#what is this strange horseless carriage

[zarla-s]

[previous] [next]

Settling in! I was faced with an interesting problem here: how did monsters integrate themselves into human society? Dealing with that would have taken a lot of time and would’ve gone off on a huge tangent, practically its own story, so instead I dealt with it the same way the game did: montage-ing over it, haha.

This transition leads us into a sort of “free” period where there’ll be some one/two-shots while I wrap up some loose ends before we hit the final scene in the story. How many one-shots there’ll be will depend on how many ideas come to me before we all finally say goodbye...

Figured Gaster would have no familiarity with cars since there weren’t any in the underground, so riding in one would be rather nervewracking, haha.

[index] [patreon] [comicfury]

[viatrixtravels-a]

!! WARNING: this post contains dark content including mentions of blood and character death !!

Everything written italics and indented was sent to me by an Anon. I enjoyed reading through it so much, I wanted to make a proper post out of it. This also allows me to insert a read more because it is incredibly long.

Everything went well for you. Thanks to Cloud Retainer, you were able to meet Aether. Well... for a moment at least... So you decide to go to sleep.

"Goodnight, Paimon."

"Mmh, goodnight, Traveler! Sweet dreams!"

Closing her eyes, the blonde drifted off into a deep slumber...However, her dream would end up being anything but sweet.

***

You awaken in a strange place. You look around and you see people. A crowd of people. Possibly in the thousands. All looking at you. Among the people was a familiar face. Standing guard alongside his comrades adorned in clear white ornate armour. The mask that once covered half his face absent. The stars he had for irises flickering alongside the rest of his people. You then hear "The Descender has come" The voice coming from an important looking person wearing a crown. A king perhaps.

(Descender...? What do they mean by that? Are they talking about me...?)

With her brows furrowed, Lumine took a step forward.

You wander around the place. It's unlike any place you've seen before. Horseless carriages are driven by engines of fire. Buildings that made those in Fontiane look primitive. The sky... Well, there is no sky but rather a rocky 'ceiling' with light bursting through. A huge mechanical worm -like creature burrowing around. You see... Ruin Gu- No Field Tillers playing with children and giving them flowers and even a mechanical crab that is being operated on. All around the people were enjoying their day to day lives. The feeling of freedom from the gaze of the heavens is a bliss that is unlike any other It seems that the serenity will last forever.

(What a strange place...It is unlike anything I have seen in Teyvat, or any of the other Worlds my brother and I visited prior to our encounter with the Unknown God...)

*Doom has come...* All of a sudden... the same place you emerged from. A rift had formed, bursting through reality and what came forth were Abyssal Hounds. Countless numbers of them bringing forth the dark power from beyond this world. Turning once noble warriors into shadowy husks. Imprisoning them in their own armour and corrupting their minds to become mindless slaves of the Abyss. There was no mercy... people were felled by the very warriors that swore to protect them and were being slaughtered or were devoured by the hounds. Such a grizzly sight as you see a young woman get ripped apart by some hounds. And yet there are those who resisted. That familiar blonde haired Knight with his most loyal men, fought fiercely as they slew both their own former comrades and any Hounds that came their way. The Field Tillers now turned war machines, unleash their firepower on their Abyssal Foes but in turn leaving a wake of destruction on the people and the city. As you look around the great cataclysm, you could only feel sorrow, pity, and sadness as you see the familiar blonde haired knight grasping a dying comrade. Did these people really deserve all of this? Did they deserve to be destroyed for unleashing great evils on this world by accident?

It all happened so fast, the blonde barely had any time to react. Of course - being the seasoned warrior she is - Lumine had immediately pulled her own sword to help fend off those Rifthounds, but it was to no avail. It was as if her attacks could not even land and instead the silhouette of her sword simply went right through them without dealing any damage.

(No...No, no, no...!! This can't be...! What is happening!? Why is this happening...!?)

*FLASH!* A bright light. You look into its direction and you can just make it out. Seven figures. Seven Dieties standing firm on the now helpless city and nation as more and more Abyssal Creatures pour from the rift. You can also make out one particular figure. The one that took your brother away. She conjures familiar looking cubes down as she commands the other dieties to bring an end to this madness. The archs of lightning that slice anything in it's Path. The Tidal Wave that washes and drowns away the sins. The Fire that purifies and destroys all its path. The Malestrom that blows away mountains. And the rock that brings order and judgement on all evil. Perhaps to save this world, this nation must be sacrificed. Perhaps that is why God has abandoned its people to a terrible fate. For Teyvat to survive, this nation will have to fall. And now you see the aftermath. All that's left of the wonderful city... a river of magma and fire... the ground caved in. Those familiar cubes... going into the center of the destruction. You can only cry and go down on your knees. You feel weak...

(Please...Make it stop...This is just too muchー!)

A voice. "Lumine" It's coming from behind. You turn around to see... Aether. You blink and now you find yourself in an empty plain with the moon shining in the sky. You walk towards Aether. "You still have time" Aether says "You can still save this world, Lumine. For me and for everyone you hold dear" He then walks to you and holds your hand. "Only you... can stop him..."

She shook her head in disbelief, squeezing her brother's hand. "No, Aether. Don't say that. We've always fought together, haven't we? In that case, why not this time? I don't know who this 'he' is you are referring to, but I'm sure that if we work togeーー"

Before Lumine could finish her sentence, she was once again blinded by a bright light. *FLASH!* Aether is gone. In fact you got transported to... Liyue? Yeah this is Liyue harbor. But there's something wrong. The buildings are all ruined and on fire. The streets are filled with rubble and are cracked. There are bodies. Bodies of both Millileth Soldiers and Liyue Citizens alike. All of them are horribly mutilated with their own blood spilling into the streets. Among the fallen are familiar faces. You see Chef Mao carrying a lifeless Xiangling in his arms. Crying all the way through. Gaming had been crushed by fallen debris while you see Qiqi telling a deceased Baizhu to "wake up". Yelan's body was found next. Pierced by multiple arrows from her own bow and shortly after you see Yun Jin, Chongyun, Xinqiu and Xinyan. All of which were killed in certain ways.

The blonde felt her heart drop and stomach turn as she clapsed one hand on top of her mouth just to prevent herself from throwing up on the spot.

"Lu...mine" You look down to see a dying Hu Tao grab at your ankle. "We... failed. We couldn't... stop him..." You try to help her out but her breaths become weaker until... her heart stops... and she goes limp.

(Him? Who is 'him'...? Who could be so cruel to do all of this?)

Why is this happening? Why first Khaenri'ah and now Liyue? What was going on?! Who was 'him'?! You want to find out but not before seeing more people you recognize fallen. Keqing had her throat slit. Her dead eyes staring ahead into nothing. Beidou had went down with the Alcor but Kazuha was now hanging on a rope. Ningguang was left alive however, although she's been tied on top of the Jade Chamber while being tortured into seeing Liyue fall. Xianyun was kneeling in sorrow and pain as she held the bodies of Ganyu and Shenhe.

Lumine was on the brink of having a full panic attack, her breathing increased as she clutched her chest while praying that all of this would soon end.

"Everyone...They're..."

No.

Not everyone. There was stillーー

You hear fighting! And you hear a familiar voice. It's Xiao! It has to be! You run around to see where he was and finally found him at the docks fighting some Abyss Heralds. He manages to slay a few of them but gets injured in the process. He kills one more but then... his lance was shattered and he got stabbed in the abdomen.

"Xiao...!!"

There is no way. Xiao was strong. He would never fall to that scum of the Abyss. He falls to the ground as you run towards him. "I am... sorry Lumine" You try to make sense of what he's saying but he then grabs your hand. "We couldn't save this world... from destruction" He goes limp... At first you feel sadness but then anger as you want to kill the Abyss Heralds but then your attention is drawn upward to the sky. There are multiple rifts and like before, rifthounds are pouring through and there you can see... Zhongli.

(Zhongli...!?)

"Zhongli...! How did this happen!? How could you let this happen!? The people of Liyue, they've all been...!!"

It was then that she realized that something was off. He was not moving nor reacting to her words. No, this was not the Zhongli she knew. He too had fallen victim to this mysterious entity which had turned Liyue into a sea of blood. He was floating but almost by force and he appeared to be paralysed as he couldn't move. In front of him was a dark cloud coming from one of the holes. Zhongli was trying everything he can to move but he can't, and then suddenly. Something comes out of his chest. Was that the Geo Gnosis? It had to be. Cause nothing else looked like that. The Gnosis went into the cloud and Zhongli then disappeared into golden mist which was absorbed by the cloud. Dark eyes from the cloud now look to you. "What was taken from me... Will be mine once more..." A voice came from the cloud. It was pure evil. You are dragged forward towards the cloud by an invisible force. You try to break free but you can't.

"Ugh...! Let me...go...Ah!"

As you are forced forward, you see not only the Geo Gnosis but all the other Gnosises. Lined up next to each other. "My power will be mine once more..." "The Usurper... will... pay..."

It was then that Lumine jolted awake, her body drenched in sweat and breathing heavy. She was in her room at Wangshu Inn - where she would always stay during the Lantern Rite. Everything was back to normal, but those horrid images were still very vivid inside her mind.

"Haah, haah..."

"Nn...Lumine...? What's wroー"

In an instant, she threw her blanket aside and dashed out of the room - not even bothering to put on her boots or get properly dressed despite the temperature being quite cold at night during this time of year.

"Lumine!? Hey...!! Where are you going!?"

She just ran and ran and ran, not even knowing where she was headed. Little pebbles and branches dug into the skin of her bare feet, scratching them up. However, she could not even feel the physical pain over the aching over her heart.

"...Ah!"

Suddenly she tripped, falling face first against the ground before remaining completely unmoving for a while.

"..."

After curling up into a small ball, she cried into the night sky, letting all of it out.

"Aaah...Aaaaah....!!"

[renee-writer]

Loved Her First Chapter 109

A/N @omgbarbiegurl and I apologize for the tardy update.😁❤️💓

AO3

Ian paces back and forth. “This Adam character must have someone he trusts he would have told where he took her.”

 

David watches nervously. No, the man isn’t mad at him, has in fact, thanked him for all he has done to protect his daughter, still… Faith tried to give him a reassuring smile.

 

“Yeah, err yes, there might be someone.” He looks through his phone contacts, “Jason, Adam is fairly close to him.”

 

“Can you get this Jason here or direct me to where he is?”

 

Again David swallows but nods. A few texts later and Jason is on the way.

 

“I understand your frustration. Mercy is quite dear to me too. Just don’t harm the boy, to much. He isn’t  Adam.” Joe says. Ian nods.

 

“Aye, I shall not. As long as he is honest with me.”

 

“Jason, this is Ian and Faith Murray, Mercy’s  parents.” David introduces them.

 

He turns immediately pale and they know. Ian stalks over to him. “Where has he taken my daughter?”

 

“I didn’t think he would go through with it. Thought he was just…”

 

The man’s hands grip the front of his shirt. “Where?”

“There is a cabin his folks own. It is…”

 

Address in hand, they head off, David driving. Joe can’t even reassure the shaken man that his friend won’t be harmed.

 

Mercy holds the shard from the broken plate in her hand, ready for the first opportunity. She has no hesitation about using it to harm him if it can help her get away.

 

He returns, face red with rage. “Listen, you are going to…” Close enough. With a quick thrust, she stabs him in the chest. There is no waiting around to see the state she has left him in. She is up and running towards freedom.

 

David pulls up and Ian jumps out of the strange horseless carriage. His wife and David aren’t fair behind.

 

The door opens before he can open it. His daughter runs into his arms.

 

“Mercy!” She looks up and into her daddy’s eyes.

 

“Daddy!” she bursts into tears.  He holds her close. Faith wraps her arms around them both. David, weak kneed at seeing her alive and whole, looks for Adam.

 

He stumbles out bleeding. Both man sense him at the same time. Ian leaves Mercy with Faith and turns towards him. At a nod from David, “That’s him,” he punched him in the face. He drops like a stone.

 

“He had been following me. No amount of rejection deterred him.” Mercy is saying. She holds tight to her mama’s hand. The police officer takes notes. Two others are interviewing David and Ian. Adam was loaded into an ambulance for the trip to the hospital. He is cuffed to the stretcher and has his own police escort.

 

It is easy enough to tell her stabbing of him was in self defense. The police interview was for the official record.

 

When they are finished with them and Mercy is cleared by the paramedics, the group heads back to Joe’s. Now Mercy can find out how her parents ended up here.

 

“I knew something was wrong.” Faith says. They sit in Joe’s living room. She sits between her parents with Joe and David on the other side of them.

 

“I didn’t ken if I could travel but, I needed to try. Whatever danger ye were facing, weel I needed to be here.”

 

She rests her head on his shoulder. “I am so glad you are, daddy.”

 

He kisses her head. “Aye, as I am. Though ye has it well in hand.” She grins.

 

“You, granny, and grandsire taught me well.”

 

“Thank God they did. I was frantic with worry. He could have badly harmed you.” David still shakes with adrenaline. He is glad Ian knocked him out, though he would have liked to do it himself.

 

“He could have. I feared being bothered,” at her daddy’s look, she quickly adds, “I wasn’t.”

 

“He was working his courage up to do it. Men, Nae, boys like him are cowards at heart.”

 

“Amen Ian. That they are.” Joe agrees. “Now what? Are you two going to stay?”

 

They share a look. “Nae, us three are going home.”

 

2 Days Later

 

David stepped out to the porch where Mercy was standing.

 

“I don’t want you to go.” He said softly.

 

Mercy smiled at him. “Because you are so happy taking care of me?”

 

David swallowed. “Because I-I hate to see you giving up your education.”

 

She smiled gently and touched his face lightly. “Perhaps I will come back. Perhaps you will be waiting for me.”

 

She is about to say more when the door opened. Her Mama, Daddy and Joe stepped out.

 

Her Mama smiled. “Time to go Mercy.”

 

She smiles, hugs David, and then Joe before walking down the steps.

 

David and Joe watch as the threesome walk out to the road toward to the stones.

 

Joe patted David’s shoulder. “Don’t worry lad, if you love something let it go. If it’s truly yours, it’ll come back to you.”

[jessicanjpa]

Twilight Advent Calendar 2022 event

❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️

Dec. 2 prompt: What human skills/hobbies has Jasper learned since becoming a Cullen?

-driving. Jasper hadn't ever had a reason to get inside a horseless carriage automobile before 1950. He found it very unnerving. When he was first learning to drive, he was one of those drivers that go 20 miles under the speed limit, at least until he saw someone bleeding on the other side of the highway and nearly caused an accident. Years later, he still doesn't enjoy being in cars. He's a bit claustrophic and other people's emotions are way too close, and the noise/smell/vibration is nothing like riding a horse. Motorcycles > cars > > > airplanes.

-experimenting with electricity. Jasper was almost completely absent from human society for a long time. When he left the wars and began hunting in cities, he was really intrigued by the invention of "electric" long after everyone else was used to it. Once he got comfortable in his new home he started dissecting all kinds of electrical gadgets to figure out what made them tick. This led to his and Rosalie's shared robotics hobby in later years.

-identity management. When Jasper first joined the family, he was amused by the Cullens' insistence on playing human... and a bit uncomfortable with the risks they took to do so. His concern with safety/security, his willingness to get his hands dirty, his need for real work, and his talent for strategic thinking eventually drove him to take an active role in managing the Cullens' identities (and past identities, and ongoing identities, etc.). Ironically, the workload and complexity of this task drove him to take an unprecedented risk: letting a human in on a fair amount of their secrets. This is stretching the secrecy law, and he knows it, but he's come to love this strange new family of his and to care about their happiness. Since playing human is a necessary part of that happiness, he's going to make sure it's done as safely as possible. Ironically enough, he's found a great deal of satisfaction in this role and it's led him to keep up with the human world more than he would have done otherwise. (Here's a one-shot about his starting up with Jenks's father in 1974: FFN / AO3)

-reading. Jasper never read for leisure as a human; no time and no books. He dropped out of school at age 13 to work full time on the family ranch. As a vampire in the Southern Wars there were always books on hand (some newborns could be kept quiet that way) but he rarely read then either. Once he joined the Cullens, though, that vampire obsessiveness really got a chance to shine and he devoured books like they were blood. (This actually helped with his withdrawal—he'd already gone through the worst of it when he was alone with Alice, but now he was trying to stretch out the time between hunts and be around humans again.) His interests shift as the years ago on, but history, anthropology, psychology, true crime, and philosophy are his favorite subjects in general. He's the only Cullen besides Carlisle who has his own study.

-whittling. To be fair, Jasper whittled as a human, but it was just passing time and mostly shaving pieces of wood down to nothing or quickly shaping a scrap of lumber for a particular purpose, like a clothespin or a fence post. He didn't really focus on artistry. But as a Cullen he really began to study the art of whittling. He loves to craft things like chess pieces, Christmas tree ornaments, little knickknacks, and even jewelry. Keeping his hands busy helps his thirst, and it means a lot to him to use his hands to create something beautiful and lasting after so many years of destroying everything he touched.

-helping Esme with renovations for that same reason. Sometimes he gets to design cool circuits/tech for their houses. The system of automatic steel shutters in their Forks home was his contribution. (Being overprotective is the mother of invention.)

You can find all the #twilightadvent22 prompts here!

❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️

[mywifeleftme]

112: The Rabble // The Rabble Album

The Rabble Album The Rabble 1967, Trans World

As late ‘60s garage rock bands go, the Rabble were about as diametrically opposed to their rivals for Anglo-Montreal beat supremacy the Haunted as it gets. The Haunted (whom I covered yesterday), aped the Stones’ swagger and sweetness, sometimes brilliantly; the Rabble wrote Mothers of Invention-esque freakouts about black potatoes and squeezing pustules. The Haunted’s self-titled LP has generic puff-piece liners notes from someone at their label extoling the fact that the band “became one of the first Canadian groups to incorporate lights into their act” (and I hear they toured all the way from Laval to Brossard in a horseless carriage!); The Rabble Album’s sleeve offers sly self-commentary like, “[This song] could be construed as being both amusing and psychotic, these terms being not strictly synonymous.”

It's not exactly a Blur versus Oasis scenario, given that neither band achieved much success outside the Canadian market or lasted more than a few years within it. But considered together, they do a better job at gesturing at the depth of a busy but mostly unheralded scene than either would individually. I also think both bands would’ve done fairly well anywhere—the Rabble in particular really had something with their hyperactive proto-prog/garage sound. They could flit with ease between Ashram blues like “Rising of the Sun” (‘a slow song, important for its lack of deep meaning’ per songwriter Mike Harris) and a blistering mini-suite like “The Crushing Hand of Mother” (‘I would also rather you violently hate the song than looked [sic] at it indifferently,’ say John Pimm and Wally O’Reilly). It’s pretty gonzo stuff, but Montrealers smoked as much weed as anyone, and enough of them knew they were lucky to have a world-class group of freaks to play their local for the Rabble to have an exciting little run.

I’m comfortable calling The Rabble Album the best Montreal pop album ever released as of 1967, and if Songs of Leonard Cohen had snatched that title by 1968, what a few months it was for the Rabble on top of the mountain. They weren’t around long enough to be a direct influence on the local music that came in their wake, but they’re an example of convergent evolution in action: when exposed to the specific liberties and pressures of Montreal, time and time again musicians turn strange in ways not quite like anywhere else in the world. Not too long ago, I recommended the Rabble to a member of Dirty Milk, one of the city’s best current bands, because they share their forerunner’s absurdist wit, elastic songs, and crunching volume. I’ll have to ask next time I see him whether he listened, but it’s nice to know (as a 56-year-old man) that the weird vein the Rabble began mining back in ’67 is still producing. The Rabble Album (originally on the TransWorld label, coincidentally a good description of Montreal in 2023) was helpfully reissued a few years back by Hungry for Vinyl, so it’s not too difficult to find at the moment. Worth the hunt!

112/365

[justjessame]

Light Through the Darkness: Chapter 35

Salvatore Garden~Is It Ending, FINALLY?

There was a new tension in Abigail. Only one shadow left. One more trauma, one more lesson her mind needed to teach. She'd expected the first four, but the fifth had surprised her. What new shock would come from the sixth?

"Abigail?" The voice, very young truly drew her up short. She opened her eyes and saw five year old Stefan Salvatore standing in front of her. Surely this wasn't the last. Not even her own mind would force her to relive his descent.

She struggled to stay seated, to not flinch. He was still a child, after all. Even if he became a nightmare, he wasn't at this point. "Stefan." Her voice was thick with the fear she was desperate to hide.

"You and Damon left me, Abi." He accused, the dark eyes she knew as a child lightening before her eyes. "We played together for awhile, but then you left me behind."

"You didn't play very nice, Stefan." She whispered, knowing this child would transform. "You scared me."

As she knew would happen, he began to morph from a sweet looking five year old to thirteen to seventeen in quick succession. Skipping over the years they hadn't interacted.

"Ah, Abigail," his voice sounding more like her living nightmare than she wanted to admit. "I only wanted to show you how much I cared." The longing was there, like it had been when he lured her to the office. Her fear was choking. She had to keep chanting to herself that it was all in her mind, he wasn't real. "You didn't like it?" The mocking tone, another reminder.

"No, I didn't." She stared back into his eyes as she fought against her terror. "You ripped apart your father and Sallie, not to mention the rest. You painted the walls with their blood, Stefan."

"For you." He answered, smiling brightly. "They would have stood between us. They would have stopped the inevitable. We are meant to be, Abigail. This," he gestured at their surroundings, "is temporary. You will be mine."

"NO!" Her scream shocked her and startled him. "I will leave this place, but you and I, Stefan? This madness inside you, this obsession? I will NOT allow the fear of you to trap me. You are NOT the brother I loved."

Her power, coming at last to drive away the terror and darkness, made Stefan Salvatore crumble to dust. A light breeze finished him, by scattering him across the gardens. She smiled.

She had conquered her inner demons. She fought the horror of a nightmare come back to life. And as she considered all her progress, she felt the pull. The feeling that she'd known all her life. How waking from exhaustion after the darkness descended into fully realized form felt.

Closing her eyes in the realm that Emily Bennett had created, a deep sigh escaped her lips, and when she reopened her eyes, she was lying in the middle of a foreign bed, in a strange room.

Glancing around to get her bearings, a noise from outside the windows shattered the peace of her room. She sat up and tried to place the noise. The booming reminded her of the drummer boys that always marched with the newly recruited soldiers leaving home. They would parade through town, past the house so many times that she'd lost count. This noise was similar, but also patently different. There were other noises co-mingling. Music?

Carefully stepping down from the large four-poster bed, she stepped to the window. Searching for the source of the noise, she soon became distracted by the view. It was entirely different from what her new house should have been looking out on. A dark black road with yellow lines down the middle ran through what should have been her fields. Someone had commandeered her land. For a road.

The noise was gone, until there was a strange roar gathering strength. Red and fast, obviously some type of carriage, but horseless and loud. She watched as a couple walked into view, behind a strange sort of pram, their clothes so strange. Was that woman wearing very tight pants?

Abigail stepped back and tried to settle the realization that she had been trapped for far longer than she'd expected. With no idea of the year, she also acknowledged she was still a prisoner. Out of her mind, but trapped inside her house. At least until she could figure out clothes and some idea of when she'd reappeared.

Mystic Falls, VA~End of January 2010

Damon woke up at noon, feeling like something was different. Something atmospheric. As though the air had been sucked from his room, his bed, and his lungs.

It wasn't Stefan's fight for control. That was becoming any day that ended in 'y'. It wasn't Elena's drama with her parentage-Ric, John, Isabelle-Seriously call Maury.

What was the old saying? It felt like someone had walked across his grave. And that's when he knew. Abigail Morgan. The only person who would walk on his grave and hurt him by doing it.

He left the house and ignored taking the car. Her house, how many times had he revisited in his dream, was now backed up to a road. If she woke and he was sure she had, she must be reeling from the conundrum. The room she was in overlooked it. Cars, pop music, people in strange clothing-she was probably being overwhelmed by all of it.

He saw, as soon as he arrived, how the football players had gained entrance. The back servant entrance, the one he'd taken great pains to secure before he left town and her, had been jimmied. Idiots. Sighing he knocked. She was awake and she had a right to turn him away. Minutes passed, and he grew anxious. Was she alright? As he began contemplating breaching the door, he heard a light step inside.

She was coming, but she wouldn't know who was waiting on the other side. Taking a deep breath, and hoping he could control his voice, he called out to her letting her know it was him, The steps stopped coming.

Abigail was on the servant's stairwell. She had heard the knock and started down, curious, but cautious. Hearing Damon's voice, still as familiar as her own, stopped her. She closed her eyes. Was she prepared to see him again? He was still a vampire and they were still estranged. She knew he was also probably the only person who knew she was here.

She continued down the stairs and made her way to the door standing between them. Before she opened it, she had one question. "Are you alone?" She whispered, her hand unknowingly pressed to the same spot on the door that mirrored his.

Closing his eyes at the sweetness of the sound of her voice, here in the real world, he smiled. "Yes, Abi, I'm alone." He heard the key turn in the lock on the other side. The hinges didn't squeak as she slowly opened it, years of idiots breaking and entering.

The light slowly fell across her and he was reminded of her size. So petite, yet so deceptive in that tiny body held fire that could bring a grown man to his knees. As the light hit her face, she offered a shy smile, the fear she'd shown him during his other visits was gone. She must have worked hard to make that possible. Her eyes, clear green, nearly glowed in the light and he was distracted by her face. The same beautiful woman he'd left for war. He drunk her in like a man dying of thirst. Even her outfit, out of place in this time, was perfectly her.

"You're staring." She said, as she did the same to him. Tall, dark, and handsome. The same piercing blue eyes. The same smirking mouth. A mouth she'd never kissed. Never given in to what she hoped she was seeing reflected in his own eyes. "Do I have to invite you in again? I believe it has been awhile."

Damon chuckled and stepped inside as she moved out of his path. Was he imagining the look of longing she'd given him? He was certain it was matched in his own. Why had he wasted any time on Katherine? When this angel had been waiting, he'd spent time searching for something stupid. Kicking himself, he followed her back to the room he'd placed her in. Still her safe space, clearly.

She sat on the bed and watched while he tried to decide where to sit. Finally giving him a favor, she patted the bed next to her, reminding her of the bench in the garden. He sat, still watching her.

"I'm sure you have questions." He said, drinking her in, but knowing her insatiable curiosity may need satiated first.

She gave a light laugh. So different from the dark humor she'd shown when he was last with her. "Of course," her smile held. "I'll get to them, but aren't you curious about anything?"

He hadn't expected that. Her offering a glimpse into what she'd gone through over the course of a hundred plus years to get here. He WAS curious, but mostly he was overcome with the urge to touch her. Her hand, her face, her hair, any part she'd allow. Turning toward her, he held out his hand, wondering if she'd accept the offer.

Abigail looked at his outstretched hand and smiled sweetly. Placing hers gently inside, she felt what she'd always felt when they had touched before everything went downhill. Calm, peace, and the absolute certainty of the rightness of them. She noticed a ring on his hand, one she'd only seen in a dream. Touching it gently he stilled completely, reminding her that he wasn't human any longer. She shook her head and glanced up at him.

"This ring?" She asked, catching him off guard with the personal question. She still wasn't asking the general questions he expected.

Damon shifted her hand into his other one, and held the hand wearing the ring up so it caught the sunlight. "My daylight ring. It lets me come out in the sun." He watched her face for signs of fear or the flinch of discomfort. Nothing aside from her normal curiosity. "Emily made one for me and one for Stefan."

Even the name in this world no longer scared her. Abigail nodded at the knowledge. She smiled and asked another question. "How long have I been-" She searched for the best word, "indisposed?"

Now he looked truly nervous. "One hundred and forty-six years." His hand was rubbing soothing patterns on hers.

She looked ruefully at their hands. "I'm an incredibly slow learner." She was doing the math in her head. "It's 2010?"

"Yes," he confirmed, reaching with his free hand to tilt her face up so he could keep looking into her eyes. "I'm sorry you were alone so long."

Licking her lower lip, she considered whether she was ready to share her experience with him. She didn't realize that she'd unknowingly drawn his attention to her mouth. A mouth that if he was honest with himself had haunted more dreams than he could count. This mouth. Naturally red, full lower lip, that he'd always wanted to taste, but never took advantage of any opportunity. Before he made his thoughts and wants align, he was leaning in. His hand still held her cheek, his eyes locked on hers, and as his head dipped he felt her hands reach for him. Saying a silent prayer of gratitude, their lips met.

Their first kiss should have happened earlier. The town of their youth had long assumed had. But if Damon were being completely honest, having their first kiss now, knowing that his senses were a million times more advanced and that they'd longed for it for so long made it explosive.

Human Damon would have been distracted by errant thoughts of inferiority or fear. Vampire Damon knew she was enjoying it as much as he was. He could hear the pounding of her heart. See the dilation of her pale eyes. Smell her arousal. And feel how her skin grew warmer. He could enjoy the taste of her. The softness of her lips and the sweetness of the touch of her fingertips along his neck.

Human Damon would have squandered this kiss. Vampire Damon felt EVERYTHING and shared it right back. His hands slid into her hair, always so tempting, feeling the silky curls wrap around his fingers.

Abigail sighed into his mouth and he took the opening as an invitation. Damon's tongue slipped inside and if he thought her taste was overwhelming before it was NOTHING to the real taste of her mouth. He growled and she chuckled, pulling back.

"That was-" She began.

"Too long in the making," he finished. Pulling her to him and kissing her again. As her skirts tangled against him, he realized that Abigail wasn't used to this. Any of this. Reluctantly pulling away. "I'm sorry. I got carried away."

She was breathing heavily. Her eyes almost black, bottom lip bitably swollen, and he wanted her so badly it hurt. She swallowed hard and he thought about all the other parts of her he wanted to kiss. Her jaw, her neck, down her collarbone-

"I'm overwhelmed by so much, Damon." She said, breaking his train of thought. "That kiss isn't on the list."

Groaning with longing and the fight that he was waging internally about keeping her inside this house and making her his, over and over. "Not helping, Abi," he said in a strangled voice. "I need to find you some suitable clothes and come to take you out into your new world. Tempting though it may be to stay locked in your castle."

Abigail knew he was right, but that kiss and the one that followed broke loose something. They wanted each other, so badly that she shook with need. She needed to learn about this new version of Mystic Falls, however, and it appeared he was volunteering as her guide.

"Fine," she said in a pout. She moved away and let him stand. "One stipulation, Damon."

He stood and looked at her, waiting.

"No pants, please?" She asked, thinking of the tight fit that woman with the pram was wearing and cringing.

His smile was breathtaking. "No pants." He assured her, dropping a light kiss on her lips. "I will be back soon, Princess. And I'll bring you some food, you must be hungry."

She was, but not for food. As he left her, her smile held. Abigail Morgan was awake and she planned to make her new life fully lived.

[petrikaira]

The Maid

Chapter 9

Demon City, pg 1 (Previous)

Rating: G for General Audiences

Nele grabbed her heavy bag of coins. It was much heavier than she had been expecting for one week of work. As Zillah had explained, measuring out the coins, the city currency was forty coins to one of Byipi’s coppers. Nele had never held so many coins at once. Shifting her foot impatiently, she strapped it to her waist by her chatelain and waited as she had been instructed to do. Zillah had also told her she wasn’t to go into the city alone, not this first time.

There was a sense of looming dread and impatience that had nestled itself deep into her chest. She twisted the chains of her chatelain anxiously. 

The clatter of shoes on the cobblestone. She turned, ready to greet whoever had been tasked with going into the city with her. She expected Sh’aat, who had said she was going out sometime in the upcoming days to secure chickens for the castle but instead was met with a wolfish face. 

“Oh,” Nele said, not bothering to hide her disappointment. “It’s you. The wolfman.”

“My name is Butler.” The wolfman adjusted his outersleeves, rebuttoning the copper buttons. His sleeves were a strange gossamer green that reminded Nele of dragonfly wings. She could see his white cotton undersleeves through them. 

Nele’s nose wrinkled. “Ah, the Prince named you too when you signed your contract?”

“He did. And a fine name it is,” Butler said with a very wide grin. She could see each and every one of his pointed teeth in his too big snout. “Now let’s get you wherever you’re going, Cornelia.”

Nele felt a shudder down her back. She knew it. She knew that accidentally calling herself Cornelia would have consequences. “Call me Nele, for now,” she said shortly. 

“Well, Nele,” Butler said with a click of his heels as he stepped from the castle doors. “Let’s go. Where exactly are you going?”

“I need to buy a blanket, so, wherever I might do that,” Nele said. “If there is a place to do that.”

Butler snickered. His clawed hands slid into his white pressed pants pockets.“You’re in Demon City, Nele. Of course there are places to buy a blanket. This is like the Paris of the demon world.”

He said it with a sardonic laugh. She was not sure if he was lying, or if he wasn’t. It wasn’t as if she had ever seen Paris, or even heard about it much besides it being large and full of fashion and lights. She hurried after him, picking up the hem of her peach dress she had taken with her. 

A skeleton guard waved at them as they left, and Nele briefly waved back at them before pushing down her unease. She still wasn’t quite used to Agni. It was upsetting to learn that this had happened to multiple people. 

“I’ll be seeing you later, Jerry,” Butler told the guard. “It’s gambling night tonight.”

“See ya later, But, I’ll take ya to the cleaners,” The skeleton, Jerry, said with his teeth clacking. His voice was a lot higher than Agni’s Nele noted. 

“Gambling?” Nele asked as they stepped out into the street. It was wide, and a gleaming horseless carriage clattered past full of deep colored wood and gleaming gold. It looked royal. “And what is that?”

“Jerry and I and a few of the other guards play cards on nights off,” Butler said, his tail swishing. “And that, my dear, is a Vulpis carriage.”

“Vulpos?” Nele asked as the carriage slowed.

“Vulpis. Foxes. They’re one of the other old royal families here, though I’ve heard they haven’t held a throne since their hell days.”

There was more amusement in Butler’s’ voice, it danced through the air with hidden laughter. She felt a stab of annoyance at it, but then the carriage moved and across the way from them she could see green. Trees. Grass. And another high white wall. Zillah had said there wasn’t a lot of greenery in the town, but that looked like a full blown meadow and under the fake Canis suns the grass gleamed.

“What is that?” She asked, excited. 

Butler was already striding away from her, towards the expanse of green. “Hmm? Oh, the Vulpis compound.”

She hurried after him, picking her skirts off the gray cobblestones of the street. “The Vulpis have grass? And trees?”

“Hmm? Oh- yes, technically I suppose that is theirs, as well, but they donated that land to be a park. I meant the white walls behind it-”

“I don’t care about that! Tell me about the park- please, I mean, it would be nice of you to do-” Nele trailed off. 

“A park? That is free land where anyone can go and enjoy the nature the place has to offer. I’ve heard the locals do picnics here.”

Picnics! She hadn’t had one of those since she was a little girl. It wouldn’t be quite the same as doing it under blue sky, watching the clouds scud by and seeing the ocean waves down below, but sitting in the grass seemed divine. She gladly followed Butler into the park, and through the winding path. Golden flowers lined the walk ways, their petals reminding Nele of lion's mane. Bushes lined the edges of the park, dotting like spots from a watercolor brush and full of deep green leaves and even the trees were lined with little white flowers. Nele didn’t stop walking as she took it in, smelling the floral scent that clung to the air like the heady scent of spring. 

It was strange to see heavy rock through the ceiling, and stranger to see the high white walls of the Vulpis compound beyond that, but she didn’t mind. The green itself was vibrant. An ache twinged in her chest. Distantly, she realized she did miss the chicken farm just a little. Her days had been so full of work that she hadn’t had much chance to think about it, but she did miss the farm. Or maybe she just missed the sky. And the grass. And the trees.

[longitudinalwaveme]

Arkham Files: The Shade

Hugo Strange: From the patient files of Dr. Hugo Strange, director of Arkham Asylum. Patient: Richard Swift, also known as the Shade. Patient displays signs of depression. Session One. Hello, Mr. Swift. 

The Shade: Good morrow to you, Dr. Strange. (Pause) Would you care for some tea? 

Hugo Strange: Tea? (Tea set suddenly lands on Hugo Strange’s desk with a “clink!” sound) 

The Shade: Yes, tea. I’ve found that a nice cup of tea makes almost any situation more pleasant…even being locked in a sanatorium in spite of being sound of mind and able of body. 

Hugo Strange: Yes, I would like to apologize for that. When Iron Heights Penitentiary was partially destroyed, a bewildering series of bureaucratic decisions led to all of the costumed criminals being transferred here, regardless of whether or not they were actually mentally ill. I had no control over it. 

The Shade: I understand completely, Dr. Strange. Having been subject to the whims of your American bureaucracy for many decades now, I know all too well how it can twist and turn. (Pause) Tea?

Dr. Strange: It is against Asylum policy for me to take gifts from the patients, I’m afraid. 

The Shade: On my honor as a gentleman, it is not poisoned.

Dr. Strange: That’s not it. The policy is in place to avoid any conflicts of interest, not to avoid poison. (Pause) Although knowing some of my patients, the fact that it helps me to avoid potential toxins is an added bonus. 

The Shade: A pity. The tea really is quite good. (Pause) Oh, well. More for me, I suppose. (Sound of the Shade pouring tea into teacup) So, Dr. Strange, what can I do for you? 

Dr. Strange: Mr. Swift, you mentioned having been subjected to American bureaucracy for many decades. That strikes me as a slightly odd turn of phrase for a man who cannot possibly be more than thirty years old. 

The Shade: I am afraid you are mistaken, Dr. Strange. While I admit that I have aged remarkably well, the fact of the matter is that I am over two hundred years old. 

Dr. Strange: Mr. Swift, that is patently absurd. 

The Shade: In a world with aliens, men who can run faster than any horseless carriage, women with sonic screams, and children who can transform themselves into green animals, is an exceptionally long-lived man really that improbable? 

Dr. Strange: I suppose not. (Pause) So, Mr. Swift, are you a metahuman? 

The Shade: I must admit to never having taken a shine to that term. It sounds so…pedestrian. (Pause) But I suppose that that is neither here nor there. Yes, I am a metahuman.

Dr. Strange: And what are your powers? 

The Shade: Aside from being immortal, I am at present the most skilled wielder of the power of an extradimensional world known as the Darklands. In practical terms, that means that I can animate and manipulate shadows. 

Dr. Strange: If you are such a powerful metahuman, Mr. Swift, why aren’t you wearing a metahuman power dampener? 

The Shade: (chuckles) I’m immune to them, Dr. Strange. 

Dr. Strange: (Alarmed) Then why haven’t you already escaped? 

The Shade: Ennui, I suppose. When you have lived as long as I have, doctor, it does become hard to come upon new experiences. And, as unpleasant as it may be, being incarcerated in a sanatorium is at least a novel experience for me. 

Dr. Strange: A…sanitorium? Exactly how old are you, Mr. Swift? 

The Shade: Let’s see…I acquired my powers and became immortal in 1838, at the age of twenty-five. That means I would have been born in 1813. 

Dr. Strange: 1813? Do you mean to tell me that you were a contemporary of Queen Victoria and Charles Dickens? 

The Shade: Indeed. In point of fact, I was good friends with Mr. Dickens before his unfortunate passing. 

Dr. Strange: Mr. Swift, if you’re really as old as you say you are, you’ve lived through the Industrial Revolution, the American Civil War, the height of the British Empire, World War I, World War II, the Cold War….

The Shade: The Crimean War, the Boer War, the Sino-Japanese War, the Russian Revolution, the Suffragist Movement, the birth of psychology itself….yes, Dr. Strange, I have lived a tumultuous life.

Dr. Strange: How have you not become overwhelmed by it all? 

The Shade: Once everyone you ever knew has died, you tend to become a bit detached from the world…and I’ve lost everyone I ever knew twice over. My mother and father and brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews are all long dead. The first woman I ever loved died centuries ago, and the second and the third and the fourth died as well. Eventually, I stopped caring so much, and that made things much easier. When you are no longer worried about specific individuals, you start to realize just how cyclic and repetitive history is. (Pause) I think the only reason history repeats is because almost no one lives long enough to see the pattern firsthand. 

Dr. Strange: (Flipping through the Shade’s files) Mr. Swift, it is not healthy to live life detached from humanity. 

The Shade: If I were still human, I might agree. But I stopped being human nearly two centuries ago. 

Dr. Strange: What do you mean, Mr. Swift? 

The Shade: When I gained my metahuman powers, I was transformed. I did not become an enhanced human like the esteemed Mr. Garrick. I became something else…something both more and less than human. I may look human, but I do not believe I am human anymore. Humans don’t have ink running in their veins in place of blood. 

Dr. Strange: In speaking of Mr. Garrick…your records claim that you started fighting the original Flash in the 1940s. Is that correct? 

The Shade: Yes, it is. I had immigrated to the United States from my native England thirty years before, and I had already grown bored of the new country. For someone who had already traveled the world, there was only so much to see even in a country as large as this one. And then the Mystery Men exploded onto the scene. Metahumans had existed before that, of course, but never had there been so many in the same place at once. Suddenly, there was a costumed crimefighter on every block..and a dozen costumed criminals to fight every one of them. It was life on a level I had never before imagined, and so I decided I had to join in. Since Mr. Garrick’s speed seemed like it would pose the biggest challenge to me, I moved to Keystone City-this was long before it became a wasteland after the departure of the automotive industry-and joined into the pageantry. It was the most fun I’d had in years. Why, if the Mystery Men hadn’t appeared of their own accord, I would have had to create them. 

Dr. Strange: So you used the rise of these costumed vigilantes as a way to alleviate your own boredom? 

The Shade: Yes, I did. Of course, my cohorts had no idea I was merely playing a part. The Thinker and the Fiddler and the Ragdoll and dear Rose and Thorn…they all believed that I was one of them; another mad genius out to make themselves wealthy and powerful at the expense of the world. If I had told them that I was already wealthy from my long life and many travels, it would have ruined the grand charade. 

Dr. Strange: And what did you do after Mr. Garrick went into retirement? 

The Shade: I moved to Opal City. I was planning to try my hand at fighting Starman-the original one, Ted Knight-but the Mist made it very clear that he wasn’t going to let anyone else play in his city, so instead I simply settled down in Opal for a few decades. I was starting to get a bit bored with the whole supervillain game anyhow. (Pause) When young Barry Allen came onto the scene and pulled Mr. Garrick out of retirement, I decided to return to the game for old time’s sake, and I moved back to Keystone City. But in my black void that passes for my heart of hearts, Opal City is my true home. As long as Mr. Garrick lives, I will stay in Keystone, but when he is gone, I will return home. 

Dr. Strange: So you play at being a supervillain…because of nostalgia? 

The Shade: I suppose I do. It is a reminder of happier times; of a time before the Mystery Men stopped being such a mystery. (Pause) But such is the nature of life.

Dr. Strange: Do you…do you have any friends, Mr. Swift? 

The Shade: Mr. Dickens and Mr. Oscar Wilde come to mind. 

Dr. Strange: Let me clarify, Mr. Swift. Do you have any living friends? 

The Shade: I do: Mr. Garrick, Mr. Isaac Bowin, and Mr. Clifford DeVoe. (Pause) And the charming Mrs. Joan Garrick, of course. 

Dr. Strange: Let me clarify again. Do you have any living friends who aren’t over a hundred years old? 

The Shade: It seems rather unfair of you to keep moving the goalposts in this manner, Dr. Strange, but very well. I do indeed have friends who are under one hundred years of age. Young Mr. Barry Allen is a worthy successor to Mr. Garrick, and the stunning Mrs. Iris Allen is a delightful spitfire. Similarly, the very young Mr. West is likewise a worthy carrier of the Flash mantle, and his lovely wife, Mrs. Linda Park-West, is an intelligent, driven woman. 

Dr. Strange: Mr. Swift, do you have any living friends who aren’t in some way related to your apparent glory days as an enemy of the original Flash?

The Shade: (Frustrated) Yes. During my days in Opal City, I befriended the O’Dare family, and I keep tabs on them even now. Young Hope O’Dare shows particular promise. 

Dr. Strange: Mr. Swift, you haven’t left the Twin Cities for almost two decades now. Have you spoken to any of these O’Dares at all in that time? 

The Shade: Well…no….

Dr. Strange: Why not, Mr. Swift? 

The Shade: (Awkwardly, taken off-guard) Well, I have been rather busy. 

Dr. Strange: Busy doing what?

The Shade: Well…I….

Dr. Strange: You’ve been fighting the Flashes and escaping prisons, haven’t you, Mr. Swift? 

The Shade: Well, yes, but…

Dr. Strange: Mr. Swift, you’ve stopped living. 

The Shade: If I wanted psychoanalysis, Dr. Strange, I would have scheduled an appointment with Mr. Sigmund Freud while he was still living. 

Dr. Strange: Mr. Swift, when you moved to Opal City and were prevented from battling Starman, you started living for the first time in years. You spent well over a decade living an imaginary life as the Shade, a villain of the Flash; the Mist forced you to become Richard Swift again. And when you did, what happened? 

The Shade: Dr. Strange, I must protest. This is-

Dr. Strange: (Interrupting) You found a home. You found friends. You found new things you enjoyed…and that frightened you. Having already lived for over a century, you’d seen all your friends and loved ones die…and you couldn’t bear to have it happen again. So, when Mr. Garrick resurfaced, you hid yourself back in your imaginary life. As long as you could playact as the Flash’s villain, you wouldn’t have to acknowledge how afraid you were of losing your new friends and loved ones…including Mr. Garrick. As long as Mr. Garrick is the Flash, he’s not a man. He’s a symbol, a legend…and that means he can’t die. (Pause) Immortal though you may be, Mr. Swift, you’re terrified of death. 

The Shade: (A little too forcefully) Don’t be absurd, Dr. Strange. I accepted that I would outlive everyone I ever met long ago. What you call fear, I call acceptance of the inevitable. 

Dr. Strange: Oh, really? (Pause) Well, in that case, you won’t care if I have my guards execute Mr. Garrick. 

The Shade: Considering Mr. Garrick is not here, that is a rather empty threat, Dr. Strange. 

Dr. Strange: That’s where you are mistaken, Mr. Swift. Thanks to the efforts of Mrs. Amanda Waller, costumed vigilantes are no longer tolerated, and Mr. Garrick and Mr. Allen were both transported to this facility a few days ago, pending their trials. (Pause) We’re still trying to track down Mr. West, but even he cannot run forever. 

The Shade: And how do I know that you are telling the truth? 

Dr. Strange: See for yourself, Mr. Swift. (Turns on a screen) This is footage of Mr. Garrick from a few days ago. 

Jay Garrick: I don’t know what you think you’re doing, Dr. Strange, but I can tell you this: you won’t get away with it! Justice will prevail! 

Dr. Strange: As you can see, we do indeed have Mr. Garrick housed here. But if you have really accepted death as you say, you won’t care if I kill him. After all, we are running rather low on space here at Arkham, and the population is likely only going to grow as the government rounds up all these costumed vigilantes. (Pulls out walkie-talkie) Guards, take Mr. Garrick to the infirmary and euthanize him.

The Shade: NO! No, you cannot kill him! I will not let you!

Dr. Strange: Why do you care? You will soon outlive him anyway? (Noise of shadow powers expanding and filling the room) 

The Shade: (Icily) If you do not rescind that order at once, I will unleash the full power of the Darklands upon you. 

Dr. Strange: (Calmly) No need. The command was fake. (Pause) Mr. Garrick is indeed being treated here, but I do not euthanize my patients, especially not ones who are as noble, if misguided, as Mr. Garrick. This was simply…a test. 

The Shade: (Coldy furious) A test? 

Dr. Strange: Yes, to see how afraid of death you really were. And I was right. You are afraid of death. Or rather, you’re afraid of being left alone again. If you weren’t, you would not have reacted so strongly to my supposed threat on Mr. Garrick’s life. 

The Shade: (Cold) Very well, Dr. Strange. Perhaps you are right. (Pause) But I warn you, Dr. Strange, you are trifling with forces far beyond your understanding. (Shadow noises get more intense)  I would advise you not to give me such a test again. 

Dr. Strange: (Finally a bit nervous) I don’t think that will be necessary, Mr. Swift. 

The Shade: (Suddenly calm) Good. (Pours another cup of tea) Same time tomorrow, then? Excellent. I’ll bring the tea.

[timebird84]

🎄 PotO Advent Calendar 2020 🎄

By @a-partofthenarrative​

“Silver and Gold”

A/N This is a sequel to my 2018 Advent Calendar piece, “Evergreen”. It is not necessary to read that first, but it might be helpful as there are some references to that here. Regardless, I hope you enjoy and thank you for reading. Happy Holidays, y’all!

 Christine loved New York at Christmas.

 The sights, the sounds, the smells…every moment of strolling through the city streets, block by block, had brought an exhilarating thrill that had been absent from her heart for far too many years. Even hours later, as she stood in the kitchen, elbow deep in pie dough, she had been unable to wipe the smile from her face.

 Ms. Fleck had disappeared to somewhere or another at one point, claiming “errands” and leaving Christine to wander lower Manhattan for the better part of an hour. Weighed down by the variety of shopping bags, she had meandered uptown at a leisurely pace, stopping to admire the newly erected Christmas tree in Washington square before making her way up 5th Ave. to Herald Square, where she would find Ms. Fleck and Erik’s odd horseless contraption that had initially spirited her to Coney Island.

 As she passed the stream of elaborate shops boasting anything any man, woman or children could ever desire, she lingered here and there, casting appreciative eyes to the elaborate window displays attracting crowds along the sidewalk. One particular window snagged her attention: a fanciful tower of toys teetering precariously on top of one another, held aloft in some miraculous defiance of gravity. 

 Biting back a smile, she stepped away with a silent resolution to return with Gustave. The poor boy would be positively beside himself when he saw the treasure trove in front of her.

 She had located her shopping companion only moments later and, with confirmation from both parties that their feet and funds were exhausted, bags and passengers were located into the carriage for the trip home.

 At least...she hoped it would become home. Goodness, but it did feel like home; this crazy, complicated family she had formed in a strange netherworld of curiosities. Upon returning to Erik’s home, it had been discovered that they had beaten “the boys” back to the residence, so with no tree to decorate, Christine had set her attention to another one of her favorite holiday pastimes.

 Now, planted firmly in the large kitchen, covered in flour and holiday cheer, she rolled the stubborn dough into a thin sheet, a pie plate stuffed full of apples set to the side patiently waiting for its cover. Satisfied with her work, her fingers had just curled around the edge of the thin sheet when a commotion drew her attention to the front of the house. Brow furrowed, she wiped her hands on her apron and left the kitchen to investigate.

 Ms. Fleck was already present and Christine cast her a questioning look before another shout snapped her eyes to the foyer.

 Dr. Gangle stood just inside the door, the sole member of the group lucky enough to claim the prime position out of the cold, although one’s definition of luck would depend on one’s opinion. The poor man’s arms were wrapped around the top of one of the largest evergreen trees she had ever seen, this one seemingly dwarfing the childhood giant she had described to Erik only hours before. No doubt this had been Gustave’s doing. As his father before him, her son had a tendency to want to “one-up” anyone or anything that he deemed worthy of bragging rights and she bit back a chuckle despite herself. Maybe it was time her beloved masked enigma had a taste of his own medicine; the fact that it was delivered by his own progeny was turning out to be a delightful twist of Fate.

 Shouts echoed from beyond the door, phasing in and out in a cacophony of chaos as the tree twisted and turned in a macabre dance in attempts to be pushed over the threshold.

 “Left! Move it to the left!....No, the OTHER left!”

 “That IS left! Watch it! You’re going to take the paint clean off the frame!”

 “Gangle! Squelch! If either one of you idiots scratches the paint, you’ll be repairing it yourselves with Ms. Fleck’s mascara brush!” 

 Both women watched in stunned silence at the tenuous exchange before Christine glanced down, brow furrowed and voice weary. “Goodness, but it sounds like they’re having some trouble, doesn’t it?”

 The smaller woman shrugged. “Frankly, I’m impressed that the Master knows what a mascara brush is.”

 Christine blinked, unable to answer before the tree moved just so, allowing a small blur through the doorway and straight into her skirts. “Maman!” Gustave beamed up at her, thick snow caked in the hair along his brow. “Look at the tree we found! Isn’t it wonderful? I think it’s even bigger than yours!”

 “It is..something!” she exclaimed brightly, hunkering down to look him in the eyes. “What happened, cherie? You look as though you’ve been caught in a snowstorm.”

 Gustave pulled off his hat and swiped a carelessly palm over his hairline, sending clumps of snow to the wooden floor. “We had the best time! Dr. Gangel and mr. Squelch had a hard time cutting down the tree, so Mr. Y stepped in to help them. Well, the three of them began to argue over which way was the best way and while they were yelling at each other, the tree started to creak and then fell- right toward the sleigh!”

 Christine gasped, feeling slightly “Oh no…”

 “Oh yes!” The boy chattered on, seemingly oblivious to the picture he was painting. “That seemed to get their attention and then they ran toward the sleight. I didn’t get to see much after that because Mr. Y grabbed me, but we ended up in the snow. You should see him, Mama! He looks so funny!”

 “Gustave, do you realize any of you could have been hurt or worse?! Mr. Y likely saved your life!”

 Gustave rolled his eyes in a fashion so similar to Erik that Christine’s breath caught. “Maman, I’m fine. The tree didn’t even land anywhere near us.” His little brow furrowed as he glanced at the tree in the doorway, a frustrated Dr. Gangle staring at its branches with open disdain. “Do you think we’ll be able to get it inside?”

 “I..don’t know, love. I’m sure Mr. Y and the others are doing everything they can.”

 More grunts and shouts caused mother and son to glance up and Christine quickly snatched Gustave and stepped back as the tree hurtled forward, succumbing to a final desperate push from Squelch and Gangle. With one hand planted firmly on her son and the other pressed to her chest, she watched wide-eyed as the men muscled the enormous evergreen deeper into the house, and a masked figure stumble in behind them, shutting the door with an echoing bang and slumping against it with a weary sigh.

.

This man looked nothing like the impeccable figure she had always known. Instead, the man before her was a disheveled mess; wilted against the doorway, chest heaving, hair caked with snow, overcoat askew and one glove and his cravat missing (although really, who wore full evening dress to trek through the woods?).

 With a quiet word and a promise to reconvene soon, Christine sent Gustave upstairs with Ms. Fleck to clean up before pasting a sympathetic smile on her lips and moving to his side. “Oh, my poor Erik,” she soothed, taking his gloveless hand in hers. “Something tells me today did not go exactly as planned.”

 He cracked one eye open at the sound of her voice. “Christine…” Even his voice was exhausted. “Never again…”

 “But Gustave is happy, Erik. You did well.”

 “...and nearly killed us both in the process.”

 “Yes, well, he did mention that,” she muttered. “But thankfully no one was killed or maimed and the tree was delivered successfully…”

 Both eyes opened to regard her now and she only sighed and smoothed a hand over his snow-wet face. “I am nearly done with an apple pie. I meant it to be a surprise, but given the circumstances…” She chuckled at the faint light that came to his gaze at the mention of his favorite dessert, another newly discovered similarity to their son. “Go and clean up while I finish and then we’ll all decorate our new tree together.”

 This brought another groan as Erik let his head fall back against the door with a thump. “Christine, I have a bountiful staff. This is what they are paid for.”

 “Not this year.” she countered. “Besides, decorating is the most fun of all. I’ve already laid out the popcorn to be strung and I picked out some lovely ornaments in the City today.”

 “The City? Christine, you went to Manhattan alone?!?”

 “Of course not, Erik. Ms. Fleck accompanied me” She squeezed his hand. “Now up you go.”

 “But Christine!”

 She met him eye for eye. “Don’t! I am a grown woman. We were perfectly safe. Now go upstairs, change into some fresh clothes and decorate the Christmas tree with your son.” Stepping back, she helped him to his feet, smoothing her hands down the sleeves of his overcoat and pressing a kiss to his frozen lips. “I shall join you as soon as I get this pie in the oven.” 

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

Nearly an hour later, the pie covered and browning nicely, Christine untied her apron, let down her hair and migrated to the living room where the festivities already appeared to be happening in full swing.

 The tree now stood in the place of honor in the front corner of the room, beautifully centered in front of the large bay window, creating a lovely visual for anyone who happened to pass along the street. Dr. Gangle, Squelch and Ms. Fleck had taken up positions nearby, sorting through the packages and parcels from their shopping excursion, taking turns to comment on the contents of each.

 Muttering from the back corner turned her attention to Erik and Gustave, both dressed in fresh shirtsleeves, waistcoats and trousers, and seated side-by-side on the couch with a bowl of popcorn between them. Gustave was attempting to teach his father to string the snack food to create a festive garland that would be just perfect. Erik, bless his heart, listened indulgently as he tried to copy Gustave’s motions. Unfortunately, while the former Opera Ghost was a master of innumerable things, the muttered curses and muffled cries of pain indicated that the needle was making better progress connecting with skin rather than kernels. 

 The rustling of skirts announced her presence to the room and Erik immediately set the string and bowl aside as he stood to greet her. “Ah, there you are, Christine. Would you care to ah...take over the garland crafting?”

 Biting back a smile at his attempts to cover his inadequate stringing skills, she gave him an impish grin as she drew near. “And deprive you of the experience? I wouldn’t dream of it.”

 “It’s all right, Maman,” Gustave commented, never taking his eyes from his work. “He’s not very good at it.”

 Erik’s gaze snapped to hers as if to say There! You see? but she quickly and quietly tempered it with one of her own. “Not everyone excels at the same things, Gustave. But if there is one thing I know about Mr. Y, it is that he has quite the eye for making beautiful things.”

 “Except popcorn garland,” Gustave supplied.

 Erik’s expression was positively indignant as she worked to suppress the quirk of her lips. “So it would seem.”

 “We’ve got all of the ornaments arranged for you when you’re ready, Boss,” Squelch announced, waving a hand over the various boxes of colored bulbs laid out beside the tree. “Ms. Christine picked up quite the selection.”

 “Wonderful. Thank you, all.” Erik managed, taking Christine’s hand as they approached the tree. “Shall be begin?”

 The three glanced between themselves, then back at the Master and his lady. “You want us to help?”

 “Of course!” Christine smiled, “besides, none of this would have been possible without you.”

 No further permission was needed by any of the parties. Gustave, finished with his popcorn garland, wound it around the tree, accepting assistance from Erik and Dr. Gangle at different points depending on height and availability. Christine, Squelch and Ms. Fleck declared themselves in charge of the myriad colors of ornaments and directed where and what were hung until the tree was transformed from a blank green palette to a wonder of color and light.

 One of the most important purchases for Christine had been a set of candles for Advent. “This was one of my favorite traditions growing up,” she remarked as she struck a match. “With all of the traveling my father and I did, there were many of our traditions that we were forced to forego, but he always made certain we had a set of candles for Advent.” With a radiant smile, she lit their first candle, relishing in the pop and crack of the wick catching fire. “This one represents hope.”

“The second represents faith,” Passing the match to Gustave, she helped him light the second candle before offering it to the masked man standing at her side. Wordlessly, he accepted it, his expression unreadable as he set the match to the wick and the third candle spring to life. “And the third,” she supplied, meeting Erik’s gaze over the flickering flame, “is for joy.” A ghost of a smile crossed his lips then and her heart squeezed a bit tighter in her chest.

 “What about the other candles?” Gustave asked.

 Christine blew out the match and smiled down at him. “Traditionally, there are four Sundays in Advent and each week one more candle is lit. The fifth is lit on Christmas Eve. We’ve started a bit late this year, as it’s nearly Christmas, but all will be lit as the season progresses.”

 Gustave studied the candles, then glanced at her “Did mofar teach you any other traditions that we can have here?”  

 “Oh, cheri, so many! Although, we rarely had the chance to partake in any of them given that we were never in Sweden much after my fifth birthday. The legend of St. Lucia, julbord, julklapper.” She brightened. “I may be able to make julmust for Christmas Eve if I can find the proper ingredients. That is, if you don’t mind, Erik?”

 Slipping an arm around her waist, he remarked. “I want to know everything that is important to you, ange. If it makes you and Gustave happy, then consider it done.”

 The boy’s attention shifted to him then. “What about you, Mr. Y? Did you have any traditions growing up?”

 Erik’s panicked eyes immediately shot to her and Christine smoothly took control of the conversation. “Gustave, I’m sure Mr. Y knows many of the same holiday traditions that you do.”

 “But he’s never even had a Christmas tree before…”

 “And there were many years where I did not either. Like myself, Mr. Y has spent a great deal of his life traveling, haven't you, Erik?”

 “I have,” the masked man confirmed, but offered no further explanation.

 Thankfully, this seemed to satisfy the boy for the moment. “So... we’re blending. Maman’s traditions with Mr. Y’s?”

 Christine glanced at Erik, who looked as lost as she felt. “Er…”

 “In a sense, I suppose,” Erik supplied. “But perhaps it is more accurate to say that we are starting our own traditions. As a..” he trailed off suddenly, his normally stoic face slipping into something akin to sudden wonder.

 “As a family?” Gustave ventured.

 “Yes, my love,” Christine whispered, fingers covertly creeping into Erik’s palm as he held her hand like a lifeline. “Exactly that.” Drawing him close to her side, she bent down to press a kiss to his cheek. “You’ve had an exciting day and according to that clock in the hall, it is much past your bedtime. Say goodnight to everyone and I’ll be up in a moment.”

 “Ah, actually, Christine, may I speak with you for a moment?” Erik cut in.

 “Come on, little master,” Ms. Fleck said with a wink, catching Erik’s eye. “If you can get your nightclothes on, I’ll read you a story before your mama comes to tuck you in.”

 Gustave broke into a grin, pecking Christine on the cheek before dashing for the stairs. Christine watched him go with a loving smile before tipping her head back to smile up at the man stationed behind her. “Look at how happy he is, Erik. You gave him one of the best days, despite all of the trials that came with it. That boy worships the ground you walk on.”

 “I care for him in a way that I never knew I was capable of,” he admitted, tucking her hand in his arm and turning to the tree. “I would move heaven and earth for that boy.”

 “Welcome to parenthood, my love,” she whispered.

 With a sigh, Erik moved to stand before her, cloaked in the colors cast by the candles flames against the glass ornaments of the tree. “Christine, I admit I’ve been struggling when it comes to you and Gustave. I am not proud of it, but you must understand that I spent the majority of my life in utter solitude. Even in our...early acquaintance, the very notion that someone would care for me, let alone that I would one day have a son of my own…. was laughable.

 “Both of us know how the last story ended and quite frankly, as far as I was concerned, that was the end,” He shook his head, glancing down to the floor. “But then our paths converged again, ten years later with the knowledge of Gustave...and almost losing you again...it awoke something in me, Christine. Something that made me realize that I never want to feel that way again.

 “You, my darling, are the only thing that matters to me. You and Gustave and, if it is agreeable to you, you would make me innumerably happy if you would remain in Coney Island.”

 Her breath caught as the weight of what he was asking began to sink in. “Erik, are you…?

 He gripped her hands tighter, gaze steady, but pleading. “Stay with me, Christine. Be my wife. Let’s give Gustave the family we should have been from the beginning.”

 ‘Erik…” she whispered, leaning her forehead into his chest as tears flooded her eyes. “Truly?”

 In response, he pulled a box from his vest pocket, flipping it open to reveal a diamond solitaire. On one side, a band of gold, warm and radiant, linked a band of silver on the other, cool but elegant, joining in metallic harmony to cradle the diamond that winked up at her.

 “Oh, Erik…” she breathed again, “it’s stunning”

 “I know the tradition is bended knee, but I seem to have had a traumatic incident with a rather aggressive evergreen,” he replied dryly, “so I hope you’ll forgive...”

 “Yes.”

 He blinked. “I beg your pardon?”

 “Yes. I’ll marry you. We shall stay.” Christine beamed up at him, tears streaming down her cheeks. “With all of my heart, I love you, you stubborn boar. The answer is ‘yes’.” Curling her fingers around the edges of his waistcoat she pulled him forward in a flash of motion and kissed him thoroughly in front of said evergreen tree.

 A chorus of enthusiastic cheers broke the spell a moment later and the couple turned to see Gustave, Ms. Fleck, Dr. Gangle and Squelch positively glowing at them from the stairs. “Way to go, Boss!”

 “Yes, well...” Erik sputtered, looking to Christine for assistance. She only chuckled, kissed him deeply again and extended her left hand, to which he responded by obediently sliding the ring on her finger.

 Gustave rushed down the stairs to embrace them both, begging to see his mother’s ring, then beaming up at Erik as if he had just been handed the world on a plate. “Does this mean I can call you ‘Father’ now?”

 Christine’s breath caught as her brown eyes collided with Erik’s mismatched ones, which looked slightly watery again. She watched as his throat bobbed, silently struggling for control before managing an answer. “Of course, my boy. You may call me whatever you wish,” he said, stooping down to look the boy in the eye. “You are my son and I am sorry if I’ve done anything to make you feel as though I’ve held you at arm’s length. I..love you, Gustave. I always have.”

 Christine pressed her hands to her mouth, tears flowing anew as the boy’s mouth trembled and he launched himself into the arms of the masked man whom he had come to idolize. Erik caught him, holding him in an awkward embrace as he met Christine’s teary smile, unbidden moisture already beginning to track down his visible cheek.

 Erik stood, bringing Gustave with him and Christine moved forward to join the embrace. As Erik’s free arm came around her and Gustave’s little hand held tight to hers, she was sure her heart would burst. 

 Her father used to say that a broken, battered path often led to the most beautiful destination and as she stood in the embrace of the two men she loved most in the world, bathed in the silver and gold glow of the candles and Christmas lights, she knew that she was finally home.

 With a family of her own making.

 As it always should have been.

 Eyes slipping closed, her fingers languidly trailed up and down Erik’s spine and smiled as the large hand at her waist squeezed her imperceptibly closer.

 From this day forward, as it always would be.

[panlight]

Old Vampire Rules 8 - The Witch

Remember when I said I had a really out there idea?  This is it.  I blame @volturialice‘s time paradox post.

Alice shrugged. "I think maybe I was a witch."

"What?"

"I don't remember my human life at all," Alice explained. "But I just sort of know that I've always been able to do this, to see the future. Doesn't that make me a witch?"

"I suppose . . ." Jasper drawled. He couldn't deny that she was magic, but 'witch' didn't feel right. 'Fairy,' 'pixie,' perhaps even 'imp'--these felt more accurate.

"So I think that's why I came back as a vampire. Witches come back after they die. But I don't have any idea how I died. I woke up alone, and saw you, and then I saw Carlisle, and that's where we're going to go."

"It still seems far-fetched to me," Jasper said.  "No human blood? Living in a house? Like a family?"

"I've seen it," Alice insisted. "It's where we belong. It's where we've always been meant to go."

"You said the future isn't set in stone," Jasper countered.

"That's true most of the time. But sometimes things just have to happen a certain way," she said with the air of a mystic. "Sometimes people are just who they are, and there is only one choice they could ever make. Like me and you. It was always going to happen, some way, somehow."

"If I had stayed human I'd have been an old man before you could have met me."

"Then maybe we'd meet in a different life," she said, climbing on his lap and wrapping her thin arms around his neck. "Maybe we've been dancing around this for eons, always just missing each other, and only now that we're both immortal can it finally happen."

* * * 

The witch knew she was going to die. She wasn't particularly bothered by this--she had died and been born so many times already. She was a little annoyed it would be another death by fire, though. Without a body to reanimate, she wouldn't come back as a vampire. She knew that's where her destiny lay--she had seen it. It was a vision so far in the future she couldn't entirely make sense of it, a world of horseless carriages and women with short hair and short dresses and two blond men, one of whom, she was certain, was standing before her now, although he was still a mere boy.

The witch looked at the father and the son, and she saw it all play out so clearly. The vampire raid gone wrong, the son killed ten years from now--by then the boy would be the man of her visions. The story could end there, with a young life cut short and a hasty burial in his father's churchyard. But she has seen another future. The blond man comes back, red-eyed and horrified. He tames the thirst. Becomes a golden-eyed doctor. The future is not set in stone, but these things are: this particular young man could never make any other choices but these. And then she saw herself and her multiple future incarnations, always with this strange gift of future sight. She has to be patient. Someday in the far future she will finally die the RIGHT way and come back as a vampire. And then she'd find him again. She needed him; he would teach her, and the other blond man, how to tame their thirsts. They'd be a family. It was all so clear, and she wanted it so desperately.

She felt a bit bad that it would take so long; the pastor's son would endure a great deal of loneliness until things worked out just right. There would be others who joined them, but they were the results of choices that had yet to be made, they weren't set in stone, they existed only as tantalizing possibilities, yet she loved them anyway. But the only way any of this would ever happen is if this boy in front of her became a vampire, and the only way he becomes a vampire is if she curses him.

Did speaking the future she had seen aloud make it a curse, or was it more of a self-fulfilling prophecy? She wasn't sure. But she had seen it would work; whatever magic governed these sort of things would shrug its cosmic shoulders and say 'close enough' and the man would come back as a vampire if she spoke the words aloud.

If they thought her a witch, then she would play the part.

“Condemn my body to the flames if you will,” she cried. “But I will not suffer long. It is you who will suffer. You will go to your grave knowing that your child, this child, has been condemned to something far worse. In 10 years, Death will claim him, but Death will not keep him. Heed my words! My death will seal his fate. He too shall burn!”

As the flames rose around her she smiled at the wide-eyed boy, knowing someday they'd meet again.

* * *

Alice stood on the front porch, clutching Jasper's hand in excitement, when the blond, golden-eyed doctor finally opened the door.

His eyes settled on Alice's face, and for just a moment there was the faintest wisp of recognition. He reached into the depths of faded human memory chasing after it, but it flitted away before he could grasp it. He shook his head, dismissing the strange feeling as deja vu, and looked at the two vampires on the doorstep.

"May I help you?"

"Hi Carlisle!" she said brightly.  "I'm Alice!"

old vampire rules

more old vampire rules

old vampire rules pt 3 (Rosalie)

old vampire rules 4 (Emmett)

old vampires rules 5 (The Curse)

old vampire rules 6 (Edward)

old vampire rules 7 (Jasper)

[wrecking-man]

Komi-san Can’t Adventure Chapter 1 - The Deal

Click here to read on AO3.

Story Summary: In a world of monsters and magic, one man—your average villager―comes out of retirement to become an adventurer once more. His mission: to guide a fledgling god around the world in search of their purpose. Their third party member, the shy beauty whom everyone both adores and fears, is none other than the daughter of the Demon Lord. Can this trio of unlikely friends save the world? Buckle in. It’s time to find out.

Chapter Summary: Tadano gets summoned to the realm of the gods and makes a deal with the God of Order.

July 20, 2022 Update: I revised this chapter today because I had been meaning to. It has 540 more words now as a result (from 1,573 to 2,113), and I think it’s a lot better now.

A pure white void.

An endless expanse that the mortal mind could not hope to grasp in its entirety—that is where our story begins.

In this particular moment in time, a young man suddenly found himself there... falling.

Falling...? I'm... falling... I'M FALLING?! His inner voice screamed as he struggled to grasp his situation. He didn't know what was going on, first and foremost. Plus he was falling—most likely to his death...!

He flailed his arms wildly. It was one of the few things he could do in such a situation... It accomplished nothing, however, much to his dismay.

His stomach churned more and more as the force on his body increased as he fell.

“UWHOOOOOOOOOOAAAA!-” he couldn't help but yell loudly, at last having regained the ability to do so.

All at once, the void took form below him. Of course, its form was only that of a blue and white blur... It was hardly much of an improvement, but as mortals love to say, ‘beggars can't be choosers’.

He was up in the clouds, he soon realized, though that was only for the briefest of moments as his descent continued unhindered.

It was not long before the ground finally came into view. If he were someone below average, he would certainly have soiled himself by then. Indeed, perhaps even someone above average would have done the same thing. But curiously, despite being completely average by almost every metric... he did not. Though that is not to say he wasn't still letting out the highest pitch of a scream all the while. In that regard, he was well above average.

He had been falling for at least a solid minute. Maybe more. In all his panic, he admittedly had no time to keep track of this.

A mere fraction of a second before hitting the ground, the most bewildering of sensations hit him instead...

All of the force exerted on him until then was simply gone, as if it were knocked away by some other, mostly-benign force. It... tickled... Truly a welcome alternative to becoming a red stain on the-

Stone? A road? Upon finally opening his eyes, his brain had immediately gone into analysis mode... A defense mechanism of his.

He flailed his arms a little more, and wobbled in the air until finally he somehow managed to land on his feet. The road was far smoother than any he had seen in his life. He was a commoner, after all. And dare I say it...? A villager.

His hair was black, and cut short—but not too short... It was about average length for a man. Since he was a villager, he was wearing the typical villager’s outfit; that being an off-white long-sleeved tunic with accompanying dark brown vest, and light brown trousers.

A dream. Must be a dream. He composed himself and nodded. Yes, this has to be a dream. Who hasn’t had ‘the falling dream’?

He took a deep breath and really took in his surroundings for the first time. It was all so foreign to him. There were sturdily-built brick homes neatly lined up against the road, and each home had ample space for a personal garden, though none of it was put to any use except for the display of the smallest of foreign decorations on neatly-trimmed grass. Each home also had a strange horseless carriage parked in front of it—each one of a different color and shape.

What a strange land. He smiled. He somehow felt at ease there... That is until an unseen force tapped his shoulder three times.

“UWHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

He quickly turned around and assumed a defensive pose that the average person would come up with. His shoulders were scrunched up, and his arms were braced in front of him. His knees were bent ever so slightly.

Before him, a mere five meters away, was a somehow terrifying figure, though it appeared human. Well, unless you were to count the lavender-colored hair in a fluffy bob cut that seemed ready to swallow their entire head if it wasn’t carefully kept in check...

Who has lavender hair?

...But it wasn't just the hair. Maybe it was the devilishly-confident smirk on their face, or the strange clothes they were wearing—a white short-sleeved tunic, tucked into a pair of trousers that cut off at the knees—it was unlike any clothing he had ever seen before...

On their wrist was also a device unlike anything he had ever seen before, though he was certain it must have been worth a small fortune as it appeared to be made of the purest gold.

Yes, before him was a truly menacing figure... This was a fear he felt deeply on an instinctual level.

“I think that's enough,” another man casually called out from behind the young man as he made his way to the seeming embodiment of chaos with his hands firmly planted in the pockets of his trousers. He had brown hair which was riddled with soft curls that flowed with grace regardless of the lack of any wind present.

The man had on a ‘red t-shirt’, partially covered by a ‘black leather jacket’, and ‘blue jeans’—these were all things that the young man had yet to become familiar with, though the rest of the world had, at least to some extent, within the last couple of years.

The young man, Tadano Hitohito, had been living in a somewhat isolated village, so he would not have known of such recent fashion advancements.

“Aww. You know I had to do it to 'im,” the lavender-haired gremlin of an entity answered back.

Getting a good look at the older man, Tadano recognized him as Todd, the God of Order. There was a statue of him at the center of his village, Mura Village. The likeness was uncanny.

“...I'm dead,” the young man muttered to himself. He let out a sad laugh of disbelief as he looked down at his empty hands. It all made sense. The falling, the 'heavenly' place he suddenly found himself in, and then the God of Order, not least of all. Tears stung at his eyes. He didn't even know how he-

“You're deadn't!” the gremlin interrupted Tadano's train of thought, making an X with their arms. They laughed cheerfully. They were having such fun with this.

“You are still alive, Hitohito-kun,” Todd translated. He then materialized a rolled up ‘newspaper’ and lightly tapped his child on the head.

“Eh?” Tadano responded. A wave of relief washed over him. More than that, he was flustered that the God of Order knew him by name. He couldn't help but blush a little.

“We brought you here...” Todd said as he gestured around, “to make you an offer.”

“An offer you can't refuse,” the gremlin teased, “...unless ya really want to.” They winked.

“Now, now, Najimi,” Todd breathed, and tapped Najimi on the head with the newspaper several more times. He cleared his throat and continued, “You see, my child is finally coming of age, and needs to find purpose; needs to go out into the material world; really get a feel for things... Mingle.”

“And that's where you come in, Tadano-kun!” Najimi grinned, then threw up the peace sign with both hands.

He wants me to... babysit?

“Hitohito-kun...” Todd said as he slowly closed the distance between them, “Out of all of the millions of people on Taazokaan, my child has chosen you as guide.” He placed his hand on Tadano's shoulder.

“E-eh...” He's making it hard to say no.

Todd removed his hand from Tadano's shoulder and slowly backed away with both of his hands in the air. “It's okay. That reaction is to be expected. As I said previously: this is an offer. I will bestow upon you two blessings in exchange for your service.”

“But... But why me?” Tadano asked. He was still reluctant... Very reluctant... Though now his interest was at least piqued. “...I-if I may ask.”

“Najimi?” Todd asked, as he motioned to them with his arms.

“Because you're just some guy,” Najimi said flatly... though with a smile.

Ouch.

“I don't want some uppity noble trying to use me for political clout,” Najimi reasoned, “And on the other end I don't want someone who would be a total drag either.” They put on a pair of reading glasses and materialized a book entitled 'Tadano Hitohito'. “It says here in your file that you used to be an adventurer, but you quit not long after you started because a-”

“UWHOOOA! Stop! Stop!” Tadano screamed and flailed his arms. He didn’t want to hear it! He clutched his chest, feeling as though he were having a heart attack. The Gods would know of such dark histories.

Najimi laughed innocently, and the book vanished. “Hey, come on, Tadano-kun. It will be fun.”

Tadano sighed, and hung his head in defeat. Why even fight it? “You want us to adventure together, I take it? I'm not that strong, you know?”

Going with the flow... Another of Tadano’s defense mechanisms.

“I know,” Najimi confirmed, “You're about average, I'd say. But you know what they say, right? ‘Jack of all trades, master of one.’”

“Master of none,” Tadano corrected.

“Huh?” Najimi asked, “Did you already forget your blessings?”

He did.

“...I did...” Tadano cleared his throat, “S-so what are these blessings?”

“Tell him what he's won, Dad!” Najimi cheered, as game show music began to play.

Todd chuckled and shook his head. The game show music faded as he raised his arm and closed his fist.

Todd made his way over to Tadano once more, his fist now emitting a soft glow. He released the power contained in his hand into a light grey flower daintily hanging in Tadano's hair. “Your first blessing: Divine Perception.”

The flower gained a faint white glow.

Oh, that actually sounds really useful.

It will be. Really useful.

“And now for the second,” Todd continued as he put his now-open palm over Tadano's heart, “I give you infinite, personal storage.”

“We done?” Najimi asked, with a dead smile spread across their face.

Bored already, huh? Tadano stared.

He couldn’t help but feel as though he was accepting all of this a little too easily, but after reading the room, he figured that maybe it was just one of those things that need not be questioned... A new defense mechanism.

Todd chuckled, “Yeah. We're done...”

“Sweet. I'll meet you at the Itan Adventurer's Guild when you wake up, Tadano-kun.”

“When I what?” Tadano asked as he opened his eyes.

He was back in his and his sister's shared bedroom, in his bed on the bottom bunk.

“Talking in your sleep again, Onii-chan?” Hitomi, his sister, asked as she looked down at him from the top bunk. Much like him, her hair was black. It was loose at the moment, though she normally had it up in thick twin tails.

What Tadano experienced was definitely more than a dream. He could feel it. He could see it—in a way he would never be able to put into words. Divine Perception. This is what he was talking about.

What's more, he felt... refreshed. Like he had never felt before.

Tadano always had this 'tiredness' in him, an exhaustion deep within his very soul that he could never explain nor remedy. It was as if something extremely important was missing in his life.

This feeling had only worsened after that one certain event which led to him retiring as an adventurer... but now, that feeling was... gone. Or perhaps not gone, but it was at least greatly reduced.

“Y-yeah,” Tadano answered as he sat up and rubbed the back of his head where he expected a flower to be for some reason. In its place was nothing more than the same cowlick that had always been there.

“Better hurry,” Hitomi teased.

“W-wha?”

“Huh?” Hitomi asked, unaware of having said anything, “Onii-chan, did you hit your head? You're being weird.”

My imagination? Tadano shook his head. “N-no,” he said flatly, “Just thinking I should have another go at adventuring...” He got out of bed and stretched. He felt alive and ready to face the world for once.

“Oh, finally over the Kawai-san thing?” Hitomi smirked from behind the edge of her bunk. She was happy for him. He had been in that slump for far too long.

“O-oi...” Tadano didn’t know why she had to bring that up all of a sudden. “Anyway, I'd better get ready...”

“Good luck, nerd. Don't die out there,” Hitomi teased again, and laid back down to go back to sleep.

“Yeah, yeah... I won't...”

Click here to read on AO3.

Next

[renee-writer]

Letters Chapter 35

AO3

“It keeps him safe,” Claire explains as she straps Alexander into the car seat, “protects him should an accident happen “

 

The lad is a day old and they are taken him home. Jamie is fearful. Now that both his son and wife survived his delivery, the need to get them safely back under the Lallybroch ‘s roof is paramount.

 

To do that, the wee lad has to be placed in the horseless carriage. The idea of his son in the strange thing isn’t comforting. Aye, Claire insists it is safe but…

 

“He is very safe back there.” She says. Easing herself in, she takes a breath before strapping her own self in. He knows she is still sore from his delivery.

 

“We cannot see him, Sassanach. What if…” He faces the back.

 

“Jamie he is more protected riding that way. It is just a fifteen minute journey.”

 

“I will be joining him back there.” He decides. Opening the back door, he slides in beside his son. Claire smiles and starts the cat.  A bit of a difference then most leaving hospital with a newborn. Usually it is the new mum by the baby while daddy drives them home.

 

She pulls up and parks by the front stoop. It seems to have grown since she saw it, two days ago.  With a sigh, she opens the door.  

 

Jamie jumps out and hurries over to her. “Are you alright, Claire? Your color is poor.”

 

“Just exhausted. Once we get Alexander and his things in and I can sit down, I will be fine.”

 

Driving, she decides, isn’t something she will be doing a lot of for awhile. It wore her out.

 

She walks over and undoes the straps and buckles holding the baby in. She lifts him out. Jamie is getting the things out of the boot. Gifts from Glenda and John, a nappy bag full of them, from the hospital. Cards and balloons from the distillery and her work mates.

 

Both have their hands full as they make their way up the stoop.  Jamie hovers close to her and his son. He lays aside some of the things to open the door.

 

Alexander enters Lallybroch.

 

“Welcome home mo mhac.”

 

Claire slumps on the couch and let’s out a deep sigh. “That’s better.” Jamie lays all down on the floor. He takes a seat in the chair by her.

 

“Do you need anything?”

 

Alexander starts to root around on his mama ‘s chest.  “Our son is hungry. Will you bring me some water?” He nods and stands. The water glass she had from the hospital was with the things he sat in the floor.  He finds the right bag, pulls it out, and goes to fill it.

 

Ice, another amazing thing about this time, is fetched from the freezer. He fills it with ice water.

 

She half sits and half lays on the couch, Alexander at her breast. His fist lays across the other one. She is smiling down at him. His daddy feels a tenderness so deep it takes his breath.

 

He never could imagine seeing their child at her breast. Not after…  Before when she carried Faith, he had thought of it. Her nourishing the babe , the thought made him feel as fragile as a bubble and filled him with a strength that could break an iron bar to protect them.

 

He couldn’t , not then. He can now. The glass, she calls a bottle, is handed to her. He then sits, lifts her feet across his lap, and slips her shoes off before rubbing them.

[arcade-lackey]

Komi-san Can’t Adventure Chapter 1 - The Deal

Click here to read on AO3.

Story Summary: In a world of monsters and magic, one man—your average villager―comes out of retirement to become an adventurer once more. His mission: to guide a fledgling god around the world in search of their purpose. Their third party member, the shy beauty whom everyone both adores and fears, is none other than the daughter of the Demon Lord. Can this trio of unlikely friends save the world? Buckle in. It’s time to find out.

Chapter Summary: Tadano gets summoned to the realm of the gods and makes a deal with the God of Order.

July 20, 2022 Update: I revised this chapter today because I had been meaning to. It has 540 more words now as a result (from 1,573 to 2,113), and I think it’s a lot better now.

A pure white void.

An endless expanse that the mortal mind could not hope to grasp in its entirety—that is where our story begins.

In this particular moment in time, a young man suddenly found himself there... falling.

Falling...? I'm... falling... I'M FALLING?! His inner voice screamed as he struggled to grasp his situation. He didn't know what was going on, first and foremost. Plus he was falling—most likely to his death...!

He flailed his arms wildly. It was one of the few things he could do in such a situation... It accomplished nothing, however, much to his dismay.

His stomach churned more and more as the force on his body increased as he fell.

“UWHOOOOOOOOOOAAAA!-” he couldn't help but yell loudly, at last having regained the ability to do so.

All at once, the void took form below him. Of course, its form was only that of a blue and white blur... It was hardly much of an improvement, but as mortals love to say, ‘beggars can't be choosers’.

He was up in the clouds, he soon realized, though that was only for the briefest of moments as his descent continued unhindered.

It was not long before the ground finally came into view. If he were someone below average, he would certainly have soiled himself by then. Indeed, perhaps even someone above average would have done the same thing. But curiously, despite being completely average by almost every metric... he did not. Though that is not to say he wasn't still letting out the highest pitch of a scream all the while. In that regard, he was well above average.

He had been falling for at least a solid minute. Maybe more. In all his panic, he admittedly had no time to keep track of this.

A mere fraction of a second before hitting the ground, the most bewildering of sensations hit him instead...

All of the force exerted on him until then was simply gone, as if it were knocked away by some other, mostly-benign force. It... tickled... Truly a welcome alternative to becoming a red stain on the-

Stone? A road? Upon finally opening his eyes, his brain had immediately gone into analysis mode... A defense mechanism of his.

He flailed his arms a little more, and wobbled in the air until finally he somehow managed to land on his feet. The road was far smoother than any he had seen in his life. He was a commoner, after all. And dare I say it...? A villager.

His hair was black, and cut short—but not too short... It was about average length for a man. Since he was a villager, he was wearing the typical villager’s outfit; that being an off-white long-sleeved tunic with accompanying dark brown vest, and light brown trousers.

A dream. Must be a dream. He composed himself and nodded. Yes, this has to be a dream. Who hasn’t had ‘the falling dream’?

He took a deep breath and really took in his surroundings for the first time. It was all so foreign to him. There were sturdily-built brick homes neatly lined up against the road, and each home had ample space for a personal garden, though none of it was put to any use except for the display of the smallest of foreign decorations on neatly-trimmed grass. Each home also had a strange horseless carriage parked in front of it—each one of a different color and shape.

What a strange land. He smiled. He somehow felt at ease there... That is until an unseen force tapped his shoulder three times.

“UWHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

He quickly turned around and assumed a defensive pose that the average person would come up with. His shoulders were scrunched up, and his arms were braced in front of him. His knees were bent ever so slightly.

Before him, a mere five meters away, was a somehow terrifying figure, though it appeared human. Well, unless you were to count the lavender-colored hair in a fluffy bob cut that seemed ready to swallow their entire head if it wasn’t carefully kept in check...

Who has lavender hair?

...But it wasn't just the hair. Maybe it was the devilishly-confident smirk on their face, or the strange clothes they were wearing—a white short-sleeved tunic, tucked into a pair of trousers that cut off at the knees—it was unlike any clothing he had ever seen before...

On their wrist was also a device unlike anything he had ever seen before, though he was certain it must have been worth a small fortune as it appeared to be made of the purest gold.

Yes, before him was a truly menacing figure... This was a fear he felt deeply on an instinctual level.

“I think that's enough,” another man casually called out from behind the young man as he made his way to the seeming embodiment of chaos with his hands firmly planted in the pockets of his trousers. He had brown hair which was riddled with soft curls that flowed with grace regardless of the lack of any wind present.

The man had on a ‘red t-shirt’, partially covered by a ‘black leather jacket’, and ‘blue jeans’—these were all things that the young man had yet to become familiar with, though the rest of the world had, at least to some extent, within the last couple of years.

The young man, Tadano Hitohito, had been living in a somewhat isolated village, so he would not have known of such recent fashion advancements.

“Aww. You know I had to do it to 'im,” the lavender-haired gremlin of an entity answered back.

Getting a good look at the older man, Tadano recognized him as Todd, the God of Order. There was a statue of him at the center of his village, Mura Village. The likeness was uncanny.

“...I'm dead,” the young man muttered to himself. He let out a sad laugh of disbelief as he looked down at his empty hands. It all made sense. The falling, the 'heavenly' place he suddenly found himself in, and then the God of Order, not least of all. Tears stung at his eyes. He didn't even know how he-

“You're deadn't!” the gremlin interrupted Tadano's train of thought, making an X with their arms. They laughed cheerfully. They were having such fun with this.

“You are still alive, Hitohito-kun,” Todd translated. He then materialized a rolled up ‘newspaper’ and lightly tapped his child on the head.

“Eh?” Tadano responded. A wave of relief washed over him. More than that, he was flustered that the God of Order knew him by name. He couldn't help but blush a little.

“We brought you here...” Todd said as he gestured around, “to make you an offer.”

“An offer you can't refuse,” the gremlin teased, “...unless ya really want to.” They winked.

“Now, now, Najimi,” Todd breathed, and tapped Najimi on the head with the newspaper several more times. He cleared his throat and continued, “You see, my child is finally coming of age, and needs to find purpose; needs to go out into the material world; really get a feel for things... Mingle.”

“And that's where you come in, Tadano-kun!” Najimi grinned, then threw up the peace sign with both hands.

He wants me to... babysit?

“Hitohito-kun...” Todd said as he slowly closed the distance between them, “Out of all of the millions of people on Taazokaan, my child has chosen you as guide.” He placed his hand on Tadano's shoulder.

“E-eh...” He's making it hard to say no.

Todd removed his hand from Tadano's shoulder and slowly backed away with both of his hands in the air. “It's okay. That reaction is to be expected. As I said previously: this is an offer. I will bestow upon you two blessings in exchange for your service.”

“But... But why me?” Tadano asked. He was still reluctant... Very reluctant... Though now his interest was at least piqued. “...I-if I may ask.”

“Najimi?” Todd asked, as he motioned to them with his arms.

“Because you're just some guy,” Najimi said flatly... though with a smile.

Ouch.

“I don't want some uppity noble trying to use me for political clout,” Najimi reasoned, “And on the other end I don't want someone who would be a total drag either.” They put on a pair of reading glasses and materialized a book entitled 'Tadano Hitohito'. “It says here in your file that you used to be an adventurer, but you quit not long after you started because a-”

“UWHOOOA! Stop! Stop!” Tadano screamed and flailed his arms. He didn’t want to hear it! He clutched his chest, feeling as though he were having a heart attack. The Gods would know of such dark histories.

Najimi laughed innocently, and the book vanished. “Hey, come on, Tadano-kun. It will be fun.”

Tadano sighed, and hung his head in defeat. Why even fight it? “You want us to adventure together, I take it? I'm not that strong, you know?”

Going with the flow... Another of Tadano’s defense mechanisms.

“I know,” Najimi confirmed, “You're about average, I'd say. But you know what they say, right? ‘Jack of all trades, master of one.’”

“Master of none,” Tadano corrected.

“Huh?” Najimi asked, “Did you already forget your blessings?”

He did.

“...I did...” Tadano cleared his throat, “S-so what are these blessings?”

“Tell him what he's won, Dad!” Najimi cheered, as game show music began to play.

Todd chuckled and shook his head. The game show music faded as he raised his arm and closed his fist.

Todd made his way over to Tadano once more, his fist now emitting a soft glow. He released the power contained in his hand into a light grey flower daintily hanging in Tadano's hair. “Your first blessing: Divine Perception.”

The flower gained a faint white glow.

Oh, that actually sounds really useful.

It will be. Really useful.

“And now for the second,” Todd continued as he put his now-open palm over Tadano's heart, “I give you infinite, personal storage.”

“We done?” Najimi asked, with a dead smile spread across their face.

Bored already, huh? Tadano stared.

He couldn’t help but feel as though he was accepting all of this a little too easily, but after reading the room, he figured that maybe it was just one of those things that need not be questioned... A new defense mechanism.

Todd chuckled, “Yeah. We're done...”

“Sweet. I'll meet you at the Itan Adventurer's Guild when you wake up, Tadano-kun.”

“When I what?” Tadano asked as he opened his eyes.

He was back in his and his sister's shared bedroom, in his bed on the bottom bunk.

“Talking in your sleep again, Onii-chan?” Hitomi, his sister, asked as she looked down at him from the top bunk. Much like him, her hair was black. It was loose at the moment, though she normally had it up in thick twin tails.

What Tadano experienced was definitely more than a dream. He could feel it. He could see it—in a way he would never be able to put into words. Divine Perception. This is what he was talking about.

What's more, he felt... refreshed. Like he had never felt before.

Tadano always had this 'tiredness' in him, an exhaustion deep within his very soul that he could never explain nor remedy. It was as if something extremely important was missing in his life.

This feeling had only worsened after that one certain event which led to him retiring as an adventurer... but now, that feeling was... gone. Or perhaps not gone, but it was at least greatly reduced.

“Y-yeah,” Tadano answered as he sat up and rubbed the back of his head where he expected a flower to be for some reason. In its place was nothing more than the same cowlick that had always been there.

“Better hurry,” Hitomi teased.

“W-wha?”

“Huh?” Hitomi asked, unaware of having said anything, “Onii-chan, did you hit your head? You're being weird.”

My imagination? Tadano shook his head. “N-no,” he said flatly, “Just thinking I should have another go at adventuring...” He got out of bed and stretched. He felt alive and ready to face the world for once.

“Oh, finally over the Kawai-san thing?” Hitomi smirked from behind the edge of her bunk. She was happy for him. He had been in that slump for far too long.

“O-oi...” Tadano didn’t know why she had to bring that up all of a sudden. “Anyway, I'd better get ready...”

“Good luck, nerd. Don't die out there,” Hitomi teased again, and laid back down to go back to sleep.

“Yeah, yeah... I won't...”

Click here to read on AO3.

Next

[kougyokuseyeshavemeweak]

Hcs if the generals saw sinbad get hit by a car (he lives its okay)

Ha!

Sinbad and the eight generals make it into our world and of course they’re all a bit concerned but thanks to the king, Sinbad reassures them and begins to lead them onto their new journey until that stupid idiot gets hit by a damn car.

Jafar

-Freaks out

-“SIN!”

-Wants to beat up the person who hit him like Jesus! That’s his king!!

-Sinbad gets up and is all like “I’m okay!”

-Calls for help immediately like no you’re not okay you fucking titty wagon!

-Someone calls an ambulance and Sin is rushed off with Jafar in the back and the rest following behind

-Once at the hospital he’ll start pacing like crazy

-Did I mention he tried to fight the doctors to go to Sinbad’s room?

-Immediately rushes into Sin’s room when he’s allowed and sees him awake

-“YOU IDIOT”

-Jafar starts and then begins to rant while Sinbad just laughs

-Will definitely sue the jerk that hit him

-Or kill them. Either one is fine

-Overall, he’s pretty peeved

Masrur

-Stupid king

-Stupid stupid king

-Like what the actual hell is this crap?

-How did he not see it coming?

-Just kinda stares with wide eyes

-Is worried but doesn’t say it

-Chases after the ambulance to keep up with while random people are freaked out by this super human

-Stands perfectly still in the waiting room

-Is worried but doesn’t show it

-Though he didn’t doubt it, is glad his king turned out alright

Yamuriha

-She screams!

-Freaking out a whole bunch

-Immediately goes to heal him until the ambulance comes

-Just follows on her staff/wand thingy and everyone around is just shocked and probably freak out

-Once at the hospital (after scaring every person that came across her) she tries to help the hospital staff in healing the king

-Of course she is rejected and stays in the waiting room while holding onto her staff with a face of obvious worry

-When everyone’s allowed to see him and finds him to be alright, Yam lets out a breath that she didn’t even know she was holding

Sharrkan

-WHAT THE-!!

-How and what and why and how

-Feels bad for not being able to see it coming

-And wonders what the absolute hell that thing was

-The ambulance scares him

-When Sin’s rushed off he takes a piggyback ride on Masrur

-In the waiting room he can’t bring himself to sit down

-Sits down because his feet hurt

-Rushes in with Yam whilst fighting to get through the door

-When he sees that Sinbad is alright, he feels a lot better

Hinahoho

-WHAT?!!

-Sin is one of the toughest and most observant people he knows and he got hit by a horseless carriage?!

-Sweatdrop

-If Rurumu could see this, she would be disappointed

-The surrounding people probably run off at the sight of both him and Drakon

-Once another horseless carriage makes it’s way into the scene (albeit with weird sounds) the idiot king is loaded in and Hina finds it difficult to not stop it

-Big blue follows easily behind which probably scares the drivers

-He has to crouch in order to get through the doors but makes it in

-Then is asked to leave since he’s scaring the people inside

-Waits outside believing his king will be alright

-Is glad to find out he’s right

Drakon

-If anyone has never seen a surprised dragon then now they have

-Like how did this strange rectangle thingy hit the king?!

-Most importantly, why did this strange rectangle thingy hit the king?!

-Immediately assumes the attack was an act of war

-But is relieved to find it wasn’t

-Follows the ambulance by Hinahoho’s side and is most likely freaking people out

-Isn’t allowed in the hospital either

-Some people go up to him and ask for a photo cause they think his ‘costume’ is cool to which he is confused

-When he hears that Sinbad is okay he let’s out a breath

Pisti

-Accidentally laughs

-I mean- “Whatever do you mean?”

-This is serious

-When he gets up and says he’s okay she’s all like “See? He’s fine. That’s our king for you”

-Is kinda worried though

-When eggplant is rushed off in a weird box she just sorta stands there

-Oh is that a dog?

-Uses her fancy whistle and suddenly she’s chasing the ambulance on a German Shepard

-Once there, she tells the dog to go back home and sits down in the waiting room

-When everyone’s allowed in she’s happy to see Sin alright

Spartos

-Ahhhhh

-Boy immediately goes pale

-Like what the hel- heck?!

-runs to his side and starts asking him if he can move anything

-When the ambulance arrives and everyone runs off he’s just sorta left in the dust

-Tries to hurry but all that armor man

-Gets lost

-Eventually sees Drakon and Hinahoho waiting outside the hospital and hears that Sinbads alright

-Rushes into his room when he’s allowed

-Thank God

[superpaperclip]

So I was this post from Lise yesterday and wound up writing this. I may or may not write more, but have this for now. CC @galwaygremlin

Crack!

Crack!

A noise broke through the barrier of Jubilee’s Trance, rousing her from deep sleep. She cracked one eye open, careful to stay absolutely still otherwise. She couldn’t know how long she had been in Trance, let alone what type of person was hacking away at her prison. 

Her surroundings looked the same as they had, save for a thin strip of light. Jubilee instinctively tried to shy away from it, but it passed harmlessly through her incorporeal body. Unbidden, a grin slipped over her face and her fangs started to descend. She pulled them back, but let herself revel in the sunbeam crossing her torso. 

Crack!

The gap in the wood of the tree widened, allowing the steel head of the ax to peek through, before it was pulled back into the outside world. It appeared again, the woodcutter having buried it deeper into the trunk. 

With a split-second decision, Jubilee reached out a pale hand towards the glittering metal-and passed through it. As the ax head disappeared, she marveled at her new hands. They weren’t just their usual pale, she could see right through them. She didn’t have much time to inspect them, because at that moment, the tree splintered further and Jubilee felt the weight of the prison on her shoulders dissipate. 

Her fangs slid into place in front of her teeth as she properly smiled for the first time since her imprisonment. She placed a tentative hand on the wall of her former prison… and was proven right. Her hand sunk into the wall, up to her elbow. Retracting her fangs, she pushed her body forward. 

Jubilee almost cheered as she stepped through the wall and into the harsh sunlight. She had to blink against the stark contrast before her eyes adjusted to the light. As she looked around, she realized she didn’t recognize her surroundings anymore. 

What had once been a vast cemetery was now a densely packed forest, with trees as far as her eye could see. The light was tinted green from the stretching canopy of leaves, and the ground was littered with fallen branches. Movement caught Jubilee’s attention from the corner of her eye, and she darted to hide behind a tree. 

Jubilee watched in confusion from behind the tree as a woman lifted an axe onto her shoulder and swung it at the trunk of Jubilee’s prison. The woman was dressed in a red and black flannel shirt that buttoned up her front and strange dark blue pants. Her feet were clad in some kind of leather boot that broke sticks under her as she walked. Her hair was tied back, but Jubilee couldn’t see a ribbon to hold it. 

Jubilee watched the woman swing at the tree again and again until it fell with a thud against the forest floor. Then the woman started to swing at the felled log, chopping it into equal pieces. As the woman lifted the logs into the back of what seemed like a silver horseless carriage, Jubilee silently made her way closer to the carriage. 

She circled around what she assumed was the front of the thing. It sloped slightly upward from the height of her waist until it met a pane of glass going straight up. Jubilee reached out to touch it, careful not to let her hand pass through. If she concentrated, she could feel it beneath her fingertips. To her surprise, it was warmed metal, not the wood she was expecting. She walked farther around the carriage, being sure to avoid the thing that protruded from the side of the junction between the metal and the glass. 

There was more glass on either side of the carriage, and Jubilee squinted to see inside. There were two seats, the leather cracked and faded. In front of one was mounted a leather-wrapped hoop, a T shape situated in the middle. The other seat was piled with various items, none of which Jubilee recognized. 

Jubilee shuddered and jumped back as the woodcutter walked through her, but she didn’t seem to be able to see the vampire. Jubilee approached the back of the carriage and realized the woodcutter had stacked the cut logs in a large indent. She absentmindedly brushed her hand across the logs and was surprised to find that she could touch them as if her hand was solid. As she felt along the rough bark, she weighed her options.

No matter how weird the metal carriage was, Jubilee didn’t know where she was or how to get out. The woodcutter might be her best chance of escape, and she didn’t know if or when the woman would come back. Her mind made up, she pulled herself on top of the wood pile, relieved to find she didn’t sink to the ground. As Jubilee tried to find a comfortable position, the woodcutter approached the side of the carriage and opened a door Jubilee hadn’t seen. She climbed inside and shut the door, and then the truck started shaking.

Jubilee felt her fangs descend as they shot off through the forest, swerving to avoid the trees. They wove through the underbrush, the trees a blur on either side. She didn’t know how long she sat in the back of that carriage, clinging to the logs and praying to a god she didn’t believe in that she didn’t fall off. Eventually the carriage broke through the tree line and slowed at the edge of a wide path. Before Jubilee could breathe a sigh of relief, however, the woodcutter turned the carriage onto the path and somehow went even faster than they had been. Jubilee just closed her eyes and prayed.

She didn’t dare open her eyes until the carriage had stopped shaking entirely. When she did, she found that the carriage had been parked in front of a small house nestled in a valley. The woodcutter was greeting a dog in a rather ornate stone driveway. Her lips were raw from her fangs cutting into them, and she made sure to retract them slowly and carefully. When the woodcutter turned and headed back to the carriage, Jubilee carefully got down from her perch, making sure to keep away from the dog. Animals didn’t usually take too kindly to vampires. 

As the woodcutter lifted a log onto her shoulder and carried into a weathered red barn, Jubilee let herself admire the woman. She’d never had much time for it before her imprisonment, her time split between trying to survive off what little blood she could get and fleeing from mobs with torches and pitchforks. She’d been lucky enough to find some like-minded vampires, but they were few and far between. 

Jubilee was startled out of her reminiscence by a snuffling sound behind her. Turning, she saw the dog eyeing her suspiciously. When she glared back at it, fangs out and eyes red, it whimpered and ran into the house through a flap in the door, tail between its legs. With that taken care of, she set out to explore the house that would serve as her temporary lodging.

[princesssolaria]

@thexforgottenxones​ continued from here

She wasn’t meant to be here. The thought echoed louder in her mind than it had in the few days she’d been here. She was meant to be home, with her grandmother, the Queen, with Calla and the other servants that had filled her days until now. She still wasn’t sure what to make of everything, of the strange lights like looked as if they held fireflies, of the horseless metal carriages, of the borrowed orphan clothes the Sisters made her wear. Adora clutched the strap of her schoolbag a little tighter. If there was one thing the adults had made clear, it was that she wasn’t supposed to come near the boy, Henry Mills.

“What’s the book about?” She asked, her head tilting as her amber orbs stared at what little of the cover his arms allowed her to see. “I promise I won’t laugh, or tell. It’s not like anyone in this strange place believes me.” She frowned at that, remembering the lectures she’d been given on her so called ‘lies’. Adora huffed at the memory, standing all the straighter for it. She was a Princess, no matter what the grown ups believed, and she would remain one even if the other girls laughed at her.