyes shoot to her and she squeezed her arms around her legs a little tighter, trying to ignore the stares and the stabbing pain in her back.

Her mind started racing as the silence droned on, the humans' (new and old) gazes all locked on her. Were they going to finally drop the act? What if they didn't like her name and they decided to change it? What if they thought she was lying to them?

"Mars...?" SSA Emily Prentiss paused as if she was waiting for something. There was meaning in her look, but Mars couldn't decipher it. Was she asking if that was her name? Mars nodded in response tentatively.

"Oh, she wants to know your last name." The new other blonde lady caught on and translated.

"Last name?" Mars asked partly to herself, searching for any other names she was supposed to have been called. "Like a nickname?"

"No, it's like the different part of your name. Like my first name is Penelope, and my last name is Garcia! Usually, people just call each other by their first names." Penelope Garcia added. (Should Mars be calling her just Penelope?)

Mars focused hard, trying to take all the new information in and combine it with the names she learned earlier.

"But he called you Garcia." Mars let slip. Her hands shot to her mouth for a second time today. Talking back? What was she thinking? She must've gone completely insane.

"Yeah, people either call me Penelope or Garcia. It's a little complicated to explain..." Penelope continued as if nothing had happened. Mars took it as a warning and let her hands slowly off her mouth.

"But you can call me either! Do you have another name?" Penelope hastily finished, seeing that she was losing Mars.

"I-- I don't think so," Mars scanned the eyes of the humans to make sure she hadn't made a mistake. "I'm just Mars."

"Well, Just Mars, nice to meet you!" SSA Emily Prentiss says. Mars didn't even know where to start taking that sentence in.

"She knows your name is not Just Mars, she's teasing you." The new blonde lady said as she rolled her eyes and poked SSA Emily Prentiss with her elbow.

"I'm Emily." SSA Emily Prentiss said before adding on, "Or Prentiss. They call me Prentiss but that's my last name."

Mars furrowed her brow. Where had the SSA gone? Did that mean Emily was her first name? Was there a Before-First name?

"Mars, is there something you don't understand?" Aaron asked.

Mars froze. The words in that order sounded terrifyingly threatening, but he said it with the same patience he had said everything to her. But this was not a time to be testing obedience limits, so she answered, if a little shakily.

"What about SSA?"

Aaron hummed in a way that asked Mars to continue.

"Doctor Spencer Reid sa-said that your name was SSA Emily Prentiss." Mars said as matter of factly as she could.

"Oh." Aaron replied with a smile in his eyes. Someone on the couch giggled. Mars tried her best to not turn bright red.

"S.S.A. stands for supervisory special agent. It's a title, like Doctor. It's not technically part of our names, so you don't have to worry about it." He finished.

"So Doctor and SSA aren't names?" Mars didn't know where she was getting the courage to speak so freely.

"No. It's a weird thing, don't worry about it." Aaron reiterated.

"Okay, real quick, sorry to interrupt, but let's all just introduce ourselves with one name, okay?" Garcia asked at the other humans. "I'll go first. I'm Garcia."

"Morgan," the dark-skinned man next to her said.

"Prentiss." The slightly scary lady with dark hair said.

"JJ." The new blonde lady said with a small smile.

"Rossi." The new man looked unsure still, but said his name anyway.

"A-- Well, I suppose it'd be easier to call me Hotch." The man formerly introduced as Aaron finished.

"He's Reid." JJ added after a moment, pointing in the direction the final human had vanished off to.

Mars mouthed all the names, trying to burn them into her memory. So far they'd been kind and she did not want to give them a reason to not be. Names were important to humans, clearly. She just hoped she could keep them straight in her head.

"Hey, I'm back!" Reid announced himself, making Mars jump and curl her arms tightly around her knees. He had a weird white box in his hand that Mars was half sure they were going to lock her in. He placed it down, again surprising Mars by not just dropping it on the table. She still pushed herself away slightly from the box and flinched at the loud click when it opened. He seemed to notice and moved a little more slowly as he pulled items out of the box. She recognized one or two things, but most of the objects were new to her.

When she saw the gauze, her heart skipped a beat. She had to be a lot more hurt to deserve any sort of bandage. Was that some sort of sick threat? Her eyes started watering and threatening to cry for what seemed like the millionth time today. She yelled at herself in her head, why now did she have to be so pathetic? Surely that's what they wanted.

"Hey Mars, it's okay. We just want to patch you up-- I mean, fix your wounds." Morgan noticed her spiraling and cut her train of thought short.

"Yeah. Can you turn around for me please?" Reid asked reassuringly.

Mars was liking this situation less and less but she followed instructions, facing away from all the humans. She heard some of them gasp and she had to focus hard to not whip back around.

Then she felt a slight tug at her clothing.

Mars half gasped half screamed at the even tiny disturbance and immediately shot forward toward the edge of the short table. Her leg ached badly, causing her to practically collapse as she turned back to watch the humans suspiciously.

"Woah! Hey, it's okay, I didn't mean to spook you." Reid's quiet voice didn't make a difference to Mars' panic.

Mars' hands held themselves at the bottom of her shirt-dress thing as if it could fly off at any time.

Reid looked at Hotch, communicating with him silently over her head again.

"Mars, your injury is under your dress. Reid was just trying to treat it." Hotch tried to reason with her. "Do you know how to dress a wound?"

Mars slowly nodded.

"Oh, you can do it yourself then! We could take you to the bathroom and then no one would have to look at you, would that be okay?" Hotch asked, voice softer than ever. Mars doesn't miss the other members of the team exchanging glances at the last bit. It feels like a trap, but so had everything else that had turned out fine so far. Mars bit her lip and nodded tentatively.

Reid gently scooped Mars up and carried her to the bathroom, placing her gently on the counter and setting the roll of gauze next to her as well as a few other things.

"We'll be just outside, so ask if you need help," Reid said. Somehow the sentence didn't feel like a threat despite the words used. Was she really going to be okay?

The door clicked shut, leaving her in the bathroom on her own. For a second she considered escape again, but even with the gauze, there wasn't anything near enough to be viable. Mars sighed and turned her back to the mirror and pulled her dress thing over her head. The cold immediately made Mars shiver and she turned quickly to the gauze. Her hastily made bra and underwear didn't keep much heat in, she needed to finish as fast as possible. With a little bit of trouble, Mars managed to rip a piece off and wrap it around her torso to make sure it would fit. After, she grabbed a gauze pad and put it on her back before quickly wrapping it back up with the gauze. She checked to make sure it would stay before slipping her dress back on.

"Okay!" Mars called, the volume slightly hurting her voice. There's a moment of silence and Mars worried that even with her straining herself, it wasn't loud enough. But thankfully there was a reply a moment later.

"All ready?" Reid asked from the other side of the door.

"Yeah." Mars answered.

The door creaking open still made her anxiety kick up, but she tried to push it down. The human let out a sigh of relief seeing her still standing on the counter where he had left her. He checked her over quickly before grabbing the things again.

"Can I wrap your leg?" Reid asked hesitantly.

Mars' brain was screaming at her to say no but she didn't have the fight left in her. She nodded for what felt like the millionth time.

Before she knew it, Reid was scooping her up again and bringing her back to the short table where the humans were talking amongst themselves.

"Hey, Mars. You feeling better?" Hotch stopped his conversation to check in on her. Mars sunk into a sitting position and gave what she hoped was at least a shaky smile.

"Okay, so am I supposed to just be fine with this tiny person existing now?" Rossi burst out, making Mars cringe slightly.

"Rossi!" Garcia smacked him lightly on the shoulder. "Not now."

"Then now what?" He asked.

"Sleeping arrangements." Hotch cut in. "It's getting late."

"She's just staying with one of us, right?" Morgan asked. Everyone hummed in agreement. "Then I think she should stay with the one she's most comfortable with. I vote Reid."

"I-- Wha--" Reid struggled to formulate a response.

"Mars?" Hotch asked. Luckily this time she didn't need a translator to understand what he was asking. After a moment's thought, she nodded, but Reid didn't miss how she rubbed her arm in a sort of self-soothing gesture.

"You don't have to, if you're uncomfortable we can figure out something else--" Reid started.

"It's-- It's okay." Mars stumbled the words out.

"If you're sure?" Reid double-checked, only slightly relaxing at Mars' confirmation.

"That's settled then. We should all get to sleep, we aren't skipping any work tomorrow." Hotch announced.

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

I’m back! With more oneshot suggestions! Woo!

Please, if you have the ability to, supply me with alter brainrot. Here’s a basic plot outline (I always come prepared lol):

BadTimes has finally been banned. After years of antics with his counterpart, he finally stepped over the line. He doesn’t know what he did, all he knows is that it was too much. He gets dragged out of the void by EX and Hels, who also want to apologize to their counterparts. The three set out on a short flangsty journey of misunderstood-ness and attempts at proving themselves worthy of forgiveness.

;)

Now THIS was a lot of fun to write! Ended up being very long tho so I’m sorry about that, but I hope the quality is still good. I also hope you like the ending, even though it went off in a different direction than I originally intended :)

...

  “He’s there! He’s right there! Just grab him!”

  “It’s harder than it looks, okay?! Back off!” 

  He gasped as he felt himself get wrenched back into existence. Stumbling as his feet touched the ground, he pitched forwards and would have fallen over if he hadn’t been caught by a pair of strong arms.

  “Easy, man,” came a British-accented voice. “Easy. Just breathe, alright? Breathe.” 

  He took in a few gulping breaths, his oxygen-starved lungs drinking in the fresh air, and closed his eyes against the dizziness that was threatening to topple him. He widened his stance slightly, his shaky legs strengthening by the second. 

  Finally, he opened his eyes and found himself looking at two people. One was wearing a familiar helmet and the other was dressed in full armour. They both looked almost exactly like two people he knew very well.

  “Who are you?” he asked.

  “You first,” said the helmeted one, identifying them as the British-accented one who had caught him earlier. 

  “My name is BadTimesWithScar,” he said. “You can call me BadTimes, or  just Bad.”

  Bad could see a spark of interest in the helmeted person’s eyes, even through the visor. “You’re GoodTimesWithScar’s evil counterpart?” They circled Bad, looking him up and down. “I guess I should’ve expected that, huh? Considering you look almost exactly like him.”

  “In that case, am I to assume you guys are Xisuma and Welsknight’s evil clones?” said Bad. 

  The helmeted being nodded. “Sure am. I’m Evil Xisuma, but you can call me EX.” 

  “Hi, I’m Helsknight,” blurted out the armour-clad one. “I like rap battles and medieval-style architecture.”

  Bad stared at him.

  “I’ve been making him do group therapy,” EX explained tiredly. “He was utterly obsessed with violence and destruction when he got here. It got a little too much to handle after a while.”

  “Speaking of which, where is “here”?” Bad asked, staring around at the blank world they were standing in. 

  EX shrugged. “It doesn’t really have a name. It’s the place I ended up after I got banned by Xisuma.”

  “B-Banned?! Wait a sec…” Bad frowned as memories came back to him. “How did I get here?”

  “Well, I pulled you out of the void,” said EX. “That’s where people go when they get banned.” They jerked their thumb at Hels. “I fished him out of the void too a few weeks ago.”

  “I tried to kill them,” said Hels helpfully.

  EX nodded wearily. “He did.” 

  “Wait, wait.” Bad stared at the two in shock. “Does this mean… I’VE been banned?!”

  “Yup.” EX spread their arms wide. “Welcome to the banishment club.”

  “What did you do to get banned?” Hels asked eagerly. “Did you destroy stuff? Kill someone? Try to take over the server? I did that, by the way.”

  “I…” Bad hesitated, his shoulders drooping. “I don’t know.”

  Frowning, EX and Hels exchanged a look. “How do you not know?” the former asked slowly. “Surely you must have done something bad enough to get flung into the void permanently.” 

  Bad shook his head. “Look, you guys are legendary on the server. So legendary I didn’t even believe you existed. Everyone knows the evil stuff you guys did to get banned, but I’m not like that. I like spreading mischief and pranking people. That’s what I exist to do; it’s literally what Scar created me for. So the fact that I’ve somehow crossed the line without even realising what I did is beyond worrying.” His eyes widened in fear. “Oh no, did I hurt Scar?! Oh no, oh no… I gotta… I gotta go apologise to him!” 

  EX caught him by the wrist as he tried to dash off. “Hold on, there. You’ve been banned, remember? You can’t just waltz back onto the server.”

  “There has to be another way!”

  “There is, there is.” EX gave him a serious look. “But it’s risky. Going back to a server you’ve been banned from can be more trouble than it’s worth. If someone sees you before you get the chance to talk to Scar… Well, let’s just say there’s worse punishments than just being banned.”

  “I have to see Scar,” said Bad determinedly. “I have to find out what I did and apologise for it. Are you two gonna help me or not?”

  After a moment, EX said, “I’m up for sneaking back onto Hermitcraft. I’d like to apologise to Xisuma for… uh… the incident that got me banned. What about you, Hels?”

  “I just wanna have another rap battle with Wels,” Hels said. 

  Bad frowned at him. “Are you… you know… alright? In the head?”

  Hels stuck up both his thumbs. “Nope!” he said cheerfully. “Thinking about rap battles and medieval-style architecture is the only thing keeping my taste for blood at bay.”

  A pause followed his words.

  “Wonderful,” EX sighed. “Remind me to join you in group therapy next time; it doesn’t seem to be working all that well. Anyway, time to sneak back onto Hermitcraft. Let’s get going.”

…

  “Are you sure this is the right way?” asked Bad, unable to see even his companions in the pitch black tunnel. “Who even put this tunnel here? And where does it lead?”

  “I’m not taking questions about secret tunnels and whether or not I know where I’m going,” came EX’s voice from the front of the group. “Something tells me the answers won’t alleviate your fear.”

  Thoroughly unnerved by this, Bad leant forward slightly to address Hels, who was walking between him and EX. “Hey Hels, what are you gonna do when we get back to Hermitcraft?”

  “I’m gonna apologise to Wels for trying to take over the server, explain to him that group therapy has helped me calm my bloodlust, and then destroy him in a rap battle.” 

  Bad sighed quietly. “Well… at least you’ve got a plan.”

  “Up here,” called EX after a few more minutes. 

  Light was starting to shine through the end of the tunnel. As Bad followed EX and Hels out, blinking against the light, he recognised the place they had ended up. 

  “Wait, is this the Mycelium Resistance headquarters?” he said.

  EX shrugged. “Don’t ask me; I’ve never been in this world before. I got banned on the last one and I’ve never had a reason to sneak back. That being said, what on earth is the Mycelium Resistance?”

  “Oh, it’s a loooong story. But the good thing is nobody uses this base anymore, so we should be safe down here if we need to flee from an angry mob of Hermits. Which we will.”

  “That’s the spirit,” EX responded wryly. “So which way out?”

  Bad led the other two towards the giant hole in the wall. “We can get out this way. I remember Scar brought me down here to show me the excellent work he and his government buddies did at destroying the rebel base.”

  “Government?” repeated EX confusedly.

  “Oh, yeah, Scar’s the mayor. You didn’t know that?”

  EX shook their head. “Like I said, I’ve never been in the Season 7 world. Not properly, anyway. Not enough to know the ins and outs of what’s going on.”

  The group made it to the surface of the shopping district. Bad could see the town hall nearby. “Okay, I’m gonna go see Scar.”

  “Good luck,” said EX. “I’ll wander around and see if I bump into Xisuma.”

  “I’ll take you to his flower farm,” Hels offered. “I went there once to hide from Wels and steal some flowers. Didn’t work; he caught me and banned me.”

  “Well, hopefully history won’t repeat itself.” 

  Bad left his new friends behind and headed to the town hall, keeping a wary eye out for any Hermits nearby. He didn’t see anyone around, but that didn’t mean nobody was there. 

  But thankfully, he made it to the town hall undetected and entered quietly. He found Scar just inside, polishing the diamond throne. The mayor glanced up, his eyes widening when he registered his evil clone standing there. “Bad? Oh my gosh, I… What happened to you? Where’s your hat?”

  Bad’s hands flew to his head, realising for the first time that he didn’t have his hat anymore. “It must have fallen off in the void. Scar, I got banned and I don’t know why.”

  “You were banned?! And you still came back here?!” Scar shook his head. “You need to leave before Xisuma finds you.”

  “But I-!”

  “No, just go! Before we get into trouble.” 

  “I just want to know why I was banned,” said Bad desperately. “Then I’ll go right back to where I came from and I’ll never bother you again. I promise.”

  Scar hesitated, a conflicted look on his face. Finally, he said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t actually think X was gonna do it.”

  Bad frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Back during the war, I was under a lot of stress. I did things I’m not exactly proud of. Eventually, I realised that what I was doing… was making me more like you. I couldn’t handle that, so I went to Xisuma and asked if he could get you out of the way so people didn’t notice I was turning into you. I didn’t-.”

  “Wait, wait, wait…!” Bad waved his hands to stop his counterpart. “Let me get this straight… You got me banned because you were afraid you were becoming evil, like me?”

  Scar nodded slowly. “I swear, I didn’t think he was actually gonna ban you.”

  “What else did you expect the server admin to do?!” snapped Bad.

  “I don’t know! I’m sorry, Bad, really!”

  “If you’re really sorry, then go to Xisuma and explain you want me unbanned!”

  To Bad’s surprise and dismay, Scar shook his head. “I can’t do that. I’m sorry, but I’m the mayor; a good mayor now. A good mayor can’t have an evil clone of himself on the server anymore. I really am sor-.”

  “Oh, stop saying you’re sorry!” Bad’s voice cracked. “I can’t believe this! After all these years of funny pranks and harmless shenanigans, you’re just tossing me aside?”

  “Bad, you’re not harmless,” Scar snapped back. “You don’t realise it, but you’ve caused some real damage over the years. You’ve destroyed things, killed people, upset people, caused irreparable damage to the server. The only reason Xisuma hasn’t banned you sooner is because I kept standing up for you. Did you seriously never notice the fact that I was the only Hermit who ever had kind words for you? You never noticed the other Hermits glaring at you in the shopping district or walking the other way when you came by?”

  Bad stared at Scar in shock and horror. “N-No, I… I didn’t… Scar, I… I never meant to cause bad things.”

  “Your name literally contains the phrase “Bad Times”!”

  “I-I can change, Scar!” Bad was almost physically begging at this point. “I can change, I promise! I can be worthy of forgiveness if you give me a chance.”

  Scar firmly shook his head. “You’re an evil Hermit and you always will be. I’m sorry, but there’s no place on the server for you. Not anymore.”

  Red hot anger started to build inside Bad. “No, you… you can’t do this to me. After everything we’ve been through, you can’t just decide I don’t belong here anymore!”

  Scar took a step back, away from Bad. “Just get outta here before I call Xisuma to deal with you.”

  Bad hesitated.

  In the ensuing pause, a loud crash sounded from outside. 

  Seizing his chance, Bad snatched the hat from Scar’s head and dashed out of the town hall. When he got outside, he found Xisuma and EX locked in a battle just outside the building. Xisuma appeared to be winning. 

  Bad dashed down the stairs and slammed right into Xisuma, sending the admin tumbling to the ground. Before Xisuma could recover, Bad grabbed EX’s hand and pulled them back towards the shopping district.

  “Where’s Hels?” Bad demanded. 

  “I sent him back to the tunnel. Whether he’s still there, I don’t know. Bad, what happened?”

  “I’ll explain later.”

  The two jumped down the secret entrance to the base and rushed back towards the entrance to the tunnel. 

  “Hey, guys.” Hels emerged from one of the rooms, holding an armful of mycelium. “They have purple grass here.”

  Letting go of EX’s hand, Bad beckoned to Hels. “C’mon, we’re getting outta here.” 

  “Can I bring the purple grass?” 

  “Will it help distract you from, as you put it, your bloodlust?” EX inquired.

  Hels beamed. “Yes.”

  “Alright, then, yes. You can bring the… uh… purple grass.”

  As the evil Hermits made their way back through the tunnel, EX eventually decided to break the silence. “So… Long story short, Xisuma didn’t forgive me. How’d it go with Scar?”

  “Scar got me banned because he was afraid of turning into me,” replied Bad shortly. “And he refuses to get it reversed because he’s afraid having an evil clone whom everyone on the server hates will damage his image as mayor.”

  A pause followed. 

  “Oof, that’s rough,” EX remarked sympathetically. “What are you going to do now?”

  “There’s nothing else I CAN do. I’ve been banned and the only person on the server who might stick up for me is refusing to do so. I guess that means I’m stuck with you two permanently.”

  Another pause. 

  “I didn’t even get to have another rap battle with Wels,” said Hels sadly. 

  “Hey.” EX stopped at the very end of the tunnel, turning back to face their friends. “Let’s all quit moping. We tried asking for forgiveness and it didn’t work. No more grovelling, no more trying to change, no more stupid group therapy. We’re evil Hermits, right?”

  “Yeah!” cheered Hels. 

  “And evil Hermits want to spread chaos and destruction, right? We should be who we are, without worrying what our counterparts will think of us. They’ve rejected us, so now they think we’re no longer their problem. Let’s show them how wrong they are. Let’s show them how evil we can really be.”

  “YEAH!” Hels whooped, his red eyes flashing dangerously. “BLOODLUST!”

  “We’re not straight-up murdering people, though, Hels,” added EX sternly. “That’s not the kind of chaos we spread.”

  “Oh.” Hels settled down. “Okay. Fair enough.”

  Chuckling quietly, EX turned to Bad. “What do you say?”

  After a moment, a grin spread over Bad’s face and he swept Scar’s hat onto his head. “I say let’s do it. If Scar says I’m evil, who am I to deny it?”

  “Exactly.” EX slung one arm over Bad’s shoulders and the other over Hels’s, grinning at their evil compatriots. “It’s time to be the evil Hermits we were created to be.”

[beautifulchaostrash]

Hi! could I get some fluff with Lester Sinclair and a female S/O? like a date, they go to the woods to search for animal bones and other cool stuff that can be found in the forest and at some point they get lost because they were too distracted being adorable? thank you so much!!!💞💞💞💞 love ya! hope you're doing well💞

A Paisley Afternoon

Lester Sinclair x Fem!Reader

SFW, mentions of abuse, swearing

Word count: 4,884

assasdjhajfsgawgeu you are SO sweet! QwQ I hope you’re doing good as well!

Quick disclaimer: I have not seen the House of Wax, and I haven’t really written for the Sinclair brothers that much, so if their characterization seems off plz let me know! This was hella fun to write and I’m super glad you requested this! (I’m also lowkey simping for Lester Sinclair, what have u done to me)

I know u asked for fluff and while this mostly is, I made the ending kinda angsty cause I can’t help myself...T-T but it has a happy ending tho

cut because this is a loooong ass fic

“S-so uh, Y/N! V-Vinnie asked me to uh, go get some stuff from the forest, ya know, for his artstuffs? And uh, ‘was wonderin’ if you wanted to come with, since yer a big fan of nature and stuff, heh. I-if you don’t that’s ok I understand I-”

You silenced his nervous rambling with a kiss on the cheek.

“I’d love to! Could we make it a picnic? I don’t get to cook for you often,” you hummed.

Lester blushed a deep red. “Y-yeah if you wanna, I’d love that...uh, m-meet you at our usual spot? Four pm?”

“I’ll see you then!” You gave him a chaste kiss on the lips before turning to go back into the house.

He gawked for a minute before jogging down the porch steps, stammering his goodbyes. He drove off as if he had gotten de-pantsed during gym class and was retreating to hide out his shame in the locker room.

...

He would never call this a date. Not in a million years. After all ‘Dates are s'posed to be nice and fancy, and if there’s one thing I ain’t it’s that!’. Lester’s self-deprecating humor came back in your mind as you sat on the edge of the boarded-up well. The well served as your go-to meet spot for these kinds of outings.

Even though you had both been dating for years, Lester always treated every date as if it were his first. As if he couldn't believe that you wanted to spend time with him. It broke your heart to think about, but it was sweet in away.

Every time he came up with an excuse. ‘Bo wants me out of the house for the evening'...'We need more parts for the House of Wax, and I need some help'... 'You’ve spent a lot of time inside lately, you should go on a walk'! And I’ll come with to protect you in case people come by.’  But you knew better.

You knew that Lester was too nervous to ask you outright. You’re snapped out of your daydream by the slam of a car door. Looking up to see Lester jogging towards you, Jonsey following close behind.

“S-sorry I’m late! Lost track of ti-...Y/N! How many times have I told you not to sit on that well!?!” he picked up his pace, sprinting to where you sat.

You sheepishly stood up, not noticing that you had been leaning on it in the first place.

“Sorry sweetheart, guess I jus’ got tired,”

He pulled you into a tight hug, then pulled away to check your body for injuries. He was like a flustered mother goose, almost.

“That well is ancient, why it-it was 'prolly here before Bo and Vinnie were even born! If you p-put too much weight on it, it could-”

“Collapse and I could get hurt, I know, I know. Gah! You worry too much darling,” You stood on your tiptoes to press a kiss into the bridge of his nose.

He stood back and put his hands on his hips, eyeing you up and down.

“Why I oughta-” He wagged a finger in your direction.

“What? You oughta what? What’re you gonna do huh?” you smirked and leaned into him, tilting your head.

“I oughta…” He trailed off at your sudden challenge, blushing hard.

His eyes widened and a mischievous grin spread across his face.

“I oughta kiss you, fer being so reckless!” He crossed his arms.

You giggled and put a hand over your forehead. “Oh no! What a tragedy! Forced to kiss the most handsome man in the world! Whatever shall I do???”

You sank to the ground and leaned against Jonsey, putting a hand to your forehead. Lester looked down at his feet and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Aww shucks!” He muttered.

You jumped up, wrapping your arms around his waist and ghosting your lips against his. Lester pressed his hands against your waist and closed the distance between you two. You stayed connected for a moment, savoring the tangy taste of sweat and dirt on your tongue. You only broke away when you heard Jonesy snuffling around in the picnic basket you brought with. After shooing her away from your food, Lester went back to his truck to gather his bag, and you were both on your way.

You and Lester walked through the forest, taking your time to pick your way for the undergrowth. Even though you both did this often, and usually traveled the same path each time, you never failed to find stuff.

Jonesy, not learning her lesson from the last time, went after a badger and got her ass kicked again. Leading to a very angry rant from Lester, even though she couldn’t understand what she was saying.

Even though you were looking for animal bones, anything was game. From discarded beer cans to cool looking rocks, weird plants, whatever you managed to find.

You both stopped in a small clearing, the trees were sparser here and the grass a bit taller. A perfect place for treasures to hide. Lester beamed, moving to start sifting through the vegetation. You set your basket down nearby and followed suit, hiking up your pant legs to avoid the mud.

A few minutes and a couple of oddly shaped rocks later, Lester called out to you. He showed off a very excellent stick, that was a bit shorter than him and looked thick and sturdy. He handed it to you, proclaiming that it was going to be your 'wizard staff'.

“Wizard staff?” you chuckled, grabbing the stick from his hands.

“Why yes! You are the most magical person I’ve met! You’ve got to be some sort of powerful enchantress! Sein' as you’ve put a spell on my heart~” he smiled and grabbed you by the waist, leaning down to kiss you.

You gasped when he pulled away, blushing at his cheesy comments. You sure as shit weren’t gonna let him get away with it without firing back with some of your own.

“That’s funny, seeing as you’re the one who’s charmed me~” you whispered in his ear, your breath hot on his sensitive skin.

You spun around and stooped down to pick through the grass,  ignoring his flustered gaping. He smiled and kneeled next to you in the dirt, enjoying the silence of the forest.

You both trek on for another hour or so, before finding a level area near a creek to collapse and have lunch. You made quick work, unfurling the blanket and setting out the food. You tossed a few treats towards Jonsey to make sure your meal wouldn't get sacrificed.

You fell onto the ground with a thud, letting your aching muscles relax. Even though it wasn't hot out, the humidity made doing anything outside torture. You don't know how Lester managed to do it every day.

“You need to eat, here d-drink some water,” he pushed a canteen into your hands along with a sandwich.

“Water?” Taking a swig from the canteen, you smirked. “Why, I think you have more than quenched my thirst, gorgeous~”

Lester went red from ear to ear as he realized that you were ogling his backside while he rummaged around in his bag. He flushed and sat down next to you, suddenly very invested in the ham sandwich in front of him. You finished your sandwich and leaned against his shoulder. Lester blushed and started stammering. You silence him with a kiss, one hand moving to cup his cheek, the other moving to his chest.

He reciprocated, wrapping his arms around your waist and deepening the kiss. His lips slid against yours, chapped and sweaty, and tasting faintly of blood. It was more than gross, it was ghastly, repulsive even, and yet so so addicting. Every time you think you get enough of him he leaves you yearning for more. If you didn’t know any better, you would’ve thought him to be a succubus or some kind of land-dwelling siren.

But nope, it was just Lester. Lester bringing you gifts in the form of wildflowers, pretty rocks, and books. Lester giving you full-throated, heartfelt praise and sappy comments. Lester giving you more passion and love and charm in one smile than anyone else could give you in a lifetime. Bo may be a smooth-talking seducer, but Lester? Lester was straight up husband material, and it made your heart melt.

And it made other things melt as well, you realized as you were craving more of him. You opened your mouth slightly, pushing your tongue on his lips to savor more of that sickly sweet taste. He obliged you, parting his lips to brush your tongues together. Straddling his waist, you press your body against his, leveraging a more intimate kiss.

He gave out a small groan, which only spurned you on further. Your  hand reached down to pull at the hem of his shirt, when his rough hands gripped your hips and pulled you off of him.

“Not in front of Jonesy!” he hissed into your ear.

You couldn’t help but laugh at the notion.

“Jonsey? Babe, she’s just a dog she doesn’t care what we’re doin’, she doesn’t even understand what sex is!”

He puffed up , a bit offended by your words. “She is not jus’ a dog, she is an innocent creature and does not deserve to be exposed to that kind o’ stuff!”

You snickered again, conceding defeat. “Alright alright, but you owe me, mister,” you teased.

He smiled and kissed the top of your head as you snuggled into his side.

“Don’ worry bout a thing darlin’, I always pay my debts,”

You both relaxed, exchanging kisses and occasionally commenting about work, or the weather. After a while, you both decided it was time to move on, and you packed up camp.

As you stopped to refill the canteens from the creek, your eye noticed something odd in the water.

Upon closer inspection, you realized it was a very smooth rock. You, of course, fished it out to take home with you. Only then did you realize what about it that had caught your eye in the first place. The rock itself was a dark color, flat, and about the same circumference as a small wine bottle. Right smack in the middle of the rock was a hole going clear through to the other side.

Your jaw dropped. It was a hag stone. You had heard of them before but had never expected to ever find one naturally occurring. They were ridiculously rare and only formed under specific circumstances. Even though it seemed to be a bit silly, you mentally thanked the forest and the creek for giving you such a gift. “Lester!” you called out. “Come look at what I found!”

You ran over to him and dropped the stone into his palm. His eyes widened, his fingers running over the smooth surface, tracing the round hole.

“You found this in th’ creek?” he held the stone up to his face and peered through the hole curiously.

“Yeah! It was just sitting there,”

“Well I’ll be, I never seen anything like it!”

“They’re called Hag Stones! It's rumored they hold powerful magic, since they're only created through natural means,”

Lester hummed and pushed the stone back into your hands.

“That’s a real hell of a find y/n!” He smiled.

You palmed the rock, thinking for a moment. An idea popped into your head.

“Say Lester do you have any rope or string?” you asked.

He nodded and went to retrieve it from his pack. It was a small bundle of thin para-cord, stolen off some unfortunate tourist. 

“Perfect!” you beamed.

Taking the loose end, you compared the length to your neck to gauge it, then took a small pocket knife and cut the rope. Looping one end through the hole in the rock, then tying both ends in a secure knot. Beckoning Lester to lean down, you looped the necklace over his head, leaving it to rest on his neck . He looked down at it and smiled.

“When Hag Stones are worn around the neck like this, they make the wearer pretty much immune to curses and bad luck. It’s even said that if you look through it, you’ll be able to see into the kingdom of the Fae Folk! And because we found this one in the forest, it grants you favor with the tree spirits!” you bit your tongue and blushed, realizing how silly and hippy-dippy you sounded.

“‘Course that’s just all legend, but it is still pretty though, and I think it suits you nicely.”

Lesters’ eyes widened, and he tried to lift the stone from around his neck. “I can't! Y-you need this more than me!”

You snatched his hands from the cord and laced your fingers in his, shrugging.

“You deserve it baby, you deserve to be protected. You deserve to be happy and loved too! I’m plenty safe with you and Jonesy around. It’s your turn to be taken care of,” you leaned and pressed your forehead against his.

Reaching up, you rubbed his cheek, surprised when your hand came away wet. Looking up you saw that he was crying.

“Oh, Lester? What’s wrong sweetie?” you wiped away the streams of tears with your thumbs.

“N-nothing I just-” he closed his eyes and let out a choked sob. His hands came to rest atop yours. “No one’s ever t-told me that, that i d-deserve to be happy and s-safe!”

He burrowed his face in your shoulder and sobbed. You stood and held him there, rocking back and forth while rubbing circles on his back in through his hair. His arms gripped you tight enough to hurt, but you didn’t mind. Even as you cooed and shushed him, anger bubbled behind your soothing tone.

You were furious. Furious at his parents for treating him like he didn’t exist, at Bo for bullying him constantly, and at Vincent too. Even though Vincent wasn’t as nasty, he still brushed Lester off like a horsefly that wouldn’t leave him alone. When Lester tried to talk to him, show him something, even just say hi, Vincent would always sign the same things.

‘I’m busy,’

‘Go bother Bo,’

‘Lester please, I have a headache, be quiet,’

It made your blood boil and your vision go red. Yeah sure, Vincents’ mute and can’t eat or smile without his deformity causing him pain. Bo was treated like the devil incarnate by his parents in favor of Vincents’ artistic talent. But they had the same fucking parents. The same fucking childhood. The least they could do is treat him like something more than a piece of dirt. Some days you wondered if they even cared about him.

You snapped out of your ire when Lester pulled you into a tender kiss, lower lip still trembling slightly. You pulled back and planted kisses all over his face, on his nose, chin, eyelid, everywhere. He devolved into a fit of wet giggles, his nose crinkling as your lips tickled his handsome features. He wiped his eyes again and looked you in the eyes lovingly.

“I love you, Y/N,”

“I love you too, Lester,”

You smiled and gave him one final kiss. He beamed. Taking the stone, he held it up to his eye, peering through the hole at you.

“Well hey! Would’ya lookit that! I’ve already found myself a fairy! And a mighty cute one at that!~”

You giggled and pushed him away bashfully. “Go pack up the rest of our stuff ya goofball!”

>>>>>

Following the river, you continued to look for stuff along the winding trail. You snagged a pretty decent haul, all things considered. Animal bones and carcasses and rocks and some jewelry left behind by a camper. Nothing really out of the norm for the pair of you, and things were going great.

That is until you realize too little too late, that the sun had all but set, and left you in the dark with no idea of where you are. You tried to follow the creek down back the way you came and kept following it. And kept following it, and….

“Lester? I don’t recognize any of this…”

You hoped that Lester would put on his brave act and reassure you that yes, Y/n. He knew the woods like the back of his hand and that you would be home in no time. You did not get that.

“Yeah, me neither, I don’ know where the hell we ended up. It’s too dark for me to read my compass an’ I left the flashlights at Ambrose ‘cause I didn’t think we’d be out past dark,” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his phone. “Ah, damn it’s dead! Knew I shoulda charged it before I left this morning! Did you bring yours?”

The lack of panic and fear in his voice made your skin crawl. How the hell is he so calm??? And no, you didn’t bother to bring your phone with you this time, not wanting to be annoyed with phone calls from work. Lester seemed to notice your mounting panic and quickly set about comforting you.

“Y/N! Y/n, dont be upset, we’ll be ok! You got me an' Jonesy here to protect you. I’m pretty sure that this creek leads to the main road, and we can follow the road back to Ambrose. You have extra food in that basket right?”

“Uh, yeah, treats for Jonesy, some apples and an extra sandwich I think, and we have water in the canteens still,”

“Alrighty then, If worse comes to absolute worse, we’ll make camp for the night in the forest. Then I can make a fire and we’ll head out in th mornin' when it’s light out, ok? Hey…” He reached out and put a hand on your shoulder. “We’re gonna be ok.” he said with an air of finality, putting you somewhat at ease and strenghtening your resolve.

You continued to follow the creek, holding hands so you wouldn’t get separated. You walked on for what seemed like hours, but eventually, you came across the road Lester talked about. You would’ve cried out for joy if you weren't so goddamn tired. You hadn’t realized how far you went into the forest. Lester stepped out into the middle of the road and looked towards the sky, looking for something. You stepped out and looked up with him. You gasped at the sight of the sky. You had never seen so many stars in the sky before. Well, that’s a lie, Lester took you stargazing often, but it still stole your breath every time.

“Fuck” he whispered under his breath. “It’s a new moon,”

“Why’s that bad?” you asked.

“Can’t tell which way east is, ‘least not very easily,” he muttered.

He scanned the sky further, peering at it with an intense stare. Even though you were horribly, horribly lost, you were happy to be able to spend time with Lester. A little bit of impromptu stargazing was also a plus.

“Jesus, you think after a while i’d start to remember to bring the flashlights, huh? Guess you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” He chuckled.

You reached out for Lesters’ hand again, squeezing it gently. He continued to curse under his breath before giving up on whatever it was he was looking for. “Y/N, I’m really sorry this turned into such a shitshow, I-”

“It’s ok pumpkin, shit happens sometimes. The only thing we can really do is try to do better next time,”

“Yeah, I guess,”

You both stood there staring at the sky, not knowing what to do or where to go from here. So you stood, and stared at the sky, in the middle of the road, like a couple o’ crazies.

You were so lost in thought that you didn’t notice the car approaching you in the road. A door slammed, jarring you out of your stupor. You rubbed your eyes, stuggling to adjust to the birghtness of the headlights. You heard a voice call out.

“Lester? Jonesy?” it was Bo, of all people, and he seemed to be somewhat concerned  for once in his goddamn life.

“Yeah we are we, just got,” Lester was cut off, the worry vanishing from Bo in an instant once he realized you guys were ok.

“WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!?!? IT’S ALMOST ONE IN THE FUCKING MORNING AND YOU GUYS SAID YOU WOULD BE BACK AT DAWN!!!” he roared. “You haven’t been answering your phone Lester, and YOU, for whatever fucking reason, decided to leave yours at home, what in the fuck happened?!?”

“We got lost,” Lester shrugged.

“Lost?” he hissed. “Fucking lost? Let me guess, asswipe didn’t bother to bring flashlights did he?” Bo asked you, sarcasm and venom dripping from his voice like sour honey.

He was about to launch into another bought of cursing, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. Bo whipped around to face his twin, who signed something quickly. You couldn’t make it out in the darkness, but whatever he said, it pissed Bo off.

“Don’t you fuckin’ ‘Bo’ me, I’m tired of this lardass going ‘round ‘causin trouble!” He whipped towards you and jabbed his finger in your face. “And you! You-”

Something inside you snapped. You were exhausted, in pain, and flat out sick of everything.

“What?! I’m what Bo? I’m a worthless, good for nothin’ piece o shit? Huh? Just like your FUCKING BROTHER HUH?!?”

“Ya know what, now that you say it-” he smirked.

CRACK The air around you was still, and thick. Bo doubled over, trying to comprehend what happened. You clenched your jaw, refusing to show tears on your face, even as pain blossomed through your joints.

“Not another fucking word out of your goddamn mouth, Bo Sinclair, or so help me god I’m gonna be the one gluing your lips shut! Got it?” your voice quaked low and dangerous, and even Bo knew better than to try and talk back.

“The way you treat Lester is fucking shameful! The ONLY thing you seem to be good at is making people feel like shit, and I would fucking expect an ADULT MAN to have more emotional maturity THAN A FUCKING THREE OLD!!!” you felt your voice go shrill and high, warbling with rage.

“I DON’T GIVE A SHIT THAT YOU PUNCH PEOPLE ‘CAUSE YOUR DADDY DIDN'T LOVE YOU, ‘CAUSE NEWSFLASH, ASSHOLE, LESTER’S DADDY DIDN’T LOVE HIM EITHER, AND NEITHER DID HIS MOMMA!!! A detail you seem to fucking forget even though he’s YOUR FUCKING BROTHER, AND YOU SHOULD BE TREATING HIM WITH MORE RESPECT THAN YOU GIVE TO YOUR FUCKING PICKUP!!!

And you!”

Vincent jumped and almost fell backward when you turned to talk to him. You could see his eyes wide with fear under his waxy mask. Good. You wanted this lesson to fucking stick.

“You have less spine than your fucking wax statues! If you had even an ounce self respect, you’d grow a pair and stop putting up with Bo’s bullshit! Or at the very least, you’d stop cowering in the basement being all sad and tragic and try to be invested in what Lester is trying to say rather than blowing him off with bullshit excuses because you can’t be FUCKED to give shit!!!”

You finally let yourself pause, catching your breath. You heard Vincent shifting his weight on his feet, and felt the eye daggers Bo was stabbing you with. “You three are brothers, so fucking act like it,”

And with that, you grabbed Lester by the hand and led him to Bo’s truck. Neither Bo nor Vincent seemed to make any move to follow you. Opening the driver’s side door, you let Jonesy hop up into the back. Noticing that the keys were still in the ignition, you pulled them out and tossed them to Lester. You slid into the passenger seat and let out a silent sigh. Christ, did your head fucking hurt.

You noticed that Lester seemed a bit anxious, but you could tell that he was happy that someone stood up for him.

You looked over at the twins just in time to see Bo smack Vincent's hand away.

“DOn’t fuckin’ touch me!” he growled.

“Bo, get in the fucking truck,” you hissed.

Vincent scrambled through the driver’s side door into the backseat. You exhaled through your nose, noticing that he chose the seat opposite of where you were sitting.  Bo was a little late to the party, but you savored the humiliation of him having to crawl into the backseat of his truck.

Satisfied, you leaned against the headrest of your seat, trying to steady your breaths. The purr of the engine was a welcome distraction from the tense air around you. You must’ve fallen asleep at some point because the last thing you remember was Lester carrying you to bed. He gave you a kiss, whispering a gentle ‘thank you’ before you drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

BONUS:

Bo gritted his teeth and rolled his eyes.

“I cannot believe you are making me do this,” he mumbled.

“Please, Bo! I don’t wanna get yelled at again!” Vincent signed hastily.

Bo raised an eyebrow. “You really are a self absorbed prick, aren’t you?”

Vincent dropped his hands in exasperation before picking them up again. “Fine, It’s the right thing to do, and I’m a jerk just like you, now will you please-”

“Alright, alright,” Bo waved Vincents’ hands down.

He reluctantly got up from the couch and trudged up the stairs, Vincent tugging him along . Bo gently knocked on Lester’s bedroom door. Hearing a muffled ‘yes’, he opened it to see Lester standing near his dresser, putting his gear away. Y/n was fast asleep under the covers.

“She asleep?” He nodded his head towards your shape on the bed.

“Uh, yeah i think so, why?” Lester whispered.

“We need to talk,” Bo stated numbly.

“Oh...Uh, gimme a minuet,” he stuffed his pack in the wardrobe before following Bo and Vincent out into the living room.

Bo stood for a moment, shooting his twin a sour glare. He rubbed his forehead and inhaled sharply.

“I’m sorry,” he groused.

Vincent looked at him expectedly as Lester tilted his head in confusion. Bo let out a long-suffering sigh.

“I’m sorry fer always yellin’ at you and tellin’ you yer a piece a shit, ‘cause ya aren’t. I know that you don’t mean to forget things. The reason why I got so angry tonight was ‘cause I was so damn worried about you, but that’s no excuse. So, I’ll try and uh, ‘manage my emotional outbursts', his words, not mine” Bo nodded at his twin.

“What he’s trying to say is that we both care about you, and we’ve both been letting our emotions dictate how we treat you.” His hands hesitated slightly before continuing. “I...as much as would like to believe, I’m not any better than Bo just because I don’t yell at you. I’m self absorbed, and I need to be more self aware and not let myself get strung up over little things,”

Lester sniffed, wiping the tears that were forming on his eyelids. “You wax-heads, of course I know you guys care about me! Why else would you come looking for me at ‘one in the fucking morning’?” he snickered. “I do appreciate your apologies though...I know you an’ Vinnie ain’t got it easy, god knows you didn’t, I was there, but that was it. Just, there. A bystander. I can’t help but wonder if I had said or done something maybe-”

“Lester,” Bo interrupted. “What happened to me-what happened to us is not your fault, or your responsibility.”

“I figure, but the problem is I’m still a bystander now, here in Ambrose. I don’t ever take charge of anythin’, I just stand there and wait for one of you to tell me to do something. Heh...that’s not really useful, ain’t It? I want-I should be takin’ a more active role in the House of Wax, we all have our part to play, don’t we?” “You’re right, we all need to work together,” Vincent signed.

Bo rolled his eyes and huffed, shaking his head at Vincent.

“OOOKAYY, if this shit gets any sweetter im gonna have a heart attack and die!” Bo stood up to leave. “Goodnight,”

“Oh no, not so fast mister!”

Lester wrapped his arms around Bo and pulled him into a hug. Vincent was quick to hug him from behind, pinning Bo between him and Lester.

“Alrighty, I love you too...ok that’s enough you can let me go

now...guys?....Helloooo?”

“We're not lettin' go 'til you hug back~,” Lester sang out.

Vincent rested his head on Bo’s shoulder in place of making a sarcastic remark. Bo grumbled, throwing his arms around Lester, who in turn, squeezed Bo tighter.

“Hey! A Sinclair Sandwich! Ain’t had one of these in a long time,” Lester giggled.

“Happy now?” Bo muttered.

“Yeah,” he sighed.

Bo relaxed a little, allowing himself to sink into the physical affection. Vincent hummed happily in response, and Lester nuzzled into Bo’s other shoulder. Bo closed his eyes, and for a fleeting moment, believed that he was going to be okay.

-Mod Elith

[harryhooksgazebos267]

Looking at me~ Jungkook x Reader

Pairing: Jungkook x idol!reader

Genre: Angst, comedy (not a lot)

Warnings: Probably cursing

Requested: Yes, based off of the song by Sabrina Carpenter titled Lookin at me

A/n: Anon, I’m so sorry 😖 This is absolute trash but I tried my best 🥺👉👈 I hope you like it…

MASTERLIST

It had been about a five months since you last talked to Jungkook and honestly, you had taken the break up pretty bad. Sure, he had been an asshole but that didn’t mean you didn’t love him. It had caused you to fall into severe depression and you couldn’t even leave your dorm for days. When the news of your break up came out, the media had a field day. The responses were pretty spilt on who they supported. Contrary to what Jungkook said, your group was actually pretty popular (you were apart of Red Velvet?? Like seriously dude, you didn’t even need him for popularity) so you had a lot of fans supporting you. But, of course with love there is always hate. At one point, the hate mixed with being hurt over Jungkook got so bad, that it caused your company to postpone your solo debut. The only reason you got out of your slump was because of you members, specifically Irene.

“Y/n you have to get out of bed! Why don’t we go get something to eat?” She suggested while jumping on your bed and laying next to you.

“No,” you mumbled as you snuggled even deeper into your blanket.

“You can’t sit and mope around all day you know.”

“Isn’t that’s exactly what I’ve been doing? So if you don’t mind, I shall continue on with my mopping,” you sass back as you turn and face the other way.

“Y/n,” she sighed out as she sat on her knees and placed her hand on your shoulder.

“What do I always tell you about men?” She questioned while shaking you a little.

“ᴹᵉⁿ ᵃᶦⁿ’ᵗ ˢʰᶦᵗ”

“I’m sorry I can’t hear you? What did you say?”

“Mᴇɴ ᴀɪɴ’ᴛ sʜɪᴛ,” you muttered out a little louder, a small smile forming on your face.

“Oh come on, say it a little louder!”

“MEN AIN’T SHIT” You screamed causing the two of you to laugh.

“Ahhh come on, is that all you got?”

“MEN AIN’T SHIT! MEN AIN’T SHIT! MEN AIN’T SHIT!”

The two of you began to chant at the top of your lungs. Yeri and Joy suddenly came into the room, falling in sync with Irene and you. A few moments later, Seulgi and Wendy, who were just out shopping, came into the room looking really confused causing you all to stop. You all kind of just looked at each other and then in unison started the chant once more. That was the first time you had smiled or laughed in a loooong time. After that, you decided to change your entire solo song and performance. At first you had planned on doing a cute little love song but you felt as though that wouldn’t be the best thing to do. No, instead you decided to write a song that would basically be a big “fuck you!” to Jungkook.

Thus, bringing us to modern day! So, you had decided not to drop the MV for your song until after you performed it at the MAMA awards! With Jungkook and BTS all there to hear it! Cute right?

You were currently backstage getting yourself hyped for you performance. To say you were nervous would be an understatement. First of all, you were the first one in Red Velvet to have a solo debut and this would be the first time in months you had performed or been in the public eye. Second, there was the entire thing with Jungkook so…

“Y/n?”

Ah speak of the devil!

Turning around, you were met with the boys wide eyes as he smiled at you awkwardly.

“Jungkook,” you replied back with no emotion.

“You look so beautiful,” he commented as he eyed you up and down.

“I know, thanks.”

“Ummm how have you been?” He nervously asked as he bit the inside of his cheek.

“I’ve been great, how about you?” You questioned with a wide smile, he didn’t need to know how much he had hurt you.

“Do you want my honest answer or a lie?”

You thought about it for a second but decided one the latter.

“Honest I guess.”

“Honestly, I’ve felt like shit. I’ve felt so lost without you. Baby, I’m sorry for everything I said. I don’t even know what I was thinking, you know I didn’t mean any of it.”

“Clearly you met what you said, why else would you have said it,” you scoffed.

“I….okay I did mean it but it came out really wrong and I shouldn’t have said it to your face. I’m sorry y/n.”

“You shouldn’t have said it to my face?” You laughed out bitterly as you bit your lip and shook your head.

“Well, I’m glad you’re sorry because you should be but I don’t know what you thought was gonna happen by telling me all this. If you did it to make yourself feel less guilty or whatever, I hope it worked. Did it make me feel any better? No but you never were the best at making me feel good. Now I have to go and-“

“Wait y/n please! Just give me a second chance, I’m sorry. I know what I said was wrong and I’m…I’m just so sorry! I don’t understand what else you want me to do or say!”

“See that’s the problem! You think that just saying a simple sorry is going to fix everything and it’s not! Giving me a sorry exscuse for an apology doesn’t solve anything! Until you realize how much you fucked up, I don’t want to hear it. You lost me Jungkook and there is nothing you can do about it.”

“Y/n? Is everything okay?” You heard Wendy’s voice call out to you as she approached Jungkook and you with a confused look on her face. You gave Wendy a tight smile as you took a few steps away from Jungkook.

“Of course! I’m sure it’s almost time for me to perform so we should go right?”

“Y/n,” Jungkook called out in one last attempt to get you to forgive him.

“I have to go now or else I’m going to be late. You already fucked up one thing, don’t make me miss one of the biggest performances of my life and fuck up another,” you told him coldly.

Wendy gave Jungkook one more glance before putting her hand on your shoulder and lightly pushing you down the hall.

“You okay?” She asked once you were out of ear range of him, taking your hand in hers.

“Yep, I’m just ready to get out there and perform,” you told her with a determined look on your face.

One of the stage managers came up to the two of you and informed you that you had 5 minutes before you were going to go on.

“I think that’s my cue to leave. You’re going to kill it out there! You have worked so long and so hard for this and I can’t express how proud I am of you. Now go out there and show Jungkook and the rest of the world how badass you are” She hyped you up as she pulled you into a hug.

“Thank you Wendy, I love you.”

“I love you too! Break a leg!” And with that she was gone.

Your heart began to beat loudly in your chest as you waited in the wings. You paced back and forth as your nerves grew bigger and bigger. Finally, you heard the intro music as your background dancer began dancing, signaling for you to enter the stage. You heard your fans scream as they saw you enter causing you to smile lightly. That smile faded as you got in position and began singing.

Did I catch your attention? You look like you lost your breath, huh

When I circle the room, you an owl, you gon’ twist your head

Don’t you come at me green with an attitude when my lips and my soles are red

If I leave you behind, you can look for the broken necks

No, no

‘Cause I’ve been here once or twice

Never worry ‘bout the eyes, come on

Don’t just stand there staring, honey

Try to move your feet

If you think they looking at you

They looking at me

I can make it nice and easy

I'ma take the lead

They ain’t even looking at you, baby

They looking at me

They looking at me

Yeah, yeah, they looking at me

May be young for a teacher, I’ll teach you what you don’t know

I could teach you the things that you wanna know

But I can’t give it up all at once, you would overdose

Don’t you bring any bull in the room tonight, it’s a whole new rodeo

It could be you and me, but you know that I’ll steal the show

Oh, yeah

'Cause I’ve been here once or twice

Never worry 'bout the eyes come on

Don’t just stand there staring, honey

Try to move your feet

If you think they looking at you

They looking at me

I can make it nice and easy

I'ma take the lead

They ain’t even looking at you, baby

They looking at me

They looking at me

No, no, no, no

Yeah, yeah, they looking at me

But they looking at me, babe

'Cause they looking at me, baby

hey

If I leave you behind, you can look for the broken necks

Don’t just stand there staring, honey

Try to move your feet

If you think they looking at you

They looking at me

I can make it nice and easy

I'ma take the lead

They ain’t even looking at you, baby

They looking at me

They looking at me

Yeah, yeah, they looking at me

But the truth is they looking at me

They looking at me

Once you were finished, the crowd went wild. You looked over to where your members were sitting as they screamed their lungs out causing you to laugh a little. You looked over to where bts were and they all were staring at Jungkook. The two of you made eye contact but he looked away, shaking his head. Suddenly he got up and began to walk away, clearly upset. You watched as Namjoon and Taehyung followed after him.

Leaving the stage you felt extremely proud of yourself. Not only did the fans seem to enjoy the song but your performance went off without any mistakes. In your head, that was the best performance you’ve ever done. You made a statement. You proved a point that at the end of the day, people can think they’re better than you but you know that’s far from the truth. You’re the queen and nobody can deny that. You know that the fans got the message and clearly the one person who needed to hear it most, got it too.

Link to song in fic

A/n: tell me why my petty ass wanted to be like “he got a slice of humble pie” 😭 This Shane drama is taking over my life.

MASTERLIST

[whumpsideblog]

Part One//Part Two//Part Three//Part Four//Part five

Wow! I haven’t written shit for these princes in a loooong time now. I’m hoping this is good but I’m not used to writing sickfics and honestly I might stay away from it in the future haha. Thank you so much for all the messages I’ve gotten between the last part and this one, and I’m really sorry it’s taken so long!

***

As a child, Alessander got sick often. There wasn’t much of a reason for it, it just happened, and he remembered a lot of days spent in bed, being waited on for everything he could possibly need until he was better.  It had been a long time since he’d last caught a cold and unfortunately, this one hit him hard.

He felt exhausted the whole day, he felt heavy and found that moving was a strain on his whole body. His vision was constantly fading in and out, and sometimes the room around him seemed to warp and twist, disorienting him greatly. He was sick to his stomach, he felt suffocatingly hot yet he was shivering, and he wanted nothing more than to lay down.

He tried to push through it at first. He sat quietly at his prince’s feet and he did his best not to cause trouble. It was around noon when he finally voiced his discomfort, hesitantly reaching up and grasping Devlyn’s hand weakly.

 “Prince Devlyn…?” He murmured.

 “What is it, less?” The prince asked, looking down to him.

 “I… I don’t feel well… do you think I can go rest…?” He asked tiredly.

 “You don’t feel well?” The prince frowned. “You will be fine, I don’t wish to hear your complaints.” He told him, brushing him off completely.

 “But… please, I-“

 “I said you’re fine.” He said sternly. “You don’t want me to force you outside again, do you?” He asked, and Alessander quickly shook his head.

 “N-no… I’m sorry, my prince…” he said softly, looking to the floor. He’d just have to push through the rest of the day, surely he could do that much.

***

 At this point it seemed like the prince was punishing him just for complaining. Typically, he kept Alessander at his side, he didn’t ask him for much, just sit quiet and still. After his complaints though he seemed to want to try something different.

 First he was sent to retrieve something from the prince’s room. A simple enough task but even after all this time his ankles were still healing, every step hurt and that was on top of how nauseous he already felt. He returned with the item and before he could even think of sitting the prince told him to fetch a book from the library. He kept this up for some time, the library, back to the bedroom, out to the courtyard, back upstairs. His feet and legs hurt, he never walked this much in a day, much less while feeling feverish and disoriented.

 He had dropped to his knees, praying this would be the end of it, but the prince wasn’t done.

 “Oh, Less could you fetch me a drink love?” He asked absentmindedly, though he seemed to smile when Alessander’s face fell, he looked ready to cry as he slowly got back to his feet. He felt weak as he made his way to the kitchens, he poured the prince a drink with shaking hands and tried to make his way back. He’d barely made it back down the hall though, the hallway was warping, twisting in front of him, and before he knew it his legs gave out.

 The glass shattered as he dropped it, and though collapsing was painful as his head hit the hard floor, he barely even noticed. In fact, it felt more like relief than anything, his face pressed against the cool floor. He found his eyelids heavy, he was so very tired. He’d rest, just for a few moments, he told himself...

***

 A servant found him sometime later, and the prince was quickly alerted. Alessander was taken up to the prince’s room and laid in bed, left to suffer alone and out of the prince’s way. He woke up hours later, hot and feverish as he quickly kicked the blankets away from him. He felt gross in general, his throat was beginning to hurt and he was covered in sweat, his clothes and hair sticking to him uncomfortably.

 When the bedroom door opened he hardly reacted, Something was placed on the bedside table and then there was a weight pressing down next to him. He wearily opened his eyes, looking to the man next to him. His eyes widened at what he saw, at seeing his closest friend next to him once again.

 “How do you feel?” Taryn asked, gently placing a hand against his forehead. Alessander started to answer, but instead hastily sat up, throwing his arms around him.

 “Oh god…” he murmured, pressing his face into his chest. It was comforting, the first true comfort he’d had in some time. “I’ve missed you… I thought you were dead…” his voice was hoarse as he spoke, he didn’t care though, he just wanted to speak to Taryn, it’s all he’d been dreaming about. “Don’t scare me like that again… please…” he hated how his voice cracked and he had to blink away tears, but he knew Taryn wouldn’t mind.

 “What are you rambling about, Less?” The coldness of his tone made him let go, pulling back to look up at him. As his vision cleared he realized it had been nothing more than a feverish hallucination. The prince was staring back at him, quite clearly irritated.

 “I… I’m sorry my prince… I just… I thought you were…”

 “You mistook me for that dog of yours, hm? I’m almost insulted.” The prince sighed, grabbing Alessander’s shoulders and forcibly laying him back against the many propped up pillows. “Your fever is much too high if you’re having such wild visions. I didn’t think you were so fragile a simple fever would put you down like this. You’re very troublesome sometimes.”

 “I’m sorry… I’m… happy to see you, Prince Devlyn…” he smiled weakly at him, despite the tears he was blinking away, reaching for his hand, only for the prince to bat it away.

 “You’re a bad liar, love. I’ll allow it to slide this time though, you are sick after all.” He leaned forward to brush his hair off his face, before reaching for the bedside table where he’d left a glass of water. Even though Alessander could’ve held it on his own the prince held it to his lips for him, he was even careful enough to be sure that he didn’t choke. Alessander gratefully downed the whole glass, thanking the prince once he was done.

 “I’m sorry for collapsing like I did… I’m sorry I’m trouble…” he sighed as the prince brought the blankets up around him.

 “We can tend to that later, for now you should just rest.” The prince stood up, telling him he’d return shortly before leaving the room. The prince was being kind, merciful even, and while Alessander was deeply grateful he knew there would be a price to pay later. For now though, he would enjoy any comfort offered to him.

***

 He’d stayed in bed the rest of the day, and as usual he went to bed when the prince did. Despite the blankets over them Alessander found it hard to sleep, occasionally drifting off only to wake up freezing, so cold it almost hurt. He tried hugging himself and curling up to keep warm but eventually he gave up, moving closer to the sleeping prince in hopes he’d spare some of his body heat.

 He was still shaking and shivering and much to his dismay, his attempt to lay so close to him woke Devlyn up, he couldn’t handle the prince’s anger right now, he couldn’t handle a punishment or scolding. He just wanted to go back to sleep.

 “What are you doing, Less…?” The prince asked tiredly, sitting up to look down at him.

 “ ‘m fine… just cold…” he murmured, hugging himself and avoiding the prince’s gaze. Devlyn reaches down, gently placing his hand on Alessander’s cheek, and he couldn’t help but lean into his warm touch, thankful for any relief.

 “You’re burning up still…” he frowned. He laid back down and pulled the blankets over them, before pulling Alessander into his arms, his back pressed against his chest. Alessander was tense at first, he wasn’t used to sleeping like this, much less with the prince holding him this way. After some time though, he did start to relax, and this position was rather warm. He quickly found himself relaxing, even falling asleep.

 Despite this though, he desperately wished it was Taryn holding him instead.

[shadowofthelamp]

The Old Friend

Summary: While stopping for some food, Sylvia and Wander happen to hear a story, and Wander recognizes the storyteller- another one of his species he knew from a long time ago.

Rating: G

Wordcount: 1605

AO3 link

Feedback through tags or comments/replies is super duper appreciated, and since tumblr is mucking around with tags, reblogs really help! Here’s a picture of the character, btw.

Sylvia had seen a lot over the past few years she'd been traveling the galaxy with Wander. Creatures from the size of a pin to the size of a planet, with problems and solutions large and small.

One thing she'd never seen, though, was another one of Wander's species.

Wander hadn't said much about it, and she hadn't pressed- species were sometimes spread thin or became endangered, after all, and it was possible he didn't like talking about it. She wasn't about to drag up painful memories when she had more than enough of her own.

"The hall shimmered with golden vines, nature having overtaken parts of the temple. However, there were still intricate designs mapped over the walls, and it didn't take long for Quincen to decode the runes."

However, when stopping on a nearby planet for food, she'd spotted someone who looked shockingly like Wander. Same color, same general shape, same fur- however, while Wander's eyes were deep brown, this creature's were blue, and it had a large loopy curl above them. It also had on a sleeveless turtleneck sweater, with scruffy orange fur poking out the bottom the same way shirts always did on Wander, almost like a skirt. The one big difference, though, was that it wasn't wiry like Wander- it was more rounded, with a thicker torso and limbs.

Sylvia hadn't intended to stop, but realized she had when her feet dug into dirt. Wander turned to see where she was looking, and his eyes widened as his mouth spread into a grin.

“Well, I’ll be darned!” He slid off of her back. “I haven’t seen them in ages!”

“You know them?” Sylvia said.

“Sure do. It’s been a long, long loooong time, though.” Wander walked over and plopped down near the back of the crowd, crossing his legs. Sylvia followed- the person did seem to be telling a good story.

They wove a tale of ancient artifacts being stolen from off-planet, then returned to their rightful place within the temple. She found herself getting swept up in the excited performance as they gestured with a pen, turning it into everything from a sword to an umbrella and grappling hook. Wander was clearly hanging on to every word.

At the end, a few people tossed coins into their bag, and they smiled. “The best payment will be if you share the story with others!”

When they closed their bag and moved to leave, Wander hurried up. “Goodness, you’ve barely changed! Still telling your stories?”

“Still helping people?” They smiled. “Dusty?”

Wander shook his head. “Wander, and he. What name do you go by these days?”

“Pen, but it used to be Muse. I liked that one, but people got the wrong idea. I prefer to learn the stories, not inspire them. It’s still she.”

“Both are quite fittin’ for you, either way.” Wander waved to Sylvia, urging her closer. “This here is Sylvia, the best friend this side of the cosmos.”

“Oh! It’s lovely to meet you!” Pen held out her hand with a smile, blue bracelets clanking about on her wrist, and Sylvia shook it.

“So you two... grew up together or something? I don't think I've ever met somebody that looked like Wander.” Sylvia guessed, and the two shared a glance.

“You could say that. How much have you told Sylvia?” Pen asked.

“Not a whole lot, but my past ain’t important.” Wander said.

Sylvia had wondered more than once, of course, (especially after learning where he got the Hat) but Wander could be infuriatingly tight-lipped whenever she tried to ask.

“Well, we did know each other as children.” She smiled. “I’ll let him tell you when he’s ready. It was lovely to meet you, though. Thank you for listening, today's was one of my favorites.”

“Are there more of you?” Sylvia blurted out, and Pen tilted her head.

“We’re scattered, but it’s hard to really get rid of us.” She grinned. “We all have our ways of keeping busy. I share stories, so that people who cannot tell them themselves are remembered. I know one who devoted themselves to learning botany on every planet they come across to help keep the environments clean. What really unites us is just that we don’t particularly like to stay in one place.” She held out her arms, and Wander let out a little happy squeak before rushing into them, pulling her into a tight hug.

She hugged him back with the same ferocity. “I’ve heard about your good deeds. The universe needs you, especially at a time like this. That Dominator's such a mess, aren't they? But things will work out... eventually. They always do.”

"Do you want to have lunch with us?" Sylvia asked, and Pen blinked.

"I... would like that very much." She smiled. "Thank you."

They found their way to a diner, Wander chattering the whole way and Pen listening with rapt attention.

"You're much braver than I could ever be." She toyed at her bracelets. "I know it's difficult to get hurt, but..." She leaned in close, but Sylvia could just barely hear her. "Don't you worry about your friend?"

"Nah, Syl's great at gettin' herself outta trouble!" Wander said easily. "Heck, she rescues me more than anything!"

"I'm glad you found someone to keep you company, then." She smiled and pulled back as Wander held the door open for her and Sylvia, the bell tingling above their heads.

The shop was bustling, and Wander asked what sandwiches they wanted before heading up to the register as Sylvia and Pen sat down in a booth.

"How long ago did you two know each other?"

"A long time." Pen said simply. "I won't say much, but I will say that Wander has always been high energy and prone to trouble. I'm glad he found you- he's better when someone's there to keep his head on his shoulders."

"Don't I know it." Sylvia leaned back. "Nice to know he isn't the last of his kind. Always kinda worried about that."

"He isn't, but it's not very often someone sees more than one or two of us. We spread out pretty far, once we grow up. Often it's one to a galaxy." She used a little straw to draw patterns in the spilled salt on the table. "I didn't think I'd see him again for a long time, but go far enough and you end up near where you began. Although by then, everything's changed."

"Here ya go!" Wander had procured plates as well, and settled down next to Sylvia. They all dug in, Wander and Pen exchanging tales of galaxies Sylvia hadn't even heard of.

"And then, they tried to tear up my sweater because clothes were illegal there!" Pen laughed. "I took it off as soon as I realized of course, but that sure was a tense few hours."

"We'd do fine there!" Wander grinned. "Have you ever been to Bingleborp? Their festival-"

"Isn't it the cutest thing?" She interrupted. "Those carnival games are so fun, and they're all so happy."

"I know, right!" Wander finished off his sandwich.

"Do you have anywhere to be?" Pen asked, tilting her head.

"We kinda go wherever." Sylvia said. "We really just stopped here for the food."

"Ah." Pen said. "That makes sense. I don't usually have much of a plan either. I've been here for about two weeks and I'm about ready to move on. We're lucky that we met. It was nice catching up with you." She'd finished her food as well, and set the little plate on the pile on top of the trash can. Wander grabbed Sylvia's and set it on top of his own before doing the same.

They headed outside the diner, and she did a little curtsy. “I’m sure our paths will cross again, even if our experiences made us slightly different people by then.”

Wander tipped his hat. “Hope the stars will take you somewhere real nice.”

She smiled. “And may they keep you safe. You'll need it.” She tugged her messenger bag over her shoulder and pulled out a container of Orbble juice, and they watched her pull out a pencil and notebook as she drifted off into the sky, scribbling down something they'd couldn't see.

"So, gonna tell me how you know her?" Sylvia asked as Wander hopped up on her back.

"We were kids together. I might have kinda sorta maybe gotten into trouble sometimes, and she was always writing everything down, whatever it was."

"You might have gotten into trouble sometimes. What a shock." Sylvia said, turning back to face him and rolling her eyes even as she smiled. "I'll get the whole story out of you one day."

"It's nothing to fuss over." Wander waved a hand, using the other to grip Sylvia's reins. "I grew up on a ship in space, when I got old enough, I left, same as anyone."

"A ship?"

"A big one." Wander said. "No different from growin' up on a planet."

"Huh. Somehow I always figured you popped out when a star went supernova or something." Sylvia said with a little shrug.

"Aw, that'd be amazing!" Wander laughed. "Nice seein' her around, though. I'm never lonely with you around, Syl, but..."

"But there's something about family and old friends, I know." Sylvia finished. Look how easily she’d slid back in with Ryder, after all, and he was a much worse influence than this Pen. 

Wander pulled the Orbble juice out of his hat, pulling the bubble around them in one practiced motion without Sylvia even breaking her stride. They headed off into the stars, and the weight on her back (what little there was, Wander was such a pipsqueak) made her smile at the thought of friends old and new.

[bunnymems]

lapis canon call! looking for everyone/anyone! 

this is a kin post, if that bothers u / doesnt apply to u please move on.

tw; self harm/suicide/canon things

im not looking to start romo relationships again, those are just notes on if they did happen! id prefer not to talk too much about romo relationships with people under 18

index;

The war

Lapis (the gems)

Me

Bismuth

Steven

Jasper

Peridot

Garnet

Amethyst

Pearl

Blue Pearl

The War

my job was to record important information that bd needed to keep track of, and i also was a line of communication between the diamonds. especially during the war, when there wasnt always a way to get a hold of a diamond without finding them directly

thats why i could project images; i was The source of information, and that was one way to get the information across. i could also, say, watch a meeting and then later project parts of the meeting that were important

during the war... there wasnt an official thing that said "dont hurt pearls or other uninvolved gems" because the diamonds themselves didnt listen. but for the most part the rebellion focused on active, problematic gems (rubies, jaspers, diamonds ofc) and for the most part nonfighting gems werent involved 

 this, however, was obviously one sided and Not Fair to those on the side of the rebellionthe rebels didnt,, like, even bismuth didnt think shattering nonfighting gems were fair, but there were situations in which it was,, necessary

I ended up cracked because i got too close to a rebel camp during a battle, then i was put in the mirror like in canon. 

Lapis

Lapis.. Lapises.. Lapi.. Lapi were special gems that were almost like Pearls. We were meant to be messengers, and we recorded almost everything we saw at all times.

Regular Lapi were blue with yellow flecks on them. I was a different Lapis, though, specially meant for blue diamond, and i didn’t have the yellow flecks (they were essentially like, bred out?)

Me

Constantly anxious, had flashbacks + dissociative episodes (most flashbacks were emotional instead of visual, so i would have times where i just started freaking out and didn’t always know why)

preferred ‘it’ pronouns (it wasn’t odd for gems to prefer certain pronouns over others, tho we were all still mostly agender beings. it was usually the ones on earth that liked switching pronouns)

Felt bad about not having the yellow flecks other Lapi had.

was SUPER close with steven and the crystal gems--though i wasn’t close with the CGs for a long time (immediately close to Steven though)

CANON DIVERGENCE STARTS HERE:

I did fuse with Jasper, but it was more because i was scared of her than anything

when we fused, though, our shared anger at the CGs made us fight them. we got our ass kicked, though, and were unfused. jasper got away, but i got poofed. Steven convinced the gems to take me home, and he kept me on a pillow on his bed until i healed.

suicide tw; self harm tw;

at some point i attempted to shatter my own gem. im not sure exactly when it happened, but i it was before garnet apologized to me (see Garnet below) i also know steven was the one to find me and talk me into coming home.

after that i had self harming tendencies that i hid from the others. garnet eventually found out and helped me get better, though.

Bismuth

i was terrified of her when i first saw her again; i was in steven’s room hiding on the other side of his bed when he brought her out

she was.. really nice, though. she immediately assumed i was someone she fought, and wanted to put that behind us. i agreed, but was still skittish

because of this, i was there when her and steven went back to the weapons thing. i ended up following them, and i was there for the whole fight with bismuth. i remember me and steven crying as he bubbled her again, and i carried him on my back until we got home. his feet were burned and we were both exhausted.

we brought her back eventually and i love + miss her a lot (possibly romo)

Steven

The ! Best ! Little ! Buddy !

When i told him i was a Special Lapis (a fact i hated) he and connie bought me this like body lotion with glitter in it? i loved it and wore it a lot.

called me and amethyst his sisters for a while (i think sometimes amethyst was Brother, too, but idr for sure)

At some point he told me i was like a mom to him and i ;-; i love him. our relationship was somewhere between parent/sibling

wore dresses and skirts a lot

sometimes he’d get really sad and we’d just sit in silence for a while. when peridot was around we lived in the barn like canon and he’s come over and just nap or something where it was quiet

he got grounded for helping me and when i found that out it made me spiral Bad all over again. the CGs felt bad about it (esp garnet and pearl) but it still hurt.

Jasper

ended up corrupted. steven saved her eventually. i wasn’t entirely against the idea, but he was okay with not bringing her up around me. we tolerated each other eventually, and may have been friends (over the course of like, several years, not the course of the show timeline)

Peridot

Small, but about the same size as steven. she was super clingy and would hug/cuddle/hold hands/etc a lot with me and amethyst. she would also ride on my back a lot if we were walking or flying somewhere

she had problems walking for some reason? i dont remember why but especially on sand she had a hard time

she was.. hit a lot. idk if she ever told me by who, but the way she acted made it obvious.

may have been romo with me and amethyst

Garnet

she actually apologized to me for the mirror thing. they thought that i was mindless/corrupted or a BD follower, which i kind of understood, but they were also kinda mean to me for a while (plus the whole steven being grounded thing..) so she eventually actually apologized for it

she was super affectionate; hugs, kisses, cuddles, etc. romo and platonic!! her and steven snuggled on the couch a lot, her and pearl would openly kiss sometimes, stuff like that

her and pearl had a falling out, but with all of our help pearl ended up getting a lot better and they made up.

Amethyst

i dont remember a lost specifically about her besides the things that overlap with peridot. i do remember sometimes she would shout or move too quickly and me and peri would both be uncomfortable, but she caught on pretty fast.

Pearl

definitely romo for pearl like, Way after things happened

she dated mystery girl for a while, but it wasnt really good for her. when they broke up her mental health got a lot better.

we had a loooong talk some time after garnet apologized to me. me and pearl previously would fight and bicker and say things we didn’t really mean, and after the talk we got a lot better about it.

Blue Pearl

I vaguely remember being friends with Blue before i was put in the mirror. She was shy and quiet, but also kind of snarky a lot (had to be, to put up with Yellow)

i remember meeting her again on earth, and being really happy about it

[jewell-chan]

Little Leader

Oh shit, I actually forgot to post it here. Yes, the following is a one-shot of Kokichi’s backstory and a test to try and fix the flaws and cliches of a lot of Kokichi backstory fics I’ve read. Keep in mind the following will contain major spoilers. Enjoy.

No…

Not now...

Not after everything I’ve done…

I can’t just let it all go to waste and die…

Cold and alone…

Just like Saihara-chan said…

It’s what I asked for…

So why does it hurt so much?

”Kokichi!”

*gasp*

The boy’s eyes opened quickly to see the figure of a slender young girl looking down on him, her face blurred slightly by the sunlight shining upon the two of them.

Getting used to awakening, the boy raises his hand over his eyes and gets a clear image of the girl with the sunlight blocked off.

Her knees were slightly bent down and her hands were clasped as her arms droop downwards. Her crystal blue hairs and innocent smile looked the boy in the eyes patiently as he examined her strawberry blonde pigtails, pale skin and tied up brown blazer.

”Oh, Ren-chan… Good morning.”

”Morning? It’s one in the afternoon, silly!”

”Huh?”

The boy lifted his head to see the leaves above him were giving him shade before turning his head to notice he’s been leaning on a tree. He didn’t seem to be holding anything to suggest he was doing something before he fell asleep.

”Ah, I guess it is. I must have dozed off.”

”Yeah, Masayuki told me to see where you went.”

”Oh shit.”

The boy quickly got to his feet and tightened up loose ends on his gakuran.

”No need to rush to your boyfriend, Kokichi. You weren’t missing for long and we still have less than half an hour of break left.”

”Alrighty, but…”

”Huh?”

The girl noticed the boy looking down trying to hide his face brightening up.

”...He’s not by boyfriend.”

The girl cracked a smug grin before the two walked back over to their friend.

”Heh. Sure thing.”

The boy’s name is Kokichi Ouma. For such a short height and childish appearance, he sure isn’t a very cautious person and is usually seen as a troublemaker and an attention seeker. He ends up getting held back in glad and get his friends in trouble sometimes along with it. However, despite this, Kokichi has an imagination that matches his childish appearance rather well, said imagination often causing him to doze off.

The girl’s name is Ren Sasaki. A bubbly friend of Kokichi’s who refers to most of her acquaintances by their first names while Kokichi refers to her by her first name. While she may not agree with some of the choices her friends make, her loyalty convinces herself to play along with them. While not necessarily energetic, it’s rare for her to frown or speak in a more negative light without joking around.

Both are currently at the age of 15 not too far into the start of their first year of High School. They’ve been friends since Middle school and have always been there for one another.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

“Hey, you found him.”

The two ran back to a much taller figure standing by the vending machine holding two cans in his hands and one on his head, Masayuki Kobayashi.

”Kobayashi-chan! Did you get my favorite?”

”Before I answer, don’t you have something to say?”

Kokichi’s smile dropped to a frown. He started looking at the ground, curling his arms around his back and twisting his ankle back and forth before reluctantly but finally giving in, tilting his head back up and looking Masayuki in the eyes.

”I’m sorry for wandering off...”

”Good.”

Masayuki handed Kokichi his can while giving a light toss of the other can towards Ren, who caught it successfully with both hands. Masayuki took the can off of his head to have for himself.

Suspicious, Kokichi popped his can open first and had a sip. The taste gave him an expression that caused his eyes to sparkle.

”Boba tea! You know me so well.”

”I… I thought it was panta.”

Ren sighed as she looked down at her feet with guilt. The boys could only chuckle a little.

The three decided to sit down by the bench nearby under the shade from the sun. They felt the cool frozen up can in their two hands to quickly distract from the strong heat that day, followed by Ren rubbing the can against her cheek to cool down.

”Ahhh… It feels so good…”

”Aren’t you being a little over dramatic? The weather’s fine.”

Masayuki asks followed by Kokichi speaking up.

”I’m pretty sure she doesn’t actually find it too hot. It’s just Ren-chan being her usual self.”

Once they got comfortable and started to actually start drinking their boba tea, the trio ended up normally conversing. Kokichi had both of his legs on the bench along with the rest of his body on the left while Ren’s legs were off the bench and kicking the air back and forth a little on the right. Masayuki was sitting on the bench normally compared to them right in the middle.

”So did you get into any trouble today, Ouma-kun?”

”Not today.”

”Well, we’ll see about that, since we’re only three quarters into the day.”

Kokichi looked across to the other two faking a disappointed expression.

”Aww, you two doubt me that much? I thought we were friends.”

”Nah, I hate you.”

Masayuki joked back before slightly changing his tone, leaning backward on the bench and holding his can above with one hand.

”On a serious note, did you take my advice?”

”Hm?”

Kokichi’s smile eventually dropped and he looked away from Masayuki.

”Yeah, I thought you knew what I was talking about.”

Ren perked her head up.

”What’s this about?”

”I told Ouma-kun to start talking things out with his folks, but it looks like he didn’t listen.”

”You don’t know how hard it is to speak up.”

”I understand that it’s hard, but if it’s bothering you so much you’re going to have to confron-”

Masayuki’s voice is cut off by the loud ring of the bell.

”And we’re late.”

Kokichi said as he quickly got up, ignored what was just said and put on a smile. Ren looked disappointed.

”That was quick…”

After her mumbling, she also got up and both she and Kokichi stared back at Masayuki waiting. After glancing at Kokichi for a short while, he also stood and the two went off to class.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

Due to being in a separate year level by a year, Kokichi and Ren had to part ways with Masayuki and return to their classroom they luckily share main subjects with while Masayuki descends to the next floor for his class.

Unfortunately, the two encounter trouble happening in the classroom. It seems the teacher hasn’t arrived.

Slam

“Huh?”

The two looked over to see a boy slamming his hand against the wall next to a smaller girl’s head and looking down upon her. There was clearly some harassment going on.

”And you’re still refusing to pay up?”

”...”

”What? Do you want me to kill you?”

The girl didn’t say anything.

”Jocks are at it again...”

Ren tries to turn her head on the situation only to realize Kokichi wasn’t in her view anymore.

”That’s enough, Sano.”

”Kokichi!”

Ren turned to see Kokichi walked in closer to the conversation and was staring the main jock in the eye standing straight. She hadn’t seen him so serious before.

”...Heh.”

”Ah…!”

After violently punching the girl in the gut causing her to fall down, the jock walked up to Kokichi stared him back.

”Did you say something?”

”...”

Kokichi just stood there staring back with the same expression. In reality, he was too frozen to move. He didn’t know what to do or say. He knew he wasn’t strong enough to go through with this.

The jock pets his shoulder and walks by him.

”Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

Kokichi’s fist clenched and the jock walking by him couldn’t see Kokichi gritting his teeth revealing his incisors and his eyes daggering.

Once the jock completely passed by, Kokichi ran towards the girl to see if she was alright.

”He’s gone now. Did he get you too badly?”

The girl’s long brunette hair stopped overshadowing her face to reveal her amber eyes, inner plats in her hair style and her… Disappointing chest size.

”You’re not from this class, are you?”

”...”

Without saying anything, the girl ran outside of the classroom.

”Hey, wait-!”

The homegroup teacher returned and everyone including Kokichi had to return to their seats. Kokichi had to put his thoughts on the girl aside and go back to his seat.

He sits next to Ren who tries not to say anything about the incident, but it was quite obvious she was thinking about it.

Kokichi could clearly hear that jock chuckling in the back. He was probably staring at him but he didn’t want to confirm his suspicions.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

Kokichi and Ren exited the school gates walking back home with bags on their back along the white footpath. The two had similar routes to take to get to their houses, Kokichi’s being the closer of the two.

”Why… Did you have to speak up to him?”

Kokichi didn’t have to be a genius to figure out what she was talking about. He stayed quiet.

”Come on, don’t shut out on me. Explain yourself.”

Kokichi couldn’t stay silent forever.

”He threatened to kill her.”

”You… You know he wasn’t serious, right?”

”Stuff like that isn’t something to joke about, alright?”

”If you got a loooong life ahead of you if death threats are what causes you to do reckless stuff.”

Ren held her hands on the straps of her backpack and looked up at the sky with an exhausted expression.

”I don’t know what we’re going to have to do with you, Kokichi.”

Kokichi turned his head towards her with a seemingly slight smile.

”The same could be said for you.”

”Huh!?”

Ren perked her head back down and looked Kokichi in the eyes, slightly mift.

”Well, I might be a little bit of a shit stirrer but you’re easy to manipulate and also not the sharpest tool in the shed. Not necessarily dumb but not specialized in ways to mentally or physically fend for yo-”

”I get it.”

Ren puffed up her cheeks and turned her eyes away from Kokichi.

”No need to lecture me on how much of a horrible person I am.”

”I don’t think you’re a horrible person. I’m just pointing out your weaknesses.”

”Well then, stop that.”

Now that they were settled, Ren remembered something and turned to Kokichi with a more curious expression.

”By the way, what did Masayuki mean by that?”

Kokichi’s eyes widened up a little followed by uncrossing his arms and looking right back at Ren again.

”Of course, you immediately figured out what I was talking about. He’s been giving you advice to deal with your parents, right?”

After a long sigh, Kokichi gave in.

”Yes, but I haven’t been taking it.”

”And why is that?”

”Exactly the same reason you just said. Everyone needs to be confronted with something they’re not ready for and this is what applies for me.”

Ren’s eyebrows curve a little.

”Are you… Afraid of your parents?”

N-No, it’s not that, I just… I don’t know how to talk to them. I could try but my voice will restrict itself too much for them to hear me.”

Kokichi puts his hands in his pockets and looks down at the floor while walking.

”I mean, would it hurt you to speak up?”

”Probably not, but I can’t bring myself to do so just yet. I don’t think we’ve had a talk as a family in a while, actually.”

Ren perked her head to the left a little.

”That’s sad. I’m sure they love you deep down inside. You just need to talk to them about it and they’ll understand.”

”I’d like to believe they love me, but they don’t really convey that very well if they do.”

Ren looks down at her feet alongside him and fails to see what’s ahead. She walks into some bricks lined up with her forehead.

”Oof!”

”Welp, guess we’re here.”

Ren leans back and rubs her head staring at the brick stool with a mailbox flap on it. She then looks up to see Kokichi was home. It was a single story house with a large tree on the left and some flowerbeds on the right as well as a gate in the middle to get through the concrete pathway to the door.

Kokichi steps forward, but not before turning to Ren and giving a wave.

”I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Before he can go further, he’s surprise hugged by Ren from behind.

”Yeah, see ya!”

She let go of Kokichi and parted ways to the right on the way to her house which was pretty much around the corner. Kokichi watched her walk by before walking inside.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

Upon entering his house door, he immediately found himself in the lounge. The walls were chestnut brown wood and the carpet was dark green and rough. The television was on the corner facing the two arm chairs and coffee table nearby.

Nobody seemed to be in the lounge right now so Kokichi removed his shoes and left them by the shoe rack, also revealing that he’s not wearing socks. Kokichi walked over to the back of the lounge and into the hallway.

”Okaa-san! I’m home!”

No answer, as usual.

Kokichi strolled down into the back room. On the right was a door leading to Kokichi’s bedroom.

Upon entering, Kokichi put his backpack on the floor, shut the door behind him and sat on the bed. His room was rather simple. He had some floor space in front of the door to drop belongings onto, a cabinet right in front of his bed which was on the left side of the room alongside a window and a closet which was on the right side of the room.

He had a double sized bed with a rather small black and white checkered blanket. He had a single pillow which was shaped like a turtle, although coloured purple. Next to the pillow was a horse mask. Kokichi looked at his cabinet to see a large purple piece of fabric dangling off the edges. Light purple on the inside with a fluffy tinge and dark purple on the outside with a shine to it.

After examining for a bit, Kokichi decided to go through his cabinet to find his camera. It didn’t take long and he prepared the camera in front of his face. Suddenly, Kokichi managed to twist his face in spectacular ways. His eyes hollowed out into twisted black circles, his mouth twisted to match his eyes, his skin turned dark purple and the locks of his hair sprung up further before taking a picture.

The moment the picture was taken, flash covered his vision only to reveal his face was completely fine and back to his childishly innocent expression when the flash faded off. He took the picture out and shaked it around a bit before putting the camera off.

Kokichi looked at the picture to see a demonic soul sucked from hell in the form of a facial expression and then placed it in the front pocket of his bag to use the next day.

Kokichi walked out of his room, through the hallway walking past the bathroom, laundry room, kitchen, parent’s room and brother’s room and back to the lounge to see that three familiar faces were inside.

Kokichi’s mother and father sat in the lounge chairs with his brother standing on the side leaning against the wall. Only his brother noticed him walk in as he turned his head towards him.

[C]His skin was as pale as Kokichi’s, but unlike Kokichi’s gloomy purple eyes, his eyes were fiery red as well as his hair being an incredibly dark shade of brown. The bang in front of his hair had a spring to it, similar to the springs on the sides of Kokichi’s hair.

”Oh, Kokichi. I didn’t notice you got back from school already.”

His voice was gentle but mature. Fitting for a brother figure. Kokichi looked at his parents, back at his brother and gulped.

”Y-Yeah. I got back before. Hey, Raiden.”

Kokichi wanted to try and start a conversation, but he was worried what would happen if he got curious about what was going on with his brother’s life.

”Ouma-kun! Did you hear about Raiden’s upcoming performance?”

Too late. Kokichi’s mother had already spoken up.

”...No, I haven’t.”

”Ah, then let us explain!”

Kokichi listened to his parents ramble on about Raiden’s next performance which didn’t sound anymore different than the last one. Raiden is a musician, with his main instrument being a saxophone. He’s well known around the town and is also frequently talked about in the female population of the town.

His music wasn’t to Kokichi’s personal taste so he never cared for it. He also definitely didn’t like watching his parents gush over it all the time.

”...Fascinating.”

Kokichi turned around to hide his miserable face.

”Call me when dinner’s ready.”

Kokichi walked off back to his room. He wasn’t even sure if his parents were even done talking about the performance yet. He shut the door behind him and jumped onto the bed back-first looking up at the roof and his feet dangling off the side.

He couldn’t stand his mother’s high pitched voice praising Raiden like the second coming of christ. He couldn’t stand his father’s muttering and nodding to everything she said.

”...By the way honey, how was school today?”

Kokichi muttered out loud.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

After dinner, Kokichi sat down on his bed pondering to himself.

He remembered that boy harassing that girl and punching her in the gut. Sano was definitely in their homegroup. The girl, however, seemed to be from a different class of Kokichi’s. His psychology class. Aya Tamura. She’s a shy type who he rarely sees talking to anyone.

”Didn’t know she was the silent type…”

Kokichi gave a sigh before looking up fearlessly.

”Whatever. I’ll show that asshole…!”

Kokichi’s neck perked his head into straight position when he soon heard the door open. In came Raiden.

”Hey Kokichi. Do you mind if I come in?”

”...”

Kokichi’s silence didn’t express any negative or positive emotions. He seemed more-so surprised.

”Sorry.”

Kokichi’s brother closed the door behind him and sat beside Kokichi on the bed.

”I don’t mean to be rude, but I feel like we should be able to talk about this… Are you jealous of me?”

”Huh?”

Kokichi didn’t seem to confirm or deny anything. His expression didn’t imply if he felt good or bad about what Raiden was saying.

”You want some affection, right? Some love? A family?”

”...”

”I’ll just say that you still have a family, because I’ll always be here for you.”

Raiden rubbed his hand onto Kokichi’s hair a little causing the boy to squint.

”Because… I’m your brother.”

Raiden gave a giant smile to Kokichi whose face turned into awe.

”I know I don’t act like it, though.”

Raiden got up from the bed and began to walk out the door.

”I’ll try my best, but if I’m not enough, maybe you can try something big to impress our folks.”

Before Raiden left, he grew a bigger smile.

”I’m sure they’d appreciate your effort.”

Raiden shut the door behind him. It was a quick conversation, and barely counts as one at that. However, Kokichi was awestruck on the bed staring at the door Raiden exited from.

That final advice. He didn’t know what about it gave him hope nor did it give him any ideas, but he was strangely enlightened by it.

”...Huh.”

Kokichi decided to get some early rest, got into his nightwear and tucked himself under the blankets of his bed. He hugged onto his horse mask as he used it as a teddy bear.

Kokichi fell peacefully into sleep easily.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

Once break started, Kokichi waited outside of his homegroup classroom pretending to leave and waited until every student and the teacher left from sight. He then used the hairclip from his pocket to open the doors again and sneak inside.

Upon entering, Kokichi found the desk of that jock from yesterday. He unzipped the bag dangling from the chair and took out his Psychology book. He opened it up to the last page it was written on and left it open on the desk.

Kokichi went over to his own bag and took some tape and the photograph he took yesterday from his front pocket. He used to the tape to stick the photo on the blank page on the left. He made sure to scribble out any signs that the face in the photo belonged to him like some of his hair and scarf leaking into the picture.

He closed the book, placed it back in the bag and zipped it up like if he never touched it. He put the tape back in his front pocket, zipped it up and placed his bag next to his own desk. He then exited the room like if he was never there.

Upon exiting the room, Kokichi stopped and then thought up an idea upon what he’d just done.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

”A… Secret organization?”

Masayuki gave a very confused smile sitting on the bench beside Ren, who seemed simply curious to what Kokichi had to say.

”That’s right!”

Kokichi stood in front of them pointing his finger towards him with a confident smile.

”I want to serve justice for those who deserve a bit of a punishment by playing a bit of a game with them! A hidden organization serving justice from the shadows, kind of like a phantom thief! Doesn’t that sound like tons of fun!?”

”It sure does, but… Is this just some sort of club you want to hold?”

Masayuki was still finding something like that hard to belief. Kokichi had quite the imagination.

”Well, there’s more bad people out there than just the school, isn’t there?”

Masayuki sighed.

”Then that would mean you’d have to serve justice to the entire world.”

”Oh… That’s an amazing idea, Kobayashi-chan!”

”Huh?”

”Imagine travelling the world serving justice behind an evil persona by causing those people a little bit of havoc. Doesn’t that sound fun?”

”Fun, yet highly dangerous and highly difficult to do.”

”Which is just perfect!”

”What?”

”What’s the fun in doing something when it’s too easy? The difficulty just makes you more proud when you pull it off!”

Masayuki sighed once more and looked at Ren. She hadn’t said anything the whole time.

”What do you think about all of this?”

Ren looked up with a rare expression. It was a worried and slightly disappointed expression.

”If you went through with that, does that mean you’d leave us?”

Kokichi dropped his hand with a surprised look but then followed up with a smile before walking up to them closer.

”Of course not. In fact, I want you two to join me.”

”H-Huh!?”

”I don’t want to do this alone. I want us to start an organization with you guys together and expand from there.”

”So you expect us to just abandon our normal lives for your own pleasure?”

Kokichi’s smile dropped.

”You know that’s not the case. I’m asking this for your sake as well. It’s no secret you’ve got nothing to gain here.”

That’s right. Masayuki moved out at a young age after having to deal with abusive parents as an only child and now pays for his school funding and apartment rent. Ren on the other hand is the only girl in a household of 12 brothers and a single parent due to her mother passing away.

None of them were happy with their home lives and their school lives weren’t anything to brag about. They’ve always just had each other.

”And that’s…”

Masayuki stood up and walked directly towards Kokichi and placed his hand on his shoulder before looking up.

”Exactly what I wanted to hear.”

Masayuki had a gentle smile. One that signified gratitude. Kokichi gave a smile back and Masayuki took his hand off of Kokichi’s shoulder before scratching his head a little.

”I was just testing you quickly. After all, being a leader involves selflessness and not attention.”

Masayuki turned to Ren.

”Are you in for it?”

Ren didn’t say anything. She just looked up with a confident and determined face and nodded. She tried to look proud and intimidating but she instead came off like a cute angry cat.

”I don’t want to do things too immediately, but let us know when you’re ready to do it. After all, there’s probably no going back for you once you do it. Alright?”

Masayuki advices.

“...I understand.”

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

Kokichi sat at his desk in psychology class holding a voice recorder waiting for the perfect moment. He was the first to enter the class and awaited the other students.

Other students came in along with that Aya girl and that Sano kid eventually came in too. Sano sitting down at his desk put a huge grin on Kokichi’s face which he had to hide from him or else he’d suspect something.

The teacher came in and called out everyone to open their books out to their latest page. Kokichi got his book out and opened it as soon as he could so he could catch Sano’s reaction in time.

”3, 2, 1…”

Kokichi pressed the record button on his voice recorder and soon grinned at the satisfying scream fly across the room.

Most of the students immediately looked back at Sano’s position while Kokichi hung his head back with his eyes shut in relief. A little prank to give someone their kumuppins.

Once Kokichi opened his eyes, he was a little surprised to notice Aya was chuckling at her seat. That’s probably the first time he’s seen a happy emotion out of her. He couldn’t help but smile.

Once the heat died down, the teacher resumed class.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

”Hey, Mama! Mama!”

After school, when Kokichi got home, he was standing outside of his brother’s room calling for his mother, who was instructing him with practice.

”Hey, Mama! I was wondering if I was allowed to go down the street for a short while!”

He couldn’t tell if she couldn’t hear him or she was ignoring him, but she wasn’t responding either way.

”Ma-!”

”God damn it Raiden! You missed the note!”

His mother screaming stopped Kokichi cold. It’s not the first time he’s heard her screaming at his brother but that doesn’t stop it from being sudden.

Eventually, Kokichi gave up and decided to go down the street himself without permission.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

Kokichi was placing his fingers on his chin squinting one eye and cocking his head to the side innocently staring at the hats in the clothing store.

He examined them to check which one would be fitting for a leader. Of course, he went with the purple cap the moment he saw it and bought it.

While he was walking out of the store, a familiar figure approached him. Sano.

”Augh…!”

Sano pushed Kokichi’s back to the wall in place.

”It was you who put that in, wasn’t it!?”

Kokichi recovered from his sudden attack and then looked at Sano for a few seconds before giving a smug grin and chuckling.

”Heh.”

Of course, that wasn’t a good response. The jock kee’d Kokichi in the stomach.

”Of…!”

He then picked Kokichi’s small body up by his wrists and ankles over his shoulders and walked him towards the nearest dumpster.

”H-Hey!”

Sano didn’t hesitate to chuck him inside said dumpster and close the lid before storming off.

It took a little while for Kokichi to recover enough strength to get up. He opened the dumpster lid and found another familiar face staring back at him.

Aya. It seemed she was walking past and witnessed the event.

”...Somehow, I think that thing is a fitting place for you.”

Kokichi could only laugh.

”Did you see how ass mad he was about that? What a loser.”

Aya was surprised by the reaction.

”You’re not upset?”

”Why would I be? I’m glad he proved that I got a reaction out of him. Serves him right for what he did to you.”

”Right.”

Aya looked down at her feet before looking back up at Kokichi.

”You might want to get out of there. There’s a lot of cockroaches and spiders in those things.”

”Hyaaah…!”

Kokichi immediately forced himself to jump out of the dumpster, causing him to plummet onto the floor.

Kokichi really hated bugs.

”And yeah, just as I thought. You had something to do with the fit he pulled in class today. What did you do?”

Kokichi got to his feet.

”Oh, nothing, I just pasted a disturbing face in his psychology book.”

”Oh. Is he easily frightened?”

”Well, what do you think of this?”

Kokichi twisted his face identically to the one in the picture causing Aya to jump back. Kokichi changed his face back to normal.

”A-Anyways… What I’m saying is you probably shouldn’t pull that again. Some kids are related to members of the mafia around here, you know?”

Aya made a good point. The mafia in their town was a huge problem.

”I should know because… My Dad’s a member.”

”Huh?”

Aya spoke up about her homelife. Her Dad’s a member of the mafia clan and has done some awful things. However, one thing that set Kokichi’s mind off was…

”Including murder.”

Kokichi ran up to Aya, placed both of his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eye which wasn’t much of a challenge since she wasn’t much taller than him.

”You need to get out of there.”

”What?”

”No matter what, you shouldn’t associate yourself with a killer.”

”I-I know, but… I don’t have anywhere else to go…”

Kokichi’s eyes lit up.

”Nowhere else, eh? That’s such a coincidence…”

Aya looked back at Kokichi, intrigued by what he had to say.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

Kokichi couldn’t be happier to already have received another recruit. He wonders how many other people he can save from the horrors of the world and give them the care and affection they deserve. After all, he knows the feeling of longing to be cared for and giving affection.

He didn’t just stop there. Kokichi went into his closet and took a dirtied white shirt and pants that he hasn’t used in a long time. They were pretty basic.

Kokichi took out a pair of scissors and added scratches and cuts to the shirt, entirely removing the collarbone and even cutting straight through the front layer of the left side and patching it back up with badges and clips. While he was at it, he decided to add randomly coloured buttons to it.

He went back into the closet to find a box containing a bunch of white straps. He took two of them and attached them to his pants. To make sure they don’t fall off, he decided to sew them on.

Kokichi stood up on his two feet and looked at his outfit. He liked it but felt like something was missing. He turned to see a certain style he liked on one of the bed’s fabric. He wanted to use it.

As a result, he ended up cutting his blanket into a bunch of different squares that he was pretty sure reached the double digits in quantity. However, he only needed one.

After he put on the outfit, Kokichi folded the fabric diagonally wrapped it around his neck from both sides causing a triangle shape to form on his neck and made a knot of the two sides under the triangle shaped flap.

He just made himself a scarf.

Kokichi looked at himself using the mirror in his closet. He looked like a pathetic street rat. He loved it. Kokichi then put his hat on and then checked himself again. Not perfect, but liked what he saw.

Kokichi let out a yawn. It looked like all that stuff was a bit too much work for one day and decided to go to bed with what he was wearing… The issue is that he cut up his blanket into a bunch of rags.

Kokichi decided to lay on the bed with no blanket to warm himself up. He tried hugging onto himself to get some more warmth.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

Kokichi and Raiden’s mother heard a knock on the door. She answered to see Masayuki was there.

”Hello there, sorry to interrupt, but Ouma-kun left his bag inside of the classroom.”

Masayuki was holding up Kokichi’s bag for his mother to see.

”Ah, I see. His room is at the back of the house so could you please hand it over to him? I’m a little busy right now.”

”Sure thing.”

Masayuki entered Kokichi’s house for the first time and went to the back of the house and took a right to Kokichi’s room. What Masayuki didn’t expect was for Kokichi to be asleep at 5:30 in the afternoon with no blanket.

Masayuki stayed quiet not wanting to interrupt him and placed the bag on the floor. Upon doing so, he noticed the pieces of scrap clothing and scissors on the floor. He then realized what he was wearing wasn’t pajamas, but something he made.

He even noticed the little hat.

”Oh, Ouma-kun…”

Masayuki didn’t want to leave Kokichi cold all night, so he got the idea to take one of the clips from his cabinet and take the large dangling fabric down. After arranging it a little and using the clip to hold it in place, he moved Kokichi’s head up a little to slip on what he just made for him.

Luckily, he didn’t wake him. What Masayuki made was a cape to match his hat, and also to use as a blanket that night and keep warm.

Masayuki gave a light smile before slowly and carefully leaving the room, and eventually the house.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

”...Huh?”

Kokichi woke up that morning to feel a warm fabric covering his body. He slowly sat up and examined himself. He found the purple cape on himself.

He stared at the collarbone for a little while before turning his head to find the rest of the cape. Smooth, warm and matching fabric.

Kobayashi-chan…?

”...Aha!”

Kokichi grabbed onto the edges of his cape and tugged them inwards to snuggle inside of his cape like a blanket. He couldn’t have but smile brightly squinting his eyes from joy.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

A few weeks past and Kokichi was ready. He had already designed similar outfits to his own, lumped the leftover fabric pieces made from his blanket with said outfits and secretly packed everything he needs.

Masayuki said he had the money earlier that week. He felt like it was time. He was told to meet up with Ren and Masayuki by the school and get to the airport, which wasn’t too far away from town. He also had to bring Aya along and introduce her to them.

Kokichi dragged the bags he kept hidden in the closet out and snuck into the lounge early that morning. He put his shoes on and tried not to make the door creak when he opened it. He looked back behind him to get a last glimpse of his old home.

”Goodbye, Raiden.”

He didn’t bother saying goodbye to his parents and left the house.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

And from that point on, Kokichi’s life changed.

He and the others ended up accomplishing just what Kokichi wanted.

A secret organization going across the world serving justice to whoever they consider a bad person, sometimes even good people for fun, with him being the leader of them.

The pranks they pulled included petty theft, framing other people for crimes that neither of them committed and even faking crime scenes like robberies and their own murders.

Of course, not everything they did was necessarily illegal. They could just pull some minor vandalism or pull some regular pranks.

And it wasn’t just Kokichi, Masayuki, Ren and Aya. New members were recruited as time went on. Kokichi extended a hand to people in need of a family life whether it was a street rat, an orphan or someone in an abusive household.

Including two brothers, a seductress, a washed up musician and others, the society consisted of 10 members, Kokichi included.

After a day’s work, the group decided to make their way through an alleyway and through a hidden back door painting over to back the brick wall. Inside said door was a little shack that contained a few back rooms, which were luckily able to block out a lot of sound so the members could have their privacy when they needed it.

”Ahhh…”

Kokichi stretched his arms out yawning.

”You tired?”

”...Maybe.”

Kokichi looked back up as Masayuki with one eye open and a crooked smile. Masayuki chuckled.

Kokichi walked into the top right corner of the room and jumped into the hammack dangling there tied between the wall and the tall cabinet. Kokichi laid down onto the hammock and Masayuki stopped to say goodnight.

”Sleep tight, little leader.”

Kokichi fell peacefully into a sleep. He knew by morning that he’d have to plan another prank and put his goofy clown mask back on.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

”Kobayashi-chan...”

”Hm?”

Kokichi and Masayuki sit on the railing of a balcony three stories from ground. Their legs and dangling down and they put their masks on the flaw for a little while.

They were on another spree but decided to enjoy the view.

”Are you proud of how things have gone?”

”What do you mean?”

”Are you glad that I formed DICE with you and Ren?”

Masayuki stares into Kokichi’s eyes with a gentle smile.

”Well, what do you think the answer is?”

Kokichi placed his finger on his chin and squinting his eyes a little looking up at the tall figure.

”Hmmm… Hmmm…”

Kokichi was tilting his head side to side for a full 30 seconds repeating the same noise over and over again. Masayuki eventually gained an obviously fake smiled and eventually pieced together Kokichi was fucking with him.

”I’m glad you formed DICE.”

He had to break the truth or they’d be there all night.

”Yes!”

Kokichi clenched his hand and grinned out of the delight of victory.

”Why did you ask anyway?”

”Well, you said it yourself. A good leader has to satisfy his subordinates or he’s not even a leader.”

”Ah, so you actually do take my advice.”

”Of course. Don’t you understand me?”

”I’m allowed to keep in check, aren’t I?”

Masayuki looked down at the pavement below. They were very high up. Kokichi couldn’t read Masayuki’s expression.

”After all, even the best people can change.”

”Huh?”

Masayuki looked up and smiled at Kokichi once again.

”So it’s good to know you’re the little leader we all know and love.”

Masayuki gave Kokichi a tap on the back, or more so a push that wobbled Kokichi forwards.

”Ahh-!”

Masayuki caught him easily before he managed to fall without losing his smile. He brought Kokichi backwards and left him standing behind the rail of the balcony in safe zone.

Kokichi did not seem amused, with his face and cheeks puffed and his fists clenched.

”What was that for!?”

”Relax, it was just a prank.”

”It wasn’t funny!”

Masayuki couldn’t help but laugh.

”You sound like a little kid having a tantrum. I thought you’d act older for your age.”

”Hey!”

The two looked behind them from being called out to hear one of the recruited DICE members, Seiji, call out to them.

”We’re getting ready to leave now. We’ve rearranged almost everything but never stolen anything just like you asked.”

”Good work, Nishimura-chan!”

Kokichi and Seiji gave each other a thumbs up. Kokichi and Masayuki picked up their masks and got ready to head out.

They thought the halls were empty only for a sudden shadow to run past them.

”Eii!”

Kokichi realized he was just grabbed and pinned against the wall.

”Leader!”

After hearing Ren call out, Kokichi recovered and looked up to see a familiar face looking up at him.

”Explain yourself. Now.”

The figure called out.

Kokichi could only reach out his hands and take off his mask as soon as he could to show his face.

”K-Kokichi?”

”R...Raiden?”

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

The group somehow managed to get out of there and settle down back to their base with Raiden, after his and Kokichi’s awkward reunion. Kokichi trusted him enough with the base.

”A detective?”

”Yeah, that’s right. I was asked to look into you guys.”

Raiden looked up at Kokichi who was sitting down on the lounge chair with his legs crossed and arms tucked in between.

”I just didn’t expect to find… An old friend.”

Kokichi then remembered.

”H-Hey… Did Mama and Papa… React when I was gone?”

”...”

Raiden stayed quiet. Not a single word. Kokichi eventually knew he wasn’t going to answer and just looked down sadly at his feet.

”So with that, I’m abandoning this case.”

”Huh?”

”Well, I don’t want to sell out my own brother now, do I?”

Raiden got up from his seat and gave his brother a pet on the shoulder.

”But I’ll be sure to stop by and visit.”

Raiden let go of his brother’s shoulder and headed towards the exit.

”After all, I’m sure that you want your family again.”

Raiden closed the door behind him and was out of sight.

Masayuki tried to hide his annoyed expression from Kokichi who luckily seemed to fixated on the door, and muttered.

”He already has his family…”

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

It had been a week since Kokichi’s reunion with his brother. He hasn’t seen him since, or at least until today.

Kokichi was strolling nearby the alley and found a stray kitten. He started clicking his fingers for it to come closer towards him and succeeded.

”C’mere, kitty.”

Kokichi scratched under the kitten’s neck from the front and the back and then proceeded to pet his back. The kitten began to purr and lay down on his side. Kokichi rubbed his hand across it’s silver fur gently and smiled.

”Mhm…”

Strays don’t come by often, but Kokichi always liked to befriend them since they brought out his feeling of being a child again. Although, he mostly preferred cats.

”Hey.”

”Huh?”

Kokichi looked up to see Raiden had returned.

”Ah, you’re back.”

Kokichi left the kitten alone and stood up to face his old relative.

”Is this awkward for you?”

”Well, not exactly… If anything, I’m sort of relieved.”

Kokichi looked up at his brother with genuine empathy.

”After all, you were the only one who felt like family.”

”Same to you.”

Kokichi and Raiden decided to hand shake.

”Which is why I want you join me.”

”What?”

Kokichi stood back a little.

”Join my business.”

”Your… Detective business?”

”Yep. Imagine it. Two brothers reuniting and working together to solve cases and making the world a better place.”

Raiden closed in on Kokichi and have him a soft hug while whispering in his ear comfortingly. His tender voice almost put Kokichi to sleep. Then Kokichi snapped out of it and focused.

”S-Sorry, but… That would mean I would have to abandon DICE.”

Kokichi leaned back so Raiden would release him from the hug.

”So you’d rather be a petty criminal rather than a good person? What kind of justice is that?”

”It’s not just about justice. It’s about having a family.”

”I thought I was your family.”

”You… You are, but… No, you used to be, but-”

”Confused, I see.”

Raiden closed in on Kokichi’s ear once again and whispered.

”I felt a little article in the storage room of your hideaway.”

“Huh…?”

Kokichi’s eyes widened up and looked back up to see Raiden was already walking away with a final turn back to his little brother with a sorrowful side glance.

”Just remember I’m doing this all for your sake.”

”M...My sake?”

Kokichi was stunned as he watched his brother walk away. He didn’t even react to the kitten rubbing against his leg some more.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

That night, Kokichi sat around in the main front room while the other members were busy. He was thinking all day on whether to take Raiden’s advice or not.

”It… It’s probably nothing.”

He finally decided. He got up and walked towards the storage room. However, he found an unexpected face there.

”Kobayashi-chan?”

”Oh-!”

Masayuki got up in a panic after being caught digging through the pile.

”Ouma-kun… What are you doing here?”

”What are you hiding…?”

Kokichi tried to bend over to see what Masayuki was obviously hiding behind his back. A report of some kind.

”Oh nothing, it’s just, uh-”

”Did you… Overhear the conversation me and Raiden have?”

”Uhh…”

Before Masayuki could notice Kokichi was right behind him and grabbed onto the report. Masayuki tried to grab him and take it away but Kokichi moved out of the way and read it in time.

Kokichi’s eyes faded and widened the further he read, and his eyebrows and mouth dropped further.

Kobayashi Masayuki, age 13, admits to the murder of his parents, court excused it due to the abuse the child was under counting it as self defense.

Masayuki started to tremble as Kokichi turned his head towards him looking betrayed. This whole time, his most trusted member defied the one rule years ago, yet decided to keep it a secret from Kokichi this whole time.

”...You liar.”

After changing expression from betrayed to angered, Kokichi through the report on the floor and ran out of the storage room.

”Ouma-kun, wait!”

Masayuki went running after him and outside of the house. He didn’t know how far Kokichi had gotten in the alleyway or what directions he’d taken, but he needed to do something.

Kokichi ran as far as he could and took as many alternate routes as he could. He wasn’t leaving DICE. He wasn’t even leaving Masayuki. He just needed to take in what he just learnt. A time to reflect. Until he was stopped in his path.

A familiar figure awaited around the corner.

”Raiden!”

Kokichi ran towards him but stopped at a fair distance.

”I… I need to tell you something.”

”Oh? You’re willing to join me?”

”No, not that, but…”

Kokichi heard a puddle go off like someone stepped onto one behind him and immediately turned around for defense only to be grabbed by his wrist by some weird man in a black and white suit and shaggy black hair.

”Wh-What?”

”Ah, don’t worry. He’s a friend of mine.”

Kokichi looked back at Raiden to see his expression changed. It was one he hadn’t seen before. It was a cheeky grin that almost made his eyes look like they were glowing.

It was an expression of ill intent.

”Agh-!”

Masayuki heard Kokichi’s voice sounding distressed.

”Ouma-kun!?”

Masayuki ran towards the sound of the scream but ended up having to search through several alternate pathways to see where he was.

Kokichi’s actual location was surrounded by three men similar to the one that grabbed him, his arms being wrapped around by one of them and his mouth being covered by another, only letting his muffled squeeks make it out.

”Mmph…! Hmmm…!”

If Masayuki heard him, he’d probably mistake it for a rat. Kokichi tried to ignore the men feeling across his face and body and looked up at his brother who was on a call with someone.

”Yeah, I got him. He wasn’t actually that hard to catch like I thought… Yeah, I’ll bring him over.”

Raiden hung up only to hear his little brother trying to make out words.

”Mmmhmmmhmmm-!”

”I’m guessing you’re a little confused.”

Raiden turned to Kokichi and started to explain the situation.

”The short version? I’m going to kill you. The long version? This was a setup. I’m no detective. Actually, you remember that mafia organization that was recruiting members and doing paid deeds back in town? Well, sometime after you abandoned me, I happened to join that mafia. And what did I do? I sort out to get back at every member of my family.”

Kokichi’s muffling came to a stop after that.

”Aww, did I surprise you? That’s right. Mama? Papa? I got rid of them. At first I felt satisfied, but it was lingering on me for over a year. I thought about how I never truly got revenge, since there was one more whiny, ungrateful bastard out there still breathing.

But I guess I got lucky when I found a documentary of that DICE organization of yours. I knew it was you the moment I saw you, no mask can hide that. I immediately figured out the patterns you guys go and pretended to encounter you by coincidence. And you fell for it without second thoughts! What a lucky day for me! Oh yeah, and while I visited your little hideaway, I was the one who left that article in your storage room. It looks like that friend of yours figured out I was trying to convince you to abandon him… Do you understand now?”

One of the men grabbing onto him let go of his mouth.

”You… You’re a monster.”

”Oh please, you know those old geezers had it coming. And now it’s your turn.”

”Hnng-...! No!”

Kokichi kicked a little, knocking his hat off.

”Heh.”

Raiden walked over behind Kokichi and the men and picked up the hat. While they were all distracted, he knocked his tape recorder to the ground gently.

”You think I’d let you knock away evidence like this? That’s right, I caught onto what you were doing.”

Raiden didn’t notice the tape recorder on the ground and proceeded to walk incredibly close up to Kokichi. The kitten Kokichi was playing with that day was watching his abduction on the side.

Kokichi looked up at Raiden with hateful eyes. He didn’t know whether to be scared or angry.

”Now, Kokichi…”

Raiden placed his finger tips onto Kokichi’s chin and lifted his head.

”...Let’s go home.”

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

”Ouma-kun!”

Masayuki kept looking around and refused to give up until he found Kokichi. He wanted to apologise. He wanted to apologise for keeping from him for so long. Is he even still in the alley?

Could… Could he have left us for…?

Masayuki shook his head and deleted that thought.

”Ouma-kun!”

Masayuki eventually came across the kitten from that today.

”...Mew…”

The kitten stared up at him and then ran around the corner. Masayuki took the stupid yet brilliant idea to run after the kitten. Upon doing so, he ended up finding Kokichi’s tape recorder.

”Oh no.”

Masayuki picked up the small tape recorder with his hand and reluctantly pressed the play button.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

Masayuki ran back to the shack furious.

”Boys, put on your masks, we’ve got a rat to catch!”

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

”G… Grrhhmm…”

Kokichi groaned before opening his eyes and realizing he’s laying on his side. Kokichi lifts himself slowly. He looks around to see a pipe on the wall in front of him. He looks around further to see he’s inside of some sort of dungeon with huge dark grey bricks surrounding the area.

”Ah, you’re awake?”

Kokichi turned to see two red eyes looking through the gap of the iron door.

”Raiden!”

Kokichi ran towards the door and gave the handle a tug. As expected, it was locked.

”Let me out of here, you asshole!”

”But why would I do that? I wanted to bond with you a little more before you die.”

”I’m not going to die! I have 10 subordinates who can-”

”And what makes you think your disappearance wasn’t interpreted as you abandoning them?”

Kokichi stopped and dropped to his knees.

”But even without that, you’ve been taken all the way back to Japan. You’re back in our home town where we grew up. I thought it’d be a tragically fitting farewell.”

Raiden then threw a living spider into the cell Kokichi was in causing Kokichi to scatter back into the wall.

”...!”

”Ah, I remembered you were afraid of bugs, so I brought you a friend.”

The spider was harmless and just crawled around but Kokichi made sure to keep his distance.

”Now, how about we catch up for a while? Like brothers do.”

Kokichi got back up and ran to the gap of the door.

”You’re not my brother!”

”And who is? Kobayashi-kun? That traitor?”

”You’re one to talk…! They’re more of a family then you or our parents were.”

Raiden grabbed Kokichi’s wrist and slammed the arm onto the the bottom of the gap of the door.

”Argh…!”

Raiden then pushed onto Kokichi’s chest and pushed him to the floor.

Kokichi looked up at Raiden’s devilish smile. It was probably the first time Kokichi has ever been looked down upon.

”Looks like we’ve got company. See that camera in the corner? If you’re not alive by the time I deal with this and come back, then I’ll always have the footage of your death.”

”What?”

Raiden covers up the gap making the room go dark. Then Kokichi quickly notices the pipe goes off with water shooting out.

”Oh no…”

Kokichi starts desperately banging on the door.

”Raiden! I can’t swim! Please don’t do this!”

Kokichi tried to calm down, held onto himself and slided himself back to the floor shivering.

”I don’t want to die…”

Kokichi wants the pipe go off further and further as the room slowly flooded.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

While his face wasn’t visible to the public at the moment, the determination in Masayuki’s eyes could be seen by anyone. He didn’t know much about Raiden, although he remembered his few brief encounters with him and Kokichi talking about him a year ago, but it didn’t matter how much he knew about him. He had crossed the line the moment he got his hands on Kokichi.

He no longer cared about earning Kokichi’s forgiveness, or even that he’d remain the leader of DICE. All he cared for at that point was for him to be safe.

”Are we lost?”

”No, we can’t be lost. Just keep moving forward, and we’ll find him.”

”This guy is Ouma-kun’s brother, right? So he’s probably being hidden somewhere in the back.”

They ran past so many cells with Masayuki leading. They wouldn’t give up no matter what.

”Looking for someone?”

The group all turned around to see Raiden casually standing before them.

Nobody spoke back.

”It appears you’re probably not on good terms with me. So how about we make a deal?”

”A deal?”

”Well, I direct you to where Kokichi is, and I get to have the girl.”

”Kyah-!”

They all turn to see Ren’s wrist being grabbed by one of the henchmen from before.

”Sasaki-san!”

”Also, you better hurry up with that decision because Kokichi isn’t going to pull through much longer.”

”You…!”

Masayuki looked back at Ren, only to notice there’s a small taser-like toy on her fingertip. He took a deep breath and put his trust in Ren.

”Alright, we’ll take the deal.”

”Perfect.”

Raiden walked across the halls. They didn’t trust him one bit but they were curious where he was leading them towards.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

When Ren was dragged out of sight, she used her finger tip to electrocute her captor giving him to fall the ground and let go of her.

”Tee-hee!”

As a result, she ended up finding a narrow path leading to a different room.

She went into the room across to find some sort of computer room.

”Perfect!”

Ren strolled across the room to learn it’s basically empty. Luckily, her and Masayuki had the receivers on their ears in case they seperated.

Ren looked at one of the computers to see they were security cameras. She ended up finding the location of the rest of the DICE members and where they were being lead.

She kept an eye on that camera but searched the other computers to find Kokichi’s cell.

Sure enough, she found it and it wasn’t looking good. The water was risen halfway through the room and Kokichi already raising his chin.

”Masayuki!”

She placed her finger on her receiver and spoke through it.

”Yeah?”

”They’re trying to drown Kokichi.”

”Those…!”

”Keep your voice down. And from the looks of it, that punk is not leading you in the right direction.”

”Right. Thanks for letting me know. Give me the directions.”

”Alright.”

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

Masayuki touched Aya’s shoulder and whispered to her.

”As expected, he’s leading us to a trap. If I sneak outta here, could you go along with it and warn the others?”

Aya nodded.

Due to said nod, Masayuki jumped behind the pole on the wall so Raiden wouldn’t notice he was missing and the others walked out of sight, making it safer for Masayuki to find the cell as long as he could avoid the other members.

”Alright. Aya’s on patrol of keeping the others safe. Now where’s Ouma-kun?”

”Take a left.”

Masayuki followed the instructions to plan.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

Masayuki finally managed to follow the directions to Kokichi’s cell, which was actually in a single room altogether. The gap of the door was covered, which makes sense with what Ren said they were doing to him.

”I’m here.”

”Right… Oh no.”

”What do you mean, oh no?”

”You need to get him out of there right now.”

”Is he dead!?”

”Well, he’s not moving.”

”Oh god...!”

Masayuki found the keys next to the cell and immediately opened the door with them. Of course, a bunch of water slammed into him and skidded him across the room, also making his mask slip off. Although, he didn’t seem too bothered by it and immediately got up.

”Ouma-kun!”

He got up and ran towards the boy laying on his side completely soaked and unconscious.

”Oh god, please don’t be dead!”

He felt his chest and luckily felt a heartbeat.

”Hack-!”

Kokichi coughed up some water and opened his eyes.

”Koba… Yashi-chan?”

”Oh… Oh thank god!”

Masayuki held his hand around Kokichi’s head and then immediately gave him a kiss on the lips, which Kokichi was surprised about at first, but eventually returned.

”Gross!”

Ren interrupts the moment through the receiver and the boys break apart.

”Also, things aren’t looking good.”

”The others?”

”Yeah, Aya’s not good at staying defense.”

”Oh no.”

”K-Kobayashi-chan! Wha-!?”

”Look, all 9 of us came over to save you and we kinda left the others with your brother.”

”You left them with Raiden!?”

Kokichi immediately went up and running only for Masayuki to grab onto them.

”Let go of me!”

”I’ll see what’s up with them. I’m… I’m not losing you again, okay…?”

”Kokichi, I’m in the computer room so I can see all over this place. I know where the exit is.”

”See? You need to calm down, find Ren and then get out. I’ll find the others and won’t come back until they’re safe, alright?”

”B-But…!”

”I just need you to trust me!”

Kokichi calmed down and looked at Masayuki.

”O-Okay…”

”Here.”

Masayuki took off his receiver and gave it to Kokichi.

”Follow her instructions to meet up and get out, okay? Don’t get sidetracked.”

”Alright… Brother.”

Kokichi looked up with a broken smile.

Masayuki couldn’t smile. He had to find the others. Luckily, he remembered his way back.

Kokichi followed the instructions given to him from the receiver.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

Masayuki found his way back to when he last saw the others. Luckily, it was a straight path where they went. However, he ran out of luck when he opened the door at the end of the hall.

”Going somewhere?”

Raiden was right in front of the door.

”God damn it!”

”So you thought I didn’t notice you leaving, eh? I really thought you’d be smarter than that.”

He kept walked forward, closing in on him, while Masayuki took a step back the further he got.

”What have you done with the others?”

”...Well, at least they’re not dead.”

”...!”

”So, I’m taking it you’re mad at me. I revealed your secret, kidnapped your best friend and tried to kill him, and now I’ve got the closest you’ve got to a family. Oh, you must hate me, right?”

Masayuki stopped walking back and stood his ground.

”Why yes. Yes, I do hate you. I think you’re sick, manipulative, deserve to rot, and quite frankly, you look like a shitty sonic OC.”

”That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.”

Raiden was close enough to hold onto Masayuki and then get close to his face. Masayuki’s eyes widened when he found out what he was going to do upon lifting up his bangs and opening his mouth.

”Augh-... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!”

Masayuki dropped completely to the floor, holding onto the bloody hollow socket.

”M-M-My… Ahhh…!”

Raiden spat out the eyeball from his mouth and looked down at Masayuki with no remorse. He then placed an item down next to him.

”By the way… You forgot your mask.”

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

”Oh shit…!”

”What? Sasaki-chan, what’s happening!?”

”I-I-I can’t…! Look, just get outta the-!?”

Ren’s receiver went static.

”Sasaki-chan!? Sasaki-chan! Please, answer me!”

Kokichi realized the receiver on the other end was busted and placed his hands over his face.

”Please, god…! Don’t do this…!”

”So… Are you satisfied?”

”...Huh?”

Kokichi looked up to see Raiden in the other room.

”Raiden!”

Kokichi ran inside without second thoughts.

”What have you done with them!?”

”With who? Your little friends?”

”...No. I’m asking what you did to my family?”

Kokichi looked up at Raiden with an expression full of both sorrow and wrath.

”Heh. Don’t worry. They’re not dead. In fact, they’re in this room.”

”Huh?”

Raiden pointed to a black cloth covering a huge amount of space in the room.

”They’re right behind there.”

Kokichi gave no second thoughts and went running.

”There’s a catch though.”

”...Ough-...!”

Kokichi felt the hard kick of his brother’s foot lunging into his chest and throwing him back away slamming onto the floor.

”They’re more of a prize if you don’t end up getting killed by me.”

Kokichi got up to his feet and looked back at his brother fiercely. If that’s what it took, then he’d endure all of the pain.

Kokichi ended up getting picked up and thrown by his brother before he knew it, hitting into the wall.

”Hack-...!”

Kokichi slid down to the floor but immediately jumped to the side when his brother went in for another kick, resulting in him kicking the wall. Kokichi tried to crawl away only for his leg to be grabbed and dragged towards his brother.

”Hnnng…”

Kokichi wasn’t even in pain yet, but was terrified as to what was going to come.

His fear was justified when Raiden stepped on Kokichi’s back and then twisted his shoe.

”Ahh…! Ahaa…!”

The brother then stood on his neck and stepped down further.

”Gah! Ahh…!”

Kokichi slowly raised his body up, even with his brother’s foot on his neck and took the first chance to get out of that position and run for it.

He didn’t get far when he was grabbed and thrown once again straight to the floor.

Kokichi trying to get up is knocked down again by Raiden bringing in weapons. He had a tasar to electrocute him, a knife to stab his thigh and hip and a gun to shoot through his hand. Three attacks he used back-to-back.

”Ieehh…! Hack-! Ahhhh!”

Despite all the pain, there was no full screams. Just helpless whining.

Despite this, Raiden noticed Kokichi still attempting to get to his feet despite the wobbling and the pain.

”Hnn...nnng…!”

Raiden grabbed Kokichi by the neck and lifted him up.

”Gough…!”

”...Why didn’t you go this far for me?”

”Aaaah…!”

Kokichi couldn’t even be surprised. Raiden was choking too hard for him to react properly.

”All that time, I put my damndest into being a good son and being a good brother, only to be stressed around by my own parents calling me an accident at birth just for getting something wrong in a practice and only caring about me for my talents! Only to be abandoned and left with those assholes so my brother can be a good-for-nothing fucking clown! Do you know what that feels like!?”

”Geugh…”

Raiden threw his brother once again into the wall. And despite everything, Kokichi still managed to get up struggling.

”You’re still going? Ha. All of these for a bunch of criminals!?”

”You’ve… Got that… Wrong…”

”Huh?”

”They’re more than just criminals…! Aha…! Like I… Said… They’re my family.”

Raiden grabbed onto Kokichi by his cloak and pinned him against the wall.

”They’re your family? And what do I get? I tried everything just to-”

”Look!”

Kokichi coughed upon yelling but it was the only way for Raiden to calm down.

”I’m… Sorry that I ignored you. Or that I left you. You didn’t deserve that, but… I just wanted a proper family. Our parents were always focused on you, never me, they didn’t ca-”

”So you left me with them, to deal with all the stress they put on me, all because you were a little attention whore!?”

”That’s not-”

Kokichi was thrown one more time hitting the middle of the floor.

Upon hitting the floor, his cape fell off along with it.

”Ah…!”

Kokichi stared at the cape that lay on the floor and then he looked down covering his own face.

”What’s up with you now?”

Raiden ran right in front of Kokichi and pulled his chin up to see…

Tears.

Lots of tears strolling down Kokichi’s face.

”...”

...How utterly boring.”

Raiden smirked.

”...Bor...ing?”

Raiden went to snatch Kokichi’s hat off only for Kokichi to grab onto it tightly from both sides, shaking limply.

Angered Kokichi isn’t giving him what he wants, Raiden grabbed one of Kokichi’s arms and twisted it backwards.

”Ahhha…!”

This caused his other hand to reluctantly let go of his own hat out of impulse. Raiden then took the hat off and then let go of Kokichi’s hand.

He let Kokichi watch him throw his hat to the position of his cape and smiled about it, Kokichi trying to wipe his tears away.

”I said your little comrades are behind that cell, and they are, but you know what else is in this room? The exit.”

Raiden pointed to the exit right behind Kokichi at the back of the room.

”B-But I’m not leavi-!”

Raiden grabbed onto Kokichi’s neck again and started choking him.

”Ehh… Ehhh…”

”Leave, or I’m killing you and them!”

Raiden let go of Kokichi’s neck and then got up waiting for Kokichi’s decision. Kokichi was trying to reach out to the covered cell, which had blood pouring out from underneath it.

Kokichi eventually gave in and stood up.

”Just… Don’t… Hurt them…!”

Kokichi ran through the exit door.

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

Kokichi lay down in the nearest alleyway in the pouring rain. His stab and gun wound still bleeding. Raiden took him there to kill him, yet spared his life. He could figure out he had second thoughts about killing him and held back, but he couldn’t forgive him for everything he did.

He just wanted DICE to be safe. He didn’t want them to die.

”I’m… I’m not… Boring, right?”

Were they safe?

Were they unharmed?

Were they alive?

──────── ∘°❉°∘ ────────

Were they even real?

[disnerdkatie]

Continuing the saga of Katie’s First Trip To Disney In Fourteen Months! Yesterday I talked about our trip through Thursday, so today I’ll cover Friday to home.

As is the key theme for a runDisney weekend, I was up way, way too early. I think I “slept in” until almost 3:00 a.m. for the 10K. Yeah. Only at a runDisney event would 2:53 a.m. be considered “sleeping in”! But it was fine, I made it to the staging area just in time to join Nikki and Lisa in line to see Sporty Mickey. Uhh… I’m sure he has a name that doesn’t make him sound like an honorary member of the Spice Girls, but whatever. He was sporty Mickey. Even though it was crazy early, the race went well enough. I was worried because it was during the 10K a couple years ago that my knee went out, but no issue this race!

After the race, and after I showered, Michael and I headed back to the expo to grab some visors for the half and full, and to look at the official runDisney merch when it hopefully wasn’t so crowded. We had reservations at Beaches & Cream at noon, but it was early enough that we weren’t worried about taking bus transportation. And in fact, we got to Beaches & Cream a full half hour early!

Now… normally I’d spend a whole post writing a review, and I still might for Our Disney, but I’m just gonna rant here for a minute. This was the absolute worst dining experience I have ever had in a dozen years of Disney vacations. First off, we got there a solid 30 minutes early, and once we checked in we went over to the wall less than 10 feet away from the hostess podium. We were right there… and they never called our name. They never texted that the table was ready. So even though we were waiting for over 30 minutes, since our actual reservation wasn’t until noon I didn’t bother going up to ask what was up until closer to 12:10. Guess what the hostess told me? “Oh, you were a no show.” What. The. Actual. Fuck? I was fuming. I didn’t say anything (because I didn’t want to be a bitch, and if I started to complain full bitch would have come out), but Michael says that if looks could kill then no one at the restaurant would still be alive. Oops. Did my face say that?

So, we finally got seated, and it took almost 10 minutes for the server to come take our drink orders. I know, because I actually started the timer on my phone. I told Michael if she wasn’t there by the 10 minute mark I was walking out. She came up with just a minute to spare. Even Michael ordered water, because holy shit I kid you not, the sodas were $4.29. Even for Disney’s overpriced pricing that just seemed insane. I got excited when I saw they had my favorite cider, but since they were selling it for TEN DOLLARS for a bottle, yeah, water it was. Anyway. So. We ordered waters and our food, and sat there.

Side note: the table next to us was piled with dirty dishes when I looked in the window at about 12:05, and it was still piled with dirty dishes as we sat there waiting for our food… at 12:45. And that wasn’t the only table covered in dirty dishes. I kept fixating on the cherry stem stuck to the booth back next to Michael. At that point, between sleep deprivation, extreme hunger, achy legs, lowgrade headache, and extreme frustration with the situation, I was literally in tears. You can sort of tell in the one picture I took inside the restaurant, the selfie with my sandwich. I only took that because I wanted photographic proof that we were there so we didn’t get charged a no show fee on top of paying for the shitty ass lunch.

Okay. Well. Moving on…

After leaving Beaches & Cream we just sort of piddled around the resort for a while before swinging by the pool. I had thoughts of sitting in the hot tub with a drink, but the hot tub was looking pretty crowded… so I got a piña colada to go and camped out in the amazingly huge jetted bathtub in our room. After a while I was calm enough to get ready for bed, for yet another really early morning.

The morning of the half wasn’t a great start. Maybe it was karma kicking my ass for my death glares the day before, but traffic was worse than I’ve ever, ever, ever encountered on race morning, and it took me about 45 minutes to get from Old Key West to the start staging area. Nikki and Lisa were waiting for me with coffee, and we got into the corral and waited for go. It was a long, slow race with lots of walking and lots of character stops (I literally did double the character stops in this race than I’ve ever done in all my previous runDisney events)… but the frustrations always go away when you start running down Main Street at see Cinderella’s Castle waiting for you at the end. That just never, ever gets old.

After the race, Michael and I headed out of Orlando over to Bartow. He knows the owners of the Lenny’s out there and wanted to stop in. That was fine with me, I was pretty desperate for a chicken philly at that point. I might have threatened to cut a bitch if anyone got in the way of my chicken philly, actually. Even though I didn’t throw out my knee, it was feeling a little bit wobbly and so Michael let me borrow his brace. It didn’t last much longer than lunch though – wearing it made me walk so funky in compensation that I was afraid it would do more harm than good.

And for the last day before we headed home… Sunday… Marathon day. Spoiler alert: I again did not complete the Walt Disney World Marathon, and I again do not have that beautiful Dopey medal. But at least this time I stopped without an actual injury. I might have been hurting, but I wasn’t broken. And then I might have stupidly told Michael that I would never try for a challenge again. Yeah. I’m already regretting those words. Ugh. Someone engage that filter in my head so I won’t say stupid shit like this anymore.

Anyway… after a long day of napping and limping around Disney Springs, we met up with all the roomies and with Lisa and Nikki for dinner at Artist’s Point, a very nice, swanky, sit down restaurant at Wilderness Lodge. Not to be confused with Artist’s Palette, the also very nice but totally counter service restaurant at Saratoga Springs. Artist’s Point is a character dining experience where you can see Snow White, the Evil Queen, Grumpy, and Dopey. Yeah, we went there for Dopey. But I felt a little more affinity with Grumpy that evening.

After dinner we finished packing up, and crashed hard. No more before dawn wake up calls! YAY! But we still needed to get up fairly early to say goodbye to Natalie et al, and load up the car and get on the road ourselves.

On Monday, we had a loooong drive home, but we did it all in one day. Michael did most of the driving, because the one time that I started driving we hit insane traffic combined with torrential downpours and I kind of freaked out. We were in his car and it is an actual car, lower to the ground than my nice big SUV, and I panicked. But eventually we made it home, back to my babies and my kitties!

SORRY IT IS LATE! But here's the quickie lowdown of what Michael and I got up to during the second half of our recent Disney vacation. Continuing the saga of Katie's First Trip To Disney In Fourteen Months! Yesterday I talked about our trip through Thursday, so today I'll cover Friday to home.

[like-a-bag-of-potatoes]

Woman of Letters - 9

I can not express how much I love this asthetic. It was made by the wonderful @hanny-writes-spn. Thank you a million. 

A/N: This is loooong overdue, but here it is. Chapter 9 of Woman of Letters. I hope I’ll get teh inspiration back for this now. I have a plan for 15 chapters all together, might be more if I get wordy. Thank you all for your patience with me. And thanks to my super beta @thorne93. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated.

Characters: Dean, Sam, Louisa (OFC)

Warnings: A duchy guy, some alcohol.

Wordcount: 2019

 Catch up HERE

 “So, you ever fired a gun before?” Dean questioned as he and Louisa were about to have their first shooting lesson.

When she had decided to stick around for a while longer, Dean had stayed true to his word, he made her a promise and he intended to stick to it, teaching her how to shoot as well as trying to get to know her better.

“I haven't,” she confessed.

“It's not that hard. You plant both feet firmly on the ground, hold the gun up like this, both hands, relax your shoulders and squeeze the trigger gently,” Dean explained, his body going through the motions. “Oh.. and prepare for the recoil,” he said as he handed Louisa the gun.

It felt heavier in her hands than she had expected. It also felt a little awkward, the whole situation with being alone with Dean, she was afraid she was going to mess up, but she did her best to set up her stance like Dean had showed her. “And I just aim at the middle?” she questioned, pointing the gun in the general direction of the man shaped, paper target.

Dean stepped in behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. He could feel her tense up under his touch, but he didn't let go. “You need to relax your shoulder, or you are going to hurt yourself.”

She did her best, but Dean's hand on her made her feel more nervous, if that was even possible, not to mention the fact that he was right behind her, his breath fanning her neck, sending shivers down her spine.

“Now, aim for the middle,” he said, taking a step back.

The shot echoed through the room, bouncing off the concrete walls as the bullet barely grazed the edge of the target. “Not bad,” Dean admitted.

“That was fucking terrifying,” she exclaimed as she turned to look at Dean, her blue eyes wide and her lips pulled up in a small smile, adrenaline pumping through her. “Can I go again?”

“Sure.” Dean chuckled. “Go a little gentler on the trigger. It looks like you might be pulling it a little to the right as you shoot.”

Louisa tried again, this time hitting the paper, but not the black outline on it. Dean advised her to set up her stance once more before trying again. A dozen or so shots later and she was getting closer, but still not hitting the center. Dean was impressed, and even if he hated admitting that his brother was right, Louisa was a fast learner.

“It's a great start,” Dean offered after she had emptied her second clip.

“It could be better though, I just barely nicked that man’s arm,” she countered, clearly frustrated that she couldn't hit what she was aiming for.

“You'll get there. We’ll work on it more tomorrow.” He smiled.

**

“So? How did it go?” Sam asked when they joined him back in the library. He had contemplated joining them this morning, but he figured the two of them could use the time together, so he had been in here all morning, flipping through the news, searching for a potential case.

“I didn't kill anyone, but with a bit of luck one of the targets will bleed out during the day,” Louisa joked halfheartedly.

“She did good,” Dean chimed in. “Anything for us in there?” he questioned, pointing to Sam's newspaper.

“Doesn't look like it,” he said with a shake of his head.

“If you have nothing better to do today, can we go into town? The part for my car came and I could really use some fresh air.” Louisa directed her question to Sam.

“Sure, just let me know when you’re ready.”

She didn't really get out of the bunker all that much, especially now that her car was broken. There was a lot of things to keep her occupied in the bunker though, between reading and training, but she got a little stir crazy sometimes.

Much to both Sam's and Louisa’s surprise, Dean had decided to join them on their little trip into town, and while the boys went into the gun store to load up on ammo, Louisa went to pick up the part for her car.

When she stepped through the doors of the diner they had agreed to meet in, both brothers were already there, head buried in their menus.

“Is there a pub in this town?” Louisa asked as the waitress left with their orders. “A little early for a drink, don't you think?” Sam questioned.

“Hey, that rhymed.” She giggled. “And I was thinking for later, it's Friday and I want to get buzzed.”

“That sounds like fun. Mind if I join you?” Dean asked.

“Not at all. Saaaaaam?” She gave him that same puppy dog look that he had given her so many times and he was powerless to resist.

**

They were at their fourth round at the bar, the mood was light and they were all sharing stories and laughing, even Dean seemed to be enjoying himself. Louisa was fun, easy going and Dean had notice that when she laughed, she scrunched her nose up a little, it was the most adorable thing.

The bar was fairly quiet, there was a few older men seated in the corner, a couple of guys that looked like they had been there for a while sat at the bar, and then there was four obnoxiously loud college boys that reminded Louisa of her ex-boyfriend Heath and his friends. Except for the waitress, Louisa was the only girl in the place. She didn't mint that it was quiet though, she enjoyed hanging out with the Winchesters and getting to know Dean a little better.

The elder Winchester had noticed that one of those college douches had his eyes fixed on Louisa, which Dean could understand with the way she looked tonight. Her hair hung in small waves on her shoulders, she had put on a little makeup, but not a lot, just enough to make her blue eyes sparkle and she was dressed in tight, black jeans and a simple red top. Dean had to remind himself several times not to stare at her. She was sneaking past his defences and he didn't like it. Or maybe he did.

“Dude, there's a dart board. Any of you want to get your asses handed to you by a girl?” Louisa said, challenging both Winchesters

“Really?” Dean questioned, cocking a brow. “I've seen you try and hit a target, I'm pretty sure I can beat you in a round of darts.”

“Prove it.” She chuckled. “Loser buys the next round.”

In hindsight, she should probably had guessed that Dean would beat her, but she didn't mind losing. It was all worth it just to get the opportunity to share some laughs with the man.

Sam excused himself to go to the bathroom when Louisa and Dean came back to the table and Louisa walked up to the bar to get the next round of drinks, as promised.

While she waited for the bartender to make the drinks, one of the college guy's came up to her.

“Can I buy you a drink?” he asked politely, a charming smile on his face.

“Thank you, but as you can see I'm here with someone,” Louisa responded, equally polite.

“Oh come on,” he started, leaning in closer. “Ditch them. I'll take you out, show you a good time,” he offered, slurring his words.

“I think I'm just gonna stick with my friends for tonight.” The guy was leaning in closer, trapping her between himself and the bar. Louisa tried to push him off, but to no avail. For some reason this guy reminded her of her ex boyfriend, Heath. The attitude, the smell of alcohol on his breath, the slurring of his words, and all of a sudden she felt scared, vulnerable.

Dean watched carefully at the scene in front of the bar and the moment he saw Louisa trying to push him away, Dean got to his feet and walked over in quick strides. “Everything alright here?” Dean asked.

The guy turned around with anger on his face. “This doesn't concern you, man,” he said sternly, before turning his attention back on Louisa.

“Listen, man…” Dean started, placing a hand on the guy's shoulder, but before Dean could finish his sentence the guy turned around again, taking a swing at Dean. Dean dodged just in time, and paid him back with a right hook straight in the jaw, bringing the man to his knees.

Sam returned from the bathroom just in time to see his brother, Louisa, and the three college students being kicked out of the bar.

“What the hell happened?” Sam questioned when he joined the two of them outside.

“Nothing,” Louisa said hurriedly.

Sam looked from her to his brother, and Dean just nodded his head.

The drive back to the bunker was quiet. Louisa had no idea why she had reacted the way she did. So the guy was a little pushy, but she had Sam and Dean right there for backup, and after all the training she and Sam had done, she was pretty sure she could have knocked him on his ass if she needed to. Instead, she just froze, stood there like a deer caught in the headlights and she did nothing, that was the part that bothered her the most.

“So I'm gonna head to bed,” Sam informed when they returned home.

“I think I'm gonna grab another beer,” Louisa responded, smiling at Sam before she headed for the kitchen.

“Grab one for me as well?” Dean yelled after her.   

**

Dean watched Louisa intently as she joined him back in the library, handing him a beer before taking a seat across the table from him.

“So… You wanna tell me why you didn't clock the guy?” Dean asked. He had seen her sparring with Sam, and she could definitely hold her own by now.

“I don't know. Guess I froze.” She shrugged. “To be honest, I have never actually punched someone before.”

“Listen, sweetheart, if you want to start hunting with us, you need to be able to hold your own. That means you can't freeze. You have to fight,” Dean said. He had begun to see that Louisa could be a great asset to their little team, but she had to gain some confidence in her abilities first.

“Yeah. I get that. I’ll work on that.”

“If you want, we can train a little tomorrow and I'll see if I can give you some pointers,” Dean offered.

“That would be great, thank you,” Louisa said, giving Dean a smile. “And please don't ever call me ‘sweetheart’ again.”

“What? Why?”

“You called me that the first day I got here, and it sounded so condescending. Now all I hear is that.”

Dean looked a little offended. “Sooo.. What do I call you? Princess. Kid. Lou.?”

“No!” Louisa exclaimed, followed by a slight chuckle.

“Then what?”

“I have a great one in mind… Louisa,” she said, winking at Dean.

“Fine,” Dean sighed. He didn't know if it was the alcohol talking, but he was really enjoying her company. She was fun, easy going, her laughter was contagious, and Dean really loved how her crystal blue eyes sparkled when she laughed. “Whiskey?” he asked as he got up from his chair and headed over to the booze.

“Yes, please,” Louisa said as she watched him collect a bottle and two glasses. Of course she had noticed how extremely gorgeous he was, but she saw him a lot differently now that he was actually being nice to her, now that they had had a conversation that lasted more than a couple of seconds.

The two of them shared the bottle of whiskey, and then opened another one before heading for bed. She was certain she was gonna feel the sting of this tomorrow, but that was future Louisa’s problem. For now she just wanted to enjoy the easy conversation with the elder Winchester.  

Tags: All things spn: @frenchybell @itseverythingilike @percywinchester27 @feelmyroarrrr @yoursmilemakesmeloveyou @mrswhozeewhatsis @you-know-whodoesthat-crazypeople @drbagels123 @sandlee44 @jayankles @torn-and-frayed @thereisnolumos @tia58 @charliebradbury1104 @devilgirlsarah @shadowexorsist009 @bea789 @supernatural-jackles @mariairwin666 @madamelibrarian @atc74 @you-didnt-see-that-cuming @hanny-writes-spn @livelylaynie @therewillbeblood @ruprecht0420 @samgirlforeverandalways @youremycrimsonpain @melonberri  @iamnotsaneatall @donnaintx @fangirlextraordinaire @fernandasvaldi @moonstar86 @deanwinchesters-67impala @aquabrie @mcdaring @waywardswain @essie1876 @valerieshubin @gemini75eeyore @silver-and-green @silver-and-green @mamaredd123 @mbowles23-blog @dixonsvixon2017 @mysteriouslyme81 @jannalionheart 

All things: @clairese1980 @girl-next-door-writes @spontaneousam @supernaturalyobessed  @mogaruke @idorkish @ashleychinrock @grace-for-sale @artherra @homara-the-red-clan @avasmommy224 @we-know-a-little-about-a-lot @mayasmedberg @iceninekiller-blog-blog @starstruckblizzardqueen @winchesterswantmypie @dustycelt @mizzzpink

WoL: @brunettechick @sonder-everything @donnaintx @munlis

[stileslydias]

Golden ➼ Joshaya One Shot

pairing: Maya Hart (Hunter) / Josh Matthews wattpad: wereswolf wordcount: 2.5k fandom: girl meets world prompt: soulmate au where when you write something on your skin with pen/marker/whatever the hell you want, it will show up on your soulmate's skin as well. a/n: I wrote this about a month ago and I finally got around to publishing it (I didn’t really like it for a loooong while.) So here it is! Comments mean the world to me so you can check out my wattpad or leave a reply or send me a message of what you thought! thank you :)

. . .

Soulmates were such a bullshit concept.  Only those that believed in such idiocy could possibly be meant for each other.  Love doesn't exist until the person you are meant to be with suddenly pops into your life and then you can start living?  Magic, rainbows, and sunshine were things meant for Riley Matthews.  But for Maya Hart?  She'd rather sit this one out and watch the rest of the world live in the hypocrisy of it all.

"But-"

"No."

"But, Maya! Ow! Maya you pinched me!"

"It was for your own good, Riley."

"For my own-? Maya! Again, really?"

"Cut the soulmate crap out and I'll let you speak."

Maya gave a menacing look to her life-long best friend.  When Riley went silent Maya smiled to herself and muttered, "Good."

Maya didn't care about the soulmate system.  She less than cared for it.  She had a hard time believing in anything but her friendship with Riley, how was she supposed to believe that out there, somewhere, was some person that was absolutely meant for her in every way?

Statistically, Maya thought to herself, it was impossible.

She laid out on her best friend's bed with her feet kicked in the air.  She was flat on her stomach, her tongue hanging from her mouth, as she sketched an outline for her art assignment that was coming due.

"Maya, please just listen to me-" Riley began but abruptly stopped when a pillow launched at her from Maya smacked her square in the face, "Fine, don't listen to me.  But I can't wait until I get to say 'I told you so'!"

"Save it, Riley.  And by save it I mean lock that saying away because you'll never get to use it."

"All I'm saying, Maya, is why don't you give the system a chance?  Who knows, maybe you'll end up like me and- Ow!" Another pillow.

"I don't need to hear your romantic stories, Riles.  I don't believe in soulmates and I never will.  End of story."

The room fell silent until there was a knock on Riley's door.  "It's open!," Riley called out.

Riley's mother stepped into the room, "Maya, your mother dropped this off.  It's your Letter, and she thought you might want to open it."

Without looking up from her artwork the blonde spoke, "You can just give it to Riley.  God knows she wants to open it, I don't."

Topanga silently handed the government envelope over to Riley with a pointed look given to Maya. Maya didn't notice, too absorbed in her artwork, so Topanga left the room without another word. Shutting the door on her way out.

The room was quiet around them now. All that could be heard were the soft strokes of pencil hitting paper until the brunette  broke the silence, "Maya you should open it."

"Riles, just open it.  I.  Don't.  Care.  How many times do I have to say it?"

Riley sighed and began to open the envelope, sliding the contents out of it slowly.  She pulled out a black marker and a letter.

"Maya, this is your Letter.  Don't you think you should be the one to read it?" Riley sighed.

Maya finally looked up from her sketch with a pout, "Riles-"

"No Maya!  You read it!" The brunette tossed the letter and the marker over to her best friend.

Maya took the letter and with a huff she began to read its contents;

Dear Maya Penelope Hart,

It is our greatest pleasure to announce that it is time for you to begin communications with your Soulmate.  It is American tradition to use this special pen to make a meaningful start in your relationship.  You'll quickly learn how it works.  Try writing on your skin.

May you find everlasting love and happiness, President of the United States of America

Maya looked up from the letter at Riley with a scoff "They're kidding right?"  Maya picked up the black marker and showed it to Riley, "I'm supposed to write on myself?"

"Maya, you know this already.  We learned about it in school-"

"Yes, but you see, these kinds of things don't apply to me.  I'm Maya Hart. When do I ever do anything the Government wants me to do?! There is no way in Hell that I am going to- What the fuck?!"

"Maya, language!"

Maya ignored Riley's complaint and stared down at her wrist.

-Hey, soulmate

She stared at the words scrawled on her wrist.  They looked like chicken scratch, at best.  As soon as she finished reading them, they vanished.  Maya felt the bed dip beside her, "What did it say! What did it say!"

Maya ignored Riley again and instead opened the cap to the marker and turned her now blank wrist over and began to write in her perfect penmanship;

-I am no ones 'soulmate'

Riley was now silent beside Maya.  She raised an eyebrow at her best friend which the blonde continued to ignore.  The words vanished and new words replaced them;

-Fiesty.  But on the contrary, you're mine.

Maya rolled her eyes and wrote back;

-I'm not 'your' anything.

-Ouch.  That hurts.  At least buy me dinner first.

-I'm not buying you anything, freak

After a moment of silence, the words vanished and Maya thought the mysterious 'soulmate' wasn't going to respond.  As suddenly as she had the thought, words appeared on her wrist;

-Play a game with me

Maya looked incredulously at her wrist.  Riley was still silent beside her with a knowing smile playing on the ends of her lips.  Maya sighed and replied;

-What game?

-20 Questions. Although I'm sure I have more than 20 questions to ask you

-Who goes first?

-Me. Since that answers your first question, now it's my turn.

Maya rolled her eyes and waited for the question;

-What is your favorite color?

-Out of all the questions..

-Answer?

-Gold.  How old are you?

-22. You?

-19. Where do you live?

-New York City. Why is your favorite color gold?

-I watch the light move during the day.

-And?

-And you know what happens at 5:30?

-No. Tell me.

-You turn gold.

-You're an artist.

-What?

-Only an artist would say that.

-What kind of logic..?

-Go outside.

-What? Why?

-You'll be gold.

Maya paused for a moment as the words vanished.  Riley had left the room and she hadn't even noticed.  She looked over at the clock on her best friend's bedside table, the clock read 5:31pm.

-You don't even know where I live.  What if it wasn't 5:30?

-But if it is, then why does it matter?

Maya didn't know what to say but before she could write anything down new words appeared on her wrist;

-Tell me how you can't believe in soulmates.  But you're an artist.

-Tell me how you know I'm an artist.

-Art is about believing in something not everyone can see, right?

-I see something, I draw it.  I see something, I paint it.  That's all.

-But you believe at 5:30 we turn to gold.

-Yes.

-That's not something everyone believes.

-Everything is more beautiful at the beginning and the end of the day, and I want people to see that.

-So you believe in something.

Maya thought to herself for a moment.

-I didn't mean to.

-We never mean to, Golden.

-Oh great, a nickname.

-It's not a nickname.

-Then what is it?

-It's your state of being.

-What does that mean?

-You'll see.  Someday.

. . .

Over the course of the following week Maya continued to write back and forth with her 'soulmate'.  She learned his name was Josh and he went to the same school she attended, New York University.  He was in his last year, while she was in her first.  They mostly bickered back and forth.  It was a miracle someone could keep up with Maya's sass for the amount of time Josh was.

Riley noticed a shift in her best friend's behavior.  She smiled a lot more, and was more willing to do things that Riley would insist they try.  She knew it was because of Josh, but she didn't dare question Maya on that.  If there was one thing Riley knew about her best friend, was that when good things happened to her, she generally kept it to herself.

One afternoon Maya was sketching in her notebook sitting in Riley's bay window.  No one was home in the Matthews' residence, but it was Maya's favourite place to draw.  She was bathed in the golden glow of the 5pm light, and she felt completely at peace.

As she sketched, words appeared on her wrist;

-Where are you, Golden?

Despite the fact Josh now knew Maya's name, he refused to call her anything but his nickname.  Maya went to switch her pencil for her marker but she realized she didn't have it.  She searched in her bag but it was no where to be found.  The words vanished from her wrist and new ones formed;

-Playing hard to get?

Maya frantically dumped her bag onto the ground.  She kept the marker on her at all times, where could it have gone?

She began to retrace her steps, walking out of Riley's window, down the fire escape and continued her trek back to campus.

The pen was nowhere to be found on her walk, she was certain she hadn't dropped it anyway. She was standing in front of a coffee kiosk on campus when she decided to call Riley.

"Hello?" Riley answered.

"Riles, have you seen my marker?  The one I use to write Josh."

Riley had never heard Maya sound so panicked about losing anything in her life, "No, have you checked your bag?  You know the one with all of your art supplies?  It's got to be there."

"It's not, I looked."

"Maybe you can get a new one?"

"Where can you get one?  Riles, I'm panicking."

"Maya, it'll be okay.  You'll get a new one."

Maya took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of coffee and pastries which did nothing to calm her nerves.

"But he's-" Maya stopped as new words sprawled across her wrist;

-I see how it is, Golden.  Two can play at this game.

Maya suddenly felt a pang in her chest she's never felt before.  Shaking off the feeling, she hung up the phone and stared down at a text from Riley.

From Riles Smiles: here's the address of where you can get a replacement. maybe this time ask him for his number, yeah?

With a short reply to Riley's text Maya was on her way to get a replacement pen. As she turned around she bumped into a boy that looked a few years older than her. She hardly spared him a glance as she muttered apologies and continued towards her destination.

She barely made it 3 steps before seeing new words on her wrist;

-Hey, soulmate.

Maya slowly turned around back to the boy she had just run into. She took in his navy beanie that covered wisps of chocolate hair. Despite the distance of at least 6 feet between them, Maya's breath hitched at his bright baby blue eyes, a much brighter colour than her own.

He began waving his pen in the air and pointed to his wrist. Maya looked back down;

-Take a picture.

Maya scoffed and rolled her eyes. After a moment of silence she suddenly had a question, "How did you know it was me?"

The blonde suddenly felt subconscious of herself, suddenly realizing this is the first time she has ever spoken out loud to this boy.

Josh shrugged, "Lucky guess? Soulmate intuition? Guess we'll never know."

"Right," was all Maya got out before the brunet boy began to turn around and walk away from her. "Wait!" she called out chasing him down the campus walk.

He turned around and gave her a smirk, "I thought you didn't believe in soulmates, Golden."

"I don't," Maya huffed coming to a halt right before him.

"Then you don't need me," he almost whispered. There was something sparkling in his baby blues that Maya couldn't quite place. His gaze shifted between her eyes before speaking again, "I certainly believe in them."

Maya's mouth fell open slightly unsure of what to say or do. She gave a soft smile and was about to say something but she bit her tongue.  The boy had been right, if she didn't believe in soulmates, there was no sense in continuing something with him if he wanted a relationship that she didn't.

Her voice sounded weak when she finally said something, "You don't want to be friends?"

She watched him as he contemplated what she just said.

"We could never be friends."

Maya was confused but he continued before she had a chance to question him.

"We'd never be able to be just friends.  Not me anyway."

Maya suddenly felt conscious of his eyes staring her up and down.  It wasn't in the creepy way she was used to when walking the streets of her city, but in an almost awestruck way that had her thinking she was more beautiful than she felt.  Heat rose to her cheeks.  She willed the blush to go away, she couldn't let this boy get to her.  She didn't believe in Soulmates.  She didn't.

She gave a small smile and whispered, "Sorry I don't believe in Soulmates."

Her voice sounded so small and nothing like the Maya Hart she knew she was.

"I know," Josh replied.  He gave her a show stopping smile, "Which is why we can never be friends."

Maya nodded, "Then I guess this is.. goodbye?"

"Goodbye, Golden.  I'm glad I was able to meet you."

"Me too," she gave a sad smile and turned on her heel ready to head back to the Matthews' apartment.

If this was something she didn't believe in then why did it feel so wrong to walk away?

"And, Maya?" she stopped and looked back at the boy, the first time hearing her name off his lips. She liked it more than she would ever admit.

"Yes, Josh?" She hated how easy his name flowed out of her mouth.

"I'd still like to see your art sometime."

Maya nodded and smiled before turning back towards the apartment.

When Maya turned around to walk away, Josh couldn't help but stare at the way her blonde hair whirled around and bounced with every step she took. He wanted to tell her how she was beautiful. That he knew she would be. For what he saw was a girl with golden hair, and a fiery personality to match. Amidst the glow of daytime on the campus walk, he hoped one day she would believe in him, too.

He knew all he would think about for the rest of the day was how she shined in the afternoon light, and he watched as her hair trailed behind her like liquid gold.

-See you soon, Golden.

[sailingbrisa]

Shelter Bay and the Panama Canal

We arrived in Shelter Bay Marina on Friday … sent an email to the Eric the agent who would help us get through the canal and did our Customs clearance and immigration after a taxi and ferry ride into Colon. Easy and friendly… wouldn’t say fast though. We had to wait until Wednesday to be measured and spent our time exploring the jungles around Shelter Bay, swimming in the pool and meeting fellow cruisers from all over the world on their way to many different destinations. Significantly for me.. most of the people here were a different type of cruiser to what I was used to. Mostly the St. Martin cruisers are used to sailing around the Caribbean, always fairly close to land and a bar. In panama they cruisers were more exploration oriented and had stories of great remote little anchorages all over Central America. Elwin and Ross went for a mega hike… I think in all about 18km round trip in brutal heat and humidity, out to the old fort. Lots of cool animals and good memories.

 We finally had everything we needed so we packed up and shipped out for a 132 nmovernight hop to Boccas Del Torro. A surf/ party destination. We arrived, had a Red Bull and went for a walk around. There were a lot of hostels and Europeans and commercialization, so we zoomed across to one of the nearby islands and explored the mangroves. We were hoping to see lots of dolphin, but we were only welcomed in and out of the main channel and didn’t see any others. We decided to pull anchor and head off to Bluefields Lagoon… supposedly a beautiful anchorage filled with fish and fairly remote. It got its name from a Dutch Pirate… so Elwin was happy. WE went snorkeling and climbing around a big gannet hatchery.. loads of fish everywhere and beautiful warm water.. Almost too warm I think! We got back to Brisa and ross had managed to get 6 lobster for 7 dollars… good size ones too so we got stuck into barbeque lobster with garlic butter off of the grill. LOVING IT! The bay was beautiful and we enjoyed watching the local school kids in uniforms so white it hurt to look at paddling across the bay in their little traditional dugouts. They would all stop by to say hi and get some candy from us! I gave one of the bigger kids who was learning English a book about Babara Kendals windsurfing history…. He didn’t believe I knew her, but said he would take it to his school for the English library… now apparently they had 12 books in English! He was very excited.. so Babara.. if you ever wash up in Bluefields I imagine the kids will now who you are. J We anchored very close to a little fishing village in deep water. That night we had a flashlight on the ladder… but crazy jumping fish hit it and knocked it off the boat and it sank to the bottom in 50 feet of water, leaving just a faint glow. As we were right beside some mangroves and had heard of big crocodile stories… I wasn’t about to go in there and get it.. but came up with a plan to use one of our sinking lures to hook the string on the light. I was sitting there for about half an hour bouncing the jig of the bottom and I had only caught a couple of plastic bags, when all of a sudden there was the unmistakable strike of a big heavy fish… I handed Elwin the rod and he pulled … but nothing moved. I think we hooked a big ray or Nurse shark.. because it wasn’t even noticing it had been hooked. Sadly we snapped the end off the rod trying to get it up to unhook it… and then the line broke too…. Needless to say I didn’t go down there to get the light……

 We pulled up the anchor and motored off to Isla Escudo DE Veraguas…. A little island about 25 miles off of the Panamanian Coast. 5 hours later we anchored in a spectacular little island. Beautiful sand beaches, awesome little islands and caves and bays, potential for surf.. but we didn’t manage to time the swell well. We brought more lobster and went exploring the island.. snorkeling incredible reefs filled with fish and lobster, touched nurse sharks… and napped in the evening. The next day was my birthday and we spent it eating lobster, snorkeling and windsurfing on the JP convertible stand up board as there was only light wind. Elwin was a pro after his first couple of hours of trying. I received a great hammock, a thermos to keep my water cold and my midnight watch coffee hot and a great mug from the boys! Awesome gifts. I have to say I enjoyed the day there very very much with a great crew doing exactly what I had always dreamed of doing with Brisa.

 We sadly left the little island.. but knowing we would soon be crossing Central America in the Panama Canal started to sink in and as we motored ( yeah that’s all we do these days as there is almost no wind anywhere here ) back towards Shelter Bay I told Brisa to enjoy her last few days in the Caribbean salt and to get ready to explore a new ocean.

 Now I wish I could say the trip back up was routine… but this time of year in the tropics we have massive land mass thunderstorms.. slow moving very active and covering between 6 and 10 miles. Darkness really makes these monsters impressive as you can see the forks of lightening very clearly and they were slowly getting closer and closer. WE were about 20 miles out to sea but the closer we came to the marina the less distance there was between the storms and the coast .. leaving us about 2 miles offshore in the middle of a big thunderstorm… luckily we made it through with no damage and popped out the other side and made out entry into the breakwater by the canal just as the storm we just went through came back and got us again. It was now about 130am… puring rain and I was driving around using the radar to know where I was… I found a big ship and went over beside it figuring if the lightening came this way it would hit that big boat before Brisa…great idea until Ross comes up and asks me why we are sitting bobbing around in the thunderstorm by an LPG tanker… lol. Zoom off we go and arrive in the tiny entrance to shelter bay with about 500 yards visibility and lightening everywhere. The dockmaster standing there at 3am flashlight and radio in hand smiling at us form under his raincoat. Thanks Dockmaster Frank! You rule. We tied up.. I took a shower under the rain and curled up in bed about 430 am after a loooong day. The highlight apart from making it in one piece was just after dinner… literally as I Said “ Ross thanks great meal! Now all we need is to get lucky before sunset.. “ at that very second the reel took off and we hooked a great little spearfish… basically a marlin with a little nose. Thirty minutes later he was by the boat, we gave him a little slack in the line, the hook fell out and I didn’t have to wrestle any angry pointy nosed fish again! Ross had requested to catch a marlin on the trip so we ticked that off the list! I think for Elwin he was pretty damn happy with having enough lobster that he could throw one in with his ramen noodles…J For me the highlight was the night thunderstorms and dodging them .. and making it into Shelter Bay marina in the middle of it all. Great fun.

 The next day we spent getting ready for the Panama Canal crossing. Checking the engines, receiving the buoys and long ropes we would need for the locks… 3 up +100’ and 3 down – 100’ and about 37 miles of motoring through the canals with all the big ships. And about 5 pm we motored across the canal and anchored at the flats anchorage awaiting our advisor to arrive between 4 and 5 am the following day. Debbie and Bob were also onboard as our line handlers. I went up[ the mast to see why the anchor light wasn’t working and basically the wiring fell apart in my hands… oops .. maybe I should of waited until we got through the canala to “fix” that eh? I spent a very rolly hour and a half up there fixing the little wires back together and … voila problem not solved. Still no anchor light. So we had a look the next day in the control box in the anchor locker, joined a broken wire and voila problem fixed.

 The advisor didn’t show up until about 1pm.. and with him onboard we followed a big ship up the canal and said our goodbyes to the Caribbean as we passed the construction of the new Panama Canal bridge and entered our first lock. We were with a big boat, a tug and a beautiful sailboat called Altos. WE tied up beside them and uneventfully passed through the three locks. We had to tie up to a mooring ball for the night in the Gatun Lake and as the sunset we spotted some manatees playing close to the boat, got some great photos and had a few Balboa beers as a reward for leaving the Caribbean. Brisa sitting 100’ above sea level in a fresh water man made lake!

 The next day at 745 our next advisor showed up and off we went across the Gatun lake.. about 26 miles from start to the next lock… it was beautiful scenery, cool to see the huge new panama boats and be up close and personal with all the commercial traffic… but Brisa didn’t skip a beat. N fact since we left she has been nothing short of exceptional. We showed up at the next locks a little early so tied up to another bouy for about an hour waiting for the other ships we would go down the next locks with. We went in first, the dockhands threw us little lines on monkey fists and then pulled back out lines. As we would go through three locks, each about 30 feet down, we would need to pay out line evenly on all four corners to keep the boat straight. The three locks went by without incident and we pootled out into the PACIFIC! Brisa motoring under the bridge of the Americas and we took a mooring ball in front of the Balboa Yacht Club, went to TGIF and had some food and beer and then back to Brisa for a good sleep.

 Bob and Debbie were a bit sad as they knew this was possibly the last time we would see each other for a while… but like all sailors.. they knew it wasn’t the last time. We really had a lot of fun going through the canal.. and it was an amazing feeling to see Brisa floating there with the Panama canal behind us and the Pacific Ocean calling her name. I guess that is one right of passage for every sailor, but not every boat.

 The next day we went to Casco Viejo to take care of some paperwork with the rental of my little apartment there. We all stopped into the Red Bull office to say hi to everyone. Was great to see the guys and girls again!

 Next we picked up some parts that had been ordered and went to the fishing shop to get a couple of our reels that were there being repaired, brought Elwin some flippers, a three prong spear gun and a replacement fishing rod for the one we broke in Bluefields. Heheheh. Great fun.

 That afternoon refueled and relocated to the other side of the Amador Causeway. Interestingly the Marina wanted to charge us 21. Usd to park our dingy while we brought supplies and had dinner at their restaurant and shops….. ??? Huh? Incredible. So we told them we didn’t like their attitude and off we went to climb up the rocks and go get some supplies. Red Bull, beer, bread and coffee. The next day Ross and I zapped off to super 99 in the mall for some resupplying. WE had a great time there buying up everything we needed and an even more entertaining time while we watched the lady at the register try to work out how to use the Vale Panama food stamps that I had been keeping from my time working in Panama. Was pretty sad when even with a calculator the lady had to count 110 little $3 vale panama tickets 8 times to work out how much I had given her….. even with a calculator she couldn’t get that 10 x 3 = 30. It literally took us 40 minutes for her to sort that out and eventually the packing boy helped her count as obviously he had finished high school.

 Then we head outside and I wont take the little yellow taxis in Panama. They continuously try and rip you off and have shitty attitudes. So I walk out with Ross and the bagging guy form super 99 that can count, and dial up an Uber. At least 40 taxis stop while im there and ask if I need a ride and a big police man comes over and asks why im not getting in the taxi. I explain the shitty time ive had with Taxis and that id wait a week for an Uber before getting in the taxi and he gives me some shit about Uber not being legal. The Uber dirver shows up, the cop stops him and asks for all his papaers… lol. Everything legal and the cop calls his boss… who explains that it isn’t illegal and the cop lets us go, saying Ubers time is almost up in Panama. Jajjajaja. The driver was super cool and wished the officer a lovely day.

 We got back to the boat dropped off the food and I went for dingy gas while the boys organized the food. AS soon as I got back we started the engines and headed for Las Perlas Islands, showing up around 430pm and straight into glassy clean lefts and rights. Not so big, but just me and Elwin in the lineup. Lots of waves ridden before sunset. Very positive start to our surfing mission in the Pacific as the goal of it all is to surf un-crowded remote areas…. And this definitely was one of those.

 Today we got up early and went for a look around the island. Dragged the dingy up the beach a little and went for a twenty minute walk.. when we came back the dingy was 20 feet up the beach. Huge tides here are something that will take us a while to get used to. We surfed a little bigger waves this am, but the wind was a little onshore in front of a big thunderstorm, so we came back, had lunch and played gin while we waited for the lightening to stop! Now as the tide drops we are foaming for another glassy evening surf session!!!

[sterlinghamilton]

What Little Hope We Have - Stage Play

              WHAT LITTLE HOPE WE HAVE

                                       SCENE 1

                             Narrator walks center stage.

                                       NARRATOR

                                         The stage may be simple but the                                          story runs deep, exploring the                                          family history of the Hamiltons                                          in 1902, England. You meet                                          Margaret Hamilton (21), a                                          prospective wife of John                                          Hamilton(32). She births a son                                          named David and her whole future                                          looks bright. Unfortunately she                                          takes a turn for the worse,                                          postpartum depression strikes and                                          Margaret can not look at her                                          beloved child the same way again.                                          Her future, her loving husband                                          all turn on her the day she                                          leaves David alone in the                                          backyard for two hours without                                          supervision. Luckily David is                                          okay but when John finds David in                                          the grass, alone, he blames                                          Margaret for not being a better                                          mother. Hurt by the accusation,                                          Margaret cannot come up with a                                          reason why and as time goes by,                                          she becomes more anxious, more                                          empty until the day men come to                                          the house. Margaret is escorted                                          away from her family and home,                                          brought to a large building and                                          placed in a cell.                                          The doctors who greet her do not                                          explain the situation other than                                          the fact that she now must call                                          this cell and building her new                                          home.

                                       MARGARET                                   (on stage)               Hello? C-Can anyone hear me?

                             (She waits for a moment, walking                              closer to the edge of her cell)               I'd like to go home now...

                             (She backs up again, looking to the                              ceiling)               Hello!?

                             (She becomes teary and her voice                              cracks)               P-Please... I don't like this anymore, I want to go home- m               my actual home. I understand I did wrong, but please don't               leave me here. I promise I'll be better! I promise I'll love               him more!

                                       LESLIE                                   (walks on stage and enters                                   the cell next to Margaret's                                   then sits down)

                                       MARGARET               Why won't anyone listen!? You were just here moments ago and               now you're ignoring me? I told you- I'd be better! There is               nothing wrong with me!

                                       LESLIE                                   (snorts)

                                       MARGARET                                   (looks around)               What was that? Hello?

                             (She comes closer to the wall                              between her and the other woman,                              placing her hands against the cool                              stone)

                                       LESLIE                                   (doesn't get up)               Yeah, yeah. I can hear you.

                                       MARGARET               What? Hello? Another person! P-Please tell me... where are               we?

                                       LESLIE                                   (casually gets up and walks                                   towards the wall facing                                   Margaret but looking up)               Oh, well... that's a tough question. You see, some call it               heaven, others call it hell.

                                       MARGARET                                   (looks appalled)               Excuse me?

                                       LESLIE                                   (beings to pace along the                                   wall)               It all depends on with rose you pricked your finger from.

                                       MARGARET               What are you saying?

                                       LESLIE                                   (puts her hands on either                                   side of her mouth)               What poison did you drink, Alice!?

                             (She begins to cackle and Margaret                              backs up, putting her hands on                              either side of her head)

                                       MARGARET               No, no, no... y-you're crazy-

                                       LESLIE               Exactly! Now you're catching on!

                                       MARGARET               B-But I'm a mother, a wife! I have a home and a dog, we go to               the parks on Friday afternoons, I-I sing David to-

                                       LESLIE               Wait, you can sing?

                                       MARGARET               I don't really see how that is relevant.

                                       LESLIE               No- no, no, pretty bird. I just like music. You know I wasn't               always here. I promise you'll get used to it, with time.

                                       MARGARET               With... time? There is a mistake, there will be no time to be               had! J-John will notice I'm gone- h-he'll miss me! I'll be               out of here by tomorrow!

                                       LESLIE               Then you'll make beautiful music together?

                                       MARGARET               If that's what happens, then yes!

                                       LESLIE                                   (doubles over in laughter,                                   wiping a fake tear from her                                   eyes)               Ah- that was good, you're funny! But listen dove- the only               way you get out of here is through the basement and let me               tell you, once you're out you ain't gonna be baking no pies,               that's for sure.

                             (Takes a seat cross legged, now                              looking bored)

                                       MARGARET                                   (slowly sinks to her knees)               Please tell me this is a dream.

                                       LESLIE               Hmmm... nope!

                                       MARGARET               Why not!

                                       LESLIE               You're way too much fun, I haven't had someone next to my               cell in a loooong time.

                                       MARGARET                                   (is staring off into space                                   before it dawns on her)               How can you hear me so well? How are we able to communicate               so well?

                                       LESLIE                                   (crawls over to the wall                                   where there is a hole                                   between the cells obviously                                   dug out from previous                                   tenants)               Easy! Through here!

                             (She sticks her hand through and                              waves at Margaret)

                                       MARGARET                                   (Hurries over to the hand,                                   clasping it in her own,                                   laying on her stomach as she                                   presses the dirt covered                                   flesh to her cheek)

                                       LESLIE               Whoa- you're not part of the I eat people club are you?

                                       MARGARET                                   (Has her eyes shut)               No... I just... need comfort. I need to know someone is               there, for me to get grounded on this situation.

                                       LESLIE                                   (There is a beat of silence                                   between them and Leslie                                   relaxes, letting out a sigh)               I'm here... don't worry...

                             (Her hand holds Margaret's and                              Leslie lets the woman hold her hand                              for as long as she needs. A beat                              passes and Leslie shifts onto her                              back, knocking her chin back to                              look at Margaret through the small                              hole)               Screw 'em.

                                       MARGARET                                   (opens her eyes and looks                                   through the hole)             �� Excuse me?

                                       LESLIE               Your husband... screw 'em. I've seen a lot of crazies here               and a pretty bird like you doesn't deserve to be here.               Though... not a lot of us do... at the beginning.

                                       MARGARET               Why are you here?

                                       LESLIE               Me father was a high up banker in central London.

                                       MARGARET               That's pretty impressive.

                                       LESLIE               Yeah but he wanted me to marry.

                                       MARGARET               Please don't tell me you...

                                       LESLIE               I what? I stopped sleeping suddenly, went a little mad, threw               my tea at my prospective husband and my father sent a doctor               after me. Not sure why... I just don't sleep.

                                       MARGARET               Never?

                                       LESLIE               Never ever... well maybe when they force me to sleep. But I               was fine when I came in! Now... I feel just as crazy as the               old bat down the hall who calls out to Saint Nick ever night.

                                       MARGARET               This place... makes you crazy?

                                       LESLIE               As a loon. But it's alright! If you're not crazy you'd see               this place as a living hell, but the moment you surrender to               the madness it becomes... liveable.

                                       MARGARET                                   (pulls away)               I'm not sure if I want this.

                                       LESLIE                                   (rolls onto stomach)               Awww, don't worry kitty-cat!

                                       MARGARET                                   (Begins to tear up)

                                       LESLIE               What are you doing? Why is this hole so small?- Oh, don't               cry! It's alright!

                                       MARGARET                                   (wiping at eyes, sits up on                                   her knees)               Why me? If you're right... if John did this... why? I thought               he... loved me. But I left David out, I became distant, I was               hurting! Couldn't he see? But he puts me out to pasture like               like some animal!  

                             (She begins to stand up)

                                       LESLIE                                   (Presses her face against the                                   hole)               What is happening now? I can't see!

                                       MARGARET               If that's what he wants- if that's what he thinks I am, an               animal that he can just toss away after breaking a leg, I'll               show him one!

                                       LESLIE               That's the spirit, friend I can't see anymore- seriously just               step to your left a little.

                                       MARGARET                                   (storms up to the cell                                   entrance, fists tight, she                                   howls)               Is this what you want, John! Is it!?

                             (OFF STAGE the sound of keys alerts                              both of the women and Margaret                              backs up)               What's happening?

                                       LESLIE                                   (gets up onto her feet)               It's the nurses, just stay calm.

                             (there is worry in her voice and                              that makes Margaret panic more)

                                       MARGARET                                   (backs up to the end of the                                   cell)               Did I do something wrong?! Please tell me!

                                       LESLIE                                   (goes back to the hole                                   between cells and reaches                                   through)               Come here.

                                       MARGARET                                   (hurries over, grasping the                                   hand in her own)

                                       LESLIE               My name is Leslie.

                                       MARGARET               Leslie? I-I'm Margaret... Hamilton.

                                       LESLIE               Good, now never forget who you are, Margaret... be strong.

                             (OFF STAGE the keys JINGLE louder                              like they are coming closer and                              footsteps are heard)

                                       MARGARET                                   (puts Leslie's hand against                                   her forehead, taking a deep                                   breath)               I'm scared... for the first time in my life... I'm terrified.

                                       LESLIE               And you will be... for the rest of your life.

                                                           LIGHTS OUT.

                             (Margaret is awake while Leslie is                              in her cell sleeping. Margaret is                              sitting in the corner, her knees up                              to her chest, looking lost.)

                                       MARGARET               I know you're not awake Leslie... I know it's late and I know               you have no obligation to wait up for me.               But I wish you could hear me now, I wish you could tell me               something funny, even something crazy to get my mind off of               what happened.

                             (She pauses for a beat.)               It was a small room, cramped, smelled a little stale -- kind               of how a doctors office smells! Funny, he said he was a               doctor, but it felt -- different. Well I was sat down, facing               the tall bookshelf full of so many titles I could barely               read. Then he asked me one simple line... Why do you think               you're here, Margaret? So simple, yet I couldn't respond with               anything but a simple shake of my head. A simple question, a               simple answer, but I still don't get it.

                                       LESLIE

                             (She awakes and yawns.)               Marg? You talkin' to yourself already?

                                       MARGARET

                             (Scrambles to the hole in the wall,                              shoving her hand through.)               Take it! Take my hand!

                                       LESLIE

                             (Yawns again, stretches, takes her                              time to rub her eyes.)

                                       MARGARET               Leslie!

                                       LESLIE               Alright! Alright! So demanding at three am.

                             (Leslie crawls over to the hole and                              takes Margaret's hand in her own.                              They pause for a moment before                              realization hits Leslie.)               Wait, this is real?

                             (She pulls on Margaret's hand,                              forcing Margaret through the                              opening further until she makes a                              GRUNT.)

                                       MARGARET               Ouch! Why wouldn't you think my arm is real?

                                       LESLIE

                             (Is studying arm.)               I've had hallucinations like this before, hands reaching               towards me in the dark.  

                                       MARGARET               That sounds terrifying.

                                       LESLIE               Does it? I never told you what they were reaching towards.

                                       MARGARET

                             (Pulls her arm back through the                              hole.)               Ew.

                             (Leslie giggles.)               But thank you... again, you've comforted me.

                                       LESLIE               You know you don't have to thank me.

                                       MARGARET               Oh but I do.

                                       LESLIE               No seriously, it's getting weird.

                                       MARGARET               Oh.

                             (They look away from the wall at                              the same time, falling into an                              awkward silence.

                             OFF STAGE Keys jingle.

                             Margaret shivers at the sound.)

                                       MARGARET               I never thought the sound of keys would frighten me so much.

                                       LESLIE               Oh they don't check up on us until breakfast time. They're               most likely after someone who's misbehaving.

                                       MARGARET               What?

                             (OFF STAGE a woman's scream.)

                             (Margaret leaps to her feet.)               What are they doing to her!?

                             (Leslie just laughs, falling onto                              her back, the screams continue as                              well as the laughter.)

                             (Margaret claps her hands over her                              ears.)               STOP!!!

                             (The laughter stops, the screaming                              stops, the stage is silent.                              Margaret is breathing heavily,                              tears are forming. She backs away                              from the hole in the wall.)               How can you just laugh at that!? How can you just lay there               and let them beat that woman!

                                       LESLIE               Well you see --

                                       MARGARET               No, you see here! I thought you were my friend, my only               friend in this hell hole but no friend of mine would just               laugh like that when someone is being hurt! You keep               switching from being a kind and good person to this maniac!

                                       LESLIE

                             (Leans against the hole so her eye                              is visible to Margaret.)               You thought we were friends?

                             (LIGHTS DIM)               How cute, how innocent, how childish you are. No wonder you               can't figure out what is going to on here. I keep telling you               you're in this hell for a reason but you keep pushing the               blame on what -- your husband? Your child? No one is going to               feel sympathetic towards you here, darling. You're in here               for life! The sooner you accept the beatings, the torture,               the awful food and the despair. The sooner you'll survive.               Because right now, even I'm tempted to put you out of your               misery.

                             (Margaret slowly sinks to her                              knees.)

                                                           LIGHTS OUT.               Some time has passed and Margaret's clothes are looking worn               and damaged.

                             (Margaret is sitting on one side of                              her cell, Leslie is sitting on the                              opposite side of her own.)

                             (A male nurse walks by, checking in                              on each before walking OFF STAGE.)

                                       LESLIE

                             (She lets out a big SIGH, Margaret                              glares at the hole.)               This is boring! You're boring!

                                       MARGARET               I'm b-boring!?

                                       LESLIE

                             (Begins to roll around on the                              floor.)               You haven't said anything in weeks! You're such a woman, god!

                                       MARGARET

                             (Stands up.)               A woman!? What do you mean by that! You're a woman too, you               know.

                                       LESLIE               Believe me, I know or else I would have found a way to bang               the misery out of you.

                                       MARGARET

                             (It takes her a sound to get it but                              when it hits her she stumbles back,                              appalled.)               Well you don't need to be a man to do that... I-I mean -- How               does your mind even work?

                                       LESLIE

                             (Waves her hands around.)               In mysterious ways -- Have we made up yet?

                                       MARGARET

                             (She looks away, crossing her                              arms.)               No.

                                       LESLIE               What?!

                             She crawls over to the hole and                              puts her arm through it.               I know what always cheers you up, here -- take my hand.

                                       MARGARET               I don't want to take your hand.

                             (OFF STAGE keys jingle but only                              Leslie notices)

                                       LESLIE               Please.

                                       MARGARET               I told you no!

                             Leslie retracts her hand and sinks                              back.

                             ENTER male nurse, who opens                              Leslie's door and takes her out.

                             When the cell door shuts and                              Margaret is alone.               Leslie?

                             Goes to the hole to investigate.               Now you're giving me the cold shoulder? -- Leslie?

                                                           LIGHTS OUT.

              AN UNDETERMINED AMOUNT OF TIME HAS PASSED.

                             Margaret paces in her cell, Leslie                              still hasn't returned.

                                       MARGARET               Am I being foolish for worrying? This is Leslie, she is               unbreakable, tough, and can handle the doctors, right?

                                                           LIGHTS OUT.

              AN UNDETERMINED AMOUNT OF TIME HAS PASSED.

                             Margaret paces in her cell, Leslie                              still hasn't returned.

                                       MARGARET               By heavens it has been awhile, how many days?

                             She laughs to herself.               Leslie? Wait what would she say -- Sounds like to me you've               drank the wrong potion, Alice.

                             She mocks in a Leslie voice.               I'm fine! Everything is fine! It hasn't been that long, I-I               know that because I've only had two dinners.

                                                           LIGHTS OUT.

              AN UNDETERMINED AMOUNT OF TIME HAS PASSED.

                             Margaret paces in her cell. Leslie                              still hasn't returned.

                                       MARGARET               Two dinner's! Three dinner's! Four dinner's! How many more               dinners! I-I can't take it!

                             She hurries over to the cell door,                              SHOUTS.               Leslie!!!

                             She gets only silence in return.

                                                           LIGHTS OUT.

              AN UNDETERMINED AMOUNT OF TIME HAS PASSED.

                             Margaret is now in the corner of                              her cell, sitting with her knees up                              to her chest. She has been crying                              for awhile. She is still weeping.

                                       MARGARET               I'll do anything... anything to have her back, that annoying               voice who always reassured me that this was meant to be a               hell. But it isn't the same hell without her! Please God.               Please don't take away... the one last thing... I have in my               life.  

                             There are two sets of footsteps                              coming from OFF STAGE. A male nurse                              helps a tired Leslie into her cell.                              Leslie stands facing the door,                              swaying. The cell door shuts and                              the male nurse retreats.               Leslie! Leslie!

                             Margaret is at the hole in the                              wall, reaching towards the girl.               Take my hand!

                                       LESLIE

                             Leslie blankly looks over at the                              hand, no expression crosses her                              face. She numbly walks over,                              sitting in front of it. Staring at                              it instead of touching it.

                                       MARGARET               What are you doing? Take it!

                                       LESLIE               I don't wanna.

                                       MARGARET

                             She pulls her arm back through the                              wall and looks through instead.               What happened to you?

                                       LESLIE

                             She says nothing but falls                              backwards onto the floor.

                                       MARGARET               Leslie! Leslie! Help! Someone!

                                       LESLIE

                             (Begins to SNORE)

                                       MARGARET

                             She takes a second to look back,                              listening to the snoring. Puts a                              hand to her forehead and smiles to                              herself, shaking her head.               You had me worried there... actually you had me worried the               entire time. Don't ever do that to me again, got it?

                                       LESLIE

                             (SNORES loudly)

                                       MARGARET               Good.

                                       LESLIE               I-I didn't take the pudding!

                             (She shouts and bolts up.)

                                       MARGARET               Hey, hey, hey! It's alright, you were sleeping.

                                       LESLIE               Sleeping? Ha ha. You must be mistaken, for you see -- I never               sleep!

                                       MARGARET               But what about your whereabouts for the past week?

                                       LESLIE               That is a good question, what am I doing here?

                                       MARGARET               Did you lose your memory as well as your insomnia?

                                       LESLIE               No -- no...

                             (She stands up and paces away.)               I honestly don't remember much, they took me away to a white               room where they had me lay on a rather uncomfortable table.

                                       MARGARET               A table?

                                       LESLIE               You know, one of those surgery ones? Anyways, they told me               they were testing a new drug. So they injected me with               something and -- I don't remember anything else!

                                       MARGARET               Nothing at all?

                                       LESLIE               Well I'd tell you if I did!

                                       MARGARET               It seems to me that they've discovered a way to force you to               sleep.

                                       LESLIE               That's silly, you're silly! They've always had a way to put               me to sleep but the doc's always said it would damage my               independence. Becoming too used to a drug wouldn't heal me,               or something like that.

                                       MARGARET               Well you came in here, completely out of it! Then passed out               on the floor as if you had been sleep walking!

                                       LESLIE               Now how ironic is that?

                                       MARGARET               Is what?

                                       LESLIE               An insomniac sleepwalking!

                                       MARGARET               I hardly think this is the time to joke.

                                       LESLIE               Oh you never want to joke.

                             (She pauses and looks to the wall                              separating Margaret and herself.                              Leslie walks over, placing a hand                              on the wall.)               So you've forgiven me?

                                       MARGARET

                             (She stops and looks to the wall,                              walks over a places her hand on it                              as well.)           ��   Seems I've grown quite attached to you.

                                       LESLIE               Like a tumor?

                                       MARGARET

                             (Places her forehead against her                              hand on the wall.)               Something like that.

                                                           LIGHTS DIM.

              BOTH LADIES SEPARATE AND LAY DOWN FOR SLEEP.

                             (Leslie awakes and starts                              scratching at her head, harder and                              harder, making noises of                              frustration and panic.)

                             (Margaret awakes to the sounds.)

                                       LESLIE               I can't get them out.

                             (She crawls over to the wall,                              rubbing her head against it.)               I can't get them out!

                                       MARGARET               Get what out?

                             (A loud THUMP is heard as Leslie                              hits her head against the wall.)               What is going on, Leslie? Hello?

                                       LESLIE               I can't get them out! I can't get them out!

                             (She keeps banging her head over                              and over.)

                                       MARGARET               Stop it! Stop it!

                                       LESLIE               The bugs are in my head!

                             (She is now hurting herself.)

                                       MARGARET               Leslie, please stop!

                             (She tries to reach through the                              hole.)               Stop it! Stop it!

                             (She is desperate to make Leslie                              stop trying to dig into her head.)

                                       LESLIE               Let's SING and SONG of the rabbit hole -- the lovely, lovely,               lovely... rabbit hole!

                             (She is singing as she is banging                              her head.)

                                       MARGARET               Leslie PLEASE!!!

                             (She is now crying and digging at                              the hole to make it bigger.)               Why is this wall here, WHY IS THIS WALL HERE! Leslie please               stop hurting us! Y-You told me when I came here, you told me               we'd be in this together, right? You told me I wouldn't be               alone! If you continue, I will be alone!

                                       LESLIE

                             (Pauses for a BEAT, panting out of                              breath. The STAGE is silent save                              for Margaret's weeping and Leslie's                              breathing.)

                                       MARGARET               T-Take my hand...

                                       LESLIE

                             (Slowly reaches to Margaret's hand                              and as soon as their fingers touch,                              Margaret lets out a sob.)

                                       MARGARET               Just stop it, let me take care of you.

                                       LESLIE               B-But the bugs.

                             (She says in a hollow tone.)

                                       MARGARET               My darling, there are no bugs, it's just me, listen to only               me.

                                       LESLIE

                             (Let's out a cry and holds onto                              Margaret as a life line.)

                                       MARGARET               That's it, focus on me.

                                       LESLIE               I'm only focusing on you! This is a hell! Why am I here! I-I               want to go home, I want to be normal, I want cake and tea, I               I want to see the sun.

                                       MARGARET               I-I know... you've fallen down a rabbits hole, Alice, but               you'll find a way back up, I promise you.

                                       NARRATOR

                                         I wish I could tell you that they                                          make it out alive. I wish I could                                          tell you that they did not die                                          here. But you see, not all fairy                                          tale endings end within the same                                          chapter. They do make it out, but                                          in a better place, together.