#give schneep the sleep

[huffle-dork]

Swap into the CrystalVerse Chapter 17: Fantasy Masks

Co-written with @crystalninjaphoenix 

Read Swapboys | Read Fantasy Masks | AO3 Link

Prologue | Switch | Stitched | PNPT | Septicheroes | Fantasy Masks

Taglist: @brokentimewatch @di-diwata  

True enough, at first light Bro and Alt hear a voice outside their tent "Alt? Other me--Bro? It's time to get up." It's Chase.

Alt glitches outside of the tent pretty much immediately, his bag of stuff prepared and slung over his shoulder. He looks like he barely slept at all.

Bro stumbles out a few beats later, blinking sleepily and pulling on his tunic and grabbing his own stuff. “Mhm ‘morning-“ He yawns.

“Whoa!” Chase jumps a little when Alt appears in front of him. “Elders, I forgot… You were really fast there.” He laughs. “Hi you two. We’re going to grab a quick breakfast at the fire and then head out, okay?”

Alt flushes a bit, "ah sorry... been trying not to glitch as much..." He mutters. He nods and starts heading towards the fire.

Bro shakes his head, "If it makes you feel better I live with him and I'm still not quite used to it." He laughs, readjusting his stuff and making sure Alt and him didn't leave anything in their tent.

“Well don’t hold yourself back for our sake. Then we’ll never get used to it.” Chase looks through the tent opening. “Have everything? Alright. Let’s go.”

Alt probably only half heard Chase as he stumbles towards the fire. Bro sighs a bit in worry.

The camp is less busy this early, but it’s never entirely quiet. People are already up and walking around, and breakfast is already being made. As they approach the fire, they see the other four already there.

Henrik is busying himself with packing food into a bag, but he looks up when the others approach. “Ah, good to see you. Chase and Chase and Alt, do you have anything you think we should take? In terms of food supplies, I mean.”

Alt waves a little and stifles a yawn, pixelating a bit. “Um- anything we can eat quick… my magic can be a drain but I can bounce back with some good fuel- like… jerky probably.” He shrugs.

“Good! We have lots of that already.” Henrik closes the bag, buckling the flap.

“Are you okay, Alt?” Jackie asks. “You look really tired and… your form is breaking. Did worry keep you up?”

“M’fine,” Alt mutters, rubbing at his eyes. He’s definitely lying. “We just gotta keep moving… I’ll wake up.”

Chase gives Alt an odd look, clearly not buying that he’s fine, but it’s not worth the trouble.

“I could have provided a sleeping tonic, if you asked,” Henrik says. “Oh! But here is the opposite of that.” He reaches into one of his belt pouches and withdraws a small cloth bag. Inside are a handful of brown beans. “I asked Nemet about your ‘kohfi,’ and she says these are the beans that makes it. This is all she had but she insisted we take them anyway. How kind of her. I am not sure how to make the drink but she says they are fine to eat, if bitter, and provide the same effect.”

Alt’s eyes do brighten a bit at the coffee beans. He laughs and smiles some then grabs a couple to eat. They are bitter but he takes his coffee black. “Mm- that’ll help. Thanks dude.”

“Ah yeah! We eat chocolate covered coffee beans at home all the time!” Bro grins. “Sometimes I like it better than actually coffee- it’s like a fun pick me up!”

Henrik grins. “I’m glad this is not so strange, then.” The beans are a bit different than the ones back home, a bit softer but still with a good crunch. Henrik pops a couple in his mouth too.

“You sure that won’t conflict with your medicine, Schneep?” Jackie asks.

“Is alright, I asked Nemet about that.”

“We’d better hurry,” Marvin says. “The days are only getting shorter.”

Alt nods, gaining a serious expression that sharpens up his features. He double checks he has all his modern things- his headphones, his old pants, the TRVLR. Huh- he actually hasn’t checked the TRVLR since they got here… but he’s sure it’ll work… right?

Bro sneaks some beans too and makes a face, “mhm- could use chocolate.” He chuckles. Then he stands up at attention. “Alright team! Let’s get this show on the road!”

When Alt checks the TRVLR, its screen is at first only that low battery sign. When Alt gives it a jolt, it powers on like usual, but there is now a fourth circle in the middle of the usual three. This one is red, and marked with an exclamation point.

Alt’s eyes widen slightly and he checks on the new circle.

A message in red text pops up, with an X in the upper right corner to close out of it

WARNING Latency Detected

This unit is having difficulty connecting to the universal database. This is for one or more of the following reasons:

-A Ripple is happening

-Current location is too far from unit's home universe

-Current location does not have the technical capabilities of helping connection

Please take this into account when jumping.

Jameson leans over Alt's shoulder to look at the TRVLR screen. What strange symbols, he says.

Bro looks over Alt’s shoulder to read and Alt’s face pales. “…it- it might not work…” he whispers with slight horror. “We-We’re somewhere without technology- I-I didn’t even think…!”

“C-Calm down Alt! I’m sure the fancy Iris guys accounted for something like this! Besides… we can’t leave without Mag… let’s focus on one thing at a time, okay?”

Alt shakily nods and puts the TRVLR away, trying not to panic again. “Right.. right- w-we gotta focus…”

Marvin watches the two of them with concern. "Your talisman for getting home is having trouble? Is there anything we can do?"

“I’m not sure…” Alt mutters, “It says it’s having trouble connecting… cuz we’re lacking some- modern things. Things I dunno how to get here… my- lightning might not be enough…” He squeezes his arm and tries to take a deep breath. “B-But Bro’s right we’ll… have to worry about that later.”

“If it does work I’m sure there’s some other way,” Marvin says, a bit awkward in his reassurances but clearly genuine. “I’ve heard of other worlds so there must be a way to get there.”

“We’ll do everything we can,” Jackie says. “I swear it.”

Alt tries to smile and nods, “Thanks.”

After a quick breakfast, and a brief stop where Jackie, Henrik, and Marvin discuss things with the second in commands, it’s time to go.

Alt is anxious all throughout breakfast and Bro watches him in worry. Usually Alt gets a lot of his anxious energy out through glitching but he’s being unnaturally still. Bro doesn’t see him suppress his glitching much…

Once it’s time to go Alt anxiously bounces on his feet. Bro stands next to him and tries to put a hand on his shoulder but Alt glitches out of his reach. “…it’s gonna be okay Alt- we got this!” He tries to reassure.

The group heads out of camp, passing the Phantoms on perimeter part roll and heading into the woods. Things quickly start looking similar to Bro and Alt, but everyone else seems fairly confident. Chase and Jackie are leading the way.

“Yes, we have this,” Henrik says, overhearing the two of them. “I know it is intimidating, but we are all practiced at this by this point.”

“Ha! I’d believe it! With all the training and you all being so prepared, I feel confident!” Bro smiles.

Alt picks at his shirt, glancing at the woods like something could come out of them at any second and grab them.

Chase glances back and notices Alt looking around. "Hah... worried about animals?" he guesses, grinning. "Don't worry. Predators won't attack a group of humans this big unless they're desperate. Trust me, I grew up in these woods. And as for other people... well, no one comes up here. It's a hard climb and there's nothing nearby." He faces forward again. "Although... I wonder if a storm is coming..."

Alt slowly nods. He gets like this sometimes, thinking about Mag. Like he can constantly hear his laughter in his head. See the slinking of catlike shadows in his peripheral vision. He tries to shake off that feeling, clutching the bow he borrowed from the Phantoms close.

-----------

"Magnificent."

The palace is surprisingly dark right now. But not because it's night. No, looking out the windows shows a gloomy sky overhead, crowded with heavy black clouds. The King is standing by one of said windows. "Are you awake?" he presses.

It takes a second for the magician to stir but soon enough he opens his eyes and sits up right quickly, rubbing at his face and putting back on his mask, “ah yes. Forgive me- didn’t mean to oversleep.” He pushes himself off the bed and dusts himself off before approaching the King. “Hm- looks like it could be a storm…”

“Exactly.” The King nods. “And we don’t want to travel in weather like that. It’s a sure way to catch the shivering. Do they have that where you’re from?”

It certainly looks bad out there. And in this strange land {he should probably trust the judgment of someone who lives here.}

“…I don’t know if we call it the shivering but I’m assuming we do.” Mag comments. He huddles his cloak around himself and thinks. Then he shrugs, “Weather can’t be helped. I certainly don’t want to get soaked- mayhaps I can find more books about the magic here…”

“Oh, you know… fatigue, confusion, shivers, difficulty breathing.” The King lists off the symptoms in rapid succession. “Caused by the cold. And walking in wet clothes will definitely leave you cold enough to catch it.”

“Sounds like a bad cold or the flu-“ Mag muttered with a shrug.

“But enough of that. I’m assuming you checked the library. They may have a secret section there, if I remember correctly.”

Mag flares out his cape dramatically to head towards the library, “Well then- if we’re stuck here I shall spend the day in there.”

"Very well." The King reaches out to the candle sconce on the wall. A spark leaps from his fingertip to the wick, lighting it with an electric hsss. "Let me see if I remember where the secret section is..."

As they walk down the hallways towards the library in the center of the palace, the King continues lighting the candles in a similar matter. It doesn't do much to help penetrate the darkness, but it's better than nothing.

Mag blinks at the king doing this and every so often he’ll light a candle before he does with a twitch of his head- lighting it with green fire. Mhm- a castle would look so pretty covered in such a lovely color. The thought makes Mag smirk to himself.

"Best be careful in there," he says, more to himself than Mag. "Dry paper. Best hope they have candle shields in there."

The library is not as grand as it probably should be for a palace. It's small, and probably would have been cozy if it hadn't been so dusty. The King walks back behind a desk, brushing aside some cobwebs to open a drawer. "Oh good. They do." He pulls out a candle holder with a single candle, a glass bowl attached to the base, high enough to shield the flame. He reaches in and lights it. "Now... where is it...?"

Mag coughs at the dust and uses some of his magic to sweep it and more cobwebs away. “Eugh.”

The King chuckles. "Not a fan of dust? Me neither." {That's something else they have in common.}

“I deal with it enough at home,” Mag grumbles.

The King begins searching the shelves. "If memory serves me... There's something we can pull or slide that opens an alcove on this wall. Here, search with me. Or on your own, if you wish."

Mag nods and starts to look across the shelves, looking for anything out of the ordinary. He lights a flame in his hand but flickers a shield around it like the king’s candle.

It takes a long while--maybe frustratingly long--but eventually the King shouts "Aha!" One of the shelves on a bookcase slides back into the wall when pushed. Next to it, a section of the stone wall swings open with a grinding noise. "After you, then," the King says, {ever gracious.}

Mag startles a bit at the sudden noise but then smirks at the king, taking advantage of going first. “thank you Aodhan~”

The King nods and steps aside.

The room beyond is small and windowless, but packed with things. Scrolls and old, crudely-bound books line the walls, dried herbs hang from the ceiling, and various crystals, powders, and pressed flowers fill bowls and jars on shelves. Surprisingly well-preserved pumpkins sit on the floor. A large cauldron takes up an alcove on the opposite wall, hanging off the ground by about a foot. A staff hangs on the wall, a red-speckled green stone embedded in the top. Candles sconces hang off the walls, holding blue candles.

"Ah, I see, this is for both witchcraft and wizardry," the King says from the entrance.

Magnificent’s eyes light up at the sight. He seems to actually smile as he looks at the witchy things. He tries to carefully clean off the dust as he looks at the trinkets. “Ha… this reminds me of playing witch as a boy…” He muses.

The King smiles, looking {almost fond.} "You studied magic as a child as well? I suppose that makes sense."

Magnificent laughs quietly, running a finger across some of the crystals, “My family were sorcerers. Prestigious… we had a family name to uphold. My birth was mainly just to keep the family name in tact for my father. He was very strict in what magic I could and could not learn. Very strict with my studies. So much so I did not interact or go out much as a child.” He laughs and then touches around the caldron, “then.., I met my best friend. Jackie. He got me out of my house… and together we learned things together. He showed me forms of witchcraft his family knew- though he didn’t practice. But it was fun… to rebel and learn things that would enrage my father.” He then becomes more aware of himself and flushes some, coughing and turning back around to look further into the room. “But uh- of course that’s all irrelevant. Apologizes.”

The King tilts his head, {softening a bit.} "It does... help me understand you more. Do you think the child of a monarch is ever born with anything other than 'the family name' in mind? The royal line is especially honored in Glasúil, in a way that isn't often found in other lands. And it is because of the legend of legacy. Something I've already told you I never cared for." He pauses. "My powers were weak, once. Limited, as magic here has always been limited. I spent ages studying, strengthening them. And my family never approved of it." Another pause. "But that's all irrelevant. Apologies."

Magnificent looks at the king and shares with him a wry smile. “…we have even more in common then, Aodhan. Never thought I’d have much in common with a Royal-“ he snorts.

"I never thought I would have so much in common with anyone." The King pauses. Then he turns and heads off. "I'll leave you to explore here. If the weather lets up I'll let you know." And he disappears. {Perhaps he wasn't as bad as their first impression led Mag to think.}

Magnificent watches the King go- expecting to narrow his eyes as he back when he left. But… he had been… decent today. Even… pleasant? Perhaps it was the weather.., Nevertheless, he was here to see if could better understand that magic here. There had to be some way to get the upper hand on the king.., and now- he had the whole day to search. And so he began.

It slowly starts to rain, accompanied by distant rumbling thunder. {It's strangely calming.}

Magnificent always did like the sound of rain, what a soothing soundtrack to his research…

-----------

It is not raining in the mountains as the group finally leaves the Greatwoods, finding themselves on a sloping field, grass pushing up between rocks and boulders.

"Aaaand this is officially where my knowledge ends," Chase says.

Marvin shields his eyes from the sun and looks into the distance. Next to him, Draco hops onto a rock, tail swishing as he hunts down some bug or something. "It does look like there's a storm out there."

I think that would be good, Jameson says. If it's in the direction we're heading, it means they'll be forced to stay in one place because of the weather.

Alt seems to brighten at this, “Oh- that’s… that’s good! Maybe we can catch up!”

"It also means we'd have to walk in the rain," Marvin grumbles.

Bro laughs a bit and lightly nudges Marvin, gesturing at his mask. “Afraid of getting wet, kitty?” He lightly teases.

"Yes," Marvin answers plainly.

"Don't you have some sort of water repelling spell or something?" Jackie recalls.

"Yea, but it can't cover all of you, just me. I'm not going to be responsible for all of you getting the shivering."

Chase shudders. "True, that's not pleasant."

"But Alt is right, we will catch up," Henrik says.

"Maybe it'll be clearer by the time we reach that area," Marvin hopes.

“Oh- well, guess that makes sense.” Bro says, messing with the back of his hair and grinning sheepishly.

Alt hums, “The shivering- that must be hypothermia… I’ve gotten that before- s’not fun… so best to avoid the rain if we can.”

“…you’ve gotten hypothermia before?!” Bro asks alt in alarm.

Alt gives him a steady look, “I was on and off the streets for almost a decade, Chase. Lots of stuff happens there.” He moves to keep going, adjusting his mask.

“Ah.. right…” Bro replies quietly.

"Hmm." Chase glances at Alt. "I got the shivering once. It's actually how I found the Phantoms, I was wandering in the woods sick and they decided to take me to Wyvernlair."

Is that what happened? Jameson asks, surprised.

"Oh, right, you and Marvin weren't there. Well, yea, that's what happened, basically." The group is now slowly walking down the rocky field.

Alt has a faraway look in his eyes, "... I had a really bad night... once. It was storming so hard and I was low on magic... and food. I couldn't find a good place to hide and just- had to stay in the rain. in the cold. I thought maybe that might be the night I would die." Bro listens with wide eyes. He hasn't heard this story. "I'm really lucky... someone found me. A group of magicians, noticing I was low on magic and sick. Called themselves the Chaos Circle." He smiles to himself, faintly, "... found some good people there. They saved me from dying out in the cold." He smiles a bit more at Chase, "Kinda like the Phantoms finding you, huh?"

Chase smiles back. "Yeah. Sounds pretty similar. I'm glad you had those guys."

"Sounds like a rebellious coven of sorts." Marvin grins. "Covens here are mostly sorcerers and witchcraft practicers but sometimes others will join. I was always interested in the idea of those, but I wasn't very sociable."

Alt laughs quietly, "Yeah... It was. We thought of ourselves as punks. We didn't wanna conform to the actual circle's practices."

"I guess Henrik and I were your coven, then, Marvin," Jackie says, half-jokingly.

Bro is staring at Alt with wide eyes, "...you don't-... you never really talked about all of that with us..."

Alt's expression darkens. "...it was another... hard part of my life, Chase. I lost... people I cared about from there. I did... bad things. I didn't fit in. I ran away eventually- when the actual magic circle had enough of us. ... I dunno if they're even still around."

The others are silent for a minute. This feels like a somber moment. "You're in good company, at least, then," Marvin says quietly. "I was on my own for a while. Ran away from these guys. Did some... stuff. So... it probably wasn't the same, but I can understand."

Alt looks at Marvin and shares a look with him before smiling softly, "Yeah..."

"At least... now you have your brother, Alt," Jackie says slowly, nodding at Bro. "Didn't you guys also mention you had other friends? I'm sure they're there for you."

Bro smiles and nods, "Yeah! You won't ever have to worry about that happening ever again."

Alt chuckles and shoulder-checks Bro slightly, "Yeah... you're right." Alt looks back at Jackie and smiles, "Yeah- we got.. other versions of you all actually. We have our Jackie... he's a dad- 3 kids. Sweetest things in the world. And our Jameson... he's a doctor. But a doctor of the mind. And our Henrik- he's... he's a performer. He can't hear well but he's just- a ray of sunshine. ...they're good lads." He shakes his head, "They're not gonna believe all of this when we see them again."

"They all sound so nice!" Jackie grins. "I couldn't picture myself as a parent. I'll leave that to you, Chase."

"Heh." Chase gives him a small smile.

"Would you want to be a doctor, Jameson?" Henrik asks. "Because I cannot see myself as a performer."

Jameson thinks about that. I'm not sure I'd be cut out for doctoring. Of the mind or the body. If anything, I'd prefer the performance. I could be a musician. Perhaps the violin!

"A traveling minstrel?" Marvin laughs. "I can see that. Maybe in another world."

Alt smiles, "I like music- m'not very good at it but I can least put stuff together for a show. I like... drawing more. Painting." He flushes.

Bro laughs, "Maybe once the king is defeated you can travel around Jameson! I think being a traveling musician suits you!"

Jameson smiles sadly. Maybe eventually. I'd have to go home first. Sort out the mess the King made up there. Marvin leans closer to him, bumping their shoulders together.

"Maybe you two can return to this world one day," Chase says. "And you can show us some of your art. Or bring your other friends. I think it would be... interesting. For both of us, since our worlds are so different."

Bro beams, "Dude, the others would love it! Jackie is just as much a nerd as I am- he'd love to try sword fighting. We spar all the time." He laughs, "And i bet Henny would love not feeling like the most out of time anymore."

"I'd love to teach another me how to sword fight!" Jackie exclaims. "I wonder if we'll learn the same way. Well, I'm sure it'll be different. I learned when I was a child."

Alt blinks at Jameson and wants to ask more but.... sounds like its a loaded situation. He anxiously starts to chew on a few more coffee beans.

"Ah, be careful, Alt, we do not have many of these," Henrik says.

"oh- right." Alt blushes and hands the bag back to Henrik, "You should hold onto these then..." He hides in his hood.

"Do not worry about it," Henrik reassures him, putting the beans in his pouch.

"He knows... how to fight! But with his fists, and with fancy moves!" Bro laughs, "Me and Him know more of how to fight with our bodies then with weapons. Cuz- they're illegal in our world- or at least the UK."

"Wait--weapons are outlawed?!" Chase repeats, wide-eyed. "What?!"

"Wait, what?" Marvin snaps back to the conversation. "All of them? Entirely?"

Jackie and Jameson seem equally shocked.

"Do not be so surprised," Henrik says to the rest of them. "Your cultural obsession with weaponry and warriors is a strange thing. In Alterde only the knights and performers may carry weapons."

"You don't know that we're out alone," Jackie says defensively. "I hear that Yuko's home nation is similar."

Bro blinks then laughs, "Well in our world... weapons are more... dangerous now. We have weapons that can... they can kill you in an instant. Faster than a sword could- and easier to carry. And we have a bit more of a structure- there's less to fight for. So, to try to make sure less people get hurt, only certain people can have weapons. But even our... guards for cities- they don't even carry dangerous weapons anymore. It's completely different in other countries though. Our country isn't perfect but- we definitely don't need weapons every day anymore."

"...huh." Jackie blinks. "I can't imagine that. I..." he laughs. "I genuinely can't imagine that. It's easier to think about using lightning as money."

"Something you must understand about this kingdom is that fighting is not just a necessity here," Henrik says. "It is, but it is also a form of... glory, I suppose? And entertainment. And a hobby that you can indulge in. I found it just as strange when I arrived here, but you get used to it. I will remind you that Jackie started training to use a sword as a twelve-year-old."

"Which has made me strong," Jackie says confidently. "Strong enough to handle almost anything."

I hope you're right, Jameson says.

"I get it! That's how our Jackie feels about his fighting- and his job. He can like- travel really fast and do these cool moves. He's really passionate about it. Makes him feel like a hero- like me!" Bro replies. "But yeah... I'd bet you guys would find it strange... how- i want to say peaceful our world is but... that's not true. We just... don't really carry weaponry around and do cool battles anymore."

Alt grips at his knife he has in his bag- Chase always had it a little more easy than he did. He never had to spill blood with a knife. ...sometimes he wonders if that made them too different.

#SITCV FM #swap into the crystalverse #fantasy masks au #alt anti #bro fantastic #swap magnificent #some very interesting facts come up about mag and alt :) #facts that i def wanna write about in the future #and this is why i love rping!! #cuz i wouldnt have even thought about these things until we sat down to write replies!! #and now like?? i love these ideas so much #so eee things are starting to ramp up! #tomorrow is the most fun chapter of this part i think ;)

[franklyshipping]

Sticky Situation ~ A Jacksepticeye Ego Fanfic

WOOP NEXT ANON PROMPT! Here we have a fabulous Septic trio getting up to some fun, so LET'S DO THIS!

TAGGING: @anti-switch-glitch and @jameson-lee-jackson

The doctor was focused, very nearly unblinking. It was perfection he was striving for in this experiment, and so concentration was essential for success. His tongue was poking out through his teeth as he hovered the dropper over the little mound of lime green slime, a residue courtesy of Gooper (just… don’t ask which bit of Gooper it came out of… long story short he has his own toilet now). With his free hand, Dr Schneeplestein dimmed the lights in his office, causing the liquid in his dropper to reveal its properties – it was a glow in the dark solution. He allowed three drops to fall upon the mound of slime, before he kneaded it gently with a gloved hand. He waited five seconds. Ten seconds. Fifteen seconds. Then… it happened. The glow.

‘How magnificent! I think we have the correct concentration of the luminescent solution Gooper!’

The doctor said, turning to Gooper who was perched on his shoulder. The glob wiggled with a quiet, happy gurgle in response… but Gooper’s joy was not at the great volume it usually was. All day he’d been watching Schneeple toil and work on hundreds of versions of this slime experiment, with the goal of making the best glow in the dark ectoplasmic substance in time for Halloween, as a surprise feature for all the egos to play with. And, as often happened with the dear doctor, he was so caught up in his work that he hadn’t rested. Not once. As he focused on his next batch, Gooper subtly slid down the doctor’s back and onto the ground, before wibbling his way out of the room. He knew if Schneeple was going to get any rest, he was going to need the right help. So, with an agility that often evades our gooey friend, he rushed through the manor looking for potential compatriots.

Despite how densely populated the manor was at this point, Gooper spent a good half an hour rolling and blopping through the place before he found anyone, but lucky for him they were the perfect duo for what he needed. Anti and Jamie had just finished decorating the main living room with tons of ghost-shaped lights, and the former spotted Gooper with a grin.

‘Well if it ain’t my favourite slimy guy, what’s up?’

Jamie gasped happily when he saw Gooper, giving him a little wave. Gooper cooed, then hopped up and down in an agitated way, before morphing part of his form into tiny hands – this was one of the rare occasions where he needed to communicate actual human sentences. A few minutes of wobbly sign language and accompanying gurgles later, Anti and Jamie were wide eyed as they looked at each other. Anti tossed the remaining LEDs he was holding onto the couch, and got a determined look in his eye.

‘Right, our décor mission is officially on hold. As of now we’re on Operation Get-Schneep-The-Fuck-To-Sleep, agreed?’

Jamie nodded enthusiastically, and after Gooper was scooped onto Anti’s shoulder, the trio headed to the lab, and when they arrived they didn’t bother knocking. As they entered Schneeple’s eyes widened, and he immediately used his body to try and hide his surprise project from them.

‘Woah- hey no no you cannot be in here! I am doing work things!’

However his attempt to hide is too late, and Anti sighs at him with a grin as Jamie sends Schneeple a fond look. Anti folds his arms at the doc, raising an eyebrow.

‘As awesome as your project thingy probably is, we heard a rumour that you’ve not been resting.’

Schneeple gaped for a second, and then noticed Gooper resting on the glitch’s shoulder. He grumbled and muttered.

‘You gooey little snitch…’

Gooper made a raspberry sound at him, and Jamie sent Schneeple the kind of look parents reserved for when their kids were being difficult.

‘Come on Henrik, you promised us you’d rest more!’

He signed, his expression turning pout-like – the expression made Henrik want to melt, as it tended to do with all the egos. All of a sudden, Henrik was pouting back like a little kid who didn’t want his bedtime.

‘I know I know but this ectoplasm is going to be so cool! It’s going to glow and make the manor look spooky!’

‘That won’t matter if you end up sleeping through the spooky season because of exhaustion!’

Anti retorted, before he and Jamie shared a look. They knew that the only way they were going to get Schneeple to see reason… was by force. So they each darted forward, grabbed an arm each, and started just trying to pull Schneeple out of the lab. It was entirely childish, but it was their only option!

‘AH! Hey, you let me go hey–this lab coat is new!’

‘And you look great in it, now come on!’

Anti said, causing a little blush to appear on the doctor’s cheeks as he struggled… but what none of them noticed was the stray bit of slime stuck on the linoleum floor. Slime which, unfortunately, Schneeple ended up slipping on. In an instant the three of them tumbled to the ground in the most clichéd, comedic fashion, and to make it ever better an entire jug of prototype slime got caught by Schneeple’s elbow, and tumbled with them. Anti and Jamie landed less hard whilst Schneeple landed on his back with a loud squelch, the slime cushioning his fall. Jamie’s eyes immediately went wide as his hands moved frantically.

‘Oh my golly are you okay, are you hurt?!’

‘Holy shit that’s a fuckton of slime! I think that coat’ll need dry cleaning.’

Anti snorted, spurring Jamie to elbow him with a pout – but the gentleman was quickly relieved when Schneeple laughed up at them.

‘I’m okay I’m okay it cushioned my fall… but now I am screwed.’

‘Why?’

Jamie asked, but his question was answered as he watched Schneeple try, and fail, to get up. A side effect of this particular slime batch was this it worked as a marvellous adhesive, keeping Schneeple stuck to the ground by his coat and his bare hands, so there was no way he could even escape by wriggling out of his coat. Schneeple sighed.

‘Ah, it’s one of my earlier batches with a sticky side effect… and it will take twenty minutes for it to become malleable enough to remove.’

‘Oh damn, you don’t need to pee do you?’

Anti said, making Schneeple snort and roll his eyes fondly.

‘No Anti I do not need to pee.’

‘Good because we are not close enough for me to be cleaning up your pi–ow!’

Jamie whacked Anti’s arm reproachfully, making the glitch snicker even more. Schneeple let out another quiet sigh as Jamie tilted his head down at him, giving him a sympathetic look. Meanwhile… Anti’s expression turned suddenly, and unnervingly, mischievous.

‘Y’know JJ… I think this is a great opportunity for us.’

Jamie blinked at Anti curiously, and Schneeple got nervous flutters in his stomach when Anti grinned wickedly.

‘I think this is the perfect chance for us to punish our friend here for not resting like he promised.’

Anto cracked his knuckles and wiggled his fingers playfully in the air, allowing Jamie and Schneeple to cotton on instantly. Schneeple went bright pink as Jamie gasped with a grin, his eyes lighting up as he clapped his hands.

‘Oh what a top idea! I like it!’

‘I don’t!’

‘Hush, promise-breakers don’t get a vote.’

Anti retorted to Schneeple’s little outburst, before he and Jamie knelt over him with delighted looks on their faces… and Schneeple knew he was screwed. Anti hummed and tapped his chin for a moment, before he pushed up the doctor’s sweater vest and shirt to reveal his tummy. Before Schneeple could say another word Jamie’s deft fingers were dancing at his tummy, tickling him with such speed that he shrieked and burst into cackles of varying pitch.

‘AHH! Nononohoho nahahat the tihihickling nohoho plehehease!’

Schneeple tried to wriggle, but it was no use. He was stuck… and he realised it was going to be a long twenty minutes.

‘Aww, must be even worse not being able to move.’

Anti teased, making Schneeple cackle and snort with embarrassment as he wriggled helplessly amidst the resilient slime keeping him on the ground. Jamie giggled and let his fingers tap and wiggle as if he were playing the piano, toying with Schneeple’s soft tummy pouch under his navel. He didn’t stop to sign, but he gave Schneeple a bright grin with his tongue poking out.

‘Guhuhuys plehehehease Ihihi ahaham sohohohorry!’

‘Too late for that, you better get ready to squeal.’

Anti’s grin broadened, showing off his sharp, pearly white teeth as he allowed his eyes to glow a spookier hue of green – he knew when he showed off his scarier side it really made Schneeple more flustered. The doctor trembled as Anti loomed over him, letting out a shy giggle as Anti wriggled his fingers near his armpits.

‘Nonono wahahahait wahaha–EEEEE!’

Anti shoved his blunt nails into Schneeple’s hollows, sliding them against his bare skin under his shirt so he could scratch away at the sensitive area. Having twenty fingers dancing against his ticklish skin, scratching and tweaking relentlessly, had the poor doctor almost incoherent as his voice switched back and forth between countless octaves. At the same time Jamie was letting out soft little giggles, enjoying the way Schneeple’s tummy trembled from the tickles. He leant down and nuzzled it as he used his hands to sign.

‘You have the best tummy for tickles!’

Schneeple went even redder, looking away from Jamie as the comment about his tummy gave him lots of extra flutters.

‘Ihihihi dohoho nahahat!’

Anti bit back a snicker, and grinned at Jamie playfully.

‘I think he’s right, honestly his armpits are just way better!’

Schneeple let out a yelp when Anti pinched his hollows, and Jamie giggled at Anti and narrowed his eyes.

‘No way, his tummy is the best!’

He leant down and pointedly blew a loud raspberry against it, making Schneeple shriek and arch his back.

‘AHA-dohohon’t dohoho thahat!’

Schneeple’s words went entirely ignored as Anti laughed at Jamie, cracking his knuckles playfully.

‘Oh yeah? How about now?’

Anti pressed his thumbs into Schneeple’s armpits and vibrated them nice and deep into the muscles, making Schneeple howl with wide eyes as he tried to tug at his arms – alas, his hands were still stuck in the resilient slime, keeping him helpless to the (now very competitive) tickling Anti and Jamie were giving him.

‘OHOHO MY GAHAHAHA!’

For the next fifteen or so minutes Schneeple’s babbles and shrieks went entirely unheard and Jamie and Anti competed to see who could get the biggest reaction, with Jamie at the doctor’s belly as Anti stuck with his armpits. One minute Anti would scribble with his nails, and Jamie would nibble to make Schneeple’s squeals get louder. Anti would then blow raspberries into Schneeple’s hollows to made him cackle, to which Jamie would flutter his fingers at the edges of Schneeple’s navel to make him snort and kick his legs. It was a wondrous myriad of tickles, and Schneeple felt like he was going mad!

‘OHOHO MY GAHAHAD YOHOHOU AHAHASSHOHOLES STAHAHAP STAHAHAAAP!’

Anti and Jamie couldn’t help but burst into giggles, and Anti let out a thoughtful hum as he stopped his tickling at Schneeple’s armpits.

‘Hmm, you know these two tickle spots look pretty evenly matched… there’s gotta be a special spot around here somewhere, don’t you think?’

Jamie nodded, and Schneeple was left panting as he too had mercy on him. Jamie’s eyes then flicked to where Schneeple’s legs had been kicking… and his face lit up with a cheeky grin.

‘His legs look like they want to join in on the fun!’

‘Ooh you’re so right!’

‘NO DON’T YOU DARE!’

Schneeple exclaimed, his eyes going wide as Anti and Jamie shared a giddy, knowing look. Before Schneeple knew it they’d descended onto his legs, each of them targeting a kneecap each – even though he was wearing jeans, they did nothing to dull the sensations of fingertips pinching and wiggling relentlessly.

‘Oooh you like it here doc?’

Anti teased, using his fingertips to mime the egg-cracking sensation against Schneeple’s right kneecap, causing his leg to jolt as he tossed his head back and forth.

‘YOHOHOU DEHEVIL STAHAHAPPIHIT! NAHAHAT FAHAHAIR!’

Anti snickered, and grinned as he glanced at Jamie. He’s decided to initially skitter over the kneecap before him, but now had slid his fingers to the back of Schneeple’s knee. The flutters kept adorable squeaks and squeals bursting out amidst Schneeple’s main bouts of laughter, and Jamie took a moment to meet Schneeple’s gaze and give him a playful wink. Anti laughed, his eyes twinkling.

‘Oh we gotta do this more often!’

What followed for Schneeple was three minutes that felt like three years, the tickling seeming to slow down time as he laughed and laughed, enduring coos and grins from Anti and Jamie as they went to town on his hypersensitive knees. The jolts and tingles shot all the way up and down his legs as he got the tickling of his life – needless to say, he was definitely wishing he’d invested in more lids for his slime prototypes. Eventually however, Schneeple’s struggles increased and he managed to roll himself out of the, no longer adhesive, slime. Jamie and Anti ceased their tickles as Schneeple lay on his stomach, panting and giggling residually.

‘Thahahat was… sohoho unfahair…’

‘You should’ve got that rest like you promised.’

Anti retorted as Schneeple slid out of his slime-covered coat, sighing as he looked at the glitch with a wry smile.

‘Yeah yeah I know…’

Schneeple fiddled with his fingers as he bowed his head. He did try to rest, really he did, but sometimes he just got so caught up and excited with his projects that all sense of self-preservation took a back-seat in his head. Jamie shifted forward then, and pecked a kiss to the doctor’s cheek as he signed.

‘We only try and make you promise because we love you, you know that right?’

Schneeple smiled, a little of his blush returning at the affection as he nodded.

‘Yeah… I love you too.’

Jamie beamed and wrapped his arms around him, not even caring that he got slime residue on his tailored sleeves. As Schneeple hugged him back, the pair heard a sound halfway between a groan and a retch as Anti grinned at them.

‘You’re so sappy it makes me sick.’

‘Yeah yeah, love you too.’

Schneeple retorted with a snicker as he and Jamie parted… but curiously, Jamie’s smile had fallen. Before Anti or Schneeple could ask what was wrong, he frantically signed.

‘Where’s Gooper?!’

Anti and Schneeple’s eyes widened as the three of them suddenly searched around, particularly on the pile of slime… and then spotted a lump amongst it. Anti hurriedly scooped at the lump, and Gooper was in his hands. The trio felt like their hearts were in their mouths… but then Gooper exhibited a tired squirm, and let out the most colossal burp known to goop-kind. Schneeple looked down at the spilled slime, and realised about half of it had been eaten!

‘Gooper, that is not for eating!’

He admonished with a fond sigh, to which Gooper merely let out a giggly gurgle as he snuggled more into Anti’s hands. Anti petted Gooper softly as Jamie giggled, before signing with a grin.

‘I think we all need a rest now.’

Schneeple rolled his eyes and nodded, and in the space of ten minutes a mound of blankets and pillows was compiled. Schneeple was instantly snoring between Jamie and Anti, whilst Gooper napped at his chest. After rest was had the slime project was resumed, but this time Schneeple had the most enthusiastic assistants possible. Before long they had created the most epic Halloween-vibe ectoplasm the manor had ever seen… and out of a sticky situation had come sweet rest, with even sweeter rewards.

AHHH THANK YOU ALL SOMUCH FOR YOUR PATIENCE, I HOPE YOU GUYS LIKE THIS FIC LEMME KNOW IF YA DOOO! LUV YOUS!!

#jacksepticeye #jacksepticeye egos #antisepticeye #anti #dr schneeplestein #schneeplestein #schneeple #jameson jackson #jamie #sfw #prompt #platonic #ego fic #ego fanfic #tword fic #tword fanfic #tword #twords #twordish #twording #luv these bois

[argentuminannus]

The results of the JSE Ego Road Trip polls are:

Schneep is the one driving, is the responsible passenger giving directions, and the one sleeping the whole time. His multitasking skills are why he's a qualified doctor.

Both Chase and Jackie packed more snacks than actual luggage

Marvin made the playlist

Anti's the one to get bored first and make it everyone else's problem

Chase needs the most bathroom breaks

And Jackie's the one who wants to stop at every single tourist trap along the way

#jacksepticeye #jacksepticeye egos #henrik von schneeplestein #antisepticeye #chase brody #marvin the magnificent #jackieboy man #jameson jackson

[youvereachedthebadend]

No need to be embarrassed, Marvin

"I'm not—not embarrassed," Marvin says. "I just don't... want anyone thinking that... I'm helpless or something just because I have a plushie. You know?"

"No one's gonna think that about you, man," Jackie reassures him. "You're snappy enough that no one would mistake you for that."

"Hah." Marvin gives him a little smile. "Sure."

"He is right," Schneep says.

"Besides, there are lots of people who sleep with stuffed animals who are our age," Stacy says.

"Yeah." Marvin nods slowly. He takes a deep breath. "Anyway. Are you guys gonna go to bed now?"

"We are," Stacy says. "You guys should, too. I get the feeling we'll have to talk to a lot of people tomorrow about what happened. You all should go to sleep, too. I'm sure I don't need to tell you about all the magic you guys used."

JJ smiles. Thank you for bringing everything to us. This will surely help us get used to staying here overnight.

"No problem." Stacy smiles. "But like I said, you guys should sleep soon."

Yes, yes, of course. JJ nods. Good night to you two.

"Good night!" Jackie says cheerfully.

"Night." Marvin nods.

"Good night to you three," Schneep says, smiling.

"We'll see you in the morning," Stacy says. "Goodbye."

The two of them head out.

#jacksepticeye #jacksepticeye au #jacksepticegos #septic egos #septic egos au #marvanswers #jackanswers #schneepanswers #stacyanswers #jjanswers #the-earnest-system

[crystalninjaphoenix]

Sunny Day(ze)

Paranormal Preteens AU: Episode Eight

A JSE Fanfic

This one got REALLY long. It’s 8k words, which is about 2k words longer than my usual. But it really needs the extra space, cause a lot happens. The boys go on a camping trip with Jackie’s dad and other friends. Unfortunately, Chase brought some, shall we say, supernatural items along, and soon they have to deal with mushrooms again. Since the story itself is already quite long, I won’t keep you guys from it any longer. :)

++++++++++++++++++++

Chase hadn’t been camping in years. His memories of the last time were eight years old and blurry, so his expectations were equally vague. He had a general idea of going out into deep forest, being all alone with a campfire circled by stones and a pyramid-shaped tent to sleep in. Actual camping surprised him in a couple different ways.

He and Schneep said goodbye to Mom around nine o’clock in the morning. Jackie promised that he and his dad would take care of them, and then they all got in the car and drove off. Marvin and JJ had been picked up earlier, and Marvin had thus claimed the front seat for the whole journey. Which...turned out to only take an hour. Sure, the town had disappeared from view by the time they reached the campsite, but Chase thought they’d be driving for longer.

The campground also wasn’t what he expected. There was a paved road leading up to a small gate, where Jackie paid some sort of toll, and then several different dirt roads and gravel parking lots that had quite a few cars. “It’s the middle of summer, always busy this time of year,” Jackie said. And ‘busy’ wasn’t a word Chase had associated with camping up until now. But he could see quite a few people walking around, and there were tents nestled between the trees in almost every direction. It was kind of killing his mood, honestly. 

Luckily, his mood perked up when Jackie kept driving, eventually finding his way to a campsite on the edge of the grounds, nestled between pine trees that hid it from other sites. The site was basically a small clearing of hard-packed dirt with grass around the edges, with a picnic table, a grill, and a concrete circle where people could light fires. It was empty except for a pickup truck and a man pulling poles out of a bag.

“That’s your dad, right?” Chase asked, leaning forward to look out the windshield.

“Yep,” Jackie said. “And that’s the truck he rented.” He parked his green hatchback right next to said truck and gave a little honk. Mr. Mann had already seen them coming, and he threw up a hand in a wave. “Alright. Out we go.”

“Should we get our things?” Schneep asked. Mom had helped him and Chase pack a duffel bag each. They also went shopping for new sleeping bags a few days ago.

“Nah, leave them in the trunk until after we set up the tents,” Jackie said. “You guys can take your backpacks though.”

“Yeah, I can’t believe I’m sitting in between two nerds who brought bags full of books that crushed me on the drive,” Chase said. “Give me room to breathe!”

There’s only one book in my bag, Jameson signed defensively.

“What else is in there? Rocks?”

Well, Marvin wanted to take some of his crystals.

Chase blinked. “You actually brought rocks? To a camping trip?”

No, C-R-Y-S-T-A-L-S, Jameson said, spelling out the word to be clear. And they were Marvin’s idea.

“Marvin!” Chase leaned around the passenger side seat to glare at him—but Marvin was already gone. He’d left the car as soon as Jackie said “out.” Now he was spinning in a circle on the grass and shouting “Aahhh!” Apparently Marvin didn’t do well with being stuck in a car for a long time.

Everyone else piled out and went to explore the campsite. “Hey, Dad.” Jackie said. “These are the boys. Remember? From my birthday?”

“Yes, we ran into each other a couple times.” Mr. Mann dropped the fabric he was pulling out of a bag—a tent without form—and smiled at the group. “Jackie talks about you a lot.”

“Hi Jackie’s dad,” Chase said, waving.

“Hello Herr Mann,” Schneep said politely. “You have a lovely... ah... car.”

Mr. Mann laughed. “Well, the truck’s not mine. That’s a rental, along with two of these tents. Jackie drove our car up here. You’re Henrik, right? No need to be so formal.”

“Ah... alright.” Schneep gripped the straps of his backpack.

Jameson, meanwhile, had pulled his notebook and pencil from his bag and written something down, which he showed to Mr. Mann. Do you need help setting up the tent?

“Well, if you’re willing to try, sure. It should be mostly Jackie and me. And his friends, once they get there.” Mr. Mann looked at Jackie. “Do you know if they’re on their way?”

“Uhhh they were when I went to pick up the boys.” Jackie reached into his hoodie pocket and pulled out his phone. He frowned. “No bars. So I guess we won’t know until they’re here. Anyway. Tent?”

“I wanna help!” Chase jumped a couple times to get attention.

Mr. Mann laughed again. He had a full, loud laugh. “Alright, then. You’re Chase? You can help me and Jackie lay out the tent. Anyone else who wants to join in should start sorting poles by lengths.”

They’d just finished with those two assigned tasks (Marvin and Schneep sat at the picnic table and watched) when another car pulled up. It was a bigger car, gray with four doors, and looked a little old, with scratched paint and a dent in the side. It parked on the other side of the pickup truck. Immediately, all the doors opened and five teenagers climbed out. Jackie’s face brightened and he hurried over. “Hey guys!”

“Hey, it’s the Jackieboy!”

“Hey man!”

“Is that a new hoodie? Looks good.”

“Did you bring your camera?”

“Do you have signal out here? Cause I don’t.”

Chase turned and stared as Jackie talked and chatted with these new people. They must be Jackie’s friends—the ones his age. He looked around at the other three boys. They were all as curious as he was. Marvin and Schneep got up from the picnic table and went to stand by Chase and Jameson.

“Oh, hey, let me introduce you guys to the boys.” Jackie turned around and walked over to Chase and the others. “Hey, little mans. This is Sylvester, Mincy, Ram, Fengge, and Celine. Guys, these are Chase, Henrik, Marvin, and Jameson.”

“Hi!” Chase adjusted his cap and smiled. “So, uh, you know what they say! A friend of Jackie’s is a friend of mine!”

It’s nice to meet you, Jameson wrote. Meanwhile, Marvin was quiet for once. He looked a little overwhelmed at meeting so many people at once.

“Wait, who is who?” Schneep asked, confused.

Jackie chuckled. “Well you met Syl for a minute at the pool a while ago.”

“Hey. I remember you guys.” Sylvester smiled, looking a bit shy. He had black hair that curled a bit, and wore a gray zip-up hoodie. “Nice to see you again. This is Mincy, she’s—”

“—the cool one,” interrupted a blonde girl, her hair pulled back in a ponytail. She flashed a grin. “Everyone else is a bunch of dorks.”

“I take that personally,” said the other girl in the group. Her hair was short and black, and she wore mostly black as well. “I know a total dork, and I’m very careful to not be like him.”

“Don’t insult Jackie like that,” said the tallest teenager, darker-skinned with chin-length hair.

“I think she meant her brother,” replied the last one, a boy with straight black hair and wearing a black jacket over a green shirt.

“Anyway,” Jackie said. “Celine is the goth one, Ram is the tall one, and Fengge is the one with the jacket.”

“Whoa,” Chase said quietly. He’d never been introduced to so many older kids at once. And they all looked so cool. “Is that a tattoo?!” He pointed at the one in the jacket—Fengge.

“Oh, this? It’s just temporary.” Fengge traced the pattern of vines and leaves on his neck. “My parents would kill me if I got a real one. But they won’t know about this one, hehe.”

“Are you a witch?” Marvin suddenly blurted out, looking at Celine.

“Sort of, I guess,” Celine said. “I do tarot and candles and stuff.”

“Oooo.” Marvin grinned. “I’m a witch too! Or, uh, I’m trying to be! You’re probably a lot better. Do you have crystals?”

“A few.”

Marvin grabbed Jameson’s hand, getting his attention, and shook him a little to share his excitement.

“Excuse me,” Schneep said. “Um, Ram? I’m sorry if this is rude, but are you a boy or a girl?”

“Well, what do you think?” Ram asked.

“Ahh...” Schneep froze. “Are you... both?”

Ram smiled gently. “Sure, that feels right. I can also be something that’s not either of them, too.”

“Oh.” Schneep blinked, a bit in awe at this new possibility.

“Hey!” Mr. Mann was still over by the tents. “Now that you’re all here, come help set up the things you’ll be sleeping in, why don’t you?”

“Alright, fine!” Jackie shouted back. “We gotta help. Dad’ll be so mad otherwise.”

“Um...” Chase coughed. “Actually, was there, like, a bathroom somewhere?”

“Oh sure.” Jackie pointed back down the dirt road they drove down. “We passed it a bit back there. It’s a square concrete building. Fair warning, there will probably be bugs inside. Do you need bug spray?”

Chase shook his head. “I’ll be fast.”

“Hurry back soon, Chase,” Schneep said.

“I will,” Chase promised. He turned and started to walk away. “See ya.”

He walked fast, and soon, he disappeared behind the trees. The moment he was out of sight, he broke into a run, heading off the road and into the surrounding forest. He kept going for a solid minute, until he was sure he was alone with nothing but plants around. Then he waited for a few seconds, listening. Only once he was sure no one was coming did he reach into his pocket and pull out the plastic sandwich bag he’d brought. Inside were five mushroom caps of unusual green color.

Chase sat down at the base of a tree and squeezed the bag. The mushrooms all let out a puff of fuzzy spores, which flew out of the bag and into the air. Despite being severed from their roots for so long, the mushrooms still worked. Chase could tell, because his head started to swim, and he slowly listed back and forth from the effect. He could also tell because of the voice he started to hear.

“Camping, huh sport?” The voice laughed. “We haven’t done that since you were four years old. We went up to Sly Park with your grandparents. Do you remember that?”

“A little...” Chase muttered. His vision was starting to blur, lines becoming indistinct colors. Some of those colors formed the shape of a person. A man, with brown hair and blue eyes the same shade as his.

“Isn’t your friend Chad at camp? Do you think he’s having fun? Well, I bet not as much without you.”

“I-I haven’t heard from him...”

“Really? That sucks. Maybe he just doesn’t know how to write letters.”

Chase laughed a little bit. The blurry figure of a person sat down next to him. He could almost feel an arm around his shoulder.

He knew it wasn’t really there. Of course he did, he wasn’t stupid. But he just... he wanted to see this. So he’d kept the bag with the mushrooms. Occasionally he’d tell his mom and Schneep that he was going skateboarding, but he was actually just taking the bag outside of the house so he could do this without them knowing. He didn’t want to explain the supernatural fungi to his mom, and he didn’t want to hear Schneep say they needed to destroy them. He knew that already. And he didn’t want them to look at him with sad expressions.

Part of him did worry about what else these mushrooms could do. But it was probably fine. They already confirmed that the spores didn’t actually cause the mushrooms to spread, so these effects were just contained to himself, and no one else. It was fine. Nobody was getting hurt. And Chase got to spend a little more time with him.

He sat there for a while, listening to him talk, occasionally muttering a reply, when he heard someone calling his name. “Chase? Chaaaase?!” He snapped to attention immediately.

“Ah, you have to go now?” said the blurry figure. “Well, you know how to reach me.”

Chase stood up, stumbling a bit before steadying himself against the three. He took a few deep breaths, and once the dizziness was gone, he started walking towards the voice, sealing the sandwich bag. He’d probably spent too long away, the others would be getting—

Jackie turned around a tree, appearing right in front of Chase. He gasped and stepped back, then smiled in relief. “There you are, little man. Did you get lost?”

“Uh, yeah.” Chase had hidden the bag behind his back the moment he saw Jackie.

“You didn’t need to leave the road, you know.”

“Well, I thought I’d take a shortcut.”

“Hmm. Understandable. But try to stick to the paths from now on.” Jackie turned around. “Come on, let’s go back.”

“Yeah.” Chase hurried after him, stuffing the bag into his pocket now that Jackie had his back turned.

In his rush, he didn’t notice that the bag didn’t completely disappear into his shorts pocket. He didn’t notice how, as soon as the camp was in sight, a shadow of a hand reached up and grabbed the plastic corner that stuck out. He didn’t feel the bag fall out and land in a patch of soft, damp dirt. He didn’t hear the slight giggle that quickly faded away.

++++++++++++++++++++

It took a while to get the tents set up and all their stuff inside. Mr. Mann had a three-person tent, and he rented two four-person tents as well to accommodate everyone. The four boys would get a four-person tent to themselves, while Jackie would share the other one with his dad and his friends Sylvester and Fengge, while Celine, Mincy, and Ram got the last one.

“I thought the tent would be smaller,” Chase said, once he’d dragged his stuff inside the one they’d be using.

It will probably look a lot smaller once we have the sleeping bags out, Jameson said. Where do people want to be? We can line up all the bags right here, on these pad things that Mr. Mann brought.

The order ended up being, from left to right: Schneep, Chase, Marvin, and Jameson. They all set up their things and then quickly left the tent. It started to get hot inside the canvas walls. 

Chase didn’t know what you were supposed to do while camping. He wandered around the trees for a little bit, looking for stuff to do. Eventually, he wondered if he could climb them. He’d never climbed a tree before. But he was confident he could do it. It took most of the afternoon to get really up in the branches of one, and once he was high enough he started breaking off sticks and throwing them down at the others passing through. Mostly Marvin, who was also wandering through the trees. That did not make him happy, and after a while Chase had to hop down because Marvin started throwing the sticks back.

Schneep had claimed a spot at the picnic table, where he took out some of the books from his bag and started to read. Chase didn’t understand how he could just sit there and read about nature while surrounded by it. But whatever. Jameson also tried to read at the picnic table, but he kept swatting at bugs crawling around, and decided he would rather be hot inside the tent than have to deal with all that. Meaning Schneep was alone for a while. He kept glancing up at Jackie and his friends, who had set up a circle of foldable camping chairs around the fire pit.

“You okay, Schneep?” Chase asked, passing by. “You look nervous.”

Schneep jumped a little. “Ah. I-I am just... I do not know anything about these people, so... I am nervous, you are right.”

“Well, no need to be. Jackie wouldn’t like these guys if they were, like, crazy. Why don’t you try talking to them?”

“Nein, no, I will just... read here.”

Chase nodded. “Well okay. So. I’m gonna sit here, then. And I’m gonna talk to them.” He raised his voice and shouted at the circle of chairs. “Hey! Do you guys like skateboarding?!”

Schneep gasped, and propped up his book so it hid his face. Jackie and the other teens all looked over at him. “Skating’s cool!” Mincy said. “I roller skate, that’s kinda the same thing as with a board!”

“It’s really not,” Jackie said.

Mincy rolled her eyes. “They both have wheels. They’re both called skating. Chessmate.”

“It’s ‘checkmate,’ actually,” Fengge corrected. “Though I think you don’t say that every time? There’s like, a ‘check,’ which is different.”

Schneep peeked over the top of his book. “Ahm... ja—y-yes, that is right. A check means that the king is in danger and has to be moved, o-or be captured. And that ends the game. Checkmate means there is nowhere the king can move that will not end in being captured. And then the game ends.”

“Wow.” Ram laughed. “You’re really smart. How old are you?”

“Eleven. I-I will be twelve in September.”

“Chévere. I didn’t know anything about chess when I was eleven.”

“I’m surprised at that, Ram,” Celine said. “You like strategy games.”

“I like strategy games with plot,” Ram corrected.

After that brief encounter, Schneep seemed to relax a little. Not entirely, but enough that Chase felt he could handle himself.

As the sun started going down, the group started taking out stuff for dinner, and Marvin started complaining about being bored. “There’s nothing to do out here!” he said. “I don’t know why we were able to run around nature all day when we were little. I guess maybe we were playing games or something. Hey. Hey guys. Wanna do...I don’t know. Hide and seek or something?”

“You shouldn’t go out hiding now that it’s starting to get dark,” Mr. Mann said, walking over to the fire pit with an armload of wooden planks and logs. “You could get hurt tripping over something.”

“You brought flashlights,” Marvin pointed out. “Also, what are you doing?”

“I’m making a fire.” Mr. Mann started stacking the logs in the circular fire pit, making a sort of Jenga formation.

“Isn’t it supposed to be, like, a pyramid? Leaning all the logs against each other?”

“That’s one way of doing it, yes! But I’m going for a platform build, it’ll let the fire last longer. We’ll need to light some kindling in the middle. You want to watch?”

Marvin did, indeed, want to watch. And the moment the first flames started licking at the wood, he was absolutely mesmerized. Chase hadn’t known Marvin that long, but he’d never seen him sit so still. One of the teens, Sylvester, ended up giving him his chair so he could sit closer to the fire and stare into it, eyes reflecting the orange light.

Dinner was not cooked over fire. Instead, Mr. Mann used the grill that came with the campsite to make hamburgers and grilled chicken, paired with some canned fruit. After everyone was done eating, he brought out long metal sticks and said they were for marshmallows. Everyone took turns roasting them over the campfire—even Jameson, who had stayed in the tent for most of the day, even eating in there.

“You know what says a lot about someone?” Jackie said. “How long they’ll cook the marshmallow before they put it in the smore.”

What does it say about them? Jameson asked.

Jackie shrugged. “I dunno. Something. Anyway, I like a nice golden tint.”

None of the boys had ever had smores before, so most of them tried experimenting, using up a good half a bag of marshmallows. The only exception was Schneep, who barely got his marshmallow to melt before putting it on the cracker. Chase found that he liked the extra-melty ones, and was willing to risk a black outside for the gooey inside. The twins both agreed with Jackie’s golden one, though Jackie’s was slightly more brown than either of theirs.

It was well and truly dark around them. Outside of the light from the campfire and two lanterns they’d brought, everything was pitch black. They might as well have been the only thing out there. Even though Chase could hear excited shouting and talking from other campsites, he couldn’t see them. The night air was filled with the chirps of crickets, and up above stars were scattered across the black sky. Mr. Mann said something about how there used to be more visible, but it was more stars than Chase had ever seen. He sat and stared up at them for a solid few minutes, thinking about how far away they were, and how small everything below them was.

After smores, Mr. Mann said that the boys should go to bed. When Chase complained about this, pointing out how Jackie and his friends were allowed to stay up, Mr. Mann replied, “When you’re sixteen you can stay up until midnight if you want. But all of you are still pretty young. This is already late enough.” And Chase didn’t want to get in trouble with Jackie’s dad, so he conceded. Mr. Mann gave them a bucket of water from a spout some ways down the road. The boys used that and a small toothpaste tube to clean their teeth, took turns changing into pajamas in the tent, and then all crawled inside, zipping up the tent flap behind them.

Chase didn’t want to admit it, but he was exhausted. The moment he wriggled down into his sleeping bag and rested his head on his pillow, he was out like a light.

++++++++++++++++++++

Chase felt like he was floating. Like he was lying on a giant pillow drifting across a gently waving ocean. The heaviness of sleep lay across him like a blanket. On some level, he knew he was dreaming. But he didn’t want to wake up. It was such a nice dream.

He was at home. The light was gold and warm, as if there were no roof and sunlight was streaming directly into the rooms. It was breakfast time. They were having crepes, something that Chase had only had a few times, but which he remembered vividly. Mom was there, wearing casual clothes. She didn’t have work today. And he didn’t have school. The two of them weren’t alone. There was a man there, brown-haired and blue-eyed, a beard half-hiding his face. Chase watched him give Mom a kiss on the cheek, and she giggled.

They were talking about something. It didn’t matter what. All that mattered was how they were smiling and laughing. Chase took a bite of the crepes, savoring the sweetness of the fruit and whipped cream covering it. Everything was perfect.

Except... there was another voice. Not one of theirs. It sounded distant and muffled, like it was coming from another room. Chase frowned. Was there someone else in the house? Did someone else want to join them?

He looked around. Everything was as it should be. Both of his family members were here.

...No. That wasn’t it. That wasn’t just it. Someone was missing. Who was it? Chase struggled to remember. Someone... shorter than him. With big round glasses, and a funny way of talking. Where was—

Where was Schneep?

Chase’s eyes snapped open. Then he immediately wanted to close them again, because there was a bright light shining directly into his face.

“You’re awake!” said a voice, relieved. And strangely muffled. “I’ve been trying to get you up for ages. I-I was trying to get JJ up first, but I wasn’t having luck, so I thought I’d try you—”

“Marvin?” Chase raised his hand. “Are you shining a flashlight in my face?”

“Oh! Sorry.” Marvin moved the flashlight away. Now Chase could see his face. Or, well, most of it. For some reason, he’d wrapped his cape around his mouth and nose. “Anyway, I wasn’t having luck with JJ, then I decided to try the crystals—”

“It’s still dark,” Chase said, looking around. The tent was dark except for Marvin’s flashlight, its beam lighting up dust drifting through the air. Schneep and Jameson were still asleep. “What’s going on?”

“Cover your breathing stuff,” Marvin said. “I-I mean your nose and mouth. Oh! Here.” He leaned over to the base of Chase’s sleeping bag, where his duffel bag was, and grabbed one of Chase’s shirts from the unzipped opening. He threw it onto Chase’s face. “Do you remember the mushrooms from a few weeks ago? They’re here, too.”

Panic shot through Chase’s heart. Had Marvin found his plastic bag? “What do you mean?” he asked, voice a bit too high.

“I mean this.” Marvin turned his flashlight towards the tent’s entrance. When they’d gone to sleep, it was closed, shutting out the outdoors. And now it was forced open. The entrance was filled with mushrooms, their fuzzy green caps as big as Chase’s head.

His heart sank. “What?” he whispered.

“I don’t know what’s going on exactly, but I think they’re affecting us,” Marvin said. “You know how they’re supposed to affect people’s heads and stuff? Well I was having this really weird dream. It was my birthday, and Gran was there, and my parents were, like giving me presents I wanted and stuff. And they made the cake strawberry, which is my favorite, instead of chocolate or yellow like they usually do. But JJ was missing, and when he showed up he started talking, and I knew that was weird because he doesn’t do that. So I kind of fought to get awake, and when I was sort of half-awake I rolled over and landed on one of my crystals and I think it cleared my head or something cause I was immediately all the way awake.”

While Marvin talked, Chase tied the spare shirt over his nose and mouth and unzipped his sleeping bag. “Wait, so those weird crystals you brought woke you up?”

“They woke you up, too!” Marvin held up a chunk of purple crystal as big as his hand. “I wasn’t having any luck until I remembered how it woke me up. Here, take it.” He pushed the crystal into Chase’s hand. “I have more.” Then he reached over to his bag and started picking up more crystals. “This is smoky quartz, it grounds you. And this cool green one is fluorite, it helps clear your mind—”

“We need to get rid of the mushrooms,” Chase said. “Marvin, I...I-I was having a really nice dream, too, and I don’t know if I would’ve woken up if you hadn’t helped me. Maybe... maybe nobody’s going to wake up ever unless we fix this.”

Marvin nodded. “That’s what I was thinking, too. And who knows what’s going on outside the tent? We need the rest of the gang. You get Schneep awake and I’ll get JJ.”

“Right.” Chase clutched the crystal Marvin had given him tightly. He crawled across the tent floor to Schneep’s sleeping bag. Schneep looked so small and quiet when he was asleep. Well, he was always small and quiet. But this was different. There was something... vulnerable about his face. Chase swallowed a lump in his throat. This whole thing had to be because he brought those mushrooms with him out here. He must’ve lost the bag. So he had to fix this. “Schneep. Hey.”

Schneep wouldn’t respond to Chase simply shaking his shoulder. Or to Chase calling his name in an increasingly loud voice. So, Chase was forced to try Marvin’s weird crystal thing. He felt so dumb just waving the purple rock in front of Schneep’s face. But only a few seconds passed before Schneep started to twitch, his face scrunching up. And half a minute later, Schneep’s eyes snapped open and he bolted upright, breathing heavily. He looked around, and saw Chase. “Was... Ch-Chase? I was... having a dream.”

“It probably felt really weird, right?” Chase said. “A good dream, too good to be true?”

“Ja.” Schneep nodded. “I-I was with you, und your mom. I think I was your...” He went quiet. “What is happening?”

Meanwhile, Marvin had succeeded in waking up JJ, who rubbed his eyes and sat up. “Let’s make a long story short,” Marvin said. “The weird mushrooms from the park are growing here, too!” And he shone his flashlight at the tent entrance. JJ and Schneep gasped in unison. “We have to get rid of them. O-or no one’s going to wake up!”

JJ nodded. We’ll need to keep from breathing the spores. They’re in the air in here. I already feel weird. Indeed, his signing was a bit slower than usual, as if he was having trouble getting his hands to form the signs.

Schneep immediately pulled the pillowcase off his pillow and covered his face with it. “We need to get to Jackie, and check on his dad and his friends. How did you wake us up?”

Chase explained the crystal thing while the others searched the tent for anything that would be useful. JJ found a heavy flashlight, while Marvin handed out crystals to the others. There wasn’t much that could be used as a weapon. Chase hadn’t brought his Nerf gun out of fear of losing the bullets in the forest, and the twins hadn’t thought to bring knives... again.

“There’ll probably be more stuff to fight the mushrooms with outside,” Marvin said. “So we need to go out and look around...” He walked over to the tent flap and stared at the fungi blocking the way. After a moment, he held out one of his crystals. And all of the boys watched, surprised, as the mushrooms seemed to curl away from it.

“Why are your rocks the thing that fights off the weird shrooms?!” Chase exclaimed.

“They’re magic,” Marvin insisted.

Though we do have to wonder how you managed to find magic crystals, JJ said. They’re all from different shops, and some were just on the ground, it’s weird how they can do this.

Marvin shrugged. “Maybe all crystals can ward off supernatural plants.”

“Mushrooms are not plants,” Schneep corrected.

“Well, whatever. C’mon, we need to clear the way.”

It was hard to get out of the tent with the mushrooms in the way. But after a while of pushing and throwing Marvin’s crystals at them, the four boys managed to fight their way out. It was pitch black outside, since the fire had long since gone out, so Schneep grabbed a second flashlight from his backpack and shone it around.

There were mushrooms growing all around the campsite. Stalks snaked across the dirt ground, ending in fuzzy green caps that varied in size from as big as a hand to as big as a head. None of the mushrooms actually grew out of the dirt. They all branched off each other, coming from a central point some ways away. Clusters of them gathered in front of the other two tents’ entrances. Most of the fungi were only shin-height, knee-high at most, but those came up to their waists.

“We have to get Jackie,” Schneep said.

“Right.” Chase nodded. “Be careful. Try not to touch any of these guys. They’re so big that they’ll probably send out too many spores to block.”

Chase led the way, creeping across the campsite, stepping over stalks on the ground. They reached the tent where Jackie was supposed to be asleep with his dad and two of his friends. After a minute or two, they managed to push through the mushrooms using the same method they did to get out of their own tent. Chase fell right through the open tent flap as soon as there was enough space. “Hand me a flashlight!” he whispered, clutching his crystal to his chest. Schneep passed one through to him, and he shone it around the room.

More spores were drifting through this tent. The flashlight beam fell on Mr. Mann’s sleeping face, which looked... peaceful. Then the beam searched the tent for a while, finding Jackie’s friends Fengge and Sylvester before settling on Jackie himself.

Chase crawled across the tent floor, carefully moving until he reached Jackie’s sleeping bag. Jackie also looked very peaceful. And... happy. No, that wasn’t exactly it. That was too exciting a word. He was... content. Chase almost felt bad waking him up, but he had to. He held the purple crystal in front of Jackie’s face and started shaking him, calling, “Jackie. Jackie! Wake up!”

After thirty seconds, Jackie opened his eyes. He blinked, and looked around the tent. Then, quietly, his eyes welled up with tears that slowly spilled over.

“Jackie?” Chase said hesitantly. “Are you alright? Why are you crying?”

“I-I’m fine.” Jackie wiped his eyes, sitting up. “I just...I had a dream. Not a bad one, a good one, but... anyway. What’s going on? It’s still dark.” In answer, Chase pointed his flashlight at the mushrooms crowding the tent entrance. Jackie’s eyes widened. “What...?”

“We gotta leave your tent first, we can talk outside,” Chase said. “Cover your face!”

A minute later, Jackie stood outside with the other four, surveying what happened to the camp. “This is insane,” he whispered, voice muffled under the hoodie he’d wrapped over his face. “They’re so big. Why are they so big? Where did they come from?”

JJ shrugged. We don’t know. But look. He pointed at the ground. They’re all growing from some other place. If we follow the stalks, we should figure out where they came from.

“How do we get rid of them?” Schneep asked.

“Well, burning them seemed to work.” Jackie walked over to the fire pit, staring down into it. “There are still some embers going. I know how to start a fire from that. We need to uproot them, then we can drag them into the fire.”

“But they’re so big,” Chase pointed out.

“Then we’ll break them up. Dad brought a couple saws. Just in case we needed to cut down branches for firewood. He also brought a shovel, so we can use that to dig up their roots. And...ah.” Jackie walked over to the picnic table and picked up the metal skewers they’d used to roast marshmallows. “These are pointy. We can probably figure out some way to use them.”

“Ah fucking sweet!” Marvin immediately ran over and grabbed one from Jackie, who then handed one out to the rest of the boys. “Okay. We gotta go over to where these are growing and uproot them. Onward!”

The group headed across the camp site, shining their flashlights across the strange green fungi. Chase held back a bit. Now that all his friends were rescued, a thought had started to creep into his mind. Would they figure out this was his fault? And, lurking beneath that... was there some way he could keep some of the mushrooms? He felt bad about even thinking that, especially after they’d put Jackie’s dad and friends to sleep, maybe forever. But the thought wouldn’t go away.

When they walked off the dirt path and into the forest, the mushrooms suddenly got bigger, as tall as Chase’s chest and with caps that were as big across as his whole arm. Spores began floating through the air without anyone even touching the mushrooms. They could all feel the effects even through their mouth coverings. Marvin seemed to be having the worst time of it, stumbling a lot. But eventually he got the idea to hold a crystal up by his head. The others copied him. Chase kind of hated how the dizziness died down a little when he did it. Why did this work?!

“Whoa.” Jackie, in front, stopped walking. The others crowded around him and saw the same thing he did. A tall mushroom rose up vertically from the ground, a bit taller than Jackie himself. Though its cap was as wide as Chase’s arm span, its stalk was thin, no thicker than the poles that held up road signs. And its cap was glowing slightly, the fuzz on its surface constantly drifting away in a thin but persistent cloud of spores. All the mushroom stalks linked up here, joining together into its stalk. And the bottom of its stalk...came out of a plastic sandwich bag.

What’s that doing here? JJ asked, pointing at the bag.

“That looks like the same sort of bag that Aunt Jess has,” Schneep said. “Like what we used to... put the mushrooms from the park... inside...” He trailed off, eyes wide.

“Did, uh...did anyone keep some of the mushrooms from the park?” Jackie asked tentatively. “You, uh, won’t be in trouble. This was probably an accident. It’s fine. Just... want to know. ”

Silence. Chase felt a pit opening up in his stomach, but he said nothing.

Then there was a whisper.

The spores drifting through the air seemed to cluster together. Chase stepped backwards as his vision started to blur, and he pressed the crystal against the side of his head to clear it up. He saw the others doing the same. Schneep actually looked in pain, like he had a headache. And then Chase heard the voice.

“What’re you doing here, sport? This isn’t a place you should be. Go on back to your tent. Go back to sleep. It will all be okay.”

The clustered spores started to look less like a cloud and more like a person.

Jackie gasped. “Mom?”

Schneep glanced at him. “Your mom is Chase’s mom?”

Marvin looked at them both. “Your mom is our grandma?”

JJ shook his head. I don’t think any of us are seeing the same thing.

“No, we’re...we’re not,” Chase said slowly. Because to him, the person was the same person he’d been missing this whole time.

“Go back to your tent,” the voice repeated. “Just go to sleep. Weren’t we having a nice time in that dream? Why would you want to leave it?”

“Shut up you bitch!” Marvin threw his crystal at the spore cloud. It broke up, immediately losing any sense of personhood, but Chase still heard the voice. And, judging by the expressions on the others, they could hear a voice too. Probably not the same one. But saying the same things. Go back to sleep. Enjoy the dream.

“Nobody listen to it!” Jackie snapped. He held up the skewers he grabbed and swung them at the tall mushroom, forming a gash in the stalk. “It’s trying to trick us!”

“Try not to breathe, either,” Schneep said, pressing his fabric covering closer to his face. “The spores are... they are sleeping us. Making us sleep.”

“But don’t you all want to sleep?” the voice said, sounding whispery, somehow far away and yet right next to them. “Enjoy the happiness we bring? One of you definitely does. One of you fed us, then brought us to this soft earth so we could help make you happy.”

None of us would do that! JJ protested.

“Yeah, we don’t want to feed freaky as fuck shrooms!” Marvin added.

Schneep nodded firmly.

Chase said nothing.

And Jackie noticed Chase’s silence. He glanced back at him. “Chase?”

“I...” Chase’s voice cracked. “I didn’t know... it would do this.”

“What?!” Marvin gasped. “You actually did it?! How?! How’d you feed the fucking mushrooms?!”

“I don’t know!” Chase shouted. “I-I just... I just kept a bag of them. A-and I would open it up, sometimes, and... and I’d, uh, let the spores out...”

“On purpose?!” Schneep gasped.

“Yes on purpose!” Chase snapped.

“These weird mushrooms are attacking our minds somehow,” Jackie said. “Maybe, just by letting them affect you, that made them stronger?”

“Yes,” the whispering voice said. “We want to help you be happy. And the more you let us help, the more we can help. Don’t you want to be happy?” The spores once again clustered, and the faint image of a person appeared for a brief moment before Marvin chucked another crystal at the illusion.

You don’t make us happy, JJ said.

“Then what were those dreams? When you look at us, what do you see? You see the people who make you happy, but who you cannot ever reach. Not the way you want to. We’ll bring them back. We’ll make everything perfect for you.”

Jackie’s eyes widened. “...oh.”

“But...but I do not understand!” Schneep protested. “Chase, how could you fall for this? You spend time with your mom every day.”

“It’s not my mom to me!” Chase snapped. “It’s not.”

Marvin blinked. “Then who could—”

“It’s my dad, you idiots!” Chase shouted. “It’s my dad! He used to be here, now he’s not! Now he’s back in America without Mom or me! He left! H-he said he wanted to stay, but he still left!” His vision was blurring again, but not from the spores. “A-and I haven’t seen him since my birthday, that was the last day I saw him, a-and I try to call him but he d-doesn’t always pick up.” His breathing hitched against his chest. The shirt wrapped around his face was starting to get wet. “A-and when he does pick up it’s always too short, it’s always too short, I-I wanna talk about what he’s doing, a-and why he’s doing it without me, but I don’t, because you can’t just ask that, a-and he always says he’s busy but I don’t know what’s making him busy, o-or why it has to be every time I talk to him, why can’t he just talk with me, why did he and Mom have to stop being in love and why did he have to leave and why couldn’t he just stay here so I could see him—”

“Hey, Chase, buddy, it’s okay.” Jackie bent down and suddenly wrapped his arm around Chase, surprising him into not talking. “It’s okay. It’s okay to miss him.”

Chase sniffled. “I don’t know why everything had to go bad at once! Dad left, a-and then my friend Chad went to camp for the summer, so I was—I was just alone. I-I thought I’d be alone for the summer, and I mean, summer is great anyway, but—”

“Well, we’re here now,” Jackie said gently. “Aren’t we?”

“Yeah, but—but you and Marvin and JJ aren’t in my year, I-I can’t hang out with you guys all the time. A-and Schneep is gonna go back to Germany at the end of the summer, a-and that’s—that’s so soon! Summer is already half over, a-and then I’m gonna go back to school, a-and even when Chad gets back he’s not gonna get it after all the weird magic stuff we’ve found—”

“Hey, take a moment to breathe, little man.” Jackie squeezed him a bit tighter. “Take a moment to breathe.”

Chase nodded, and tried to take a deep breath. It was hard. He wanted to keep breathing in short, quick bursts, but he forced himself to slow down. As he breathed shakily, he looked around at the others, their faces hard to see in the flashlight glow. Marvin looked sad, tears welling up in his eyes. Jameson didn’t know how to react, just shaking his head back and forth. And Schneep... Schneep was shocked. Surprised. And maybe a little scared.

“You good?” Jackie asked.

“Yeah,” Chase mumbled.

“Good.” Jackie pulled back a little so Chase could see his face. “Look. I know, it’s hard. You miss your dad. He went away and that’s hard. It feels unfair. Trust me, I know. And I know why you’d want to keep this weird... mushroom-induced happiness around. It lets you see him again. That dream, you woke me up from? I...I also saw someone who I hadn’t seen in a long time. I never thought I’d see her again, but then I did, and it was hard to wake up from that dream.” He took a deep breath. “But...it’s not good to stay in that dream. It’s not real. And while you’re being happy in the dream world, your body in the real world is just sitting there. Missing out on everything you could be doing. Missing out on all the things you could do with the people around you. Like us. People who care about you. Who want you to be happy just because, and not because we’re some crazy mushrooms who will feed off your happiness. We’ll miss you if you stay in that dream, Chase. So... don’t.”

Chase didn’t have any response for that. He looked at the others. “I would be very sad if you were just in a dream the whole time,” Schneep agreed. “And...and you would miss out on all your television shows, right?”

We’d never get to play games together again, JJ said.

“Yeah!” Marvin nodded. “These mushroom fuckers don’t know real happiness. If they did, my dream would’ve had you in it.”

Chase laughed. He wiped his eyes. “Okay. You... you’re all right.”

“No, they’re not!” The whispered voice sounded louder, more urgent. “You don’t want to stay out here! You want a dream, where nothing will hurt you, and nobody will leave. You can stay with the people you care about forever!”

Chase lifted up the metal skewer he’d taken from Jackie. “No. I can stay with fake people forever. And that’s not what I want.” And he lunged forward, driving the skewer into the stem of the tall mushroom. He pushed until he could feel it come out the other side, then used all his strength to yank it to the side, where it burst out of the side of the stem. The tall mushroom swayed, no longer able to support its own weight, then fell. The rest of the stem snapped with the collapse. Spores flew up into the air, and everyone quickly backed away.

They stared at the fallen mushroom for a while. Then Marvin said, “That was fucking awesome.” He giggled excitedly. “You got it in one fell swoop.”

It’s not over yet, JJ reminded everyone.

Jackie nodded. “Right. There’s all the rest of this stuff.” He sighed. “This’ll take half the night to clean up. So better start now. You guys start skewering the rest of these mushrooms. I’ll go start the fire.”

++++++++++++++++++++

It didn’t take half the night to dislodge and burn all the mushrooms.

It. Took. Forever.

There was no real way to tell time, since none of them had watches, but JJ said that the moon had moved “significantly” in the sky by the time they were done. These supernatural mushrooms were extremely flammable—even the largest pieces turning to ash in a minute—but they had to be careful when burning them, so they wouldn’t start a forest fire. That involved tearing them up into small pieces to slowly feed the fire. And that involved a lot of manual labor, using the skewers and Mr. Mann’s saws to break through the stems and caps. But eventually, they’d scoured every inch of the campsite and the surrounding forest with flashlights, and didn’t see any more mushrooms.

“Alright.” Jackie collapsed on the picnic bench, breathing heavily. “You guys... can go sleep now. I’ll... put out the fire.”

And the others were too tired to offer to help. They all crawled back into the tent, zipped up the mushroom-free opening, and fell into their sleeping bags. Within a minute, Chase could hear JJ softly almost-snoring, and he could feel Marvin’s slow breathing next to him.

He was just about to drift off himself when Schneep whispered, “Chase.”

“Hmm?” he mumbled, cracking open an eye to look at him.

“What you said back there,” Schneep said. “About me leaving after summer is over. Is that true?”

Chase was confused. “Uh...yeah. You should know that. You’re the visitor.”

“Visitor?”

“Yeah.”

Schneep was quiet for a while Then, softly, he let out a simple “...oh.” And rolled over, facing away from Chase.

That was weird. Schneep would know that he was staying for the summer. After all, his parents were still in Germany. He had school and friends to go back to. Why did he seem so puzzled? And so... sad?

Chase couldn’t stay awake for long enough to figure it out. He closed his eyes and fell into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

#jacksepticeye #jacksepticeye fanfiction #jacksepticegos #septic egos #septic egos au #jacksepticeye au #chase brody #jackieboy man #dr schneeplestein #marvin the magnificent #jameson jackson #brigid writes fanfiction #pnptau

[septnautical]

May I request the boys seeing the eclipse for the first time cause those happen in the game! I feel like they would freak out at first XD

(I’m very sorry for this one but I saw an opportunity-

TW: minor character death; but also- the boys escaping from Alterra!!)

The hybrids were all sleeping soundly in their tank. Well- for the most part. A lot of them were battered and bruised from the latest round of white suit testing. The predators mostly… the white suits tested their endurance and strength against fish much bigger than them. They were tough… and the littler ones got thrown around way more than they thought they would.

In fact- in their sleeping pile- Jackie was curled protectively over Marvin and Jamie, despite his black eye and scratched up tail. Marvin wasn’t in too much better shape- he had scratches on his face and one of his tails was bandaged. Jameson wasn’t hurt… but Jackie felt more protective over him then ever. If the white suits wanted to hurt him… they’d have to go through the tiny reaper.

Not too far away- Anti was stuck to the back of Henrik- his tails wrapped over Schneep’s own. His own silent way of protecting him. Chase was curled around the two of them, restlessly sleeping, eyebrows knit in worry. Henrik was probably the most bruised and battered… he wasn’t one for these tests of strength. He didn’t want to fight or race. The white suits didn’t find that acceptable for a predator. Hidden under his arms and the belly of his tail- shock marks could be seen as they tried to scab over and heal. Every day the white suits got more and more cruel…

Jack watched over his brothers in a silent vigil on top of one of the tank’s rocks. It killed him to see his brothers getting hurt… but what could he do? He didn’t have weapons or a way to fight- all he had was armor. And the knowledge the white suits wouldn’t hurt him… but it wasn’t fair. What he wouldn’t do to trade places with them… he’d take their burden in a heartbeat.

He had been hearing the white suits- hearing their plans echoing in his mind like a distant whisper. He didn’t know how he knew them- but he did. There was a sick curiosity in some minds- others, merely observation. Others still- saw the boys as if they were human children. A fondness would flow from their thoughts and give Jack a wave of calm. Surely… those few could do something to stop this from getting worse- right?

Flashes of more humanoid creatures would pop into Jack’s mind occasionally. Screens with plans and schematics. Progress pictures of more hybrids in creation. However- few ever made it to the place him and his brothers did. But… some were getting closer. Perhaps that’s why the white suits were being less careful… they could afford to fix mistakes now.

The thought of that made Jack shudder. He would never ever let the white suits hurt his brothers that way… never let them replace any of them with someone new. No matter if they looked like them, like some of the growing hybrids did, or-!

There’s a loud clank of something being moved in the dark lab that has Jack snapping his head to look. His brothers are still asleep- even if more restlessly now. Jack swallows then goes to follow the mysterious light, swimming quietly through the dark water.

Their tank was a huge one that was the main feature of the primary lab space. It sat against the back wall and most equipment was centered around it and out into the wider lab space. But across the floor- there were smaller tank for individual testing. Jack often saw them take samples from smaller fish in here- or do check ups on his brothers. They were about as big as they were- just starting to be too small for Chase who was growing much larger than the others.

And in one of the tanks closest to theirs- sat a new hybrid Jack had never seen before. He looked- almost ghostly. He had no irises or pupils- only glowing pale yellow sclera. He had intricate scales that looped around his arms and shoulders in swirling patterns. And- he glowed- much more than any of the other boys. His whole tail shown with a pale purple light. Kinda like Marvin’s tail but way brighter. Jack could see the inner workings of its tail through the skin. The hybrid wasn’t that much older than Jamie- maybe younger. Probably nearing tank introduction-

Why was he here though? In the middle of the night? The white suits didn’t usually work in the dark when the boys slept.

The ghostly hybrid seems to sense Jack’s eyes and looks towards him. He tilts his head then tries to wave. Jack tries his best to smile and waves back.

The new hybrid flicks his tail and bares its teeth in a sharp tooth grin. This was was almost as scary as Anti… Jack thought.

Then- Jack hear the clicks of shoes on the tile and quickly ducks down behind some of the creepvines in their tanks, making sure to cover the lights on his tail. For some reason- he felt like he shouldn’t be seeing this…

The white suit was one he recongized. She was practically mean and cruel to his brothers- her blonde hair bunched up messily on top of her head. She always wore those pointy shoes that clicked meticulously on the tile floor. She wasn’t allowed near Jack though- he heard some white suits tell her that. She didn’t seem too happy about that.

Still- she regards the new hybrid in the glow of his tail- not turning on any lights nearby to work. That’s strange… they always used lights to work. Humans couldn’t glow like they could- so they had to make their own lights. It’s like… she was trying not to get caught.

“You’re growing particularly fast, GL-” The white suits hums, flipping through her PDA, “Half the age of the other hybrids yet already reaching their size… The DNA of your mother species must be giving you this fantastic growth rate.” She taps her fingers against the screen and studies the hybrid. “There has to be a way to get that gene… we need it to speed up hybrid production. Yet- splicing Ghost Levithian DNA with other hybrid eggs doesn’t help…”

The tiny hybrid cocks his head at the white suit- not seeming to comprehend what she’s saying.

The white suit smiles at the Ghost leviathan merman and sighs, “You are a wonder, little hybrid. I just hope… if this fails- we can make another more successful specimen. Because other than growth… you show hardly any intellect the other hybrids had at your size. We can’t have that… we need the best of the best here.”

GL presses up against the tank walls and thrills at the white suit, seeming to catch the mood shifting in the air. Jack can feel it too- this sense of dread… this sick curiosity.

Wires shoot up from the bottom of the tank and latch onto GL’s arms. The hybrid screeches in fear and tries to fight but another wire wraps around his tail and holds him in place.

The white suit clicks her tongue against her teeth, seeming indifferent. “I don’t see why Xander was so impatient to get this sample… but he knows I’m not one to turn down an opportunity like this.” She grins at the scared shivering hybrid. “Hearing you little things scream is such an igviorgating feeling~!”

She attaches the PDA to a part of the tank- and soon the screen glows and shows a left and right controller type interface. The white suit places her hands on them and soon two mechanical arms whirl from the bottom of the tank and come up to position in front of the hybrid. The hybrid shakes and tries to press against the glass to get away.

The white suit sighs dreamily as she clicks on her PDA and prepares the arms. “Oh i hope the security feed can pick this up- maybe we can use this as an example for… other hybrids that also fail to perform.”

GL thrashes and fights against the wires, screeching inhumanly, but the emotion is as human as it comes. Fear. Pure terror.

Jack feels like he’s gonna be sick. There- there has to be something he can do! It sounds like this white suit is gonna-!

“Now- let’s collect those samples!” The white suits laughs giggly and shoves the sharp arms into the creature’s membrane tail.

The hybrid screams louder than it has before- shaking the tank- and the lab around it. Still- the white suit cruelly digs and rips whatever looks valuable from the tail. Orange hybrid blood clouds the water as the poor hybrid tries to fight off the machine trying to tear it apart.

Jack covers his mouth to stop from gasping or screaming- what if he shows he’s been watching and she hurts him too- what if she hurts his brothers?

He can hear them- starting to startle awake and hold each other- looking around in fear. Trying to find a place to hide.

This isn’t fair- this isn’t right! Jack feels the sand underneath him stirring in a strong current as his gut tightens in fear and disgust. Unbeknownst to him- a strong cyan light is starting to spark in his eyes.

And as they light up- suddenly- Jack can hear… hear the thoughts in the poor tortured hybrid’s mind.

“HELP! HELP HELP! PAIN PAIN PAIN-! MAKE IT STOP! STOP!!”

Tears come to Jack’s eyes and he can’t take anymore- he bursts out of the vines and cracks his hands against the glass. The currents around him stirring like the ocean in a storm.

“Stop! Stop this right now!” The sea emperor erupts- bearing his pointed teeth and staring down the white suit with pure hatred.

The white suit startles around and looks up wide eyed at the hybrid- she’s never seen him glow like that before- and what’s happening to the tank? “SE-002?!”

“J-Jack? What are you doing??” Chase’s voice whispers in fear through the water- he holds the others under his wings as they all shake and watch in fear.

With her away from the controls- the arms the white suit were using stop and lower. The bleeding hybrid looks up- and seems to meet Jack’s eyes. A small grateful smile graces his lips but…

Soon his tails seem to dim before going out- and his eyes roll up in the back of his head. And he slumps to the ground of the tank… and doesn’t move again.

There’s a tense horrified silence as Jack stares at the hybrid. It seems like time pauses.

Then, the white looks back and tsks, shaking her head. “Ah… pity.”

The whole of Jack’s chest- no his whole body fills with white hot rage. He screams- and the tank explodes in a flurry of swirling sand and currents- fauna and flora being torn asunder and flung into the swirling depths.

Anti and Jackie act fast- digging their claws into the sand as the others hang onto them for dear life. Anti attempts to call out through the chaos:

“J-Jack! The tank! The tank is gonna-!”

There’s the sound of a sharp and loud crack- and Jack’s anger dies almost instantly as he backs away from the large line starting to spilt in the glass. The crack grows quickly- and Jack hurries away from it in fear. His brothers are quick to grab him and hold him close to them as they watch the glass that holds their home together start to splinter.

The white suit stumbles back with white faced fear and then high tails it out of the lab- hurriedly calling on her comm as she disappears through the door.

The brothers cower and brace themselves for the destruction of the tank-

Then- there’s a noise right behind them… and Chase looks.

Out of thin air… a hatch has been made. Like the ones the white suits used to get into their tank. But this one… this one leads out- out to somewhere they’re never seen before.

It leads out of here-

Chase narrows his eyes in determination and nudges all his brothers towards the hatch. “Hurry- Hurry!”

The boys, especially the younger ones look confused- especially when they hear shouts and banging outside the lab. But, when Chase opens the hatch, their eyes light up and-

The added water makes the cracks in the glass worse- Chase wastes no time in pushing everyone out of the tank and into the strange water- managing to close the hatch right as they heard the glass finally break apart.

The hybrids all try to catch their breath as they float in the unfamiliar water. It feels strange on their gills- on their scales. But…

“Is this… the ocean…? The real ocean?” Marvin’s small voice wavers out. Chase swallows then nods and goes to scoop up little Jamie, who despite seeming scared looks ready to dart around and explore.

“Y-yeah… Yeah it is.”

Henrik swims up, holding his battered stomach with hopeful eyes. “We are… free?”

Jack looks back at the wall with the hatch- mind whirling with all that just happened. But, soon enough he’s spurring away from the hatch and into the dark water. Even the lights were off out here it seems.

“Let’s…let’s get the hell away from here.”

The others look to each other before following after Jack’s lead.

Luckily- most of them have biolumesecence. So, even the ones that don’t glow can follow after the others in the pitch black sea.

“...i-it’s the ocean supposed to have the sun?” Anti grumbles. “I… didn’t think it’d be this dark…”

“Yeah…” Chase mumbles, “All the videos made it look so much brighter…”

“Isn’t there… s-supposed to be a…a moon?” Henrik adds shakily- looking towards the surface. “I heard… about that once-”

“Who knows…” Jack mutters, holding his arms against his stomach. He feels- sick and weak…

“I… I’m not sure i like the ocean… i-if it’s this dark-!” Marvin hiccups, going to cling to Jackie’s arm. The tiny reaper seems to agree.

Jameson quietly sinks against Chase’s chest- the order merman holding the cuddlefish tight against him, afraid to lose him in the dark.

The water around them seems to reflect their fear and uncertainty…

But then- something changes. Red light suddenly shines on the boys and they all halt in fear- wondering if the white suits had found them already-!

But… no… there’s a glow coming from the surface- and soon enough it goes from red to a beautiful warm and white glow.

The boys all seem to feel their fear lifted as the moon shines down on them. A literal light in the dark ocean around them- a sign of hope…

Jack smiles- watching the water shift from above and feeling like the moon is guiding them. He looks to his brothers and puffs up his chest confidently.

“..We’re gonna be okay, guys. Even when it’s dark… we’ll always have each other, right?”

The boys boys slowly mirror Jack’s smile and nod, flicking their tails and blinking their lights in agreement. Jack laughs and starts their journey again- the weight of it already feeling lighter.

“C’mon… let’s find our new home.”

#the escape #Mermay 2022 #writing requests #septnautical main story #sea emperor Jack #ghost leviathan robbie #anddd that’s all the robbie y’all get1 #I’m sorry I didn’t mean for it to get this brutal I was gonna make it more tame but it started writing itself I swear- #also Demerci is just- cruel soooo #tw: character death #tw: torture #i mean as a Character- this does fit a zombie character reference doesn’t it? |D #eclipse #huffle tales

[beerecordings]

Werewolf AU - Part 8

By the third time Chase has expressed to him that his place is a mess, sorry, Henrik is braced for a rat's nest of a house held together with water-stained wallpaper and rotting support beams. He's witnessed poverty, bachelor pads, and the line in the middle where the two meet mostly as an outside observer, but he's determined that, no matter how it looks, he won't breathe a word of complaint.

He's happy to have someplace to stay. Walking home with Chase, he really does feel better already. He can do this a couple more weeks before fully having a breakdown, he thinks. Maybe Chase will even let him stay until he finishes rehab. That would be okay. That would be doable.

Still, he can't escape a surprised curse as Chase tells him “this one's mine.”

That's not poverty. This is the house of a man who has wealth – or at least, had it at some point.

“Fancy,” says Henrik.

“It's a little embarrassing,” mumbles Chase.

Henrik glances at him. “Because it's a nice house?”

“I... came into some money through work a couple years ago. I didn't spend it all that wisely. Didn't know how. So the house is paid off and all, and that's great, but now it's just me in this huge fucking house because my partner took the kids. I'm hoping to split custody once I get done with rehab, but until then, I just feel like a broke kid pretending he belongs with the other posh assholes who live around here.”

Posh asshole. That would be Henrik.

“You have a nice place growing up?” asks Chase innocently, heading towards a cherry red door beneath a covered porch.

“Um.” Henrik avoids his gaze. “Yeah... pretty nice.”

Very nice. But he's sick of the rejection he gets from other guys his age when they decide he's a no-fun rich kid who's objectively smarter than all of them. He'd eventually come to the conclusion that he had no need for friends, and no time, either, and he could be perfectly content focusing on his work. Stupid wolf instincts fucked that up for him too, though. He's been wanting a friend so bad since this happened. Maybe just this once?

Chase swings the door open and the mess inside shoves all thoughts aside. He's so astonished he nearly snorts out a laugh, reaching up quickly to cover his mouth.

“Yeah, yeah,” sighs Chase. “It's been a while since I cleaned.”

It's bizarre to see such a nice house so trashed. Henrik... kind of loves it. Forget all the over-polished places he spent his time in as a teenager. There's sure as hell no maid here. Dishes and take-out boxes litter the tables, and then they migrate to the floor too, empty cans and bottles filling in any empty spaces nearby. There's boxes beneath the TV for video games and controllers, but instead of being tucked away, all the cases and disks and wires are lying in heaps against the stained carpet. There's laundry all down the banister of the stairway, and Henrik doesn't know if it's dirty or clean. It stinks a little – but then again, beneath it all, the whole place smells like chocolate.

“I'm sorry, man,” mutters Chase. “Seriously, it's... I've been lazy.”

“Not lazy,” Henrik replies, with more warmth than he realized he'd be able to summon. “You have mental health issues.”

Chase barks out a laugh. “Mental health issues. You're definitely a doctor. You know you can just tell me I'm a slob, right?”

“Don't be so hard on yourself. You've been sober four months, turned into a werewolf, going through custody court, and so on. Who cares if you wrecked the place while handling all that? Besides, it will give me something to do.”

“Oh, no, dude, no way. This is my mess, I'll clean it.”

“No, it will be my thanks for letting me stay. I like to clean. Besides, the couch is a mess. I'll have to get started.”

“Schneep, there's six rooms in this house. You'll sleep in a guest room. Come on.”

“Oh?”

Chase takes him upstairs and leads him into a spare room with a flourish. “Ta-da!”

Okay, that does something weird to his brain.

There's a room here, just for him, with a door he can shut and a bed fully made up with blankets that only smell of laundry detergent and a little of Chase's scent. There's an empty closet. There's an untouched bathroom against the hall. There's... space for him.

There's territory for him.

The thrill is so intense he shivers from it, clapping his hands together, and he knows he must smell happy, because Chase begins to smell happy too. Chocolate and cheerful sugar. Fuck, that's a relief after such a shit day. He's so glad he agreed to come.

“It's late,” Chase tells him, patting him on the back. “Settle in, okay? I mean, I know you've just got the one backpack full of stuff, but... I can at least put you up.”

“Thank you, Chase,” says Henrik, and he means it.

“It's no problem at all, doc. Seriously. This place has been so damn quiet. I had never lived alone before Stacy left, and I don't think I'm cut out for it.”

Henrik hasn't lived with anyone since he was a kid. He doesn't remember what it's like, not being alone when you go home.

“Get some sleep, okay?”

“Okay. Good night, Chase.”

“Good night, Schneep.”

The second Chase leaves him alone, Henrik lets his inhibitions go, just for one moment, and he throws himself into the sheets and comforter of the bed and shoves his face into them, rolling around in his new blankets until they all smell just like him – with a little bit of chocolate mixed in.

Perfect.

.

The morning comes with a feeling of energy and optimism for the first time in a long time, pulling him out of bed without hesitating. There's a nice smell in the air, bloody and raw. Someone's cooking meat.

Henrik treads down the stairs, stepping uncertainly into the kitchen. There's music pouring out of a Bluetooth speaker, American rock vibrating through the room. There's turkey sizzling in the oven, fragrant in the air, and Chase is cooking at the stove – eggs, peppers, tomatoes, spinach, cheddar cheese and feta alike, salt, pepper, oregano, fuck, fresh food smells clear and wonderful. Henrik has a second to be surprised that Chase even has enough clean dishes to cook this, considering all the dirty ones piled in the sink and across the table and counters, but then he sees discarded plastic and zipties. Chase bought new ones just to cook this morning.

“Hi!” calls Chase. “You like omelets, right, man?”

“Uh-huh,” Henrik agrees. “It smells good.”

“Yeah, it really does. I didn't realize. I've been eating so much junk lately, I didn't realize it all has, like, this film of bad smells. A little worried that being a werewolf is going to turn me into one of those all-natural moms at the grocery store. Let me eat my donuts, werewolf nose!”

Henrik grins, stepping up to the sink and starting the water. “You cook, I'll wash dishes.”

“You're determined, huh? I will admit the dishes have been giving me real problems. Sometimes I think that if someone put a gun to my head and told me to clean up all this shit, I wouldn't be able to do it even if I did want to live.”

“Executive dysfunction is a normative symptom of depression.”

“Have you always spoken English, Schneep? I think you're better at it than me.”

Henrik scoffs, trying to locate the dish soap. Rot, old veggies, oil – ah, there's the smell of fake oranges, buried underneath some other dishes. He pulls the oozing bottle out and fills the sink with hot water and bubbles. “I know perfectly well my English is very technical. Yes, I learned English as a boy.” And Hebrew, and Polish, and Latin.

He washes dishes contentedly, watching out of the corner of his eye as Chase makes a ridiculous amount of food for two people. As he waits for the omelets to cook through, he's carving a heavy watermelon into sweet red slices. The tray he pulls out of the oven has both turkey bacon and several oily hashbrowns hissing inside, hot and fragrant.

“Brunch on a Friday morning, what could be better than that?” purrs Chase.

“Brunch?” Henrik glances at the clock. “Oh, no, I slept so late!”

“We got nowhere to be, do we?” asks Chase.

“I mean, I guess not. Nobody from work has called me since I got bit.”

“Is that nice of them or negligent?”

Henrik sighs. “I'm not sure yet. Guess it depends on if they automatically fired me or not.”

“Yikes.”

“What do you do for work?”

“Oh. I'm, um... on a hiatus, I guess you could say. Kind of hard to move on from where I've been, but do I leave it all in the past or start trying to rebuild? Not sure how my people would react to me getting bit either, so I don't know. Maybe I'll just have to find something new. Was thinking about making a change anyway.”

No further details. Henrik's not going to pry. He thinks they've probably both got shit they're not ready to talk about.

They eek out a couple clear spaces at the kitchen island and eat there, Chase chattering at him and asking him questions about everything from being a doctor to his musical preferences. It feels easy, between them. Henrik doesn't remember the last time he talked to anyone about anything other than the weather or the next surgery on the docket.

“Glad you're here. It's been too quiet. We should do something this weekend!”

Oh, boy. “Like what?”

“Get some food, maybe, check out the farmer's market, see a movie. I used to just hit the bars with my friends but can't do that now.”

Henrik picks at the last bits of cheese on his plate. “You have a lot of friends around here?”

Chase's laugh darkens. “Um... not so much, anymore. Between the alcohol problems and the, uh, work problems, I realized I had a lot of friends who weren't so good for me. And then the rest of them realized I wasn't so good for them, either.”

Henrik hums. “Well, I'd definitely be up for the farmer's market. I mean, if you don't think people will... you know, if we're allowed there.”

“Yeah,” sighs Chase. “I don't know what I'll do the first time somebody comes after me for being a werewolf. Like, I didn't even sign up for this. Maybe we could see how we feel about it tomorrow. Oh! Do you like video games?”

“I wasn't allowed them as a kid. Think I missed my period of development in terms of video games.”

Chase gapes. “Weren't allowed? Have you played now, as an adult?”

“Here and there, I guess. Not really.”

“Have you played Assassin's Creed? Bloodborne? PC games? Nintendo? Holy shit, tell me you've played a Mario game.”

Henrik can't help but chuckle. “No, I've just seen them.”

He's getting dragged out of the kitchen before he can say 'Luigi,' Chase clamoring for video games and shoving trash off the couch. Henrik laughs and forces him to actually get out the trash bags, and the promise of fighting turtles together is apparently enough of an incentive for Chase to be able to clean up his living room for the first time in, well, a while. Henrik carefully tucks disks into their cases, neatly lining them up in the cupboards of the TV stand, and they get rid of the stinkiest parts of the mess, cracking a window for good measure.

“Okay, now Mario. What do we start with? Mario Party's probably the easiest for a beginner – oh, but we need more people. How about Mario Kart? Come on, I'll show you!”

There are worse ways to spend a Friday afternoon. He picks a little red guy in a mask to play as, and Chase laughs without mockery as he shows him how to play, interspersing the experience with more conversation, easy and low-stakes between them. It's not too bad. Maybe even a little fun. He feels full, he feels safe... yeah. There are worse things.

“There is one other thing I'm planning to do this weekend,” Chase says, opening a bag of pretzels on the coffee table while the game's paused. “You can come with me if you want, but you don't have to. It's not my business, I know. But I really think someone needs to if Marvin can't, and Sean's got too much on his plate as is.”

Henrik blinks, pushing his glasses up on his nose. “What are you talking about?”

Chase sticks several mini-pretzels in his mouth at one time. “You don't have to come,” he repeats, voice muffled with his mouth full. “But I'm going to go check on Jackie.”

A string of curse words flashes behind Henrik's eyes. Is he joking?

No. Dead serious, actually. His mind's already set on it.

Well. It doesn't sound like the world's smartest idea to him, but maybe he's right. Maybe no one else is going to do it, and someone needs to. Like a surgery for someone who keeps telling you they'd rather take their chances beneath the knife than spend the last few months of their life with no hope.

And anyway – there's no way in hell he is letting Chase go alone.

“I'll go with you,” says Henrik. “Like you said. We have to have each other's backs.”

Chase smiles with his mouth still full of pretzels. “Thanks, man. Now let me see your remote, cause I can't watch you drive off the side of the road one more time in good conscience.”

That's fair.

.

He knows where Jackie lives because Jackie made sure he did, and that, he thinks, was pretty prophetic of him.

“You go down two streets and turn right,” Jackie had directed him with a certain intensity, walking him home the first time they met. “My house is the little one with red-brick stairs and white shutters, number 545. I might not hear you if you knock, because I get distracted by my coding and can't always hear everything else, but you can come in the backdoor anytime!”

“Jackie,” Marvin had said, audibly exasperated, but Chase had just smiled and nodded. Sure, it was pretty clear that Jackie wasn't exactly neurotypical, but it was a nice gesture no matter how your brain's wired. He never got creepy vibes from Jackie. He was genuine as a Stradivarius.

“There are protective orders and that sort of thing,” Chase tells Henrik, leading him down the sidewalk. They decided between the two of them that Jackie probably keeps hours like Marvin's, and the sun's lowering like a priest at the altar as they walk. Chase misses the silver light of the moon. “He doesn't have to deal with his dad if he doesn't want to.”

“Maybe he just needs a reminder of that. What do we do if his dad is there?”

“Well, somebody at least needs to figure it out for sure and check on Jackie. If I find out he's getting hit again, I swear I'll be letting the wolf instincts take the lead. These teeth haven't to be good for something, right?”

Henrik nods, humming, and Chase turns to grin at him. As soon as you stop talking about werewolves and all the werewolf-related bullshit they're going through, this doc is the most unflappable person he's ever met.

“There's 525,” he points out.

Chase bounds up the red-brick stairs on the side of a white house that can't be made for more than two people. The outside is weathered with faint cracks in the paint the same way an old man gets wrinkles, and the brick is chalky from old age. The plants pressing in a little too closely around the door circle the whole of the house in a fervent hug, blooming around a building that tilts slightly to the side. Chase sucks in a breath of flowering weeds and bug-chomped leaves against red brick. Jackie's scent is so faint he can't discern it from the actual summer smell around them, cigarette smoke undercutting the pleasantry of the tiny path that leads to the door.

That cigarettes give him his first moment of real doubt since the moment he helped Marvin into bed last night and decided he'd have to do something about this. Neither Jackie or Marvin have ever smelled like cigarettes to Chase.

“You going to knock?” asks Henrik. “Do people knock in the UK?”

Right, he should do that. Yeah. It's okay. He knocks on the door and steps back to stand beside Henrik, pressing their shoulders together for a second. Someone's got to do this, and just because they're new wolves doesn't mean they can't help.

If Chase has any doubt Jackie's dad was staying with him, it's gone the moment that door opens. The wolf who steps out onto the steps above them couldn't be anyone but Jackie's dad. Knowing what Marvin told him about Graham, it gives him a genuine, cold-handed shiver up his back to see how much this man looks like his son.

“Hi, there, boys,” says Graham, the same wide white smile Jackie has lighting up his whiskered face. “You must be friends with my Jack, is that right?”

Henrik and Chase exchange wild glances. Chase hopes their scent isn't alarmed.

“Um, yes,” he says, trying to smile back. “Is he home?”

“No, pup, sorry. He's always running off somewhere. Probably at the park or prowling downtown. Not very territorial of this place, I suppose. Doesn't really have the instinct. Glad to see he knows some kids his own age, even if you're so new. He's a special boy.”

“Ah,” says Chase, shifting on his feet. He still doesn't really get how every other wolf seems to know he and Henrik are freshly-turned. Do they smell different than long-time wolves? “Yeah, we've just met a couple times, but he's great. Well, maybe we'll go see if he's – ”

“You two must be in the same boat as him! Needing a good strong pack, that's what you are. I always feel bad for you new wolves. Who bit you then, pups? Didn't they have a pack ready for you? Irresponsible, that's what that is.”

“It's a long story, but no, no pack. Henrik's probably going back to Germany, though, so he might have to look there.”

Graham tsks his tongue against his teeth, blue eyes fixing on Henrik. “Having to go all the way back to Germany without a pack, that's a damn shame. You oughta have someone looking after you. I used to run a full-fledged pack in these parts, you know. Took care of a couple young families. Bit a couple young people myself when they asked. That's how you grow.”

Henrik steps back from Graham. Chase stands in front of him, trying to ignore Henrik's scent changing, filling up with something like mold, and Chase can't tell if it's anger or fear or something in between.

“Nervous around Alphas?” asks Graham unabashedly, still looking right at him. “That's a damn shame, too.”

Graham has a powerful smell, his smoking habit coating a natural smell of fall leaves and steak in nicotine and foul smoke. But he doesn't smell like an Alpha, wrapped in that loving conglomeration of packmate scents, and he isn't alluring the way the others they've encountered have been.

“It's too bad,” Chase says levelly. “We better head out. Sorry to bother you.”

Graham takes a step down the stairs that lead up to the door. As he comes to stand on the pavement with the pair of them, Chase sees that while Jackie got his looks from his father, he must have gotten his size from his mom. Graham's huge.

He reaches out and claps a hand down on Chase's shoulder, squeezing for a second, and Chase feels himself go stiff, his scent unstoppably nervous now, shot through with cayenne stress. Graham's wide hand is so close to his neck. Henrik's frigid beside him, both of them shocked silent by an influx of instinctual knowledge – the knowledge that this wolf is much, much bigger than them, and could absolutely hurt them both no matter what they did to stop him. Chase tries not to squirm, and then he tries not to whine, and his mouth falls open as he hears himself start to pant a little, tongue pressed up against his bottom row of teeth.

“Don't have to be nervous around a real Alpha,” chuckles Graham, reaching suddenly up to cluck his chin, making Chase wince, his eyes flinching shut. “That's the whole point of it. You trade obedience for protection, for care. A real Alpha looks after what's his.”

“Dad.”

Hot summer grass and melting gold butter have never smelled so good. Jackie stalks up the pavement towards them, bringing the smell of the park, wolf scents and plant life impressed in the air around him. He's wearing the same red coat he was the first and only time Chase met him, the hood drawn over his eyes. In the lowering sun and the rising moon, his blue eyes are cold and very clear.

“There's my Jack,” purrs Graham, hand pulling away from Chase's shoulder. Chase stumbles back, gripping Henrik's arm. “Your friends came to say hi.”

“Hi, guys!” Jackie's cheeriness is fake as styrofoam. “Did you come to share a run? It's good to see you.”

He throws his arms around both of their shoulders the second he's close enough, turning them around and pulling them away from his home. “I forgot you were coming! Let's go back to the park.”

“You've just come from the park,” laughs Graham.

“Bye, Dad.”

“Jackie,” calls Graham, voice hardening. “Come in and get some food first. Your friends can come too.”

“I'll be home late, Dad,” Jackie calls, stronger, and he doesn't look back as he leads Chase and Henrik down the street. Chase tries to turn and see if Graham is still watching them from the steps, but Jackie tightens his grip around his shoulders, pulling him close against his body. Chase is still panting, feeling shaky now that the adrenaline is coming back down, and on the other side of Jackie's body, he sees Henrik clinging to Jackie's hoodie with both hands. Chase looks up at Jackie's face. He's staring straight ahead, mouth pulled into a taut grimace, nostrils flaring as he works to breathe steady. This close, Chase can see that he's tanner than he was before, dark enough to reveal paint-flicks of pale vitiligo up his cheek and right eye.

As soon as they reach the corner, Jackie turns them onto the other street and pushes Chase up against somebody's chain link fence, grabbing his face in both hands. Chase stares at him, blinking, recovering his air.

Graham's hand so close to his neck felt like danger. Jackie's hands don't. Henrik is still clinging to his hoodie beside them, eyes huge.

Jackie lets out a slow breath. His hands fall away from Chase's face.

“You okay?” he asks thinly.

Chase puffs out a breath of air and nods halfway.

Jackie's eyes flutter closed and then open again. He turns to Henrik and does the same thing to him as he did to Chase, reaching out to cup his face for a moment, fingers dragging across Henrik's beard. Henrik shivers under his hands, the fear in his scent quieting.

“Why did you come?” Jackie asks, eyes darting between the two of them as he lets Henrik go and steps back. “What were you thinking?”

Chase swallows, stepping over to stand beside Schneep again. “Jackie, you stopped coming to class. And Marvin – ”

“Guys, I don't have to come to class, okay? I... had some other stuff come up.”

“Ja, clearly.” Henrik's shaking his head at Jackie, glasses slightly askew. “That's your father? He's nothing like you.”

Jackie groans, reaching up to tug at his hair for a second, his hood falling back. He's rocking on his heels, constantly in motion as he looks at them both with a sigh. “He's just staying with me while he finds an apartment. Won't be more than a couple weeks. What was I supposed to do? You can't kick your own dad out when he's homeless.”

“Um, you absolutely can,” Chase interjects. “Especially if he's an asshole.”

Jackie looks up at the both of them darkly, and for a second Chase thinks he'll snap at them. But a moment later, the tension seems to melt off him, leaving exhaustion in its place.

Jackie steps forward and hugs them both close, his arms wrapping around their ribs. Chase hugs him securely back around his stomach, his head finding its place on Jackie's shoulder. For just a second, he can't smell anything at except Henrik and Jackie and the places where their scents mingle, soothing as the smell of his own home. He squeezes Jackie closer, closing his eyes.

Fuck, he barely knows this guy. But there's something instinctual that came awake the second Jackie pulled them away from the big wolf with a hand at his throat, primed to hurt them, and he doesn't actually want Jackie to let go at all.

“Dude,” he mumbles. “Marvin told us about your dad, okay? We're worried about you.”

Jackie's scent spikes with something that Chase thinks he's smelled already. Actually, it's a lot like the smell Sean gave off as Marvin told Henrik he'd tried to get rid of him, something coppery and almost alcoholic. Jackie doesn't say anything, and when Chase pulls back a little to look at him he finds him with his eyes closed and his head low. Henrik lets out a soft whining sound Chase has never heard him make before and presses his face against Jackie's neck, rubbing his scent there for a moment.

Jackie's eyes snap open in surprise, and Chase waits to see what will happen, but Jackie just lets Henrik share his smell with him, hand still cupping his spine. A moment passes and Jackie tilts his head to the side, making space for Schneep against his throat.

Chase didn't know Henrik could let his guard down enough to do that, to scent like that. Maybe Jackie recognizes the significance too, because he's looking at Chase like he's trying to share a conversation with him, eyes sad.

“Come on,” Jackie says, clapping Henrik's shoulder. “Let's get you two home.”

“Marvin's stressed about something in the news,” Chase blurts out. “There was something with a vigilante attack. He's really upset.”

Jackie's breath flutters out of him again, in that same bone-deep weary sigh, leading them down the street. “Marv keeps up with all sorts of werewolf news. He's always stressing about the latest article.”

“Why haven't you called him or anything?” Chase demands. “You haven't answered Sean either.”

“I'm okay, Chase,” murmurs Jackie. “Really. It's just some family stuff.”

“Marvin is your family.”

“Marv and my dad don't get along. It's better to leave him out of this.”

“You protect him from your dad, but not yourself. That's not fair to you.”

“Chase.” There's still no anger there, no irritation. “You don't know my dad.”

“No, I don't but – but I know my dad, Jackie. And I know – I – I know what it's like to not want to get them in trouble. Even if they hurt you, you don't want them to get in trouble. You just want your dad. Maybe because you think you're the only one who still believes in him. So maybe he needs you more than you need him, and that means it's okay if he hurts you sometimes. He needs you. You can't say no.”

Jackie's scent doesn't change, and neither does his pace, but his breath does, picking up in speed. Chase walks beside him, staring up at his face, wishing for some hint of Jackie's real feelings about this whole damn mess, but Jackie doesn't let anything out, or maybe just doesn't emote the way Chase thought he might. He stares right ahead, leading them patiently down the street.

“Jackie?” asks Henrik.

“I'm fine,” Jackie tells both of them. “Let's get you home.”

And he does. He walks them all the way back home without another word, keeping Henrik tucked firmly beneath his arm. Chase doesn't bother to ask how Jackie seems to know he and Henrik are staying together without asking, or how he memorized the way to Chase's house after walking him home just once before. He deposits them on the porch of Chase's home, giving them this weird smile, fake and earnest at the same time, pained. Practiced. Masking.

“That was nice of you two to check on me,” he says gently. “But please don't come by my place again. I need some time. Okay?”

Henrik's the one who catches his arm as he tries to turn to go, and Chase calls, “Jackie, come on, please. You're so – so numb, dude. Please give us something.”

Jackie's head hangs. He doesn't look at them.

“You don't have to, like, pretend you're okay,” Chase pleads. “But at least promise us your dad isn't hurting you, you know?”

“I'm grown now,” Jackie says, though he doesn't meet their eyes. “He can't push me around anymore. He knows I'd push him back.”

“But why put yourself in that situation?” Henrik presses. “How many hours a day are you spending outside of your home, Jackie, avoiding your own territory? Your father says you avoid the place, but you are avoiding him, right? It's your home.”

“He'll be gone soon.”

“You really believe that? Could you kick him out if he told you he was staying?”

Jackie hovers in place, a hint of uncertainty cutting through his facade. “I need to go.”

“What if your father becomes an Alpha again? Doesn't that change things? Can you get yourself free of him then? The man who was your Alpha before, your father whom you still love, can you tell him no?”

Jackie's won't look up. “I want to go home.”

“But will you? Your father is there. You'll wander tonight instead, won't you? He told us you're not being territorial of your own house, and your skin is dark with sun.”

Chase had guessed that Henrik was probably smart because he was a doctor and all, but now he's thinking Henrik might be, like... smart, smart.

“Jackie,” Henrik murmurs, stepping towards the born wolf who keeps trying to slink away from Chase's porch. “Call your cousin. Go stay with him, listen to him. You're right, and so is Chase – he's your dad, and that makes things hard. But you must get some perspective, yes? He's been cruel to you before.”

“Would you talk to Marvin?” asks Chase. “Please?”

Jackie makes a noise somewhere between a hum and a moan. “I have to leave Marvin out of this.”

“But he wants to support you!” Chase insists.

“No. He's mad at me. I've let him down too many times. I never know how to take care of him, all I ever do is make him yell. Marvin's always angry.”

Chase's heart deflates like a souffle. He doesn't know what to say. Based on the silence beside him, neither does Henrik.

“Thank you for checking on me,” Jackie repeats one more time, soft, that facade of calm coming back over his voice, his face, his smell. “I appreciate it. I'm glad you're together. Look after each other, okay? You seem like great guys. You'll be great wolves, too. I hope you fall in love with this part of yourself. I hope you learn to love to run. You deserve that.”

“No... Jackie, don't go,” Henrik protests, and Chase hears him whine again, a low sound pulled from the back of his throat. “Don't go. I don't want you to get hurt.”

It connects in Chase's brain, then, a realization he thinks he should have had the first time Jackie helped him and Henrik defer to each other and walked Chase home, that very first day they met. The protection. The guidance. It comes so easy to him, so instinctual. He's darting forward before Jackie can leave, grabbing his sleeve without thinking, demanding his attention.

“Jackie,” he says. “You – you've been an Alpha before. Haven't you?”

Jackie stares at him. An ache in his scent. Tired. He looks down at the pavement without a reply.

“Your pack left,” Chase says, and oh, he didn't realize – he didn't realize that that word could mean family until the second Jackie's grief smell rolled over him. “And you blame yourself, right?”

“It was my fault,” whispers Jackie.

Anger rocks against Chase in waves. “It doesn't matter what happened,” he says, not realizing he's almost shouting til the words come out. “I've only met you twice and I already know you'd be a good Alpha. That's what Marvin wants too, right? And you still have the instincts for it, I can tell! You have that pull, even now, enough to make Henrik and I trust you, and you always try to protect us. Why don't you become an Alpha again, for Marvin?”

“Marvin doesn't want me,” whispers Jackie. “He wants an idea of me, a version of me that's not real. He's always seen the best of me, no matter how many times I betray him. No matter how many times I fail him. All I do is make him scream, and then he still turns around and tells me he wants me, but he doesn't!”

Chase steps back with a flinch. “Jackie, that's not – ”

“I can't protect him, can't look after him. I'm a fucking coward. Now I've let Dad back into my life, and Marvin will finally realize I'm fucking hopeless, just like everyone else did, just like my pack did before they left, that I'm weird and broken and damaged and I'm never getting any better. It's an imagined version of me that he loves, and when he wakes up, he's going to look at me with the same disgust everyone else eventually does, the same way you would both look at me if I tried to take care of you, because I'd fail. And then you'd go too.”

The worst part is, Jackie doesn't seem to realize that he's saying something truly horrible about himself as he says it. His scent is heavy with misty grief, but his words come out with all the weight of facts. He really believes it.

It reminds Chase of the day after Stacy left. The house was so silent. The inevitability of his own loneliness tore him in half. That was the day he decided to kill himself.

He's pretty sure Henrik tries to keep talking to Jackie after that – your cousin loves you, he hears for a moment, but he can't really register it, can't take anything else in. Jackie's gone when he gets any awareness back at all, and Henrik is holding his shoulders, calling for him, but Chase feels far away from him. He wants his Alpha, wants his fabric scrap with that stormy smell. He tries to go get it, but Henrik's with him, trying to get him to respond, and he won't let Chase go.

“Hey,” he says. “Let's go lie down, okay? I texted Sean. We did what we could. We can't do anything else for Jackie right now. Let's get some rest.”

Henrik leads him up to his room, getting him into bed and taking his shoes off. Chase manages to grab at his shirt, trying to thank him or reassure him or something, but all Henrik does is shush him and rub his shoulder before leaving the room.

Chase lies down. He's overwhelmed, but the emotion isn't really sadness so much as self-hatred, cold and aching. He hates remembering the feeling of those days. The certainty – the horrible peace the night he decided it was time to go...

The door creaks open. Chase turns his head and his red eyes find Schneep in the doorway again, wearing his own pajamas now, and holding the blankets he's been sleeping in since he came to stay with him.

Henrik comes towards him, ocean salt and lemon washing over him. The doctor leans down and wipes at Chase's tear-dotted face, and this wonderful noise comes out of him, a low rumble like a purr. Chase closes his eyes.

“Alles wird gut,” rumbles Henrik, and Chase doesn't need to know what it means. Henrik smells so warm, so comforting. “Ich bin hier, maus.”

“Scoot,” he adds in English, grinning faintly. Chase blinks. He scoots moves on his bed, making room. Henrik climbs in with him.

And when he draws that blanket over him and settles down beside him, warm, with that familiar scent washing over them, mingling in the sheets – yeah. Okay. Pack instincts.

Chase has them too. So he doesn't question it when his body tells him to turn over, tuck his head against Henrik's shoulder, and let himself sink into the smell of his packmate, washing the rest of the world away.

.

He's barely out of sight of Chase's house when the smell of an unfamiliar wolf catches his attention.

"Hey!" Jackie barks at the bushes. "Why are you hiding back there?"

A pause. No one answers.

"I know there's someone back there." Jackie stalks towards the wolf. "You better not be watching those two. They're not up for grabs. Back off."

Something shuffles in the leaves. Jackie's hackles raise, baring his teeth.

Then a little black wolf jumps out of the bushes and snuffles in his direction, a fluffy tail wagging. His scent is sweet with caramel and a bookish, slightly dusty smell that reminds Jackie of a library.

"Oh," he laughs. "Sorry. They've had some problems with aggressive wolves. Hi, there."

The guy's totally under-sized, and not much more than an adolescent. Jackie steps towards him, reaching out open palms. The stranger sniffs warmly at his hands. Jackie pats his head, scratching behind the big black ears. "You got a pack, huh? I can smell your Alpha on you. Well, go on, then, you ought not be hanging around in this neighborhood so late at night. Fancy places like this, the humans will call the police on you just for being in your wolf form at night. Get home, then, and you tell your Alpha they're not allowed near the pups in that house either. Go on."

The wolf barks at him, wagging his tail warmly at him before turning and bounding away. Jackie grins after him, pleased to meet a young kid exploring.

There's an odd smell that he leaves behind, though, one that's not his. Spring water and chemicals alike, and a waft of electricity like a storm on the air.

#tw mentions of child abuse #tw suicidality mention #hopefully this isn't too rushed #i am going to see my friends this weekend so i am scheduling this to post! i will be back soon! #bee writes #werewolf au

[my-brothers-corrupted]

Who's the text from, doc? Anything important? You're not trying to be a mystery man too, right?

Henrik scoffs, getting a little red in the face. "No... I'm not mystery man."

Marvin just looks at him from the bed, amused.

"What?" snaps Henrik.

"Nothing."

"It's just my friends from Peru."

"Good," says Marvin calmly. "It's great that you stay in touch with them. Why you acting weird, though?"

"I was going to tell him," says Henrik. "I tried this morning."

Marvin looks at him, tilting his head. Henrik sighs roughly.

"I should tell you, too."

"Tell me, darling," says Marvin.

"Don't tell Chase yet."

"Okay."

"You know how we were on that mountain in Peru? And they always needed medical help there in the slums? I'd get called out for things like broken bones and childbirths and stitches. And I could help a little even with just a few supplies and a little know-how."

"I do remember."

"Well, the magicians in Peru - they've been setting aside some money to buy those kind of supplies. And they have space for me in their home, the convent where I was staying with them when I got away from Anti. They want me to come do some volunteer work for them up there in the mountains."

"What?" Marvin sits up straight, beaming. "Henrik, that's amazing! You should definitely do that!"

"It would be for six months," says Henrik miserably.

Marvin shakes his head rapidly. "No, no, don't worry about that. It would be so good for you and so good for the community out there. And they'll pay for you to come? Henrik, you have to do this."

"I think I would like to," he says in a small voice. "I just worry about - "

"You don't have to worry about Chase, Schneep."

"No, but it's not that simple," he returns, voice harsh for a moment. "Because that's my twin, no matter if Anti was the one who said so, and we have not been separated in a long time. Do you remember how hard it was for us to sleep when we started forcing ourselves to sleep apart? It's still hard sometimes! I want him to come as my nurse, but it would mean he would have to give up his job out here."

Marvin sets his head on Henrik's shoulder, sighing. "Honey... I love that you work in research, now, with your consulting job, but you spend so much time in the house, and you haven't even tried working directly with patients again. Even when we get hurt, Chase stitches us up."

Henrik's stony-faced beside him. "You think I can't handle it."

"No, Schneep, what I'm saying is that, if this is a chance for you to go try that again - to maybe get that part of yourself back in a place where you feel safe... it could be really good for you. And I know how much the Ravens still want to see you."

Schneep stares out the window. "Yeah," he says, in a small, sad voice that doesn't really match his usual self.

[twinantithesis]

An egomaniac and eternal smartass, I give you...

Heinrich von Schneeplestein!

Backstory & fun facts below the cut!

Heinrich is 38, 5′3, and a trans pansexual man!

Heinrich was born peacefully, unlike his brothers, as ‘Henrik’. Jack planned his entire life and existence from baby to his Henrik von Schneeplestein. He was a perfected Creation and, oh boy, does he know it. He was born right in front of Jack and immediately covered in blankets so he could come to terms with his backstory. The first words he spoke was an awkward, accented: “Someone get me coffee with whiskey or I kill everyone in this room.”

Henrik remembers an uneventful, spoiled life as the son of a rich single father in Germany. He remembers an easy, fully paid for FtM transition after only asking twice. He remembers medical school and a rowdy group of troublemakers as his college companions. He remembers Miranda, a Dutch exchange student, who he fell wildy, loudly in love with. He remembers the attractive tennis instructor that made him realise he loved men. He remembers Miranda sleeping with that instructor in revenge when she found out. He ripped apart everything from college while drunk the next day. He dropped contact with everyone, moved to Britain, and began using his three years of medical school to treat criminals and underground magicians. Occasionally, while living with the others, strange, shady people started showing up begging for Henrik. Well, actually... They asked for ‘Heinrich.’

Heinrich, as it turns out his actual name is, is an egomaniac at his core. He is, to himself, alway the smartest, hottest, coolest, funniest person in the room. When working in the hospital, his methods are very similar to Dr. House from House M.D. Heinrich is convinced he knows best, and to the chagrin of his colleagues, Heinrich is smart enough that he’s usually right. Heinrich isn’t self aware of it, but he shows a large amount of ADHD symptoms, with a tendency to hyperfixate on patient’s cases until they’re healed or dead. 

Jack loves Heinrich, and finds his egotistical behaviour charming and hilarious. They’re fond of each other and definitely friends, but they don’t spend much time together due to not sharing many interests. 

Jackie and Heinrich are BEST FRIENDS! They adore and feed off each other’s personalities greatly. Heinrich is confident enough to rub off on Jackie even in his most self-loathing moments. Jackie is kind and loving in a way that validates and assures Heinrich emotionally. They love just going for walks and talking, doing chores together, just plain being side by side. Heinrich buys Jackie his favourite foods and always patches him up after his escapades out on the street. 

Marvin is not fond of Heinrich when he’s first born. Why does Heinrich get to be perfect and loved by everyone? Why should he get to steal Jackie’s love? After months and months of bickering and hatred, Jackie blew up at Marvin in a shouting match worthy of a noise complaint. After this, Marvin began to apologise with actions, not words, and they slowly became more friendly and teasing in their bickering. 

Heinrich and Chase are very much the typical big & little brother! Heinrich does have shame and anger about the doctors not letting him help with Chase’s surgery and recovery after his attempt. Heinrich makes up for this by patching up every wound, sitting with him through every single breakdown, teasing and loving on Chase every chance he has. 

Heinrich does become good friends with Body/Jameson as he heals, but you will have to wait and see the story. ;-)

Heinrich is very proud of his trans identity and goes to pride every chance he gets. At work though, he’s closeted and tries to keep it just within his family.

Everyone close to Heinrich calls him Schneep! In fact it’s bizarre and usually a sign of danger if his brothers say his actual name. 

Heinrich always keeps his hair shaved-short and long on top. It’s his BRAND and if his hair is not neat, something is distressing him. 

Heinrich is fluent in German, English, and Mandarin!

#henrik von schneeplestein #jacksepticeye #jacksepticeye fanart #septicart #jacksepticeye egos #jacksepticeye fanfic #jse egos #jse henrik #my art

[septic-dr-schneep]

Schneep: I've only slept nine hours in the past four days and am on the verge of a mental breakdown.

Schneep: [bites into his cellphone]

Schneep:

Schneep: This is not a bagel.

#jacksepticeye #dr schneeplestein #quotes #sleep deprivation #give schneep the sleep

[ask-egos-incorporated]

I'd kidnap Henrick and put him in a place where he could finally get a proper good night's rest for once.

“Hmh, I suppose I could cooperate with that.”

#youtube #jacksepticeye #dr schneeplestein #hvs answers #sleep deprivation #give schneep the sleep #answered ask #superduperinsomniac

[franklyshipping]

One bed trope but with the septics

They all fight but not for who gets to sleep on the bed. No, they fight over who is the single one who sleeps on the floor.

First it was chase, claiming he's used to sleeping on a couch or floor

Then it was jackie, cause chase deserves to sleep on the bed and will make the heroic sacrifice

Then it was Shawn, he sees the egos as his family and wants all of them to be comfortable, including the hero.

Then it was schneep, because posture is important for sleep and the mattress is perfect for all of them, his back is already too fucked up for the bed to fix

Then Jameson and Robbie offered but were immediately turned down.

Marvin attempts to create a spell to make a spare bed appear, and it did! But solely cause anti may or may not have possessed the service line and the hotel's technology into making the service give them another room (scaring away other hotel neighbors)

Anti normally would have done nothing, finding their "noble" sacrifices hilarious, but eventually grew frustrated cause he couldn't sleepncause they were still arguing and now that he has a physical body, he has needs

I'M SCREAMING THIS IS AMAZING AAAWWW 😆💜

[n-anon]

Desperation

Description:  ... .- ...- . / .... .. --

(TW: for body possession)

"One day. This will all be mine." He promised.

Jack wanted to scream. To move his head or hands, to tell at Chase and Schneep that they shouldn't trust him at all right now. But the body remained still, a plastered grin held in place.

A҉ ̧u̵sèl̶e͜ss ҉p͡u̵p̵p̕et҉ ̕t̷ol̵d tǫ ̧s̛t͞ay̧

Chase chatted on and on about seeing his kids, unable to hear the mans cries for help, for his friend to wake up, to realize that he wasn’t talking to him-

S̕i͜mple͞ton.

Jack snapped at the voice in his head, that wasn't true-he wasn't going to let him talk like that-but a flash of a grin and a tilt of the head cut off his cries inside his own head. "And who's going to stop me, Jackaboy?~. Your so-called friends are blind. They can't hear you. All they can see and hear is me. Just like all the other puppets behind the screen. Soon enough you'll give up, and stay quiet. And the only one who will matter is me."

He feels the knife edge point at his throat in his mindscape, as the distorted voice purred into his ear. "I hope you're prepared for that help to never arrive. After all it's not too hard to get rid of the competition, don't you think?~. I'll shun them from the camera life, a ruse to stay safe, shame they couldn't use that attention to beat Anti. Oh but Jack? He's just fine. The audience? Cheering. For me. Every eye and every breath waiting for what we'll do next, Jack. It'll be exhilarating."

J̧u͘st a͏s̕ ͢i̴t͢'s̡ ̸ál̷w̡ay̕s ̀b̛e̸en ̨me͞a͠nt t͝o ́bè.

Someone please help me!

(A/N: Oh hey, remember me? Yeah I write sometimes lol. This hit me with the inspiration at 11:04 last night when i was trying to sleep-So that’s fun. Please enjoy and if you want to be added to the tag list, lemme know!. Also Reblogs are appreciated more then likes, thank you!)

Tag List: @caithesavage777 @vwoop-prince @roesavalonsigma @synder-sync @segernatural @antis-gauge @randowaffle @pyranoia @a-bnana @heely-brooklyn3 @innocent-angel3 @therealtiger77

#antisepticeye #jacksepticeye #chase brody #N writes #jse egos #writers for jack

[youvereachedthebadend]

Do you have cleaning supplies here or will you have to get new ones?

“Well, I definitely had them,” Marvin says. “They should be beneath the sinks in the kitchen and bathrooms. And there’s a mop and broom in the upstairs closet. But… do cleaning supplies expire?”

“I don’t see why they would,” Jackie says.

“Hand sanitizer will expire after three years,” Henrik says.

“Oh.” Jackie blinks. “Well. The more you know. I guess other cleaning products can expire too, then.”

“You can still use one’s past their shelf life, they just won’t be as effective,” Stacy says.

“So… we gonna clean first, then?” Anti asks. “Cause it’s almost time for Jack and I to switch and he wants to know the plan so he can jump straight into stuff.”

“Let’s sort out the room situation, then clean,” Chase suggests.

“Yeah.” Marvin nods. “You guys and the kids can put your stuff in the guest bedroom upstairs.”

“Got it. Cmon Ry, Lilah.” Chase starts up the stairs, carrying most of the family’s stuff. Stacy sighs and goes after him to help. The kids hang back, giving the grown-ups space.

“As for the rest of us, does anyone have any particular preference?” Marvin asks, glancing around.

“We can take the living room,” Anti says. “Between me and Jack our body doesn’t sleep, and he points out that we don’t want to disturb anyone.”

“Alright. What about you guys?” Marvin looks at Schneep, JJ, and Jackie. “One of you can stay in my room with me. But uh… the other two are uh… on your own.”

#jacksepticeye #jacksepticeye au #jacksepticegos #septic egos #septic egos au #marvanswers #jackanswers #schneepanswers #stacyanswers #chaseanswers #antianswers #lastoneanswers #the-earnest-system

[immabethehero]

Marvin’s MegaBirthday Story

Guess who made a Megamind AU with Marvin as the title character?

Here’s a quick list of characters so you won’t get confused about who’s who:

Marvin, The Malevolent Magician - Megamind

Dr. Schneeplestein, the Doctor - Minion, but human

The Brighton Shepherd - Metro Man

Jackieboy Man, the Red Marauder - Sidekick to the Shepherd, original role of sorts

Chase Brody, news reporter - Roxanne Ritchi

Anthony/Anti - Hal Stewart, without the creepy simping

CW: Police brutality, hints of starvation, strangulation and mentions of electrocution

It was a glorious day in Brighton City. Even the weather seemed aware of it as the sun shone down brightly on the silver skyscrapers and the brand new museum built into the city square.

 To celebrate the city’s greatest superhero, the grand, new museum had been dedicated to the city’s greatest hero: The Brighton Shepherd. In between the two buildings was a giant curtain, hiding a 55 foot statue for the superhero.

Reporters came to the site as early as 6 am before the crowds could roll in. Among them was the up-and-coming journalist, Chase Brody, who ran the news vlog: “Just Your Average Report”. Wearing a brand new grey and white suit to honour the Shepherd’s signature colour, Chase did vocal warm-ups while his cameraman, Anthony, set up the equipment. Unlike Chase, who had dressed handsomely for the occasion, Anthony simply wore a graphic t-shirt and a fishing vest with blue jeans. Chase tried not to let that get to him. In all the fifteen months he’d known Anthony, Chase had never seen the man wear anything other than graphic tees and the fishing vest. Today obviously wasn’t much different to Anthony.

“We’re on!” Anthony said. Chase held up his microphone in time for the camera light to turn red; he exclaimed, “Happy Brighton Shepherd Day, Brighton City! It’s a beautiful day in our  beautiful downtown, where we’re here to honour a beautiful man: The Brighton Shepherd. His heart is as big as an ocean that’s inside a bigger ocean. For years, he’s been watching us with his super-vision, saving us with his super strength, and caring for us with his super heart. Now, it’s our turn to give something back! This is Chase Brody, reporting live from the dedication of the Brighton Shepherd Museum.”

Chase signaled to Anthony, who snorted as he turned the camera off.

“Damn, the stuff the producers make you read nowadays is incredibly cheesy. Have you considered writing your own stuff?”

“I have. That was one of my pieces,” Chase said with a grin. He reveled in Anthony’s look of horror.

“I mean… I can’t believe that in our modern day society, they let… actual art get onto the news,” Anthony stammered out.

“Nice save, Anthony.”

“Cool. Can we go get a coffee now?”

“Come on, it’s time to get into the Brighton Shepherd Day spirit!” Chase said, nudging his coworker.

Anthony rolled his eyes. “Please. If the Brighton Shepherd really was all that great, he’d be able to properly protect you from the Malevolent and his crazy Doctor. For someone who gets kidnapped and rescued all the time, you sure don’t have good security.”

Chase sighed. This debate again. “I mean, it’s good for my channel! I get to film bits and pieces of the Malevolent’s laboratory! Great publicity.”

“You take too many chances with that man, I swear. What happens if the Malevolent snaps and gets violent with you? The Shepherd and his sidekick won’t be there to protect you. You could die, Chase.”

“The Malevolent won’t hurt me. If he truly wanted to, he would have done so the first time he kidnapped me,” Chase snapped. “If anything, he just wants me for more publicity. I am a popular news source.”

“Yeah? Well, they don’t always strike at first sight, Lois Lane. The dude might be waiting for the perfect moment to torture you,” Anthony continued. “I mean, even if he doesn’t invent the machines, his sidekick is smart enough to make them! I swear that man has seen some stuff and wants to inflict it on the city.”

“The Malevolent and Doctor never want to torture. Their machines may look scary at first, but they’re useless. They only want to scare.”

Anthony began loading up the truck. “You’re too trusting.The Malevolent Magician has the power to mutilate and kill in ways your “friendship-is-magic” brain could never comprehend. The Doctor is no better. They’re both just waiting to strike. Once they do, the Shepherd’s presence won’t feel so reassuring, hm?”

Anthony had his back turned long enough for Chase to feel a cold presence beside him. The smell of gas flooded his senses. The reporter turned to hear a window roll down, though he didn’t see a car. Odd.

Instead a white plague doctor mask glared back at him. Chase groaned. Here he thought he might be able to avoid being kidnapped and used as leverage by the Malevolent Magician. Apparently not! The Malevolent’s sidekick, simply known as the Doctor, was here to claim his damsel in distress. 

The Doctor raised a spray bottle and squirted it directly in Chase’s face. Chase barely had time to scream as a sudden drowsiness overtook him and the whole world went dark.

*

Step one was complete. The annoying vlogger was in the back of the van. With that accomplished, it was time to pick up the villain. Dr. Henrik von Schneeplestein, known to the city as the sidekick to the Malevolent Magician, drove through the busy town square and out of the main city.

The prison where the Malevolent lay was outside of town in a secluded location, or rather, in the middle of the highway leading into the city. Despite its odd location, the security was incredible. 200 security officers patrolled the site, with at least three officers supervising a special room under intense lock and key. The Malevolent himself was usually locked in large chains that only unlocked at certain times, or if Mal had behaved himself for a certain amount of time.

Schneep arrived to see the prison in chaos. Sirens blared loud enough to burst a person’s eardrums while police ran into the grey building, yelling to each other and pulling out their guns.

Amid all the chaos stood a man with a thick white moustache, standing in front of the large electrical gates, The man held up his wrist enough for Schneep to spy a silver watch on his wrist and sighed in relief. The watch had worked.

“Well, hello, good looking. Need a ride?” Schneep said, opening the door.

“Always, my dear doctor!” the man said as he hopped in. He slammed the door closed as Schneep slammed his foot on the gas and flew off.

The man twisted the watch’s case and transformed back into Malevolent. The supervillain turned to Schneep with an evil grin. “Nice job sending me the watch, Doctor! Let’s ride!”

“As you wish, my Wickedness!” Schneep yelled.

The maltreatment Mal received from the prison was not lost on the doctor. His sharp cheekbones were grimy and more pronounced, and his wrists were almost skeletal. Dark shadows hung below his eyes, and it was not from eyeliner. Schneep held back a sad sigh. Thank goodness he left a snack for Mal when they returned to the evil lair. That part could be solved.

*

Back at Brighton City Square, the show was ready to begin. As city officials made their speeches, two superheroes waited behind a painted brick wall to make an entrance.

The illustrious Brighton Shepherd fixed his mask and combed his dark brown hair back. Beside him was his sidekick: the Red Marauder, clad in red, green, and blue leather. Marauder kept peeking behind the wall.

“Malevolent is safe behind bars as of right now, you can relax, Jackie,” Shepherd said, rubbing his protégé’s back.

“I can’t find Chase!” Marauder whispered back. “I’ve scanned the crowds three times and there’s no sign of his face.”

“Perhaps he’s stuck in traffic?” Shepherd said, smoothing out the creases in Marauder’s blue cape. His sidekick really needed to learn how to take care of himself.

“He would have sent me a text if that had happened,” Marauder said with a sigh.

“Went for a cup of coffee with Anthony?”

Marauder turned to the crowd. “Anthony is currently eating a donut by one of the food vendors. I think Malevolent and the Doctor kidnapped Chase again!” His eyes filled with tears.

The Shepherd sighed and put a hand on Marauder’s shoulder. “Okay, when the mayor does her speech, we’ll do a quick speedrun through town. He can’t be far. Don’t worry, we’ll get him back.”

Marauder nodded, blinking back tears. No time to cry when there’s a battle.

“Shepherd? It’s time,” an employee whispered. The Brighton Shepherd cracked his neck.

“Show time, baby.” He punched the painted brick wall concealing him, creating a perfect hole. “Alright, put your hands in the air!” he yelled to the crowd.

*

The lair lit up as the car entered and parked in its appointed place. Marvin threw the door open and breathed in the familiar smell of the evil, abandoned, Monster Munch snack factory. A long time ago, it smelled of moldy cheese puffs and rat manure, but now it smelled of malevolence, metal, and a whole lot of cologne.

No matter how many times he arrived, the sweet scent always relaxed the supervillain after a hard day in jail or fighting the Shepherd. “Oh Doc, there’s no place like our evil lair!”

“I’ve kept it cold and damp, just the way you like it!” Schneep said, hauling the sleeping Chase out of the car.

A swarm of tiny robots flew over to Marvin, their engines whirring with delight. The model was a small purple circle with four robotic legs that could grip and lift up to 1,000 pounds. Of course, each had cat ears attached to the sides of their heads and a cat tail at the back. The CATs,  Marvin had fondly called them. Their singular glowing yellow eyes in the center of their body looked up at their darling master.

“The CATs have certainly missed you, sir!” Schneep exclaimed.

Marvin bent down to caress their smooth heads. “Did you miss your daddy? Who’s a menacing little android? You are, yes, you are!”

One CAT held up a ball of twine. Marvin grabbed it and tossed it across the lair, the CATs trailing after it.

Two older models of the CATs held up a curtain while two others held up Marvin’s new suit. Marvin gratefully ripped off the ugly bluish-grey prison rags and changed into his white button-up, black dress pants, and sparkly purple vest. A CAT draped his famous black cloak with magenta lining around his shoulders while another handed him his beautiful cat mask with the magician’s card designs drawn on. He happily donned the mask with pride and stepped out.

“How do I look, Doctor? Do I look evil?” Marvin asked, spinning.

“Horrifyingly striking, sir,” Schneep said. He opened a small gate to an elevator platform, “Shall we?”

At the top, Schneep set Chase down on a chair while Marvin checked all the monitors and buttons.

“Everything ready?”

“Of course! I would never leave anything unchecked before a big event!” Schneep said. Beside the doctor, Chase began to stir, grunting and yelling muffled by the bag.

“He’s awake! Quick everyone, places!” Marvin ordered. He jumped onto his chair and motioned a small CAT to lie down in his lap while he fixed his hair once more.

Schneep ripped the bag off of Chase’s head as Marvin twirled his chair around, menacingly stroking the CAT. “Mr. Brody, we meet again.”

“Would it kill you to wash the bag?” Chase complained, “it fucking stinks and the spray bottle is no better!”

“You can scream all you want, Brody, I’m afraid no one can hear you!” Malevolent announced. Chase remained stone-faced.

Marvin frowned. “Why isn’t he screaming?”

Schneep sighed exasperatedly and bent down next to Chase, “Mr. Brody, if you don’t mind-”

“Screaming sounds a lot like this: aaaahhhhh!” Malevolent demonstrated. “I mean, that’s a poor example but-”

The CAT sitting on his lap bit his hand. Malevolent emitted a high-pitched shriek as he tried to shake the little robot off.

“Not to sound like a sadist but it’s more fun when you do it,” Chase deadpanned.

“Very funny,” the Doctor snapped. “You’ll be singing a different tune when the Brighton Shepherd is defeated right before your eyes!”

Ignoring both of them, Chase decided to examine the observatory, the usual spot for Malevolent and Shepherd’s battles. Most of it was the usual, a long control booth circling the room, full of buttons and levers that would release death traps, lasers, and other lame inventions. Above the panel were monitors of different sizes. On one side of the elevator was a broken vending machine where Doctor grabbed his sleeping spray, while on the other side was a strange metal sphere with axes and spikes sticking out of it (Chase asked and even Malevolent had no idea what it was).

“Speaking of watching, do you have your camera set up?” Malevolent asked, finally yanking off the biting CAT.

“Yup! It’s in the pin this time! Anthony helped me set it up!” Chase puffed his chest out to show it off.

Malevolent ran a hand through his thick black hair and twirled around, letting his cape fly in the wind.

“So guys, what’s on the menu for today? Robosheep? Typhoon cheese? A big ball of aluminum that will roll around town?” Chase asked.

Behind his plague doctor mask, Schneeplestein grinned. It was his time to shine! “Actually, we created a cool ray that uses the sun to make explosive lasers, wanna see?!” He excitedly rushed over to the main control booth and began typing in the passcode to turn it on.

Marvin yelped and pulled Schneep away from the booth, “Easy there, Doc, we’ll show it in time!”

“Brody wanted to see it!” Schneep protested. “It’s not like it would hurt, would it?”

“Think, Doctor! He’s using his nosy reporter skills to find out all our secrets!” Malevolent accused, snarling at Chase.

Chase rolled his eyes, chuckling. These two could be quite entertaining. “What secrets?! You’re so predictable!”

“Oh, that’s the insult for today?! Tell me, my dear Brody, would you call this predictable?” Marvin pulled down a lever and the floor around Chase opened up.

“Your alligators, yes!” Chase nodded in greeting to the snapping reptiles. “Yeah, I was just thinking about these guys on the way over!”

Truth be told, Chase was dreaming of riding a large parrot to Disney World while in the car. But Malevolent didn’t need to know that.

Marvin turned back to the panel. How dare Chase see through his armour?! He quickly slammed a button. “What about this?”

A sharp razor painted blood red danced in Chase’s face. “That’s kind of tacky.”

Marvin punched another button and a junky invention of multiple chainsaws attached to the ceiling lowered down. The chainsaws had gotten their chains stuck to each other and could barely move. Chase pretended to contemplate it. “Mm, juvenile.”

Marvin pulled another lever. “What about this?!”

A giant fart gun shot green gas out. Chase gagged. “Gross and immature!”

“What’s this one do?!” A weak fire machine coughed out small bits of fire.

“That’s just sad,” Chase said. He looked up and nearly jumped out of his seat. A small spider floated downwards. “Is the spider new?”

Marvin turned to Schneeplestein, who merely shrugged. When this was all over, Marvin was going to give him a stern talking to about bug extermination in the lair.

“Ah yes, the spe-dair-a,” Marvin whispered as he advanced closer to Chase. “Even the smallest bite from Arachnis Deathicus will instantly paralyze-”

Chase blew the spider onto Marvin’s cheek, causing him to scream again. Schneep punched him hard enough to knock him over.

“GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!!!! IT BIT MEEEEE!!!” Marvin screamed as Schneep continually smacked him with a newspaper. The spider fell off of Marvin’s cheek and began advancing to the control panel.

“STOP IT BEFORE IT DISAPPEARS!” Marvin howled as he crawled away from the disgusting creature.

After five minutes of Marvin’s dramatic wails and crawling and Schneep swearing like a sailor, Chase finally put an end to the spider’s life by stomping on it when it got close enough.

Marvin crawled over to Chase and grovelled at his bound feet. “Thank you, you are a lifesaver!” He suddenly spied the pin. “Is that still on?”

Chase smiled smugly, “I’ll burn the evidence if you let me go and we’ll never speak of it again.”

Marvin stood up, scowling, “Absolutely not! We haven’t even gotten to the fun part! Let’s pay your boyfriend and godfather a visit, shall we?”

*

Back at the town square, the mayor had finished up her rather short speech, “It is with great pleasure that I present Brighton Shepherd to his new museum! When you’re ready!”

Shepherd’s laser eyes cut the rope and the great curtains fell, revealing the giant statue of the superhero. A brass band played loudly over the sound of a cheering crowd.

Jackie applauded happily for his mentor, but couldn’t help but feel slightly jealous. In all fairness, the Shepherd had been around longer than he had, and he was still familiarizing himself with the city.

A sudden chill running up his arms woke Jackie from his thoughts. He looked up and gasped. Dark clouds quickly enveloped the museum. People shrieked in terror as a big, black blimp hovered above the great building, rolling down two large projection screens underneath. Once positioned on each side of the magnificent statue, a small circular robot holding a camera turned the screens on, showing the face of the one to blame for the chaos: the Malevolent.

The Brighton Shepherd and the Red Marauder flew up, Shepherd holding up a microphone.

“If it isn’t the Malevolent!”

“Bravo, Brighton Shepherd! Congratulations on your new museum!” Malevolent drawled, clapping slowly.

The crowd began to boo loudly. Malevolent blew a raspberry at the crowd, “So immature!” he scoffed.

“Should have known you’d try and crash the party!” Shepherd said.

“Oh, I intend to do more than crash it! This will be a historic day you, and Brighton City, will not soon forget!”

“We all know how this ends!” Shepherd said. “With you behind bars!”

“Ooh, I tremble in my kitten-skinned cape,” Malevolent hissed, playfully wrapping himself up in his cape. The cape was actually made from cotton, but the city didn’t need to know that.

“What do you want with us, Mal?” Shepherd demanded.

“First off, don’t call me ‘Mal’,” Malevolent snapped. “Secondly, if you and your tomato sidekick don’t leave town in an hour, then this will be the last you ever hear of Chase Brody!” Malevolent punched a button and the left screen presented the kidnapped Chase tied to a chair.

“I knew it!” Jackie muttered behind his mask.

“Don’t panic Chase! We’re on our way!” Shepherd cried out, earning a cheer from the crowd.

“I’m not panicking!” Chase responded, smiling.

Malevolent pretended to gag. “Oh, please. You have to find us first before you save Chase.”

“We’re at the abandoned observatory!” Chase quickly called out.

Malevolent suddenly turned off Chase’s camera, yelping, “WAIT DON’T TO LISTEN TO HIM-”

It was too late. Shepherd and Marauder were already flying above the dark grey smoke. Shepherd quickly spotted the broken down space observatory near the dangerous part of Brighton City beach and pointed it to Marauder. The two began their flight.

Back at the lair, Schneep watched the superheroes from his monitor. “Shepherd and Marauder approaching, sir!”

Marvin turned to Chase, who shot him a smug grin. Marvin only smiled in return.

“Like we said, you’ll be singing a different tune when you see what we have planned!”

The Shepherd would almost be here. Chase closed his eyes and ducked his head for the inevitable ceiling crash.

Shepherd and Marauder flew through the opening of the observatory and landed. Or rather, Shepherd landed gracefully on his feet while Marauder tripped and fell over. Behind them, the heavy doors slid shut.

Shepherd looked around. The place was quiet and eerily empty. No sound of any cat-bots. No evil laughter from the Malevolent.

“Something’s wrong…” Shepherd muttered. He turned to the doors. Were they locked in?! He ran over to check.

Puzzled, Chase looked up. Where were they?

Malevolent reveled in Brody’s confused expression. He fiddled with the control panel, opening up one of the walls.

“You didn’t think we were in the real observatory… did you?!”

Chase could stare in horror as he spotted the real observatory. He couldn’t believe it. He had led the two superheroes right into a trap.

Malevolent laughed triumphantly. “Ready the Death Ray, Doctor!”

Doctor typed in the passcode and pulled the lever down. “Death Ray ready-ing!”

In the real abandoned observatory, Shepherd and Marauder desperately tried to get the doors open.

“I can’t believe Malevolent actually tricked us! How did he seal the doors?!” Marauder moaned.

“Don’t worry Red, we’ll find a way out,” Shepherd said, smiling.

“Over here, boys,” a voice like ice called out. The superheroes turned to see a large projection of Malevolent smiling down on them.

“In case you haven’t noticed, you’ve fallen right into my trap!” Malevolent boasted.

The Shepherd motioned Marauder to find an escape before turning to Malevolent. “You can’t trap justice! It’s an idea! A belief!”

“Well sometimes the most heartfelt belief can be corroded over time!” Malevolent responded.

“Justice is a non-corrosive metal!”

“Then I will just melt it with the heat of revenge!”

“FYI, revenge is best served cold!” Shepherd corrected him. From the side, Marauder shook his head. As much as he respected his mentor and feared Malevolent, their “witty back-and-forth banter” was lame.

“It can easily be reheated in the microwave of evil! Don’t doubt me!” Malevolent snarled.

“Well I think your warranty is about to expire!” Shepherd declared.

“Fuck you, I have an extended warranty!” Malevolent retaliated.

“Language, my dear sir! And warranties are invalid if you don’t use the product for its intended purpose!” Shepherd roared.

“OH! Girls, girls, you’re both pretty!” Chase yelled from his seat. He turned to Malevolent, exasperated, “My whole body is sore. Can I just go home now?!”

Malevolent turned around to throw an empty can of Cola at Chase. It bonked off the side of his head.

“You’ll just have to wait, dear Brody! Your beloved superheroes first must prove if they can escape the inevitable power of the sun! Fire!”

Marauder conjured a shield for himself and Shepherd. When the Shepherd made no move to protect himself, Marauder realized nothing was coming. What happened?

Meanwhile, Marvin approached Schneep and the machine. Schneep learned against the panel, snoring softly. Marvin poked him, “Doctor, wake up!”

Schneep startled, “Oh! Sorry!” He turned to the machine, “The machine is still warming up. I expect we have a few more minutes before it fires.”

Marvin’s face turned as red as Marauder’s suit. “Warming up?! The sun is warming up?!”

Chase started laughing, “The sore arms and legs are definitely worth this riot. Just you wait, the Shepherd and Marauder will be on you in min-”

Malevolent tossed another empty can at Chase. Chase immediately shut up. “That’s better.”

“Don’t worry Chase, we’re on our way!” Marauder yelled from the monitor.

Malevolent stomped over to the camera, “Get here faster, I’m this close to throwing his stupid ass off the balcony!”

This caused Marauder to flip. “Hang in there Chase, I’m coming!” He rocketed up to fly out, only to crash into the ceiling and fall back down unceremoniously.

“Marauder, we’ve talked about this! You need to think before you do anything!” Shepherd lightly scolded. “Now, what do we have that can create a hole in the wall?”

“This whole day is a mess…” Doctor muttered from his spot at the panel.

“I’m sorry, whose side are you on?!” Malevolent demanded.

“The losing side!” Chase interjected.

“Everybody shut up,” Malevolent ordered. He sighed, rubbing his temples. “You know what? I need to take a nap. Call me when the ray is ready!”

“The ray is ready!” Doctor announced. In seconds a bright beam of yellow flew down, destroying the observatory in seconds. Fire and burning metal fell out of the demolished observatory, some of it flying directly towards the lair.

Malevolent quickly waved his hands in a circular motion, muttering. A shimmering purple bubble wrapped around Doctor and Chase. As debris rained down, Malevolent deflected them with bursts of purple fireworks. Chase watched in amazement, gaping.

“I keep forgetting he can do magic...” Chase muttered. “He uses so much technology instead.”

Doctor laughed, “Well, he’s not called the Magician for nothing.”

When the commotion calmed down and the debris stopped coming, Marvin twirled around, blowing a stray hair out his eye. The bright glow of the burning observatory behind the magician outlined his epic form. “Did your camera get that, Brody?”

Two more pieces of falling debris gracelessly smashed into Marvin. Chase happily squealed upon seeing the dusty forms of the Brighton Shepherd and the Red Marauder.

“I… should have seen that coming,” Marvin squeaked. “How did you escape so fast?”

“Laser eyes are a wonderful thing!” Marauder answered, giving Marvin a playful wink as he stood up. Marvin stuck his tongue out.

“The gig is up, Mal. We’re taking you back to jail, where you belong!” Shepherd declared. Marvin sighed and slammed his head down on the floor. Naturally, he lost. Again.

Schneep’s distressed cries snapped Marvin back to attention. He turned to his head to see Marauder on top of a struggling Schneep. Schneep’s whimpers and half-sobs were lost on Marauder, who continued tying his wrists behind him.

“Might as well send the Malevolent’s accomplice to jail as well! That way he won’t escape again!” the sidekick reasoned.

Something in Marvin snapped. “NO!” he screamed, startling the Shepherd. With his nemesis off his back, Marvin set his eyes on Brody and magically put the reporter in a choke hold.

Chase gasped raggedly as the air left his lungs.

Marvin whirled around to face Marauder, growling, “Let the doctor go!”

“Get your hands off Chase!” Marauder yelped, staring helplessly at his struggling brother.

“First, free the doctor!” Marvin shouted. He tightened his grip on Chase, lifting him out of the chair.

“Put Chase down!” Marauder roared, eyes glowing red.

Chase wheezed pathetically, black spots darting in his vision. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t breathe. He let out a strangled sob, tears falling. In all his time with Malevolent… he had never felt so scared.

Jackie’s eyes lost their glow and he loosened his grip on the Doctor. Underneath him, the Doctor moaned in pain.

“Let him go, Red.” Jackie turned to Shepherd in shock. The usually optimistic and brightly-smiling superhero had a grim expression on his face. Jackie spluttered.

“B- but- The Doctor will just free the Malevolent again! We could stop them both once and for all-”

“You heard me. Let him go,” Shepherd ordered. Reluctantly, Jackie stood up and backed away from the Doctor. The shaking man took no time running to the stairs and quickly disappearing.

Marvin waited until Schneep’s footsteps faded away before releasing Chase, gently laying him down. Chase gulped in tearful breaths, his body trembling. Marauder rushed over to free Chase while Shepherd tied the magician’s hands behind him.

The minute his hands were free, Chase threw his arms around Jackie. Jackie gently hugged him.

“Are you okay?” Jackie whispered. Chase nodded, still gasping.

“I’ll take Malevolent to jail,” the Shepherd said. “You get Chase to a hospital!” He took off, Malevolent dangling in his arms. The magician waved goodbye as he and the Shepherd disappeared into the city.

Jackie picked up Chase bridal style and started flying as well.

He kept the flight light and steady to keep Chase from getting sick. Chase buried his head in Jackie’s shoulder for most of the trip, eyes squeezed shut. He hated heights.

As they arrived at the hospital, a medical team waited outside to take Chase in. After the first few kidnappings, a special team offered to dedicate themselves to healing Chase in case he needed it.

“Ja-Jackie?” Chase stuttered. Jackie looked down at his almost unconscious friend.

“Ma-Make sure th-this doesn’t reach An-Anthony, oh-ok?” Chase begged between gasps.

Jackie nodded, confused. “Alright… I won’t tell him.”

*

The cell stunk. No one here ever bothered to put an air freshener in his jail cell, despite Marvin’s numerous polite requests to have it put in. According to the security guards, the Malevolent “could use it as a weapon” or a “gas bomb”. Please.

Marvin sighed as best as he could. As if to enact revenge for strangling Chase, the security staff had clamped an even smaller chain around his neck, making it hard to breathe. Or move. Or do anything. The rest of his body wasn’t much better, with a larger chain wrapped around his waist and movement sensory chains bruising his wrists. If he tried using any magic, the chains on his wrist would shock him. After today, electrocution was the last thing Marvin needed.

Marvin looked up to check the premises. After checking to make sure the guards were gone, Marvin snapped his fingers, careful not to move his wrists too much. Immediately, the chains loosened, allowing Marvin to take a shuddering gasp. He knew the minute he heard the guards coming to check on him, he had to tighten them again, so he took advantage of the situation.

At least the Doctor was free. He wasn’t being made to sit in a stinky, small cell, wrapped in large chains that threatened to strangle him at any moment. He was free to relax after a hard day, planning for the next breakout. For now, Schneep could rest.

Marvin leaned back against his chair, closing his eyes. Schneeplestein would help him escape again. For now, the magician himself will think of another plan to get back at the Brighton Shepherd.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@graysun, @florenceisfalling, @miishae, @lonelyseiren, @goldenoceanaart, @oasisofgalaxies, @fleecal, @kofi-kiing, @myspatialspace, @jo-ann-ahh-2, @huffletrax, @indic0lite, @dumbasticart, @lunaarmada, @meteorshowersfillthesky, @uhhbeans,  @the-pastel-kitsune, @ptide  @climbing-starrs, @the-spawn-of-loki, @jadehowlettthewolf, @obsidiancreates, @rammypaige, @cest-mellow, @randowaffle, @green-protects, @dezi-popp, @badlypostedeverything, @crystalninjaphoenix, @milokno, @pixelpixie-pix, @why-killed-markiplier

#marvin the magnificent #jacksepticeye #writersofjack #writers of jack #jackieboy man #jse egos #writing #immabethehero #marvin megamind au #apparently i can write

[7spaceace7]

Ego Holiday Headcanons

Haven’t decided if I’ll make more after this, but here’s some festive headcanons for the Septic boys! (tagging as Yuletube for my submission for the past two missed days, hope that’s alright!)

Henrik Von Schneeplestein

-The host of the Septic Ego Holiday Celebration (est. 2017)

-STRESSED

-If he wasn’t stressed enough by being a doctor (and parent lmao), HE IS NOW

-Getting all the egos together for the holidays and making sure they DON’T kill each other?? Someone give this man an award

-Everyone keeping their limbs would be his only Christmas wish

-He does not get said Christmas wish (see: Robbie)

-Switches up his black coffee for coffee with peppermint creamer

-Chase eventually hooks him on peppermint tea instead, he knows the Doc needs sleep

-Can be found humming along to the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy as he cooks holiday dinner

-Definitely has a “kiss the cook” apron

-Chase crossed out the “the” on it with “zhe” in sharpie

-Day 5, Schneep still hasn’t noticed

-Loves it, but still wears his doctor coat on top of it

-Gets very cold easily, so the fire is always burning

-Has a nutcracker collection

-It’s getting out of hand

Chase Brody

-Holidays are,,, hard for him

-Still sends his kids cards and presents, never actually knowing if they get them or not

-They do, I promise

-Wasn’t originally keen on celebrating with everyone, he has a tendency to self-isolate

-But once he gets there, he’s glad he did

-IMMEDIATELY tackled in a hug from Jackie

-”YOU’RE HERE!! Couldn’t start without you, dude!”

-Everyone else smiles and gives the appropriate hug

-(Anti does not, but no eye roll this time at least)

-Absolutely loves warm apple cider and has a good recipe to make his own

-Favorite Christmas movie is Elf, no I do not take criticism

-Has a soft spot for Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmas though because of his kids

-Holiday puns, you CANNOT get this man to shut up with the puns

- “Where’s Anti?” “Up to SNOW good! There’s SNOW way we can REIN him in now!”

-Once it snows, this boy is sledding down every hill in SIGHT

-Teaches Robbie how to catch snowflakes on his tongue

-Marvin makes him a “World’s Best Dad” sweater

-He totally cries and does not take it off the rest of the season

Jackieboy Man

-Christmas is his favorite holiday

-Good luck getting him to sit still around this time

-Has super strength, so he doesn’t quite have the same “don’t do that, you’ll hurt yourself” factor that everyone else does??

-Nearly giving Henrik a heart attack everytime he moves, but make it Festive™

-”Guys it’s snowing!!” “JACKIE GET ZHE FAHK OFF ZHE RAILING”

-Slides down the stairs anyway

-Marvin made him a whole ass “ugly supersuit” instead of just a sweater

-It is a w f u l, but on purpose

-Ofc Jackie adores the shit out of it

-Loves snowball fights!

-Always gets targeted by Anti tho

-Eventually it turns into a snowball war

-Pulls Chase over to tag team him, then discovers Marvin has an alliance with Anti

-They will be here a while

-Time to break out the reindeer-themed boxers

-They go along perfectly with his red and blue sweater-suit

-Eventually able to settle down when it gets dark out, bonus points if there’s hot chocolate involved (courtesy of JJ)

-Don’t forget the marshmallows

-Wants to help everybody out with their plans, always does his best

-Even if his best includes falling off a roof

Marvin the Magnificent

-Made everyone sweaters, even Anti

-Spent too much time on the design parts to make em perfect, so he had to rush getting them all sewn

-Uses his magic to sew like three at once

-December 1st, 12:00am is when the Christmas music starts

-Mariah Carey impressions that slowly get higher as the month goes on

-Performs a “Let It Go” rendition that could rival Idina’s during christmas karaoke night

-Switches his regular mask for his holiday one with snowflakes instead of card suits on it

-The decorating master, with JJ as his apprentice

-Favorite part is designing for the lights outside

-Learned a spell to make it look like it’s snowing inside

-Forgot to learn the spell to make it stop snowing inside

-Ended up just sticking with those paper snowflakes dangling on the ceiling

-Asks Jackie for help with the lights on the roof, not because he can’t easily do it himself, he just knows that Jackie likes to help and this is the one thing he knows he can’t break

-Did not expect Jackie to break himself by falling off the roof instead

-Ends up finishing the lights with his magic anyway (after he untangles his boyfriend from the lights, that is)

-Can and will destroy Jackie during snowball fights just because he can

Jameson Jackson

-THIS BOY oh this boy

-Brings out the classic holiday music and sets it up on the gramophone

-LOVES making up dances to the music

-May be a classic boy, but his guilty pleasure is Michael Buble

-(Robbie calls him bubbles whenever he comes on)

-Goes ALL OUT with the holiday baking

-Cookies of all kinds, homemade gingerbread for the houses, so many pies, even learns how to bake his own bread

-Everyone agrees that his pumpkin bread is the best

-Anti especially loves the cherry pie for “aesthetic purposes”

-Has a whole “Twas the Night Before Christmas” puppet show routine

-His job is making the decorations while Marvin sets them all up, it’s a great dynamic

-Definitely makes those traditional popcorn garlands for the tree

-for some reason puts an orange in his stocking?? The others are confused, but he’s so excited so they just let him do his thing

-Now everyone has oranges in their stockings

-They still don’t know what it means

Antisepticeye

-Die Hard is a Christmas movie, dammit!

- “Grinch Bitch” is what his sweater from Marvin says

-Secretly likes it, but fuck off

-Wears it to sleep every night in Winter

-You know that thing where cats get under Christmas trees and swat at the ornaments? Yeah that’s him

-Loves the white elephant gift game

-Ends up getting a present and it’s a turtle

-His name is knives

-KING OF SNOWBALL FIGHTS

-Fills his snowballs with fake blood so they explode on people

- (at least we hope its fake)

-If it doesn’t snow enough, he is the bitch who throws water balloons instead

-Henrik still has work leading up to Christmas, so Anti listens to him rant when he gets home

-Christmas patients are fuckin crazy and he loves it

-One time fell asleep and woke up with a red nose and antlers

-Chase was never safe after that

-Kept the antlers though, they jingle

-Saved them all from Chase’s puns that day

- “Where’s Anti?” *distant, staticky jingling* “Ah there he is”

Robbie the Zombie

-LIGHTS...pretty lights…

-He loves the lights, and will try to eat them if you’re not careful

-Says they’re static candy

-Doesn’t get cold because he can’t feel it, so he often wanders around in the snow

-One time he came home without his left foot and Schneep nearly had a heart attack

-Turns out it froze in the snow and snapped off his leg

-The Great Foot Search Party of 2020

-Please don’t forget to bundle this boy up before going out

-Anti has knitted him a hat and scarf for just this reason

-Henrik was the Proudest Dad that day

-Totally gets to put the star on the Christmas tree every year

-Marvin levitates him high enough

-Favorite holiday movie is The Polar Express

-One time JJ came out with his signature hot cocoa during the movie scene and Robbie was THRILLED

-Talking almost knocked him over thrilled

-Tries to sing along to holiday music, the lyrics don’t work out much

-Really good at keeping a beat though

-Marvin made him a sweater with bells on it

-Adores the bells, flaps the too long sleeves to make them jingle

Shawn Flynn

-Likes Christmas, but like lowkey

-He’s a toymaker!!! He makes adorable toys for all the egos as their presents from him!!

-Didn’t really have a family to go back to in his days at Joey Drew Studios, so he was used to spending Christmas alone, usually working

-NOT ANYMORE!

-Now he has Too Much Family (but in the good way)

-Absolutely gets nicknamed Scrooge at first, probably because he really likes A Christmas Carol and he’s a grump

-Often can be found being pulled off to dance by the gramophone with JJ

-He’s got two left feet, but JJ doesn’t really care

-If anyone still believes in Santa, even just a little bit, it’s because of him

-Has a giant red sack that he fills up with toys he’s made and/or the ones no one could sell back at the studios and donates them to orphanages

-Usually sticks to his old timey clothes, but when he does wear modern Christmas attire like the sweaters, he has,,,no idea how to match things

-It’s ‘cause he’s red/green colorblind

-once asked why Marvin had “yellow” hair

-JJ makes sure that his decorations have lots of blues so it’s not so much strain on his eyes

#yuletube2020 #yuletube #jse egos #henrik von schneeplestein #chase brody #marvin the magnificent #jackieboy man #shawn flynn #jameson jackson #antisepticeye #my writing #prompt list #Headcanons