#while I scramble to remember all my lore

[salparadiselost]

Some times I read my old writing and I’m like “wow this is crap” sometimes I read my old writing and I’m literally blown away like holy shit how did it do this

[alexrosa13]

To Belong

Luke x female!reader x Kieran//twins x reader ★ platonic!Sylus x reader ★ platonic!mc x reader ★ Sylus x mc

Genre: fluff/angsty

Warnings: 19k words, reader and mc are two different people!, 3rd person perspective!, spoilers to twins lore! (reading World Underneath: Mischief is highly recommended before reading this fic), small hints/spoilers to Sylus myth, mention of human experiments, mention of character trauma, mention of sa, protective dad Sylus, twins crushing on reader hard

Note: timeline of this fic happens between 2042 (reader&twins 12★Sylus 22) and 2048 (current timeline of the game★reader&twins 18★Sylus 28) and I hope it will be clear enough while reading.

for masterlist and request info head to the navigation →

half-edited by @asiakim03, rest proofread by me; special dedication for @pozuki for making me post it after it's been sitting in my drafts for 2 months

~★~

Sometimes teen love is floating, sometimes you may find your soulmate; but what if you got two?

2044, Middle of Winter.

The chances of a power outage in the middle of the night in one of the main areas of the EVER building are slim, but not impossible. Amid the chaos, with everyone panicking and scrambling to find the cause of the issue, no one notices that one of the computers has been accessed. Test records from years ago have been opened, and crucial information is being systematically deleted. In a matter of seconds, there will be no valuable data left.

????? Control EVOL Test Record

Subject ID

668

Subject Name

- - - - -

Age

??

Experimental Side Effect(s) Log

no information available

Evaluation Results

no information available

Several electronic devices had shut off on their own but a few minutes later, the power in the building was suddenly restored. Night-shift workers gradually returned to the office responsible for managing the experiment database. Everyone have taken themselves onto their assigned seats and began checking for any missing files.

The hours have passed and everything seemed fine yet, no one had ought to check the old files that had been forgotten over time. Everything have appeared intact and by the next day, the incident dismissed as an accident and have been quickly forgotten.

After all, why would someone make the commotion happen just to leave everything in it's place? It seems that no person working there will ever know the truth about the erased data. To be fair: who would have though that someone hacked the building data just to erase some not important piece of old experiment notes, perhaps containing information regarding someone who's presumably dead? And who would even think that the person behind it would be some big shot from N108 Zone? Exactly, no one.

And to be honest, it's better for them to not know.

~★~★~★~

2042, Late Autumn.

N109 Zone was in chaos that day. Buildings on fire, people bleeding and dying, while the ones who were still in good enough shape was able to fortunately run away from the mess. There were sounds of shooting and fighting everywhere you go. Yet, no one even remembers what started this blood-lust show.

A person was seen calmly standing with their hands in the pockets of their elegant pants. A man looking so out of place in the middle of such chaos, but at the same time fitting there perfectly like the most important detail on a masterpiece.

There's at least a dozen dead bodies laying before him as the look he throws at them a look of disgust. Suddenly, his eyes turned to look at the half-collapsed wall, noticing a kid hiding there who's looking at the man with eyes full of curiosity yet not even a hint of fear. Probably a stray with no family.

They continue to look at each other, the man then cocks an eyebrow and his face show the slightest tinge of shock. Why can't he see that kid's desire? Why does his evol not work on them? For a moment, he sees their eyes glowing up a bit, it's an evolver too. But no person with or without an evol would be able to hide their desires before him.

He let out a an amused chuckle, his curiosity rising. What kind of power do they posses? Either way, it wasn't a question he needed an answer for. That kid probably won't even survive long in this area. Without a word, he turned around and walked away from the mess he had left in his enemies' base, not giving a single thought about the unusual child he met.

However, something clinged onto him after he took a couple of steps and that made him stop in his tracks. He looked down again meeting the eyes of that kid.

"What do you want?" his voice, rough and cold was just like his stares but he didn't get an answer. The seemingly clueless child staring at him in silence. Their expression emotionless, no fear, no sadness, no anger.

What was wrong with them? No child should be able to hide their emotions this well. Of course, they weren't 5 years old or so but still, they couldn't be older than 13. Two questions appeared in the back if his mind: what happened to this runt and what was he supposed to do with it?

He had no answer to any of them.

"What? Am I supposed to just take you with me now?" he asked in a sarcastic voice yet still didn't get an answer. He tried to move away from their little hug— for their hands were not even able to wrap themselves fully around his waist— and succeeded. Giving them one last glance over his shoulder before proceeding to walk away, leaving dead bodies behind him to rot or get caught in flames, he couldn't care less.

Who would have thought that today would be the day a new shadow started following him?

~★~★~★~

2046, Middle of Winter.

"Boss, that Sherman guy is suspicious. We'll keep an eye on him for you!" says Luke, kneeling with his twin before Sylus.

"We know his address, his usual spots, and his contacts. We can report to you every two weeks," Kieran added after his brother.

The 'Boss' seems to think about it for a minute, his expression unreadable. Finally he spoke to.. who exactly?

"What do you think, little one? Should I agree?" He tilted his head toward something behind him, and both boys glanced in that direction, noticing a silhouette a few meters away, leaning against a tree with a hood pulled low over their head.

The twins looked at each other, dumbfounded— both thinking: 'Who is that?' before looking back at the mysterious person, meeting their eyes. The rest of their face hidden behind a medical black mask. For whatever reason, they couldn't look away as if hypnotized.

After a couple of seconds, that person finally looked away. Their gaze turning to Sylus, nodding once in his direction before straightening their posture and walking away with no rush.

"I'll see you in two weeks," these words constitute the only command they receive.

"Understood, boss." when they finally stood up, they realize Sylus has already vanished.

They looked at each other sharing a grin at the fact that their 'plan' succeeded. Their happiness however was cut short by someone's soft chuckling coming from behind them. They turned around fast and noticed a girl around their age, sitting at a nearby tree.

"Congratulations on your new job, boys," she smiled at them, her hands grabbing a branch above her head, her body leaning forward towards their direction.

"And, you are?" Luke took a step forward, looking at her with a sly smirk on his face.

"It’s you," Luke turned to his brother, confused. But a moment later, he heard his twin’s voice in his head: ‘Look at her eyes.’ He did—and then he understood.

The mysterious girl started giggling to herself quietly but eventually, she couldn't help it and began laughing so hard that the branch she was sitting on started to shake.

"You should have seen your faces!" she said after calming herself down a little, smile still visible on her lips.

'Pretty...' The twins voiced in their minds, both looked at each other in shock. How did they think about THAT at the same time.

"I hope you'll do a good job so I'll be able to see you two again, " she jumped off the tree, landing gracefully on the grass and taking a couple of steps towards the twins. "It would be such a shame for such cute faces to end up dead on the ground, don't you think?" She smiled at them, a little more genuine and soft this time.

Luke and Kieran still couldn't comprehend the situation they found themselves in right now, but before any more words could leave their mouth, the girl already started moving forward. She walked straight through the gap between their bodies, her shoulders touching theirs for a split second and just like this, she left them behind.

The twins looked at each other, not being able to gather their thoughts at the moment. Both of them had a million questions flowing through their minds; 'Who is she?', 'Does she work for Sylus?', 'Why couldn't they look away from her eyes earlier?' suddenly, their eyes widen over something else that just registered in their heads.

"DID SHE JUST CALL US CUTE?"

~★~★~★~

2047, Early Spring.

The twins had been working as Sylus' spies for some time now, reporting back to him every two weeks as agreed. In the meantime, they also began spending more time at his base, occasionally even staying overnight in the many available guest rooms.

However, the mysterious girl they had met when they first asked Sylus to let them work for him hadn’t appeared anywhere near their line of sight since that day. They tried to ask Sylus about her but he brushed them off every single time.

Today was another failed attempt to pry.

"No," was the only thing leaving Sylus' mouth at the mention of 'the person they saw that day' and this time, they didn't even manage to finish their sentence before his refusal.

"Oh c'mon Boss, we need to know!"

"Why can't you just tell us? Is her existence top Onychinus type of secret or something?"

"If that's the case, then we have the right to know since we're official Onychinus members now!" All sorts of reasoning started flowing out of the twins' mouths, they stopped only after noticing the glare Sylus threw their way.

"If she wanted you two to know who she is, she would have already told you herself," after that, their Boss-man went to his office, making it clear that he is not in the mood to listen to teenagers rambling for even a minute longer. Luke and Kieran shared a look and even through their masks, they could still read the other's disappointed expression.

They sat on the couch, defeated, their limbs sprawled across the cushions and their heads resting against the backrest. Both stared at the ceiling, trying to come up with a new plan to meet the girl again. They weren't ones to give up easily, but after trying for so long, they were running out of ideas.

After a couple minutes of brainstorming, they both let out sounds of defeat. They had tried everything, yet still, nothing worked. Was she enjoying their suffering from the shadows?

"I'm so tired of his, man. We did everything! How are we supposed to meet someone who literally doesn't show any signs of existence other than that one time?!" Luke shoot up from his seat, accidentally spilling a glass of water which for whatever reason found itself at the edge of the table. "Oh, c'mon!" He picked up the glass, which was thankfully still intact and had put it back a little further away this time.

"Eh, I'll go get some napkins," Kieran stood up, stretching his limbs a bit and turned towards the kitchen area. Before he could take a step forward, his twin's hand abruptly grabbed his clothing and made him sit back down "What?"

"Look here!" He did as instructed, shifting his gaze to the spot on the table where water had spilled. Lying next to it was a sheet of paper with writing on it, the ink growing blurrier as the water spread.

They leaned over to read the note before it ends up completely unreadable.

Did you know that the best dreams happen in the room with the clear view at the night sky?

→ right wing of the mansion, second floor, right corridor, last door

see you in a dream ☆

They looked at the item lying next to the paper: a necklace with a small orb as its pendant. It resembled the night sky, with a moon and stars shining inside, the entire scene shifting slowly and unhurriedly, revealing different angles of the image. Luke reached out to touch it, but as his hand neared, the inside of the orb began to change.

He moved his hand away, startled. The brothers shared a look of curiosity before once again looking at the necklace. Its image now showing warm sunrise with clouds floating around it.

~★~

"Did you somehow influence it?" Kieran leaned a little closer for a better look.

"I didn't even touched it!" Luke jumped up at the questioning, raising his hands to show his innocence.

Younger of the twins slowly reached out his hand just like Luke before him, both boys looking in its direction with anticipation. However unlike his brother, Kieran didn't hesitate and took the orb into his hand. Both boys watched it change from the sunrise to sunset. All the brightness went missing, leaving a dark sky with the sun hiding behind the clouds.

Both of them stared at the orb for a while longer, image of the sky flowing inside the glassy object. Finally Luke spoke up.

"Do you remember where is this dreamy-room?"

"Was it the left or right corridor?" Kieran's hushed voice could be heard on top of the staircase leading to the second floor in the right wing of Sylus' mansion.

"Right one. To be honest how is he not getting lost in all of those corridors? I swear that this place is a maze made to trap victims inside." twins started walking through another never-ending corridor, but luckily this time there were no random small passages on the way.

Finally they reached the end of their very tiring journey (they were sneaking around the mansion for half an hour now, trying to avoid their Boss... He probably saw them anyways). They looked at each other, a little unsure now if they got to the right door.

Well now or never. Both of them reached for the handle, moving it together.

Doors opened quietly and before their eyes appeared a huge room with a window taking the whole wall on the opposite side to the door. The furniture all in black. The ceiling in this room seemed higher that ones in the other rooms they had seen. Behind the window was a view of the night, red sky of the N109 zone it's moon right in the middle, making the room seem almost magical and mysterious in a way.

They closed the door taking in their surroundings. Shelves fit perfectly with the walls, inside them books and random items in various colors going from crystals, to skulls, to candles (some burning, some not), jewelry and a lot more. In the middle of the room, literally in the floor, it's place found a huge mattress adored with various pillows and blankets.

In the end their eyes reached the table placed in the space between the window and a mattress. They cautiously moved towards it, still taking in the details of the room. They approached it from two sides and their eyes found themself looking at the thing right in the middle of it. It looked like a little tower made out of glass with a round spot engraved right on top of it as if something should be put there.

"What is that?"

"I have no idea."

They started thinking about what to do in this situation, and finally Kieran thought about something. He reached towards his neck and pulled the necklace from underneath his clothes taking it off through his head, being careful while getting it over his mask.

"Do you think we're supposed to put it here?" he hanged the necklace on his hand, the orb levitating right above the glass thingy.

"I mean she left it for us for some reason yeah? Might as well try it, what can go wrong?" both boys shrugged, not caring about the possibilities of the bad outcome much (as always).

Kieran slowly lowered the necklace, the orb fitting inside the glass structure like a glove. Suddenly the candles started burning brighter than when they first walked in, flames dancing in every direction and even some of the not lit ones came to life.

Twins looked around themself for some time, trying to understand what was going on, until something looking like a white string started coming from the little orb, making a perfect circle around the two and the table. Little dots started showing themselves on the thin line, some bigger, some smaller, some light, some dark, it wasn't long before the whole string was full of it and then another one started creating itself.

They locked eyes, thinking about the sight before then, not moving. Suddenly they heard a voice coming from above them and looking up they saw their mysterious girl sitting on the swing connected to the ceiling, swaying slowly a couple of meters above the huge mattress. They could swear it wasn't there when they walked in!

"It's my Dream Seal." she looked at them with a soft smile, the swing started slowly lowering itself.

"Your dream what?" the twins asked at the same time, looking mesmerized at the girl dressed in the prettiest flowing dress they ever saw.

Finally the swing lowered itself enough for her to put her legs on the mattress, standing up on it she made her way towards the table, which took her maybe five steps. The string made by the orb broke for her to get through and patched itself up right after, adding her into the circle.

"My Dream Seal. I put and lock my dreams inside of it. You could say that it's like a diary." she explained to them, slight smile still noticeable on her face, her eyes focusing on the orb glowing in the middle of the table. She reached out her hand, making a slow and graceful movement as if petting the orb without actually touching it.

Instantly it reacted to her presence, glowing a bit brighter especially in the places right below her hand.

She moved the same hand to create a circle in the air with her palm, making another string appear in the place of her previous movement. Another dot, a little bigger from the rest floated around them, showed itself right before her and started to go move around like the rest.

She put her hand under the line and when the little orb came right above it the room began changing it's appearance.

Twins started looking around curious about what exactly is happening. Finally their eyes saw what looked to be a grassland full of various flowers all around them, not seeing anything else in the distance but clear sky and flowers. They looked at each other, their eyes widening at the realization that their masks are off.

Their clothes changed from their usual black and red uniforms to simple white shirts, pants and shoes. They looked around trying to notice the girl that was next to them seconds ago, but there were no other silhouette in sight... Until their turned their heads once more....

Their faces were betraying the shock they felt at the scene playing right before them. Two of them, smiling and laughing, Luke sitting on the grass, pulled up on his hands and Kieran lying down on his back. What shocked them was the fact that their mysterious girl was lying there with them. Her head resting on Luke's thigh and her legs thrown around Kieran's belly.

One of Luke's hands playing with her hair while Kieran caressed her legs softly. The girl herself was just lying there, her eyes closed but a light smile still visible, looking perfectly content with the closeness of the twins.

None of them dared to move or look away, their minds silent, trying to save the moment into their memory. They looked at the images of themselves seeing their true smiles, feeling the real happiness, without the pain of their past following them and breaking the innocent moment.

Slowly but surely, the light from the dream started fading, their calm silhouettes leaving together with it. They never craved the sunlight more than at this very moment. The darkness of the room and the slight light coming from the red moon of the N109 Zone brings them back into reality. Their masks back on, the moment of vulnerability left behind together with the strings, of what they imagine are dreams, coming back to the orb they came from.

Their minds still couldn't wrap themself completely around what they just saw. They looked at each other, communicating without words and then turned their heads towards the mattress a couple steps away from them, the girl sitting on it crosslegged, with her back towards them and a book in her hands. Both brothers stood there, stuck in one place, their heartbeats matching in their fast rhythm.

Both with only one question in mind: what was that?

"You know, even with your masks I can still tell who is who." her voice finally broke the silence, she sounded unfazed by what just took place, unlike the twins.

"Oh really? Do you even know our names missy?" Luke being the first to come back to his usual demeanor, crossing his arms and tilting his head to the side (which must have looked adorable with his mask btw) sending the girl a 'challenging' look, she glanced at him over her shoulder and giggled a bit.

"Really Luke. How dare you doubt me?" she put her hand on her chest, exactly where her heart is, and sent him a 'hurt' look, obviously for show.

"Well would you look at that! You do know our names!" the older of the twins proclaimed, clasping his hands together and taking a step forward "Maybe it's about the time when we learn yours Miss..?" he sent her a pleading look, even though she couldn't see it, she could imagine it all the same.

"What do you think, Kieran? Is knowing my name actually so important for you?" she looked at the second brother who was unusually silent.

"It's- Well we both are dying to get to know it since our very first meeting, so if you would be kind enough to share it, we would be very, and by very I mean VERY, entirely grateful to you." finally it seemed that he came back to his normal self. Taking two steps forward he stood right next to his brother, both looking expectantly at the girl like little kids waiting for their promised treat.

"Hah so I've never left your minds since that night? It's been months babes. Did I turn your whole worlds over without even trying? Damn am I that hot?" the nickname she gave them and her loud laugh made their hearts stop and start beating all over again. She turned to face them, her legs still crossed and her upper-half supported by her outstretched arms. The book that she was previously occupied with ended up lying forgotten next to her. "It's Y/n."

They whispered her name at the same time, finally reaching the goal they were going after all this time. There was a moment of awkward silence with them not knowing what to say or ask and with her just staring at them, as if enjoying their stress. How dare she! But after some time she was still the first one to break the silence and stop their suffering.

"Do you have any other questions or is that it for today? You know... Boss will probably look for you soon, since it's his time of the day." she whispered the last part like a secret, sending them a wink.

Twins looked at each other finally knowing exactly what question they wanted to ask.

"What was that thing..."

"That we saw after you did something to that... Floating thing?" their voices betrayed their curiosity and nerves. They needed to know.

"It was a dream." she sounded so casual about it. How could this not move her at all?!

"A..."

"Dream..." twins still not completely understanding what was going on. They started a quick conversation in their heads.

'But if that was a dream...'

'And dreams are supposed to belong to someone, right?'

'Did you dream about that?!'

'Dude no! Not me!'

'But it wasn't me either!'

'Well if it wasn't mine nor your dream, then...'

They turned their heads at the lightning speed to look at each other, shock on their faces hidden behind the masks.

'IT WAS HERS?!'

"Did you come to the right conclusion yet? Because judging from your reactions, you did." they turned to look at the girl once more, still dumbfounded.

"You dreamed of us?" Kieran was the one of the duo speaking first this time.

"Not only us, but us in THAT situation?" Luke added, his voice a little raised and hurried to let the words out. Both of them stared at the girl before them, who still held her composure very well despite the situation she was in. How was she this calm when they were literally freaking out?!

"I do not have control over my dreams." she finally stood up from the mattress, taking some steps until her feet were on a steady ground right before them. Then she did something unexpected, she took one of Kieran's hands into hers, doing the same with Luke and held their palms closer to herself, closing her eyes, and breathing out heavily. Their linked hands started glowing slightly, both boys stared at them, not knowing what to do, but also somehow... Enjoying her closeness. Not opening her eyes she started talking to them, while still holding their hands in hers.

"Dreams are a fascinating phenomena. We forget most of them right after waking up, with some staying in our memory forever. We can dream about anything: from the past to present, to future, to things reminding us of our demons but also the memories of the things we hold dear to our hearts." finally opening her eyes her gaze jumping between both of them until finally finding it's place on their linked hands "I... Don't know myself why I dreamed of you in that situation, so I am afraid that I do not have the answers you seek right now. Something in my head never lets me forget you, ever since that meeting." she let go of their hands, lowering her own ones down, linking them together. Luke and Kieran just stood there, letting their own hands come back to their place next to their hips.

None of them dared to move, afraid to break the moment. They could still feel the lingering warm on their palms from her hands holding them.

Her eyes finally looked up at them, glowing. They both watched her closely, not knowing what she was doing with her 'magic' right before the moment, but none of them cared about it, something in them saying to trust her.

"You know... I never met anyone like you. I was watching you over the last couple of months on your little missions. You're like one person. The very same appearance. The masks and the faces before the incident matching perfectly. But somehow I see you as two different personas. The very same but different." the glow in her eyes slowly fading, but her warm smile coming back to make up for it "I can't wait to play more of 'guess the difference'."

She poked their masks with a small laugh. Waking them up from their trance.

"I believe that you have to go, today Sylus has an important meeting, you know." she walked past them to the table, taking the orb still resting on it, putting it over her head.

"Oh c'mon, sitting here with you is so much more interesting than some boring meeting." Luke proclaimed with a sigh of annoyance in his voice. Did they have to go?

"I believe that there will be a rather... Explosive moment, so you won't get too bored there." she let out a laugh, turning towards them and leaning on the table behind her "Besides I have something to do in the meantime, so even tho I would love to stay here and entertain you two cuties, I can't." she send them apologizing look.

"But you won't disappear like before, right?" Kieran's voice followed her statement. He was thankful for Luke's idea with the masks now more than ever, it saved him from reviling the blush on his cheeks at the nicknames the girl was giving them.

"Not this time, promise. At least not for this long." she shrugged.

"You better keep this promise or we'll find you ourselves" Luke pointed finger in her direction trying to look the most threatening he could, but it only made the girl laugh more.

"Oh I'm so scared~" she let out in a mocking tone, raising her hands as it to show 'im innocent officer'.

"Yeah, you better be!" the older of the twins continued his 'intimidating' act. Making Kieran scoff a bit at his behavior.

"Okay, okay, I promise you'll see me soon. But now I really have to go and I advise you to do the same." she stood up straight, her dress instantly fixing itself to look perfect "See you~" her voice sang right when she was passing by them, heading to the door.

Both boys let out their goodbyes and soon they heard the click of the door closing and their 'not-so-mysterious-anymore' girl walking out, leaving them alone with a thousand thoughts.

They stared at the door in silence for a moment longer before they spoke at the same time again.

"I think I'm in love."

"You too?!"

They instantly looked at each other shocked, but at the same time not really. They were so similar in so many aspects, but honestly they never thought of girls and crushes ever before, focusing on surviving and having their fun, but she seemed like she could bring even more fun to the group.

"Sooo... What do we do?" Luke asked, more relaxed now than before with the girl in the room, as he tried his best not to screw up anything in front of her. Obviously they will never argue because of the girl, but they had to sort it out somehow.

"I mean... She seemed pretty positive about both of us, right?" Kieran shrugged, based on the girl's dream they saw earlier the solution to this little 'problem' of theirs was rather obvious, no?

"So... What you are suggesting is... That we could both date her?" Luke looked deep in thought and for a moment Kieran even looked at him like at the biggest dumbass in the world.

"Yes. That is exactly what I suggest we do." he blinked his eyes, stating the obvious.

"But how will that work?" Luke continued to question.

"I have no idea, but hey, we'll manage, we always do. Also honestly I never thought about it but having one girlfriend with our... Situation is actually rather obvious choice, no?" at this sentence his older brother just nodded his head, silently agreeing. but then something else caught his eye.

"Wait. Where is that swing?!"

~★~★~★~

2047, Middle of Spring.

Weeks passed by with twins getting to know their mysterious girl. Even after getting to know her a little better she still seems to live 24/7 in their heads, somehow they are even more curious about her now than before knowing her.

They became friends fast after their second meeting, with her becoming their partner in crime when it came to pranks, but even though they became really close and spent hours to no end together, they still didn't know much about her. They were dying to know why and since when was she working for Sylus, but she always laughs at their questions saying that it's not important for them to know.

A couple of days ago they came out with a plan to spy on the two to try and gain information to satisfy their curiosity. However it was easier said than done. To be honest they saw those two together in the same room maybe two to three times? Just what kind of relationship did they have?! They needed to know.

They waited for days to finally put their plan into the reality, they waited for a perfect moment, observing those two like professional stalkers. The fact that both of their targets noticed their weird behavior was not really helpful, but none of them really paid them any mind, so who cares?

Eventually they got the perfect opportunity to 'strike'. They were going down the stairs, planning to go and chill in the mansion's main area while also waiting for their (ekhem ekhem crush) favorite girl to come see them, like she usually does. When they were on their way they suddenly heard voices, coming from the corridor leading to Sylus's office.

Looking at each other they instantly became quiet, moving a little closer to the wall. The voices were a little far away, since the corridor was pretty long, but luckily they weren't being exactly quiet.

"... what do you want to do about it? That guy is a scumbag and we both know it. I don't care about your business, if you won't take care of him: I will." they heard the voice of Y/n sounding harsh and annoyed, not leaving the ground to argue, something they never heard from her before.

"Sweetie I won't let you get yourself straight into their trap. You are not going there and that's the end of it." Sylus answered in his usual tone, clearly not impressed by the girl's intimidating speech.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" twins literally jumped up a bit at the scream, they never heard her raise her voice before "That motherfucker uses girls my age for his fucking business! I can tolerate many things Sylus. Fuck that! I literally killed people myself before, but he destroys them more and more everyday! If you will just sit on your ass and wait for him to finish his business with you, I'll deal with that bastard myself and never come back here again." twins looked at each other, clearly fearing that Sylus will just let her go and never come back.

"Y/n I promise you that bastard will get what he deserves, and I'll make him go through worse hell than you can even imagine. All I ask of you is to just give me a little more time." how was he still so calm?!

"... How much time do you need?" now sounding more calm than before, but still clearly mad, judging from the way her tone sounded cold and resentful.

"3 days."

"Alright, and not a second longer." her voice was quiet enough for the boys to have a problem with hearing it.

"Have I ever given you a reason to doubt me, sweetie?" Boss's voice still intact like always, not even a hint of anger at the girl's outburst from a moment ago. Who was she to him?! How could she talk to him like that and not face any consequences?!

"No. And I never will doubt you. But you know why it's so important to me." her voice gets more quiet with each word.

After that they didn't hear any more words from the two people behind the wall.

'What is happening?'

'I don't know! Maybe we should peek?'

They were considering the idea for some seconds, before finally giving in to their curiosity once more. The sight before their eyes got them dumbfounded.

They saw Sylus holding the girl in his arms and looking at her concerned. She seemed to be in a bad shape, holding onto him weakly while visibly going limp in his hug. Both of the twins stared at the scene, not even caring anymore about getting to the truth about the relationship between the two, they were afraid for the girl they grew affectionate towards, she never looked this weak and vulnerable when spending time with them, what happened to her?

"... Dad..." they heard her pained whisper and saw her going completely limp in Sylus arms. Their Boss's face immediately changed into an even deeper concern.

Suddenly they saw Sylus's eyes glance towards them. They stood there numb, not even having the strength to try and hide or pretend like they were just passing by after the events that just took, and were still taking, place.

Their Boss didn't even pay them any mind, much more worried about the girl than those two seeing anything. He snooped her into his arms, princess carrying her into his office, and closing the door behind him with his evol.

Twins still stood in one place, worried sick and clueless as to what was currently happening to their favorite girl.

"Boss looked worried as much as we are, do you think it's something serious?" Luke's voice first to break the silence.

"I don't know, I wish we could just go into that office, but he'll probably have our heads for this." Kieran sat down on the floor, his back leaning onto the wall.

Luke followed his brother, sliding down the wall, looking deafened.

No more words exchanged between the two. Both their minds occupied by the person currently impossible to reach. Going into that office would be a suicidal, but staying outside of it was killing them too.

Were they actually that attached to her already..?

~★~

Hours passed, twins stayed close to their Boss's office, waiting for either the man or the girl to walk out, so that they could ask if she's okay. Eventually they settled on the couch in one of the living rooms, one which was the closest to the office, leaving the door open to make sure that they won't miss any sound coming from the corridor.

Eventually they waited for about 10 hours already, not planning to move until they will hear the news about their soulmate's (as they started calling her not that long ago, after pulling a success prank on Sylus together) well-being. Eventually they fell asleep on the couch out of exhaustion and stress.

Meanwhile inside of the Sylus's office someone finally woke up.

"Finally back to the world of living, sweetie?" Sylus looked up from the papers sprayed on his desk to look at the girl moving on his couch.

"How long was I out?" sitting up, her hands went towards her head, her eyes closed.

"Couple of hours, there's water on the table before you." his eyes came back to the papers.

The girl slowly reached her hand towards the glass with water, luckily Sylus didn't fill it up to the top or else she would spill it because of her hand shaking. She put the glass to her mouth, drinking without any rush.

"I told you many times not to use your evol like this." standing up from behind his desk he made his way towards the teenager "You know that glitching in between the worlds can be extremely dangerous for you, yet you still took the risk for no valid reason."

"I can't just sit back and watch him hurt them, I had to do something, you're taking too long." her eyes shoot up towards the man, sending him sharp glare.

"I have my reasons for stalling. Why can't you just trust me with this?"

"Because I see myself in those girls!" her raised voice shocked even him this time "Every time I see his nasty dreams I'm reminded about those assholes who made me watch myself in that situation. He will hurt them Sylus, every day of you waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike is another little girl's childhood taken away!" her voice breaking, shacking of her body and tears in her eyes made Sylus feel too many things that he would have wish not to acknowledge.

He never wanted to get attached to that girl, he was fine on his own, but every day with her following him around like a shadow made him so used to her presence that he couldn't imagine something or someone taking her away from him right now. He hated himself for having a weak spot.

"Sweetie I promise you that no harm will come to those girls, I have Mephisto watching them all the time, they are scared yes, but no one touches them I promise. They will be safe in 3 days, give me that much time, please." he crouched down next to her, holding one of her hands in his and making her look at him, the eye contact being able to keep her grounded. He knew that she could lose her grip on the reality if he didn't act the right way.

The memories started flowing back to him at once. The trauma this girl had to go through making him want to kill anyone who dared to even think about harming her. Taking a child to become an experiment is a cruelty that even he, being the 'worst' person in the N109 Zone, wouldn't dare to commit.

He remembered that one night from two years ago. He was walking towards the room in his mansion that he was sure had the book he needed for his research. It was the room hidden deep inside of the right wing, when he finally got to it and opened the door he saw that young girl sitting on the floor with her legs under her, the room was cold and she didn't wear enough clothes to feel warm, but she didn't seem effected by the cold, she was just sitting there and looking at the moon behind the window.

"What are you doing here?" she didn't even react to his voice, didn't look at him, didn't let out any sound like she did most of the time, signaling to him that she listened.

He slowly walked towards her, crouched down beside her, looking at her and then at the sky of the N109 Zone.

They spent a couple of minutes in complete silence, staring as the clouds move slowly with time.

"Why do people need to know and understand everything?" her quiet voice brought his attention to her again, his head turning towards her direction, her eyes already focused on him.

"Because they are afraid of the unknown." his tone was soft, he warmed up to the girl over the time he spent with her, even if he didn't want to admit it.

The girl just recently turned 14. He got some informations about her from the database of EVER studies and the rest he knew just by simply asking her, she was surprisingly truthful all the time, not hiding anything from him.

"Can I show you something?" her eyes still locked on his, their eye contact making him feel like he talked to his equal and not just some teenage girl that he randomly stumbled across.

"Of course." was his only response. Her hands made their way towards his face, slowly covering his eyes. He didn't protest, she didn't have any reason to hurt him, and it's not like she would succeed in it anyways.

The darkness he saw with his eyes covered suddenly started changing into shapes and colors. He saw a little girl together with her at least three people, much bigger than her, adults, in white coats. One was holding her down, making her sit down on the chair, while the other two stood before her with their notepads, talking to her, but their voices came out like a combination of random syllables.

Their faces were all blurry, he couldn't recognize any face other than the one of the little girl. Her eyes were full of fear, shining from the tears she was clearly holding back. No words left her, she didn't try to scream or fight the person holding her, she just silently sat there.

Suddenly he saw one of the people with notepads taking something out of their pocket, a syringe, and walking with it towards the little girl. Her eyes locked on the white wall before her, her gaze looking absent, like mentally she wasn't there.

Right after they injected whatever it was into her arm her head fell down, strength leaving her body, her eyes clenching shut and one single tear falling down her cheek before the image got completely blurred and the room changed. What he saw next made his blood boil.

The same little girl standing there, before a man with literally no face and another version of herself, she was watching as the man spoke to her other version and started touching her arms.

Not wanting to know what happened next Sylus took the hands of the girl away from his eyes and took a moment to let his gaze come back to reality. His eyes turned to the teenager, a silent question in his gaze.

"They made me watch someone's dreams. I don't know how, but whatever they injected into me activated my evol, fighting it was painful." he swallowed his split in a try to control his anger, his jaw clenching "I tried to stop him, but when I touched him I felt pain like nothing I've ever felt. I shut my eyes close while laying on the floor but had to hear all the things he spoke to my other version. After it was all done and I woke up I heard someone speak about the 'emotional reactions influencing the power of the evol' but then I blacked out again. It was the day that I knew I had to run away, before they would get to test that in a reality." her eyes were glossy and a single tear ran down just like in the memory he saw a moment ago.

His thumb went up to her face to wipe it off, she let him without as much as a flinch. No more words were exchanged between them. He moved to sit down fully on the floor and her head instantly fell to his shoulder. They sat there for a while, being the comfort the other needed in this cruel world. He heard her breathing slowing down, probably falling asleep, he let her.

"I promise that no one else will hurt you."

"Promise me." her quiet voice brought him back to reality. Looking at her now he didn't see the fearless and mischievous teenager she became. He saw that little girl from the past, crying herself to sleep in a lonely room, holding herself to feel any kind of warm.

She didn't need to say anything else, he already understood.

"I promise." that no one will touch them.

A lonely tear fell from her eye with a blink, making it's way down her face like a raindrop falling on the window during a storm. His memory came back for a second before leaving again. He reached out, his palm gently taking a hold of her face, his thumb catching the single proof of her sadness. For a moment her eyes closed, enjoying the warmth of another human being after knowing only coldness her entire life.

Suddenly the sound of a pained cry left her and before Sylus could react she threw her arms around him and her mouth let out a song of cries and pain she was hiding inside for too long.

He gently reciprocated her hug, one of his hands taking it's place on her head, slowly stroking it in a calming motion, letting her drown her sorrows into his shoulder, hiding her from the brutality of the world.

He wished that he found her sooner and gave her the life she deserved to have from the start, without anyone taking away her innocence. She became his guiding star, always being there to remind him that life is not just an endless cycle of pain and evil. He didn't know why she followed him that day, but he was thankful for it nonetheless.

The next couple of minutes were spent with him shielding her from reality. They didn't know exactly how much time had passed, maybe ten minutes, maybe half an hour, maybe more. It didn't matter.

In his fatherly-like embrace she finally found the safety she was looking for her entire life. She was forced to fight for herself for so long, stealing and sleeping in abandoned buildings was her every day life ever since she run away from the place of her torture. That was, until she met him, her visions encouraging her to take the risk and trust him, and she did. She didn't regret it even for once ever since.

"I'm sorry..." her voice, quiet and weak, reached his ears. Her cries calmed down a while ago, but they still didn't let go of each other.

"You have no reason to apologize for feeling." his tone calm, with foreign gentleness to it. She was his little girl, the very one that he swore to protect. She was his remainder that he wasn't an emotionless monster, she made him feel human.

After a couple more minutes they finally pulled themselves away, her face red from crying, his expression still showing concern. The reason behind her outburst of emotions forgotten behind, her trust in his words enough to calm her down.

Sylus finally stood up from the floor and sat down next to her on the couch. Her head falling onto his shoulder, her head trying to organize her thoughts and leave the depressive episodes behind. His voice interrupts her tornado of thoughts.

"You've grown close to them." she let out a sound of curiosity, her head turning to look at him, but his eyes were focused on something before him "The twins." there was a moment of silence after that statement, her head coming back to rest on his shoulder once again and her eyes focusing on the painting on the wall before her.

"I did." left her mouth, he didn't react in any way, but she knew he heard her. There was no point in avoiding the truth, he already knew about it, he just wanted to hear her say it.

"It's foolish." she let out a quiet humorless laugh, she knew.

"So was following you like a stray cat on the street looking for a shelter, but look at us now." she smiled, her gaze returning to his side-profile. A sound like a second long laugh left his mouth, she had a point.

"I hope that you know what you're doing." they smiled at each other and laughed "But still if they will hurt you in any way, I will make them pay." the sudden serious expression on him took her aback.

"Oh you are really like my father!" she laughed again and hit him playfully in the shoulder, he simply smiled at her once again, his eyes hiding the warm inside reserved only for the person before him. He would let the world burn for this girl.

~★~

Half an hour later from the depths of Sylus' office finally walked out the center of twins worries. However Luke and Kieran didn't even flinch at the sound of someone's footsteps, deep in their dreams.

The girl appeared in the doorway, with a playful smile on her lips when she saw them. For a moment she thought about pulling up a prank on them, but decided against it. They were probably waiting for her, she knew that they saw her fainting earlier, they were probably worried as hell, so today they earned their free pass for a peaceful sleep.

A spark showed itself in her eyes. They were dreaming, she could feel it. People who were close to her got them more often than a regular person, side effect of her evol.

She got lost in her head for a minute. Was it safe for her to use her evol when a couple of hours ago it had a malfunction? Well if she'll do it correctly then probably it will be fine.

Slowly, making sure to stay as quiet as a cat, she made her way towards the couch occupied by the duo. Standing one step before them she took a good look at them.

Luke slept on his stomach with one of his hands dangling from the couch almost touching the carpet, while the other one found it's place under his head, they still had their masks on, but they got a little misplaced, showing more skin that they are supposed to, his feet placed up on the armrest of the couch.

Then there was Kieran, who fell asleep asleep on his back with his legs thrown over the armrest from the other side of the couch. One of his hands sneaked it's way to the backrest (was it even comfortable?) while the second was lying on his tummy. The hood slipped from his head, showing off his dark raven hair.

Their heads were lying close to each other, leaving some space in between them.

She let out a quiet giggle, they were adorable. Slowly, as to not disturb them, she sat down in the free space and gently touched both of their foreheads, her eyes lighting up, full on glowing this time, when her evol started to work.

Before her eyes flooded the picture of their dream. One dream for both of them? Were they connected to each other that much?

The picture becomes much more clear with every second until she is finally able to see and hear them perfectly well.

They sat on the rooftop, instead of their usual uniforms they wore all black clothes. Their dark middle length hair perfectly visible even in the darkness of the night.

"Do you think we'll make it?" she heard Kieran's voice. It didn't carry the mischievous hint to it which made her concerned about the specifics of that dream.

"Who cares? What matters is that we are finally free and playing by our rules." Luke's voice, even tho playful, still sounded more serious than normal "If we go down, then at least we'll do it together."

"I guess you're right." the younger of the twins let out a breath and looked up to the sky.

In the meantime, the person spying on their dream started to fall asleep herself. She didn't even notice how the dream started to feel more real with every second, it all came to her so naturally, as if she was meant to be there.

She started to feel the cold wind on her face, it started to play with her hair and the fabric of her clothes. She looked at the twins, who stayed clueless to her presence in their dream. Did they even know it was a dream? She couldn't tell.

However in the real world the twins sleeping forms feeling the closeness of her body started to slowly move towards her. Kieran's head found it's place on the girl's tights treating it like the softest of all pillows, while his brother's hand that wasn't busy under his head hugged the girl's legs.

The girl herself, now joining them in their nap, rested her hands on Kieran's chest and Luke's head, the closeness coming to them naturally.

Her silhouette in the dream started getting closer to the boys, who were still sitting on the edge of the rooftop with their backs facing her.

"You will make it." her soft voice breaking through the sounds of the wind in their ears, both sets of eye glancing towards her, shocked but somehow not at all surprised that she's there "I'll help you." she crouched down to be on their eye level and looked at both of their faces taking in the details.

Kieran lacked his scars, his face being a perfect mirror to Luke's, but she could still tell who was who. Older of the twins had this mischievous sparkle in his eyes all the time, while his twin's eyes looked softer and less playful, but still could match his brother's mischievousness most of the time.

They looked at her as if they were bewitched. It seemed that the memories from the precious events in the awakened world flooded back to their minds.

"You're okay!" both of them screamed, their eyes wide open in shock, they moved fast, not even registering the moment when they pulled her into a bone-crushing hug.

The girl just laughed at their antics and threw her hands around them, accepting the affection.

"Someone was worried about me?" she whispered right under their ears. Her head resting on Luke's shoulder, but turned Kieran's way, her nose touching his neck.

None of them answered, they just hugged her tighter. Her legs resting on Kieran's now, her body leaning on Luke's.

They finally found their peace. Their embraces stayed unbroken for the rest of the dream.

Meanwhile...

Sylus finally left his office, in between the incident earlier and his work he didn't have time to eat anything, and now, finally deciding to make his way to the kitchen, he noticed an open door.

Well that was unusual, all the doors always stay closed. It was a sort of unspoken rule in his mansion at this point.

He peeked inside with the intention of closing it, but the sight inside of the room made him stop in his tracks.

His precious little girl was sleeping on the couch with the twins cuddled up to her.

His breathing stopped for a second, anger in his eyes perfectly visible.

Yes, he knew that they were close. Yes, he noticed how they tried to get physically close to her at any chance given. And yes - he knew that she had grown rather... Fond of them.

But still he couldn't say that he was pleased at the fact that they seem even closer now than the last time he saw them together.

To be honest he didn't even consider the idea of her growing up and... Getting a... Boyfriend? Especially somehow getting two?!

He needed a glass of whiskey. Preferably a whole bottle.

His hand found it's way to his forehead, his eyes clenching shut, he shouldn't care as much as he did. Shaking his head he finally got a hold of the door handle, glancing at them for the last time before finally closing the door.

~★~★~★~

2047, Middle of Summer.

Over those last months not much has happened, N109 Zone still rotten with crime, however the mysterious leader of Onychinus didn't show himself for some time now, rumors were spreading like diseases, but which one was right? No one knew. People used his absence to their advantages in various ways, almost forgetting about his existence.

Still, some people lucky (or not) to be working close to him were having the laugh of their lifes watching those rats try to reach the top. They let them have their moments of power, knowing that when the time comes, they will take it all back

In the quietness of Sylus's mansion three teenagers found themselves hidden from the rest of the world and having taken a break from their work, decided to have some movie night.

The coffee table in one of the living rooms with the biggest TV screen was full of snacks including popcorn, cookies, gummy bears, various drinks and some other things (basically anything they could find in the kitchen). Blankets and pillows were waiting for them to get comfy, some splashed around the floor too. While the twins were getting the last of the snacks (coming back with some chips and sodas while also carrying bags of sweets in their mouths) their favorite girl was picking up a cartoon to watch.

Twins didn't wear their uniforms, masks lying forgotten in what was now known as their official room. After those couple of months working for Sylus about two weeks ago he finally decided that it's easier to just have them there all the time (totally not because **someone** was pleading him to let them live there), together with the new place to live they also got some money to go and buy themselves stuff like new clothes.

Let's also add that the girl herself took them shopping, not trusting their fashion skills... But at least they got some fun-bonding time outside of the N109 Zone.

All three of them were wearing sweatpants and some random t-shirts, putting the last of the snacks into the free bowls, the twins sat down on the couch on each side of the girl. Taking blankets and pillows to put them where they seem fit. Kieran finally looked at the screen noticing the title of the movie Y/n choose.

"How To Train Your Dragon?" he read out loud, getting the attention of his brother.

"Never watched it."

Girl's eyes widen. She looked at the twins in pure shock.

"HOW?!" both boys looked at her and just stared at her not knowing what was so shocking "That movie is a classic!" she added, her expression still looking as if they have just told her that they are of royal blood or something.

"To be honest we never really had a TV growing up, the first time we watched something was like two months ago." Kieran explained, reaching for a bowl of popcorn to put it on his lap. The girl stayed quiet for a minute before her expression changed into one of understanding.

Not saying anything else she reached out to grab her favorite snack and finally started the movie.

All three sets of eyes focused on the screen, sometimes their attention leaving the TV to grab a snack or drink. The first movie went smoothly, with some random conversations here and there of course.

"That guy is a loser." Luke said with a mouth full of popcorn.

"Shut up!" Y/n thrown some popcorn at him which he didn't have time to dodge, but he managed to catch one in his mouth and shot up from his seat to high-five Kieran "Kids." the girl rolled her eyes, her eyes going to focus on the screen again.

Luke slowly slid from the couch onto the carpet below them, continuing to watch from there.

"I like those twins." Kieran said, his eyes not moving from the screen, the rest of the party just let out sounds of agreement.

"I swear that I can feel the awkwardness between him and the dragon from the screen."

"Real." Y/n and Kieran looked at each other, it was the first time they said something at the same time.

Unbothered Luke reached out for his glass to refill it with some soda.

"Wait, I'll get some ice." standing up, Y/n took two glasses and head to the shelves, boys eyes followed her instantly not saying a word.

She opened a cabinet and inside of it... Was a little freezer? What was it doing there?!

Twins stared in awe, the girl as if sensing their stares laughed a bit and without turning her head back to look at them answered their silent question:

"I like to have ice-cream nearby when watching sad movies, okay?" Luke and Kieran looked at each other and smiled for no reason, no words left them and their attention came back to the movie.

Soon enough she came back to them, giving one glass to Luke and keeping the other to herself.

"You forgot about someone?" Luke said grinning.

"I noticed that Kieran never gets ice for himself. Am I wrong?" she started pouring her drink unbothered, twins looked at each other as if communicating with their eyes, they were shocked.

Eventually they just silently returned to watching the movie

"Aww he's in love." Kieran's tone carried some kind of sarcasm to it.

"Imagine hitting on a girl with a dragon." his brother added with a laugh.

In a split of second both of them let out a sound of pain, she hit their heads.

"What was that for?" Luke asked, his head turning to send a glare at the girl.

The girl just rolled her eyes and shrugged.

"WHY CAN'T THEY LISTEN TO HIM?!" boys threw their hands up in anger, screaming at the movie.

"Cause some people are really dumb and close-minded." she said, with no emotion to her voice, Kieran joined his brother on the carpet, his back resting on the girl's legs, he reached for something on the table, his hair falling onto his eyes.

Before he had the chance to get them off he felt hands from behind gently gathering his hair and putting them in a small ponytail on the base of his neck. After it was done he felt a soft pat on his head. He peeked over his shoulder, the girl sent him a smile which he returned.

"Oh okay. Am I disturbing you two maybe? Should I leave you to your moment?" Luke's annoyed voice made them break their eye contact and look at him. His expression not hiding his irritation.

"What? You jealous?" left Kieran's mouth, which earned him a punch on the chest from his brother, making him fall completely on the floor, Luke followed him down starting a fight, which was obviously for fun.

The girl laughed at their antics. It's been going on for about a minute now, her laughter got louder while the boys continued their play-fight for her entertainment.

Suddenly when Kieran tried to overthrow Luke from himself his action pulled a blanket from the couch, making the girl fall with a panicked squeak.

Both boys instantly tried to catch her, which let them all to fall on the floor, her body landing on top of theirs, twins froze for a moment, everything went silent. They were ready to start apologizing when suddenly they heard her laughter and felt her shake.

A moment later Luke joined her with a giggle of his own, and soon enough Kieran couldn't help himself and did the same thing. All three of them were lying on the floor unable to control their breathing because of the laughter.

It took them solid five minutes to calm down, but instead of going back to sit on the couch they stayed on the carpet.

"Come here." she instructed Luke who wordlessly, but with a happy grin, followed her command, seating himself before her and taking some snacks from the table.

Her hands went to his hair, scooping them up in her hand and tying them up in the matching ponytail to Kieran's, using her extra hair tie. Right after she was done she moved towards the younger of brothers, gesturing him to turn around which he did, letting her fix his hairstyle who got messy after the play fight with his brother.

The next hour went peacefully, they started the second movie from the series. Twins kept asking questions and commenting on the plot and characters, not keeping their opinions to themselves and making Y/n laugh at their behavior.

During the watching all three of them snuggled up together, sitting shoulder to shoulder under a huge fluffy blanket.

When the third movie started playing the atmosphere in the room changed a bit. The boys seemed somehow more relaxed, Kieran's head fell to Y/n shoulder while Luke started to play with her hand, moving her fingers for his own fun.

"OMG HE'S IN LOVE!" Luke screamed, squeezing the girl's hand in both of his.

"Oh she's got the attitude." Kieran added after seeing the white dragon shoot flames at them.

"Don't they all..." the girl looked at the older of the twins with a silent dare in her eyes "I'll shut up!" breaking the intense eye contact to focus back on the movie he couldn't catch the playful hint in the girl's eyes that showed itself right after his words.

She sent a knowing look to Kieran, who simply smirked at her. Her free hand reached for his and a smile graced her lips, her forehead meeting his for a moment with a short giggle leaving her.

"Never thought I would be jealous of my own twin brother." they heard a huff from behind them but instead of turning their heads they just laughed and the girl threw her hands around Kieran to mess with his brother even more "Okay, now you're doing it on purpose!" was the only thing they heard before a set of hands caught her waist and pulled her towards the other boy.

Her back resting against him, still shaking with laughter, she couldn't see the 'intimidating' stare Luke sent to his brother, which only affected in Kieran's louder laughter.

Soon enough they calmed down, going back to watching the movie. Luke held her in his arms and didn't let go so she just got comfy against him, not caring one bit, Kieran also didn't look like it bothered him.

"That guy is such a loser, will he actually pull her?" escaped Luke's mouth after seeing Toothless little dance to impress his crush. He felt popcorn getting forced into his mouth to shut him up, which he accepted without a fuss.

"He's doing his best, if a guy would try so hard to impress me I would be delighted." was the answer he got in response.

"So you want a loser for a boyfriend? Your 'dad' would eat him alive." Kieran grinned and turned to look at her.

"Oh please my 'dad' wouldn't dare to hurt someone just because they like me." she said, but after a second added a quiet "I think..." and her gaze turned out to be a little uncertain.

"Well, one thing I know for sure: getting onto the Boss' black list to date you is worth it." she heard Luke whisper into her ear, hugging her a little tighter. She let out a quiet laugh but nothing else escaped her mouth.

About twenty minutes later the girl left the embrace to stretch her back and take something to drink from the table.

Silence followed, the most heartbreaking moment of the movie started playing soon after, the twins watched in anticipation, but right when they saw dragons leaving for their Hidden World they suddenly heard a quiet sob.

Both of them turned towards the girl, who tried to keep tears from falling.

"What?! It's sad okay..." she said with a snark, wiping her eyes with her palms. Boys smiled slightly at her cuteness.

"Aww it's okay, you can cry as much as you want here." Kieran said, putting his hand on her shoulder, tugging her towards his body. Instantly she melted into him, hiding her face in his neck.

"You saw countless people die on the job. But some... Movie for little kids is the cause of your tears? Luke snarked a comment, not meaning to be rude in the slightness, but still earned himself a middle finger from the girl who had yet to pull herself away from his brother. With a quiet laugh his gaze turned back to the TV.

Second layer the girl peeked at Kieran's face, not leaving his embrace yet. His eyes turned to look at her, their eye contact felt weird. Not the bad kind but, for some reason, they seemed unable to pull away from each other. For a moment he thought that she activated her evol, but the shining in her eyes was simply from the tears hiding in them just a moment ago.

She examined his face, the scars left by Sylus perfectly visible. She touched his cheek, her thumb softly caressing his face, his scar. None of them thought about what they were doing, they didn't even seem to notice the fact that their faces were brought closer to each other.

That was, until their lips touched. No moving, no breathing, their hearts beating so fast that they could feel it in their heads. Their eyes closed, the gentle kiss lasted for a while, with no rush, eventually they pulled their lips away from each other, but their foreheads touched instead. Her palm didn't leave his face, staying there while both of them tried to calm their breathing and hearts down.

Suddenly she felt a gentle touch on the back of her head, her eyes opened and turned towards Luke, who looked at her with a playful spark hidden in his gaze.

"Is it mine turn now?" his whisper touched her ear like the most precious secret, his movement didn't hesitate, he turned her head gently towards him and made their lips touch. Her palm still lingered on Kieran's face who now looked at them, studying their actions.

Luke's kiss was more intense than the one of his twin, his lips moving slowly but eager against her, making her lose her breath again. The burning feelings inside of him finally coming to life. He broke the kiss after some time, pulling away while still keeping his hand on her head.

She felt Kieran's head come to rest against the side of her own. Her eyes gazed at Luke, who looked like he just won his life.

She felt safe, seen and heard.

A thought lingered in her mind:

Is this what love feels like?

She sent the older of the twins a slight smile of her own, nuzzling against Kieran once again, while also pulling Luke towards herself. He obeyed without a protest, his head falling onto her shoulder.

Meanwhile in the background the movie was coming to an end, a wedding and the reunion of two new families was not enough to keep them away from their own moment.

Everything seemed to fall into it's rightful place.

~★~★~★~

2048, Early Autumn.

A year went by... To say that Sylus was not really happy about the blossoming relationship between his little girl and his employees would be an understanding.

For a couple of first months he gave the twins more time-consuming tasks just because he saw them getting too close to her. He wasn't blind, he knew that they cared for each other and his precious daughter-like person was happy with them.

But in his eyes: no one would ever be enough for her.

When he saw them kissing her cheeks while making food in the kitchen he made them leave the base for two weeks under the pretext that they needed to keep a close eye on one of his business partners.

And to be honest they learned nothing from this 'lesson', still acting clingy whenever she was near, competing for her attention all the time.

Sylus was so over it, but he couldn't do anything, since his little girl wouldn't forgive him if something bad would happen to them by his own doing.

So he just suffered in silence, sending death stares to them any time they dared to stand too close to her for his liking.

Today they finally got the intel about the Aether Protocore, mission was set, the woman in possession of it will soon show herself, he was sure of it.

Meanwhile twins already left the mansion, they needed to get to the area faster and wait for a signal to act.

While him and Y/n still waited in the mansion, currently sitting in the dining room, a red orb found it's place in Sylus's palm, his hands playing with it like with a coin.

Inside of it bloomed red flower, stained with blood, yellow sky around it sent warm light in it's direction, but instead of basking in it, the flower looked sad, depressed and caged.

The glass orb around it appeared broken, as if someone stabbed something sharp into it. Countless small cracks showing themselves around the pierced place. It's a surprise that the glass didn't shattered completely.

"Get ready, we are leaving soon." hiding the object in his pocket, he stood up, not waiting for the girl to follow him, he knew that she would be exactly where he needed her anyways.

~★~

Watching someone get killed by Sylus' power was interesting every time. They always looked so pathetic and weak in the claws of his evol.

But this time instead of focusing on the poor guy hanging in the air she studied the woman kneeling on the ground. She kept a safe distance, not even able to hear what the twins were saying, but she could imagine their comments already.

Sylus arrived, Mephisto who until now was seated on the teenage girl shoulder cawed and flew to his owner.

Twins kneeled before Sylus who appeared before them now, keeping up their acts.

"Take out the vermin that're still running amok." the girl slowly walked out from her hiding spot, getting a little closer to the spectacle. The woman who found herself in their presence looked up at her confused, but didn't comment about anything.

She stopped a couple meters behind the twins.

"Yes, sir!" she heard them say and watched them stand up to head in her direction.

Without any hesitation she turned around and started walking away, her boys following behind, leaving Sylus with his new prey behind.

"Finally some fun for us!" Luke spoke with excitement, catching up to her and throwing his arm around her shoulder.

"Let's hope that the rats will at least try to fight back or run. I missed that thrill." Kieran said with a hint of mockery in his voice. The girl just smiled at their attics, she couldn't wait to see them in action once more.

~★~

"She won't be sleeping forever, right? She's been unconscious for one day. We need to wake her up." was the first thing the woman heard after waking up.

"Easy, just open up the back of her head. Drill a hole in her neck and..." her eyes darted open, her vision fozy.

"You two-" she sat up.

"You're seeing things. I'm the only one here. There is no 'two'".

"Then who's that?"

"My soul can leave... my body..." the man before her clearly tried to scare her.

"Stop it. She went through a lot, leave your jokes for later." her eyes turned to the other side of the room, a silhouette of a girl playing with a knife perfectly visible "Sorry for those kids." women caught eye contact.

The eyes of that girl were mesmerizing. Something deep hidden inside of them, for whatever reason, the woman at the mercy of the strangers felt safe now, she didn't know why, but there was a feeling inside of her screaming to trust her.

"Are you stunned? Shocked? Boooring." the voice of the man standing in the shadow of the room got her attention, her head snapping to look at him.

"Ahem... Hi, MC. Before you left Boss's parlor..." so they knew her name... "Well, we already met. Four days ago to be exact." four days... She was unconscious for that long?

"We didn't just save you from that ungrateful traitor. We also brought you back to Onychinus's base." the guy further away added.

"...So you want me to thank you." she looked clearly giving up that she was thinking about something. The memories of previous days coming back to her.

"We will give you some more time to come back to your... Right state of mind. Come find us when you'll feel ready to." the girl said, putting the knife to it's destinated place on her thigh and leaving, the boys following short behind, waving at the woman.

However she wasn't sure if she'll even feel ready to face the reality, but she didn't have much choice.

~★~

"We know what you're thinking." she looked at Luke (who's name she got to know some time ago, together with the name of his brother, but she still didn't know who was the girl that she met, she didn't see her since their last encounter) "But after being hunted down in The Nest, do you know how many people are out there looking for you?" he sounded so sure of the fact that they've done her a favour.

"And if you escape, you'll only get lost in the chaos of this no-man's land." added Kieran.

"Wanderers will eat you up. They also won't leave behind any crumps. So..." she could tell who was the more dramatic twin.

"Stay here with our boss!" they said together, looking at her with expectations clearly visible without their masks on.

"Throw away all morality and compassion, and this place will be a paradise!" she kept quiet at the Kieran's comment, knowing very well that N109 Zone is not a place for her.

"By the way, who's older? You two are basically identical twins." she decided to change the topic of their conversation.

"Take a guess." Luke said, clearly curious about something.

"Could you come closer so I can get a better look?" she tried to act genue. He fell for the bait, coming closer, she pulled a laser pointer and held it against his neck.

"Hey..! What are you doing?" his eyes widening in shock.

"Have you heard of the XT-7, the Hunters Association's latest weapon?" confused but happy about the fact that they didn't search her body, she decided to use it to her advantage "It's high-powered laser that can penetrate your skin and vaporise your blood. The good news is that it's quick and painless. The bad news is that you'll be losing a lot of blood from your neck. Are you squeamish?" Luke remained unmoving at her explanation.

Kieran fell silent for a moment, before pressing the door handle and moving aside. To her surprise, the door opened just like that.

"Why are you staring at me? Did I say you weren't allowed to leave?" he said with an obvious sarcasm to his voice.

She didn't answer. Standing up she kept the 'weapon' to Luke's neck, gesturing with her head to go with her out of this room.

When passing the door she looked at Kieran who didn't really seem bothered. He followed behind them to the corridor.

"Okay, just go straight down the hall and you'll see the exit." she let go of Luke, he rubbed his neck and headed over to his brother's side.

"Do you want it? Here." the woman said, noticing his curious eyes following the object. He reached out for it, surprised.

"Really? That's very nice of you to just give away a hunter's secret weapon." he said with excitement.

"It's a laser pointer." she stated casually, her eyes giving up the fun she had from this situation.

"You..." she smiled playfully at him noticing his slight anger at the fact he got played with.

"Did I ever say that it was the XT-7?" she turned around, leaving the boys behind with every taken step.

She heard them whisper behind her, but ignored them completely, she kept going forward.

She took in her surroundings, the dark corridor she was in not saying much about where she was. But she noticed that this place seemed rather abandoned.

She saw a black bird before her, sitting on a marble pillar. A crow? It's eyes looking like made out of rubies.

The bird turned his neck into the woman's direction. It was alive?! Suddenly he flew towards her, missing her head he landed on something... Or rather someone behind her.

Turning around she saw the mysterious girl she saw only two times here.

"It's you." MC's voice quiet. She looked as the girl lovingly stroked the crow's sharp feathers, it's head trying to snuggle up to her palm.

"Sorry for startling you. It was not my intention, I was merely passing by." her eyes left the crow to look at the woman before her "Are you leaving?"

"I... Kinda..." she tried to take the details of the girl before her, also trying to catch where she hid her weapons.

"Kinda?" her giggle broke her from the thoughts "So you don't know yourself what to do? I thought that you would have it all planned out by now." it was clear that she was relaxed, as if knowing that the woman won't try to harm her in any way.

"I'm still figuring out everything..." she hated the fact that her voice gave away her uncertainty.

"Take your time, there's no rush." the girl said calmly, her eyes coming back to the pet on her shoulder who now snuggled up to her neck "Oh also... Thanks for what you did with Luke, I heard the commotion from the other room and overhead a little of it, sometimes it's good to put them into their place." she laughed, the woman couldn't help but crack a smile.

"My pleasure." MC said, for whatever reason more relaxed now. She didn't know that girl at all, she made up her mind about the twins and their Boss, but her? It was a completely different story for some unknown, even to her, reason "Do you... work with them?"

"Work with them? Hm... I guess you could say that." their eyes meet for the last time, before the girl gestured for the crow to fly away, it disappeared behind a narrow gap in the opened door next to them. The girl turned around, going in the direction where MC left the twins.

"Hey! Wait up!" she screamed after her, but got no response, she planned to run after her but the melodious classical music from behind the door caught her attention, and before her eyes came back to the place where she saw the girl going, there was no one left in the corridor but herself.

~★~

Whispers and quiet laughter that the twins shared when entering the kitchen brought the attention of the girl drawing something in her sketchbook while sitting on the countertop from the other side of the room, boys not noticing her started their hunt for snacks, taking off their masks and still laughing about something.

"What are you two up to this time?" both of them jumped at the voice of their girlfriend. The shock in their eyes stayed there for a couple of seconds before they get themself together.

"Us?" Luke leaned against the countertop on his elbow.

"Up to something?" Kieran looked at her from behind his brother with a slight smirk.

"Nooo."

"Never."

"Baby you hurt us." the older of the twins theatrically put a hand over his heart and took a 'pained' expression.

"With those accusations." Kieran put his hand on his brother's shoulder as if to comfort him after such harsh words were thrown their way.

The girl looked at them, lifting her eyebrows and sending them the 'really?' disappointed glare.

"Are you gonna tell me? Or should I go and find out myself." her sketch long forgotten now as she left it on the counter while standing up from her previous sitting place and walking a couple steps towards her lover boys.

"Well if you really want to know..." Kieran went around his brother, closer to the girl while leaning down a little bit to stand on her eye level.

"We decided to make a good deed today." Luke said, the eyes of the girl sneaked a peek at him and came back to gaze into the eyes of the man standing right before her.

"And help Miss Hunter to fulfill her mission." the mischievous spark in Kieran's eyes wasn't missed by the attention of the girl looking at him like she could read his mind and feelings.

Her lips turned into a playful smile and a second later the sound of her laugh reached the ears of the men in the room with her, making both of them smile at her attics.

"You two are evil. Playing tricks on the poor girl." she said with no real disappointment behind her words. She knew that nothing would happen to that woman, Sylus wouldn't hurt her in any way. "Now, who wants some cookies." her arms went around Kieran's neck, giving him a kiss on the cheek, her eyes turning to his brother right behind him.

"Us!" both of them screamed with excitement. Luke ran up to them, stealing the girl from his twin's arms and holding her up started spinning with her in his arms.

The dark furniture of the kitchen didn't exactly match the child-like joy and laughter inside of the room, but it didn't make the moment any less cheerful and happy.

Wherever this trio found themselves in always felt cozy and full of joy. The demons of the past getting forgotten and instead the new found memories getting their place inside of their hearts, making their lives a little more bearable with each and every new one.

~★~

Staring at the brooch in her palms she froze for a minute. Finally, after so many fails that hurt her ego she was able to get it, it didn't matter that the only reason why it worked out was for the fact that Sylus decided to play her little game.

She was already sitting in the red dress, her hair wasn't put up yet, and some parts of her outfit like jewelry and gloves had yet to find themself on her. With a short exhale she put the brooch down onto the table before her.

Her eyes shut closed and her palms started massaging her scalp. Million thoughts were running through her mind. What if something were to go wrong? Is Sylus a danger to her? Will he leave her on her own if something goes not according to plan? Is there even a plan? Will he-

"You know, your thoughts are so loud for someone who came here with a strict goal in mind. Having second thoughts?" a female voice broke her out of her mind, in the mirror before her she met the eyes of the young girl whose name she still didn't know "You know - it's never too late to back out." the slight smirk adoring her face didn't miss the hunter's gaze.

"I won't back out. This all is just... A lot." her eyes fell from the girl back to her own reflection, picking up a brush she started taking care of her hair. However with the nerves from a couple of last days finally getting to her after staying closed inside of her for too long, even the simplest task seems too hard to focus on right now.

While trying and failing to catch her hair together once more she suddenly felt gentle hands caressing them and bringing them together. Looking up she saw the girl now standing right behind her. Did she fail to hear the footsteps coming closer to her?

"The auction will start soon, you won't get ready in time with your shaky hands." pulling MC' hair up, forming a ponytail she reached out her hand "A brush please." without any complaints MC put the item into her open palm, and a second later the girl came back to her task.

"Can I ask for your name?" the teenager made a sound, as if enjoying the knowledge that the information about her still wasn't known to the woman.

"Twins didn't expose it to you yet? Hah, so they can keep information to themselves if they want to." their eyes meet for a split second in the mirror before breaking the eye contact again.

"No, when I asked about you all that I got in response was them calling you their 'dreamy girl'." at this sentence the girl behind her laughed.

"It does sound like them, yeah." her expression turned into something soft, as if thinking about something that made her happy "My name is Y/n." once again she raised her gaze to look into the eyes of the woman. She put her hands onto her shoulder, the hairstyle she was working on was finally done.

MC tested her name on her mouth in a quiet whisper.

"What are we thinking." the younger girl took a hand mirror from the table, making it reflect the hairstyle from behind so that the woman could see it in the mirror. It was a simple but elegant bun with a couple strands of her hair lying free around the area of her face, making a makeshift bangs.

"It looks great, thank you." she sent a soft smile towards the girl which she reciprocated. She saw her reaching for something on the table again.

"Let me help you put it on." holding a necklace in her hands she got ready to clasp it around MC's neck.

The next couple of minutes were spent with shared laughter in between them and some small talk. The girl made sure not to share many things about herself, Sylus or the twins but somehow still found topics to talk about, like sharing some little facts about the people who will attend the same auction as her.

For the first time in the last couple of days, the hunter finally found herself relaxing, and her mind wasn't full of second thoughts and doubts.

~★~

Sylus calmly guides MC across the dance floor, swaying to the song's rhythm.

Blocking the prying shadows around them he tried to make the woman focus on him, but for a quick moment her eyes caught a glimpse of someone who brought her attention to themselves.

Continuing their dance she tried to look at the mysterious stranger behind Sylus's shoulder.

It was a woman, in a black perfectly fitting dress, corset tied tight on her body, with a lot of chains adoring her, from her neck down to her corset and gloves, working as her jewellery.

What made MC, and probably every person here, wonder, was the black veil which hid her hair and face from the curious eyes of the outlookers.

Her stance was elegant, not moving an inch from her spot she resembled a statue, meant to be adored from afar.

Suddenly Sylus spun her around, making her lose sight of her target, she looked at him with annoyance, not expecting any explanation, but a short chuckle left the man, before words started flowing from his mouth.

"So, kitten finally noticed another crow in the room with us? Took you long enough." her eyes widened at the realization, but Sylus didn't leave her any room for questions, and continued their dance, making her focus not to stumble on her feet.

~★~

The explosion left people panicking, the whole hall reduced to a rubble.

Wanderers appeared from left and right, but before MC had a chance to shoot, someone else already took care of them.

Looking around she noticed the figure in the black dress, which fabric now appeared shorter and more comfortable to move around in.

Young girl calmly moved towards them, her steps more graceful than her usual movements. The clicking of her high shoes echoes from the ground, following her steps, MC took a note in her mind to ask her for a walking session later on, it may come useful.

"Leave, you did your part, go to your lover boys sweetie." Sylus' commanding voice spoke, the hint of displeasure obvious at the words 'lover boys'.

The moment of realization struck MC like lightning - that's who they were! She dated the twins! It all made sense now, how could she not notice before?

The girl only let out a quiet laugh, and reached out her hand towards MC.

Opening up her palm she showed her the gun she was holding, uncertain but without much choice the woman picked it up.

"Good luck." with those words Y/n walked around them, heading towards the exit of the hall.

"She looks stunning." a whisper full of fascination left MC, followed by a sound of approval from Sylus' mouth.

Without more comments about the girl, their thoughts came back to the present time and the mission at their hands.

~★~

In the meantime...

"That explosion was mid at best." Luke's voice gave away his disappointment.

"Could be better, but Boss was probably worried about Miss Hunter getting scared or hurt." Kieran kicked the stone under his legs, bored, they were waiting for their girlfriend to come to them for an hour now.

"Where is sheee, I didn't see her all day!" Luke lay down on the stairs leading to the entrance of the abandoned building which localisation was about five to ten minutes away from the auction place.

Putting a hand on top of his heart he tried his best to appear as if dying.

"Hey, I didn't see her either, you're not the only one in emotional pain right now." Kieran scoffed at his brother's attics, crossing his arms.

Suddenly he felt a cold rush of air hitting his back. Before he had a chance to turn around someone's arms came to embrace him around the torso.

"Okay, not fair! I'm dying from longing here, and you decide to give attention to my brother first? The double betrayal!" not giving a single damn about his brother's screams in the background Kieran turned around and hugged the girl back, conscious about his mask.

He picked her up, making her feet linger a little above the ground, which succeeded in making her giggle.

"Okay but damn girl, that outfit? How could you not show it to us before going out!" hearing his brother point out her clothing choice, Kieran put her back down and his gaze explored her whole body before he straightened up.

"Damn how did we pull you?" his head dipped to the side, making him look like a bird observing it's prey.

"We somehow got the daughter of the most dangerous multimillionaire in the N109 Zone to ourselves, if not for the fact that our identities are supposed to stay secret, I would go to the rooftop of the highest building around here and scream it for everyone to hear." Luke finally stood up and walked closer to them.

"Getting onto the Boss's black list because of dating you was so worth it." Kieran high fived his brother, making the girl shake her head in disbelief.

"Can we go now? I want to have a photo session in the forest with that fit." she made a little spin to show off her dress.

"Oh so today we're playing photographers?" Kieran pointed out, trying not to let his excitement show.

"Got it Missy."

"You'll get the best photos you could dream of, princess." twins bowed their upper body jokingly, making the girl raise her chin high and take the most graceful pose she could think of.

"We wouldn't dare to disappoint you, your majesty." the girl finally broke the character of a serious rich woman and let out a laugh, at which both of the brothers grinned to themselves.

"Let's go, I want to make it home before the morning arrives." twins straighten up from their previous position and watch her walk away in the other direction they came from.

"Do you think that she will wear something similar at our wedding?" Luke heard his brother's voice in his head.

"Ple-ase; her wedding dress is gonna be so much more eye catching and gorgeous than this one." at this statement Kieran nodded his head in agreement.

"Our little fashion Queen." they looked at her bewitched, not even noticing the distance growing with every step she took.

"Are you coming or not? Someone needs to carry me once we get to the grass part. There's no way I'll ruin those sweet shoes." she broke them from their thoughts, and without turning back continued on her way.

Both of them gasped and exchanged glances, before breaking out into a run and trying to over scream the other one.

"It's gonna be me!"

~★~★~★~

2048, Late Autumn.

MC spends most of her time in Linkon but more often than not she finds herself in the luxurious mansion in the N109 Zone.

And more often than not; she isn't even going there to meet the white haired man who lives rent free in her mind (for various reasons) but to meet the three teenagers that she grow fond of.

Today she found herself in that mansion again, her and the troublemaker trio decided to make cookies, play kitty cards, and play Just Dance until midnight. Sylus was nowhere in sight, when asked about him, the 'kids' said that he won't be back until the next day, away for some business, not specifying anything more.

In the middle of the night they finally decided to end their activities and leave for their rooms, MC headed to one of the guest rooms that she stayed before, with a pajama borrowed from the younger girl.

Everything seemed peaceful, she was able to fall asleep fast, but the sleep itself wasn't as calm as her surroundings.

That vision again. Her staring at her own bloody palms, not being able to focus on anything else. Her hands felt as if not belonging to her, foreign and unfamiliar, the ringing in her ears made everything twice as dizzy and scary, her own heart beating so loud as if trying to break free, yearning for something outside of her own soul and body.

The tears leaving their eyes, meeting the red essence below her. Every breath she took felt like pain. She tried to raise her head, tried to see what was happening, what she had done, but the picture before her was blurry, something red and black blinked before her and then it was over.

Waking up with a heavy breath and all sweaty she shot up from her laying position, raised her hands and stared at them, they were shaking, her whole body was shaking, like in daze she continued to stare at them, trying to see any traces from the mortifying sight she saw in that dream.

It took her about ten minutes to pull herself together and stop shaking 'it was only a nightmare...' she thought, with her hands placed on her head she closed her eyes, gripping her hair tightly to make sure that this reality wasn't her mind's imagination.

Her eyes shoot open, taking in her surroundings, the dark room lit only by the red moon peeking through the window's curtains. Her throat felt more dried than ever, she let out a series of coughs but it only worsened it's condition.

For a moment her eyes fixed on the moon outside, and then with a sight she placed her feet on the cold floor, picking herself up from the bed, and making her way out of the suffocating room.

With slow and quiet steps she walked down the hallway, trying not to bump into things along the way, but when it happened she didn't even acknowledge the moment of pain.

Not even noticing when, she found herself in the kitchen, stopping in her tracks she harshly put her hands on the counter, trying to steady her breathing and not faint from the overwhelming she felt.

Her ears didn't pick up a sound, but her eyes gazed at the glass of water quietly placed before her. Slowly she moved her head to the side, through the darkness she was able to make out a silhouette of a woman.

Seemingly unbother by the state she just saw the hunter, young girl continued moving the pencil in her hand unrushed and steady. MC tried to look at the paper before her, but wasn't able to see any details of the sketch. Understanding that the girl wasn't going to speak or question anything the woman gaze returned to the glass before her.

Unsure, she picked it up, her grip weak even with two hands in use. Trying her best not to drop the glass she put it to her lips, the drinking proved to be a hard task at first, but slowly instead of the uncomfortable tightness in her throat she felt relief.

She didn't know whether the time was moving at the slow peace or rushing, both of them, her standing and the girl sitting at the high stool, stayed there in silence, the presence of the younger girl proving to be a much needed comfort right now.

"You know, dreams are a strange concept. Some are weird, some are scary, some are memories, some are sights sent to us by our own mind." hearing the soft voice of the teenager MC turned her head towards her, noticing her still focused on the drawing, but the strokes of the pencil now seemed more forceful and not gentle at all, as if trying to mess up her previous work "And then - there are the ones that leave us in a state when we don't know what's going on. It's... a weird feeling. Like you are lost there, with no way out, and then - when you wake up, you feel like this dream is *the reality*."

The girl's eyes finally left the sketch, meeting the curious eyes of the hunter. She saw a silent question there, silent pleading for explanation and answers. Ones that she couldn't get from her.

"But in the end, it's all in your head. You make your own truth there, you are the queen who rules there." her voice grew quieter with every word leaving her mouth. Her eyes shining like a fainting star in the sky. So beautiful and so fragile.

"It's hunting me. Why can't it go away." a whisper left the woman, her eyes closing, the cold empty glass brought to her forehead, as if trying to command herself to get a grip on herself.

"Maybe you still didn't understand what you're supposed to, from that vision. Maybe the answers you seek are hidden there." a hand touched MC's arm gently, calming her down together with the soothing voice "Go to sleep in the Sylus' room, he won't be mad, I promise that no more bad dreams will come to you tonight." after that she heard the chair moving and heard footsteps slowly heading towards the door.

"You don't just work for him, right?" the sound of movement stopped, for a moment she thought that the girl left, but finally she heard the voice from far behind her.

"No." a short answer. Not telling much about the situation between the two.

"Why?" the question leaving her mouth was so quiet that she didn't expect the girl to hear it. Yet, again after a moment of silence her voice broke through.

"He took me in. When I had nothing." the sadness in her voice was obvious, even without turning around the hunter could imagine the pained expression on her face "Without asking for anything in return he saved me, gracing me with everything I could only dream of having. You might see him as a cruel, ruthless man." her voice close to breaking "But he's not heartless. No matter how much of a monster he claims to be - he will never be one in my eyes. And I hope that with time, you'll acknowledge that too." with that she left, leaving more questions behind, but also comfort and hope.

She didn't want to acknowledge the fact that the Boss of Onychinus could be anything but cruel and horrible man, led only by his desire to rule and use people like pawns, making his way to the top through the corpses and blood. With a groan she opened her eyes, planning to go back to sleep.

Turning around something caught her attention. On the countertop lying was the sketchbook of the teenager, opened on the drawing she was working on a moment ago. Not able to resist her curiosity she took a peak inside.

What she saw made her pause with confusion.

A human heart with a gem stuck in it, around it - lines, looking like veins scattered everywhere. She noticed a note above it in the language she couldn't understand.

𝕾𝖎𝖆 𝕲𝖗𝖆'𝕶𝖚𝖑

For unknown reason her heartbeat speed increased, but not because of panic. She felt like something in her was missing, some piece of her gone. Her gaze fell to the bottom of the page.

𝕾𝖎𝖆 𝕯𝖗𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖍𝖚𝖒

Her eyes scanned every detail of the sketch, her heart throbbed inside of her, louder and louder.

She slammed the sketchbook closed. Her heart slowly calmed itself down. Leaving the cursed thing on the counter she left in a hurry, not wanting any more questions to linger in her mind.

That night she let herself find comfort under the sheets of the red eyed man's bed. Sleep came easy and no nightmare bothered her for the rest of her slumber.

She couldn't notice the glow of the orb sitting on the shelf, the red and gold strings running around inside of it, linking and breaking their bond every couple of seconds. Nor could she hear the pained voices whispering from inside of it.

𝓜𝔂 𝓗𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓽

𝓜𝔂 𝓓𝓻𝓪𝓰𝓸𝓷

~★~

If anyone would say that the dangerous leader of Onychinus and a Linkon City hunter would act like an old married couple running after their children in the huge mansion belonging to the man, people would probably laugh at the audacity of that person to spread lies.

But it was currently happening...

"Luke leave Mephisto!" Sylus's commanding voice didn't scare his subordinate like most of the time, currently having too much fun to think about the consequences.

"Kieran catch!" he threw the mechanical bird towards his brother, Mephi stretched his wings to lend in his hands, playing with them.

"This bird probably costs more than all of our lives combinated! Give it back!" MC screamed while running towards the younger of the twins.

"Sorry Miss Hunter! We need him more now." Kieran shot up in the direction of the stairs, but half way there he was stopped by the mist wrapping around his body "Oh c'mon, not fair man!" now he was flying in the air, the crow still in his palm letting out a loud caw.

"Give the bird back." Sylus came into the Kieran's line of vision, but the twins weren't ready to give up just yet.

"Dreamy! Our hopes are in you!" with one hand he threw the bird to his side, towards the girl who had a lot of fun watching the little game of tag.

"Why me?!" she screamed, but caught the crow anyways, bringing him close to her chest, as if in a hug. All eyes in the room watched her, not moving, the room growing so quiet that the ticking of the clock on the wall could be heard.

A couple of the next seconds were spent staring at each other, awaiting the next move.

Suddenly the girl rushed to her left, in the direction of the corridor door.

"No!" MC shouted, running after her, while Sylus left Kieran to drop on the floor and calmly walked in the direction where the two women disappeared.

Luke rushed to his brother, helping him up with a laugh.

"Do you think she'll get it?"

"Of course. She runs fast, and Boss would never hurt his 'little girl'. It's all between her and Miss Hunter now." Kieran answered his brother with a groan, massaging his back that got hurt when he fell down.

Luke pulled his brother by his elbow, going in the direction of the corridor, which succeeded in more sounds of pain and complaints from his brother's mouth.

They walked for what seemed like eternity, until finally hearing the voices coming from one of the rooms. Both of them rushed there, as a result getting stuck in the door frame together for a second.

"I won!" the laugh that they both grew to love caught their attention, after which they heard a disappointed sound coming from the other woman in the room, and Sylus's short chuckle.

"You did it babe!" Luke ran to the girl, catching her in his arms, the crow still in her hold let out a caw, clearly annoyed at the boy's behavior, just like his owner who watched the show from the distance.

"We knew you'll get it!" from behind her came Kieran, both of them picking her up in a victory celebration, putting her onto their shoulder. The crow flew up to her shoulder, sitting there calmly.

Their joy was however short lived, because soon after their affection display a red mist caught the girl, gently bringing her back on the floor, while also pushing the twins away from her.

Mephi flew towards his owner now, whose expression didn't show the annoyance he felt inside. The teenage girl looked at him, raising her eyebrows at which he only shrugged acting like he didn't do anything.

"Okay you won, what is your wish then." MC's voice caught the attention of everyone, remembering what this game was about all along.

"I want... A self-care evening with face masks, various of not very healthy snacks, watching movies about sad love stories with a happy ending and online shopping with Sylus's card." the girl jumped up a bit and clapped her hands.

"... Okay I have no objections." the woman raised her hands in surrender and slowly walked up to the girl catching her hands and starting to jump with her in excitement.

"I call dibs on the dino mask!" Luke raised his hand high up, getting himself up from the floor he previously landed on, and ran out of the room, probably to get the stuff ready.

"Hey, no fair! You had that one last time asshole!" Kieran ran after him.

Sylus let out a sigh, his palm on his forehead in disbelief.

"Shopping!" the girls called in sync, before rushing in the direction of the door to catch up to the twins.

"What did I get myself into..." Mephisto cawed as if to mock the man "I know, I know, you don't have to remind me." white haired man turned his head towards the bird sending him a glare, and made his way towards the direction where he knew the chaos started to grow.

The evening went by fast, talks about any and everything, giggles, face masks and other beauty care products (even Mephisto wasn't spared, and sat there stuck with a small sheet mask made by twins), a lot of funny selfies, crying at the sad moments in the movies, at which twins hugged each other, girls each other, and Sylus and Mephisto only sent each other looks asking for help.

Eventually after a couple hours they finally began to feel exhausted. Slowly falling asleep one by one, leaving only Sylus awake.

He didn't really pay attention to them, focusing on the cheap movie on the screen, waiting for it to be over, when suddenly he felt a light weight on his arm, looking down on the place beside him he noticed MC asleep with her head dropping on his shoulder, her body so familiar and so strange beside him. The warm-cozy feeling inside of his chest was accompanied by the loud beating of his heart, his gaze softened and a soft smile graced his lips, an unusual sight.

Then he raised his eyes and looked at the other end of the huge couch, occupied by the three troublemakers. For a moment a grimace showed itself on his face, not really pleased with the sight, but the more he looked the more it disappeared.

His precious little girl was lying between the two boys, curled up with her legs close to her body. Her arms were thrown over Luke's shoulders and neck, her body leaning his way, with his head resting on top of hers, while Kieran hugged her body from behind, his arms around her waist, and his head snuggled to her shoulder.

Okay maybe... They weren't that bad. They took care of her, made her laugh, and protected her. Okay, yeah, no. No one was good enough for her. But at least they tried, and actually acted like they... Loved her.

He let out a quiet sigh, not wanting to overthink that. For as long as she's happy...

With that thought he let himself close his eyes, waiting for the sleep to take him. Unknown to any of them, Mephisto's eyes lighten up, taking a photo. The five of them in the most vulnerable state known to exist. Like a family enjoying their time together. Mephi flew up to rest on the couch backrest joining them in the moment.

Somehow all of the hearts in this room found the person they were looking for, and they weren't planning to let go of them, not now, not ever.

[pauli-writes]

warnings: probably not lore accurate, shackling prison

pairing: dan heng x vidyadhara!reader

author’s note: i got the xianzhou on the brain, im sorry if this is bad i just needed to write something to get rid of my writers block :,)

eternity.

a state to which time has no application, timelessness. the concept of eternity was almost unthinkable to short life species such as humans, everything had a beginning and an end for them. but long life species view time differently, for them eternity was a feasible concept, yet equally as unreachable. whenever one thought they had reached it, they’d die or get reborn anew.

you have wished for eternity as long as you could remember, but you knew even if it would claim you, you would be reborn, doomed to repeat this endless cycle for millennia to come with no memories of your previous life.

and so life moves on, and yet you remained unmoving, as the shackling prison of the xianzhou luofu has been your home for the better part of this amber era. every day you looked wishfully at the dark walls of your cell, imagining a life outside of the prison, the life your other self had lived on the luofu.

but not everything was awful.

you had a friend once. his cell was next to yours, you never saw his face, but you could hear his voice, the screams and whimpers he’d let out when he had a nightmare. it wasn’t that unusual in the prison, but to you everyone else’s voices were scrambled and distant, and yet you could hear his so clearly, the anguish with in it, that one day you couldn’t take it anymore and asked him what he was dreaming about in an attempt to satiate your own curiosity.

“what are you always dreaming about?”

there was a prolonged silence followed by the soft rattling of chains. you assumed he was shackled to the wall just like you were.

“i think i’m remembering things from my previous life…” he spoke, but he sounded unsure and shaken up by his nightmare.

you frowned and shook your head, “that’s not possible.”

he didn’t reply after that. the two of you went back to being silent, for weeks you didn’t bother talking further. you were pretty sure he hated you, still eternity was so far away so you decided to try talking again.

“so, what did you do to end up here?”

he didn’t reply again, but you didn’t care, you needed to talk, to distract yourself from your prison, so you just continued. “i don’t really know, but i think my previous self did something bad.“

there was another pause and you believed this conversation to be another dead end until he spoke softly, “i think mine did too.”

your eyes widened as you heard him speak and you felt yourself smiling for the first time in a while. “i’m reader by the way...”

“dan heng.”

you paused for a moment, the name stirring a sense of familiarity inside of you. was it possible that… perhaps, perhaps not. all you knew at that moment that company was a momentary reprieve from this prison. so, you continued occasionally talking to your new friend, commiserating in your shared misery of being chained up for something you don’t really remember doing in the first place.

you were usually the one to initiate the conversations, dan heng wasn’t much of a talker you quickly figured out, but you mostly only spoke to him after you could hear him having a nightmare. but you were surprised as he spoke up first one night.

“do you know something about imbibitor lunae?”

you paused, a feeling of familiarity washing over you from the word, but nothing concrete came to mind. “it sounds familiar, but i don’t remember…”

“i see.” he replied, sounding disappointed. it made you sad that you couldn’t help him out, but you didn’t dwell on it.

“why are you asking me?”

silence filled the air once more, you could hear the chains rattling from his cell. “i… had a dream. i heard your voice. you said those words.”

“you have strange dreams.”

“you don’t?”

you looked to the ground, trying to recall the last time you had a weird dream, or even a dream. but you couldn’t remember, you slept so little that you definitely would have remembered a dream or strange dreams. “no… i don’t dream.”

“then you’re even stranger.”

you thought for a moment, “maybe…”

time continued passing outside of the prison and just as you found a moment of respite and comfort with the fleeting moments between you and your friend, they were ripped away from you in an instant like a cruel cosmic punishment. you didn’t see anything, but you heard the hushed voices, the whispered names and titles as the chains were loosened and the doors opened.

dan heng, dan feng, imbibitor lunae, the high elder of the vidyadhara…

those names meant something to you once upon a time too, maybe they would again…

[strong-with-the-sarcasm]

Revenant!Jazz ideas:

Continuing from this DPxDC prompt of mine, I’ve had some more thoughts about Jasmine Fenton and Revenants, especially where it concerns DC lore and Jason Todd in particular.

———————-

In my original post, @starlightcat04 asked whether or not Jazz’s eyes would glow toxic green too. I propose that, no, they wouldn’t.

While it’s a common head canon that Ectoplasm is heavily influenced by emotions, Jazz’s Ecto-contamination is bone deep and pure, unlike Jason’s. So no, I don’t believe her eyes would glow green.

They turn from the teal she had in life to a smoldering green that reflects light just like a feline, with a heavily damaged sclera that is perceived as black in low lighting, with ash grey veins spreading from her eye sockets down to her jaw like tears.

Her once bright hair turns from a lively orange-ish red to the color of cooling embers.

That which caused her death, a punctured artery is half-way healed by the time Jazz reanimates in the crematorium, so not only is she supposed to be dead still, she also has to be very careful with her movements otherwise she could very well bleed out again before she is fully healed.

What else changes with Revenant!Jazz?

In exchange for a higher mental processing and the high damage absorption of Revenants, Jazz loses most (almost all) of her memories of her life. What she does remember is thankfully not her death, but rather Danny’s, his death scream and ghostly wail overlap in her mind, at times causing severe headaches and nausea.

(According to his wiki page, Jason spent a year in a coma and as an amnesiac vagrant, therefore it’s not entirely without precedent that Jazz wouldn’t keep hers.)

Her Ecto-contamination has to factor in a lot though.

Jason was revived by Superboy-Prime’s Reality Shattering Punch. Jazz was reanimated by her own willpower, aided by Ecto to allow her body to heal and regress the stages of rigor mortis.

———//:///////———-

What does Jazz need to accomplish as a Revenant?

In the original prompt I wrote that Jazz returned to keep Danny safe- broad enough for a prompt, but what exactly does “safe” for a halfa entail?

Let’s list the major threats to Danny’s health, beginning with the obvious: the Ghost Investigation Ward and The Fenton Parents.

The Fentons are capable of tracking Phantom by his Ecto-signature, creating and having created weaponry specifically designed to target the ghost in question, to which they pass that tech on to the GIW.

If Danny remains in Gotham, the ambient Ecto will scramble the tech over enough of a distance, but if Danny were in a line up of three people right next to a GIW agent he’d be clocked almost immediately.

So, the Fentons and the GIW have to go. How does this happen?

The greatest irony I could possibly inflict on these anti-ghosters- becoming ghosts themselves. I won’t go into detail about what my brain jumped to when I thought about that outcome, but let’s just say it was pretty dark.

(And karmically well-deserved.)

#3 on the list depends on where Danny is when Jazz is finished with numbers 1 & 2 on her list.

If Danny is is Gotham and staying there for the long haul, then I believe this girl would take one look at Batman’s rogue gallery and nope them so hard everyone in Gotham gets the sense of their world about to be rocked, but the ones she gunning for the most?

(Joker, Bane, Manbat, Firefly, Madhatter, Riddler…)

They get the sensation that someone just walked over their non-existent graves.

(I got a little gleeful demented imagining Jazz just straight up ripping Manbat’s wings clean off, burning Firefly alive and throwing a detoxed Bane into a crowd of vengeful Gothamites.)

(Jazz learns that Joker killed a young hero with a crowbar and a bomb. She’s fully onboard with turnabout being fair play when it comes to that Pennywise reject.)

(I can’t even begin to list every rogue Jazz cuts down, it she doesn’t kill all of them, just most of their number.)

(Gotham celebrates for weeks.)

(I’m not sure whether or not Jazz kills the four mentioned previously in a couple of nights, one night or over a a few months, but it doesn’t take as long as one might think.)

/://:///////:::/::::///////

What’s next for Revenant!Jazz?

I’m still writing The Regent series, so I doubt I’ll come back to this for a while, but I’ll still be posting ideas and whatnot about Revenant!Jazz. There’s still plenty to explore here, and I have a pretty angst/bittersweet ending for Jazz in mind I want to talk about later.

If you have any ideas to add, please feel free to comment! If anyone does write this, please let me know so I can read it!

[cmyk-anaglyph-honeycomb]

Hazbin Hotel Episode 3 & 4 Opinions and Story logic (mostly)

(ignore any typos, it's 3 min til midnight and I have a con in the morning and was at one all day, i'm not reading through this)

(Episode 3: Scrambled Eggs)

It’s weird to me that Vaggie wants to get rid of the egg bois cuz like??? Are they not also sinners that need redemption? Don’t they need to be saved too? The problem was that they kept building weapons that Sir Pen told them to make. They just needed something else to do, like idk, act as staff for the hotel. They can build, so maybe they can fix the hotel up a bit more.

I get it was just so one of them could spy for Alastor, but like, just have one follow him randomly. That isn’t out of character considering the eggs don’t have one.

It doesn’t make sense to me that Vaggie is so broken up by not getting the hotel guess to bond with each other. I get that she feel like she’s failing Charlie, but like, Charlie has accomplished literally nothing up at this point.

Yeah, so far there’s only 4 episodes, and the most Charlies done in all of them is get the exterminations moved up to every six mouths and fuck over Angel majorly ( I'm soft-balling that right now).

Like she signs a random paper without reading it, which, like girl, you are the daughter of the devil, there is now way she doesn’t know about the importance of contracts. Not only that it absolute FUCKS OVER everyone in hell. And it’s just brushed off??? Like no?

The exterminations is a big deal to all sinners, no matter the rank. Even if no one else knows what she did, Charlie should be more effected by this. The contract thing should have happened mid season or at the end, with her becoming more frantic to prove that her idea work so she can save sinners. But instead its treated like an oopies and she does trust falls and bond activities as if that’s going to make anyone a better person. Them liking each other doesn’t redeem them of anything.

*episode 3…im talking about that…*

Its my favorite so far. I like Zestail, Carmillia, Velvette and that dino lady are my favorite characters. Genuinely surprised I haven’t heard more about Respectless because it is my favorite song. (But it did come out next of ep 4, so it make sense.)

I hope Carmillia’s daughters are adopted or where her kids in life cuz the idea that the sinners can have kids are stuck in hell like the imps is messed up.

I’m glad Velvette gets development in this episode. I was worried that she’d just be the woman (tm) character of the Vees and be pushed to the side, so I was happy to see her upfront so soon. She’s now my favorite of the three, sorry Vox. I also like that her hair style keeps changing, that’s a nice touch for the fashion oriented one of the Vees.

The hotel gang going to the bondage…idk what to call it..Club felt like a waste of time. It was there for a joke and that’s it. Then Vaggie takes them to a city war zone and throws Pen and Angel off the building while Husk sneaks away.

Admittedly Husk sneaking off was funny to me, but like why would Vaggie think this would make them trust each other. Angel has a mafia background and family. Best bet he’s had to get into a few fights with them, and if I’m remembering lore correctly, he hates most to all of his family but okay.

At this point I’m genuinely curious how this show is going to develop Charlie’s redemption plan, because everything we’ve shown them try has failed and been show to clearly leading to fail. I have a feeling that he show isn’t going to have an ending, its just going to end. Like, nothing regarding the redemption plot line had made a single step forward. There’s just one more of them not, that’s it.

The second song doesn’t feel earned from Vaggie’s side.

Conclusion: This one is the best so far. It being mostly away from the main cast is not a good sign but it’s only number 3.

(Episode 4: Masquerade)

*gestures to that hot fucking mess* I’m not touching most of it. If you’re reading this them you’ve probably seen better points than I can provide. So I’m just going working on the logic within the story.

Personally, I think the visuals are a little too much, and I can understand where it goes way to far for a lot of people. I’d like to note that while Helluva Boss has a working screen on every single episode this has jack shit which was a huge fuck up in my opinion. I don’t care what the shows rating is, adult content and sensitive content are two different things and need to be treated as such.

Any media that handles SA, SH or abuse needs a huge label like those FBI no pirating screens from back in the day. I am not joking.

*shit I toughed it moving back a bit*

Okay, so why did Charlie goes to Angel’s job KNOWING he was in the middle of working. Like she knows he makes porn. The episode starts with the hotel gang watching one and her being visible uncomfortable. Why would she go there? And not like, wait outside or something? (she was uncomfortable at the bondage place why wouldn’t that be any different here?)

Charlie not picking up how upset Angel was that she showed up to his job THE FIRST time is child levels of ignorance. Even without the seriousness of what was really happening, that was infuriating to watch. I get that she’s supposed to have rose tinted glasses but those things are opaque. By this point all of her ‘accomplishments’ have been fucking people over majorly. She is a hindrance to those around her and it is hard to watch.

*skirting around the trash fire a little bit more.*

( I’m not trying to make a joke about this but like, I don’t know how to express how fucking yikes this episode is. Like it’s such an uncomfortable topic and it’s fumbled so hard. And then for Viz to turn around and argue about it on twitter and shit, like come on.)

Husk and Angel arguing doesn’t make sense to me. Husk says doesn’t like Angel cuz he’s fake, ignoring that it’ coping, shouldn’t Husk’s reasoning that Angel makes him uncomfortable. He is clearly shown being bothered by Angel’s aggressive flirty and sex talk. Him being ‘fake’ comes out of nowhere. As does them fighting.

Three minutes in, Angel gets pissed at Husk dismissing his porno. Flirts with him when Husk reveals he knows about the other hotel gangs’ insecurities and secrets. Then gets pissy again when Husk does the same to him. If Angel is short with Husk this episode because of Val, then let that be that, but the back and forth is jarring.

Charlie being the one to go after Angel an comfort him would have been the one good thing she could have done in the show cuz to be honest she as done nothing but ruin things for everyone at this point.

The loser song happening IMMEDIATELY after Angel’s emotional moment is a gut punch. Like WTF. I could not imagine being on the production team, seeing this shit and not saying something. Like there’s not scene cut to Charlie writing those (pointless) letters, her talking to Vaggie about how she messed up, nothing.

Angel has his break down and Husk seconds later is singing about how shit sucks and he’s a loser. Without the context, that’s bad. With the context, it’s horrific.

Husk had/has a gambling addiction. Not to downplay that or invalidate anyone who has/is going through that but it is not the same as SA. Especially as Husk isn’t going through his problems right now while Angel had to go through it…what an hour before, two maybe. For a prolong period of time and has to go back to that.

Husk is talking about his problem in the past tense. Besides the Alastor thing, it’s behind him. Angel’s problem is in the present and future. And that’s not taking into account the guy at the bar who was going to drug him. Who Angel was going to let drug him.

I could not imagine being on the production team, seeing the script for this and not immediately being like, no. This show is making miss Helluva Boss I am not joking.

Positives: The song Poison is good. Just listen to the audio and nothing else and its great. Val’s coat being moth wings was neat to see (especially if you ignore everything that happiness before and after that one still shot). I like Valentino’s design. I’ve no people have a problem with his voice, but personally I don’t mind it.

Conclusion: I have mixed feeling on the aftermath of the episode. Acting like the problem is solved and not addressing it won’t treat the SA plot-line with the seriousness it deserves. On the other hand, I do not want to the show to touch anything like this again. If it just leaves it here, then at least its only the one episode instead of more.

Ignoring Viz’s response to criticism over this, the executives and people with money have likely seen this shit blow up, and if anything, might not be willing to let the show go near something like this again. Which, in my opinion, is the best option. I do not trust this show to do it well, so it might as well not do it at all.

I am going to keep watching, cuz, like Helluva Boss, I want to see how this turns out. I don’t have hope for the show, but I am curious.

Overall, I hope ep 4 will be a good example of what not to do for any media hoping to cover SA in one way or another.

If anyone want to talk with me about the show send me a message and tumblr mobile and social anxiety willing, I'll be able to get back to you.

[cdroloisms]

my lore brain is all scrambled from my unironic 'c!wilbur did nothing wrong' phase and this was something i never got (but now i am seeing the light of c!dreambur), but why do you think dream wanted to revive wilbur in prison? was it just a threat, or did he actually have reason to rely on wilbur? i'm behind on the dreblr analysis of this 😭

this won't be the best answer 😅 but i think it's important to remember that when c!dream was making the decision to revive c!wilbur, he was in a very very desperate place. this was about a month of daily torture because of c!Quackity, a few months of solitary confinement in horrid conditions. the actual decision was made very quickly, and he pivots from at first holding ghostbur hostage to try and get himself some leverage (because well he's very noticeably lacking in any leverage whatsoever in the prison, sam VERY literally owns him) to reviving ghostbur when he realizes that no one's going to budge.

as far as what he was expecting, well. having c!wilbur back, from his pov, was definitely a plus compared to just ghostbur being around. c!wilbur, before he died, was in an active allyship with c!dream. one of c!wilbur's last words is how proud he is of c!dream for carrying out his part of the plan. c!dream quotes c!wilbur multiple times, down to referencing the unfinished symphony, over the course of his actions post-nov 16th to his imprisonment. without many options in a literal torture box, having c!wilbur around as a potential ally was better than nothing. so i'd say that's part of what's the easiest stuff to quantify--c!wilbur was someone that dream worked with, there were never any betrayals on either side after they started working together post-vassal, and c!Dream would've revived c!Wilbur from death--something he reasonably might've expected to earn him favor from c!Wilbur

but of course, there are things that are. worth questioning, about this reliance! why the hell was c!dream expecting c!wilbur specifically to have any success in breaking into a max security prison when this guy has like zero gear to his name and like, even if he DID, no combat skills to actually fight? what abt the ways that c!dream and c!wilbur talk about their dynamic (especially post-revival), and what does it mean for the two of them? why was c!dream listening to c!wilbur in inconsolable differences? and while i have my uh c!dreambur demons (out of the c!dreamburians ik im probably the most c!wilbur negpilled, sorry anon) but i definitely encourage you to consider some of these questions for yourself :] bc believe me these two are WEIRD abt each other

[brooklynisher]

Hey ! I think I've seen you mention details about how Boop and GG met (if I'm wrong I'm so sorry I'm . So tired) ,, could you maybe . Elaborate on that I miss them ....

Aaa

Right, so I don't think I've ever explicitly stated it bc the lore is really stupid, but I did vaguely hint at it multiple times

You remember when I asked you to draw GG in the backrooms?

I'm being serious about that

I don't think you knew, but that request was a lot more self-indulgent than you probably thought it was ;D

I'll give you a little rundown on the lore. It's a little tragic, but not so much from her perspective. Maybe if she gains hyperintelligence it'll weigh down on her more, but not atm. I've been pulling together my thoughts on her so don't be surprised if this is a bit info dumpy ok?

Boopsy Doodle was built in 1923 by Peter Walter III. She was a prototype drawing bot. He worked on her for 2 years before leaving her to figure out the outside world on her own under supervision of course. Unfortunately, he looked away for just a second and she was gone. She was drawn by Delilah, the giraffe, not the wraith, but because her sense of depth perception wasn't quite developed yet, she fell to the bottom of the pit that contained Delilah. Peter and the Walter Workers scrambled to the bottom to search for her, hoping that they could at least retrieve her parts and repair her again, but she was nowhere to be seen. That's part of the reason why III doesn't have any kids. He felt really bad about losing Boop just before she could ever meet the other robots.

She fell into the backrooms and met GG. Don't ask me why GG's there she just is. But yeah. GG was just as egotistical, mischievous, obnoxious, and loud back then as she is now, but after a while, she realizes the Boopsy is the only real person she can talk to in there, so she puts a lot of her pride behind for Boop so that way if they are stuck there forever, GG doesn't have to be alone forever. Much less with someone she hates.

And I've never been a fan of the whole modernization of the backrooms where people added different levels and different monsters to make it "scarier". I think it's creepier at its core. But for the sake of lore, I'm going to incorporate the leveling thingy so that way GG and Boop's whole thing isn't just sitting in an empty room for god knows how long doing nothing. I wanna give them something to do.

So yeah, GG and Boopsy's backroom adventures. Eventually, they escape. It was by accident. They were getting quite used to level hopping in the backrooms so it came as a surprise to them when they finally escaped. But they were separated so that sucks. Still haven't decided what's been going on since they were separated from each other.

Also, thought I'd mention, I like to think of her personality as very similar to Frisk from Undertale. Basically non-existent through words, a little more noticeable through actions. I like to think that like Frisk, Boopsy has a very go-with-the-flow-like attitude. It doesn't matter what kind of world she gets stuck in. She'll go along with it and not question it at all no matter how strange it is. Which I suppose is more of a child-like approach to new situations more than anything else.

She'd make a great videogame silent protagonist whose personality is revealed through actions rather than words is what I'm saying.

But anyway

[color-cacophony]

I was going to make a Big Official Review Post about Rayman in the Phantom Show but I don't really have enough complete thoughts to make something comprehensive and organized, but I still want to share some points from my experience with it so uhhh without further ado, here's a bunch of thoughts on what dazzled me and what I thought could have been done better.

Here I go...

I'll start with the stuff that bugged me first because I don't like to end on a bad note:

I think the biggest issue is that giving the player the option to complete each set in any order diminishes the opportunity to have a linear story. Without a series of events building up to the finale, the actual climax doesn't feel as grand or substantial as it should be (it definitely feels like a few lines were cut from the moments before Phantom's first verse with how abruptly it starts). It would have felt more immersive to see actual scenes of the heroes trying to play their roles and have more varied quests based on puzzles or even characters and dialogue (like the search for Sweetlopek's stolen axe), all whilst gradually putting the pieces together that they were led into a trap.

Speaking of putting the pieces together, it would've paid off to have Beep-0 learn from his own arrogance in the past instead of repeating his assertion that he knew what Phantom was up to all along. That part made me kind of sad because I really like Beep-0 and it seemed like they were setting him up to eventually become less uptight and more open to admitting his mistakes, which would be more satisfying and obvious!

As we all know, Beep-0 isn't the only one who repeated himself. I remember an exchange I had with @randomrabbidramblings about our predictions for what would happen in the climax; they were hoping the final showdown with Phantom would not be redundant with his first encounter, having the same battle gimmick as before. Unfortunately that is, in fact, what they ended up doing. While framing it as Phantom being unoriginal or making a callback helps it a little bit, ultimately it made me feel let down (although I love Beep-0's delivery when he reiterates his line from Kingdom Battle. he means business).

As for the aftermath of the battle, I want to know where Phantom went. There doesn't seem to be any sign of him anywhere in the studio. It's really odd, given how this was supposed to be his grand comeback (alongside Rayman, of course), but we don't get even a simple explanation of what happened to him after he was defeated for the second time, unless I missed something. I presume this is his last major appearance in a game (unless they decide to do something completely different with him in the distant future??? wishful thinking but not ruling it out!), so it's a strangely underwhelming and mysterious send-off to our beloved ghostly diva. I would have been bummed that we didn't get lore paintings for him, but the memory entry summarizing his surprisingly short-lived career actually made me laugh and honestly, the thought of him only releasing one album and becoming so well-known just because he's notoriously a huge jerk and a producer of incredibly terrible films is so in-character for him.

Another choice I found unusual was the lack of any explanation as to how he got his voice back, since it's been established that he screwed it up by overdoing it. Although, they must have dismissed it knowing that not everyone is going to find the mural containing the only source of that detail. His voice could have healed over time anyway, but it just doesn't entirely make sense that they don't acknowledge it at all (I did see @bramble-scramble 's post mentioning a detail @randomrabbidramblings pointed out where a gramophone can be seen in a box in the studio's control room and it is supposedly the one Phantom replaced with a new one when he messed it up, but even if that's true, it's still a bit easy to miss).

I understand that a lot of these issues were due to restraints since it's only a DLC and they could only fit so much in, but that goes to show that this concept is a little too big for a DLC, but not quite big enough for a full game.

Now, for the things I loved...

I must give massive props to the artists and animators for taking reference from multiple Rayman games and essentially making the pinnacle of his goofiness. Rayman was HIGHLY entertaining to see (and listen to, thanks to David Gasman) and very lovable in this! And the way his dynamic with Rabbid Peach and Rabbid Mario changes up until the end where he becomes friends with them and realizes that he can work with the Rabbids now instead of against them it's just 🥺 awgh... It feels cheesy to talk about it but it really does make me happy now that Rayman has a chance to be an equal to the Rabbids and have something resembling a mutual understanding.

I appreciate them bringing back characters from the main game and giving them their own sets. Fittingly enough, it's like a curtain call for the final installment of SoH.

The return of Beep-0's swearing. SERIOUSLY IT'S SUCH A SMALL THING BUT IT DELIGHTED ME

The studio's lobby is gorgeous. Absolutely STUNNING I love all the details and the music notation motifs on everything.

Honestly the rest of this is just going to be me gushing about Phantom hehehe...

First of all, I was completely awestruck at the decision to give him a swing/jazz sequence because I love the aesthetic of the whole sassy big band musical number kind of thing so when I saw that Phantom was going to do that I went INSANE. The animation in the song sequences is absolutely top tier. Phantom is ALL OVER THE PLACE, very charming, very energetic. The swing bit made me realize just how unbelievably coordinated he is. Like when he's zipping and spinning around the stage and it doesn't affect his singing at all? Holy crap. Then, I went even MORE insane when rock/metal Phantom showed up. I would have wanted a verse in that style too, but I get that it was cut because it would mess up the pacing of the battle.

I love Phantom's inability to contain his excitement at the start of the battle, his annoyed lines when you destroy the lights, his smug remarks even when he's taking damage. He's just so- I'm just gonna say it- so freaking cute in this! His line deliveries in general made me fall so hard for him, especially "were you EVER a thing, Rayman?". The way he drops his voice sounds so cool...

Regarding his abilities, I thought they were going to explain why he could turn people to stone in Kingdom Battle, but they simply took that detail away. I don't have a big problem with this, as the Stone Deaf ability could have been part of the Megabug's influence (and it makes him at least a bit less OP lol). I'm also satisfied to finally know that he can indeed phase through things like any other ghost and isn't limited to just teleporting.

His death acting has definitely improved since last time, in that it's silly and makes me smile instead of just making me feel embarrassed lol.

So uummmm yeah that's all the noteworthy stuff I can think of! Overall I thought the DLC was delightful during my playthrough, but after I finished it I felt kind of sad because it just didn't feel "thorough". However, given that Sparks of Hope generally improved on so many aspects from the last game, I'm confident that they'll keep adding and experimenting with more characterizations and scenarios and make something even better if they decide to continue with Mario + Rabbids. And even if they don't, we'll always have the amazing fans to continue the story and put even more wonder into this wild crossed-over universe!

Anyway, thank you for reading through this highly disorganized rant/gush! And while I'm at it, thank you to everybody in the Mario + Rabbids community for making such amazing art and just being here to share our love for the series. That means thank you to @randomrabbidramblings @bramble-scramble @salamifuposey @hostess-of-horror @phandrow @pastelprince18 @critterzone13 @hostdoozy @majorpepperidge and more! You guys are super cool and I appreciate you even though I've never directly interacted with all of you, hehe. I suppose all I have left to say is goodnight, so goodnight/day everyone! Until next time I decide to dump more nonsense onto your dashboard :D

[idvconfessions]

It's so hard to pick a favorite character!! ;u; They do such a good job with all of them in terms of lore and characterization.

I think I'd have to pick my mains though. Luca and Soul Weaver.

Originally, I didn't want to like Luca. I felt like he was overrated. Idk y, but I always feel like I shouldn't like the characters who have a ton of fans. I just...felt like he had enough attention ig?

But then I found a VAL fan comic by an artist known as Jimjams. After scrambling and scrounging for every bit of their VAL/VALE content I could, I started to look into the lore of each of them more seriously. I'd known Luca was an amnesiac, which is a trope I've had a soft spot for since I can remember, but that was about it. I decided to play him and haven't stopped since. I delved deeper into his lore and have since come up with a ton of headcanon ideas of things he enjoys, things he struggles with, what he might be like based on his birthday letters and also taking the Stage interpretation of him and mixing that with what I know is canon.

Now, instead of seeing him as an overrated character, I just...see a character with a lot of potential internal struggles and crises. A character with an obsession completely lost on him. The one thing he loves is something his brain no longer has the ability to achieve. And yet, he still tries. He still moves forward despite losing literally everything he thought made him himself. He's lost his mental and physical health due to something completely avoidable that I give complete blame to neither side for. He's broken, but he puts on his braces and keeps walking. He has a keen intellect, a strong sense of pride, and an unstoppable, dedicated spirit to live life the way he finds fulfilling. He's a tragic character, to be sure, but he doesn't let that, or anything else that will happen, stop him. He doesn't stop looking or asking questions. He's filled with a curiosity that occupies each moment and allows him to be aware of his own shortcomings and determine the sacrifices he's willing to make. If anything, even without the rest of VALE, I've found a lot to admire in Luca. Qualities I often wish I had myself. Though writing about or thinking of headcanons for VALE in a time when Luca could have the time to make friends is also delightful to me, even just his canon character on its own stands out to me.

Not to mention his design is just absolutely fire. Easily discernable silhouette with lots of small, recognizable features and a few more prominent ones that are most recognizable and a voice to match ;u; I just like his design a lot. I wish I could make characters with designs just as simple, but as recognizable. His design feels effortless. Easy to draw, easy to remember, and I'm just blown away with how unique he still is despite that. (And he likes hamsters. Netease is SO good at adding tiny little details that make my heart melt for their characters even if I was originally disinterested)

As for Violetta, as soon as I got the game and looked at the hunters, she was my favorite by design. I've always loved spiders and spider-themed characters, so when I saw her I loved her immediately. However...I didn't know how to play hunter at all, much less one with multiple abilities, so I ended up ignoring her for quite some time in favor of Joker who was easy for me to understand and later Feaster bc I drew his CoA VII S-tier. I saw her played in CoA finals that year and decided to give her another try now that I understood the game better. Haven't stopped playing her since, even though I've added more hunters to my pool.

Violetta, for me, is one of the best characters in Identity V. She's the sweetest, gentlest soul despite everything she's been through and how she's been treated. All she wants to do is make people happy while she performs, but she never gets the chance. She's always kicked to the curb as soon as anyone gets bored with her. She tries her best no matter what, but she keeps getting sidelined, even by those she considers her friends and castmates. She feels things very deeply and wants to make others feel just as deeply through her skills. Perhaps I'm projecting a bit here, but that is my understanding, especially after Closing Night. She wants to be loved. She wants to be admired. She wants to be treated the way she tries to treat other people, with respect and kindness.

Her goals and desires are so simple and pure, but her love of them becomes obsessive and even embittering, but she keeps the bitterness to herself as soon as she sees someone else, immediately turning her attention back to what they're going to perform together. Back to what she thinks will make others as happy as herself when she's onstage.

I imagine when she first started performing at the circus, and she saw people smiling and laughing, despite it being at her, it was the first time someone smiled because of her. As such she desired to do it again and again. Who cares if it's because she's weird? SHE made them happy. She may have found purpose in that. Like she felt no other reason to exist. When they grew bored of her and left her as one of the sideshows to be ignored, she may have sort of had withdrawals. An absence of her purpose even though she was still putting in all the work. As a result, she longed for the spotlight again. She longed to be an actress as she knew THAT was where she could fulfill her purpose again.

Again, this is mostly conjecture. Most of the information we have is ABOUT her not FROM her, but this is what I've gathered from listening to her lines and reading her letters, though it's been a while since I've done the latter. Another tragic character, longing to be warm, loved and cherished as she wishes to warm and cherish the hearts of others, dreaming of such freedom as she gives in to the cold. In her last moments her wish came true, but not within reality.

A lot of hunters in IDV are seen as tragic, sympathetic characters who should never have gone through what happened to them. Ann, for example, was the victim of a cult. The Wu Chang boys were the victims of a corrupt legal system. Leo got scammed and then his family ripped apart by his sleazy business partner. Geisha was murdered by her father-in-law for no better reason than him not liking her. So technically speaking, Violetta doesn't bring much new or different to the table. She's also a tragic character who didn't deserve the way she was treated.

So, why does she stand out to me? I think it's because most of the other characters had something to lose and ultimately lost it. They started with something. A rose-tinted truth, a best friend, a twin, a parent, fame, authority, etc.

Violetta had nothing from the very beginning. Nobody cared about her, she had nothing to call her own, no family, no nothing. She cared about everyone else. She found something to care for even when those feelings would never be reciprocated. That's why she found joy in performing. She found value in people who never saw the same in her. She had every right to be bitter and angry towards these people. Every right to treat them with the same amount of respect they gave her (none). But she didn't. She found it worth her time, love and effort to give everything to make people laugh and smile and took joy in it when no one else would ever give her the same. She had nothing to lose, but found something to lose anyway. Or, more accurately, something she could never truly attain.

I wonder if Murro was one who helped her see things this way. He's one of the few that doesn't ignore her and treats her kindly. Maybe he's the one who allowed her to think of people as capable of kindness and love, and thus gave her her goal in reciprocating such in the hopes of finding it in return just through being himself.

The more I think about these characters, the more similar they seem to me. Both are trying to attain what is now unattainable to them. Both seem to have struggles with the purpose of their own existence in various ways. Their answers for such things so far away and vague. An unrequited love for something intangible or even perhaps impossible, and not due to their lack of effort. Characters strong enough to rise each day still determined to attain the impossible.

It's scary, realizing everything you're doing can come crashing down into nothing whether you screw up or not, and endlessly frustrating to know you don't have the same potential you'd otherwise have had and exactly why. But it doesn't stop them. They keep going, their questions unanswered, the road of reality ready to fall from under them any second, but on they go because it's what they've chosen to love. It's what they've chosen to live, hope and die for no matter what happens.

-💀

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

[t4tails]

hi ik ur a bit of a horror aficionado so i was wondering .. have u seen all the saw movies and if so do u think any past 1 are worth viewing or are they cash grabs. i watched the first one on principle and didnt think id like it but i did, tho im not necessarily scrambling to watch the next ones if theyre not as good as the first

im a fake saw fan ive only seen the first 3 and really only remember the first 2 😭 however from my time surrounded by bigger fans of the franchise i will say some general consensus thoughts that may help you decide: while the first is rather tame, the movies do get progressively gorier and earning of the "torture porn" moniker, while the other main thing that gets progressed through the franchise is jigsaw lore - so if youre interested in john kramer, his apprentices, his backstory, etc, and can stand and/or enjoy hardcore gore, the sequels may be your thing!

[missingmywing]

So as per usual for me and fics, this will be long. Ryomina is fun and has a lot to play with. (Ao3 link)

Day 1: First Meeting/Childhood Friends

I’m playing fast and loose with canon and the actual lore behind Nyx, because as much as I like FFVII I don’t want to just write Jenova 2.0. So my lore is that she is a being of the collective unconscious like the other “gods” in Persona, she’s just much, much more powerful because death is an inescapable, tangible thing that happens rather than an intangible concept.

Also Erebus isn’t… a thing. I understand and respect what the team was going for with how they did Nyx and Erebus with The Answer, but it makes things more convoluted than necessary for my preferences. Humanity’s despair and wish for death doesn’t need a tangible form - Nyx can sense it directly and her radar lights up red when she’s called for directly (thanks Kandori, thanks Kirijo) and that’s what makes her active. Minato’s seal acts like a buffer or a muffler - an interference so she can’t hear herself being called (unless it’s particularly direct). Because you can’t kill death - and even if you could you shouldn’t because unconditional immortality is a very bad idea- and I’m getting off track. Point is I’m making P3 consistent with the lore of the rest of the series rather than “it was aliens, actually”. P2 subverted that, P3 can’t just turn around and play it straight while hiding it under a mountain of conditional lore.

Also exploring Minato as a freshly traumatized child is a fascinating exercise. Newly nihilistic six year old has not realized he’s nihilistic yet because everyone is still assuming the apathy towards everything is a normal trauma response. He and Death have such an interesting dynamic as they both learn.

FINDING OUT HALFWAY THROUGH THIS THAT IT WAS APPARENTLY RECENTLY CONFIRMED THAT TATSUMI PORT ISLAND IS SUPPOSED TO BE BASICALLY ODAIBA WAS INFURIATING. What do you MEAN Gekkoukan is in Tokyo, no it is not I’ve had the hc that Minato spent his junior high years in Tokyo for YEARS do not do this to me Persona. Anyway, I moved it so that I can keep my hcs the same, it’s still in the same general area it’s just outside of Tokyo Bay rather than inside it now. I was so tempted to keep the long-standing guess the fandom has had and put Tatsumi Island in Kobe you have NO IDEA. Fucking Odaiba man. Maruki says hello Nyx.

~ ᙙᙖ ~

In one world, they wouldn’t have met or known each other until Minato was sixteen. Minato would have been not-so-blissfully ignorant of the truth of the events that happened that night of the explosion. Nothing but vague memories of a bright light and broken cars and fire all around.

But in another, Minato remembered.

Unbuckling his seatbelt to look at the ocean far below, the explosion that threw him out of the car, his mother’s teary pleading for him to live, the collision of a robot and monster on the bridge that threw everything else back, the flashes of a chaotic fight, the guilt and devastation in the robot girl’s eyes as she pressed the blue fire containing the monster to his chest and apologized for turning him into its seal-

That was technically the first time he met Death.

But it wasn’t until a month later that they met properly, face to face, and Minato could acknowledge him directly.

It had been… a rough month. The aftermath of the accident had destroyed and consumed his life - left him thrown about from hospital to police station to a different and more elaborate and creepy hospital where he stayed for nearly two weeks while people in lab coats ran tests and poked at the new giant scar on his chest and men in suits tried to get in contact with a family member they could force to willing to take him, and then he was given to his aunt and uncle who weren’t expecting to suddenly have a child to take care of and were upset and scrambling to adjust. And they weren’t cruel or dismissive but he knew they weren’t happy to have him here suddenly and his aunt was devastated about her sister’s death and their smiles were so fake and he couldn’t even cry which made them uneasy and more upset and-

Minato had heard the words “trauma reaction” and “emotional suppression” more in the past month than his entire short life beforehand and he wished he could understand what that even meant but it felt like everything was a blur and just floating past his head.

He knew there was something wrong with him, though. That had been obvious at his parent’s funeral where he didn’t even feel anything and couldn’t bring himself to react or say anything to the parade of people coming over to talk to him.

The doctors who they kept trying to make him talk to acted like it was normal. His aunt and uncle acted like he was broken. Everyone else acted like he was a ghost.

He was pretty sure the ghost comparison was the one that was closest. He had a monster inside of him now, after all. The same monster who was probably responsible for his parents dying and midnight turning weird.

But maybe he was a little broken too because of it. Because he didn’t hate that monster even knowing all that. He didn’t really even miss his parents even though he’d always loved them so much before. He didn’t… care. About anything.

And he wasn’t scared, on the full moon a month after the accident, when the midnight hour hit and there was a sharp, tearing pain in his chest, and the monster appeared in a blaze of blue fire. It hovered over his bed like the evil creature from every scary bedtime story and stared down at him with its chain and torn brown cloak and a sword in its hand.

It looked evil but it didn’t feel evil. He’d always been good at telling what people around him felt - a gentle soul with an empathetic heart his mother had called him - and the monster felt… empty. Empty like he always felt now. There wasn’t any anger or hate like he’d expected from a monster.

He sat up and looked at it blankly, waiting for it to do something. Try to kill him like it had been trying to kill the robot, maybe. When it didn’t do anything he tilted his head and asked, “What’s your name?”

Might as well know what monster he was supposed to be “sealing”.

The creature stared down at him for a moment of silence, then spoke in a raspy, echoing voice - like two pieces of metal screeching against each other in the undertones. “I am Death.”

“Oh. Okay. I guess that’s why you killed people.” He frowned. “If you’re trapped inside of me then are people going to stop dying then?”

“No,” the monster said. “I embody the concept but I am not its entirety. I am merely the harbinger for she who calls the end.”

“What do you mean? What’s a harbinger?”

“An omen. I am a sign that the end has come - that humanity has forsaken its will to live and wishes for the world to end. I am the call to the goddess of death, Nyx, to bring death to all.”

“But that’s… not true. Most people don’t want to die. You can’t say that humans don’t want to live when most people do,” Minato tilted his head to the side. “I don’t know anyone who really wants to die. It’s usually an accident, or because someone else did it on purpose.”

“My very existence is proof that humanity has succumbed to despair and wishes for death. Your sole experiences are meaningless.”

Minato stared at him for a long moment then shrugged. “You’re wrong, but okay. Are you going to kill me, then? I think the robot girl made it so you can’t leave, that’s why she sealed you inside me.”

Death was silent for a moment, then said “My very essence has been sealed within you, bound and entwined to your soul. Your death would mean an end to my existence as well, vanishing into the Sea of Souls alongside you, unable to accomplish my goal.”

“So… no?”

“No. So long as the seal is intact I am incapable of killing you.”

“Okay, so you can’t leave and you can’t kill me. I’m going to sleep then.” Minato fell back and tugged the covers back up, rolling onto his side so his back was turned to the mon- to Death. “Night.”

The Shadow stared incredulously at him for several long minutes until his breath evened out and it became apparent that he truly was asleep.

It seemed the Anti-Shadow Unit had indeed known what she was doing to best undermine him. He was truly and solidly trapped.

… time would tell how this would play out, he supposed. After all, time came for all in the end and death was the most patient of mistresses. Nyx would wait.

~ ᙙᙖ ~

Minato quickly got used to Death showing up. First once a month on the full moon, then as time went on he began showing up in his dreams, and then speaking into his head while conscious outside the extra midnight hour.

It was almost surprising how quickly Minato got used to him - by the time a year had passed Death had become a normal presence in his life. Not a comforting presence, perhaps, but normal. The Shadow, as Minato now knew he was, still disbelieved Minato when he said that humanity really didn’t seem to be calling to Nyx. He remained adamant that it was simply Minato’s small range of existence that hid the truth.

And maybe that was true - maybe the small city he lived in didn’t show how many people were wish for the end. But if there were actually that many surely he would have met at least a few here.

Death did slowly become more curious about the day to day lives of people as time passed though, asking questions first during meetings in his dreams and then directly in his head once he’d figured out how to break through the seal enough to do so.

Minato probably should have been more worried that he was doing that, but most emotions were muted and distant these days so he just learned to ignored the burn and stinging pain in his chest that indicated Death taking an active interest in something going on. Sometimes it was a history lesson or science assignment, sometimes it was a conversation with a classmate or an overheard argument between adults.

He gained an active presence in Minato’s head just in time for the christmas season, actually, so Minato got very used to tuning out the pain of it very quickly because Death seemed fascinated and bewildered by… just about everything about the holiday. Things Minato had taken for granted were now subject to question and he had to ask about quite a few of them himself.

Granted he and Death both realized pretty quickly that the adults around them were simplifying explanations to make him understand it, because Death asked a lot more complicated and confusing questions about humans and traditions and… something about transferral of religion? Things Minato didn’t understand and couldn’t figure out how to ask about because he wasn’t sure what Death was actually asking.

What did someone dying for everyone else a long time ago have to do with christmas trees?

Once Minato asked Death that question in return the Shadow seemed to realize that Minato didn’t understand a lot about what he was trying to figure out and returned to asking more simplified questions.

Some of them still went over Minato’s head - why did it matter about the weird necklace the student helping at the shrine was wearing? The shrines never decorated for christmas, everyone knew that - but at least he could answer why the teenage boy was sneaking the bracelet he’d bought into his pocket so the girl with him wouldn’t see it.

The true shift in their relationship happened around the year mark of the accident.

Death could still only manifest physically on the full moon, but he did so each month without fail. Perhaps to ensure that he still could. But this time was… different.

Because when he did Minato felt something like satisfaction or triumph flicker through his chest as the Shadow appeared - and the fire vanished to reveal a boy the same age as Minato. He looked similar, but had darker and shorter hair, and his eyes were a bright blue. He was also wearing a striped prisoner outfit like out of a movie, but that was obvious enough why.

He looked down, examining himself, and nodded in satisfaction. “It worked.”

Minato tilted his head at him. “You were trying to turn yourself into a human?”

“I’m still not actually human, I’m merely taking this form. But yes. I thought it might better help me understand humans if I could imitate their form. So I tried to copy yours. It’s not exact, but I suppose that’s the influence of my inherent nature.” He hopped up onto the bed beside Minato. “If nothing else, it should be less disorienting to speak with me during this hour in this form.”

He wasn’t disorienting to talk to in his other form either, but he seemed unusually pleased with himself about this so Minato didn’t see a reason to contradict him. “I won’t have to look up at you anymore, I guess.”

“Exactly. I still know that humanity is calling out for the end, but it is strange how much attachment to life the people around you have in general.” The Shadow turned cocked his head with a thoughtful look. “If I imitate and understand humans, perhaps I can understand why that is.”

Minato really didn’t see what was hard to understand about people generally not wanting to die, but he supposed it was a fault of Death being a Shadow. And, well, Death.

“If you want,” he shrugged. “I don’t see what’s so hard to understand about it, but if it’ll help you understand then I think it’s fine.” Death still hadn’t shown any indication that he was about to break out of the seal, after all, so he couldn’t muster any real worry about it.

Not that he’d probably be able to stop him if he did, but… well, the robot girl had entrusted Death to him when she failed so the least he could do was make the attempt.

~ ᙙᙖ ~

He wasn’t quite sure when he’d crossed the line in the minds of adults around him from “recovering from the accident” to “creepy”. But he began noticing it over time as one year crept towards two towards three and his aunt and uncle - rather than adjusting and becoming comfortable in his presence - went from uncertain to uneasy around him.

At first they’d looked at him like they weren’t sure what to do with him, like he was one wrong word from breaking down crying. But now they looked at him like they thought something was wrong with him - like they didn’t want to figure out what to do with him.

He blamed Death, honestly. The Shadow was rubbing off on him as much as he was on the Shadow.

The whispers behind his back that they thought he wasn’t listening to - unnatural, too quiet, emotionless, never cries, never throws a tantrum, never gets happy or upset, doesn’t have friends, looks right through you - definitely made it sound like there was something wrong with him.

He didn’t really feel wrong. He just didn’t feel strong emotions - was more tired than anything a lot of the time.

But maybe that was the proof that something was wrong, because he remembered feeling more strongly about things, remembered feeling excited or scared or sad or happy so strongly he thought it’d overwhelm him. His parents had gently chastised him more than once about an excessive reaction to something.

So maybe they were right and there was something wrong with him. That “something wrong” just happened to be the personification of Death sealed in his chest, and there was nothing he could do about that.

Not… that he really minded. He liked having Death in his mind, asking questions and making him wonder about the world around him in ways he wouldn’t have otherwise. He liked being able to guess what the people around him were thinking and feeling based on their expressions and body language. And it came in handy on tests when he couldn’t remember the answer to something and Death was willing to remind him.

It just meant that Death stayed his only friend because everyone around him found his presence off-putting and unnerving. Even his teachers didn’t really like him if they spent any time outside of class with him. And his aunt and uncle only became more distant and unnerved as the years passed and he didn’t become more open or how he had been before the accident.

So it wasn’t really a surprise when he turned ten and they told him that he’d be moving in with a cousin. Their excuse was that they were trying for a child, and didn’t want to divide their attention between two children who both needed it so he’d be sent to someone who could continue to devote attention to him.

It would have been a lot more convincing if they had been devoting attention to him rather than avoiding him or becoming very strained when they did interact with him.

Minato… didn’t really care, he’d been expecting it, but there was a keen edge of resentment from Death at both the lie and the disregard.

(There was something else there in the undertones that Minato couldn’t quite read. A bitter, sharp edge of emotion that Death tried to hide from him, and Minato didn’t ask. If Death wanted him to know then he would tell him.)

There had been no expectations on Minato’s behalf on his way to Inagawa in Hyōgo - it was a relatively small town comparatively, fairly rural, and he knew nothing about the cousin taking him in. He wondered how they’d been convinced.

The town was… nice enough. Surrounded by mountainous area, forest on all sides, lakes and rice patties in the distance…

Altogether different than the cities he’d grown up in.

His cousin, as it turned out, was a middle-aged no-nonsense man clearly far more focused on whatever his career was than any sort of familial relationship. Given how quickly the man had gruffly brushed through introductions and a tour of the apartment - relatively small and sparsely decorated, the man clearly spent almost no time here - and essentially told him he was on his own and to stay out of trouble, Minato assumed he’d been promised that Minato was low-effort and he’d be able to effectively ignore him.

Which wasn’t inaccurate so he couldn’t complain too much.

(Death seemed to take it the wrong way and got very annoyed, though, which was almost funny.)

It did mean that he had to learn to cook. He got an allowance, enough to cover any food he needed, but unless he wanted to live off of prepackaged food he did need to learn the basics at least.

… although after his terrible start of burned rice and an uneven omelette the man did at least teach him those basics, so he clearly wasn’t entirely uncaring. Or he just didn’t want to risk a fire.

Death was relieved about that, though he did seem to derive some amusement from Minato’s inept attempts at learning to cook. Not that he was any help. Any number of historical or philosophical questions he’d be more than happy to lecture about, but anything practical and he was useless.

It wasn’t a bad two years. Just as lonely, but not bad. Less side-eyes and unease at least.

His cousin was very rarely home, and when he was he was usually working on either paperwork or a laptop. The man didn’t seem to care about friends or social circles, or at least not enough to invite anyone over, and he and Minato largely ignored each other when they were home at the same time. He didn’t ask about Minato’s grades or social interactions either, which his aunt and uncle had still done, which made it harder to really care about them either.

Minato continued to be off-putting to everyone around him, it seemed, but he still wasn’t sure what exactly he was doing to drive them away and make the kids call him scary and the teachers murmur that he was unnerving. It wasn’t just lack of emotional reactions, he didn’t think, because there were a couple of other kids that were like that and they were called “cool” and “admirable”.

But something about him made people shy away and refuse to meet his eyes.

Maybe it was the same thing that made animals nervous around him.

The same thing that made the other Shadows leave him alone during the midnight hour, even though they would attack anyone else able to move around. That ability didn’t seem to happen here, at least - he never encountered anyone else out the few times he wandered around town in the green light.

Which was more than he could say of the city he had lived in - after the first time he’d been out and encountered both a person and the Shadows around, and his presence had whipped the Shadows into a frenzy and made them more aggressive than usual towards any one else around, he’d avoided going out during that hour.

Death made them more dangerous, and Minato didn’t want to be responsible for anyone dying.

But it wasn’t a problem here, and there was something fascinating about walking around an empty town covered in blood and coffins beneath a green moon. It was eerie.

It made him feel the most alive that he had been since the accident.

Still, it was just one more thing that set him apart from everyone around him and he continued to spend most of his time alone. Often with a book. And while animals were more nervous around him than other people they did warm up to him relatively quickly once assured he wouldn’t hurt them. Once he realized that it wasn’t quite as lonely, and he became a friendly face to several of the strays around.

And Death was always there. He never really left anymore, and the pain of his presence had long since vanished. Minato chose not to think about what that meant for the seal. He was a friend, always at Minato’s side, and the years passed had made his comments about being the harbinger existing only to usher in humanity’s death fade into only the occasional thoughtful consideration about one situation or another. His absolute certainty that humanity at large wished for death had diminished significantly in the face of so much constant drive forward from everyone around Minato. Instead, he seemed to be searching for what humans did want - what it was that drove each one forwards to the future, each person chasing after their own goals in life.

Minato certainly didn’t have the answer, and people didn’t like him enough to be willing to tell him, so they contented themselves watching and listening and speculating.

So the two years he spent in Inagawa were peaceful enough, with various animals and Death (both in his mind and in child form) keeping him company.

~ ᙙᙖ ~

And then that peace was summarily shattered when his cousin announced that he was getting engaged and moving in with his fiancee to Osaka, and Minato would be moving in with another relative, a different cousin, in Tokyo.

When it happened Minato felt nothing more than a twinge of disappointment. He’d hoped to keep this peace for a while longer before his presence became a nuisance again.

Death was significantly more displeased, irritated that Minato’s cousin was displacing him rather than adapting around him, concerned about being sent to Tokyo - and there was that something more to that thought that Minato was sensing from him more and more often these days - and handed off to another relative they knew nothing about, a frustration on Minato’s behalf that they’d long since acknowledged he probably couldn’t feel. But there was nothing they could do about it, so Minato packed his few belongings again and was gone.

Had they known what was waiting for them - had he realized the abrupt downward spiral his life was about to take - perhaps he would have mustered the care to ask to stay.

But they had no way to know.

The first sign that something was… off… was on the way to the address he’d been given. Shinjuku had residential areas, of course - nice ones, even. But the address didn’t lead him to a nice one. It was a ragged, run-down area, with dirty alleyways and narrowed glances sent out covered windows.

The fact that it was just outside Kabukicho didn’t help.

It set him on-edge despite himself, and for the first time in years Death pushed against the seal hard enough for it to burn.

“It’s not the midnight hour, not for a couple more hours,” he thought to the Shadow, watching a group of shady looking men muttering in an alleyway from the corner of his eye. “Even if you broke through the seal you couldn’t manifest.”

“It’s possible that I could,” the Shadow shot back. “We’ve never attempted it.”

“We’ve never seen any Shadows out in the daylight, only during the midnight hour,” Minato pointed out, taking a step to the side as a ragged cat hissed at him from under a dumpster.

“I’m not a normal Shadow.”

Minato didn’t respond.

They didn’t know what would happen if Death broke fully through the seal, but it probably wouldn’t be anything good. So Minato would just have to try and avoid being put into a position where it was necessary.

Easier said than done as he quickly found out. His… aunt? cousin? he wasn’t quite sure and she didn’t clarify so whatever- apparently worked in Kabukicho as supposedly a hostess, and had only agreed to take him in because she was hoping he would be a second source of income. Which, given the kinds of places in this area that would be willing to hire a junior high student, did not bode well for his likelihood for staying out of danger.

Death was irritated on his behalf, but it wasn’t as though they could really do anything about it. Any authority figures would just turn a blind eye - that became apparent the moment he arrived at school and met his homeroom teacher, and then the rest of the teachers were no better - and she hadn’t done anything to him yet so he couldn’t use anything against her.

She’d just made it clear that if he wanted to eat he’d bring home enough money to make it worth feeding him.

So he quietly asked around. Several of the other students in his class also had jobs, though whether it was for a similar reason he didn’t know and didn’t bother asking, so he had a few options. Not many, and none of them particularly appealing, but unless he wanted to either starve to death or learn to steal he’d just have to accept it.

Minato settled on the job that seemed like the least effort and one of the ones less likely to be directly tied to any potential host club scams or yakuza operations.

Washing dishes at the back of a host club wasn’t exactly fun, but it avoided the risk of being caught by any police or getting caught up in any drug trafficking. And the midnight hour meant he could grab an hour long nap in the middle so… it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. His sleep and grades both suffered for it, but no one was expecting him to have good grades anyway and none of the teachers cared to check why it was happening, so… he supposed it was convenient.

It was… fine.

It was fine. It was tolerable, no matter how frustrated Death got, and he could deal with the constant smell of cigarettes and alcohol all around him, could wrinkle his nose and turn away to his book or homework when she came back smelling of alcohol and sex, could tune out the chatter and flirtations from the room over at the club, could ignore the rumbled clothes and bruises peeking out on skin from the hosts and hostesses around the area.

Minato kept his head down, didn’t talk to anyone unless he had to, and no one really approached him. People in Tokyo - or at least this district of it - didn’t seem as bothered by whatever off-putting aura that had always scared everyone else, but they weren’t really inclined to bother with him either. Which suited him just fine.

Months passed easily enough, his cousin (as he eventually did find out) was satisfied for a while with the money that he did bring home and seemed happy enough that he wasn’t going to bother her or get in her way that she didn’t really bug him either unless she wanted one chore or another done while she was out.

She did kick him out a few nights a month to bring men home - though whether they were clients or boyfriends he didn’t know or care - but those were passed studying or doing homework in a cafe nearby that didn’t mind some kids in his situation hanging around all night provided they bought something every now and then. It wasn’t uncommon to see a few others around, sometimes he even studied with a couple of classmates or helped an elementary schooler out with their homework (except one who rebuffed him with a flash of red eyes and a snap that he could handle it himself), but largely he remained in his corner and tried to ignore the rest of the world as Death muttered and complained in his head.

He was equally pouty in his child form on those nights he joined Minato during the midnight hour, perching on the edge of his futon and casting annoyed glances across the room at his cousin on the other futon. Minato rolled his eyes and ignored him, until he flopped backwards and sprawled across Minato in a way that clearly demanded attention and Minato just patted his head and let him keep complaining about the people and world around them.

Minato hadn’t been expecting a christmas gift from her, but she seemed to be in a particularly good mood around that time so he didn’t question it. He supposed she’d caught the eye of a particularly affluent client or something because she suddenly had new clothes and jewelry. Plus decent takeout rather than Big Bang Burger or some other fast food chain.

But on christmas morning she cheerfully handed him a wrapped box with a comment that he’d earned something for his efforts this past year, and when he opened it with a quiet thank you he found an mp3 player and pair of headphones inside. It was the first present he’d gotten in years and quickly turned into the best he’d ever gotten.

It was something to drown out the tedium of the world, to filter out all the static and noise of the world around him into a steady, predictable, stable beat. Whenever it got too much he could simply put the headphones on and turn on the mp3 player and everything would fade away. A lifeline.

A necessary one, because things rapidly got worse after that. The giddiness that had clung to her throughout December began fading rapidly throughout February and into March. She got defensive and quiet, snappish, almost always on her phone, scrolling away as though looking for something. Biting her lip until it nearly bled - an unusual habit for someone so careful with her appearance.

It all came to a head around mid-April, just after the new school year had started, in the afternoon before Minato left for work. He was sitting at the low table, working on homework, when she suddenly made a snarling sound and started a phone call.

He quickly put on his headphones and turned on his music, tuning out whatever angry argument she was picking over the phone. It wasn’t his business, it wasn’t his problem.

It quickly became something near his problem when a bottle shattered against the wall dividing the kitchenette less than a meter away from his head and his gaze snapped up to find her glaring in his direction with eyes blazing and lips pulled into a snarl. Minato froze, unmoving even as Death reared up protectively in his soul and the seal burned beneath the weight of his presence. But a few moments passed of her glaring, chest heaving, before her mouth began moving again as she yelled something and he took note of her glassy eyes and distant gaze and he relaxed as she jerked her gaze away from him to continue shouting. She hadn’t been looking at him or aiming at him, he’d just been in an unfortunate direction. Death reluctantly faded back, but didn’t pull away entirely just yet.

He watched her shake her head desperately and fall to her knees on the floor as tears began streaming down her face and her other hand reached up to clutch at the desk of empty beer bottles she hadn’t gotten around to throwing out yet.

Or just throwing yet, apparently.

With a soft sigh Minato closed his workbook and leaned over to begin picking up the glass shards before one of them stepped on them. The bottle had at least been empty, so they wouldn’t have to deal with stains on the wood floor. The star of Sapporo sat wholly intact, almost mockingly, as he collected the glass in his hand.

By the time he’d finished picking up the glass and throwing it away, it seemed the call had ended and she was staring unseeing at the wall as tears streamed down her face. Minato stared at her for a moment before going back into the kitchen to fill a glass with water and pick up a cloth.

He knelt to set the water down in front of her and held out the cloth.

It took her a few moments to reach for it, but she did. She buried her face in it and sobbed.

Minato shrugged and returned to his spot at the table to continue his homework.

Things did not improve from there.

She became… unstable, switching between listless and desperate in the span of hours. If she was home without a client she was either drunk or drugged, and she either ignored him entirely or demanded he help out more. He quickly became the only one doing chores - if only to avoid being yelled at or risk having something thrown again - and after several months of her unable to bring home as much money as was satisfying to her he became the target of her ire for how little he was also bring back.

Comparatively, anyway.

He ignored it for several months hoping she’d get over whatever rich guy had gotten bored of her and leave him alone again, but it quickly became apparent that it wasn’t likely. It was only a matter of time before she began making threats again, and at Death’s urging Minato began considering his options.

A second part time job wasn’t particularly feasible given how much time the one he already had was taking. He could avoid being at the apartment as much as possible, but he still had to sleep sometime and the last thing he wanted was for her to decide she needed to hunt him down. He could use the midnight hour to shoplift, but that wouldn’t necessarily satisfy her if she wanted actual yen to use.

Well, he could try to start breaking into registers he supposed, but he didn’t know if he wanted to start dealing with the risks of that. Just because there weren’t people or camera didn’t mean there wouldn’t be evidence and just because Kabukicho had an underbelly didn’t mean it was actually illegal. He didn’t need the police to track him down using dna evidence or something. Besides, he had to set the standard somewhere.

He could take a different risk and get a more lucrative job elsewhere he supposed (Death didn’t like that option). He refused to work at the front-facing side of a club, but one of his classmates had talked about a package sorting job that paid well and was looking for a couple more people.

Minato had avoided it before - like most of his classmates did - because he didn’t really want to deal with drug smuggling. But it was a significantly higher pay, and his classmate had assured him that he’d been working there for three years and it really was just organizing packages into the correct address delivery bins. It really was just an ordinary job.

(So long as he didn’t open anything went unspoken.)

So with a heavy sigh and Death stewing angrily in the back of his soul, Minato followed his classmate to get recommended for the job. He was hired instantly, given a brief tour of the small warehouse, given an overview of how to organize the packages properly, warned not to open any of the packages for any reason, and then pointed at a stack that needed to go out the next morning.

The job wasn’t as bad as they’d both been concerned about. It really did seem like a normal sorting job. And it paid well.

None of which put Death at ease as he hovered almost painfully close to the seal constantly these days. It was getting to the point that Minato could almost feel the seal slowly dissolving as the nigh-painful tingling of it rapidly faded and Death came closer and closer to the forefront of his mind as the weeks passed.

Minato didn’t bother fighting him on it - the Shadow would worry regardless and if he did manage to break through the seal and manifest at least Minato wouldn’t have to deal with a fight himself.

(When had the worry of the consequences of the seal breaking faded? He could barely remember the robot girl who had sealed the Shadow inside him now, even if the guilt and grief in her eyes still haunted his dreams anytime he inhaled a lungful of smoke from somewhere. What did he care about the world? If Death broke free and destroyed it - well it wouldn’t be his problem for long.)

The uptick in money satisfied his cousin for the time being at least, so she went back to mostly ignoring him in favor of whatever poison she’d chosen for the day. He spent more time in the cafe than the apartment just for the smell alone, even when she hadn’t brought someone back.

The world faded more and more into the grey of exhausted numbness from there. An endless routine - get up, silently get ready for school, go to school, try not to sleep through his classes, leave for work, work until the daily quota was filled, go to the cafe to study until the midnight hour, leave once the hour was up and the cafe closed, return to the apartment and sleep, then get up again.

It was easy to lose track of the days when he didn’t talk to anyone and spent most of his time drowning out the world with his music. The date on the board and subjects of the lessons were really the only ties to reality that he had between the monochromatic repetition of everything else. The sudden uptick of pressure in the middle of the year to study hard and improve their grades in order to do well on high school entrance exams and get into a good school was a sudden shock to them all, and it did a little to break things up.

But even that quickly dulled back into routine - it was all just memorizing dates and facts and kanji and equations, and with Death in his head to help he wasn’t likely to do badly even if he didn’t bother trying.

Though even if he got accepted there was no guarantee he’d be able to attend. Given his cousin’s increasingly empty eyes and unstable attitude and inability to maintain her grip on money he highly doubted she’d be willing or able to pay for him to attend. Which was one more thing for Death to become angry over, but Minato didn’t really care much.

Even if he did attend, what then? It was just a continued routine. How likely was it that he’d make it to graduation and find somewhere decent to work?

Really, what was the point of it all?

Not that Death let him get away with that. As Minato had less and less motivation or will to bother even trying with anything, Death pushed harder and harder to make him. Pushing him to study, to do well on tests, to remember to eat lunch or dinner even if he continued to skip breakfast. Nudging him to stop by and try that restaurant, or get that soda from the machine with a weird name.

He was less enthused by Minato’s willingness to accept the can of Asahi beer from some of his classmates during one of their study sessions on the roof, but the taste alone meant that Minato wasn’t in any hurry to try it again. Not to mention the way it made the numb disassociation from the world even worse.

The sensation of a near-complete break from reality didn’t quite scare Minato, but it did unnerve him and the alarm it raised from Death only made it worse. So that wouldn’t be any sort of habit he would fall into.

Unlike some people he had to clean up after.

The high school issue was resolved when he got within the top ten marks in the school and was offered a scholarship to the closest high school. It was not what everyone had meant when they talked about a “good” high school, but anything was better than nothing so with a bit of prodding from Death he accepted.

Not that it really changed anything - other than the location, it was simply exchanging one routine for another and he quickly sank back into the grey numbness.

Nothing really broke through it for a while. He was distantly aware of his cousin getting paler and thinner, the desperation towards something rising, until a bit before summer she stumbled into the apartment and cornered him against the wall.

“I need you to get money,” she said, gripping his arm tightly.

Minato tilted his head, feeling Death rearing up close to the seal warily. “How much?”

“A million yen.”

“A million yen?” Death repeated incredulously.

Minato sent her a blank look. “That’s impossible.” How in the world could she possibly expect him to be able to get that much?

“What?” she asked dangerously, leaning close. “Do you even realize the situation we’re in?!”

“No. You never told me.”

Her face twisted into an expression of such frustration he thought she was about to start screaming. She didn’t, instead snapping, “That damn club is demanding a million yen from me for ‘services rendered’ - which is bullshit they’re a shitty club anyway - but now I have to pay it or my reputation and ability to get clients is ruined!”

That club? Had she- “How does a hostess fall for a host club scam?”

“I did not get scammed!” She shoved him against the wall and spun around to storm towards the desk against the opposite wall. “Just get the money.”

He considered for a moment. “No.”

Everything froze, before she slowly turned to stare at him with a darkness brewing in her eyes. “What?”

Minato stared at her blankly. “No. I told you that’s impossible. You got scammed, deal with it yourself. It’s not my problem.” He wasn’t going to get any homework done here. Picking up his bag, he turned to leave.

“Now wait just a damn minute you brat-”

He turned to look at her as she lunged for him and felt the seal burn, stretched so thin it was on the verge of snapping as Death lunged back with his presence, and she stumbled to a stop as the blood drained from her face. Minato waited for a moment before leaving.

He’d have to hope she wouldn’t retaliate.

Apparently Death had scared her enough in that moment to avoid him entirely, because she would barely even look at him other than the occasional glare if they happened to be home at the same time. So he tuned her out as well, putting his headphones on and ignoring her.

Trying to ignore the fact that she was looking more sick and exhausted by the month. It wasn’t like he could do anything about her irresponsibility - he was already giving her the money he was making, and unless he wanted to get actively involved with the yakuza he wasn’t going magically get a job that payed more.

Maybe if she stopped spending her money on ways to forget the problem she’d be able to deal with the issue. Minato had already caved and started shoplifting food during the midnight hour when she stopped bringing groceries home.

Death was getting more worried and frustrated as time passed, and was curling up next to Minato in human form nearly every night for the midnight hour. Sometimes they talked, but most of the time they just leaned against each other to derive what comfort they could. Death clung to him like he was afraid he was going to disappear, which was funny given that of the two of them Death was the one only tangible for an hour.

Death and the mp3 player were really Minato’s only lifelines by this point.

He probably should have been paying more attention. Should have accounted for human vulnerability and desperation and realized what she would end up turning to. Though he really didn’t know what he could have done about it even if he had known - she wouldn’t have listened to him if he told her not to anyway.

December was cold.

It always was, but it somehow felt colder standing in the back alleys a few blocks from Kabukicho’s streets under a flickering street light with a dozen men from a local street gang staring down Minato and his cousin. That explained why she’d rushed in and grabbed him, told him to come with her and hurry and be quiet.

What had she expected to happen if she ran from her debt after borrowing money?

At least it wasn’t the yakuza, he guessed, but this wasn’t really much better. She was shaking with terror next to him, tears welling in her eyes.

“P-Please-” she stuttered, “Give me a little more time! I’m working on it, I promise, we both are, so-”

“It’s been over six months, the hell much more time do ya need?” The man in front snapped, pulling his jacket back to rest his hand on his gun. “I don’t appreciate games, girlie, we got our own expenses. You said you’d have it paid back by now, and I’m holdin’ ya to your word.”

“I-I’m trying,” she protested, hugging herself. “I swear I am, I thought I’d have it by now but the club across the street keeps bribing people to help them steal our business! I’m doing everything I can, if I can get another couple of months-”

“That’s what you said three months ago!” Another one snarled, pulling out his own gun to aim at them. “We’re not gonna keep buying into the lies of a drug-addicted whore!”

“N-No, please-”

What was Minato supposed to do here? There were a dozen of them with guns, and even with Death straining as hard as he could against the seal - to the point where Minato could barely stand from the pain and was very sure that it was about to shatter completely - there wasn’t anything he could do outside the midnight hour. An aura of death didn’t do much good when the men were both used to death and very much armed.

Could he buy time? Even if he did, there wouldn’t be anywhere for them to run. He didn’t think he could defuse the situation when they were this angry over broken promises. He wasn’t going to make stupid promises he couldn’t keep either.

Minato didn’t really care about dying. If he died here… it was fine. He didn’t care. But Death did, and Death was one of the only things that Minato could bring himself to care about anymore, so he should at least put some effort into not dying. And he didn’t really want her to die either. She wasn’t exactly good, he didn’t really like her and she’d made too many mistakes, but that didn’t mean she deserved to die for it.

Not that deserving it had ever saved anyone.

Minato sighed. “Is killing us really going to solve anything?”

The man in front narrowed his eyes at him. “I don’t like being lied to, brat.”

“Not saying you should. But she is still paying you back, even if it’s not as quickly as she promised.” He shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets. “If you kill us you can’t get any money from us. I’m not defending her, just pointing it out.”

“You offering to take her place?” One of the men in the back sneered.

Minato sent them a flat look. “I’m already giving her all the money I make, so I kind of already have.”

There were snorts and scoffs from several of them and the man in front smirked. “Sounds like you’re not in the right business then, boy. How about I cut you a deal - I’ll get you a job that you can pay us back in no time, and we’ll let you both walk away from this alive. Do a good enough job and we’ll even let you keep the extra.”

Well that wasn’t an obvious hook or anything. It was probably some sort of smuggling, and they needed someone as unsuspicious as possible to the police. He wasn’t really interested in getting dragged into that because people who got involved rarely left, but they didn’t really have many options either.

“Stall them until midnight and we’ll have plenty of options,” Death growled, clawing at the seal. “I hoped I’d be able to break out before then, but it’s more difficult than I anticipated.”

Ah. Killing them during the midnight hour was probably the easiest solution to the problem, yeah. Almost everyone turned into coffins, so letting Death break through the seal and then dealing with them one by one would be simple enough.

So Minato tilted his head at them. “What kind of job? I need details before I promise anything.”

“Do you really have room to negotiate here?” the man asked, pulling his own gun out and flipping the safety. Minato’s cousin gasped, stepping behind him and grabbing his arm.

Minato shrugged. “Not negotiating. Just making sure I can actually keep my promise before I make it.” He flicked a glance down at his mp3 player - ten minutes to midnight. He could keep them talking for ten minutes.

“Well I guess you’re smarter than that girl hiding behind you then. You don’t really get much of a choice in this if you want to live, though.”

That was assuming quite a bit that he cared about living, but whatever. “So? What do you want me to do?”

The man scoffed. “Well you’ve got spine and an attitude, I’ll give you that. It’s simple - we get packages goin’ to and comin’ from all sorts of places around Tokyo. You’ll be our little delivery boy. Nice, simple, and easy, yeah?”

Minato didn’t bother reacting. “Drugs or weapons? That will change how it needs to be handled.”

A nasty grin broke out across his face. “Oho, got ourself a bold one here, huh? Not even a flinch. Keep that attitude and you might do just fine. Bit o’ column A, bit o’ column B. Depends on the day, and our buyer or seller.”

Helpful. “That’s not much to go off of if you want me to start planning how to get them past the police. I didn’t grow up in Tokyo so I’m not as familiar with it’s blind spots as a native would be.” He wasn’t going to look at his mp3 player, he wasn’t going to try to count the minutes passing. Midnight would get here when it got here.

“Heh, I applaud the initiative but we won’t just leave ya flailin’ around blindly. We’ll pair you off with a couple of our other runners to start, let them teach you the ropes. We ain’t heartless, kid, just don’t like bein’ lied to.”

“Not heartless, merely willing to blackmail teenagers into smuggling illegal items for you,” Death hissed. “Be ready, Minato. It’s going to hurt when I break through the seal.”

“It always does. I’ll be fine; I’m used to it,” Minato thought back, watching the gang mutter amongst themselves. “So you say. I suppose if I get caught I’ll be left to fend for myself?”

The man shrugged lightly. “We gotta take care of ourselves first. Consider it motivation not to get caught, yeah?”

He’d figured.

“No. No, not again, not like this.” The smallest whisper came from behind him, and he had a moment of confusion followed by an unexpected bolt of dread as his cousin suddenly straightened with teary eyes and stepped out from behind him.

“Don’t-” he began- but she didn’t listen.

Why? Why did she choose now to grow a conscience?

“Enough! He’s got nothing to do with this - I’ll clear the debt myself, I promise! There’s no reason to drag him into this even more and I won’t let you-!”

A shot rang out. It echoed around the empty alleyway and rang loudly in his ears. Pain burned burned burned more fiercely than it ever had before in his chest and he was frozen, eyes wide as his breath struggled to come. He almost expected to feel blood on his chest, wished that he could feel blood on his chest, but it wasn’t him who’d been shot.

She let out a shuddering little choked gasp, and Minato turned to see her reaching up to clutch at the wound with wide, horrified eyes. He couldn’t- he couldn’t breathe as she staggered and fell- blood pooling around her as the light above them flickered-

-fire flickered and flashed off the metal, shimmering in the pooling blood, and he saw his mother burned and broken as she smiled hopelessly at him and begged him to live as she and his father and his twin sister wouldn’t and- he couldn’t move- couldn’t help- he was completely helpless-

The men jeering and bickering lightly was distant in his ears as the world faded into a distant grey and the pain burned and the world suddenly shuddered and shifted around them as the moon flashed green-

-and the men’s laughter turned into something startled and alarmed but he could barely hear them and he wasn’t listening-

-and a scream of pain suddenly echoed and bounced off the alleyway as the ground rose up to meet him and his knees hit the blood-covered pavement and his chest felt like it tore itself open and another more monstrous scream joined his own and he distant heard the gang’s voices rise as well-

The blood on his chest and staining his shirt was his own from where the seal had been torn open and Death emerged. The blood on his hands and on his knees were hers. Hers where she was lying on her front surrounded by the pool of her own blood, and he struggled to balance as he leaned forward and rolled her over onto her back. She was still just barely breathing, eyes glazed and distant through her tears.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, staring up at the green-tinged moon. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for everything. I’m sorry Minoru-kun, I messed up again. I didn’t mean to, I didn’t want this. Please forgive me, please I’m sorry, I didn’t want you to die. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to, I wanted to live and go see Paris and New York and London like we promised we would-” she choked and coughed, blood streaking her lips as her hand shakingly reached up. Minato reached out and took it, holding it between his as she struggled to breathe. “Please help me. Please don’t let me die, I have so many more things I want to do.” Tears streaked down her face to mix with the blood. “Please, Minoru-kun I’m not ready to follow you yet…”

Minato just distantly watched her and held her hand as she slowly went still and cold and even the echoing screams of the gang members eventually stopped. Everything felt distant and painful and he couldn’t bring himself to move even once Death returned to his side with bloody swords.

He wondered if he was supposed to cry here. If he was supposed to feel grief and loss the way everyone had said he should for his parents and sister. If he was supposed to feel anything beyond the disconnected exhaustion and pain of the shattered seal.

“What am I supposed to do?” he wondered aloud, staring down at his cousin’s body blankly.

A soft sigh came from above him, and suddenly Death had discarded his swords and knelt down to wrap his arms around Minato. “I think we both know that normal rules do not apply to you.” A pause, and his grip tightened. “I am sorry for that. It is my presence that has stolen pieces of your humanity and suppressed your emotions.”

Well they hadn’t talked about it, but it made sense.

Minato let go of her hand and twisted around to lean against Death. “Maybe. I don’t blame you for it though.”

“… I know. Perhaps it would be easier if you did.”

“I doubt it. I waste enough energy on just staying alive. Hating you or the robot on top of it just sounds exhausting.”

Death let out a noise somewhere between a sigh and a laugh. “I would say that I don’t understand you, but I unfortunately do after spending nearly ten years in your soul.”

Minato hummed tiredly, closing his eyes and trying to tune out the pain still stinging his chest and blood still seeping through his shirt. “Whatever consequences it may have,” he said quietly, “I’m glad you did. I wouldn’t have wanted to go through this without you.” His lifeline. One of the two things that kept him sane and grounded in the static haze of this life.

The Shadow let out a shuddering breath and hugged him tighter. “I am glad that my presence has brought you something other than pain, at least.”

“Death, you’ve been my best friend for most of my life now. I’ve been with you longer than I’ve been without you.” He reached up rest a hand on his shoulder. “You should know by now that you’ve given me plenty more than pain.”

Death went still for a long, long moment, and Minato waited for him to process and accept that before responding. When he did, he caught Minato off-guard. “I suppose I can’t deny that. But… Death is not accurate for who I am anymore. For whatever I may have given you, you’ve given me far, far more.” Minato blinked his eyes opened and craned his neck to look up at him. “I am Thanatos - and you have given me so much of yourself, shared so much of your soul with me even beyond the nature of the seal, that I have become a Persona.”

“A Persona?” There was psychology terminology in the back of his mind that he couldn’t quite remember through the exhaustion of the night’s events.

“An aspect or manifestation of your soul. It’s-” he paused, amending, “-likely a bit too complex to explain in your current state. In normal cases a Shadow is the parts of yourself you deny, a Persona is the part of yourself you accept and project unto yourself. I’m a special case, for obvious reasons. Consider me an extension of your soul who wants to protect you, for now.”

“That’s what you’ve been for years,” Minato muttered, closing his eyes again. “So even thought the seal is broken now, you’re staying?”

“Yes. I’m not leaving you alone. I’ll remain at your side for as long as I can.”

“Saying it like that makes it sound like you’ll leave eventually.”

Dea-Thanatos was silent for a moment, and Minato felt his bone chin brush his head. “… eventually I may have no choice, and I’m sorry for that. If I had my way I would remain by your side forever.”

“But?”

“But I have a feeling the events from nine years ago are going to come back and haunt us soon. Death was separated into many parts that were scattered, and I was sealed within you. If those parts are rejoined, Death will come again and usher in Nyx. I will have no choice.”

“We can’t just prevent the pieces from being rejoined?”

“I doubt it. Nyx, even incomplete, is the source of the midnight hour and the Shadows. So long as we exist, so to will they and so too will the Shadows. I suspect things will come to a head very soon.”

“And we’ll be in the center of it,” Minato sighed, tipping his head against him. “Okay. I still want you to stay with me. As long as you can.” He wasn’t sure what his life would be like without Thanatos, but given how much the Shadow had been a constant companion and push forward he doubted it would be better.

“I will. You should sleep - my breaking through the seal exhausted you thoroughly. I’ll keep watch and prevent any Shadows from coming near until the hour is over. From there, though…”

“Someone will see the bodies and call the police,” Minato murmured as he finally began giving in to sleep. “Since I’m injured too I probably won’t get in trouble.” Hopefully. Whatever Thanatos had done to the gang members, it definitely wasn’t something he could be blamed for.

“Then rest - you’ll need it.”

~ ᙙᙖ ~

Minato woke up in the hospital a week later.

It was incredibly disorienting to experience - the neutral tones of the room, the beeping of the monitor, the IV in his arm, the fuzziness in his head - but Death- Thanatos- rose up to press against the back of his mind with a familiar reassuring coolness that helped chase away the worst of the confusion.

As long as he was still here, it was fine.

It took several long minutes of just thinking and reorienting himself to remember what had happened. While he didn’t feel the grief or pain everyone seemed to expect from these things, there was at least a twinge of regret that things had turned out as they had.

But what was done was done - there was nothing he could do about it. No one could change the past. Time moved forward regardless of wishes.

So he move forward with it. When the police questioned him what had happened he was mostly honest - until the events of the midnight hour happened when he feigned confusion. His cousin had been shot by the gang, and yeah he looked like he’d been stabbed but he was pretty sure it had been from behind, and he had no idea what happened to the gang because he’d passed out after being stabbed with a knife.

He was pretty sure the police came to the conclusion that his cousin had been involved with a yakuza or something, but she clearly hadn’t told him anything about her job so he somehow wasn’t held responsible for any of her actions and was simply handed off to his uncle - a high ranking and very wealthy businessman also in Tokyo - although in the Shimbashi district instead of Shinjuku.

Sure. Whatever.

His uncle was… distant, at best. Much like his other cousin had been, the man was busy with his work and wasn’t interested in interacting with him beyond the necessities. That was more than fine with Minato - it was nice to be invisible and self-sufficient without expectation again. He even got an allowance without needing to get a job again. It was a minor relief he hadn’t expected to feel, but it was there.

He still went to the same high school for the final three months but his uncle explained that he’d be leaving for an overseas business trip around March so Minato would be transferring to a different high school with dorms for the next year.

Minato was incredulous for… several reasons. The fact that his uncle was going out of his way to ensure he’d be… safe? successful? not left completely alone? for the year was surprising enough. The fact that it was an incredibly expensive private high school was even more so.

At least until he was told the name.

Iwatodai High School, on Tatsumi Port Island just outside Tokyo Bay.

It sent Thanatos on immediate high alert, and Minato understood a few moments later. The Moonlight Bridge leading to the island was where his parents had died and Death had been sealed inside him.

The the island itself was where everything began.

Thanatos had been right - the events of nine, nearly ten, years past were coming back to haunt them.

He didn’t show any of the realizations on his face, but he had a feeling that this wasn’t a coincidence. The man gained custody of him and immediately went on a business trip oversees and sent him to the island where this had all begun nearly ten years ago?

Especially now that Thanatos had broken through the seal.

His uncle may not know anything about what had happened, but someone did and this was no coincidence.

And so, come April, Minato left Tokyo proper and got on the train heading to Tatsumi Port Island for the year. Even with his headphones on and music blaring in his ears it couldn’t quite drown out the world around him this time. The buzzing beneath his skin from Thanatos was agitating, stirring up his own feelings of apprehension.

Whatever was waiting for them - scientists and laboratories and Shadows and Personas and at the end of it all the personification of death itself, and maybe, just maybe, a robot girl who had looked at him with such sorrow ten years past - most of it probably wouldn’t be good.

He probably wouldn’t even survive it.

But at the very least, he thought as he stepped from the station and into the coffin-strewn street to the dorms, he wouldn’t be alone through it. Thanatos would stay with him.

Although getting to the dorms and finding him smiling cheerfully behind the check-in desk with a quip that he was here awfully late made him suspect that the Shadow- Persona, would likely be stepping up his obnoxiousness and pushiness towards socializing and trying things.

… the contract was unexpected, but Thanatos likely had his reasons - even if he was pointedly keeping them to himself for the moment - so Minato just sighed and signed the book. As he handed it over he asked, “Are you planning to tell me what that’s about?”

Thanatos just smiled enigmatically at him, folding the contract close to his chest as though it was something precious. “All in due time, my dear Minato. All questions will be answered and all secrets revealed soon enough.” He closed his eyes thoughtfully for a moment. “No one can escape time. It delivers all equally to the same end.” He focused back on Minato and the fold vanished with a twist of his wrist. “You can’t plug your ears or cover your eyes to escape.”

The lights of the dorm began fading around them, shadows creeping up the walls and across the floor, and Thanatos smiled and reached out to Minato as they wrapped around him.

“And so it begins.”

And then he was gone, returning back to Minato’s soul with something mischievous about him that Minato didn’t feel like figuring out, and Minato was left standing along in the dark entranceway.

No one could escape the end. He’d known that.

They both knew that whatever happened in this place, during this year, would be an ending of sorts. It was just a matter of what kind of end. He placed a hand on his chest, where the scar from the seal still lay. But whatever it was - they couldn’t escape it. They knew that.

So they would just have to take what happened as it was, no matter what it brought.

He was at the beginning of the end.

“Who’s there?!”

~ ᙙᙖ ~

This was fun! It was also twice as long as it was supposed to be, but such is my curse with writing these days. The Ryomina was more implied than explicitly stated, admittedly, but I got caught up in the childhood friends part of it.

Also blink and you miss it Akechi cameo lol

[thekingofwinterblog]

Thoughts on those "the downfall of One Piece" videos by that Drizzt guy? He seems to really like Brandon Sanderson, and with you quiting the same author, I thought it may be interesting to contrast views that seem to be so different in regards to the quality of post time skip One Piece

I watched drizzt's take once yeah... Im not doing it again, so i'll try to give my thoughts on his from parts i distinctly remember.

Well to start off with, my opinion on One Piece isn't entierly positive. I too regard it as a series well past it's prime and highpoint... I just dont regard what came after that highpoint as bad(with exception of one arc). It's a series that is good, but is dragged down by the fact that no matter hoe much it tries, it can never recapture the glorious highpoint that was water 7/enies lobby.

By contrast Drizzt regards One Piece post timeskip more in the vein of Naruto. A series with a very clear, and obvious point where it fell off a cliff, broke it's back, and had to crawl across rocky, muddy, marshy terrain towards the finishline.

So lets start with the shit i kinda agree with him. The Strawhat's dreams are for the most part the most underutilized part of one piece by a wide margin.

Ironicqlly, the two dreams i completely disagree woth being used badly are the ones he bitched the most about, namely Luffy and Zoro. Luffy and Zoro's dreams are different than the rest, in that they don't actually have to achieve anything in between. Beat mihawk, and find One Piece. That's it.

The fact that they just travel on their journey, getting stronger along the way is not really a problem.

He compares luffy negatively to luffy, but the reality is that both of them came into the political climate under very different circumstances.

Roger had to actually do it, he was the trailblazer, the one who proved that it could be done... Evsryone else that followed him, luffy included, all had to repeat his feats to reacht he top. It was from the scramble for that goal that the Yonko system came to be, with 4 pirate superpowers who simply did it better than all the rest... but none of them had the power to sweep the rest away.

And its into this system that luffy came in, and in the end toppled, setting the stage for the endgame.

Otger than luffy and zoro though, none of the crews dreams are used in a particularily good way.

Nami wants to map all the world... We never really see any focus on her map making, and later learn there are over 10 million islands on this planet... Good luck with that.

Sanji wants to find the All Blue... I genuinely dont think it's even been mentioned in any real capacity since all blue.

Usopp wants to be a brave warrior of the sea and meet his dad again... Wrll while the latter seems likely to happen very soon, if usopp hasnt done it by now, he will probably remain a man ruled by fear for the rest of his life.

Chopper wants to create cures to any disease in the world... Sorta used in an interesting way by contrasting him with caesar and Queen... But notice he didnt actually go on to fight and defeat either of them.

Robins dream is at least in the same way as Luffy's and zoro's in that there is a logical endpoint, but unlike theirs we really could have gotten way more insights into the past before through poneglyphs discovered in the story, rather than all the lore being dropped all at once. Oda really was way too focused on the ancienct weapons to realise that the poneglyphs could have been used to give us haunting snippets of character momenys, and pictures of lore from a dying age, that brought about the world government, that would all have fit together at the end.

To illustrate this point, we dont actually know the tone or the content of Joy's apology to the Mermaid princess.

Was it a harrowing apology for his own weakness? A nochelant eh, sorry things didnt work out? A We sure gave it our all huh... And yet it didnt change anything.

The fact is, we dont know. And that illustrates what a missed opportunity the poneglyphs actually were. There was so much room to use them beyond info on the ancienct weapons.

Franky's dream is also a missed opportunity, because we are never really given focus or attention on him fixing the ship or upgrading it.

Brooks is bizarre, because he could have achieved his dream at any point during the timeskip, and just... didnt.

And finally i dont remember what Jinbe's dream actually is... Which is a bad sign in its own way.

As for his other conplaints... I don't actually recall them much. It's been a while.

My own thoughts on one Piece post timeskip is that the problems boil down to a number of key issues.

1. Way too many new characters in each arc.

2. The age old One piece problem of Oda almost never killing characters no matter what means almost nobody gets to exit this story on a highnote, and when Characters do die, it usually feels more like an afterthought, rather than a defining moment(Pretty much everyone of luffy's allies who died in wano feels like this). Combine with point 1, and you get stupidly large casts that almost never get trimmed down, meaning every single arc is full of characters who almost always devolve into greek choruses in some form by the end.

3. One piece has completely changed it's fight structures, so fights where we get to see the action from beginning to end are much rarer, rather than the norm. There is a reason most of the strawhats post timeskip only has 1 or 2 good fights each under their belt(if that), when before every single one of them(except brook) had plenty of vool fights and moments. The new structure where we usually only get to see snippets of fights rather than the entire thing mrans oda can put in way more stuff alongside them, but it also means the fights themselves are usually lackluster.

4. several characters have become worse in one or several ways, and the narrative doesnt really avknowledge this. The biggest, by far, is Sanji, who not only is a worse character in every regard, but every single genuine development he got is undermined and undone. He gets a girl who genuinely loves him in the form of pudding. He hits a woman because of the german upgrqdes and decides to abandon them completely, only for his powers to sorta still be there maybe, but in the end he didnt actually hit the girl, it was an invisible queen. I cpuld go on, but oda had some many chances to shake up Sanji's character after the timeakip, and he backtracked on all of them.

5. Haki got fucking insane in wano. Oda made a gigantic mistake early in wano's arc, where Kaido took out Luffy in one blow. It was a cool moment, but it also meant that haki's ability to let fighters stay on their feet and recover from total beatdowns in record time had to baloon to insane degrees. And lo and behold, that is exactly what happened. Which sucks even more, because the qctual explanation about how luffy had to improve to reqch thw kind of offensive that roger, whitebeard, big mom kaido and shanks have and had was actually pretty cool and set up way before this. But unfortunately that's also introduced in the arc where luffy gets up again and again after kaido beat him unconcious, with no other explanation than Haki baby! It sucks any tension out of any fight when you know haki can allow people to just get back on their feet no matter how gravely theyre wounded.

6. Gear five having no actual foreshadowing/being a zoan.

Oda wrote himself into a corner with the biggest reveal one piece ever had... And there was only 2 ways to handle it to make it truly work.

Either go all in on foreshadowing this shit, and have characters point out that luffy losing his rubber body against sea stone when he doesnt when underwater is kinda wierd(which makes sense for a zoan, but not a always transformed parmecia), and judt highlight that there is a mystery here... So that when the reveal comes it all falls into place.

Or, and this is the solution i would have gone with, have luffy awaken and have all the powers of Nika luffy, just withouth a transformation. Id have accepted the cartoon logic becoming part of the world around him as the awakened powers of a rubber devil fruit no problem... It was adding in, oh he's actually a myyhical zoan devil fruit intrical to the world's history where oda lost me.

There are other flaws too, but these are the main repeating ones, you'll find all over the story after impel down.

Overall though, O would say One piece is a good story that suceeds in spite of its flaws... But those flaws very much means that it isnt a perfect story, and after the timeskip, it has never come close to reaching the high watermark again, and thats very the big problem. When you have reached the top, there is nowhere to go but down.

Arguably one piece biggest achievement post timeskip is arguably the fact that in spite of this, it has only had one bad arc, with the rest being good, to great if never outstanding.

The only bad arc of course being dressrosa. I could make an entire retrospective about all the ways that one dropped the ball.

[comraderomeo]

Where Skin Ends Ch. 1

Updated Every Other Thursday (hopefully)

Foreword:

Hello and welcome. This is the first piece of fiction I'm posting anywhere public since grade school, and I'm pretty excited and nervous about it. It's about a lot of things, many unsettling and esoteric, and is set in the BattleTech universe. However, I'm trying to not get too overbearing on the lore, for everyone's sake (including my own). Also, fair warning: these characters are stolen from my other, more central projects, so don't be surprised if they show up in a completely different setting. All in all, thank you for having a look!

links: ao3 masterpost

cw: alcohol abuse, vague mental illness, vomit mention

"I had just one quick glimpse out the porthole, to see the frosted dot in the distance becoming slowly massive, before the alarm went off. Sirens and red lights flashing all around put me and my lance into a run toward the 'mech bay. We stripped to reveal our um... coolant vests, and scrambled up the ladders into the cockpits of our veritable killing machines. The 'techs sped through the startup checks and then my Hatchetman, Jester, came alive. I felt Her warming me in livid spite of my wellbeing. Then, the commander came in over the comms, 'get those asses in gear, Alpha Lance! We've got Marik ‘mechs at the drop zone, so break a leg!' Jester spun around in her bay, and the world went silent."

You spent two months running patrols on some planetoid so devoid of life it couldn't even be considered backwater. Though, the mining company operating there was scared to shit of the inter-House war that had just broken out, even when it had just been rumors and speculation, so it was good money that got better daily. The patrols were so desolate. You only had the massive snow drifts and whoever was on comms to keep you company the whole time. Being so alone was perfect.

"The bottom of the bay dropped out and sent me into the fray. I came in right on top of an Atlas (you know what that is right?), and embedded my axe directly in his cockpit. Those fuckers are tough though, so it threw me off, and I got a torso-full of lasers at close range. It wasn't enough to take me down, though, and I got another chop in with a blast from my own weapons. That's when the rest of my lance got a good shot, and the ‘mech was lost in a barrage of shells and missiles and lasers. But, shrouded in the smoke coming off his melting armor, he kept coming. I used my other arm to get up close and push the weapons in his torso off angle, pulling the Atlas into a grapple. That sent his autocannon shots wildly off, but his missiles still got a bad hit on one of my lancemates. I knew at that point it was do or die, so I shoved my torso cannon right up against his viewport, and boom!!"

House Marik had arrived in just one dropship and launched an assault on the mining complex. It must’ve been producing something important, because they sent a lot of firepower at you. You had been out on patrol at the time they first popped up on sensors, and while the rest of the crew scrambled, you made the right choice to beat a hasty retreat. The truth is, you never stood a chance. In the following skirmish, it took all the skill your lance could muster and losing your hatchet arm to take down a single assault ‘mech, and the engagement had just let the other enemies slip by and annihilate the target. You probably could have taken at least two more, but not without losses.

"The blast almost tore my arm clean off, but the Atlas went tumbling into the ground, quiet as the void. Then, we turned our sights to 'mech two, a slightly smaller one that was trying to flank us. It was a bitch to hit, but we adapted-"

You ran and left them to burn. Another city to ashes.

"Mat! What the hell are you on about!?"

Your surroundings come flooding back into focus. You're at a bar somewhere you can't quite remember right now. How many drinks has it been? Last count says two, but that's beyond doubtful now, making your ability to rattle off that story coherently a feat in itself. There's a woman opposite you at the table. She's picking at a scratch in the finish and is almost certainly checked out of the conversation. You're sure there was a reason you were telling her about this encounter, and that it's extremely important that you make it impressive. However, the lack of oxygen in your brain had lost that reason paragraphs ago. Ashe, the lancemate who interrupted your flow, is certainly less far gone than you and looks bemused. She continues, "If you're going to be spinning tall tales about our exploits, at least make them believable. Who the hell’s going to think you actually chopped an Atlas in half like death from above?"

You feel the heat of embarrassment overtake that of inebriation. She could have just stayed quiet, because you have a good ending planned out and everything. What's her problem anyway? She has enough friends to go bother in the company, and her boyfriend is like right over there… somewhere. The woman across from you, who you'd neglected to get the name of like a prick, looks up with a bit of surprise and chimes in, "Oh! Sorry, I was listening, promise. It's a nice story and all. I mean, nothing like what it's actually like on the front, from what I know, but it would make a good story for one of those pulpy war novels or something."

This makes you indignant. You huff and say something stupid, "And, how would you know?"

She smiles back at you, barely wounded, and replies in practiced rhythm, "Corporal Hannelore Geelen, 57th Lyran Armored. A pleasure to meet you, MechWarrior."

Ashe laughs her head off in the background, while you- Wait are you crying? Why are you crying!? Ashe and Hannelore both look at you in different flavors of mortification. You didn’t even do anything that bad, but now you're saying sorry over and over again, while insisting you were a complete asshole. Be thankful your spontaneous bout of sorrow is quiet enough to avoid the attention of the whole damned bar. Some fear of predatoriness has clearly flitted into your mind and been amplified by alcohol, since you keep apologizing for being a dick, and a bastard, and a whore and really any bad word you can think of, without a care for relevance. The pair of voices in the background started to sound like a chorus,

"Hey hey, it's ok. The story wasn't that bad."

"Mat, what the fuck? Are you ok?"

Et cetera.

Et cetera.

Then, after some quick consideration, Ashe says something akin to "fuck it" under her breath and scoops you up into a fireman's carry to whisk you out of the public eye. That's quite the blow to the barely smoldering embers of your self esteem, and as if to spite you a fifteenth time over, the corporal you had accidentally been trying to have sex with gets up and follows along with you. A brief conversation occurs in the twilight of your perception. It's just mumbling to you really.

"I'm very sorry for this, Corporal. I can take care of them from here."

"It's no problem. I was bored anyway. Plus, I'm sure they'll be better company sober."

You pass out after that, which is likely for the best.

The air flees your lungs, as if they were cursed. You cough and writhe on the grassy hill you had been dropped upon not too softly.

“…and you didn’t have to drop them.”

“Didn’t mean to, but they’ll live.”

They’re talking about you, probably. You still feel the embarrassment lingering from the bar, but there that anger, still present and bubbling to the top. Being manhandled out of a public breakdown is a disgrace, but despite your clouded take on things, it’s clearly your fault to begin with. The figures towering over you are out of focus and haloed in blinding artificial light. Your brain cobbles together a pretty, angelic simile, which just makes you more angry. 

“Are they always like this?”

“Only in port, usually. They're a normal amount of feckless in a ‘mech.”

A mumbling starts to burble out from your lips, growing louder as you focus control into your fricatives and plosives and whatnot. It gets to a point where one of the angels stops mid-sentence to address you, “Care to share with the class, Mat?”

You think very hard about the words you want to say next. They have to be finely crafted and powerful enough to win you a quiet evening to recover from whatever this was. You take a deep breath, steel your gaze, open your mouth and rasp just barely audibly, “Fuck you. I am prestige. I outrank everyone here.”

Why do you keep claiming honor that's not yours? It's insulting.

The blindingly bright angel snickers, and its duller yet equally holy counterpart cocks its head in curiosity. 

“Is that true, Ashe? I took you for lance commander.”

“Maybe it was, but sure as fuck hasn't been for a while now.”

“Really? How's that?”

“Well, back in the Third Succession War…”

You feel their insolence radiating into you. It's unthinkable that you, the champion but inches away from nobility, the company commander with so many medals you jangled like a children's toy, the only mechwarrior with more than half a brain cell in this whole system, could be so debased. But, who are you to argue with heaven? Because, despite their angelicness being only a ruse, they can see you for what you really are in this moment.

“Wait a second, do you know if they've been drinking anything other than shots?”

“Wouldn't know. I was doing my best to avoid babysitting this time.”

“I see. But, in that case, I'll be back in a second.”

Once the other had left earshot, the remaining harbinger turns to you and speaks, “I swear to fuck, Mat. You're lucky she's nice. Otherwise, I would've dropped you in a drainage ditch and called you in M.I.A. Between the shit you and Ed pull, they wouldn't even question it.”

You say sorry.

“I don't really care about apologies. We have drills tomorrow, and you better be on point or I’ll make you as armless as your damned ‘mech.”

You say sorry again.

“I don't know what your problem is, but you really have to start thinking about how you're not the only one with them. I try to help, but I'm reaching my limit. We all are.”

You say sorry again. And, again, and again, and again, and again. You're curled into a ball now, trying to block out as much sensation as you can. A fleeting thought hits you, letting you know you'd make a good physics test question right now. It was kind of funny, but you find the idea insulting. You ask yourself where you're going from here, as if you could even stand in your state. You wonder what catastrophe will play out tomorrow, assuming tomorrow ever comes. You ponder if the ground could just swallow you here and now. A hand lightly taps you on the shoulder.

“Hey, Mat right? I got you some water. I suggest you drink now, before you regret it later.”

She set a bag of water next to you with a crinkle. It's probably one of the three litre ones they have in the stores here, the ones with the scenic river on the label. You should be thankful for this. You agree and say thank you as audibly as you can. She probably hears you. You take the water as an opportunity to distract yourself from the noise of thinking for a second and take a series of greedy sips from the plastic pouring tip. 

“Hey. Hey! Slow down! I'm not helping you back to housing if you piss yourself.”

You comply, and that's probably for the best because in your haste, you upset your stomach. You vomit about a third of the bag of water and a year’s worth of alcohol onto the grass. God knows how you were able to hold it back until now. 

“Eugh…”

“They haven't eaten, looks like.”

“Corporal, with all due respect, gross.”

Hannelore shrugs. You don't remember not eating, but you don't remember eating either. That's probably not a good sign. You try to push yourself up off the ground, so you don't have to sit next to the mess you made anymore. You do a decent job of putting your feet on the ground. The balance is harder, and you start to careen just as Ashe catches you by the shoulder.

“Alright, Sergeant [that’s you], that's enough embarrassing yourself for one night. I think it's time to get you home.”

“That's probably best for the both of you. It's a big day tomorrow.”

“Seems like it. I'll see you then, Corporal.”

“Stay safe, you two.”

You take a second to process the detail left so casually in that farewell. When you finally get it, you look at Ashe with a panic and say, “Wait, what!?” She laughs back at you and just says, “Tomorrow's going to be a weird one for you, that's a given.”

You think of all the different ways to get out of drills tomorrow. There's plenty, many of which involve some fairly unnecessary self mutilation, but you won't act on any of them. It's clear the thought of being in your warm bed all alone is too tantalizing to be interrupted by even the strongest self hatred. Outside your head, the walk home is quiet. Ashe seems to soften toward you along the way, but probably from fatigue over anything else. She leaves you alone, and you just try your best to focus on the path ahead of you.

Before you know it, you're back in your dormitory room, double locking your door behind you. You hold a heavy debate over whether you can handle a shower, but something distracts you, another stray thought. This is a bad idea, but you won’t be dissuaded. Now, you’re digging through your duffle that had been tossed into a corner and lived out of for the past couple days. Toward the bottom, there's a slightly crumpled piece of photo paper. You almost instantly notice a few creases that had appeared since the last time you saw it. That hurts you. It reminds you that this fragile memory will be gone one day. You cry again. It's ok to this time; it won't hurt anyone. I silently accompany you because, despite the fact I never held a name that wasn't yours, it’s impossible to not miss how I looked in those royal guard dress whites. It was commissioning day. She was there too, looking happy for the both of us, but like me, She also lost her name somewhere down the line. I feel bad now. I wish I could apologize for being judgemental and cruel, but you didn't hear me say it at first so can't hear me repent. I wish I could hold you and you me, so we could mourn together and maybe you would hear me say, “it's ok.” Then, things might get better, even slightly. However, that's not possible, so you suffer drunk and alone. I’m sorry. 

Thankfully, sleep catches you at some point, despite you being fully dressed and leaving your lamp on. I hope beyond hope that you have a better day tomorrow.

[vancilocs]

i think i have enough ideas for another lore dump (details subject to change obvi)

so. third kingdom. kinda turmoilic

about 30 years or so ago there was this violent thronestealing plot that happened. there was king, and queen, and the heir to the throne and probably some younger siblings, but in one night some usurper cousin or a more distant relative snuck in and slayed pretty much everyone; except the heir managed to escape with like a handful of servants (and her own porcelain bodyguard). she was like 13-14 at this point. also trans, but not out yet, except to her bodyguard. this is relevant.

(she had a bit of a teenage crush on him, not in any real way, more like youre really cool and nice and oh no puberty got my brain scrambled)

but the escape was really narrow and while trying to get out the servants got picked off and the bodyguard held his own final stand and stayed behind to let the heir escape. so she had to run off all by her lonesome.......

she wandered the countryside for a bit to get as far away as she could and through some avenues she ended up in contact with Skullface whos?? a general nogooder??? has a skull for a face??? (and she/he pronouns. whats her agab? its a secret) who promised that hed help her take the throne back and take revenge on her relatives, if shed in turn make him an advisor/give her another high rank in her court. she agreed bc why not, she was a tormented teenager who wanted revenge in any way

thus began the training. it was p easy to hide away bc the new monarchs goons were looking for a prince, the eejits, so she just went by the name she had already picked for herself (also skullface shaved off the horn over her eye/covered the mark and her dragon eye with bandages to further hide her identity. shes a poor injured girl leave her alone. dyed her red hair probably too, it was quite distinctive) and began training sword and magic both

maybe a decade passes and skullface has molded her into a right meanie, while also working on his own to collect willing people to help her overtake the castle. the new monarch wasnt very liked overall.

(now skullfaces original plan was to basically use her and groom her into being his puppet on the throne BUT he grew to genuinely care for her and now truly wishes the best for her and only wants to be by her side to help. not quite a surrogate parent, more like your parents cool sibling? theyre partners in crime)

so they storm the castle one night. princess stabs people and skullface blasts them with magic (first_4_notes_of_megalovania.mp3) and the peasants and knights theyve rallied help also. princess stabs her cousin/whatever to death and retakes the throne. yahoo

and in the basement they find her porcelain bodyguard. hes basically been there for 10 years (since he was 14 or so) for the castles new occupants to torment - basically chained him down there and gave him a sword and people would go fight him for fun. mans turned semiferal atp. but when princess shows up he recognizes her, knows her real name bc she told him all those years ago, and he does an argos from the odyssey and dies in her arms immediately after.

shes inconsolable obviously, that was the Only Thing remaining of her past happy life, her family is gone, her friends are gone, the usurpers destroyed all the stuff that reminded her of home, paintings burned furniture destroyed history books torn etc. also that was her FRIEND

so she delves a bit into necromancy with skullfaces reluctant help, and drags him back to the land of the living (not super well, but somewhat). hes mangled, needs some prostheses probably or at least joint braces, has nightmares and short-term memory issues. tends to cut off at his death and after that everythings a bit hazy. but he remembers his liege and loves her, appreciates her coming back like he knew she would, is her bodyguard again like the old times.

sometimes she kinda regrets it tho, was it fair to bring him back like that? she didnt ask him, hes been through so much, didnt he deserve to rest? but he seems happy so she guesses its ok. he says its ok. also wonders how long the magic will hold up, will he stick around forever now?

(hes doing ok. most people dont really like him bc hes a zombie but some dont mind. im p sure he even has a kid, but for some reason isnt together with the mom anymore. probably bc her family wont let her marry an undead. but im not entirely sure bc why would her familys opinion matter when she could just live at the castle since he has a very prestigious position anyways)

anyway shes slightly tormented. but she has friends. shes got bodyguard, and skullface as her trusty advisor and support, but also shes got a wife and kids, And shes fairly close with fenrir. him and konoe did offer support for her taking her old home back. konoe is a good help when it comes to political knowledge and aid, but shes had good talks with fenrir abt grief and how daunting it feels to suddenly be a ruler. when fenrir lost his kid she even came to visit to offer her condolences.

other ppl in the castle include a giant snake tail woman. mothman probably also.

[vestige-nan]

The Thorn in my Side, the Pebble in my Shoe: Ch 9

Summary: The main quest line in Mannimarco’s perspective, except that he falls chaotically in love with the vestige just as much as he chaotically hates them.

Fun stuff: Small violent imagery warning, it gets a little gory in Manni’s head.  As always, vestige is gender neutral and physical features are not described.

One of the many benefits of lichdom included sleep, at least not in access, was not a necessity for me. Though even when I was alive, I had cast a spell here and there to bend my physical limitations and wave off timewasting slumber. That fool, Trechtus, worried that the prolonged sleep deprivation—even by magical means—might have a negative effect on my psyche. But there was always so much work to be done, experiments to perform, ancient lore to study, unsuspecting victims to murder and then raise.

However, this didn't mean I couldn't sleep. Just that I didn't need to often and for much less time than a lowly mortal. But while sleep was more of a recreational pastime, dreams very rarely came to me. This, I assumed, had less to do with my status as a lich and more to do with Vaermina not wishing to catch the attention of Molag Bal.

As such, my confusion was appropriate when I woke up with a start from my dream. Details didn't slip from my mind, nor did I scramble to rack my brain for specificities. I remembered it wholly, vividly, and its' palpability sent chills dancing down my spine as I sat in my bed.

I sat on the throne in an empty hall of cold harbor. Only one other living being (if you could call them living) was in the hall with me. The vestige, flush with exhaustion and trepidation, gripped their weapon with spent desperation, their breath heavy and their legs trembling. Bones, rotten flesh, and all manner of decay littered the floor around them. I didn't carry the same exhaustion as they had. If anything, I was more bored than spent as I crossed my legs.

"Do you surrender?" I asked, inspecting my nails with passing disinterest.

The vestige swallowed and attempted to slow their breathing. I could see how their eyes wavered with uncertainty. They had resisted so fiercely before, but now, surrounded by fallen enemies and not having landed a single scratch on me, I could tell they were no longer so sure.

However, no answer was not good enough for me. I wanted an admission of defeat.

"Very well," I yawned with a flick of my wrist, and in a black swirl of flesh and bone from the vestige's fallen enemies, a great flesh atronach crawled from the remains and the mort. It let out a horrifying roar, its' whole face unhinging to bellow, and—as if they could take no more—the vestige collapsed to their knees, their weapon dropping beside them and the hands falling to the rot beneath them.

"I surrender!" Their voice was hoarse with exhaustion and stretched with desperation. They kept their head lowered, as if they couldn't bear to look me in the eyes as they succumbed to my power. "I surrender..."

A thrill of pleasure traveled my veins like lightning. What lovely words that would sound even better in a tortured chorus of agony.

I waved my hand and—to my delight—the vestige flinched when the atronach collapsed into blood, bones, and death. The vestige's breath left their quivering lips in relief, but the tension remained in their shoulders as I uncrossed my legs and stood. Step by step, I descended my throne, treading unconcerned through the carnage. When I reached the vestige, their form trembling in anxious anticipation, I circled their kneeling form as I inspected them. Their eyes unable to meet mine, the sweat of exertion trailing down their neck, their chest rising and falling in steady acceleration under my scrutiny.

To have the object of my ire in front of me so was sweeter than moonsugar and more intoxicating than skooma.

As I rounded about them, I straightened my back in a poise to feign indifference, "Again."

The vestige stuttered only for a moment, "I surrender."

"Again."

"I surrender!" Their desperation seeped into their voice.

I inspected my nails, "To whom?"

"To you! I surrender—" The vestige inhaled sharply, finally gaining the courage to meet my eyes, and I was filled with a familiar hunger to bask in that gaze. "Please, King of Worms, have mercy—!"

I couldn't help but laugh, "You level my armies, steal my chancellor, attempt to foil my plans, and you have the audacity to beg my mercy?"

The vestige opened their mouth, as if scouring their mind for an answer to respond, but ultimately could not speak.

"Are you too weak from my risen forces to respond?" I mocked as I knelt to their level. "Pathetic."

The rotten blood and flesh oozed between the vestige's tightened grasp against the floor as they looked away in shame, their brow knotted and their eyes cast down. I couldn't stop myself from grabbing their jaw and pulling their gaze back on me.

"Do not." My voice echoed in the hall, louder than I willed. "Look away from me."

The vestige's eyes flitted through a medley of emotions, each more tantalizing than the last. Visceral fear. Broken will. Reluctant obedience. And somehow, despite the thrill of seeing the vestige defeated and submitted, it was their look of captivation that filled my head with delirium. Eyes so trained on me, mesmerized by my presence—my power, that they couldn't pull away if they wanted. Attention entranced with deep, fervid interest restrained by tentative fear, the vestige was mine.

They were mine, and they did not have the will to oppose that.

What an exciting thought! The vestige, the unabashed nuisance in my machinations; the single obstacle between me and godhood, was mine! Mine to own, mine to maim, mine to torture, mine to kill, mine to resurrect, mine to mold, mine to command, mine to use— They were mine.

I suddenly became very aware of my hand holding their jaw. The warmth of their skin was radiant against my cold, lifeless fingertips. How strange it was that a soulless being could be filled with so much warmth, and that they could smell so sweet in a room full of corpses, and that they could look so tempting after being so irritating.

I loosened my grip to just a few fingers tilting their chin up, and they did not dare turn away from me. I forced my voice to soften, a voice I used often in my calculative manipulations, "I must admit, no being in Tamriel has bested as many of my forces as you have."

Their throat bobbed as they swallowed.

"Nor have any slayed foes as powerful as you have. Are you proud of this?" My eyes twinkled in a patronizing glimmer, "Be honest."

The vestige bit their lower lip, "Yes."

My eyes were drawn to their lips, "You should be. You will make a valuable tool..." My fingers lightly traveled along their neck, gliding to across their collarbone. "After I take you apart and reassemble you."

The vestige was shaking under my touch and I could feel their pulse quicken. I would enjoy draining the blood from their body, slowly, and making them watch as I replaced it with venom... But I enjoyed the warmth I could feel from their blush much more. "I— Please, King of Worms, there... there must be something I can do for your mercy? Anything!"

I laughed again. "I haven't even began your torture and you're already trying to bargain with me? How charmingly naïve..." I grasped their chin once more and they gasped at my abrupt movement. "Don't worry. You will have plenty to do once I am done with you."

With a snap of my fingers with my other hand, chains of magicka snapped around the vestige's wrist. A new and exhilarating panic swept over the vestige as they tried to pull from the chains in vain. The dread in their eyes as they looked at me made me dizzy and I was overwhelmed with the desire hold their heart in my hands; to feel the pulse of their heart quicken between my fingers and to see the horror in the vestige's eyes as I bring it to my lips to take a bite. I wanted to simultaneously hold the vestige so full of life, feeling their warm hand against my cheek and to bathe in their boiling blood, singing as I let their marrow sink into my skin. I wanted to swallow their cries in a kiss and lick the blood from their wounds and I wanted the vestige to love and hate every moment of it.

There would be plenty of time to indulge my madness later.

"Please! King of Worms, you don't have to hurt me! I'll do what you want!" The vestige cried, their voice taut with terror and their hands pulling at the chains.

"Oh, I believe you." I held the vestige's face in my hands and relished the captivation that never left the vestige's gaze. Even in their terror they couldn't resist me. "I want to hurt you."

With the vestige mine and their expression consumed with dread and panic, I pulled their face to me, pressing my cold lips against their warm ones, reveling in the taste of victory and the vestige's tongue. I could feel the vestige heat up beneath my hands, their warm blood a charming tell. I pulled away just as quickly, my smile as bewitching as the chains.

"Do try to last long." I cooed, "I don't want to fix your broken mind more times than I need to."

I downed three stamina potions in succession just to give me the energy to deal with whatever deranged dream Vaermina and Sheogorath must've crafted together as a sick daedric joke (surprisingly less violent than most daedric jokes go).

I leaned against my desk with one hand and rubbed my temple with the other, groaning low and exasperated. It was almost the perfect dream, and I would have even thanked the lesser daedric prince for what I would've assumed would be a glimpse into the future, save for the end.

How insulting! Degrading! To think I would lower myself so—so—low! As to kiss, or even to think about—!

I heard the vestige stir in their sleep through their visage and my head snapped to it. I watched them, holding the breath I don't take, with furious disgust. Then, the end of my dream began replaying in my mind and I could feel my face turning orange at the thought.

"Disgusting!" I said, not to anyone in particularly, but mostly to the vestige. I went to close the visage with a wave of my hand, but stopped when the vestige began to stir again.

Were they having a nightmare? Were they having the same nightmare?

My face burned brighter.

My eyes were melded to the visage as the vestige's brow furrowed and their breath quickened. Something cracked underneath the pressure of my grip but I didn't care enough to notice what it was. The vestige looked troubled by their nightmare, maybe even pained. Would they hate it? Would they be disgusted by it like I was? Would they wake up with fear? Glancing at every shadow with nervousness? What if they woke up flushed and unsure? What if they liked it? What if they sought out the mundus stones—sought out me? They did say I was pretty.

The vestige's lips parted and the ending of my dream replayed and replayed and replayed; the taste of their lips, the trepidation in their eyes, their breath on my skin, their warm blood beneath my cold cold hands.

"Hey, you alright?" Some young breton shook them awake, pulling me from my own personal oblivion. The vestige inhaled softly as they woke, turning to the man, slightly disoriented. "Looked like you were having a nightmare."

I ground my teeth. Did he wake them up before they reached the end of the dream? I couldn't tell if I was relieved or furious.

The vestige groaned, rubbing their neck. "Yeah, I was... It was really weird..."

I furrowed my brow. "Weird"? What did they mean by "weird"? "Weird" as in "I was disturbed by the intimate nature of the dream and I don't want to be tortured" or as in "I was intrigued by the intimate nature of the dream but I don't want to tell this breton that out of bashfulness"?

"I know this is going to sound insane but..." The vestige sat up, stretching, and I was too transfixed with how their bones popped. "There were dragons all over Elsweyr!"

I blanked.

"Dragons?" The breton man laughed, "Come on!"

"No, really!" They asserted, "And one of them was good!"

I waved the visage off, evaporating it from existence. I downed another stamina potion while wishing I had picked up a bottle of sylph-mead somewhere. I didn't care if the vestige was bedding Molag Bal himself, a few days not having to listen to the ramblings of that halfwit vestige would do me well.

In the meantime, sending a legion of undead after Vaermina's cult seemed appropriate.

[notyourprof]

DTS S1 Word Vomit

Temporarily veering away from primer territory, because I'm rewatching DTS S1 (I'm about halfway through at this point) and having some FEELINGS and need to get them out somewhere:

Daniel's personality hasn't changed much but his attitude is SO different. He was so focused on winning and especially on winning a championship. I'm thankful he's in a much better place now! I know everyone wants to win a WDC but I think it's a much healthier attitude to go out and have fun driving and do the best you can do, because sometimes your car is a tractor and if you spend all of your time thinking about how you won't ever be WDC, that's miserable.

They don't show even half of the times it happened but gosh it really drives home how unreliable the Renault engines were. So many engine problems leading to retirements for Max and Daniel both. (I think it's telling that now in 2024 Renault isn't supplying engines to anyone but their own team (Alpine) anymore.)

There's so much more we know about Daniel going to Renault that isn't shown and I wish I knew better what was known at the time but not included by Netflix vs. what we have learned in the years since.

For example, Christian talking about how they'd offered Daniel plenty of money is hilarious, now that we know how much more he made at Renault.

Speaking of Christian, is the entire DTS team frantically scrambling this week to re-cut as much of S6 as they can? Sending them energy and focus and lots of good food and caffeine.

Daniel going to Renault meant Carlos was all of a sudden out of a seat. Sounds familiar...🤔

I am petty and will probably never forgive ZB for how he treated Daniel and I'm feeling very vindicated in that opinion because he's so unlikable even in S1.

Every time someone crashes, the first thing that happens is their race engineer/TP asks if they are okay. This is normal, this is what we are used to. It keeps reminding me of that time that, while at McL, Daniel crashed and the first thing he was asked was "Is the car okay?" (See previous bullet point.)

Also feeling vindicated about having the opinion that Checo is a kind of reckless driver, and has been for awhile.

Related, Max is such an aggressive driver and I just...hope he is in the lead most of the time again next year so I don't have to worry about him playing bumper cars at 200+ mph.

It's fun to hear GP talking to Max on the radio and know it's him, even though he isn't named.

The lack of Merc and Ferrari in this season is both funny and sad, but bless the producers for finding some good press conference footage of Kimi. I think Kimi might have annoyed me if I were watching his seasons in real time, but looking back, he cracks me up. I'm glad I never had to manage him, though!

Pierre so excited about going to Red Bull, oof.

But all of the Pierre and Charles being friends since they were tiny lore is adorable!

I'm going to miss Günther so much! (I used to think that someday I would go visit the Haas HQ in North Carolina and...that's no longer something I'm particularly interested in.)

I'm sure I'm not the first to point this out, but I didn't remember the 2018 Toro Rosso car well enough to make the connection, but look at the similarity in the liveries between the 2018 TR and the 2024 VCARB. Obviously not identical, but I like the return of the blue, the red accents, and the silver bull!

Anyways, that's it for now, I hope someone enjoyed this word vomit. It is really interesting going back and watching S1 knowing so much more about the sport, the season, and what's to come. Also interesting how much a lot of the drivers have matured since 2018. I'm sure that happens all the time with drivers who stick around for many years, but this is my first time seeing it.