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#everything open save for Devil's Minion.
iwtvdramacd18 · 1 year
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anybody up for sending quick fic prompts? I need to get warmed up to actually finish half this stuff I got laying around
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catslvrr · 5 months
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heaven sent — 10. costume festival
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You woke up from the best sleep you had in years, face smushed into Danielle’s hair, and her face buried in your neck, legs tangled together. You could feel her breath fan against your neck, and you tried not to combust on the spot.
You observed her sleeping face — the way her eyelashes curled and the way the moles on her face were like constellations, and you tried to commit it all to memory. She shifted slightly, her nose brushing against your jaw as she began to wake up.
She sluggishly blinked her eyes open, and smiled shyly as you locked eyes. You frowned as she pulled back after leaving a chaste kiss on the corner of your mouth.
She tapped your nose. “Go brush your teeth. I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”
Of course angels don’t have morning breath.
Minji was already eating breakfast and conversing with Danielle when you came out to the kitchen.
“Bro,” Minji said, mouth full of rice. “I was telling Dani about the festival that our uni is hosting tonight.”
“Dani?” You looked at her questioningly.
“Don’t get jealous that we’re on a nickname basis,” she attempted a wink. “She’s all yours.”
You rolled your eyes, pulling out the stool next to Danielle’s to sit. “I wasn’t jealous.”
“We should go,” Danielle smiled, pushing a bowl of rice and spam towards you. “It sounds fun. I’ve never been to a festival before.”
“Really?” Minji gasped. “Do Australian universities not do that kinda stuff?”
“Oh, no,” Danielle backtracked. “They do. I just never found the time to go.”
Nice save.
“You do know it’s a costume festival, right?” You said, eating a spoonful of rice. “We don’t have any costumes.”
Minji checked her Apple watch. “You guys have around six hours. That’s plenty of time to go shopping and find one.”
Your eyes followed the grain of rice that flew out of Minji’s mouth in disgust. “What are you going as?”
“I’m dressing up as a minion,” she said proudly, as if it was something to be proud of. “I got the goggles and everything.”
“This is why you get no girls, bro,” you sighed. “Couldn’t you have dressed up as a somewhat hot character? Like, I don’t know, Harley Quinn, or Catwoman?”
She pouted. “What’s wrong with minions? Aren’t they funny? Don’t girls like humor?”
Danielle patted Minji comfortingly on the back. “I’m sure you’ll find someone who likes you for you.”
Minji glared at you. “You should be more like your girlfriend.”
“Whatever,” you puffed your cheeks. “Shut up and eat.”
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“I didn’t know angels could sleep,” you said as the two of you entered a random clothing store. “Messengers of God, sorry.”
“Technically, we could live without sleep,” Danielle explained. “But, I think anyone would go crazy if they didn’t shut their brain off for a few hours. So we choose to sleep.”
You hummed. “Smart choice.”
You walked over to the costume section, grimacing at the horrendous costumes on display. You grabbed a mask of an unknown hairy creature. “What the fuck is this? Who is this meant to be?”
She giggled at your appalled face. “Look at this one.” She presented another mask of an unknown green creature with bulging eyes and ginormous teeth. 
You almost gagged at how jiggly it was. “Get that away from me.”
You scoured the shelves, frowning at the disappointing choices.
“What about this one?” Danielle pointed to a matching devil and angel costume. It wasn’t a costume really, it was just a halo and wings for the angel, and a horned headband and tail for the devil.
It’s basic and overdone. But she looks like she likes it.
You smiled. “It suits us. You are an angel after all.” 
Your smile quickly fell when you saw her teasing grin. “That wasn’t meant to be a cheesy line. I meant it literally.”
“It’s okay to be cheesy,” she pinched your cheek affectionately. You grunted in response, pulling her to the checkout.
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Danielle gasped at the bustling crowds of people at the university campus, which was lit up with fairy lights and decorated with party flags. There were a plethora of stalls scattered around, some selling food, others offering prizes for games, and some even had brought in dogs and cats to pet.
“Woah,” her eyes shone in astonishment. “This is amazing.”
“Yeah,” you bit your lip at the sight of her. She managed to make the cheap costume look so good. “Let’s go find Minji.”
It wasn’t hard to find her, since she was half yellow. You were not surprised to find her at a takoyaki stall, munching away happily. She looked like an idiot with her baggy overalls and ugly goggles.
“Hello to my favorite couple,” she grinned sleazily. “Cute costumes.”
Danielle turned to face you, a pleading look in her eyes. “Can we buy some? They look so good.”
“Sure,” you mumbled, following along as she pulled you in line. While Danielle was busy admiring the festival, Minji directed an exaggerated look at your intertwined hands, then made childish kissy faces at you. You flashed her the middle finger (with your free hand), mouthing ‘fuck you’, to which she responded by sticking out her tongue like an immature brat.
Unaware of this interaction, Danielle turned back to face Minji with a smile. “You should join us tonight! I haven’t had a campus tour yet.”
Please say no. 
“I’d love to,” Minji accepted graciously, like the spawn of the devil she was. You just knew she was internally cackling at your misery. You paid the vendor and fed the takoyaki to Danielle, and forced a smile.
“Where to first?”
The three of you went to explore every single stall at the festival, much to your chagrin, but seeing Danielle radiate with joy made it better. Minji was still irritating as always, feeling the need to share unnecessary anecdotes every five minutes.
“You know, at this very tree, I pretended to confess to Y/n as a prank. You should’ve seen the look on her face! She was so flustered she started stuttering and shit,” Minji laughed boisterously.
“Shut up,” you glowered. “You wouldn’t have known what to say either.”
“You’re so cute when you’re shy,” she teased. “How did you react when Dani confessed to you?”
You choked when Danielle responded. “She confessed to me first.”
Minji gasped. “No way.”
You opened your mouth to explain yourself, “Actually-”
Danielle shoved ice cream (sprinkles and all) in your mouth and kept going, “Yes way. It was so romantic. She set up a cute little picnic and scattered rose petals everywhere.”
What the fuck. Where did she even get that story from?
“Oh my god,” Minji fanned herself obnoxiously. “Y/n, you charmer.”
You had to resist the temptation of throwing the icecream in Minji’s face. Karma did strike later, though, when she tried to pet a cat and it smacked her square in the face, knocking off her minion goggles. It left a red imprint of a paw on her face.
(Danielle had to pull you to the side because you were laughing too hard.)
This cycle continued for the rest of the night. Despite Minji’s intrusive presence, the kiss you and Danielle shared at the end of the night during a fireworks display made it all worth it.
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Found Family Tournament Round 1 Part 27 Group 131
Propaganda and further images under the cut
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Devil's Nest Gang: Greed the Avaricious, Roa, Bido, Martel, Dolcetto, Ulchi, & more
Shepherds: Chrom, Lissa, Frederick, Robin, Sully, Vaike, Maribelle, Sumia, Stahl, Kellam, Miriel, Panne, Olivia, Cordelia, Henry, Tharja, Gaius, Ricken, Lon’qu, Nowi, Gregor, Libra, Cherche, Virion, Say’ri
Submissions are still open!
Devil's Nest Gang:
semi-immortal homunculus fleeing his terrible family. the handful of government experiments he rescued from a lab to be his minions. the various humans, cast out by society, who came to work for him under his protection. the tragedy that they all faced in the end together, protecting each others backs until the end, and the realization after all was said and done that a group of close friends was all he ever wanted... greed and his chimeras are THE found family of all time. fma is full of family relationships, both biological and not, but theres something especially resonant to me about greed escaping his birth family and finding kinship in the shadows with his fellow outcasts, all of whom love him just the way he is. something something lgbt metaphor. they dont get much time on screen but their impact on the series is huge, and in particular bidos undying loyalty to greed is what brings back his memories after hes been "purified" and winds up setting the scene for the entire final battle. there is so much sadness but so much love. all of them would and Did die for one another. roa and dolcetto sacrificing themselves for martel, martel dying in a last-ditch bid to avenge them, bido dying out of trust in greed even after everything about the situation should have told him not to, greed eventually dying to save his NEW friends... they make me cry! do you ever lay in a puddle of your own tears and think about a bunch of furries at a gay bar. i do.
Shepherds:
They’re just a bunch of neurodivergent mercenaries gathered by a himbo prince, who are tasked to save the world and their descendants from the apocalypse.
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nescaveckwriter · 3 months
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Hurting Angel - Chapter Two 🐞🥹
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Crowley x Reader
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A/N: Hey my bugsies, for some kind of reason I just love writing about Crowley, I hope you all enjoy it just as much 🐞🥰
Side Note: Thanks for all the love and support 🐞🥰🩷🧡❤️
Warnings: Violence, mentions of blood and medical equipment, some light swearing, punching, mentions of weapons if anything else let me know.🥰🐞
''What was that noise?'' he demanded
As the man walks closer towards his bodyguards, he sees the car, with the woman inside, her face on the steering wheel, blood streaming down her side, lifting a brow ''well are you two just going to stand there, or remove the woman from the car?''
''Sorry boss!'' he mumbled, the two remove the woman gently from the vehicle, thinking the injuries she sustained, is from the car crash, they drag her onto the grass. 
Glancing at the woman's body, kneeling down to check for a pulse, she's breathing, but barely, scanning over her body, her skin color is pale, some open gashes on her face, her body covered in what looks like a comforter, the left side is drenched in blood, his fingers slowly unravels the comforter from her, exposing the sowed up gash, blood coming from the wound, let's him know its, not older than a few hours maybe.
Removing his black tailored suit jacket, applying pressure, his voice bitter, ''You minion'' showing towards the shorter bodyguard ''get Doctor Pierce, on the phone, tell him its urgent'' cocking his head towards the taller guy, ''You clear the dining room table''
''But Sir, shouldn't we call 911'' he stutters
''I said now, fool!'' he sneered
He cradle's the woman in his arms gently, carrying her towards the dining room table, placing her down softly, still applying pressure, he feels her body moving underneath his hands, he's voice low ''lay still love'' hearing her whine and whimper, ''I know your in pain, help is coming soon'' observing her face, the color around her plum lips, turning slight bluish, her eyes, half way open, but tired, trying to soothe the pain she must be in, he thumbs away the stray tear running down her cheek. 
The rising and falling off her chest is getting slower and slower, till there's no movement in sight anymore. ''Where the hell is the doctor'' he shouts, ordering one of the men to hold pressure on the wound as he starts chest compressions, he does not stop despite the sound off her ribs cracking underneath his hands.
Not taking sight of the older man entering his house, finding his way towards the dining room table, the things that man has seen, the wounds he healed, the bullets he removed, the men he couldn't save, always on stand by for the devil, of course he'll complain about it, but in all honesty this man, everyone believes to be so evil, gave him purpose again. Walking towards in he surely didn't expect a woman laying on the table and Crowley administering CPR. Jumping right into action, ordering the men to unpack everything, all while scolding them, for not explaining the whole situation on the phone.
What seems like hours, he finally stabilized the woman, after doing a life blood transfusion from Crowley to the woman, luckily he's blood group is 'O' which makes him a universal blood donor. Removing the gloves from his hands, shaking his head, ''The fact that there's people in this world that will purposely butcher people to make money, sickens me'' his voice revealing the frustration. 
''Hey Doc, how is she,?'' his voice tight
''Truly only time will tell, I can't simply give you a straight answer, there's a chance that the wound might get infected and she'll need to take immunosuppressant's for quite a while, hoping it works well, she'll live a normal life with just one kidney, but there can be complications.'' he sighs
Mumbling underneath his breath ''when I get ahold off these animals I will unleash all hell on them'' his eyes darker than normal.
A half-smile on the doctors face ''I will get the required medication she needs tomorrow''
''Thanks Doc, you will will be well reimbursed for everything'' he confirmed
''The only payment I need is for her to get well again,'' he announced
The two men sat at her bedside, not really saying anything, just keeping an eye on the fragile human being, hoping she pulls through. Every now and then the Crime Boss gets up and walks around making calls arranging that the car she came with, will be destroyed, as well as phoning all his contacts, so that he can figure out what organization or syndicate is into organ trafficking, its his streets and there are damn rules the people around him needs to stick too. No human or organ trafficking is allowed.     
Opening her eyes, turning her head to the sunrays, pushing threw the opening in the thick dark blue curtains, the windows is gigantic, her head is spinning, not fully comprehending where she's at, glancing down, her body is tugged underneath a thick blanket, removing her arms slowly, something pulls at her skin, focusing on her hand now, inspecting the needle that's inserted into a vein, that's attached to a tube-like cable, going up the way to a drip, with her free hand she removes the blanket exposing her body in an oversized buttoned up shirt, there's cables that's sticking to her chest, glaring over to the side off the bed, there's monitors, with readings of heart beats per minute, what looks like blood pressure and something else. 
Still a little hazy, she tries to remember what happened, and like waves it come crashing to her, the bar, the bathtub with ice, the open gash on her side, the car she stole, the crash, and then the men with guns, by now, the alarms on the monitors are alerting everyone that her blood pressure is skyrocketing, her stomach is turning, her breathing rapid, she pulls at the chords, removing it, from her chest,  then tugs at the needle in her hand, quickly sliding out of the queen size bed, the oversized shirt, hanging loosely over her thighs, tiptoeing through the room, until she comes in front of the wooden door, she hears fast paced footsteps coming closer, searching in the room for something, to her left she sees a vase, grabbing ahold of it, she stands against the wall, as soon as the door opens, she hits the back of a grey man's head.
Not wasting anymore time, she starts running, the adrenaline too much, to think about the pain, she needs to get away, not a single clue of where to go, she runs down the stairs, hoping to find the way out, to find safety. Her feet brushes the last step, tilting her head to the right , there's what seems like to be a dining room and then towards her left, there it is, the big entry way, double wooden doors, she takes off towards the door, but all of the sudden she feels strong arms grabbing ahold off her from the back, a British accent that leaves her cold.
''Where do you think your going?'' he questioned
Her voice throaty ''Let me go you freak''
''Calm the hell down, and I just might'' he expressed
A muscle in her jaw tightened as she gritted her teeth. ''Fine''
He let her down easy, afraid to hurt her. She turns around taking in the man, his hair dark, his eyes even darker, and without any warning she balls a fist, punching him in the jaw. He doesn't even stumble backwards, instead he smiles, as he licks off the drop off blood that formed on his lips, shocked she balls her fists again, before she could punch him again, he grabs ahold off her wrists, his voice, husky, ''Is this the thanks I get for saving your life love''
Her eyes wide, her breath shaky. ''For all I know you have some hero complex, first you butcher me, then save me, and then you keep me alive as part of a sick game.''
A giggle escapes his lips, ''Aren't you a clever one'' 
''Let me go, and I won't call the cops, I have people looking for me, so it'd be better for you if you let me go'' she demanded
''Oh love, lets face it, no-one is looking for you, you've been here for four days, and there's no missing person reports, of anyone matching your description.'' he hissed
Her eyes wells up with tears, ''W...what do you mean four days?''
''The doctor can explain why, but yes four days'' his voice low
Tears running down her face, ''You need to let me go, my daughter s...she's probably thinks I abandoned her, please just let me go, I won't report it.''
The sadness and fear in her eyes, gives him a sharp pain in his chest, his voice, soft and low ''Let the doctor check you out first please, then we can go get your daughter'' he lets go of her wrists.
''No, I'm not coming back here, and I'm definitely not bringing my daughter here.'' she exclaimed
''Listen I understand why you might feel I'm the bad guy, but I'm not, not entirely anyway'' he smirked
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Before she could say anything else, she feels a pinch of a needle in her neck, making her limbs go numb. Before she crashes to the ground, the British man with his dark eyes catches her. The last thing she heard was the man letting out laugher as he said, ''she's got you good Doc'' before everything went dark.
Chapter One Here 🐞
Chapter Two Here 🐞
Chapter Three Here 🐞
Chapter Four Here
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danmeiarchive · 2 months
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Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know by Cyan Wings -- a brief review (no spoilers)
80 chapters + 2 extras
My Rating: ★★★★★ / 5
I went into this story fairly blind / un-spoiled as to the plot and characters and I really enjoyed it. If you like The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System I think you'll like this one. It's a pretty quick read (I read it over the course of 2½ weeks) and it also feels a bit lighter of a read -- in the sense that there's not a bunch of twists and turns or faceslapping going around. There's still narrative weight to the characters' choices but it feels more focused on the emotions of the characters than on making a dogblood drama.
I also really enjoyed the cultivation meta in this book -- there were sections where we would get insight into why the main character did a certain thing and how he belived that would / could impact the universe / world / dao.
Check for content warnings under the cut.
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What kind of story is Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know?
This is a story that really breaks the fourth wall and doesn't take itself too seriously. Like Cyan Wings' other stories that I've read it is really funny and the characters are fantastic. If you like transmigration novels but dislike the trope of an all-powerful manipulative "System" that keeps that transmigrator in check then try this one! The main character is NOT a transmigrator but he does gain knowledge that breaks the fourth wall and there are times when he considers the people around them as if they were characters in a novel. Several of the main characters can also be read as asexual and / or aromantic which is really nice too.
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Throughout the story the main characters are growing and learning more about themselves and each other -- there's several times when a character reflects on how they had misunderstood another character or not known what was really in their hearts. This leads to the story feeling very emotional and tender as you slowly get to know the characters. This is mainly in regard to the main character and his love interest but its true for some of the supporting cast as well.
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Ultimately it feels like a story of two people (who whole-heartedly trust each other with their lives) slowly opening up and allowing themselves to be vulnerable with the other. There's also a good portion of the story that talks about heart demons and how that affects one of the characters -- it becomes a plot point even. It certainly takes the main pair a lot of work but once they are finally on the same page (ha) and treat each other as equals... it's very sweet and intimate.
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Who are the main characters?
Without going into details here's a little bit about our main squad:
WenRen E - Our main character. WRE is the leader of the XuanYuan demonic sect and an absolute badass. He somehow reminds me of both Yan Wushi from Thousand Autumns and Wei Wuxian from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. He is arrogant and prideful but also cares SO MUCH about the commonfolk in the world. He is absolutely ruthless when he needs to be but he has a line that he does not cross and he forbids his minions from crossing it either. There's also a lot of times where he's sussing out why or how something works a certain way and his understanding of the dao and the universe felt profound.
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Yin HanJiang - Our love interest. There's a specific post I've seen that is coming to mind but I can't remember how it's phrased... YHJ is loyal to WRE and ONLY WRE. He is submissive in the way a guard dog is -- he would follow WRE's every order and do everything in his power to protect him but at the same time he would not hesitate for a moment to attack anyone he viewed as a threat to WRE. At the beginning of the story he keeps a certain distance between himself and WRE but as the plot develops that distance becomes smaller and smaller.
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BaiLi QingMiao - the protagonist of the book that appears in WRE's hand which serves as the impetus for the story. WRE finds himself frustrated and confused at her actions a fair amount of time but over the course of the story she too grows up and gains a new outlook on life.
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Shu YanYan - a seductress demonic cultivator. She only dual cultivates with consenting partners and uses her cleverness to manipulate people. She also seems fairly uninterested in romance -- I think she alludes to not wanting to get her heart broken but she also seems very happy as things are with her various lovers.
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Qiu CongXue - hands down my favorite character in the story. I liked everyone but QCX is always speaking her mind and stirring up trouble. She has strong himbo energy and I don't want to spoil anything about her, just know that anytime she comes up it's going to be great.
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What is the plot of Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know?
One day a book suddenly appears in WenRen E's hand. This is notable because he is a very strong demonic cultivator and he didn't sense anything before the book appeared. So he looks at the book and decides to take it very seriously. He reads it. And he discovers that he is a character in a trashy romance novel, as is his most trusted subbordinate Yin HanJiang. He becomes very curious to find out if the other characters are real and if the events that happen in the book are destined to come true or if they can be changed. So he sets off and meets the protagonists of the novel and begins experimenting. Without spoiling things he is especially concerned about what happens to Yin HanJiang in the book. He also wants to know more about the novel's protagonists and their motivations.
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Click 'keep reading' to see trigger warnings.
ptsd, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, violence, manipulation and abuse, mention of torture, war, survivor's guilt, etc. The characters have some tragic backstories and there's some things in the novel that WRE reads that are disturbing -- but ultimately there's not "on screen" torture that the characters go through, the novel instead focuses on what's going on in the characters' psyche.
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o0anapher0o · 9 months
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Four theories about the Devil’s Minion
First off, I don’t claim this is in any way comprehensive or that I have come up with any of those.  I might have overlooked something really obvious, with this show that happens quite frequently. But these are ideas of what I think could have happened with Armand and Daniel in the seventies, based on the information we have so far, which is that they met in the seventies and Armand saved him from Louis, and that Daniel’s oldest daughter was born in the mid to late seventies (judging from the ‘seven years before car seats where mandatory‘ bit in Daniel’s autobiography).
1.       The Devil’s Minion hasn’t happened (yet). I would say unlikely given they did meet, Armand decided for some reason to save Daniel’s life and Daniel’s memory of the time is shot. None of that would be necessary if nothing had happened (and where would be the fun in that).  But it is of course possible that it’s all a red hering.
2.       The relationship lasted shorter than in the book. Considering the show is on a condensed timeline and all the other relationships are also shorter, it would make sense if the ten years Armand and Daniel were together in the book would have been condensed to two or three years. Personally I’m not a fan because I think to get to the breaking point Daniel reached in the end in the book it would take more than a year or two, but it seems very logical for the show to do.
3.       Alice is Armand. The theory that Armand twisted Daniel’s memories of him into memories of a first wife ‘Alice‘ and the reason Daniel’s eldest daughter doesn’t talk to him is that she doesn’t exist. Now I love this theory. I have written this theory. It’s fun and messed up and insane. But I don’t think it’s true. It seems like a neat way to circumvent enormous gaps in Daniel’s memories and it crazy enough that Armand would do something like that but. The sentence ‘my ex-wife reminds me I never owned a buik‘ indicates she was in some form consulted for Daniel’s book and that they therefore are  (or where at the time) still in contact.  Which makes sense for the woman he has a child with,  but not for the vampire who erased himself from his memories. There is also no reason for Armand to add a fake daughter to the story, a lie that is unnecessarily complicated and difficult to maintain longterm.
4. There was overlap with Armand and Alice. This one seems the most likely to me.  For one it fits the timeline. Two, it explains incoherent memories (maybe Daniel did own a buik with Armand that Alice didn’t know about). But most importantly it would explain why things went differently than in the book.  One of the main reasons Daniel in book could never get away from Armand (other than being addicted to his blood) was that in the end he had nothing/no one else left he cared about. He was alienated from friends and family and barely working anymore. The only future he could see was as a vampire with Armand. If Daniel had had another relationship and a child that would have opened the option for another future. Another future he might have wanted (or that Armand was convinced he wanted). A child changes everything. And Armand in the book already assumed Daniel would grow to resent him if he made him a vampire, if doing so also meant taking him away from  his child it makes a ton of sense for Armand,  especially given his very (for vampires) recent experience with Louis and Claudia to not want to repeat that mistake. If he’s going to lose Daniel anyway at least he can let him have a life.
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saintunhinged · 1 year
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I adore how you write Asra so much 😭 if you feel like a request, 32 or 36 would be 😩👌 either way, your stuff is awesome! So glad I found your page!
oh my god, thank you so much ❤️‍🔥 i seriously had too much fun writing this. hopefully it lives up to your expectations <33 i ended up doing both
parings: asra alnazar x reader
content warning: death , blood .. the sweet taste of angst fr
(32) is red in bold italics (36) is purple in bold italics
The sky flashed white with lightning, occasionally replaced with an eerie blood red backdrop that cast over the destruction of Vesuvia. Buildings crumbled to the ground before you. Stalls set up by merchants were split into pieces and scattered everywhere. The large cracks in the ground allowed you to see a red glow emitting from underground.
The world around you was proof that you had failed. Even with the help of your friends, you weren’t strong enough to stop the devil, and ultimately the town paid the price for it.
Nadia and Portia fought in the palace, but ever since the beginning there had been no sign of them. In the forest, Muriel was supposed to take care of the devil’s minions, and Julian insisted on going with him. But everything was quiet, and they still hadn’t returned. They were all meant to keep each other safe and you believed that they would. You had to trust that they were okay.
Asra disappeared from your side in the middle of the fight, now finding him was your first priority. “Asra!” You shouted. No response. You tried again and again, but a voice never replied. You felt fear begin to surge through your body.
You were more than exhausted from the amount of magic you used, but it didn’t stop you from trying to reach out to him. When you did, you felt it. Faint as it constantly flickered in and out, struggling to stay connected with yours, but you knew he was trying.
‘Asra hurt!’ You heard faust in your head. The panic in her voice was evident. You ran, your feet carrying you towards the pull of his magic.
You find him lying on the broken concrete. His white hair caked with dust and blood. “Oh my— Asra!” You rush to him, dropping on the ground when you’re at his side.
Faust is curled up next to his head, viciously swaying back and forth over him. ‘Help!’ she pleads.
Blood soaked through the front of his white shirt. His face his is drained of it’s natural vibrant color and his lips are void of any moisture.
Asra can hardly bring his voice louder than a whisper. “There you are.” he shakily breathes. His face contorts in a mixture of pain, and you worry it hurts when he speaks.
“Shh, I’m here, you’re okay. We’re gonna get you out of here.” You supress the urge to throw his arm around you and carry him somewhere he can be treated, but you know moving him would only bring him more pain.
“I’m so tired.” He managed to choke out. Tears ran freely from the corners of his eyes with each weary blink, leaving clear paths on his dirt stained face.
Though your eyes sting and tears of your own threaten to spill over, you keep them at bay for the both of you. “It’s okay, I’ve got you.” Desperate to save the one you love, you attempt a healing spell. “I-I can fix this. Just keep your eyes open please.” Your voice trembles as you carefully place your hands over his wound.
When you try to call upon your magic, nothing happens. “No,” you quietly mutter, “no no no. Why isn’t it working?!” Frustrated, your tears can no longer be contained. They fall from your face and onto his shirt.
His hand weakly falls on top of yours as he gives it the smallest squeeze. “It’s okay..” His breathing is shallow and slow. A pained smile forces its way onto his lips. “I had to see your face.. one last time... I held on..”
A sob falls past your lips as you tightly shut your eyes. Your head shakes with vigor, “No. This is-isn’t the last time.” You cry. But the silence that follows proves you wrong. It indeed was the last time, and the shattering scream that leaves your throat is inevitable.
A booming voice echoed throughout the town. “You couldn’t save him. You couldn’t save any of them.”
The world around you is suddenly dark. When your eyes fly open, you’re confused to be in the confines of your bed— in the arms of your partner.
Gentle, violet eyes are already staring at you. The warmth radiating from him easily gives you a sense of comfort and security. “Asra..?” you softly murmured. You’re quick to bury yourself closer into his embrace. He wastes no time in tightening his hold around you.
While you were sleeping, he tapped into your subconscious instead of shaking you awake. He didn’t want to take a chance in startling you more.
You feel that your eyes were wet, the tears from your dream bleeding into reality. “I know, love. It’s okay, it was just a nightmare. I’m right here.” And like many times before, he doesn’t have to say it for you to know he’s the reason your nightmare came to end.
He whispered loving affirmations in your ear, lulling you back to sleep. “I won’t let any harm come to you.” He watched you sleep, confident in knowing your dreams would only be the sweetest for the rest of the night. “I promise.”
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nalyra-dreaming · 11 months
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Hello, Nalyra 💖 I'm so hugely intrigued by the fact they aged up Daniel so much on the show, and not just that but he also has Parkinson desease, and that opens up so many possibilities. I wonder what it's going to happen, maybe his Parkinson gets worse and Armand turns him into a vampire (old and everything) and since Fareed is already there they can use vampire blood to cure him 🤔 There's also A LOT unsaid about what hapenned in the 70's with the first interview with Louis, and Armand was there, said he saved Daniel's life and aparently Daniel... didn't remembered it 🤔 My take is that whatever hapenned there that night, Armand seems to have used his Mind Gift on him (and aparently Louis aswell) 🤔 What are your takes on this plot, do you have any theories about this bc honestly my head just hurt to think about all the possibilities 😅
I believe they already started with the treatment for him...
I think there is a lot more that happened after that night back then, and Daniel has forgotten most of it - and we will get to see some of it next season.
I think the majority of the Devil's Minion plot happened in the 70s, and then... Armand did not turn him, because Queen of the Damned likely didn't happen (at least not as in the book). And he let Daniel go, wiped his memory. Daniel married his second wife (I do think the theory that Armand is the first wife makes sense, the eyebrow thing was just too weird in a show where every line counts^^).
And then, they let Daniel live his life, but they did keep taps. And then Louis decided to bring them back together :))) That's more or less my take.
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peskygirl13 · 3 years
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MK SO-
I just got the Pokémon SWSH DLCs and I was wondering what it would be like for some legendary Pokémon to come to twst and cause some trouble(Legendarys I’d like to do ( you c an pick just one: Kyogre, Giratina, or Groudon)
If you can i want it to be just Diasomina!
This turned out longer than I expected and I got so mad with myself because I was almost done with writing this and I accidently deleted all my new work, so I had to start over from my last save point which is one of the reasons it took so long to post.
I’ve been binge playing the old Sinnoh games and rewatching the anime, so this was fun to write (despite me deleting my work). 
This will have references to the Pokémon Platinum game, so spoilers if you haven’t played the game and plan to. 
Hope you enjoy!
Malleus's favorite time of the day was night time. Night time was the best!
The world was at peace, it was quiet, everything was asleep, save for a few nocturnal creatures much like himself, he could hide from SIlver and Sebek and have some time to himself, and there were no students or humans who would see him and run away in terror.
But his favorite thing about night time was probably when he got to visit his favorite human, (Y/n).
Their situation was a bit odd, having appeared out of nowhere from a world full of creatures called Pokémon, but Malleus didn't care. They weren't afraid of him. After spending a lifetime of having people fear him due to his name, it was a nice change.
Malleus arrived at the Ramshackle dorm to find you already sitting outside, cleaning your Empoleon's feathers.
"Greetings, Child of Man." He greeted, happily walking up to you.
"Hey, Tsunotaro." You smiled, putting down Empoleon's brush to wave at him.
That was another thing Malleus adored about you. Even after finding out who he was, you still didn't fear him and continued calling him by that amusing nickname you gave him.
You both entered the dorm, along with Empoleon, and he was instantly greeted with the rest of your strange creatures. Luxray, Togekiss, Glaceon, Garchomp, and Lucario.
You headed over to the kitchen to make some tea while he got comfortable on the couch. Once he was seated, Garchomp laid its head on Malleus's lap, implying that it wanted scratches.
By the time you had returned with two mugs of steaming tea, all the other Pokémon had already gotten comfortable and most had fallen asleep.
You handed Malleus his mug before sitting down in your chair. Glaceon hopped up and curled up in your lap before falling back asleep.
After you both got comfortable, you began regaling Malleus with stories of your world.
Malleus loved hearing your stories.
From your gym battle challenges to your contests. Catching all your Pokémon and even receiving an egg from a woman named Cynthia that hatched into a Togepi that which layer evolved into your beloved Togekiss.
Malleus has never left the Valley of Thorns, except for school, so he enjoyed hearing about your travels. Your freedom to journey and see so many different places, never being tied down, he envied it.
“May I see your badges and ribbons again?” He asked.
“Sure.” You agreed, getting up to grab them.
At the movement, Glaceon, rather huffily, got up from your lap and moved to Malleus, curling up on his lap instead. He instantly started stroking her with one hand while the other continued scratching Garchomp. He only stopped when you handed him your badge and ribbon case.
He immediately opened them both and admired your impressive 7 badges and 5 sparkling ribbons. 
You had told him that even though you had collected the required number of ribbons, you were transported to Twisted Wonderland before you could compete in the Grand Festival. You also hadn’t yet had the chance to earn your 8th and final gym badge, which allowed you to challenge the Elite Four and the Sinnoh Champion. 
“They are very impressive, Child of Man.” Malleus complemented.
Even though there wasn’t a gym challenge or contests in Twisted Wonderland, Malleus could tell how much value each badge and ribbon you earned had.
“Thanks, Tsunotaro.” You beamed, positively preening at the complement. “Maybe when I find a way home you could come with me and have your own journey. There are a bunch of dragon type Pokémon I bet you’d like. Maybe your starter could be an Axew. Or a Dino. Maybe a Gible seeing how well you get along with Garchomp. There are also rock or electric types. OOH- Maybe a fairy type!”
Malleus tuned your rambling out. His head was both empty and racing.
Him? Go on a journey in another world? The idea was preposterous! Yet... also tempting.
Traveling around with no chains. Nobody knowing who he was, thus no one quivering at the sight of him. No overbearing, but well meaning, guards to coddle him. He liked this idea!
Unfortunately, he didn’t have long to dwell on the tempting daydream when Ramshakle’s door slammed open with a loud bang.
“WAKA-SAMA!!!”
Speak of the devil.
You and Malleus turned to the doorway to a disheveled and hysterical looking Sebek and a normal sleepy looking Silver.
“Sebek.” Malleus greeted, hiding his annoyance of being interrupted during his time with his Child of Man.
“Waka-sama, you mustn’t leave without telling us! What if something happens to y-”
The half-fae was cut off by and ice beam, freezing him solid. You and Malleus looked over at Glaceon who was angry about having her sleep disturbed for a third time. Now quite irritated and huffy, Glaceon angrily marched upstairs to try and get some sleep in your room.
“My apologies.” You jumped when Lilia appeared behind you without warning, hanging upside down as usual. “They ran off when I wasn’t looking.”
You looked back at the other Diasomnia residence. Silver had already fallen asleep, using Togekiss’s soft, feathery body as a pillow, while Sebek was slowly beginning to thaw out of the ice.
You wish you could say this is the weirdest thing to ever happen with them.
After having Lucario use force-palm and free Sebek, you all sat down near the fire.
(You left Silver be since he was already asleep.)
Sebek wanted to know what was so fascinating about you that Waka-sama would continuously come visit you. 
The only thing you could think of was telling them about your journey.
“After I won my seventh gym badge at Snowpoint, I had to meet my friend, Barry, at Lake Acuity and right after that I had to meet with Professor Rowan and Lucas at Lake Verity.”
“Why did you have to go to those lakes?” Lilia asked, genuinely curious as to what value they had.
“Uh, well-- mmh-- pthbbt.” You tried to think of a way to avoid that question, or at least dance your way around it, and the stuttering and raspberry blowing was obviously helping you be discreet in avoiding the question. 
“GLACE!!”
A loud yell echoed from upstairs thatw as loud enough to wake even Silver. You were momentarily grateful that you had been interrupted before realizing ‘Oh shit that’s my Pokémon.”
“Glaceon!” You yelled, bolting from your chair and rushing up the stairs with your Pokémon and the Diasomnia boys at your heels.
You opened your bedroom door with a loud bang and saw Glaceon in a defensive stance, hissing at the mirror with Grim looking frazzled.
“Fgaah! Minion, control your Pokémon! I was asleep and then it started shouting and tried to attack the mirror!” He yelled angrily, before stalking off to the living room to continue sleeping.
You sighed before looking over at the mirror. You held out your arm towards your Pokémon so they knew not to do anything yet. You inched closer to the mirror, pausing only for a second to pet Glaceon and calm her down a bit. You walked forward a few more steps until you were face-to-face with the mirror. 
Now that you were closer, you could see the shadow of something moving within the glass. You didn’t know what it was, but it wasn’t Micky. You leaned a bit closer, trying to make out the figure--
“GIRATINA!!”
Everything went black.
~
The first thing you noticed when you could see again was that you were clearly not in your room. Or your dorm for that matter. 
Everything was weird. You weren’t sure of any other way to describe it other than weird.
Weird and familiar.
“The Reverse World.” You muttered, shocked by your sudden return to the feared Giratina’s playground. 
You didn’t have long to stay dumbfounded when you remembered the Legendary who lived in this world. You frantically looked around you and saw that your team and the boys were with you, which did nothing to curb your panic. Grim wasn’t with you all, so you assumed hoped that he was still at Ramshackle.
You first woke up your Pokémon. They freaked out for a second before realizing where they were, putting them all on guard. They carefully scanned their surroundings for anything they found threatening while you quickly crawled over to the boys, traying to shake them awake. 
“Get up. Guys, get up! We need to move!”
The Diasomnia boys hardly registered what was happening and where they were before you pulled them away. Your team created a barrier around you all as you lead the boys through the strange new world. All they could do was look around wildly.
“Careful, gravity gets weird here.” You warned them. 
True to your words, the piece of land you all were walking on started to curve in the air until you all started walking upside down. Even Lilia, who was used to hanging upside down, was a bit thrown off about this.
“What is this place?” Silver asked what everyone was thinking, knowing that you were the only one who could give any of them an answer.
“The Distortion World.” You explained. “Also known as the Reverse World. It’s kind of like the Underworld of my world.”
That explanation only provided them with more questions but went they entered a place that had these large bubbles floating around them they were quickly distracted.
“Hey,” Silver called, gaining everyone’s attention. “This thing has headmaster Crowley in it.”
Said bubble did have a picture of Crowley in his office, working late into the night. Huh. Who know he actually did anything.
Silver raised a hand towards the bubble. 
“No, don’t touch it!” You exclaimed. Unfortunately it was a second to late and the bubble popped at the slightest graze of Silver’s fingers.
The boys looked over to you at the sound of you yell, seeing your panicked expression.
“Don’t. Touch. Anything.” You order, stressing out each word. “Everything in this world effects the real world. If you aren’t careful you could kill someone through this place.
The boys looked positively alarmed.
“Will the headmaster be alright?”
You waved off their concern, continuing to lead the way. “He’ll be fine. Popping that bubble didn’t kill him, but it did feel like he was hit with a bowling ball.
“How do you know this? How do you know so much about this place, (Y/n).” Lilia asked, dead serious. 
You glance over your shoulder at them before sighing.
Guess it was time to come clean.
“There are some things that happened during my journey that I didn’t tell you guys about.” You confessed.
“While journeying through Sinnoh, I constantly ran into an organization called Team Galactic. Their leader, Cyrus, believed that the world was ugly and needed to be destroyed. His plan was to capture the legendary Pokémon, Palkia and Dialga, and the Lake Guardians, Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf. Those three were the reason I met Barry and Professor Rowan at the lakes, Lilia, to try and save the Lake Guardians from Team Galactic. Anyway, Cyrus claimed that he was going to create his own, perfect world using the powers of the legendary Pokémon. At least I think that was his plan. He talks like Shakespeare and I have a middle school education. Anyway, before he could create his ‘perfect world’ Giratina appeared and took Cyrus away to here, the Distortion World. This is Giratina’s domain.”
The boys were stunned into silence. They knew you were strong, but for you to have done all that as well as fighting overblots? They were truly impressed.
“What happened afterwards?” Malleus questioned, enthralled by your story.
“Cynthia, the current Sinnoh Champion, and I entered the Distortion World to save Cyrus. Unfortunately, he saw this place as his ideal world and didn’t want to leave. In the end, we had to use force and I beat him in a battle. And, after that, I had to face Giratina itself. But, I don’t know how, but before I could face it, the Dark Mirror called me to Twisted Wonderland.”
You stopped walking, taking a deep breath before turning to face the boys. 
“We need to find Giratina. Giratina’s the only Pokémon that can travel between worlds and its the only thing that can get us back to Night Raven.”
Your tone alone was enough to my the Diasomnia boys understand the severity of the situation.
“Human, if this creature is as powerful as you claim, then how do you expect to get it?” Sebek interrogated. 
You reached into your pocket and pulled out a purple ball with an ‘M’ on it, showing it the the boys.
“This is a master ball. I stole it from Cyrus’s base when I went to save the Lake Guardians. It can catch any Pokémon without fail. All we need to do is find Giratina.”
“Lucar!” 
“Luxray!”
You all turned to Lucario and Luxray who were growling in the same direction. Looking closely, you could see something coming at you all. Your team took their battle stances and sure enough, there was the Angel of Darkness itself, Giratina. 
Even Malleus had to admit, that creature was terrifying. 
It looked like a dragon and centipede mixed together, but it towered over everything, easily dwarfing them all.
You waisted no time.
“Empoleon, Hydro Cannon!” You ordered. Even Sebek had to admit that your authoritative tone was hard to ignore and resist, full of confidence and superiority. 
Empoleon listened without question, fearlessly attacking the towering giant.
“Lucario, Aura Sphere! Glaceon, Ice Beam! Luxray, Thunder! Garchomp, Dragon Rush!”
All your Pokémon attacked at once, hitting Giratina square on. The legendary screeched before firing a move of its own that your team narrowly avoided.
“Great job. Keep attacking!” You ordered shooing the boys out of Giratina’s firing range.
“What do we need to do to help, (Y/n)?” Malleus asked. He was already gripping his pen, ready to fight.
“Nothing. Just stay put and don’t move.” You ordered sternly. The boys were stunned.
“What?! (Y/n) we can help-” 
“I know you can help,” You cut off. “But I don’t need to defeat Giratina. I just need to distract it.”
You ran off before they could question what you meant, whistling for your Pokémon.
“Togekiss!” You called, jumping off the edge of the land and easily getting caught by your flying type, who flew you behind Giratina. 
You let your team get in one last group attack before throwing the master ball at Giratina. 
The legendary effortlessly went in and after a spectacular dive made by you and Togekiss, you caught the ball and returned to the boys.
The boys ran over to you as you climbed off Togekiss, looking at the ball in your hand.
“I can’t believe you actually caught it, human!” Sebek exclaimed, flabbergasted. 
“Thanks, Sebek.”
“So what now?” Silver asked. The group all turned to you expectedly and you rolled your eyes before turning around to the wide open space and releasing Giratina from the master ball. 
“Giratina,” You called, “Please take us back.”
Giratina stared down at you before letting out an echoing screech and lowing its head to your level.
Immediately understanding what it wanted you to do, you crawled onto its head before waving the boys over.
“C’mon. We its going to take us back.”
Hesitantly, the boys climbed on with your Pokémon and once everyone was on, Giratina soared through the air.
This was different from riding a broom or riding Togekiss, who was happily flying beside you all, but it was exhilarating at the same time.
Too soon for anyone’s tastes, Giratina slowed down to a stop before lowering itself down so that everyone could climb off. 
The place were Giratina dropped you all off was a small patch of land with two lakes on it. You and the boys could see your bedroom in one of the lakes, making you realize that you were looking through your bedroom mirror.
“Alright!” You cheered. “Let’s get back.” But before you could step through the reflection, Empoleon called out to you.
“Empoleon!”
“Huh? What is it, Empoleon?”
He was looking in the other lake, pointing at something. 
You, your team, and the boys looked through the refection and you couldn’t restrain the gasp that left your mouth.
You could see the Mesprit, the guardian of Lake Verity.
“That’s Mesprit, Lake Verity’s guardian!” You exclaimed, coming to several realizations at once. “That’s close to Twinleaf Town. I-I could go home!”
You turned to your team and the Diasomnia boys, your eyes sparking with both joy and a few unshed tears. “With Giratina we can go home and still stay in Twisted Wonderland!”
Mallues watched you with soft eyes. He had seen a side if you tonight that he had never seen before. Your courage, your confidence, your skill. He had these too, but yours stemmed from experience. This wasn’t something you were taught since you were born like him, these were abilities you learned through trial and error with your team. Something that he wanted.
With a new found determination, Malleus turned to his most trusted knights and friends.
“Lilia, Silver, Sebek,” He began, quickly gaining everyone's attention, “I have decided that until it is time for me to receive the crown from my grandmother, I want to travel (Y/n)’s world with a Pokémon of my own.”
Even you weren’t expecting that announcement.
“WHAT?! WAKA-SAMA ARE YOU FEELING WELL?!?!? WE MUST GET YOU TO AN INFIMERORY!!”
“I’m fine, Sebek. And I’m not joking.”
“WHAAAAAAAT?!?! YOU, HUMAN, YOU HAVE GIVEN WAKA-SAMA THIS DANGEROUS IDEA!!”
“I think its a great idea.”
“MASTER LILIA?!?!”
“zzzzz”
You couldn’t help snorting at the scene in front of you. A rather calm Malleus simply being unmovable about his choice of coming home with you, a hysterical Sebek trying to talk him out of it, an impish looking Lilia who actually supported Malleus’s idea, and a snoozing silver, who could still sleep effortlessly despite the chaos surrounding him.
You leaned up against Empoleon’s belly, him and all your other Pokémon already lying down, knowing that this was going to take a while. Even Giratina was curled up!
But, You thought, watching the group was a soft smile, you know that no matter how much you wanted to go home, you would've missed this. And this, your friends and NRC, was something that you never wanted to lose.
Bonus:
After sorting everything out with Crowley, you returned to your world to reconcile with your friends and your mom. It took some explaining, but bringing Grim back with you as well as Malleus with his magic and horns was enough to convince everyone what happened to you.
Afterwards, you were able to compete in the Grand Festival. You didn’t end up winning, however you did make it to the finals. Your opponent, Dawn, had only beaten you by a few points.
The Diasomnia gang, as well as Grim, the Adeuce combo, and the Pomefiore Trio were all present to see this and couldn’t have been prouder.
Once the Grand Festival had come to a close, you headed over to Sunnyshore City and won your 8th and final Gym Badge, permitting you to challenge the Elite Four and Cynthia.
The Pomefiore Trio didn’t watch these challenges, but the other did. 
Their nerves were through the roof when you finally faced Cynthia. And when your Garchomp miraculously out sped her Garchomp with the finishing move nobody cheered louder. 
In the end, you took Malleus to the place where you caught Garchomp back when he was still a Gible and caught Malleus his own, whom he unironically named ‘Gargoyle.’ 
Malleus did have to return to the Valley of Thorns, but not without you promising that the upcoming summer would be the start of his own Pokémon Journey. 
I wrote most of this forgetting about Grim, so sorry he doesn’t have a bigger role or more screen time.
Fun story; I got in trouble for writing down my ideas for this at work even though I did it while the store was dead and I’ve worked there for nearly two years and have either written something or drawn something almost every shift I have. Litterally no one but the manager to caught me cares. 
And, just to irritate me more (whether she was aware of it or not), said manager takes my writings and decides to read them and then proceeds to put them back in the wrong order before lecturing me.
So, yeah, that was fun.
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mcheang · 4 years
Text
This was submitted to me by @andromeda612
My ideas were added in orange
Idea/Prompt(? : is a new semester and Marc joins the class! Everybody is happy, Marc is such a sweet boy and a caring friend! Obviously the most happy are Nathaniel, Alix and Marinette.
Lila is not. Some nobody is stealling the attention! And it's not fair! She is dozen times more interesting and is obvious that this boy doesn't like the spotlight! But it's ok, the hype would decrease in a couple days. She would be the center of the universe again.
Except that it didn't happen.
Marc is very likeable specially whe he opens up with his friends, also once he is comfortable enough he shows his 'mom friend' side and is so endearing! Marinette, Alix and Nathaniel are the ones who can see this side of him the most, though. But the class is so touched by it, they also want to help him.
Also he and Nathaniel make one of the most popular comics in Paris, and all the class (even Chloe but she would never admitt it) are fans. Oh and Marc is an awesome writer and storyteller!!! Sometimes they manage to convince him to tell some of his stories and forgot completely about Lila.
Lila: but my stories are real! (You wish!) Isn't it more excited?
Kim: yeah, your experiencies are pretty cool, but Marc's stories are just too AWESOME! even if they are just stories, and he is a very good storyteller... once he controlls his nerves.
Not to mention Lila’s bragging has become rather tiresome
Her ego doesn't like this at all. She tries to befriend the boy, maybe she can take advantange of the new darling of the class (and is obvious Marinette is fond of the guy, so it would be a plus to piss her of)
But it is more difficult than she thougth. Everytime she tries to talk to him he just gives her short answers and stammering, he doesn't even make eye contact, and is hard to mantain a conversation straight. She tried to complaint with her minio... 'friends' but...
Lila’s friendly approach is too forceful and bold for the shy Marc
Max: oh yeah, you see, Marc has a lightly social anxiety, so it takes time for him to open up with new people. With the exception of Marinette, Nathaniel and Alix, apparently they manage to win his trust and friendship very quickly. Like some people would say, they just 'clicked'
Alix: Yeah, and Nathaniel and Marc definitely 'clicked' in more than one way if you know what I mean.
The girls giggle.
(Of course that I HAVE to put some Marcaniel here)
Mylene: is not something personal, it took time for all of us to befriend him, but now we are very good friends, and he even is our new "mom friend" I'm sure you would be his friend too, you just need to be patient.
But patient is not what she is, specially when she has to share the adoration and attention of her dumb classmates. Even Nathaniel, who never was one of her admirers or paid her that much attetion like the others do, seems to has eyes only for him! It was low blow to her ego.
Actually I feel like Lila can be patient if the Ladybug episode was anything to go by...
She tries to speed up the proces by charming him with one of her faboulous 'experiencies' and 'conections'
It backfired bad.
Because when she finished to tell her lie a very confused (and uncomfortable because he is still shy around her) Marc started to point out all the holes in her lie and the wrong facts or nosenses in it, with proof. AND IN FRONT OF THE CLASS
She was sure that having the support of her classmates during her tale would help to amaze him, but now the others are seeing her with a confused frown, she need to fix it!
For her luck Marc was starting to look overwhelmed for the attention their confused classmates were given him, so Marinette took him outside to calm him down. She took the chance and did some damage control. Somehow she manage to save face but was a very close call.
Now, the boy is clever than the rest of her dumb minions, and he actually almost got her exposed, so he is clearly a threath, specially if Marinette talks to him about her lies. If he already didn't find it out by himself.
Lila needs to take care of this new obstacle, so she decides to go hostile.
What Lila doesn't expecto is the Marc protection squad.
It turns out that after that close call some of her classmates were skeptical and noticed that something was off (they already had this feeling since Mari was expelled, but they brush it off, but now...) this classmates are Nathaniel, Alix, Kim and Max.
Alix noticing the mood in her friends was the one who brought up the topic, they talked and after a little thinking and the input of Markov they realized that Lila was lying. Then Alix remember Marinette's claims about Lila and decide to talk to her.
When they found her she is talking with Marc, of course is about Lila and her lies, luckily Marc is a good listener and has his own suspicions. They all talk, Marinette's friends finally listen to her and discover Lila's true colors, they apologize and she forgives them, after all despite Lila's threat they never treated her different and were still good friends with her, it hurt that they brush off her concerns but everybody makes mistakes.
They also discover that Adrien knew, at first they were angry, but then Mari calls Adrien and he explains his motives, and well the poor boy really didn't knew better, but he does now and a deal with devil is punishment enough, also he is the reason Mari's name is clean.
Now that they are in the same page, and Adrien is also present (through video call) Marinette tells that now she is more concerned about Marc.
He almost got Lila exposed and he wasn't even trying! Lila is going to see him as a threat and will make everything to get ride of him, just like she tried with her.
That make all of them worried and angry, Alix and Nathaniel the most. So they decide that the bitch needs to fall.
They would protect Marc (and Marinette because despite the deal they highly doubt that Lila would let her alone) from every scheme Lila tries. They also will research and collect proof to expose her.
Lila's first plan is hostility, the boy is terrible shy, it would be easy intimidate him and use fear to controll him like a puppet.
But every attempt goes wrong or backfire somehow, she is caugh in the middle of some of them, of course she says is all a misunderstanding or an accident, but she can't get close thin ice.
Also she can't cornered nor threaten him like she did with Marinette, the boy is NEVER alone, he is always with Alix, Marinette, Nathaniel, Kim or Max, EVEN ADRIEN would keep him company if either of them aren't near.
Then she tries to frame him, maybe she stole an important object from some classmate and tried to planted it in Marc's school bag, but when she tries to put the item in it her arm gets caught by some trap.
Of course she tries to complain against Marc, but Marinette is quick to defend him, Marc is a little paranoid about his stuff, specially his journal, and due to past accidents with stolen stuff (everybody glares at Chloe) she offered to make some security system for his stuff. Marc frees her arm with the key of the trap and shyly tells her that if she needs to borrow something the next time she just need to ask. The brat actually has the nerve to lectures her.
Marc: it’s rude to touch other's belongings without their permission.
And when Marc looks in his bag and takes out the stolen item she tried to make her move, but before she can even open her mouth the owner inmediatly assumes that somehow they lose it and hugs Marc for finding it and keeping it safe "Thanks mom!"
Aaaaarrrrgggggghhhhhh!
And just badmouthing him won't work, from what she learned about the boy he is a little ball of nerves and so sickenly polite, even Lila has to admitt that it would be hard to believe that the boy was being mean even by accident without a well planted proof. Also all the class seems to adore him, and Alix, Marinette and Nathaniel would defend him with tooth and nail.
She tries again and again, but always end the same, all his stuff is sabotage proof and she ends tramped. And her classmates are starting to look at her with suspicion, because is like the fifth time she is caught and why is she poking around Marc stuff in the first place? And oh! Poor Marc! Is the sixth time in two weeks he almos trip over very bad, and he has have many accidents recently! Is a luck that Alix, Marinette, Nathaniel, Kim, Max and Adrien were always there so it never happen something bad!
Hey! Lila is involved in many of them, some of the accidents were her fault! Is strange, isn't it? (Yep, the squad is sowing the suspicious deeds)
She changes targets, If she can get ride of Marinette again she could drag Marc with her.
But Marinette also has all her stuff with tramps, after her expullsion she is more careful with her stuff and the class is on her side. And now she is more suspicious, first with Marc and now with Marinette, is that she hasn't learned her lesson with all her incidents with Marc? Oh and him? That little wretched boy has the audacy to give her a I'm-not-mad-just-dissapointed look everytime she is caught with Marinette's stuff. The class can't help but agree with their 'mom friend'.
The class is getting wary of her, she is losing control, but she refuses to lose against this nobodies!
Now her exposure: it would be that now that her classmates are suspicious of her they start to take a close eye to her, and they start to notice how she is actually very near of Marc everytime he almost has an accident, and how she would make a comment that sound nice but when you think about it is actually a stab in the back, or how quick she is to blame Marinette, or how she tries to subtle disparage Marc or/and Marinette. And now they are noticing the flaws in her stories.
At the end they fact check and discover the truth, or Lila is caught red handed trying to sabotage Marc or frame Marinette. They complain to Bustier and Damocles with the squad's research, the matter goes to the school board and the principal and the teacher are under scrutiny, Lila's mom is called and she is in so much trouble, karma collect her debt. (Akumatization optional)
Or
Maybe for some reason she manage to get Marc alone, or is what she thought, the squad try to not let him alone but they have a plan for that case. If for whatever reason any of them can't accompany him, Max would let Markov with Marc, and the AI would follow-up closely the writer everywere.
So Lila finally cornered and threaten him (and if you want some bashing she can get violent and actually assaults him) but Markov witnesses everything, and since he is an AI his memories are video and audio recording that can be shown as evidence with his testimony, also Marc gave the consent to be recorded for security because they were suspicious about Lila trying something like that.
And just to put the nail in the coffin, the squad's research is presented to the school board, Damocles and Bustier are under scrutiny, Lila's truancy is discovered and her mom is called, she is exposed to all the class and is in so much trouble, karma happens (akumatization optional)
Or
Maybe she is exposed until the squad present their investigation to the school board and... you know what comes next.
In any case, the rest of the class also apologize to Marinette and promise to do better, she forgive them (because at the end they were still her friends and were always nice to her despite what Lila said, everybody makes mistakes).
Happy ending :D
Bonus: Maybe sometime in the middle of the Protect Marc campaign, or at the end of the take Lila Down, Marc and Nathaniel confess their feelings and start dating :3
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verobatto · 3 years
Text
Destiel Chronicles
Vol. XCIII
It was a love story from the very beginning.
And you are not here... (Part I)
(13x01)
Hello beautiful people! We reached season 13!!! This was a very analyzed season, so, many of the things I will say won't be new. There wasn't much Destiel in the second half of the season, so, I hope we can have less volumes than season 12.
But, let's focus now in the angst, and when I speak about angst, I mean Mourning! Dean.
Priorities?
At the beginning of the episode we have Dean, down his knees by Castiel's dead body, he can't believe he just lost him, so, he is not thinking here, he can't thing in another fact more than Cas.
Sam feels he has not time for crying for his best friend, because he has to focus in saving the world: Lucifer's son had just born.
I always like to point the difference here: Why Sam can focus on the Mission right away and Dean can't? Is because the amount of the emotions and the meaning of this lost.
Don't forget they lost Mary too, but this is different.
Because Sam lost his mother, but because she didn't died, he keeps hopes in bringing her back. Because Jack is there, and he was the one opening the rift. He lost Cas, he saw him die, his best friend, but even so, he keeps going, he runs towards that cabin to find the Nephilim. Because just like Cas, even with the loses, he has to keep fighting, to try to save the world, Cas would do the same.
But for Dean Cas represents his Everything, his faith, his hopes, the love of his life. So the world just stopped there. And he can't think in anything else but the deep pain of loosing the man he loves.
Then the scene in the car is heartbreaking.
SAM: Hold on a second. Can we just talk about what happened back there?
DEAN: Sure. Which part? Let’s see. Crowley’s dead, Kelly’s dead, Cas is—(he pauses) Mom’s gone, and apparently, the Devil’s kid hit puberty in thirty seconds flat. Oh, and almost killed us.
This is Dean not wanting to say Cas is dead, this is Dean not being able to say Cas is dead. His worst nightmare became true.
SAM: Yeah, because you tried to shoot him.
DEAN: I tried to shoot the monster, Sam. It’s kind of what we do.
SAM: We don’t know what he is yet, Dean. And I had it under control.
DEAN: I’m sorry. Are you defending the Son of Satan?
SAM: I’m not defending anything. I’m just saying, look, with everything that’s happened, I’m obviously spun out also, but we need a plan.
DEAN: Yeah, kill him! Okay? That’s the plan. Look, right now all that matters is finding him, and ending him, before he hurts anybody else. And once we do that we’ll figure everything else out.
Again pointing at the difference between the two brothers. Sam is thinking strategically, but Dean wants to kill him, because he blames Jack of Castiel's death. Jack is a monster that deceived, used and killed Cas. So there's no doubt for Dean JACK IS A MONSTER AND HE MUST BE ELIMINATED. For Sam, Jack represents the hopes to get his mother back.
SAM: What about Cas? Is he - is he really dead?
DEAN: You know he is.
And this is terrible, Because Dean is answering this to himself. 'You know he is.' Is the fact he has to assume. But he is avoiding to do it.
"Angels are real too."
So sad when the angels find Castiel on the table. The contemptible way one of them referred to Cas breaks my heart, because is so fresh now his dead in 15x18.
1ST ANGEL: Castiel. Always knew he’d meet a bad end.
2ND ANGEL: He deserved better.
1ST ANGEL: No, he really didn’t.
This is so accurate now, is like hearing Misha wanting his big sacrifice for love as Castiel, and all the fandom repeating HE DERÑSERVED BETTER, trying to show the point, and the C*W and broniles saying NO, HE REALLY DIDN'T. But well... Just a bitter thought... For this angel, particularly, is referring to Castiel's choices, his repeatedly chosing Dean Winchester over Heaven.
When they arrive to the Burger Shop, Dean decides to stay in the car and wait for Sam.
The drunken girl, which results to be an angel, comes out from the same shop, and the camera shows us Dean's bruises in his knuckles. So, we can infer something happened...
The dialogue between the angel and Dean is very interesting, because she create a whole scenario and character:
DRUNK WOMAN: Anyway, Becky was - and I say this in the most feminist, screw the patriarchy way - a giant superbitch. She’d take things, and break things, and piss people off, and just do whatever she wanted, no matter who it hurt.
She will say after revealing who she really is, that Dean was Becky. And the way she speaks about this character is with the same contempt as the angel talking about Castiel. Because Dean is guilty of Castiel's fall and disobedience. He is the human that broke Castiel, and that's why Cas ended up dying.
Once in the police station, Dean tells all the truth to the sheriff, and when he speaks about angels... His face turns even more sad.
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Gif credit @wanreina
Look how he drops his eyes and turns his face to the window. This is pure grief, pain, sadness. Because it was almost as if he was mentioning Castiel again. And it hurts too much.
We were witnesses of Dean's prayer to Chuck, mentioning he wanted Castiel back, pleading not just for him, but Mary and even Crowley. Desperate prelaying. And when he turned around, with this little hopes in being heated, and maybe finding everyone there, CAS, and then realizing they weren't, he exploded in anger, breaking the pirate on the door, and hurting his knuckles.
Still trying to make Cas to come back to him...
Goodbye Cas
When Dean was fighting against the drunken woman, now an angel, the dialogue between them is showing us again how Dean was still expecting to find a way to make Castiel come back to him.
MIRIAM: Because Bieber in there? He can do almost anything.
DEAN (hopeful): Anything?
MIRIAM: (Chuckles) Oh, sweetie. Almost anything. Castiel, he's dead.
Gif set credit @godshipsit 👇
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Dean's grief all over his face while the little hope that had found it's way is slowly fading again, listening to these words. These words that Miriam says with pleasure.
This scene is showing us how Dean was only thinking about CAS, in how to bring him back, with desperation, he was longing for him so hard, even the angel perceived that emotion.
The other super sad scene was Dean preparing Cas' body for the funeral...
(the follow gifs are from @wanreina)
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When he comes back to the cabin, he faces again the reality. Dean is down that sheet, dead. He stops just for a second, and swallows. Encouraging himself to keep walking towards him. Before doing that, he flicks his eyes away from the corpse.
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Then he goes to his side, and sighs, and then breaths... The pain is all over him.
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This is Dean realizing again Cas is gone. Look at the deep sadness in his face, while he is staring at him, maybe he is talking with him, asking Cas to come back to him. Then, he is swallowing again, hard, he looks away, because Castiel won't come back, Castiel is definitely dead, as the angel said. No one will bring him back, nobody is gonna help him to bring Cash back. The despair is huge. Yes he has to aknowledge that in his heart.
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Okay I read somewhere that maybe Dean was praying here to Cas to come back again, then he sees Cas is still dead. But I really believe, Dean didn't stop praying to him, or to Chuck, because that was the only things he could do. What else? So maybe he was praying the whole time, putting his hopes in those so many times Chuck relived him, or Cas camber back to him. Trying to reach Cas somehow. But with each desperate prayer he was convincing himself Cas wouldn't come back, and this time he was dead, really dead. For ever. That's the pain in his heart. He was trying to wake him up, he was pleading for one last miracle, and not to burn his body in the pyre. So this was his last attempt to bring him back.
The last and hard scene was the funeral
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Gif credit @inacatastrophicmind
"You say goodbye" Sammy's voice sound in the background and we see Dean's sad face. The pain and the grief. So different from Sam and Jack. And so different from another times when he had to burn his father, or friends. Nothing is gonna be norm from now. Because he lost Cas, the love of his life.
Visual Narrative: Just a little mention of Pirate Pete's Burger Shop. The place was in blue and red, (Cas and Dean), with references about the ship (Destiel), and jokes about the butt, and, according the Urban Dictionary, the Pirate Pete is a sexual joke too. So, we can maybe infer, base in how angels were mocking Dean and CAS relationship and how it ended in this episode, that place was related to it.
To Conclude:
This was just the beginning of Mourning!Dean, we will see him depressed and with no faith, no hopes. Ig gonna be alarming for Sam, and we will have one huge revelation in the episode in wich Billie will talk with Dean about his grief.
Hope you like the first meta from season 13, see you in the next ones!
Tagging @magnificent-winged-beast @emblue-sparks @weird-dorky-little-d @michyribeiro @whyjm @legendary-destiel @a-bit-of-influence @thatwitchydestielfan @misha-moose-dean-burger-lover @lykanyouko @evvvissticante @savannadarkbaby @dea-stiel @poorreputation @bre95611 @thewolfathedoor @charlottemanchmal @neii3n @deathswaywardson @followyourenergy @dean-is-bi-till-i-die @hekatelilith-blog @avidbkwrm @anarchiana @dickpuncher365 @vampyrosa @authorsararayne @mybonsai1976 @love-neve-dies @dustythewind @wayward-winchester67 @angelwithashotgunandtrenchcoat @trashblackrainbow @deeutdutdutdoh @destiel-shipper-11 @larrem88 @charmedbycastiel @ran-savant @little-crazy-misha-minion @samoosetheshipper
@shadows-and-padlocked-hearts @mishtho @dancingtuesdaymorning @nerditoutwithbooks @mikennacac73 @justmeand-myinsight @idontwantpeopletoknowmyname @teddybeardoctor @pepevons @helevetica @isthisdestiel @dizzypinwheel @jawnlockwinchester @horsez2 @qanelyytha
@destielle @spnsmile @shippsblog @robot-feels @superlock-in-the-tardis @superduckbatrebel @2musiclover2 @madronasky @anon-non2 @cea1996 @lisafu02 @asphodelesauvage @destiels-canonahhhhhhhhhh
If you want to be added or removed from this list, just let me know.
Buenos Aires, December 20th 2020, 6:03 PM
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myblueeyedbuggers · 3 years
Text
My Boys
Chapter 11
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14
Pairings: Steve Rogers X Reader (Best Friend) Bucky Barnes X Reader
Word Count: 1531
Warnings: Language, Bullying Themes
Summary: After being abandoned by her parents in Brooklyn in 1929, y/n makes a living for herself by working for the Црни лабуд gang until she meets two boys in a back alley and her life slowing begins to change.
Eyup my Loves! so it’s been a while since I last added to the story, I tried my best to keep my writing similar to my previous chapters, let me know what you all think! any advice or constructive criticism is welcome :) I’ll shush now, enjoy!
(This is what I Imagine Annetta to look like :) )
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So, in case you were all wondering, the day didn’t get any better. I mean I kinda knew that kids my age could be massive A holes to each other, but I didn’t really expect to see it literally the flipping second I ‘walked’ through the doors. And by walked I mean dragged by the duo known as my own personal demons, or Steve and Bucky to the rest of the population.  A crowd of kids were all gathered around a row of lockers, loads of the shitheads were cheering and encouraging whatever the hell was goin’ on, and as I was about to find out it wasn’t a surprise performance by Frank Sinatra. Safe to say that was a bigger disappointment that diet coke. Anyway, what was I saying ? oh yeah, stood at the front of the crowd were a bunch of lasses that couldn’t of been older than 16, in their hands was a bunch of eggs and flour. At the bottom of their feet, on the floor, was a kid around the same age as me, her glasses were snapped in half and the bottom of to shirt was ripped, but what disgusted me the most was the fact she was begging for help as these girls smashed egg after egg into her face. You know how bulls lose their shit when they see somethin’ red? Yeah imagine that but 10x worse, the lads didn’t have time to stop me as I tore through the crowd ready to beat the ever-loving shit outta these pricks.
“‘OI! WHAT THE ACTUAL SHIT ARE YOU DOIN’”  the crowd fell silent as the girls turned to me with what one can only assume was supposed to be a ‘threatening’ glare, if I’m being completely honest it looked like they’d all simultaneously crapped em self’s. One of the girls stepped forwards, she was only a tad taller than me, her hair was a bright red, her green eyes were narrowed at me like she couldn’t believe someone was actually talking back to her. I think this is the part where I yell surprise right ? no? okay then. “Not that I care, but who the hell do you think you are? You got any idea who I am?” she sneered at me, oh my god! I’ve found someone with a bigger ego than Bucky. How in the hell is that possible. “well from first glance I’da said Santa Clause’s ex-wife but I reckon he’d have a better taste in girls now I’ve seen you up close”. And que the outraged gasps from her minions in 3,2,1…. I could hear a few people laughin’ and if I weren’t mistaken a very loud “Oh Jesus wept” from barney boy. Oooh yeah that’s when I know I’m doing my job right.
“YOU BITCH!” she screamed at me, her grubby little hands started swinging towards me in such an exaggerated way it was almost funny, I mean come on anyone coulda seen that comin’ from a mile off. And like the genius I am, I literally just side stepped her as she lunged forward,  an’ from the look on her face she weren’t expecting that, it was like the world slowed down as she surged forward unable to stop herself. Well that was till she landed head -first in the bin. I’d be a big fat liar if I said I wasn’t on the floor dying from laughter. Her legs were flailing above her head as she struggled to pull herself outta there, her cronies tried to help by grabbing her legs but that ended with one of em sporting one heck of a shiner on her right eye. A small sniffle pulled my attention away from the rather hilarious sight, glancing behind me I saw the young lass still on the ground, holdin’ her glasses which were in half with tears rolling down her cheeks. “hey, it’s okay now, they’ve gone. Here take my hand, lets get ya cleaned up eh? Reckon they’re be a bathroom round here somewhere”. The lass didn’t say anything to me, only looking at me with apprehension before taking my outstretched hand and leading us to the bathroom, the sound of the crowd growing quieter as we moved further away from it. “Thanks for saving me from Monica, she’s been bullying me since we were 11, nobody’s ever stood up for me before.” Her voice was so quiet, it shook from the effort it took her to hold back her tears, and I admired her strength, not a lotta girls woulda gone this long and not tell a teacher. “Don’t worry about it mate, I’m sorry it took so long for someone to defend ya, my names y/n by the way, don’t think we’ve met” her brown eyes met mine, as a small smile spread across her face, I couldn’t really tell what colour her hair was but I’m guessing it’s a shade a brown,  other than that she looked like a completely normal person. “My names Annetta, you’re right we ain’t met yet but I’m glad we did”.
-Later that day
It took us ‘bout 30 minutes to get all the egg off Annetta, best we could do was wash it off and cover up the stains with the cardigan I leant her, but what really put the icing on the cake was the teacher in period 1 yellin’ at us for being so late. The temptation to yeet my shoe at someone had never been as strong as it was in that moment, fortunately for the overgrown turnip of a teacher I had to settle for a mean ass side eye. And man was it a mean one.
Apart from that the day had gone by with no more incidents, well unless you count me chasing Bucky round the canteen with a carton of milk for stealin’ half my lunch, much to Annetta’s entertainment and Steve’s embarrassment. I mean the butthole deserved it, nobody and I mean NOBODY messes with my lunch. Even blue-eyed boys with a smile that could charm the devil….what am I sayin’?!
ANYWAYS it’s now what? 4th period I think, which meant English with Annetta, and maybe my favourite boys in the world. Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. Bet ya thought I were gonna say Steve and Bucky right? Well they’re currently sat behind me debating who’d win in a fight, Popeye, or Bugs Bunny. I’m surrounded by idiots. Thankfully, the teacher walked into the classroom and saved me, Mrs Davis seemed like a nice woman, she had a friendly smile and roundish face, her hair tied back into a neat bun as she took a seat. Now I’ll save you the boring bits, she started the lesson with a pop quiz which was just plain rude, about halfway through it the door burst open and there stood my best friend in the entire world. Monica. I have to say I loved her new style, the schools P.E kit really brought out the judgement in her eyes, did you detect my sarcasm yet?.
You wanna know what made her entrance even more dramatic ? the lovely aroma of gone off milk and rotted banana skins that followed her around the room,  I could help the smirk on my face as everyone around me started gagging at the smell. If you ask me I reckon it’s an improvement, I mean she certainly captures the attention of everyone in the room. Monica’s face started to match her hair, quickly racing over to Mrs Davis to give her the tardy slip before taking her seat which just had to be across from me, whoopee for me. Eventually Mrs Davis got the attention back to her, carrying on with her lesson, which moved onto matching up the famous English literature quotes with the character and book. To be fair this was actually a load of fun for me, even if Steve butchered a line from Romeo and Juliet, I don’t remember Shakespeare saying, ‘ A rose by any other name would smell as bad’. The way I banged my head on the table made Annetta think I broke my neck. Fun times people.
Of course, my reaction didn’t escape Mrs Davis’s attention, just my luck eh?. “Miss y/n, seeing as you seem to know everything, answer me this. Elizabeth Bennet is a main character in a well-known book, she’s known for the quote ‘I am a no bird and no net ensnares me. I am a free human being with an independent will’. The question is who is the author of this book is it A) Charles Dickens B) Jane Austen or C) Arthur Conan Doyle ?”. Is she being for real right now?. “Miss? With no disrespect the question itself is wrong, that wasn’t said by Elizabeth Bennet from pride and Prejudice, but said by Jane Eyre, and it was written by Charlotte Brontë”. A small smile spread across her face, which was confusing as all heck and a tad creepy to be honest, “very well-done Miss y/n, that’s the first time a student has gotten that question correct.”……
What in the name of ever-loving fluff just happened?….
So our girl is back and kicking butt! hopefully it’s not as bad as I think it is, and again I want to thank you all again for being so patient with me, good news is I’ve got the rest of the book written already! I’ll be posting them at least once a week.
Lots of love,
Rose xxx
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Text
A/N: Links to Chapter 1-3 posted at bottom of page!
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Chapter 4
It had been a few days since Eden left Sids after they raped her.    She called out sick from work she couldn't face them.    The team was headed out to California and Eden asked if she could fly out and meet the team there.    They said that was fine.     Eden went out a day early and did some sight seeing.       It was nice.     The team arrived later that day.     She had just gotten finished eating when there was a knock at the door.    Eden goes and sees it was Sid.
"Eden please open the door." Sid says.
He had carnations her favorite in his hands and a stuffed Panda bear too.   Eden figured she might as well hear him out.    She opens the door.  
"What Sid?" Eden says.
"I am sorry for what I did to you the other day." Sid says.
"Oh you mean raping me when I said no." Eden replies snarky.
"Yes I am sorry baby.   It will never happen again.     Kris is sorry too these are from us." Sid says.
"Look let's just let by gones be bygones.   I  won't say anything about what happened.   I won't tell your secret." Eden says.
"Please baby.    Think about it.    We really do love you." Sid says.
"Okay I will think about it okay." Eden says.
"Good baby.    We love you and don't want to loose you." Sid says.
"I will think about it okay.   Now I just want to go lie down.   I am not feeling well." Eden says.
"Okay feel better." Sid says kissing her softly on the lips.
"Thanks Sid.   Goodnight I will see you at practice tomorrow." Eden replies.
"Okay baby." Sid says kissing her head.
Eden took the flowers and Panda and shut the door behind him.    She wasn't thinking about anything she was walking out of this and going to be with Chase.  
That was when her phone went off. It was Chase.
"Meet me down in the lobby." Chase texts.
"Wait you're here!" Eden texts back.
"Yup got a race here in Cali and then racing Phoenix and Vegas." Chase says.
"Let me change and I'll be right down." Eden says.
She throws on a pair of jeans and a black be brave shirt.    She then heads down to the lobby.
Chase was standing there waiting for her. She runs to him.
"Chase." Eden exclaims practically jumping on him.
"Hey princess." Chase says kissing her.
Eden kisses back not caring who was watching.
"I'm so happy you are here." Eden says.
"I am happy too I get too see my girl. Now let's go I have a special date planned just the two of us." Chase says.
They link hands and head out to them rental car. They both get in. Chase takes off towards San Diego.
"Where are we going?" Eden asks.
"You will see." Chase says smiling at her.
45 minutes later they arrive at the zoo.
"The San Diego Zoo!" Eden  says excitedly.
'Well I know how much you love animals especially pandas so I figured I needed to bring you." Chase  says.
They park. They then head to the entrance. Chase  pays for them them. They find out there was a bus called the Kangaroo Bus that would drop them off at various parts of the park. They get on the bus and it takes them to the first part of the zoo. The Australian Outback. Inside there they see the Australian Wander which was full of plants that come from down under, along with Camels, Koalas. Laughing Kookabura's, Tasmanian Devils and Wombats.
It was fun. They got to hold a koala, play with a kangaroo and ride a camel together.
Eden was taking all kinds of pictures.
From there they head into the Lost Forest exhibit,. There they see Bog Garden, Bonabo's , Fern Canyon, Flamingos, Ginger Garden, harpy eagels, Hawaiian pants, Hippo's, Mandrills, Monkey's, Okapi's, orangutans, Otter's and pygmy Hippos pygmy marmosets, Tapirs, terrace lagoon, and Tigers.
"I want a hippo for Christmas is one of my favorite Xmas songs so I love hippos." Eden says.
"They are intriguing animals." Chase says.
They continue on. They were holding hands and acting like a real couple and Eden was loving it. They then get on the Kangaroo bus and head to the nest spot for them. They then do the Panda Canyon, where they see Amur Leopard's, Giant Panda's red pandas and Takins.
"Pandas are my absolute favorite animal in the whole wide world." Eden says.
"I know now come with me." Chase says.
They head behind the habitat where they met a zookeeper. Chase paid extra for them to be able to play with one of the panda's. It was one of the Cubs born not that long ago. Also Eden was adopting it and could name it. Eden was having the time of her life. Chase had them take picture and a video. She ended up naming the bear Chase. Finally they leave.
"Thank you for doing that for me. I love it." Eden says.
"I am glad baby." Chase says.
That was when Eden ran to the trash can and threw up. Chase held her hair back. He also got her ginger Ale.
"Do you want to go home?" Chase asks.
"Nope I'm okay now." Eden says.
They then head to the Africa Rocks where they got to see and play with the penguins.
They head around the zoo seeing more different animals. They saved the best for last where Eden  got to see the polar bears another one of her favorites. It was neat to see them out playing. Eden  took more pictures.    Finally they headed to the gift shop and Eden got a few things. Chase got her a few things as well and they left.
"Thank you Clyde for a much needed fun day." Eden says.
"You are welcome Princes." Chase says.
"Our first official date." Eden says.
"And it's not over yet." Chase says.
They hop in the car and head back towards Los Angeles.    Chase heads to Disneyland and parks.
"Disneyland baby?" Eden asks.
"But of course. Have to take my Princess to the happiest place on earth." Chase replies.
"I love you." Eden says.
"I love you more princess." Chase replies kissing her hand.
He then gets out of the car and gets her door. Eden gets out and they head to Disneyland hand in hand. They head inside and   stop first at Sleeping Beauty's castle and have someone take a picture of them in front.   
They got a few different ones including of one of them kissing.   After that they head to start riding rides.   They  get on Alice and Wonderland, Astro Orbiter, Autopia, Big Thunder Mountain, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Casey Jr. Circus Train, Chip and Dale's tree house, the Disney Gallery, Disney Railroad, The Disneyland Story presenting Great moments with Mr. Lincoln, Donald's Boat, Enchanted Tiki Room, Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, Frontierland Shootin' Exposition, Gadget's Go Coaster, Goofy's playhouse, Indiana Jones adventure, It's a small world, Jungle Cruise, King Arthur's Carrousel, Mad Tea Party, Main Street Cinema, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Mark Twain Riverboat, Matterhorn Bobsleds, Mickey's house and meet Mickey, Minnie's house, Mr. Toads Wild Ride, Peter Pan's Flight, Pincchio's Darin Journey, Pirates Lair on Tom Sawyers Island, Pirates of the Caribbean, Roger Rabbits Car Toon Spin, Snow Whites Scary adventure, Space Mountain, Star Tours The Adventure continues, Star wars Launch Bay, Star Wars Path of the Jedi, Storybook land canal boats, Tarzan's treehouse, Dumbo the flying elephant, Haunted Mansion, Main street vehicles, Splash Mountain, Davey Crockett's Explorer canoes, and Sailing Ship Colombia.  
"I am hungry." Eden says after they finished riding the rides.
"Me too." Chase  replies.
"Let's  eat and then we can continue on." Eden  says.
"Sounds good.:" Chase  says.
They decide to eat at the Carnation Café.    They both get burgers and fries and milkshakes.    After they eat they head and do a few shows.   They do a Star Wars Character Experience and then they do Jedi Training.   That was fun they then meet fairy friends at Pixie Hallow and meet the Disney princess at Royal Hall. Chase took a few pictures of Eden. He got a her few things. He figured for Halloween she could be a princess and he would be a race car driver.
They  continue on and get on Animation Academy, Fliks Flyers, Francis Ladybug Boggie, Golden Zephyr, Goofy's sky school, Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout, Heimlich's chew chew train, it's tough to be a bug, Jumpin Jellyfish, King Triton's carousel, The Little Mermaid: Ariel's undersea adventure, Luigi's Rollickin Roadsters, Maters Junkyard Jamboree, Monsters Inc. Mike and Sully to the rescue, Princess Dot Puddle Park, Radiator Springs racers, Red car trolley, Silly Symphony Swings, Soarin around the world, Sorcerers workshop, Toy Story Midway Mania, Tuck and Rolls Drive em buggies, Turtle Talk with Crush, The Bakery Tour, California Screamin, Games of the Boardwalk, Grizzly River run, Mickey's Fun Wheel, Redwood Creek Challenge trail, Frozen at Disneyland resort, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Monsters after dark.
They then head and see Ana and Elsa's Royal Welcome, Frozen Live at Hyperion, Meet Olaf, and Meet the Residents of Radiator Springs in Cars land.
Finally, they head back to the car and head to Universal Studios.   They go inside and get on rides.   They ride on Harry Potter and the Forbidden journey, The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter, Flight of the Hippogrif, Fast and the Furious Supercharged, King Kong 360, The Walking Dead attraction, Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, Jurassic Park the ride, Transformers The ride, The Simpson Ride, Revenge of the Mummy Ride, Super Silly Fun Land, Sill Swirly Fun Ride, Special Effects show, Water World, Universal's animal actors, and Charter sightings.
They finish everything they wanted to do at the park before heading back to the car.
They then head back to the car and back to the track. Chase  had something special planned for them. He had it set up and ready to go.
"What's this?" Eden says seeing a table set up for two.
"Dinner for two baby." Chase says.
"Awww Clyde." Eden says kissing him.
Chase kisses back. He then helps her sit down.
He goes and heats up their food. He had made chicken parmigiana and noodles along with a salad. When it was done he sits it in the table and then takes his seat. They each take a piece of chicken and some noodles.   They then add a little bit more sauce to each before sprinkling it with parmesan cheese.   They put some salad in their salad bowls and add the dressing.   Chase pours them each a glass of wine.
Eden takes a bite of the food and then says
"Oh my god it tastes as good as it smells."
"Thanks.   The sauce is my mothers homemade recipe." Chase  says.
"Well it's good." Eden  says.
They eat and enjoy each others company.   Once they finished Eden helped Chase  clean up and put the leftovers away and load the dishwasher.
"The flowers are for you." Chase says to her.
"Thank you Clyde.  Carnations are my favorite flower and pink is my favorite color." Eden  says.
"I know baby." Chase says.
"So wha are we going to watch?" Eden  asks.
"Since  I know how much you love scary movies I have the Conjuring universe movies ready to go." Chase replies.
"Lead the way." Eden says.
Chase lead her to the game room.   They both sit on the couch as Chase turns on the Nun.   The movie starts.    Not even five minutes into it Chase jumps at a scary part.
"Damn." Chase says.
"You really hate scary movies don't you?" Eden asks.
"Yes I do.    But I will watch them because I know you like them." Chase says.
"Well I will keep you safe Clyde." Eden says.
"I know." Chase says as another scary part happens.
They movie went on.   Eden felt him get a little tense and knew he was scared so she leaned in a little closer trying to comfort him.   Chase puts his arm around her pulling her closer to him.  She leaned her head on his shoulder.  
It got to the part where the priest was buried A alive.    Chase started to shake.   That was one of his phobias being trapped someplace not being able to get out.   He was claustrophobic.
"Oh Chase." Eden says leaning in placing a soft kiss on his lips.
She would do anything at that moment to make him feel better.   She never experienced a man so vulnerable.
Chase kisses back putting his hands on each side of her cheeks.  Eden parts her lips slightly.   Chase deepens the kiss exploring her mouth with his tongue.
"Mmm." Chase moans deep in his throat.
"Mmm." Eden moans too.
"God Princess ." Chase says once they both come up for air.
"You are a good kisser Clyde." Eden says.
"So are you Princess." Chase replies.
  She looks deep into his eyes and sees a bunch of emotion swirling in them.
Chase leans in kissing her again pulling her all but into his lap.   His hands roam up the back of her shirt setting her skin on fire. 
"God Clyde take me to bed." Eden moans when he let her up for air again.
"God baby are you sure?" Chase asks.
"God yes." Eden says she wanted him so bad.
Chase picks her up carrying her into his bedroom.   He sits her on her feet closing the door.    Once the door was closed Eden pushes him up against it.
"Eden." Chase moans.
"I want you and I am going to take you." Eden says.
"I want you too." Chade says.
She starts to lift his shirt up placing soft kisses along his chest as she does.
"Fuck." Chase moans.
Once she gets the shirt up and and over his she throws it to the floor.
"You have the most amazing body Clyde." Eden says running her nails lightly down his chest to the band of his jeans.
"Thanks Princess oh god." Chase moans as she pops open the button and pulls the zipper down running her finger up his happy trail.
She works the jeans down his hips kissing his stomach with light fluttery kisses as she does.  Chase just moans.
She then works his boxer briefs down as well freeing his rock hard cock.   Eden licks her lips.  She places soft kisses on his stomach again before running her tongue down his happy trail.   She places soft kisses on each thigh before slowly taking his cock into her mouth.
"Fuck Eden." Chase moans running his fingers through her hair.
She sucks him in nice and slow running her tongue along the underside of his shaft.   She looks up locking eyes with him.   She keeps sucking him in and out of her mouth slowly.
"Fuck Eden that's it suck my dick baby." Chase moans gently pulling her hair as he starts to thrust.
Eden kept going slowly torturing him bringing him to the verge of cumming.
"God baby I am going to cum." Chase moans he didn't know what she wanted.
Eden gently starts to play with his balls never taking her eyes off him.
"Princess oh god." Chase moans as he cums hard down her throat.
Eden swallows every drop before slowly licking him clean.   She then slowly works her way back up his body pulling him in for a kiss.   She explores every inch of his mouth with her tongue letting him taste himself on her lips and tongue.   Chase slowly backs her towards the bed.  He breaks the kiss long enough to pull her shirt over her head tossing it.
"Jesus Eden that bra." Chase moans seeing it.
He pulls one strap down kissing her shoulder as he does.  Then kisses the other as he pulls that strap down.   He sucks and licks the tops of each breast peaking out from the cup.   He pulls the cups down taking one in his mouth running a circle around her nipple with his tongue before sucking on it gently nibbling on it bringing it to a peak.
"Clyde." Eden moans running her fingers in his hair.  
Chase moves to the other breast doing the same thing.   He slowly unclasps the bra pulling it off tossing it aside as well.    He then kisses softly down her stomach to the band of her jeans. 
He uses his teeth to pop open the button lightly nibbling on her belly as he slowly inches them down her hips and legs. Eden steps out of them kicking off her shoes.
"God baby those panties.  God so wet." Chase moans running his mouth over her pussy smelling her juices.
He then slowly works them down over her hips and down her legs.     Eden kicks them off.   He then slowly kisses his way up her legs placing a kiss on each thigh.   He blows cool breath across her mound as she slowly spreads her legs.   He runs his tongue up and down her slit before pushing inside starting to fuck her with his tongue. 
Not long after he started Eden gently pulls his hair pulling him away from her.
"Fuck me Clyde." Eden  says all but begging him.
"God okay baby."  Chase says kissing his way up her body.   He picks her up kissing her letting her taste her on his lips and tongue and gently lays her down on the bed.
"God please Clyde I need you inside me now." Eden moans.
"God baby." Chase moans as he gently pushes inside her.
"God yes." Eden moans as he starts to thrust gently at first.
He wanted to go slow letting her adjust to his size.   She was so tight and wet.
"Jesus Eden you feel so good.  Like a glove." Chase moans.
"God fuck me Clyde hard and fast." Eden moans digging her nails into his back.
Chase moves a little harder and faster.   Eden wraps her legs around his waist letting him go deeper inside her.
"Eden oh god." Chase moans going even harder.
"Clyde god that's it." Eden moans as he stretched her even further.
She throws her head back arching into him.  It felt so good.
"God baby I am not going to last." Chase moans
"Cum baby let me feel it." Eden monas.
"Eden sweet Eden." Chase moans looking deep into her eyes as he cums hard deep inside her.
"Clyde oh god." Eden moans shuttering as her orgasm rushes through her.
She cums with him feeling him coat her insides.   She just moans as her body shutters from the pleasure.
Chase kisses her gently on the lips and then the jaw and neck as they ride it out.   
"God Clyde again  I need you again." Eden moans.
She just wanted to feel that good again and not think about anything.
"Okay Eden but this time it will be nice and slow." Chase says.
"Please." Eden begs.
Chase starts to move again inside her taking it nice and slow.
"Eden god." Chase moans loving being inside her.
"Clyde god." Eden moans as he slowly builds her up.
"So close." Eden moans.
"Cum baby." Chase moans.
"Clyde." Eden moans as she cums.
"That's it baby milk my release." Chase moans as he cums again inside her.
They make love a few more times before Eden's eyelashes started to flutter.   Chase gets up.
"Where are you going?" Eden asks sleepily.
"Shhh baby I will be back." Chase says kissing her softly on the lips.
He goes into the bathroom grabbing a wash cloth wetting it with warm water.   He then comes over and gently wipes her down cleaning her.
He goes and tosses the rag in the hamper and then climbs into bed beside her.   She curls up to him laying her head on his chest.   Chase pulls the blanket up over them kissing her head as they both fall asleep.
**************************
The next morning Eden and Chase woke up when the alarm went off.
"Good morning baby:" Chase says.
"Good morning, oh god." Eden says getting up and running to the bathroom.
She made it just in time to empty her stomach in the toilet. Chase was right behind her. She got her everything up. Chase then picks her up gently and carries her back to bed.
"Sorry baby." Eden says.
"For what?" Chase asks.
"Getting sick." Eden replies.
"It's okay." Chase replies.
"I need to go back. I have to change before I head to practice." Eden replies.
"Yeah I know. I am glad I was able to see you." Chase says.
"Me too I will try and make the race on Sunday." Eden adds.
Chase smiles. He gives her a few shirts from his collection. They then head to the car and head back to Eden's hotel.
"I will see you later princess. I love you." Chase says.
"I will see you later Clyde. I love you too." Eden replies.
They share a few more kisses not wanting to part ways. But finally Eden heads inside and up to her room. She showered and got dressed and then heads down to the bus. Once everyone was on they head to the arena. Eden goes and gets the exam room set up in case they would need it for anything. That was when she felt arms snake around her waist.
"Hey baby, I missed you last night." Sid says.
"Hi Sid. Sorry I was so tired. Still getting used to the time change." Eden replies lying.
She didn't know what he would do if he knew she was with Chase. She was scared of him. It sucked cus she had a contract and had to work with the Penguins until the end of the 2021 season. Even though she wanted to quit.
"I know it can take effect on you but you will get used to it." Sid says.
"I know. Don't you have practice?" Eden asks.
" I do but I wanted to know if you were doing anything after?" Sid asks.
"No I don't. Sunday I am going to the NASCAR race before the game that night. But nothing today." Eden replies.
"Okay maybe I can come to your room, we can order room service and watch movies." Sid says.
"Okay." Eden says.
"Good see you then." Sid replies.
"Is Kris coming too?" Eden asks.
"Nope just me this time." Sid says.
"Okay." Eden replies.
Sid kisses her and leaves to attend practice. Eden grabs a little something from the snack bar and goes and watches practice. Halfway through Kris took a high stick to the face and there was blood.
"I got it." Eden says.
Kris comes down the runway and into the exam room. Eden follows him in. Kris was sitting on the table.
"Damn that hurt like a son of a bitch." Kris says.
"Sorry Kris." Eden says dabbing the blood away with a towel.
"It's okay. Is it bad?" Kris asks.
"Yes going to need stitches but shouldn't keep you out of the game tomorrow." Eden says.
"Good." Kris says.
Eden stitches him up. Kris puts his hand over hers.
"Thank you. Sorry for the other day Eden. Are you okay?" Kris asks.
"Yeah I'm okay. And your welcome it's my job." Eden says.
"I know. Im still thankful for you." Kris says.
"I know. I don't know what's going to happen between us but I promise I won't tell anyone about you and Sid. I just don't think I can do this. It took me to moving away and being away from him to realize how much I love Chase." Eden says.
"I know I can tell. Look if you want out that is fine. I know you won't tell anyone about me and Sid but I don't know if Sid will let you go." Kris says.
"I know." Eden says.
"Did you ever love us?" Kris asks.
"I loved you Kris you never hurt me.   Sid in the other hand." Eden says looking down.
"I'm sorry he hurt you Eden." Kris says lifting her head up.
He leans in and kisses her.    Eden kisses back.
"God." Eden moans as she pulls away.
"Go lock the door." Kris says.
Eden goes and locks the door.     She comes back over and climbs into his lap.
"God." Eden moans as he shreds her panties.
"I like skirts." Kris says.
"God." Eden moans as Kris pushes up into her.
"Ride me pretty girl. You know you want to." Kris says.
"God Kris." Eden moans as she starts to move up and down.
"That's it pretty girl." Kris says grabbing her hips.
They needed to be faster. Kris took control of their movements. Eden bit her arm throwing her head back to keep from screaming out. Kris nips and sucks her neck as they move.
"Eden fuck." Kris calls out as he cums hard deep inside of her.
"Kris. "Eden moans out as she cums with him.
They ride it out and Kris picks her up off of him. He stands up and fixes himself.
Kris then kisses her head before walking out the door. Eden collected herself. She then cleans up the exam room and prepared it from the game tomorrow. She then heads out and gets on the bus.
Once all the boys were on board they all head back to the hotel. Eden goes up to her room. She changes into her new Chase Elliott shirt and a pair of lounge pants. She wasn't feeling the greatest. She was laying down when there was a knock at her door. She gets up and opens it. Sid was there with room service and flowers.
"Come in." Eden says letting him in.
"Thanks." Sid says kissing her cheek.
Eden shuts the door.
"What did you bring?" Eden asks.
"Chicken noodle soup and ginger ale. Because I know you said you weren't feeling good." Sid says.
"I am not." Eden replies.
"I am sorry. Well let's eat and then we can relax and watch something on Netflix or something." Sid says.
Eden nods her head yes. So far it was going okay and she wasn't afraid. This was the Sid she started dating. They ate the soup and Eden nibbled the saltines. She sipped the ginger ale. Finally they laid in bed and Eden turned on Netflix. She turned on Sweet Home Alabama one of her favorite movies. She started to think about Chase. This movie was the story of their lives. Sid started to kiss her. Eden kisses back closing her eyes. As they were making out Sid runs his hands down her body. He runs them down her pants and under wear rubbing her pussy before sticking a finger in.
"Hmm nice and wet for me pretty girl." Sid says.
"Yes." Eden moans. She was pretending it was Chase.
"Want me to fuck you pretty girl?" Sid asks.
"Please." Eden begs.
Sid slides her pants and panties off followed by his jeans and boxer briefs. He then hovers over her running his tip along her entrance.
"Soaking for daddy." Sid moans.
"God don't tease." Eden begs.
Sid pushes into her and starts to move thrusting hard and fast.
"Fuck baby." Sid moans as she moves with him.
She wrapped her legs around his waist letting him go deeper.
"God." Eden moans digging her nails into his back.
She still had her eyes closed pretending it was Chase fucking her.
"That's it pretty girl milk my cock baby get ready to take my cum." Sid moans.
"GOd." Eden moans she was almost there.
"Fuck Eden god." Sid moans as he cums hard pumping her pussy full of his cum.
"Clyde oh god Clyde." Eden calls out as she cums too.
"What the fuck did you just call me?" Sid shouts slapping her.
Eden's eyes flashed open and she realized that by her fantasizing about Chase she called out his name.
"Umm." Eden says.
"Did you call me Clyde? Were you thinking about another man while I was fucking you." Sid screams at her.
Eden was so scared she didn't know what to say.
"Answer me you ungrateful ass whore." Sid screams.
"Yes I am so disgusted by you and how you treat me that in order for me to even attempt to have sex I have to think about Chase so I can get off." Eden screams out pushing him off of her.
She gets up off the bed. She was going to hide in the bathroom or something. She had her cell phone.
"You fucking whore. Don't you ever push me again or I will rip your hair out and choke you with it." Sid yells grabbing her hair pulling her back to him.
"Ow you are hurting me." Eden says.
"You think I fucking care. I hope it hurts. Remeber I am the only guy besides Kris who can cum in your sweet pussy. We are the only ones who can fuck you." Sid says.
"Fuck off Sid. I want out of this. I can't stand you. I fucking hate you. Get out." Eden screams turning around wailing out on him.
"You want to hit me bitch. I am going to show you." Sid says.
He picks her up throwing her back into the mirror glass shattering. He bashes her head against it not caring that it busted her head open. He then throws her down onto the floor throwing the mirror down on top of her covering her in glass.
"I will kill you before I ever let you leave." Sid says.
"Please I need help." Eden cries out.
"Fuck that bleed for all I care. If I can't have you no one will." Sid says as he kicks her hard.
Eden whimpers. Sid then leaves the room door slamming behind him. Eden still had her cell phone. It took everything in her to dial his number.
"Hey Princess." Chase says answering on the first ring.
"Chase help. I am hurt." Eden says.
"Eden? Where are you?" Chase asks panicked.
"Hotel Chase. Hurry." Eden says before she blacked out.
"Hang tight princess. I am coming to get you." Chase says.
You ever love somebody so much
You can barely breathe, when you're with them, you meet
And neither one of you, even know what hit 'em
Got that warm fuzzy feeling, yeah them chills, used to get 'em
Now you're getting fucking sick, of looking at 'em
You swore you've never hit 'em, never do nothing to hurt 'em
Now you're in each other's face,
Spewing venom in your words, when you spit 'em
You push, pull each other's hair, scratch, claw, bit 'em
Throw 'em down, pin 'em, so lost in the moments, when you're in 'em
It's the rage that took over it controls you both
So they say it's best, to go your separate ways
Guess that they don't know ya 'cause today, that was yesterday
Yesterday is over, it's a different day
Sound like broken records, playin' over, but you promised her
Next time you'll show restraint
You don't get another chance
Life is no Nintendo game, but you lied again
Now you get to watch her leave
Out the window, guess that's why they call it window pane
Just gonna stand there and watch me burn
But that's alright, because I like the way it hurts
Just gonna stand there and hear me cry
But that's alright, because I love the way you lie
I love the way you lie
I love the way you lie
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onslaughtsixdotcom · 3 years
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Scaling Up Dragon Heist
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Around April or May of 2019, I started to run Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, one of the official WotC 5e hardcovers. I’m still not done with it, although that is largely the fault of COVID and my own extensions to the campaign. 
I think Dragon Heist is one of the better 5e modules by WotC. I think it’s got a strong playground for the characters, and Waterdeep has 30+ years of publication history to draw on. The release of the module also heralded in a HUGE amount of third party extension content, including the famous Alexandrian Remix. I hadn’t heard of this before I started running my campaign and having ideas about how to do it, so it didn’t influence me--although I’m sure we came to a lot of similar conclusions and ideas, based on common perceptions of what the actual flaws are of the module.
Still, despite those flaws, I think they help the module rather than hinder it. It gives the DM a shitload of room to improvise and draw in the margins, rather than some other 5e adventures which feel like they can’t be fucked with in the least.
Here’s the kicker: I started my adventure at level 4. We had a pre-existing party that I had run through the classic N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God. (Fun fact: A map that I drew is the 3rd Google Images result for that. Woah.)
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The party spent a few real-world weeks traveling across about 7 days of overland travel where I ran some drop in one shots; including Mike Krahulik’s Dusk (a Twilight parody) and a really fun 2 hour diversion where the players saw an ancient blue dragon take off the roof of a church during a wedding. Then they arrived in my city: Dawnharbour.
I don’t run the Forgotten Realms. I find it not to my taste. Most of the names suck. The lore is invariably boring or weird, and not the fun kind of weird. I was going to run Dragon Heist, and I was going to put it in my own city. I gave the players some justification previously for why they would want to go there: The cleric’s sister had been kidnapped by the Cult of the Reptile God and turned into a Yuanti; a snake person. The bard had stolen a golden statue of the Reptile God and wanted to melt it down and plate his violin with it. I told the cleric that they would need a high level magic user and someone in Dawnharbour could probably help them; ditto the bard needing a highly skilled magical blacksmith. The third player didn’t really care where they went since he was on the run from his home country. So, off to Dawnharbour. They reached level 4 when they got to the city.
I won’t bore you with the rest of the details of my city or everything I changed for the campaign. Instead, I’ll talk up some hard and fast ways to make the adventure work for a higher level party. Most of them revolve around the encounters. I’m assuming the party will start around level 4 or 5.
Chapter 1
The book opens with the players in the Yawning Portal, a famous tavern with a big ass well to a megadungeon underneath. (More on this later.) They’re hanging out doing whatever when a troll and some stirges pop out of the well. The book says that the players get attacked by the stirges while the owner of the bar, a typical Forgotten Realms 15th level Fighter running a fucking bar for a living deals with the troll.
A troll is CR 5. They can handle a troll. If they can’t, you have a bigger problem.
Next up the book leads them to a Zhentarim warehouse. When they get there it’s abandoned and there are (ugh) 3 Kenku. Kenku are like tengu if they sucked. They’re bird people who can only speak in mimickry, like parrots. They can only repeat words they’ve heard before. This is stupid as fuck (especially when a player wants to be one) but more importantly, they are incredibly weak. I think the kenku are just hanging out or they got captured by the Zhentarim who left them there after they bail or something like that. Whatever.
I put the Zhentarim there instead. I put like 20 Zhentarim. I used the Spy statblock; they don’t have a lot of CR and at level 4 or 5, the players are real slice and dicey about killing them. They can basically carve through two of these dudes in a turn. It was *really* fun to just have the players mow down these mooks. They used the 2nd floor to their advantage, casting Grease on the stairs and creating a bottleneck and then picking them off with ranged attacks and spells. I think I might have given the Zhents 1hp and treated them as minions (see 4e). 
I think I had the police show up after they were all dead; someone heard the commotion and called the cops. I think I also put an NPC there; I shuffled around a bunch of the NPCs the module uses. (They got their quest to save Volo from Bigby in the Yawning Portal; instead of finding Volo here, I think they found my equivalent of Renaer Neverremember.) There was a day’s break between this and them going into the sewers in the next part.
The sewer introduces the Xanathar’s minions. I believe a Duergar is actually there and I took this as a sign--I made most of Xanathar’s mooks Duergar, and then decided--this dude is a Beholder and he has a Mindflayer for a lieutenant. The Xanathar’s forces should ALL be classic D&D dungeon monsters, like rust monsters and umber hulks and ropers. This gives you a wide variety of weird shit you can throw at your players at different CR levels, and the idea of a gangster Beholder who thinks hiring a bunch of umber hulks to go shake down a local deli is fucking hilarious. But, it doesn’t make them any less dangerous. Throw some umber hulks or something in this lair. Go nuts--the weirder, the better. Xanathar’s crew should have no qualm about hanging out with a gibbering mouther or a carrion crawler.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2 is the least developed chapter in the book. It also revolved around a bunch of Forgotten Realms faction nonsense that I wanted nothing to do with. I used this time instead to formally introduce the Xanathar, the Cassalanters and Jarlaxle. After they foiled his plans to rig a goldfish competition (think a dog show but for fish), the Xanathar became convinced the players worked for the Zhentarim and invited them to have a sit down about their intentions; if they worked for the Zhents he wanted to formally declare war. The players hated the Zhents--they killed an NPC they liked back during N1, partially to set this all up. Xanny was cool with that.
The Cassalanters were a way to introduce a new player. They call up the Blackstaff to say, hey we have a magic item, can you send a guy here to deliver it? (Magic item possession is illegal on the streets in my setting, but if someone important hires you to transport it, then you can do it. This makes being a courier a very lucrative job; lots of people are just carrying around other people’s stuff for a living.) They almost immediately knock out the new player sent to pick up the item, and replace him with their dofflegagher. The idea was that the dofflegagher player would then infiltrate the Blackstaff’s organization.
Blackstaff is no dumbass and hired a random dude off the street--my new player. Then, Blackstaff hired the rest of the party to go rescue him--mostly as a ruse to snuff out the Cassalanters and get evidence that they were shitty.
When they encountered the Cassalanters, I used a Cambion; one of their servants turned into him. This guy slowly became a recurring lieutenant; he was basically the Goldar for the Cassalanter’s Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa. At the time, I hadn’t read any lore for Cambions; I’m not particularly concerned with monster lore the way the guys who make the game write it. I literally thumbed through my deck of monsters, saw this winged devil horn dude, and said, “Right on, he looks like he’ll work.” A Cambion is CR5, more than suitable for the encounters the party will have with him over the next few levels. The Fiendish Charm ability is fun and can really fuck with the players; I ruled, of course, that anyone under its affect would obviously be free if the Cambion was killed. Even after it was killed, he just kept on coming back, because he’s from Hell and killing him on this plane doesn’t really do anything.
As the players continue to face the Cassalanters, a go-to seems to be spined devils. This is fine but not very powerful for a level 4, 5, 6 party. Therefore I suggest supplanting it with barbed devils. They’re CR5. Adding one or two of those to an encounter with spined devils can make this a real fun encounter that isn’t too horribly overwhelming, especially if at least one of your martial characters has a magic weapon (which they fucking should; they’re level 5!)
IMO you can also introduce Jarlaxle in this chapter; a fun way is through his Zardoz Zord persona. It could simply be that Jarlaxle knows Volo (or any other NPC the players know) and wants to invite them to a free meal to get to know them. In my game, Jarlaxle operates openly as himself (I found it would just complicate things if he was someone else) and invited the players to his yacht shortly after they met the Xanathar, to formally tell them all about the Vault of Dragons, the Stone, and how everyone they have met in the city is after it.
Chapter 3
I am not the biggest fan of this part of the module. I think nimblewrights and similar creatures are really dumb and don’t fit my D&D world. A lot of the stuff in this chapter is investigation stuff, and you can play that out however you like. It doesn’t drastically need scaling up, though you may have to account for something like Zone of Truth that they might not normally have access to. It also helps if you do the opposite of the book, and make the police a bunch of shitheads who don’t care about the city--this way the players are actually motivated to help. I’ve seen a LOT of posts that open with “the fireball happened and my players shrugged and said they would let the police handle it.” Horrible! The police should either be incompetent, apathetic, or (best case) both. They don’t care who did this and if they did, they wouldn’t be able to catch them. Now it’s completely on the players.
IMO it also helps if you do the leg work to make the NPC someone they actually care about. In the book it’s an NPC they’ve never met but they have a mutual acquaintance through--it would be nice if they get invited to a dinner with this NPC or something similar prior to this. Or, change it to be any NPC they like who you don’t mind killing. Hell, they’re level 5 or 6 at this point--if they got a cleric, they can even cast Revivify and wake the dude up. They could even cast Speak With Dead and immediately find out who blew him up or what he was doing here!
Moving on, there’s the Gralland Villa. I retooled the name to actually sound like a good name; sue me. 
The book has a bunch of Zhents hanging out here. A simple way to make this dramatic and hard is to pull the trigger and make the players fight their way in. The stone is right here at the villa and they need to steal it. Sounds simple enough.
Things got complicated for my party when a recurring NPC appeared. She was an ex girlfriend of the bard in our party; they were both Tieflings. She now worked for the Zhentarim and was basically their second in command. And she was here to steal the stone, come Hell or high water. The bard, still in love with her, was perfectly content to let her steal it and even cover her getaway. The rest of the players, not so much, but when the chaos was ensuing and she was literally running past them with the stone in hand, made the decision that it was smarter to try and help her escape and then figure out how to get the stone from her later, than try and get it from her now.
This led literally directly to chapter 4.
Chapter 4
By now it’s obvious: I used all 4 bad guys.
I ran through the chapter and picked the coolest maps and best encounter ideas, including the rooftop chase, the theater, the sewer and the courthouse. I weaved them together carefully, and all the changes I had made to the groups paid off when they entered the theater, chased by barbed devils and our Cambion friend, only to have an Umber Hulk with the Xanathar’s logo painted on his face crash through the stage, flanked by two Duergar. Add in some Drow gunslingers and it was a fucking party.
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(the large hexagon is where somebody cast Darkness; the big scuffed circle is a grody spot on my grid tiles. I still need new ones...)
The courthouse had a great scene where the Cassalanter dofflegagher impersonated the chief of police, interrogating the players for the code word to activate the stone (I added one; who cares?) until the real chief of police showed up! The players had to do an entire encounter with this guy while handcuffed; thank god for verbal only spells, right? 
From here the stone ended up with the players, and then it ended up with Jarlaxle who they are working for. Jarlaxle attuned to it and told them the Vault of Dragons is inside Undermountain; 3, 5 levels deep? Who knows? And it requires 3 keys: The Crown of Asmodeus, the Ring of Winter, and the Robe of the Archmagi.
I gave these 3 magic items to the Cassalanters, the Xanathar and Manshoon. This is a pretty common hack and it means the lairs in the book actually get used. I made up one of the magic items (Crown of Asmodeus) and stole another from a module I don’t intend to run as written (the Ring of Winter is, I believe, in either Tomb of Annihilation or Storm King’s Thunder). They’re fun!
So the rest of the campaign has been the players bouncing between going deep into Undermountain, the megadungeon underneath the Yawning Portal, and going to the 3 different villain factions to steal their shit. 
The villain lairs are NOT statted for level 5 players AT ALL. The players have no hope of actually killing ANY of the villains at level 5; to fight the Xanathar is a pure TPK at level 5. But at level 8, like where my players are now? One of them died and then got Revivified; the others all survived or made their saves when they were hit by death or disintegration. (In the spirit of the Xanathar, I rolled every eye beam randomly, rerolling if I had used that ray in the last round.) That’s about the best you can hope for with a Beholder IMO! 
The rest of the lairs you can mostly run as-is. Any very low CR mooks, basically anything lower than 1 or 2 CR, I would probably replace with a higher CR variant. We’ve already discussed what you can replace them with above, and if you’ve made it this far into the module, you should have a pretty good sense of what your players can handle.
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rochiomaru · 3 years
Text
THE BETRAYAL
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We make the journey to the islands and land on Minion island in a cove where we can see the rendezvous point at Swallow Island without our position being spotted. I have a terrible premonition that things are about to get extremely treacherous for my family, and as we spend time watching, this feeling is proven accurate. My heart sinks as we watch two warships begin circling the port. The size of these ships are so massive that they almost match the ones used in a buster call. These ships are here to rain destruction, not to simply guard a transaction. It’s as if the Marines are preparing for a war.
It is then that my transponder snail begins to ring. The demons in my soul practically sing in glee as I know whatever news is on the other end is going to destroy the remainder of my happiness. I’m not even sure how I am aware of this, but it is a knowledge that I would place my life on. I simply close my eyes and my fingers crack and bend as I flex them back and forth before taking the snail’s receiver.
Vergo informs me of my brother’s secret letter to the Marines. My world comes to an end for the briefest of moments and my vision blurs as wretched heat fills my eyes. Rosinante has attempted to tell them everything. The auction houses, the devil fruits, and worst of all, he tried to warn them about Dressrosa. It is a country that was stolen from our family by the worthless world government. That crown should have been mine at birth, simply by matter of bloodline! It was denied to me by those pompous fools, so why would help them to keep what is rightfully mine?
I am pulled from my reverie when Vergo attempts to appease me by letting me know he punished Rosinante and Law. Even my voices know to let me be at this moment. Law is my son and still a child. I am the only one to decide his punishment if one is even warranted. My brother is currently the only transgressor, and I still want to talk to him. Maybe the Marines forced him to betray me? I must know why he did this! Brothers...blood is forever! How could he choose them over me? A voice whispers in my mind that The Family is my only true family. I ignore it for now.
“Whoa-whoa, you haven’t killed them, have you?” I ask Vergo. He assures me they are still breathing, but I do not like his flippant tone. I will overlook it, though, as he has been so faithful to me all these years and has been undercover, away from the family. I tell him that we will be that way shortly, as the pirates we have fought said the devil fruit was stolen from them, so it must have been my brother.
Vergo becomes irritated. Apparently, Rosinante and Law have disappeared, but it is of no great importance. We will find them, for how far can a child and an injured man go? I also have my devil fruit to assist me. I pull forth one of my most formidable abilities. Birdcage. I can feel the subtle vibrations as people begin to grab a hold of the strings in a futile attempt to escape. No one can escape this trap once I have set it. I will find my son.
As a final push towards destruction, I release my parasite strings and begin to grab random pirates to slay anyone near them. A morbid pleasure fills my breast as I can sense the pain and fear that fills them whenever someone’s flesh is pierced by my power.
We make our way towards the town and cut down every rat we come across along the way. No amount of begging, or crying is enough to grant mercy. No display of anger, or effort to fight is adequate to repel my family’s judgement. Death is granted to all without hesitation and the stench of iron increases even as the sounds of war decrease. With each death, the demons at the core of my being are gaining more momentum. I can scarcely tell what is them and what is me. It is as though I am losing my true self, and I feel a small flicker of fear. I am drowning, and with Rosinante’s betrayal, I no longer have a lifeline to grasp, nor perhaps even the desire to hang on.
I finally reach a warehouse and use my strings to lay waste to the door. Inside I find the sorry excuse of a pirate captain. He is the one who was to meet with the Marines and sell the Ope Ope no Mi, but here he is cowering before me on the ground like a worm. Somehow this filth dares to accuse me of taking the precious fruit, but I make sure to tell him that if I had taken it, I would not be here now going through all of this. 
He sickens me to even look at him and only have one thing more to say, “How dare you let it be stolen, you drunken idiot?!” before I pass his final condemnation and pull the gun from my coat. He isn’t even worth death from my personal power, and the bullets pass through his head before he can utter one more word in response. Good riddance.
After it is done, I slowly lower myself to the floor and stare at the gun in my hand. I’m losing myself while the demons of both past and present begin to take over everything. I remember how I felt when I met Trebol for the first time. I was so small and broken. He recognized greatness in me and was able to put name to the power dwelling within my soul. Haki. The power that saved me from the villagers. If it hadn’t been for him and Vergo, I never would have met my destiny.
I continue to stare at the gun. The gun Trebol gave me to take my revenge and steal my power back from that man. He’s the one that caused me and my brother to hurt so much! He tried to take my power from me! I can hear Rosi...Rosinante screaming for me to stop. He’s screaming for that man. I ask him why he took that power I had. I tell him we can’t undo what he’s done, but I plan to take his head to the Celestial Dragons to regain entry to heaven. I’m doing it for us! Why doesn’t Rosinante understand? Instead Rosinante persists in clinging to and crying for that man!
He simply turns and says, “Doflamingo, Rosinante. I’m sorry you had to have a father like me.” I pause when he smiles at me. There are tears in his eyes and I can feel my hands begin to shake as I falter. I hate myself for my self-doubt, but this was a man I once trusted more than anyone in the world. At one time, he was everything to me. He would hold my hand as we walked along the streets of Mariejois, and he spent time playing games with me. He held me on his shoulders the first time I saw Rosi. Then I remember the pain and humiliation. He brought us here to be hurt. He let her die. He betrayed us.
The feeling of the iron is hot as I pull the trigger and I’m surprised how it makes my palm sting when the recoil causes the gun to slam back into my hand. I can smell the acidic burn of gunpowder in the air, and it is joined by the unmistakable rich odor of blood. I can feel gore and wet heat splatter on me from his wound. Rosinante continues to scream.
Pica is calling out my name, but I can scarcely bring myself to look away from the gun still sitting in my hand. It seems so small now. How can such a tiny weapon have brought such major changes in my existence? Pica then puts his hand on my shoulder and tells me they have found my brother. That manages to catch my full attention. The time has come to find out for sure if he has truly betrayed me to the point that there is no longer hope for us. I put the gun back into my coat and followed Pica into the cold.
I took my time walking towards the sounds of fighting, and though I was no longer right behind Pica, I could see his footprints in the snow. My voices are screaming for bloodshed, but I have never felt so conflicted before. My chest is aching from how tight it feels, and I notice the taste of copper in my mouth. When I put my fingers to my lips and pull them back, I see I have managed to bite through my bottom lip until it bled. Fufufu… I can’t help but to laugh at myself. Perhaps I am not as strong as I always believed?
The closer I come to where the family is confronting my brother, the harder it is for me to catch my breath. My chest is becoming even tighter, and my throat is getting dry as I struggle to swallow. I must stop and close my eyes. My fingers are moving fast and cracking as I create and release strings to try and relieve the tension in my body. I growl at the voices to shut the hell up, since they have become so fucking loud that I can’t concentrate on catching my breath. I need to understand why Rosinante is doing this!
WHY?
It isn’t until I hear Lao G tell Gladius to stop before he kills my brother that everything seems to freeze. My eyes snap open and I look up towards the direction where everyone is at just over the hill. He’s going to die? I lean my head to the side and relax my face into a wide grin, full of sharp teeth. People often tell me it is quite unnerving. I begin to chuckle softly, and it increases until I can’t even control the laughter. My demons join me in my head. We laugh until tears begin to roll down my face. Then I begin to sob. When did my brother stop loving me?
Did he ever love me?
After a few moments, I wipe my face with both of my hands and straighten my tie. I run my fingers through my hair and ensure that my coat is snug on my shoulders before continuing onward. My face is carefully blank as I approach Rosinante and my family, but I keep my hands in my pockets since I cannot seem to keep the fidgeting of my fingers under control.
I count off the steps in my head to try and keep calm. There is still a burning ember of hope in my chest, he will say something to make this better! He is still my lovely younger brother. All I have ever wanted is to have family and to be happy. We deserve better than the hell of this shameful dung heap that man cursed us to! It is all I have worked towards these long years. Surely Rosinante must know that! 
I stop and look down at Rosinante covered in blood, coughing as he is trying to smoke a cigarette. I want to reach out to him and take care of his injuries, but I know this is not the time for that. In fact, there may never be a time for that again. Instead, I say to him, “It has been six months, Corazon,” and wait to see what he will say back to me. 
The look of disgust and hatred in his eyes repulsed me. I can practically feel it burning my skin as he attempts to stare me down. Suddenly he smiles and reaches into his coat. The others immediately react, but I hold out my hand and tell them to stand down. He is my brother! I will see to this myself.
They were right not to trust him as he pulls a gun from his coat and aims it towards me. He even dares to pull back the hammer in preparation to fire. Icy fingers wind their way around my heart even as fiery pinpricks stab behind my eyes. He surely is betraying me, and I don’t know why. 
What is it about me that makes it so my biological family doesn’t want to love and protect me? I have the blood of the Celestial Dragons in my veins, but they have cast me away too. My hand goes to my eyes before I catch it and put it back into my pockets.
The next thing my brother says is that last thing I was ever expecting. “Marine Code 01746. Commander Rosinante of the Navy Headquarters. Donquixote Family captain Doflamingo, I have been undercover to prevent a future tragedy of your doing. I am a Navy soldier!” 
My heart feels as though it is shattering in that moment and there is a fever pitch of wails lamenting in my head. For the last few years that I’ve been tormented with the thoughts and suspicions that my brother hated me and was lying to me, to hear it put so plainly now was eating me alive. I could feel a cold sweat breaking out on my back and muscles tightening in my abdomen. That power began rolling and coiling within me, wrapping around the demons fighting for dominance. I felt it overwhelming me, but truly had lost the will to care.
Despite the turmoil churning inside my consciousness, I managed to keep my exterior facade in place, save for the deepening scowl on my forehead. Commander Rosinante continued, but he was no longer looking at me as he spoke. Again, my voices cried out he was playing games, only this time I know to listen to them. I realize he is no longer speaking to me, though I am not sure why he is trying to pretend any longer. What is the point in this charade? “I’m sorry I lied to you. I lied because I didn’t want you to hate me.” 
LIES!
I can feel the look of disgust that curls on my lip as I respond to him, “Stop telling those insipid jokes…” before the rage manifests on my face and I scream for him to answer my questions. I ask him about the Ope Ope no Mi and Law. He looks so proud of himself when he tells me that he had Law eat the fruit! I want to laugh in his face and wipe that smug look from existence. All he did was what I had planned from the beginning!
It’s what he says next that changes everything. My whole world feels like it is jerked out from underneath me and I am left with nothing. Law is not within the boundaries of the birdcage and Rosinante has allowed him to be given to the Marines. My son is with the FUCKING MARINES!! The icy fingers around my heart have just ripped said heart from my chest and crushed it to leave nothing but a gaping, bloody hole.
No, no, no, no… he must be lying, is all I try to tell myself as he begins to grin that cocksure fucking smile that lets me know I was never his brother. I was nothing more than an assignment to him. I begin to grind my teeth, but before I can move to react to him, Buffalo and Baby 5 cry out to me. They confirm that a boy was indeed taken by the Marines, so I begin to give out orders to the Family to retrieve Law. Then something in me snaps.
I was simply a pawn to the Commander. A villainous pirate to keep an eye on and report back about. I was never his brother! He never loved me this whole time! This realization causes the dam holding the demons back to break. I no longer have any control and they consume me. I think I may even be… grateful? After so many years of struggling, I begin to sink into the blackness of their embrace. I am me, yet I am not. It is my body, though it is not I that is fully in possession any longer.
 The bastard has the nerve to look offended that I plan to take my son back from the Marines. When he speaks aloud for me not to and asks me why I want to get Law back, I know I would never give him the honest answer anymore. He is no longer family and doesn’t deserve any kindness from me. I allow the demons to answer in my stead, simply because at this point, I want him to hurt as much as he hurt me.
 I can feel my face change as I lean in towards him. The cruelty is almost alive the way it distorts and disfigures me. I truly am demonic in my hatred and my demons have given me a new smile as I answer the Commander. “Why would I wanna go after Law? If he ate the Ope Ope no Mi, he needs to be educated in order to die for me!” Somewhere deep within I wonder if I have allowed them to go too far to even say such a thing, but when I see his face, revenge is sweet, and I force the regret away while retrieving the gun from my coat.
 I look at him and all I see is our father where I used to see our moth… all I see is him, when I used to see her. She has truly left this world for me and the only family I have is the ones I have found. The ones that came to me when I was ten.  I just don’t understand why my blood wants to reject me. I don’t mean to say it to him, but it slips out, “Why do I have to kill another member of my biological family?!”
 We stare at each other for a few moments, each pointing a gun at the other. I tell him he won’t shoot me because he is like his father. Since they do not want me, I will no longer claim them either. The Commander and that man can have each other in hell! I begin to fire. Once I pull the trigger, I can’t stop. I see flashes of my life. My brother as a baby, Law, Mariejois, my moth...my mother; all the things that have been taken from me! Why does everyone leave?
 The voices whisper, “because you are a demon, like us. A worthless monster. Who could ever love something like that?”
 I keep firing until the gun is empty. It is so cold out and I watch as Rosinante slides back against the treasure chest. Snow begins to gather on his body and red stains it. I watch while the others begin to gather the stacks of loot and beri to carry back to the ship, but a part of me doesn’t want to leave him there alone in the cold. He betrayed me in the deepest way anyone ever could, but... I love him. It’s freezing out here, and Rosi is so damn helpless and clumsy. I worry about him. He is my baby broth…
 Diamante taps me on the arm and tells me it’s time to go. I turn away and walk towards the Numancia with my family. We are about to wage war on the Marines in the harbor to get my son back. 
 I release the birdcage and my lips spread wide in a razor-sharp leer. My glasses hide the insanity that is swimming at the surface of my consciousness. I feel like the world cannot begin to touch what I have become.
The Marines will forever regret what they have done to me and my family. I am about to pay them back in spades for the life of my brother, then I will take Law before any further damage can be done.
The Heavenly Demon shows mercy to no man and has now been fully unleashed.
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lady-divine-writes · 3 years
Text
Good Omens - “Saving Face” (Rated PG13)
Summary: A gang of bullies use Warlock to trap Adam on Halloween night, herding him towards a big, old, haunted house where no one goes ... and few who enter are ever seen alive again. (3904 words)
Notes: This is one of two stories I wrote for A Big Spooky Fan Zine. Be sure to check the rest of the collection for some amazing spooky works from other wonderful fandom creators :)
Read on AO3.
“Warlock … man,” Adam implores, backing away, hands raised in surrender “... come on. You don’t have to do this.”
Warlock grins at Adam’s trembling voice, his eyes wide with fear reflecting Warlock’s triumphant grin.
“Yeah,” he says, taking measured steps forward, eating up this moment. “I do.”
A pack of five boys in costume creeps up behind Warlock like the jackals they are. They’re not standing with him. They’re there to ensure their plan goes off without a hitch. This initiation into their gang will not only provide them with a minion in Warlock, whose father’s money and connections make the boy more valuable to them than Midas. But it will knock precious prince Adam Young off his popularity pedestal - a position he’s held on to for far too long.
Adam looks from Warlock to his cronies closing in on him, taking their time since they know he’s at their mercy. Talking will not help him, and he can’t fight his way out. Six against one? The odds are not on his side. So he does the only thing he can do.
He runs.
He turns tail and bolts, feet inside his battered trainers pounding the pavement, lungs burning from the strain he’s putting them through. But he has no illusions that he’s getting away, even when he gains a considerable lead. He knows how this gang operates. They’re herding him to one specific place: The Parsons House - an abandoned house at the end of this deserted lane; a monstrous, crooked, ramshackle nightmare overlooking the largest cemetery in their village. It’s the oldest house in this corner of the countryside. A worn, wooden sign attached to a single post that no longer stands upright proclaims it to be so.
No one ever goes there, regardless of the fact that its last known owner, Emily Parsons, lived for over eighty-three years inside, all alone, until the day she died of old age. But it’s been said that her frail body can be seen hanging from a noose in the upper attic window, leading to speculation by local townsfolk that the story of her dying peacefully in her sleep may be nothing but a tall tale.
This gang of boys (sans Warlock) have done this before - chased some poor, frightened soul that they hate to the house and forced them inside …
Kids that never came back to school, who were never heard from again.
In an act that could be described as simultaneously brave and stupid, Adam heads for the house, leaps over its rickety fence, and runs straight for the stairs.
All six boys crow when they see him skid to a stop at the base of the porch.
He’s right where they want him.
Whether he goes in himself or they grab him by his arms and legs and toss him in, he’s going in that house.
“Go on then!” one of the boys yells. “Get yer bony arse in there!”
The boys cackle, lending further to the impression that they are hunchbacked, sharp-toothed predators.
“And what if I don’t?” Adam calls over his shoulder, not fully facing them. Keeping his back turned to this lot is just as foolhardy as seeking safety inside this house, but he can’t turn his back on the house either. It has an essence - something he can feel deep inside his body, into the marrow of his bones.
“I don’t see you have much of a choice,” a different boy yells. “One way or the other, yer going in there. It just depends on whether you’re walking in or crawling in on two broken legs!”
Adam looks at the boys, stopped by the fence, with a slight smirk and a furrowed brow.
“How on earth am I supposed to crawl anywhere on two broken legs?” he asks.
“I …” The boy who made the original comment chokes on the rest of his sentence, realizing then how much that threat doesn’t make any sense. “I don’t know! You’re just gonna!”
“Adam … buddy …” Warlock grips the pointed tops of the fence posts and leans over “… my friends here are going to make sure you get into that house one way or the other. So you might as well get it over with.”
Adam answers Warlock’s comment with a hard swallow. He doesn’t honestly believe those boys are going to grab him up and toss him into the house. They’re too scared to even come past the fence, standing just beyond the splintered pickets, dressed in an array of stereotypical monster costumes – a werewolf, a vampire, a mummy, Frankenstein’s monster, and a ghost – each one blocking Adam’s escape.
Warlock is the only one among them not wearing a costume, opting for slate gray trousers, a white button-down, and the thick, navy wool coat he wears for school. With the exception of being only twelve, he looks, for all intents and purposes, like he’s going on a job interview.
Just an everyday average Joe.
That’s because, he’d explained, serial killers blend in, look like everyone else.
In reality, Adam has the upper hand. He should run inside and hide.
It’s a good plan.
A reasonable plan.
A solid plan.
So why doesn’t he make his feet go?
He searches for a weapon since it seems that fighting might become an option.
The house shifts on its foundation when a particularly forceful breeze passes through it. Adam eyes the graying wood slats falling from the siding, dusty windows clattering while shutters swing off their hinges, smacking dully against one another.
A rock flies in out of nowhere and strikes Adam on the shoulder. He stumbles forward onto the first creaky step. He glares at the house, as if of all the people there meaning to do him harm, it’s the house that decided to throw the first punch.
But it wasn’t the house.
He knows it wasn’t.
And the stakes in this game of cat-and-mouse have just gone up a notch.
“Go on already!” the boy dressed as a mummy yells, tossing a second rock straight up and catching it as it comes down like he’s warming up for baseball practice. “We haven’t got all night! We still have egging to do!”
“Well, why don’t you go do that and come back? I promise I won’t go anywhere.”
Adam ducks in time to miss the rock whiz by his head, coming close enough to nick his left ear.
“No more jokes, Adam!” werewolf boy growls. “You either go inside and take your chances, or we pound you into the dirt!”
Adam looks at the faces around him – mean, unfriendly, shrouded by masks and makeup, which makes these boys feel braver.
It also makes them more dangerous.
But they’re far from anonymous. Adam knows who the boys are underneath their masks. The vampire is Vince: the leader of the gang and the eldest, having retaken two grades twice. The werewolf is his younger brother, David. The mummy is Troy, their best friend from birth. Frankenstein’s monster is Leroy, and the ghost, in his thin white sheet, hiding him from absolutely no one, is Devin.
Yes, Adam knows them. He knows an awful lot about them, really. They’ve lived in the same village together their entire lives. They’ve been to each others’ houses at one point or another, hunted for eggs in the courtyard of the church every Easter till they were ten. But he doesn’t appeal to them. Because somewhere down the line, they changed. Rumors about them run rampant all over town. Outlandish rumors.
Still, Adam is far from impressed.
But Warlock … Adam had had high hopes for him. But Vince and his merry band of delinquents got their hooks into him.
Now, it might be too late for both of them.
Adam looks at the four short stairs leading to the porch. He knows the devils that wait for him if he doesn’t go up those stairs. He might as well try his luck contending with the unknown.
As a former Antichrist, a murderous spirit might be easier to reckon with.
He climbs unsteadily to the second step, ticking it off in his head.
Three more to go.
Somewhere above him, a shutter slams, causing him to skip step three and fall face-first onto step number four.
In the space of a second, he went from starting to nearly done.
He lifts a foot and plants it on the stair beneath him, raising himself up slowly as the plank bends in the middle. He brings his other leg up to the fourth step.
One more, and he’ll be standing on the porch.
Another breeze blows. The front door swings open, making all the kids present jump. Adam finds himself at a crossroads.
Whether he likes it or not, there’s only one way out of this.
He can’t make it past. He has to go through.
Adam flies into the house, the front door slamming shut the second he’s inside, as if receiving him.
Or swallowing him.
Then … everything grinds to a halt.
The wind ceases to blow.
The shutters hang limply, no longer bang.
The house stops its listing.
And from the pits of the boys’ stomachs to the tips of their toes, the earth stops spinning.
“What … what just happened?” David asks in a hoarse whisper.
“I think he went in there,” Leroy says.
“Went in, or was pushed?” Troy asks.
“Who would have pushed him? We’re all out here! Not a one of us has moved!”
“Maybe it wasn’t us,” Devin offers.
“Who was it then? Who was it!?” Troy asks, becoming unhinged. “Tell me!”
The sound of Adam screaming silences their arguing.
“Help! Help me! Vince! Troy! Devin! Warlock! Help me!”
“A … Adam?” Leroy says. “Is that …?”
“Yeah,” David answers quietly. “Yeah, that’s …”
“David! Leroy! Please!”
The boys have heard kids scream in this house before. And they’ve enjoyed it. It’s part of what they live for, why they do this every Halloween. But something about the way Adam is screaming is different. He isn’t just begging for help.
He’s calling out to them, each one by name.
Not only is it unsettling to hear Adam’s fearful voice calling for them, the thought of this house knowing their names sends chills up each of their spines.
Except for Warlock, who looks bored out of his mind.
Silence falls over the house again. A silence that drags on by the skin of its teeth and goes on for far too long.
Right when three of the boys summon up the courage to organize a search party, they hear another scream, this one worse than the last.
Adam again, but his screams have changed.
He’s beyond asking for help, gone from panicked, to bloodcurdling, to strangled, as if someone is pouring cupfuls of sand into his mouth. Above the sound of Adam choking for air comes a hollow, evil laugh, rising in volume and pitch, echoing around the walls and shaking the whole house.
“Vince!” it mimics, chuckling in between. “Troy! Devin! Warlock! David! Leroy!”
The boys stand up straight when they hear it, stepping back as the sound grabs at their insides and squeezes tight.
“We … we should go check on him … maybe?” Devin suggests.
“Yeah,” Leroy agrees. “Why don’t you go ahead and check on him, Vince?”
Vince glares at the boys flanking him side-to-side. “Nu-uh! I’m not opening that door for shite!”
“This was your brilliant idea!” Devin argues. “You’re the one who wanted to bring him here, despite the fact that we could end up dead! Or worse!”
“What’s worse than dead?” Vince asks.
“My mum could find out! I could be grounded till I’m married!”
Vince’s eyebrows snap in the middle. “B-but … you’re gay!”
“Marriage equality exists, Vince!” Devin crosses his arms. “Don’t be an arse, all right?”
“Point is,” Troy intervenes, “this was your plan from the start, so you should go check on him! Man!” He kicks at the pebbles beneath his feet. “I just want for one year to get some tricks or treats! I’m so tired of this shite!”
“Same here!” Leroy chimes in.
The five boys bicker back and forth. Warlock watches, gaze bouncing between them like he’s at a football match - a dull football match, one destined to end in a stalemate. He rolls his eyes.
He’s definitely done with this.
“Oh, I’ll do it!” Warlock says, blowing through the lopsided gate and trudging up the steps. “Ya bunch of pansies …”
“Yeah,” Vince says, visibly relieved. “Yeah, Warlock should go. It’s his initiation.”
“Oh, shut the eff up!” Troy says, unamused.
Warlock stomps up the stairs without a care, daring whatever is in the house that grabbed Adam to grab him as well. “Adam!” he yells, hand cupped to the side of his mouth to ensure he can be heard. “Adam! Where the hell are you?”
When Adam doesn’t answer, Warlock does the unthinkable.
He knocks on the front door.
The gang takes another step back.
“A-dam!” Warlock calls in a teasing, sing-song voice. “Come out here, ya coward! You trynna pull one over on us? Well, it won’t work. I’m gonna count to five, and then Vince is gonna come in and beat the crap out of you!”
“What!?” Vince yelps, his next step backward twice the size of the rest. “Oh, heck no! No no no no no no no!”
Warlock stops knocking. He puts an ear to the door. The boys watch, completely engrossed but prepared to run if anything else should happen.
If anything should eat him, then come for them next.
“Well?” Leroy calls up after a minute. “Do you hear anything?”
“I hear … something,” Warlock moves his ear from the center of the door to the seam. “It sounds like a …”
“Like a what? Like a what?” Troy screams, one creaky floorboard away from losing it entirely.
“I don’t know,” Warlock says, “but it sounds kind of like a … a …”
“A …?”
“... a … burp.”
The boys stare at one another, expressions wasted underneath their disguises.
“A burp?” David says. “Warlock, man! I’m gonna …”
The door breaks off its hinges and flies over their heads. The five boys duck down to avoid being beamed. When the coast is clear, and the cacophony of the door cartwheeling down the street dies down, they stand back up and look to the spot where Warlock had been standing, hoping to get an answer …
… but he’s not there anymore.
Not a scrap of him.
The gaping doorway stands open like a giant mouth breathing in the twilight air.
And Vince can’t stand it anymore.
“Warlock! Adam!” he bellows, then waits for an answer. When he doesn’t get one, he leaps over the fence and storms up to the house. “WARLOCK! ADAM! Come on out, all right? This isn’t funny anymore!”
Vince isn’t necessarily concerned with whether or not Warlock or Adam is alive or dead. He’s much more concerned with his sanity. He’s been to this house dozens of times, and nothing even close to this has ever happened. They have to be making this up. They had to have gotten together before tonight and planned on pranking him, probably hoping to see him mess himself.
Well, that’s not gonna happen!
He makes his way to the doorway with none of his gang behind him. He leans in, looks left and right.
“Warlock?” he calls out. “Adam? Where are you guys?”
He turns back to his crew, all of whom have migrated further down the walkway, preparing to run for their lives.
“They’re not … they’re not in there,” Vince says.
“You’re going to have to go inside then.”
“No way! Fuck that!”
“Vince …!”
“Don’t Vince me! They went into that house on their own! Ain’t no one to blame for that!”
“Adam went in because we threatened him!” Leroy points out.
“He wouldn’t have even come here if Warlock hadn’t invited him,” Vince counters.
“We helped! That makes us accessories!” Devin argues.
“Accessories?” Vince snickers. “What? Are you a solicitor now?”
“Just get in there, Vince!” Leroy says. “Or are you chicken?”
“I’m not chicken! I’m smart! I’m not gonna go in there and die because of fucking peer pressure, and not a one of you can make me!”
A tortured howl shakes the loose boards on the house, pulling the boys’ attention. But it doesn’t sound like Adam this time.
It sounds like Warlock.
“H-holy shit! Holy shit! Vince!” David yells, pointing at the house.
Pointing at Adam, standing in the doorway, two feet in front of Vince, his shirt front drenched in blood. None of the boys can tell if that blood belongs to him or not. Not even Vince, looking him dead in the eye.
But he doesn’t look too much worse for wear.
“Fuck fuck fuck fuck!” Vince cries, stumbling backward, missing the stairs altogether and falling straight off the porch onto his tailbone. He lands with a resounding thud, sprays of liquid hot pain shooting up his back.
“What … what happened to you, A---Adam?” Leroy asks.
“I was given a choice,” Adam growls in a new voice as he steps out onto the porch. An inhuman voice. “To submit … or die. And I chose …” He lifts his arms and his body follows, rising into the air above the boys’ heads as Adam grins down at them “… to conquer.”
“Wh-where is Warlock?” David asks.
Adam laughs. “You mean him?” With a sweep of his arm, the limp body of a young boy flies out one of the windows, landing on the ground inside the fence. The five boys scream, staring into the open and unseeing eyes of Warlock Dowling, his face ashen, his mouth opened wide, locked in a horrified scream so that the only conclusion they can come to is that he was literally scared to death.
“L-let’s get out of here!” Leroy yells.
“Oh …” Adam chuckles “… you’re not going anywhere. You’re staying here … with us!”
“U-us?” Troy whimpers. “Who’s us?”
A fist busts through the floorboards of the porch, then an arm clad in rags and the shredded remains of what was once a flannel shirt. Another hand emerges, clawing through the wood to hoist up the rest - the head and torso of a corpse tearing themselves from the earth to do Adam’s bidding. Adam’s eyes - blistering red orbs glowing in their sockets - stare down at his tormentors, so frightened for their lives, they can barely scream. Vince scuttles backward to avoid the eruption. A hand explodes through the dirt beside him, grabbing hold of his ankle, and Vince launches to his feet. He manages a shrill wail as he flips over the gate and sprints off down the street, his four compatriots hot on his heels, one urinating noticeably.
Not until the boys are out of sight does Adam begin to laugh in earnest, his body lowering to the ground, carried gingerly by angelic power. He looks down as the glamour fades – the stain withdrawing, his eyes returning from the spell that made them transform. He pulls at the hem of his shirt, watching as the last remaining blood disappears from the fabric.
Warlock climbs up off the filthy ground. He was never really hurt, helped out the window and through the air by demonic intervention. “That was fun.”
“Better than what we did last year,” Wensleydale groans, clambering out of his hole in the porch.
“Hey!” Brian yelps, pulling off his sweaty mask and sucking in a breath of fresh air. “Last year’s costume contest was epic!”
“That’s because you won it!” says Pepper, pulling off her own oppressive mask.
“Yeah. And that was because your mum was one of the judges!”
“Doesn’t mean I didn’t have the best costume!”
“Don’t you children think that was a little much?” Aziraphale asks, walking out on to the porch from where he and Crowley had been hiding in the living room, peeking out through a downstairs window. He’d disapproved of this scheme from the start, back when the Them found out what those bullies were concocting for Halloween night, how they had strong-armed Warlock into helping them. “Wouldn’t it have been better to approach their parents about their brutish behavior?”
“Nah,” Crowley says, slipping an arm around his husband’s waist. “Woulda done no good. Most of the time, the parents are no better than the kids. Who d’ya think the blighters get it from?”
“Isn’t this all going to be moot when they find out that Adam hasn’t been possessed by the devil, and Warlock did not, in fact, get devoured by bloodthirsty zombies?” Aziraphale asks, grimacing at the absurdity.
“No,” Adam assures him, “because no one is going to find out until school on Monday after they’ve already called everyone they know and told them about it. I can’t imagine the amount of trouble they’re going to get into!”
“Yeah!” Wensleydale agrees. “Look at all of the rules they’re breaking! Bullying, assault, trespassing. With any luck, they’ll get grounded for life!”
“Or at least three months.” Aziraphale shoots his husband a significant look that takes Crowley a moment to catch.
“Oh! Yeah, right.” Crowley snaps his fingers, performing the truly demonic miracle of making sure five bastards get their comeuppance.
“Besides, something good is coming out of all this,” Pepper reminds them. “Mrs. Parsons’s grandniece will have a brand new house after we help get this wreck fixed up. It was nice of her to let us borrow it for the night. We must have sounded bonkers when we asked.”
“Not at all. She understood,” Aziraphale assures them. “She was glad that after years of people using her great aunt’s house to scare people that someone asked permission for a change.”
“I think things turned out exactly the way they were meant to,” Pepper says.
“Yup!” Brian concurs. “Let the punishment fit the crime, I always say.”
“When do you say that?” Wensleydale asks, beating dirt and cobwebs out of his ear.
“All the time,” Brian argues.
“I’ve known you my entire life, and I’ve never once heard you say that!”
“Then you haven’t been listening hard enough!”
“Pepper? Have you ever heard him say that?”
“Don’t know. I tend to ignore every third word that comes out of his mouth.”
“Ha-ha. Very funny.”
“You were right, Warlock. Go big or go home,” Adam says over the argument ensuing.
“Yeah.” Warlock smiles at his new friends. They were never angry at him for the part he almost played in conspiring against their leader. They offered to help him out with no arguments given. It was Pepper's idea to pretend to turn into the undead. Brian got their costumes together. Wensleydale found out about Mrs. Parsons's grandniece and suggested they give her a call. Then they spent most of Halloween night hiding out in this creepy old house when they could have been roaming the neighborhood begging for candy.
But the best thing they did was let him join their group even though he probably didn't deserve it.
“We went big." Warlock smirks, watching the five boys clamor down the street and, unbeknownst to them, to a two-hour lecture and three months in solitary confinement. “Let’s go home.”
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