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fandomsandflyingstingrays · 10 months

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Stepping Stones: Chapter 9

Vee walks into school on her first morning the same way she returned to the Isles: with Camila’s hand in one of hers and Luz’s in the other, the three of them shoulder-to-shoulder as they trudge through the snow to the enormous green doors.

“It looks bigger up close,” Vee whispers, and Luz squeezes her hand.

“Make yourself taller,” she suggests, and Vee laughs a little, stretching out the legs of her human form until she’s as tall as Camila. It does make it less scary when Camila opens the door.

There’s a man waiting for them on the other side— taller than Vee and Camila both, with dark skin and bushy gray hair— and Vee quickly shrinks back to Luz’s height, praying he didn’t notice anything. It doesn’t seem like he did; he smiles when his eyes land on Vee, and he offers her his hand.

“You must be Vee. I’m Principal Hal. Welcome to Gravesfield High.”

Slowly, tentatively, Vee lets go of Luz’s hand to shake his. “Thanks.”

“We’ve enrolled you in all the same classes as Luz to make your transition easier. As long as there are no… disruptions, I think you’ll enjoy your time here.”

Principal Hal rubs a faint scar on his chin. Vee casts Luz a questioning look, and she mouths, tell you later.

Realizing the principal is waiting for an answer, Vee thanks him again, and he nods. “We’ve moved things around to give you a locker next to your sister’s, to make your adjustment easier. She can show you there so that you can put your things away before first bell, and then you two can head to your first class.”

Luz beams at the word sister, and even though Vee has had two sisters all her life, the word feels magical to her too. Sister meaning Luz. It’s sort of incredible.

“Thanks,” she says a third time. She feels a bit foolish repeating herself, but it seems to be what the principal wants to hear, because he gives her a nod.

“Good to see you, Mrs. Noceda,” he adds to Camila, and disappears into a room marked Principal’s Office.

Camila turns to Vee, placing her hands on her shoulders. “I’ll have my phone on all day. Don’t hesitate to call if you need me, okay?”

“I won’t.”

“Good.” Camila pulls her in for a hug, kissing her head. “I love you. I’m so proud of you.”

Vee leans into the embrace, holding her tightly for a long moment. “I love you too, Mom.”

Even after two months, the word, more powerful even than sister, fills her with sparks of warmth. It took a few weeks after the adoption papers were finalized for her to stop stammering over it, and even though it comes out smoothly now, it still fills her with awe. That awe makes her brave enough to step back, squeezing Camila’s hands and giving her a smile.

She smiles back, then embraces Luz and heads for the door. “See you after school,” she calls, waving at them both.

They wave back, and then Luz turns to Vee. “All right, follow my lead. The crowds in these hallways can be dangerous, so you have to navigate carefully.”

“Got it,” Vee says, matching her solemn tone. Luz links her arm through Vee’s, leading her through a sea of kids, all of them laughing and shrieking, the sheer number of voices making Vee want to slam her hands over her ears. Thankfully, Luz leads them to a hallway that’s far less packed than some of the others, and she only has to nudge one person aside to get to her locker.

She nods at the one beside it, the only cubicle without a lock already hanging from it. “That must be yours.”

She pulls her own locker open at the same time Vee does, and Vee’s stomach sinks a little as she glances between the two. Luz’s locker is crammed with books and crafts, photos and drawings, and Vee’s is an empty wall of gray.

Luz follows her gaze and smiles, reaching into her backpack. “I asked Willow to make copies of these in case you wanted to put them up,” she says, handing Vee an envelope, “and then I added a few more.”

They’re photos from Willow’s scrapbook: Vee, Luz, Willow, and Amity squinting at the TV during a late-night movie; Vee tickling a sleeping Willow’s forehead with a leaf as Luz and Amity muffle their laughter; Vee and Camila making empanadas; Vee making bunny ears over Luz’s head as Amity kisses her cheek and Hunter, Willow, and Gus beam at the camera; the whole group of them clinging to a raft, their faces ranging from excitement to terror; Vee, Willow, Gus, and Amity grinning in front of the map at the Gravesfield Historical Society. Below those are a few more recent pictures: Vee, Luz, and Hunter clutching gaming consoles and yelling incoherently; Vee and the gang from Cabin 7 sitting on the Nocedas’ porch and laughing at something on Masha’s phone; Vee arm-in-arm with her basilisk siblings on the day they all decided to try human form. Just looking at all those images, all the people she can now call family, makes the corners of Vee’s mouth turn up, and by the time she’s taped them all to the door and walls of her locker, she’s beaming.

“Looking good!” Luz says approvingly. “I can draw you some stuff later, if you want to—”

The bell cuts her off with an earsplitting ring. They exchange a look of horror and slam their lockers shut simultaneously, shoving their locks closed and running for the main hallway. It’s empty— they must have missed the warning bell entirely.

“It’s okay!” Luz gasps. “It’s not far!”

She sprints to the end of the hall with Vee on her heels, the two of them stopping in front of a door on the left. Luz pauses, glancing back at Vee.

“Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

Luz nods and pulls the door open and Vee follows her inside the room. And now there are twenty human children and a full human adult, all staring at her with unblinking eyes, and she’s positive she has just made an enormous mistake.

The adult— the teacher, he must be— recovers first. “Everyone,” he says, “this is Vee Noceda. She’s new to our class this semester.”

A wave of whispers like the hissing of a nest of snakes rises up from the assembled students. Vee swallows hard, nearly choking on her own dry tongue, and only Luz’s hand in hers keeps her from fleeing the scene.

The teacher looks at her with pitying eyes. “Would you like to say anything more to introduce yourself?”

The only justification Vee can come up with for what she says is that the introduction played well with Camila. Camila’s face had warmed, and she’d spoken with a laugh in her voice, and that’s the reaction Vee wants from these kids— so she opens her mouth and says, “hello, fellow humans. Skin’s sure weird.”

The whispers die within a split second.

“There’s two of them,” a blonde girl in the front groans, and the class dissolves into laughter. Vee isn’t sure whether she should feel relieved or even worse, but at least they’re not looking at her like she’s as much of an outsider.

One laugh in particular, more dry and knowing, gets her attention, and she follows it to find Masha cackling to themself in a desk at the back of the room. There’s two of them, Vee repeats in her head, and gives a snort of laughter of her own. If only that girl knew.

The two desks next to Masha are empty, so Vee takes a seat in the one beside them, and Luz comes to sit on her other side. She glances at the teacher for approval, and he gives her a nod.

“All right,” he says, blissfully taking the focus off of her. “Before we get into the course outline, I’m going to give you all a test to see how much you remember.” The class groans, and he holds up a hand. “It’s nothing new, all stuff you learned last year, and multiple choice. You’ll survive.”

He starts passing out booklets and scantrons, and Vee’s heart rate picks up. She’s spent every spare moment of the last two months studying Human Realm curriculum— but while she was fascinated by the literature and history, math always tripped her up. There’s just so much of it, and so many ways of doing it, and there was no way to cram all that into her head. She studied what Luz said she’d need to know for grade ten and barely managed that much— how is she supposed to know everything these kids learned in grade nine?

The teacher lays the papers on her desk, and she flips through the booklet, nausea rising. This is it. They’ll wonder why she doesn’t remember any of this, and discover she’s an imposter, and put her in a zoo, or—

Tap. Taptaptap.

The sound is quiet, but it interrupts Vee’s spiral nonetheless. She glances at the desk to her right to see Masha, their eyes trained on their booklet, one manicured black nail tapping against their desk.

Tap. Taptaptap.

And suddenly Vee’s mind isn’t in the classroom but back in Cabin 7, lying on her bunk above Masha’s in the darkness after lights-out, tapping messages back and forth on the walls. It took exactly one week of camp lectures for Masha to decide they were dead boring, and another week of everyone in Cabin 7 gathering around their phone under a blanket and memorizing the dots and dashes on the screen to become fluent in a language they could converse in without any of the speakers getting them in trouble. Vee hasn’t used it in months, but that doesn’t mean she’s forgotten.

Tap. Taptaptap.

Dash. Dot, dot, dot.

Vee fills in the circle and taps out t-h-a-n-k-s. She glances over at Masha to find a smile on their lips.

They tap out the next answer, and Vee fills it in. It only takes half the class, but the teacher spends the other half droning on about everything they’re going to be learning, so she doesn’t get to actually talk with Masha until the bell rings and they can disappear into the stream of students heading for their next classes.

“Call me crazy,” Luz says, once they’re out of the teacher’s earshot, “but were you two talking using morse code?”

“I know, I know, cheating is wrong,” Masha says, waving a hand, “but I felt like these were special circumstances.”

“Are you kidding? That’s so cool!”

“Thanks,” Vee adds, glancing at Masha. “I really owe you one.”

“Why yes, you do, and I know exactly what I want.”

“Wait— no—“

“Come on, Vee! You have to show me at some point!”

Luz glances between them. “Show you what?”

Masha lowers their voice. “Her true form.”

“She hasn’t shown you yet?”

“She has shown you? Do you have any pictures?”

“Okay, okay!” Vee cries, throwing up her hands. “If you come over after school, I’ll show you.”

“Finally!” Masha bounces up and down, clapping their hands gleefully. “Okay, I should really get to Bio, but I’ll see you at lunch. Luz can show you where we eat.”

They press a kiss to Vee’s cheek and darts for the stairs. A wave of heat floods her face, and she trips, almost plowing into a line of students before Luz grabs the back of her shirt and pulls her into a blessedly empty bathroom. Vee catches her eye, expecting to see the excitement dancing in her stomach reflected in her face, but instead, Luz’s expression is carefully gentle. It calms the flush in Vee’s cheeks, leadens her limbs, and she leans against a wall.

“I know, I know. I should have shown them a while ago.”

“Vee, they clearly like you, and they really don’t seem like the type to be weirded out by much.”

“I know. It’s just… when you grow up surrounded either by people who are like you or afraid of you, when every teacher in every school teaches every kid that you’re a monster, when you can count every member of your kind on one hand because the rest were all hunted down— part of you always expects that you’ll make people afraid. I know Masha’s probably not like that, but there are so many other voices in my head, and they’re all louder than mine.”

Luz wraps her arms around Vee, leaning her head on hers. “That’s really tough, Vee. I know there’s nothing I can say to make it better, but for what it’s worth, I think you’re doing the right thing.” She steps back, squeezing Vee’s hands. “The only way to quiet those other voices down is to let other people talk back to them. Masha will. I know it.”

…

Camila drives them all home after school, but when they get to the house, Luz convinces her to go get pizza for dinner. She rolls down the window of the passenger seat just to give Vee an exaggerated wink as she and Masha get out of the back, and Vee shoves her head back into the car with the palm of her hand. The car drives away, and she unlocks the house with shaking hands.

She follows Masha into the entryway. Closes the door behind her. What now? Does she offer them food first, or try to give some kind of disclaimer or—

If you don’t do it now, a voice in her head warns, sounding suspiciously like Luz, you never will.

And she changes. Just like that.

Ta-da, she opens her mouth to say, or here I am, or I’m ready, but nothing comes out, and so Masha turns around and sees her without any warning, her mouth open with an explanation that’s never going to come.

They don’t scream. That’s something.

But Vee can’t bear to see their expression shift, and her eyes dart to the floor, her heart slamming against her chest.

“Hey, Vee.”

Masha sounds casual, but they sounded casual when that slime-covered rat waddled into Cabin 7 in the middle of the night. Brace yourself, Vee—

“Do you want to go out with me?”

Surprise makes her nearly snap her neck with how fast she looks up. She expects them to be laughing, but their expression is bright, if a little nervous.

“What?”

“I mean, like, on a date.”

“No, no, I got that part. But— why?”

“Vee, you’re cool! In any form, you’re cool! I couldn’t care less what you look like. I like you because you’re you. Because you get flustered talking to people but will pick up spiders with your bare hands, because you’re so happy when you learn things it can make me enjoy learning about taxes, because you have enough power to drain the magic out of an evil emperor but have never once threatened someone who didn’t deserve it. That’s what I care about. And if you want me to care about you as my friend— great. We can just be that. But I feel, like, a lot for you, and I want you to know that, too.”

Vee’s chest is tight again, but for the first time all day, she’s not terrified— she’s so happy she feels like she could burst just by inhaling. She’s grinning so hard her face hurts, and yes, part of her wonders if Masha is creeped out by that expression on a basilisk’s face. But they’re beaming too, and Luz is right; that doubtful voice gets quieter and quieter under the onslaught of their attention.

“I’d like that,” Vee says quietly. “I really would.” Glancing over to the clock at the end of the hall, she adds, “we’ve got like an hour until dinner, and I’m sure Luz will stall our mom until then. We could go now, on a walk or something? I know that’s not the most romantic, but—“

“Anything with you will be romantic.” Masha nudges her, and Vee flushes, burying her head in her hands as Masha laughs.

“Is this okay?” They ask, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

Vee wraps an arm around their waist, beaming into their shoulder. “It’s perfect.”

She returns to her human form, Masha’s hold on her easy no matter what shape she takes. Her hands are steady, this time, as she opens the door, and as they walk out hand-in-hand into the winter sun, she can’t recall why she was ever so afraid.

#the owl house #toh #toh vee #toh masha #veesha #luz noceda #camila noceda #stepping stones #ray rambles #ray writes

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vavuska · 9 months

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Books similar to The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood:

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett and Extasia by Claire Legrand are both distopyas dense of religious fanatism and women's segregation, in which sexism and sexual prejudice are associated with various aspects of religion (e.g. belief, faith, and fundamentalism). This novel shows also how higher religious fundamentalism is associated with internalized misogyny and passive acceptance of traditional gender roles, and both hostile and benevolent sexism.

In The Grace Year the stereotype of a women as source of sin was laid down by the dominant religious authorities before the inception of widespread violence led by women against women, but after all the violence and blood, women learn the importance of sorority, female friendship and start to support and help each others.

The main source of conflicts are ribbons, which, in The Grace Year, are the sign of a women lifestage and the bride's ribbon is a valued price among most of the girls of the age of Tierney, the protagonist. The bride ribbons create a competition between girls to get bachelor’s attention, self-objectification, and humiliation toward each others. Although the competition eventually destroys most of them, this characteristic offers pleasure to those who survived their Grace Year. Tierney learns to survive on her own, learns that the religious values she was thought were wrong and learns also to appreciate her peer's friendship.

Extasia adds witchcraft and supernatural elements, but the main character (Amity) believes deeply in social conservatism—Amity has a preference for stability, conformity and the status quo— which is often a key trait of the religious experience, but also betrays deep feeling of self-hate.

In Extasia, the very patriarchal structures that decry witchcraft – the Puritan church in which the characters lives in and escapes from, the male headship to which the community so desperately cling, the insistence, in the face of repeated violence, on the sin of her mother – are the same structures that inevitably foreclose the options of the lead character, Amity.

To this two, I will mention also The Year Of The Witching by Alexis Henderson. In this novel, Immanuelle, a young woman living in a rigid, puritanical society, discovers dark powers within herself. This book is very similar to Extasia, but not such as good: Amity character is way more believable than Immanuelle and shows way more comprehension of the injustices committed in the name of the religion. The cult in Extasia contains more original elements and believing than the one in The Year Of The Witching, which seems more a copy-paste of mormon radical close-communities, including the elements of racial prejudice. Both Immanuelle and Amity live in the disdain of their own community because of the sins committed by their mother, which were both punished for their love affairs, but when Amity is a girl-of-action and actively search for mercy and witchcraft, Immanuelle is cursed - literally - by passivity and events occurs without her active consents, including the defection of the evil antagonist. Also, female friendship doesn't take place among the main themes and the book suffer a lot of the male love-interest help.

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden.

In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.

Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life—a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for a chance to grab one of the girls in order to make a fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other.

With sharp prose and gritty realism, The Grace Year examines the complex and sometimes twisted relationships between girls, the women they eventually become, and the difficult decisions they make in-between.

Extasia by Claire Legrand

Her name is unimportant.

All you must know is that today she will become one of the four saints of Haven. The elders will mark her and place the red hood on her head. With her sisters, she will stand against the evil power that lives beneath the black mountain--an evil which has already killed nine of her village's men.

She will tell no one of the white-eyed beasts that follow her. Or the faceless gray women tall as houses. Or the girls she saw kissing in the elm grove.

Today she will be a saint of Haven. She will rid her family of her mother's shame at last and save her people from destruction. She is not afraid. Are you?

The Year Of The Witching by Alexis Henderson

In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet’s word is law, Immanuelle Moore’s very existence is blasphemy. Her mother’s union with an outsider of a different race cast her once-proud family into disgrace, so Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol, and lead a life of submission, devotion, and absolute conformity, like all the other women in the settlement. But a mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood surrounding Bethel, where the first prophet once chased and killed four powerful witches. Their spirits are still lurking there, and they bestow a gift on Immanuelle: the journal of her dead mother, who Immanuelle is shocked to learn once sought sanctuary in the wood. Fascinated by the secrets in the diary, Immanuelle finds herself struggling to understand how her mother could have consorted with the witches. But when she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realizes the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness. And she starts to understand that if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her.

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dejadoodles-101 · 3 months

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Empress Erin

Hey y'all! So I finally want to introduce you guys to one of my witchsonas Empress Erin! The first pic is my very first drawing of her and the second one is the updated version.

Her bio is pretty long so just bear with me

Erin is a very beautiful, attractive, and sexy witch (she's know to be the most sexiest witch in the Demon Realm). Erin is also known to be the one Disney character that should not be allowed on TV because of her appearance and behavior.

She's the empress of the Boiling Isles and she's married to Belos and is the aunt of Hunter. A lot say that Belos is one lucky man to have such a sexy wife like Erin. A lot of the members (mostly men) of the emperor's coven have a huge crush on her. Erin and Kikimora are rivals and they despise and hate each other very much.

She went to St. Epiderm for her educational years and studied plant magic. She was born in Latissa.

Here is her actual bio:

Full Name: Erin Marilyn Wittebane (née Harris)

Nicknames: Rin/Rinny, (by Belos and Hunter) Darling, Sweetie/Sweetheart, Love, Er-Bear, and etc (all by Belos) Aunt Erin, Rin/Rinny (all by Hunter)

Birthday: June 29th 1979

Age: 41 (in the series) 44 (in reality)

Astrology Zodiac: Cancer

Chinese Zodiac: Goat

Height: 5'8

Sexuality: Heterosexual (most times) Bisexual (somewhat)

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

Gender: Female

Voice: Cristina "Vee" Valenzuela (Verosika Mayday from Helluva Boss)

Family Members: Herbert (father) Mildred (mother), Paul (older brother), Jacquline (older sister), Kimberly (younger sister), Philip Wittebane/Belos (husband), Caleb Wittebane (brother in-law; deceased) Hunter (adoptive nephew)

Personality: Intelligent, evil, mean, selfish, sarcastic, intimidating, manipulative, vulgar, seductive, easily jealous and annoyed, etc

Appearance: Very beautiful, sexy, and attractive, slender, dark brunette wavy hair, fair skin, green eyes, pointy ears, black nail polish

Alignment: Bad

Occupation: Empress of the Boiling Isles, student at St. Epiderm (formerly)

Coven(s): Emperors Coven (currently) Plant Coven (formerly)

Palisman: Pearl (a one eyed crab)

Allies: Belos (spouse), Hunter, (sometimes) Lilith, some members of the coven, The Collector, Pearl

Enemies: Kikimora (rival) Luz, Amity, Willow, Gus, Hunter (sometimes), The Collector (currently)

Likes: Spending time with her husband Belos, being in the Emperor's Coven, the human realm, manipulating members of the coven, being beautiful and gorgeous, the color green, fairy pie, salads, alcoholic apple blood, being drunk, singing, dancing, music, cats and dogs, her high school years, 80s and 90s, plants and flowers

Dislikes: Kikimora, Stupidity, male members of the coven crushing and flirting with her, hangovers, her elementary and middle school years, Belos telling her not to drink so much, things not going her way, men asking her out, the fact that her husband is dead

Trivia:

Her biggest dream was to join the emperor's coven since she was 3

Back then, Erin was a dorky kid (mainly back in her middle school years)

She had a terrible mouth accident when she was 3 which caused her teeth to be cracked and yellow and had to wear braces and a dental headgear for a few years

She then started to lose her vision and had to wear glasses at the age of 10

She was bullied a lot during her elementary and middle school years

She had her palisman Pearl since she was 13 and still has her to this day and helped her get through the rough times she had

Before when she started high school she was finally able to take her braces and headgear off and changed her appearance completely

She started wearing eye contacts and dyed the end of the hair green and made lots of new friends

She became popular in high school

Joined the emperor's coven after she graduated in 1997

Was a scout for 13 years

Married Belos in 2010 when she was 31

She's rivals with Kikimora. They absolutely hate each other. Erin finds her really annoying and Kiki is jealous of her

She's the only member who can still visit family and friends

Erin is known to be the "most sexiest witch in the Demon Realm

Her original name was going to be "Marilyn" but since Eda's human name was "Marylin" her name was changed to Erin

She absolutely loves Belos with all of her heart and is the only witch who Belos cares and loves for

I think that's everything! Really hope you guys are gonna love her just as much as I do and I’ll be posting more of her at some point! I did a lot of drawings of her.

Art and witchsona are mine

The Owl House: Dana Terrace ©

#the owl house #the owl house fanart #toh #witchsona #OC #original character #own character #empresserintheowlhouse #erin marilyn harris #digital art #digital artwork #digital drawing #ibispaintx #ibispaintxapp #artwork #art #dejadoodles101

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theacevampire · 2 years

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Under The Skin III

Pairing: Kakashi x fem!Reader

Genre: romance, kind of hurt/comfort

Wordcount: ~2.7k

Warnings: none

Track: Robin M, Dantae The Kid – Moment

A/N: Thank y'all for the support you're giving the series🥰 Have fun with the next chapter and let me know what you think!

Under The Skin masterlist

Camaraderie

Saying you were nervous standing in front of Kakashi’s office was an understatement. Your heart was racing, your throat was dry and there was this twisting feeling in your gut.

You had spent the whole night, fleshing out the sketched designs Pakkun, Yamato and Iruka had raked together, working tireless because every detailed design had felt not worthy enough. The sun had already been painting the sky pink again when you had finally been happy with the designs you had created – five in total, each with their own title: Support, Camaraderie, Amity, Guidance and Future.

Entering the building had proven to be easy as Genma was on guard duty at the Hokage tower with a fellow shinobi whose name was Raidō if you remembered correctly. They had let you pass without asking though judging by Genma’s knowing grin, he knew very well why you came.

As steps echoed through the hall you found the courage to knock on the Hokage’s office door, albeit only to not get caught standing in front of a door like a fool.

“Come in!”, you heard Kakashi call from inside, causing your heart to beat even faster.

With a deep breath you pushed down the handle and entered the room, a forced smile to cover up your nervousness on your lips. You wished you had taken your mask with you to hide the tense state you were in. “Good morning, Lord Sixth.”

Standing in Kakashi’s office felt weird, foreign. While in your studio, you had felt confident, secure, you now felt small, afraid to say something wrong or disrespect the Hokage of your village in his realm.

His eyes widened in surprise and his eyebrows disappeared under his headband in the process when he lifted his gaze. For a second, he was absolutely stunned by your beauty. The time he had met you in your studio you had worn a mask similar to his own the whole time and he didn’t expect to see your bare face now. He gulped.

“Good morning. How can I help you? Or did you make an appointment prior that I missed?” Hastily, he looked around his desk, searching through the stacks of documents. “I’m sorry, Shikamaru must’ve–”

“No-no, Lord Sixth”, you interjected as polite as possible. “I didn’t. This is a rather spontaneous visit and Genma let me in. If it’s inconvenient right now...”

The first time it had slipped his mind, but this time he had heard his title coming from your lips. His heartrate picked up speed and there was this fluttering feeling in his stomach, telling him to not ask you to drop the ‘Lord’ like he did with almost anyone else because it sounded so heavenly coming from you. Still, he put your concerns off with a wave of his hand. “No need and drop the ‘Lord’. So, what can I do for you?”

Nervously, you stepped forward, laying the small stack of paper on his desk. “I think it’s more of what I can do for you. Your request for a cover-up didn’t leave my mind and while I still can’t do this, I may have a compromise.” Fanning out your designs on his desk, you watched his reaction closely, biting your lip. “I’ll preface I don’t know your reasons why you want that cover-up and I don’t need to, as it’s none of my business.”

While listening to you, Kakashi watched you, eyes wide in awe and under his mask you could make out slightly parted lips. A warm stirring danced around his chest. To say he was touched by your gesture would be an understatement. Never had he expected someone to care about him so much to stay up all night – he could tell from the dark circles under your eyes – and draw up drafts like these and especially not someone he barely knew.

“I asked a few of your friends about motives that could remind you of the good things in your life and these are what they came up with. They didn’t tell me anything about the meanings or stories behind them, as – again – it’s none of my business, so I don’t know how appropriate they are.”

Taking the first sheet of paper, he chuckled. “Now I understand why Genma asked to borrow Pakkun yesterday. I figured the ‘training purpose’ was only an excuse.”

Support. It was the one thematizing his ninken, the one where the flame was supposed to be surrounded by his ninken’s paw prints and wafts of mist would waver in the background whenever the tattoo came into contact with chakra. However, because he had been the only one available yesterday, Pakkun had tried to imitate the sizes of the others’ paws, resulting in a very funny looking representation of Bull’s rather big paw print. It was the simplest of the designs and yet watching Pakkun put his paw in ink and then on the paper like a stamp had been a lot of fun.

“It’s not the final design.” A sheepish smile tugged on your lips. “I intended all of your ninken to give me a paw print of them, but we had only Pakkun and he tried his best. We would do it properly in case you’d like to have this one.”

Kakashi chuckled again. “I doubt Bull’s paw print would look any less messy. He may look big and intimidating and his combat skills are nothing to forget about but he’s an absolute softie at heart and a little bit clumsy sometimes.”

The adoration and love seeping from his words and the glim in his eyes when talking about Bull made your heart melt. Undoubtedly, his ninken were more than summons for him, they were his companions, his friends.

The next one up was Camaraderie, centered around the team from his genin days – Team Minato. Named after the team’s lead Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, it consisted of him, Kakashi and two more people named Rin and Obito. Prior to your brainstorming with Pakkun, Yamato and Iruka, you hadn’t heard either of these names, but you didn’t dare to ask about them.

The swirl of the flame blended in with the circular pommel of a rare, three-bladed kunai. Its longest blade pointed down to the elbow where it stuck in a wheat field, a pair of orange goggles lying next to it on the ground. The wheat field filled the background and the ears would sway in the wind, glistering in soft, purple accents.

This one tugged on Kakashi’s heartstrings. You had said his friends had come up with the motives to remind him of the good things in life. Sighing internally, he brushed his fingers over the paper. All of them were dead, partly even because of him, so how was this a reminder of good things?

Nevertheless, he wouldn’t be who or where he was today without them. Each of them had influenced him whether he liked it not: be it Minato who taught him about teamwork, Obito who lent him his Sharingan and showed him how important comrades are, or Rin who shaped the whole shinobi world through her bravery. He wasn’t sure if he should thank or curse them, because who knows how things would’ve gone had just one thing happened differently. What if Rin hadn’t thrown herself into his Chidori? What if Obito had not saved him, sparing him from getting crushed in the process? The answers to these questions would remain unknown forever.

To stop himself before he would start shedding tears over his old team, he put the sketch to the side, sparing the first one another quick glance to warm his heart, and turned his attention to the third sheet.

Amity. You chuckled, remembering where it began. Originally, Iruka had joked about putting their faces in one of the designs, leading to them grimacing their weirdest expressions – Yamato was particularly good at making intimidating ones – before Pakkun turned serious again and brought up the point how the idea of showing Kakashi he wasn’t alone, he had friends who were always with him, was actually not bad.

“Why not show him we’re having his back?”, he had suggested.

So, they collected motives associated with them or representing their names and in the end, you had designed a huge tree, the flame worked into its top, reaching down to the trunk. By the roots you had sketched a little lake – or rather a pond – with a dolphin jumping out of it. A soft, red aura which would billow perfectly surrounded the tree as well as the pond and the dolphin.

From the color composition, this one was your favorite. The bright tones of green, blue and red went so well with each other and you felt pride filling your heart when Kakashi’s lips curved into a smile under his mask.

“At least it’s not their faces”, he joked, unknowing of Iruka’s first proposal.

You covered your mouth with the back of your hand to fight the laugh bubbling in your throat. For a moment you considered telling him, but ultimately decided against it. Maybe one day you would, after a few drinks, someday far in the future.

Noticing your amused grin, Kakashi raised an eyebrow questioningly. “May I ask what’s so funny?”

“Nothing.”

A small chuckle left his lips, evidence of your missing credibility, though he didn’t press the topic further, figuring you had your reasons, and instead turned his attention to the second to the last design you had fleshed out.

Guidance. You could’ve told this one was about his own genin team, his students, even without having your three helpers talk about it. After your encounter with the sketches from your dad, you figured the Sharingan Iruka had suggested had to be Sasuke Uchiha’s. It was placed right under the flame’s lower tip and would switch between the normal Sharingan and its advanced version, the Mangekyō Sharingan. The cherry blossom tree in the background was an obvious reference to Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno, with the Sharingan in the trunk and a treetop made of typical cherry blossoms and narutomaki as blossoms. However, the one thing you couldn’t explain was the meaning of the trunk and roots resolving into drops of black ink, dripping down to the elbow.

If asked which one of these five designs was your favorite, you would say this one. The sketch had been drawn quickly and fleshing out had went smoother than butter, because you were overflowing with inspiration. While the others had needed multiple attempts to finish, leading to your paper basket overflowing with crumpled papers, you had nailed this one on the first try. So, when Kakashi’s gaze turned loving and his fingertips brushed softly over the motive, your chest swelled with pride once again and you couldn’t fight the wide grin tugging on the corners of your mouth.

Examining the last one, Kakashi got confused. For the first four, one look had been enough for him to know which meaning stood behind each of the components, what theme they followed, who they represented. This one, however, was cryptic, only rising question marks in his head.

Future. It was rather simple: a big paper crane behind the flame, the stem of a leaf shaped like Konoha’s symbol in its beak and more paper cranes, small enough to be mistaken for weirdly shaped stars, following behind the rump.

An uneasy feeling spread in your chest as his brows furrowed. Did he not like it? Your mind and heart started racing. Somehow you were nervous about his opinion on this one, probably because it was the only one you had created without his friends. In the middle of the night, while fleshing out Camaraderie, a thought had flashed through your mind. What if you focused on the future instead of the past or present? What if you focused on the impact he had on the village?

So, you had collected things he had accomplished during and since the war, searching for a collective symbol you could put them under, resulting in the paper crane.

Overall, you were happy with the works: they were unique, creative meaningful. They were in your own style, though you could see your dad’s influence as – just like he did – you had left a fine line of uncolored skin around the Anbu mark and under every design, you had written ‘チームワーク’– ‘teamwork’.

Kakashi had to take a deep breath to fight the lump in his throat and the tears burning behind his eyes. “Wow”, he breathed out. “This is stunning.” He shook his head, correcting himself, “I mean, they’re all amazing... I don’t– I don’t know what to say...”

“You don’t have to decide now. Take your time and just come to me when you’ve made your decision.” You cleared your throat, realizing you might’ve crossed a line. “If you want one at all, that is. Of course, you don’t have to get one, it’s still your body and I didn’t mean to tell you what to do. You’re still the Hokage, so I apologize for overstepping and–”

The rest of your ramble got caught in your throat when Kakashi smiled at you, his eyes forming crescents. “It’s okay. I know how you mean it, so you didn’t overstep.”

The breath you had held slowly left you lips, a wave of relief washing over you.

“And I don’t need more time. I’d like this one.” He held up Guidance. “But with one more thing, please? If it’s feasible?” His words came out hesitantly and there was this look in his eyes: prepared to be rejected but still hopeful and with a certain desperation glistering in the iris.

You could only hope he wouldn’t ask for something impossible, because you didn’t trust yourself to reject him again – especially not with these puppy eyes of him. You would bet a week’s pay his ninken taught him. Tilting your head, you beckoned him to continue.

“There is one more person I’d like to honor in this tattoo. His name is Yamato and he’s part of the team too and deserves a spot too. So, would it be possible to add maybe a few wooden beams to the tree? Representing his mokuton?”

“I’ve never seen a mokuton jutsu, so I’d need something for reference, a photo or something, but it shouldn’t be impossible.”

His muscles visibly relaxed in relief and the smile on his face shone through his mask. “This won’t be a problem. Can I just call you then?”

For some reason you heart started racing again and your cheeks heat up. Hoping Kakashi wouldn’t notice your flustered state was pointless, he did anyway. It amused him until his body reacted the same way and he himself was flustered all of a sudden, however this slipped your mind as his mask did an excellent job at covering his reddened cheeks.

“You can call or drop by. Both is fine.”

Several moments of awkward silence passed, both of you clearing your throats as if you wanted to say something and then looking at each other, waiting for the other to say something.

“I’ll be leaving then”, you said after each of you had cleared your throats for the second time. “I suppose you're busy and I don’t want to keep you from doing your work – you’re the Hokage, the village needs you.”

Kakashi nodded. “Thank you. I appreciate the time and effort you have put into these. They’re amazing and I’m glad to have such talented people in Konoha.”

His compliment only added to your flustered state and you hurried out the door, leaning against the wall to take a deep breath and calm down your still racing heart. To no avail though: Genma still gave you a knowing smirk when you passed him at the entrance to the Academy where the Hokage’s office was located.

#kakashi x reader #kakashi hatake x reader #kakashi under the skin #vampire:SSD #vampire:narutoOS

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davekat-sucks · 1 year

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why is whitevember and blackober a thing? like what is so cool about racebending characters? like im ok with lgbt headcanons but race headcanons are gross, you cant change your race

Sadly, Blacktober is more celebrated in circles like Twitter and Tumblr because of "There are not many black representatives in media, so racebend existing ones while ignoring characters that are black/have dark skin and never make an original character." Most go for Photoshop recoloring and less drawing it on their own. You can see people people blackwash Foo Fighters and Anasui in Jojo Stone Ocean while ignoring Ermes. You can see people blackwash Amity from Owl House while ignoring Luz and Gus. And you can see people blackwash Alucard from Hellsing while ignoring Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing. Whitevember was made to mock people that had thought Blacktober is a progressive move. I wouldn't take Whitevember seriously.

#Blacktober #Whitevember #blackwash #whitewash #blackwashing #whitewashing #fandom #fandoms

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star-factory · 3 years

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So a few people thought my last post was a sprite edit when it's in fact all drawn by hand, and I thought this was the perfect excuse to share my (current) process in drawing puyo style art!

This is by no means the definite way to draw in the puyo style, and there's still a lot of things I need to work on too, so take this with a grain of salt bc I'm not perfect at this.

To start off, once I have a base idea on who I want to draw, I head to the Puyo Puyo Quest card index on the Puyo Nexus Wiki to find cards for references. For the Amitie goddess one specifically I used Sandra, High Priestess Deena, and Legamunt as my main references.

After I find references I begin to sketch out (in this case) a design for the character and then begin drawing the main sketch layers for the puyo style art. At this point you can really see that I was heavily going off of HP Deena's 6* art before making a change.

Normally I go through 2 passes of sketch layers before beginning on the lineart, but I accidentally combined the first pass onto the 2nd one at some point so unfortunately I can't show you what that looked like.. ;_;

With the help of a few friends I decided on a final outfit, and created the final sketch I would be going over in with lineart!

From here is where things get a little tricky. Puyo Puyo as a series, while having a consistently similar art style for the past 10 years is not entirely the same in every game. For example compare the manzai demo sprites between PPT1 and PPT2! They're a whole lot different! This follows through as well in Puyo Puyo Quest, as different artists draw varying quest renders, many of them having differing lineart styles. For example here's Steam City Arle's 6* compared against Elisa's 5*:

Steam City Arle has much thinner lineart compared to Elisa, whose lineart is very bold and a different color as well! In Elisa's 7* render, the lineart for her changes to become much thinner and more similar to SC Arle. Another thing with these cards is that Arle's hair lineart is a different color against the dark purple lines, allowing it to blend in with the already busy outfit she's wearing. Elisa's 6* and 7* does this as well!

When I do lineart I tend to try to stay on the thicker side when I am drawing things like body parts, clothes, and hair, while using much thinner lines on things such as accessories, details, and highlights.

Coloring and shading is also something that varies! If you were to look back at Arle and Elisa's art, Arle has much more highlights and a slight shadow gradient on the underside of her clothes, while Elisa has mainly flat colors with highlights only on her hair and the pink floaty objects around her. An important thing to keep in mind however when coloring is that there are very minimal shadows in almost every render! The few times shadows are used prominently (disregarding full power renders) are on the hands, the eyes, underneath bangs, the insides of clothing, or as a gradient.

Highlights are also used very minimally, used mostly to highlight clothing articles, large accessories/effects, hair, and non skin colored body parts (ex: wings, tails, horns, etc). Skin is almost never highlighted!

After all that, I put down a clipping layer and color the lineart. Many puyo puyo quest renders use a dark purple color for their lineart, but many others use different colors such as dark green, dark blue, or even brown!

When coloring lineart, most of the time the only lineart that is a different color from the rest is the hair. However, there are exceptions to this such as changing the lineart color for transparent objects like glass or on softer surfaces like wings, clouds, pillows, etc. Background effects such as auras and smoke also use differing lineart colors, and sometimes are also lineless to allow them to blend in better as background pieces!

Now it's all done! I hope that what I wrote made sense and helps a few people because drawing in the puyo style is super duper fun to do!

Thank you for taking your time to read this if you did, and I'm sorry for the really long post ;_;

#puyo puyo #guides #talking #puyo puyo quest #i rly hope this is helpful to someone out there ;;

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theowlhouseheadcanons · 3 years

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So what are the Beta's personalities? I don't think there is a guide. All I know is Luz is a Bustard, Amity is pure bred bitch and Willow is S M U G.

Okay, I have two options: do you want the detailed, serious answer or the over-simplified, stupidish answer? Choose wisely.

Painfully detailed:

All we “canonically” know about them, apart from the designs, is their heavier approach to darker, maybe punk/goth vibes - a lead to all the content the fandom produced so far, creating all kinds of creative views about their characters.

If we take a look to Dana´s unrelated artworks, it's a mix of grim bizarrice with mundane and/or wholesome character remarks that makes the odd creations seem… relatable and emphatic, or at least curious enough to make you crook your neck in contemplation. There is also this faint feeling of madness and gloom (with different variations depending on the piece), but they all seem consistent within the big picture.

Overall, they appeal for complexity, and this is where I think the Betas stand - with deep roots on dark humor too. So, after making this boastful analysis of Dana´s art that nobody asked for, let's get to them.

Amity:

As her canon version, she's a character with layers (and masks, depending on the company she might be bearing at the time).

At first impression, she might seems cold and uninterested, with sarcasm being her favorite tool in conversation; Amity makes the effort to keep most people around her at distance to avoid creating unnecessary attachments, so she´ll come off as rude and selfish - but if you hang around enough or prove you have some guts and values, she might take a liking; And once you become friends, you´ll never meet someone more loyal;

She doesn't mind breaking rules – especially her mother's rules – for the sake of entertainment and for helping her friends. She's a fan of pranks and deception, but do not mistake her impetus for recklessness: Amity plays clever to guarantee he reputation remains intact for the right people (leaving the ones who knows her true ways crawling under their skin (enemies) or smirking at her (friends));

She's not one who easily share personal information, reserving her deeper feelings and worries to a scarce number of people;

She won't back down from discussions, and if she feels like something or someone is crossing any lines of her (surprisingly existing) "moral code" she won't leave it alone until she gives a final word on it (besides, she loves the taste of victory, and hate when the ones she cares get hurt in any sense); She fights with words that hit exactly on people's weak spots, but if she's irritated enough she might put her destructive magic to some use (as a threat);

In school, her notes are good (although she can easily make them better if she just puts in the effort) and if the teachers don't insist on pushing some expected behavior towards her, and instead work with her “flexible learning process”, she won't bother. Actually, if she takes interest in the class, she´ll deepen discussions with interesting topics and good criticism, making teachers raise their eyebrows on her competence. But, if for some reason the schoolmaster gets on a tight spot with Amity, she´ll make sure every minute of their class feels a bit closer to hell :)

(One might imagine how polemic Beta Amity must be among the faculty)

When she's not idly hanging with Boscha and the girls, she can be spotted sauntering alone in the corridors, wearing the portrait of Boredom on her face that keeps most people at distance. The only individual that doesn´t appear to be affected by her subtle threatening aurea is Willow: as anything odd and potentially entertaining, Willow conquered Amity´s attention enough to mold a friendship with her. They work pretty well together, with Willow´s centred personality balancing off Amity's fiery behavior. Hanging out with Willow feels both relaxing and exciting, as she never knows what new “job” her friend might be up to - and she's always down to tag along on her quests;

Willow:

Willow is an intriguing kid – and I'm not talking about her dubious choice of fashion or her ability to keep a poker face to everything and everyone while absorbing more details and information than anyone in the room – everyone that knows her agrees with that definition. And everyone knows her; Why? Well...

Her irreducible dedication and unbiased expertise in the bizarre and all sorts of knowledge makes her a handy option for those who need to get some job done and they don't know who else to call. Her almost obsessive curiosity for everything keeps her constantly busy with some experiment, project or investigation;

She displays the minimum respect to people around her and seems genuinely unbothered by social dramas and average teen stuff; Interacting with Willow might feel awkward or incredibly interesting as she has the habit of infodumping and calling attention to random details in the environment (and you'll never know what's going on her mind); ~Her humor is a little morbid too~

She's the kind of person you can hang out alot but if you put some thought on it you'll get shocked how little you know about them – Willow doesn't have a problem with sharing, but she'll only do when requested;

And besides, she rather have the company of plants and herself (a fact she more show than tell), because neither of them will delay her plans or interrupt them with spontaneous cases of *looks down on notes* needing help; (but don't worry, if she's your friend, she will help)

Willow will defy rules only if she knows there won't be bad consequences for her and her "partners in crime" – and she might not share that part with them sometimes so they won't get comfortable enough to mess up;

Luz:

The main common thing between Beta and Canon Luz is their contagious energy and righteous mind: they're always ready to have a good time while being able to help someone; The main difference, I guess, is that Beta Luz has a more flexible moral on methods she might use to do "good";

She never skips the calls for adventure, even the ones that presents potential dangers (which she generally doesn't take note until it's too late) making her a magnet for trouble;

Her friends are so used to her shenanigans that Luz doesn't need more than a look to have them sighing "what have you done this time?"

She's a sporty girl, but also a lover of video games and anime and trying new stuff – which once again, might be a call for danger;

She's friendly but can't help her passive aggressive humor, which can gets sharp depending on her mood; Aggression and offences are a last case resource, unless we're talking about bad guys; She might be down to break rules if it is necessary for doing good, but overall she rather leave law undisturbed; She doesn't mind taking "alternative" ways to achieve her goals, but she draws a line on cheating – and that buys her some heated discussions with Amity;

Luz swears she tries to not get involved in people's business but she never thinks twice before calling people out when they're being unnecessarily bad or rude. Actually, she has the habit of acting before thinking – the main pillar of her troublemaker reputation;

With all that, one might think she's reckless and slow in catching things up – which is not a lie, but that doesn't mean she can't be responsible: she always keep her promises and is committed to following deadlines and conditions – and I'm not sure if this is the place to add, but she's pretty good with children! For Amity's amusement

In sum (simple version):

#that was fun #what do you guys think?#the owl house #the owl house headcanons #toh #amity blight #the owl house luz #luz noceda #the owl house amity #the owl house willow #toh asks #toh luz #toh amity #toh willow #beta amity #beta luz #beta willow

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ilguna · 3 years

Text

Anteric - Chapter Nine (f.o)

summary: secrets have more worth than you gave them credit for.

warnings; swearing. MURDER PLOT, MURDER, SUICIDE MENTION SEVERAL TIMES.

wc; 9.3k

NOTES; I give reader a last name to fit the world.

–

The next four days follow the same nightmarish pattern of facing your fears early in the morning, and then wielding a gun or a knife in the evening. You think that Caspian and Laurel are really testing fate by allowing a group of unstable teenagers near anything dangerous.

Sure, all of you have to be prepared to be able to wield a gun and defend yourselves in hard situations. But you wouldn’t say that it’s the brightest idea ever, too. You’re not entirely convinced that some of your fears correspond to shooting directly after. The only exception in this case, would be the one where you’ve watched Finnick die.

Despite all of this, you think that you’re beginning to get a hang of the fear-facing, to the point where you’ve managed to increase your time to five minutes. While everyone else works hard to make their time smaller and smaller, you’ve been trying to go against the current to make yourself look less suspicious.

You’ve figured that it’s easier to calm yourself down once you realize which fear you’re in. It’s only the four that repeat themselves, being buried alive, watching someone bleed out and die, and being trapped in an enclosed space with spiders. The easiest of them being buried alive, mainly because it’s not as hands-on.

You’re not forced to save someone, drowning in their blood as you try to cover wounds that will only become insignificant in the end. As more and more appear on the other’s body, screwing your focus and making you forget that you’re in a simulation. And you aren’t aware of the fact that you have to keep moving around for as long as you can without being covered in the spiders.

With the coffin, there’s no imminent danger, no real threat is hanging above you, besides the sure. Sure, you’re being buried alive, the dirt will eventually end up suffocating you. Yet, it’s not chaotic. You’re not fighting anything, you’re just forced to sit in darkness, feign some fright for a while, and then you’re free. If you were being buried without the coffin, that might be a different story. But that isn’t your fear, the coffin is a detail for a reason.

The others don’t seem to be as lucky as you are. They’re stuck in the same loop of facing their fears, and not knowing what to do after. At least you can say that your nightmares aren’t making your skin crawl anymore. For them, they shake when someone asks what they’ve gone through, and wake up screaming at night.

However, there are a few of you who are outshining the others. And it seems to be the people who hadn’t done too well during the first stage of initiation that’re getting the hang of this one. Which is a shame, because their progress isn’t really going to pay off until the final stage, when they beat the rest.

The few that you’ve noticed are Sydney, Nestor and Cass. They act a little differently than the others do. Sydney and Nestor have always been laid back. You can’t really say the same for Cass, since you don’t know her as well. But they definitely have a different attitude when they go into the room, compared to someone like Thyme.

Then there are the people who are naturally good or bad at the simulations, and it’s typically hard to tell which is which. Like Laurel told you, your friends are close to the twenty minute range, and as far as you know, you’re the only outlier. You can always time people on your watch, but it’s not the same, not really.

Anyway, it’s been about four days since you’ve so much as glanced at Finnick in front of Thyme. It was a smart move to make, because she might have started off stiff, but she’s officially cooled down. She’ll still glare at you occasionally, then again she was doing that before the party, so it’s not a surprise or a change of routine.

Because of that, the only times you’ve gotten to talk to Finnick was in bits and pieces when Thyme wasn’t around. Which was practically never, considering that she attached to him like a parasite and doesn’t let go. You’d hardly be able to get a full sentence in before she came around again. Laurel wasn’t much help either, she didn’t give you any accidental golden chances either.

The more time passed, the more anxious you got over the fact that Finnick might have been thinking that you were backtracking. You were making no real effort to get alone time, not to mention you felt like your grasp was slipping. You said so yourself, you had Finnick in your hold. And leaving him with Thyme for four days all alone might change things.

In order to finally ease the stress that’s been eating away at you, you went ahead and sealed the leap of faith. It’s taken you four days to finally come to terms with the fact that you have to tell Finnick that you’re Divergent, whether you like it or not. You can tell yourself that it’s an unnecessary risk, and that he might already have some biased ideas somehow. But the truth is, you won’t know until you try.

A slight problem is you didn’t get to invite Finnick to the chasm before Laurel called you into the fear room. So, you had to ask Laurel for a favor, which was to call Finnick in next and send him through the second door in the room that will bring him to the dark hallway. It’ll be completely out of the way of Thyme, you won’t have to worry about accidentally running into her on the way to the chasm.

Fortunately for you, today you had to be locked in a coffin underground, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. You hope that the same goes for Finnick, because you really would like him to be in the right headspace before you go ahead and dump your biggest secret onto his shoulders. You don’t want it to end up being the last straw that does it.

You twist your wrist towards your face, making the watch light up in the hallway. If you’ve been tracking the time correctly, it’s coming in fifteen minutes. You should have another five to go, and even that might be an overestimation.

You yawn, cracking your knuckles before getting to your feet. The last time you jumped out at Finnick from the wall, you scared him pretty bad, so you’re not entirely sure if there’s a way to get around it this time. There’s no lantern for you to steal from the wall, not that you’re sure if you’ll be able to do that, anyway.

About a minute or so later, the door finally opens. You emerge from the wall, standing off to the side of the hallway with your arms crossed. There’s just enough light from the room to light you up, so Finnick spots you easily.

He has one hand reached up and placed over the spot where Laurel injects the serums. For a second, his eyebrows draw in like he’s confused, but then a smile slowly comes onto his face. You lean around Finnick to thank Laurel, she’s already holding a hand up, and then shoos you.

You hold out your hand for Finnick to take, and you watch as he takes it. You pull him along, he lets the door slip shut behind him with a gentle click. The hallway falls back into a pitch black, and you’re left to guide Finnick. You remember when it was the other way around, with you relying on him to warn you of where you step.

“What are we doing today?” he asks, “Another secret party?”

At the thought of your confession, an ache starts in your chest. If only it were something fun, “No, I think I’m going to tell you everything today.” With the exception of one thing, one little thing that doesn’t exactly have any connection to the blackmailing problem.

“Oh.” he says, you’re not sure you’d have anything to say in response to that, either.

The hallway finally splits into two, you head off to the right. It’s only a hundred or so more feet when you begin to hear the rushing water. You have to swallow to ease the growing tension in your throat. Finnick should be fine, you’ve known him a long time. He’ll give you a chance to explain yourself before judgement.

At least, you hope he will.

You let go of his hand in the doorway, continuing to your spot on your own. To the same place you stood last time you spoke to him. This time, you don’t lean against the railing. Knowing you, you’ll get caught up in the conversation and end up falling off backward.

Finnick resumes his spot across from you on the wall.

You have to remind yourself to take deep breaths, “I need you to listen all the way before you make any judgement calls, okay?”

You don’t want to look at him, this will be so much easier if you don’t look.

“Okay,” he agrees.

You know where to start, you’ve rehearsed this exact moment several times, thought up every single possibility. You found the best way to explain why, all you have to do is start speaking.

You swallow.

“It starts with the aptitude test,” you begin, eyes focused on the toe of your shoes. Is this too far back? No, it’s where the root lies, “Normally people get a straightforward result, but I got inconclusive.” you have to look at his face, it’s neutral besides his eyebrows, “Which means that I didn’t place for just one faction, I placed for three. Abnegation, Erudite and Dauntless.”

You pause for a moment, letting him process this. You feel like you’re speaking too slowly, he isn’t a baby. But this is new to him, right?

“How?” he asks, the confusion is setting in.

“Um,” you're hyper aware of your shaking hands, “Well, the choices in the aptitude test are supposed to eliminate a faction each stage. The cheese was for Amity, and the knife was for Dauntless. I chose the knife, so that’s a Dauntless oriented response. But I was vulnerable to the dog, which is Erudite thinking. Then I threw myself in front of the dog, bringing out Abnegation.

“Candor was ruled out when I didn’t tell the truth, and Erudite and Dauntless were brought up again when I posed some stupid question and stood up for myself. And technically it wasn’t a conditioned Abnegation response, either.” You lace your fingers together, “I hold equal aptitude for Abnegation, Dauntless and Erudite. The term for it is Divergent.”

Now you hold your breath, watching the gears turn in his head. You’ll be patient, let him come to conclusions on his own. Maybe he’ll suddenly solve the Thyme problem on his own, only allowing you to fill the gaps. Maybe he won’t, and he’ll demand more information.

The silence is overwhelming, “My legal result is Abnegation.”

His eyes flicker to you, “Why do you say Divergent as if it’s a bad thing?”

You think you’ll cry, “Because I can be killed for it if people find out.”

Finnick understands, you can tell by the way he goes rigid, “You’re not kidding?”

“No.”

Please don’t start running. Please don’t have ill intentions. Please say that you’ll keep it a secret.

“Okay, I can understand why you’ve been like this,” he slumps slightly, a frown coming over his face.

You know what he’s thinking, “Finnick, don’t think that I don’t trust you,” you move forward a little, “I don’t…” you take another deep breath, “A lot of people know right now, and my worst nightmare has already happened.”

He’s still watching you, “Like what?”

A metallic taste spreads over your tongue, “You asked if Thyme said anything to me, and I said yes,” your throat is closing, “You remember that?”

He nods.

“Well, when our families came to visit, Mox and his small family came and visited me,” Finnick raises his eyebrows, he must’ve missed them, “Just before they left, Mox told me that Caspian knows I’m Divergent, and he’ll look out for me. Then he told me that these two stages of initiation are going to be easy, because of the way my brain works so I need to be careful not to get caught, whatever.

“I went to leave the area that we talked in, and Thyme had overheard everything.” Your eyes find Finnick’s face again.

And he is bright red, eyebrows turned down, “What did she say?”

“She said that if I don’t stay away from you, she’ll tell everyone I’m Divergent.”

He doesn’t move for a long moment, jawline becoming more obvious each time he grits his teeth. His eyes cast towards the path you have to take to get away from the chasm.

You feel like crying, this is the exact reaction you were looking for. Anger because the person that’s been playing sweetheart and hanging off his arm has secretly been blackmailing you for a week.

“Is that all?”

No.

“Yes.”

There’s something else that you need to tell him.

“Does she know that they’ll kill you for it?”

You shrug slightly, “It’s Thyme we’re talking about, do you really think she’d care about that?”

“Probably not.” he mumbles.

You scuff your shoe against the rocks, pressing your lips together. You should tell him, do it real quick to get it out of the way. You’ve already spoken about so much, what’s one more?

When you open your mouth, the words lodge themselves in your throat, refusing to move. You settle for sighing instead.

He catches this, raising his eyebrows, “What’s wrong? Is there something else?”

Tell him.

“No, I told you everything.”

Finnick doesn’t lessen his gaze.

Just tell him you like him.

You smile, he doesn’t smile back, continuing to wait.

You’ve told him so much already, what’s one more?

“Come on, (Y/n),”

What if he doesn’t feel the same?

Silence.

It’s a chance you have to take.

You clear your throat.

No, you’re going to ruin recently established peace.

“I just wanted to apologize for the final fight, is all.”

What a lie.

Finnick doesn’t believe you, he turns his head to the side a little.

You shrug again, “I didn’t want to bring it up because I don’t want to bring up things in the past if you aren’t bothered by them.” you play with your fingers, trying to figure where to go next. Then you realize that there is a problem that you left unsaid, “Ah, right, I remember now.

“Besides the obvious reason why I was mad at you, I realized something during the fight which made it a whole lot worse,” you rub the back of your neck, trying to ease the growing tension, “You--um--you see me as an equal, right? Cause for a second, I was convinced you thought of me as lesser and that doesn’t… sit right with me…”

Finnick’s got his eyebrows screwed in, “An equal?”

“Yeah, like we’re on the same level ground and I’m not in some ditch or whatever.”

His face twists, “I’m sorry, but shouldn’t this had been in the meaningless conversation the other day?”

You open your mouth, eyebrows in. Once he starts laughing, you snap your mouth shut.

“I’m kidding, of course we’re on the same page.” he grins, showing his teeth, “I mean, if we weren’t, we wouldn’t be friends, would we?”

You purse your lips, “I guess not.”

“You guess?” he laughs again, “Anyway, I don’t care about the fight. You won fair and square, even though you were definitely hyped up on adrenaline.”

You smile.

Finnick eyes the hallway for a moment, the humor slowly fading from his face, “So what are we going to do about Thyme?”

Your heart twists when you hear the word ‘we’, “There’s no real way to get her to shut up, Finnick. Unless we somehow make her get cut during stage three.” you clench your teeth, “All my ideas have been permanent and illegal.”

He nods, “I can see why.”

“It’s a lifelong thing she can hold over me.”

“You can always tell Caspian.”

“He already knows,” you lean your head back and watch as Finnick looks at you, “You know when you caught me that morning getting ready super early?”

Finnick nods.

“Yeah, well, the leaders of Dauntless and our trainers will eat breakfast way before everyone else so that they can discuss initiation and stuff. So I got Caspian away from them and told him about Thyme, and he said he can’t help me anymore because Thyme accused him of interfering so he really needs to back off.”

You crack a smile, “Actually, he told me that I should tell you the truth about everything and have you work with me to find some solution. The problem is that he can’t know what I want to do with her, and he told me not to be too brash but it’s not like I have a choice.”

“We,” Finnick corrects, “It’s not like we have a choice.”

You give him a soft smile, “Right, we.”

Finnick stretches, arms above his head, letting out a groan, “I’m going to go ahead and guess that your plan includes murder.”

“Honestly, it was my first thought when she made me agree to it on Visiting Day.”

“And I don’t really see any other option besides beating her up and throwing her to the streets, but she’ll just tell the factionless that you’re…” he doesn’t say the word, eyebrows furrowing, “...and that would be the end of it.”

“Yup.”

He makes a face, “We should probably think it over some more.”

“That works, I guess,” you check your watch, thirty minutes have passed since the beginning of the conversation, “Alright, you go ahead and go back, I’ll follow after you in a couple.”

“Sure,” he says.

You expect him to start into the hallway immediately, but he comes towards you instead. You lift your head from the wall, face twisting in confusion. He holds a hand out for you, you go ahead and take it, not entirely sure what he wants. Is he going to bring you somewhere?

No, he pulls you into him for a hug. His arms wrap around your back, underneath your arms. Immediately, your face feels like it’s on fire, heart pounding in your ears. It takes you a moment, but you hug him back, placing your ear against his chest, closing your eyes. The last time you hugged was before the Choosing Ceremony, when you weren’t sure if you’d see him ever again.

Your thought from earlier boomerangs back, much louder and begging this time for you to tell him that you have a crush on him. That you’ve had a crush on him for years, you just couldn’t say so before because of Abnegation ideals and how taboo a relationship is.

You can’t though. You’ve said too much today, told him everything on your list. This confession, the very last one, is not as significant as the rest. You can tell him some other time.

Finnick gives you a gentle squeeze, “Thank you for trusting me.” he murmurs.

You swallow the tightness in your throat, “I’ve always trusted you more than the rest.”

He moves away first, a smile on his face, “I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Yeah.” Why are you dizzy all of a sudden?

He leaves now, all you can do is place your hands on your head, fingers interlaced as you turn to the railing. There’s tears in your eyes, and you don’t even realize it until they’re rolling down your cheeks. You sniff, and then huff out a laugh, bringing your hands back down to wipe them off.

You and Finnick are okay.

It’s a thought that keeps running through your head over the next hour. You’re okay, there’s no need to worry anymore. And he thinks that your problems are his again, it’s a good sign. The hug really topped it off, but it’s also the thing that broke you. He must’ve known that you needed one.

You loosely wander back to the dorm, having had enough of the chasm for one day. You’re more than sure that everyone is done facing their fears now, so it should be safe for you to come back without any suspicion. When you reach the door, you softly push against the wood and slip through the crack that’s barely big enough.

You expect to see everyone off in their usual corners, maybe a few people napping because the daytime is the only time when they can sleep anymore, maybe a few people missing. You’re pleasantly surprised to see that everyone is gathered together around the chalkboard that had given the first stage’s rankings.

Caspian is standing within the half-circle, his eyes follow you on your way in, “Now that (Y/n) has finally made it, I can show you.”

A few people glance over their shoulders, none of them dirty looks except for Thyme. You ignore her, and Finnick, going to stand on the side of Blaire that’s away from them, as if he’s some sort of shield. In classic Blaire behavior, he slings his arm over your shoulder.

“Are these the rankings for stage two?” you ask.

“Progress report,” he says, “Caspian’s showing us where we’re at so that we’re prepared for stage three and how badly we need to improve before then.”

An uneasiness grows in your stomach, heart skipping. Everyone is about to see where you’re at, and how far ahead you are. And with Thyme’s accusation of Caspian interfering, this is not going to look good.

Your teeth sink into your cheek, right into the wound you carved up earlier when you were with Finnick. The warm taste of blood crosses over your tastebuds again, the pain sharp.

Caspian doesn’t say another word as he reaches up to hang the board on the designated nail. He stands in the way for a moment, blocking the view. Then, he shoots you a look before stepping aside, a silent warning that you are not as undercover as you’re supposed to be.

And he’s so right.

Your name is the first one on the list.

Your breath hitches, body rigid, eyes glued to the board, blood running from your face. Three minutes and forty-five seconds. This must be your time from the first fear simulation, and you are so incredibly grateful that your two minute one hadn’t been put up there. It would be a lot worse, then. Suddenly, the predator would become prey.

The person in second is, unsurprisingly, Finnick. He has nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds. There is a five minute gap between you two, and it is so significant that it makes your stomach twist.

Someone looks at you, you think it’s Eytelle. Judging by the corner of your eye, she is incredibly angry, compared to Blaire, who has a tight grip on your shoulder, shaking it to bring you back to life. You think it’s praise, you think that he’s excited for you.

His name is in the third slot.

You look past Blaire, eyes finding Finnick for comfort. He’s already looking at you, his lips are pressed together. Thyme could easily mistake this as displeasure towards you, good. To you, this looks like worry. You told him you had to be careful, and this does not look like careful.

When you look at Thyme, you can see her arm loop around his, pressing her body into his side. She doesn’t speak very loud, only enough for Finnick to hear. Unfortunately for her, in Abnegation you’re all used to the silence and working around it so that you don’t disturb the others.

“She’s cheating.”

You elbow Blaire slightly, trying to get his arm off of you, “Laurel warned you about accusing me of cheating already.”

The silence in the room is overcome by the blood rushing in your ears, body heating up. You’re tired of people saying that you’re cheating, Thyme, Ameer, now Eytelle. Is it so hard to believe that you can be in first place without cheating? That you don’t need help to get there?

Thyme looks over at you, face twisting until her mouth drops and her eyes widen. She looks at Caspian, shaking her head, “I didn’t even say anything!”

“Except you did.” Cass says, she’s standing further back than the rest of you. Which means she’s got a clear view of Thyme, “You mouthed it.”

“But I didn’t say it, there’s a difference.”

“So you’re admitting to it?” Caspian asks.

This is when Thyme pales, “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Come with me.” Caspian starts towards the door, “Tomorrow’s a day off, don’t waste it.”

Thyme shoots you a nasty look on the way out.

The tension in the room doesn’t have time to grow, Blaire throws his arm back over your shoulder. You have to force a smile before you look at him, “Congrats.”

“Congrats to me?” Blaire’s laughing, the circle is beginning to form. They’re probably going to want to celebrate, “You’re in first!”

“I’m pretty sure (Y/n) meant to say, ‘Congrats for beating Lennox’.” Sydney laughs too, she’s in sixth, her hand is intertwined with Nestor, who holds the same smile. He’s placed in fifth.

Lennox makes a warning face at her, it’s playful. You can tell because he can’t keep the expression for very long before smiling. Lennox is in fourth.

Trink, who’s in eighth place, is bouncing next to him, face suddenly lighting up, “Oh! That means that Lennox owes you his twenty points!”

Lennox lets out a groan, “No, don’t remind her!”

In order of first place to last, the list goes as follows: You, Finnick, Blaire, Lennox, Nestor, Sydney, Cass, Trink, Ameer, Mirza, Thyme, Allio, Eytelle, and Horace. The rankings from the first stage have definitely flipped. Allio was first, now he’s last. Eytelle’s isn’t all that surprising either, she nearly got cut on the last stage too. She was saved by Amos and Ossie.

There are fourteen of you. If Dauntless only accepts the top ten, then that means Thyme, Allio, Eytelle and Horace will immediately be cut. Which would partially solve the Thyme problem, only she would still know you’re Divergent and would be able to tell people later on,

When you look at Finnick, you think that he’s working on the same thought process.

“Well?” Sydney says, “Hand the points over, loser.”

Lennox punches her arm, “Shut--”

“Hey, Lennox,” you nudge him with your elbow, “You can just pay me five every month so I don’t run you dry.”

He stops, raising his eyebrows, “Are you sure?”

You shrug, “How else are we supposed to get celebratory tattoos today?”

Ameer and Mirza let out a whoop, leading the way out. They placed ninth and tenth, you’re not entirely sure if you'd be celebrating if you were them, but then again, they aren’t going to get cut. If they keep this up for the final stage, they’ll be golden.

As expected, there are a couple of people that stay back, namely Eytelle and Allio, who are giving you dirty looks like Thyme normally does. Horace trails behind Ameer and Mirza since they’re refusing to leave him behind. You have to grab onto Finnick to make sure that he doesn’t stay here, either.

“Hey Blaire!” You call, making him turn, “Finnick was wondering who you think the hottest leader out of all the factions is. He was thinking about Haymitch.”

“(Y/n)--?” Finnick strangles out, giving you an incredulous look. You flash him a smile, pushing him forward into Blaire.

“Really? I was thinking Mags.” Blaire snorts.

Even though it was risky, you and Finnick went ahead and got matching tattoos like a couple of idiots. It was a long process of trying to figure out a middle ground. You’d suggest something like the Abnegation logo and Finnick would look at you disgusted. Then he would suggest something vulgar, and it would be your turn to look at him like he was doing it on purpose.

Since it took a while, by the time you two made the decision, Blaire, Sydney and Nestor were the only three that were still willingly sitting with you. Lennox and Trink had disappeared sometime during the middle, Ameer, Mirza and Horace went to play a dangerous game near the Pit drop off. And Cass got distracted when she realized that her blonde hair was perfect for dying.

You can’t take all the credit for the tattoo idea, it really stemmed from Sydney and Nestor when they showed you theirs. If they stand side by side, with Nestor on the right and Sydney on the left, and lift up their shirts, they have a flutter of butterflies across their ribs that make a whole picture.

So, you and Finnick decided to get something like that, but a lot simpler. No color or shading, just the lining of two hands holding out their pinkies to make a promise. Yours is on your left shoulder, and Finnick’s is on his right. It can’t really be seen unless you force your shirt over, so there’s not a lot of risk.

Unless Finnick walks around shirtless, and someone catches a glimpse of your tattoo and Thyme somehow finds out and puts two and two together. However, you don’t see that happening any time soon. As far as you’re concerned, she’s completely oblivious to the planning that’s going on between you two.

You tie your hair in a knot at the back of your head, desperate to get it off the back of your neck. Next to you, Trink is twirling her hair around her finger like she always is. She’s also leaning into Lennox more than she usually does, so something definitely happened between them yesterday when they left.

Lennox seems to be making an effort to stick close to her, too. This morning, they had sat next to each other at breakfast, glued to the hip and refused to let anyone sit in the middle. It makes you think that they’ve officially started dating, but they’re not acting like it. Not like Sydney and Nestor.

Your eyes drag over to Finnick and Thyme, they’re sitting on the other side of the dining hall. She sits across from him, body turned so that she isn’t facing you. Finnick, on the other hand, has made sure that he can see you from where he sits. He’s not eating his lunch anymore, his cheek is cupped in one hand.

And his other is on his shoulder, where his new tattoo is.

You sit up a little straighter, wondering how long he’s been waiting for you to see. You and him decided to make a sign for if one wants to talk to the other, so that you two don’t have to keep waiting to talk to each other after fear facing. He suggested that putting your hand over the tattoo would be it, a telltale sign to go to the chasm after whatever you’re done doing.

Finnick briefly glances over, you go ahead and place your own hand over your shoulder, giving him a gentle nod before looking back at your friends. You need a way to get out, you’ve been sitting here, done with your lunch for a while. You’re sure that they’ll understand.

You place your hands onto the table, getting ready to push yourself up. This immediately catches Trink’s attention, she slowly tears her eyes from whatever Blaire is talking about, to look at you. Her eyebrows are raised, mouth parted.

“I’m going to disappear for a while,” you say, “I’ll catch up with you guys later.”

Trink pouts for a moment, “Can you be back before dinner this time? I thought we could all sit around and play some Dauntless games.”

You shrug with one shoulder, “Sure, no problem. I’ll keep track of the time on my watch.”

She smiles, “Thank you.”

You say your goodbyes to the others, punching Blaire’s shoulder on the way out.

You’re the first to escape the dining hall, taking your time when you walk to the chasm. There’s no question that you’ll be back before dinner. Only in your dreams will you be able to hang around Finnick for longer than thirty minutes at a time, anymore. On the off-chance that you stay behind for a while, Sydney and Nestor know where to find you.

You get halfway down the long hallway that drops off at your corner, when there’s a rapid sound of footsteps behind you. You raise your eyebrows, a smile on your face when you spot Finnick running at you. He holds his hands out, making a noise that’s a mix of a snarl and a snort.

You get it, you’re supposed to run away.

You play along, running down the hallway in the dark. It’s dangerous, you could trip and fall. But then again, your whole life has been dangerous since the moment you finalized your decision of joining Dauntless. On your first day you jumped from a moving train to a rooftop! You hung from the chasm bridge by your fingers! You ziplined face first off of a building! You’re Divergent, for fuck’s sake!

At this point, you’re beginning to think that danger could really be your middle name.

Your guys’ laughter echoes off the stone walls, you can see your little dip for the chasm coming up, preparing to throw yourself against the wall to avoid Finnick. He’s much quicker than you, his hands clamping around your upper arms as he pretends to roar.

Tears appear in your eyes, you wipe them away, “Okay, get off of me.”

Finnick’s still chuckling to himself when he goes to his far wall. He doesn’t stand, though, he sits down immediately. You go ahead and follow, criss-crossing your legs and placing your hands in the gap in the middle.

“So, what’d you call me here for?” you ask.

Finnick shrugs, “I just didn’t want to be around her anymore. She kept asking me if she thought you were cheating. I think she’s a little on edge now that you keep ranking on top.”

“I can’t help it,” you murmur.

“I know,” he says, his legs extended in front of him, “I didn’t mean anything by it.”

You smile, “Have any ideas on how to solve the problem?”

He shakes his head, “I mean, at this rate she’ll probably get kicked out, but that isn’t what we’re looking for, right?”

You press your lips together, “It’s not realistic.”

“I figured as much, don’t worry.” he looks off to the side, “What if we blackmail her?”

You don’t answer him right away, “We don’t really have any leverage.”

“But if we trick her into it?” Finnick asks, sitting up, “Like, I could hint at getting rid of you from number one somehow, which will keep her in the top ten so she wouldn’t get cut.”

You try to hide your horror when you remember just how alike you and Finnick are. Sometimes you forget that you’ve been around each other for so long that you ultimately have the same brain. You could be thinking something, and he’d probably be able to guess what.

“I’m… not sure…” you manage to get out, “if I still want to be the--um--center of the danger...?”

Finnick doesn’t question you, nodding, “But it’s an idea.”

“I guess? How about we put that on the back burner and try again?”

Finnick gives you a funny smile, “I’m not sure if any of my other ideas will be as perfect as that one so bare with me.”

“Sure.”

And he’s right, once the two of you try brainstorming again, you’re not really coming out with any ideas that you like. You’d really like to go for the first one, but you’re not sure how Finnick would even lead her in that direction. You have no doubt that Thyme wouldn’t have any qualms about murdering you to get ahead. To her, that would be the perfect solution to keep you away from Finnick forever.

The real problem would be to frame her for thinking it up on her own without getting Finnick mixed in there somewhere. Also, there would need to be witnesses--other than you and Finnick--because it’s already known that you three aren’t exactly the best trio when you’re around each other. You could end up getting in trouble, Thyme could figure out that you’re working with Finnick, and it could end right there.

Finnick suggests accusing her of being Divergent, giving it a little spin. You shoot him down, explaining that your results had to be entered manually. Not to mention, she could always spin it back on you, and then the two of you could be taken away together.

He’s not very quiet when he calls you a buzzkill.

You glance at your watch.

“Is time up?” Finnick asks.

“Is it that obvious?” you joke, beginning to get up, “We can always brainstorm tomorrow, it’s not like we don’t have a week until initiation ends.”

You stretch your arms above your head. Finnick gets to his feet too, sliding his hands into his pockets, “Before I go, I actually had something I wanted to tell you.”

“Yeah, sure,” you smile, leaning against the wall.

“I know we just started being okay again...” Finnick trails off suddenly, eyes fixated on something in the dark. You open your mouth, going to ask what he’s looking at, but he takes a hand out of his pocket, palm-down as if to tell you not to speak.

“Who are you talking to?”

You can feel your blood run cold.

Finnick moves forward, “I was practicing.”

You knew that going past thirty minutes would be a mistake, but you didn’t think that Thyme would come looking. Did she follow you guys? No, she would have come out a lot sooner. Then again, she waited until you found her to say anything about you being Divergent.

And there’s only two people that know this spot is yours. Which means that Thyme might have gone asking about Finnick, she came up with some excuse, and ended up here.

You close your eyes, tilting your head up to the ceiling, holding your breath.

“No, there was another voice, I heard it. Who are you talking to?” Thyme demands, her shoes are loud against the floor.

You look over to Finnick, who’s trying to walk towards her to make her backtrack.

“It’s (Y/n), isn’t it?” she asks, her voice is getting closer.

“Thyme, no one is there,” Finnick says.

“Then prove it, move out of the way,” she presses her hands to his chest.

You scoot to the left, moving away as you exaggerate a nod.

You two can trap her here, and figure out where to go from there. The more you think about murder, the more your heart skips. You can’t just kill her, someone will figure out that it’s you two that did it. Thyme goes looking for you two, who are known for hanging out together now, and she doesn’t come back?

You have to convince her not to say anything about you being Divergent.

Finnick moves aside, allowing her to look for herself. His eyes lock with yours, lips pressed together into a tight line, shaking his head. He doesn’t know what you’re going to do, but he’s sure that it isn’t going to work. You wish he’d have a little more faith.

Thyme comes around the corner, arms crossed over her chest, mouth twisted into an angry mess. You reach out, grabbing her arm and throwing her towards the railing, trading spots with her. She catches herself on the railing with her hands. You used too much momentum, she could’ve fallen.

Finnick moves around you, standing on your right side. Thyme slowly turns around, eyes landing on you first, “You’re so fucking stupid.”

You stare at her, not saying anything. She goes to walk around Finnick, but he moves when she does. He’s not going to let her through, and she doesn’t understand this at first. Only when he mirrors her movements again, does she shoot a glare at him.

“Finnick, you don’t understand what she is,” Thyme’s voice changes significantly, from anger to softness, “I don’t know what she told you, but it wasn’t the truth.”

“So it’s not true that you’re blackmailing her?” Finnick asks plainly.

Thyme gapes for a moment, clearly not expecting him to outright say it.

“You’re not a very good actress,” you say, “you should work on being less transparent.”

Her eyes flicker to you, and she’s back to being pissed, “I told you what would happen if you came near him.”

“And I warned you about what would happen if you did this to me, Thyme.”

She doesn’t get it, you can tell by the way her face scrunches up. The more the gears turn, the more her face relaxes and she pales instead. You’re glad you’ll be able to see the terror in her eyes, the same terror you felt when you realized that she had heard about your secret.

“You won’t be able to kill me.” Her voice isn’t as smooth as it was before.

“What makes you think that?” you ask, tilting your head a bit, “You think that just because Finnick’s here, he’ll save you? If that were the case, he would’ve let you go by now, don’t you think?”

No comeback.

“What’s the plan?” Finnick asks, glancing at you.

“Don’t let her think for you, Finnick,” Thyme blurts, “You told me yourself that you hate it when she’s in your head like this!” she reaches out for him, he takes a step back, “And now that it’s happening again, you’re just going to let it go?”

“I never said that.” Finnick suddenly snaps, “I said I hated it when she’s in her head, like she can’t tell me anything.”

You ignore the wrenching feeling in your heart. You need to focus.

“Did she tell you that she has Erudite tendencies?” Thyme asks, not a hint of regard in her tone.

You straighten up, because it’s decided. She just sealed her fate by asking him that question. Had she shown a little restraint, a little bit of sympathy, then she would’ve been fine. But just saying it out in the open like that, trying to use it as leverage again…

You reach out, grabbing her wrist harshly, “Throw her over.”

Thyme’s face changes, façade dropping again. She raises her other hand up, fist formed and aimed at your face. Finnick catches her wrist, holding it above her head. She starts yanking her arms down, “No--no, let me go!”

“Give me her other wrist, you can take her feet.” Finnick says, “I can hold her up higher than you can.”

“Stop!” the scream is shrill, “No!”

Finnick holds both of her hands above her head. If he wanted to, you’re sure, he could pick her off of the ground like this. His arms aren’t even fully extended yet, that’ll come in when you have to pick her up to get her over.

“Finnick, please!” she tilts her head back, “Please don’t do this, I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing to me?” Finnick glares.

You sweep up her feet, holding her ankles together under your arm for when she starts kicking.

“(Y/n), don’t!” Thyme inhales, a sob follows after, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I won’t say anything, please don’t do this.”

You let go of her feet when they’re over the railing, letting her scramble to find footing. Finnick doesn’t let go of her arms yet.

“I warned you,” you say again, staying on her right side. You place both hands on the railing, leaning forward so that she can see your face, “I warned you that you’d end up here if you went through with this. You’ll be lucky if they find your body this far down the river.”

“They’ll catch you,” she sobs, her eyes bloodshot, hair blowing up because of the wind from the river, “you won’t get away with this.”

You give her a smile, “No one in this faction will miss you.” you lean in a little, “They might even thank me.”

“Or think you committed suicide because there’s no way you’re surviving initiation.” Finnick says.

“Hey, being dead is better than being factionless, right?”

Thyme sucks in a deep breath through her mouth, “Help!”

You snort, “Thyme, we are so far down this hallway that you’d be lucky if someone heard you.” you look at Finnick, giving him a nod, “Any last words?”

“Finnick, I thought I was your friend!” she screams, leaning backwards, away from the river.

“I was wrong.” he says plainly, letting go of her wrists.

Thyme teeters for a moment, looking like she’s going to catch her balance. All it takes is one pat on the back to send her flying forward, “Good luck!” you shout.

Her screams are loud, and are cut off suddenly when she hits the water. You don’t move from where you stand next to the railing, Finnick comes up beside you, wrapping an arm around your back, hand squeezing your upper arm as he pulls you into his side.

All you can think about is what your father would think, after being murdered by a factionless. How his daughter, who had suffered from this loss, went through with a half-baked plan like it was her only option. How selfish it was to save yourself.

You need a distraction.

You suck in a shaky breath, closing your eyes when your head dips, “What were you going to tell me before she came?”

Finnick’s quiet for a moment, “That I’m Divergent too.”

It’s late into the night when they discover Thyme’s body, and you’re already wide awake when Trink shakes you to let you know. You have to pretend to be groggy when she helps you down from the top bunk, already tugging on your arm to get you to move faster.

You couldn’t sleep, not after what you’ve done.

There are only a few people awake, you notice. Blaire is hovering over Finnick’s bed, a hand on his shoulder as he speaks quietly. When Blaire notices you staring, he nods at you. Finnick is rubbing his eyes, but his movements are far too soft for a person who just woke up. He wasn’t sleeping either.

Trink doesn’t stop to wait for them, bringing you right through the door and down a series of hallways, taking you deeper into the Dauntless headquarters than you’ve ever dared to go. There must be another place where the river shows up besides your corner, otherwise you don’t think they would have found her.

“How’d you know?” you ask her, trying to sound like you’ve just woken up.

She seems to believe it, “Lennox was trying to be cute by showing me where the river leads because I mentioned that I like it. And we followed it all the way back here, and I don’t know how he saw her body through the dark because I couldn’t see at all. But he saw, and told me to stay put while he got help.”

She looks at you, “When Lennox got back, he told me that one initiate dies every year because of their ranks.” she’s shaking her head, “But I don’t understand why she wouldn’t just choose to be factionless?”

You shrug, feigning a frown. The plan is working exactly like you hoped it would, not a single finger has been pointed toward you. Then again, it might be too early to speak, her body was just found.

Thumping footsteps makes you and Trink turn back to see who it is. Trink gives room between you two to allow Blaire and Finnick in. Finnick comes right up your left side, his tattooed shoulder to yours. His hand finds yours, squeezing tightly.

You didn’t believe him when he told you he was Divergent. You were convinced that he was just telling you that to level out with you, to make you feel better and that you weren’t alone after all. But the more he kept talking, the details he was giving, the more you realized that he was telling the truth.

On the aptitude test day, Finnick had been stuck in the room with the Candor man. And that detail alone was enough to begin to settle the doubt because the Candor aren’t supposed to lie. An adult man in Candor shouldn’t have the urge to hide a Divergent teenager, especially if they’re supposed to be a danger to everyone else. Candor is supposed to be the law.

Finnick kept going, telling you that he took his aptitude test like normal. It was only after the test did he realize that something was wrong because of the look on the Candor man’s face. Finnick figured that the man was new, he looked confused and didn’t move from the aptitude test for a long time.

When Finnick asked what was wrong, he was told that the test accidentally gave him two results. One of them being Dauntless, the other being Abnegation. The Candor man went ahead and manually entered Dauntless, though, because the Abnegation part of him was ‘so insignificantly small’ that it couldn’t even count towards Divergence. But when Finnick caught a glimpse of the screen…

You were still confused on how Finnick didn’t know the terminology for it, then, if that’s the case. He said that the Candor man never explicitly used the word ‘Divergent’ or ‘inconclusive’, he just said that the results came out as an accident, it happened all the time, and there was nothing to worry about. That was the reason why manually entering results was possible in the first place.

And since you’re not supposed to discuss faction results, Finnick never had the reason to tell you his result or the aptitude problem in the first place. Honestly, he’s lucky he made it this far without casually telling anyone. Plus, you can’t imagine what he felt like while you were explaining your own Divergence to him, the realization of just how dangerous it is.

It explains a lot, though. Why Finnick’s time is so low when he faces his fears, but it makes you wonder why it isn’t as low as yours? Is it because he’s only Divergent in two ways instead of three? And a part of you thinks that Laurel should’ve asked him if he was Divergent, or figured that out on her own. Unless, of course, he’s still within the reasonable time range, which blocks him from being so suspicious.

So many questions, and no one to answer them

“When’s the last time you’ve seen Thyme?” Trink asks, looking over at Finnick.

“Just before I left lunch yesterday.”

Trink looks at you, her eyes lowering into a squint, “Which was a few minutes after (Y/n), right?”

You nod. She better tread carefully, because if she starts pointing fingers at you two…

“Oh my god!” She lights up, “Does that mean you two are…?”

She’s making a scissor motion with her fingers, chopping them together with a slight head tilt. You think she’s trying to ask if you two are together without realizing how odd her symbol for it is.

“Dating?” you guess, Finnick’s grip tightens considerably, “No--”

“They’re holding hands,” Blaire grins, giving Finnick a wink.

Trink raises an eyebrow, “I bet you two are taking it slow, huh? Since you’re both Stiff’s.”

“We were Stiffs.” Finnick corrects her.

“Same difference,” she waves it off, “I’m just surprised you two can hold hands without being a mess.”

If she were standing next to you, you would’ve punched her.

“Anyway, did Thyme ever come find you?” Blaire asks.

You turn to your right to look at him again, “What?”

“Yeah, she asked us if we knew where you were, and Sydney told her that you were probably by some empty corner of the chasm. When Sydney asked why, Thyme said she wanted to apologize or something.”

You called it, you said that she probably went looking for one of you. And she did. If she had waited to eavesdrop, though, she would’ve heard you and Finnick speaking. She could’ve wreaked so much havoc, but she wasn’t patient enough for that. You’re thankful.

Your grip on Finnick’s hand is like iron.

“We never saw her,” Finnick says casually, looking at Trink, shaking his head, “(Y/n) and I were in the party room messing with the microphone for an hour before we decided to head back to the dorm.”

“Oh, it’s still in there?” Blaire asks, he sounds a little excited.

“Yeah! At least when we were in there,” you say.

“Huh,” Trink’s eyebrows are drawn in, “Do you think she was looking for you to make amends or something, and when she realized that you didn’t want to see her, she killed herself in that corner?”

“Didn’t Lennox think it was for ranks?” Finnick’s trying to steer her back to her original point.

“It could be both,” Trink shrugs, “I was just saying. It’s over here.”

She takes the lead, bringing you three around another corner before you all come to a stop. Lennox has his back to you guys, his arms crossed, but he’ll lift one every now and then when he speaks, like he’s trying to explain the situation. Off to the side, there’s a large puddle of water beneath a motionless body.

Thyme is soaked from head to toe, lying on her back. Her head is faced away, toward the ledge that has no railing. Wet hair, flattened against the ground and the sides of her face. Her clothes are like a second skin with the way they stick to her body.

A woman is holding a blue lantern up, staring down at Thyme. If it weren’t for the light, this whole area would be pitch black. And with the light, you’re able to see the ear piercing that you insisted on her getting when you and Finnick got nose piercings.

Finnick draws in a breath, and doesn’t release. Blaire stays on your other side, staring. Trink is the only one who moves forward, coming up behind Lennox to tell him that she’s brought you two. Her hand is gentle on his back, and he offers you three a half-glance, a nod, and then turns back to the man he’s talking to. Trink doesn’t leave his side.

“I’m… so sorry, Finnick,” Blaire says slowly, not being able to tear his eyes from the puddle of water.

“Don’t be, she wasn’t really my friend, anyway.” he gives your hand a squeeze.

Was she anyone's?

You try to bring out some sense of remorse, thinking that you should at least pretend to be upset, but what’s the use? Everyone in the transfer initiate group knows how much you hated each other, it would be weird for you to cry over her. In fact, it’s even weirder that Finnick isn’t crying over her.

Besides, you can’t fake an emotion that’s the complete opposite of what you’re feeling. In order to be a good actress, you have to feel what your audience would feel at that moment, and you just can’t do it. There’s something else that’s brewing, something more sickening and vile and would most definitely get you in trouble.

It’s pure gleeful laughter, the relief and satisfaction of knowing that you will never have to deal with her again. Much less worry that she could snap at any moment and get you killed. No more pressing your ears to closed doors, no more walking on eggshells...

At the rate the balloon is swelling in your chest, you’re not sure if you’ll be able to hold it in.

ANTERIC IS A SPIN-OFF DIVERGENT AU //MASTERLIST//

add yourself to the TAGLIST

@amixedwitch / @justthatfangirloverthere / @fnnshelbys / @neenieweenie / @vxntae / @liaaacantwrite / @terezasworld / @i-dumb-bitch /

#ilguna #finnick odair #finnick odair imagine #finnick odair oneshot #finnick odair fanfic #finnick odair x reader #anteric #anteric chapter nine #finnick odair anteric

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theplanetprince · 2 years

Text

Amity Park Anomalies || Ch.3

Fic: AO3 | FFN

Fandom: Danny Phantom

Characters/Relationships: Wesley Weston, Dash Baxter, Sidney Poindexter

Fic Summary: Local paranormal Skeptic Wesley Weston aka Atlasdunked and paranormal enthusiast Dash Baxter aka Hisdudefriday discuss and explore the issues plaguing their town. Amity Park is a hotbed for supernatural activity, and who’s to say that’s all there is? We follow two amateur investigators trying to uncover the monsters under your bed, and the things that go bump in the night. They answer the questions you’re too afraid to ask.

Chapter Summary: Dash discusses his paranormal experiences.

Content warnings: Extreme Medical Trauma, Paralysis, Parental neglect, Starvation, Unreality, Temporal Displacement, Possession

"Hey…" The familiar voice began. The glow of his computer catching his skin. There was a sharp exhale. The curtains were drawn, as to not draw any attention from outside. According to the article complete darkness was necessary for the ritual, but he couldn’t find it in his heart to shut off his computer. If he was going to die, he at least wanted his last words down somewhere.

"It's just me tonight. On my own." He blinked at the clock in the corner. Watching it tick down. He wondered if this would be the night.

He groaned, struggling to keep his eyes open, "I don't know why I thought this would help." There was a small laugh, "uh… for first-time listeners, hi, I'm his-dude-friday. Normally, I'm in a duo. My cohost, Wes, formally known on this broadcast as Altas-dunked, he's made plans to spend some time with his girlfriend."

There was some canned studio laughter from the soundboard.

At the illusion that Dash wasn't completely alone, he smiled at this. He perked up slightly, "Shocked? Yeah, me too."

See! He could be funny! Just… when no one else was around. Okay, it probably didn't count. There was a void. Dash rubbed the pit of his elbow. This was the first night in quite while he had been alone. Dash’s parents always worked nights or traveled. Why they even have a house at all was beyond him. They seem more acquainted with hotels and the like. Dash got away with so much because— what were his parents going to do about it? Oh yeah, he smashed a vase they barely care about. Too bad they’re five thousand miles away. Why bother having a kid at that point?

Baxter had turned on the TV, flipped the channel to a sitcom he hated. The badgering wacky roommates and the fictional hijinks between two actors who looked like they’d rather be doing anything else did little to comfort him. He thought it would be like having actual warm bodies in his home, but no. The jock had near memorized the TV Channel guide, but there was no substitute. He wanted to talk to someone. He wanted to hear a reply. It was an undeniable need like if he didn’t, he would suddenly burst.

Dash would typically find a friend to crash with or invite people over, even ones he didn’t know very well to dull the silence. Wes had been at least consistent. It was nice having consistency.

"I guess we typically meet up every Thursday? I think? Anyway, it just felt kind of weird not having something out there."

In reality, no one was ever afraid of being alone. No one was ever really alone. The fear was something was with you. Just over your shoulder. In the corner of your eye. Always with you. Watching. Waiting…

It was a tightrope. Dash didn’t care for most people, and most didn’t care for him. Yet, he needed someone, anyone, to fill the silence of his home. The quarterback’s fascination with the paranormal came from a place of trying to humanize the presence that perched on his shoulders. If he could understand it, as dumb as he was, then it couldn’t be… that bad.

"I mean, there’s like a hundred of you guys out there.” He tapped his nail on the computer screen to see if the number would suddenly fluctuate from its triple-digit standing. Dash imagined this is how adults felt about their credit score. Bigger numbers meant better results. Dash didn’t know a hundred people. He pretended to, but he didn’t think that many people would care about two kids screwing around. At a bit of a loss, he fumbled through, “So… thanks. I think that's what I'm supposed to say. I'll be totally honest; I don't know why you keep coming back?"

Dash could see his laughter on the read-out. It was forced. It didn’t hurt like real laughter did. It was a noise for noise’s sake, "I promise to do my best."

"I don't really have much to discuss tonight. I'm trying to prove something…” He fell silent as if expecting someone to ask what he was doing. Dash had been conditioned to be interrupted. He had even turned to his right, predicting a voice. The plastic wheels of his chair squeezed together as he made the fluid motion. The clock down the hallway ticked.

Geez, either he was tired, terrified, or genuinely missed Wes.

Shaking his head for a moment, Baxter had taken another pause to wipe his eyes of the sleep he was forgoing. Chastising himself for being so stupid, Dash groaned, "See, there's this urban legend that paranormal activity hits a significant increase at three in the morning. Since I have trouble sleeping anyway, I just thought I would at least be useful."

An 'Awwww' emerged from the speakers. The soundboard buttons had that squishable vinyl texture that had a muted click upon each press.

Another small smile grew on his features.

"Yeah.” Dash punctuated, not wanting to leave a gap in the sound, “I'm usually a night owl, don't feel too bad. I don’t really like sleeping; I’m kind of bad at it.” Leaning into the mike, he whispered, “Plus it would be cool to have proof to wipe that smug look off of Weston’s face.”

Checking the time, the jock reported, “We’re about ten minutes away from three.”

He did a double-take before yanking his digital clock towards his chest.

Oh shit, really? That’s a long time. That’s way too much dead-air.

“Uh… I guess I could tell you all a story. I didn’t really have anything ready...” Under his breath, he remarked, “Super pro-fesh, Baxter.”

… What was he supposed to say? He had to think of something to say— Dash hit his forehead with the side of his fist. He didn’t have any of his notes on Sidney laying around; there was still follow-up there. However, Dash didn’t want to be so engrossed in his talking points that he missed the hour. With so many thoughts running around in his head, it seemed like the first one that left his mouth would be the winner—

“Um, ha… I-I think I was possessed… once.”

Ding ding ding, blue ribbon.

Dash’s fingers fervently scratched at his scalp. Why? Why did he just say that?! This was live!

Reluctantly, he continued without provocation, “Well… I’m not an expert by any means— but I know I was possessed, once.”

With his own weighty sigh causing a spike in the waveform, the athlete elaborated, “I get… these blackouts from time to time? It varies. The shortest one was like thirty seconds. I had apparently thrown my lunch on the girl I was going to ask for homecoming. At the time, I think I was just stressed out. So, I wrote it off as like… a muscle spasm or something.”

“It happens every now and again. I just—” Dash snapped his fingers, “Switch off. Go offline. I don’t know what causes it…”

“I— I just see black.”

He had to stop looking at the clock. Leaning back into the chair until it creaked, the quarterback ran his hands over his face. Tracing every line and imperfection in his skin, “It’s scary. It’s really fuckin’ scary. The idea that something else is piloting me. It’s weird.”

“After the blackouts, I would get these bad migraines, and I still do…” His shoulders bounced helplessly, “Occasionally.”

“I would get the migraines— and I thought— whatever! I’m not getting enough water, yknow?” Resting his arms on his chest, he stared up at the smooth white ceiling, unable to discern it from the night sky itself. Faintly Dash could see the light from the monitor reflect off of the dome light that hung in the center of the room. That was his moon. It felt as far away as a heavenly body.

He repeated, “I’d get these migraines. I’d black out— come back, somewhere completely different.”

What was so jarring was seeing the sun’s position shift between the gaps in his memory. The time displacement. It was something he could never get back. The confusion between night and day— and then the desperation of finding out what day it was, it was complete vertigo. He was sleepwalking through his life.

“My mistake was that I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t… I didn’t want to make out to be a big deal, whatever. They would have put me on the bench— I-I didn’t want that.” Dash didn’t realize how thirsty he was; the lump in his throat wavered. He swallowed down, “Then they got longer. Hours sometimes. The longer I was gone, the worse I felt after. I would wake up at school after it closed...” Dash decided some details best remain foggy. He’d rather he didn’t know anything that he was doing, despite how much it clawed at the recesses of his mind.

“After the migraines, I’d get these shooting pains in my arms, and my… m-my heart would skip a couple of beats. That freaked me out the most. I kept imagining the thing inside me was… trying to tell me that it could end me whenever it wanted. I kept seeing this mental image of my heart literally enclosed in someone’s fist, and they were holding it down.”

Unconsciously Dash’s arms were moving around his neck, protecting his vital arteries. His skin itched at the thought of it. The thought of that someone who resided just below the surface. If he couldn’t trust himself—

Drawing his legs closer to the base of the chair, and with a shaky exhale from his nose, the jock ventured, “I would wake up in bed some mornings and— and I couldn’t… I couldn’t move my legs?”

“God…” He didn’t want to recall the utterly hopeless feeling during one particular flare-up. Waking up to an empty house, screaming for help. Dash had lied in bed for a day or so before the effects subsided. He had fully accepted by that point that he was going to starve to death like that before his parents came home. Now the quarterback shuddered, “That was the worst.”

That was rock bottom.

“A friend of mine…”

It was Kwan.

“He’d say I’d be in the middle of sentences and just stop. Uh… he was the one to force my hand an’ call a doctor about it.” Dash chuckled, feeling the heat of his face blend with his tears, “I don’t want to say he saved my life or anything, but yeah, probably, he probably did.”

“I remember the appointment was… kind of weird. I described my symptoms, and she, the doctor said what I was experiencing was aligned with people who’ve been— like struck by lightning?” Covering his eyes, Baxter cleaned himself up before pinpointing the right phrase, “Electrocuted. She said I was experiencing seizures related to mild electrocution.”

Still in disbelief over it all, Dash gripped the coverings for his ears, “Safe to say… I— a high school freshman, am not fuckin’ around on telephone poles.”

“I thought she was a total quack, but the medication she suggested did help, so,” Fitfully Dash resigned, “I don’t know.” he repeated even quieter, “I dunno.”

He sniffled. Wiping his nose on the back of his hand, the jock excused himself, “Allergies are real bad this year.”

Enough with feeling sorry for himself! Dash couldn’t believe he was crying. He was supposed to be better than this.

Scooting forward in his chair, Dash’s hands found his keyboard, and he began typing into the search bar, “I had read somewhere in Edna Wicket’s journal that victims of ghost possession often take on symptoms that caused the ghost’s death. And this testimonial I read. A ghost possessed this chick. She had described everything so vividly while under hypnosis, the blackouts, where she went during them, what her ghost looked like—”

The quarterback said, “I saw that reading up for this history assignment, and... it just clicked.”

At that moment, he turned to his head to the right where typically another chair would be beside him—expecting something.

Dash… realized that he sounded total banana nut bread, “I, uh… obviously have no proof.” He then amended his statement, “ —and ignoring my symptoms for so long clearly didn’t help, but going to a doctor did. So, score one for modern medicine.”

He hit the applause on the soundboard.

“That…” Baxter sighed again, trying to stomp out the excitement rising at the top of his gut, “Was sort of the first time I was possessed, and even then, I can’t say definitively that’s what it was.”

It felt good to have verbalized it after all this time. Even if there was no one there to pat his back, and walk him through it. Wes was a good influence on him, he’d hate to admit it, but it was almost comforting how he balked in the face of anything vaguely superstitious. It made his fears seem a lot smaller in comparison.

As pathetic as it was, he wheeled to his over to his closet, using his headset as a tether to navigate through the dark. The slatted doors needed a bit more force as the wheels got stuck on the track. Dash had removed one of his larger stuffed bears, before pulling himself back in front of his desk. He didn’t feel better but certainly, he felt a lot stupider. There would be no way the protag of a horror movie dies while holding a plushie. If this was Dash’s horror movie, he wanted to make it to the end.

The bear in question was a light lilac color, filled with sand it weighed closer to a barbell than a regular toy. It took up the space between his lap and clavicle. Its limbs were loosely stuffed for mobility. It was a good bear. The weight on his body acted as a grounding tool. The weight was real. Therefore this moment right now was real.

Barring his arms around the plush, Dash effectively pinned the bear to his chest and hunched over it. Burying his face in the soft fur. God, he hated being alone.

The clock in the hallway chimed on the hour. Three am. Showtime.

“Uh, shit, shit, shit. Uh okay, so I’m gonna turn off my computer monitor— ”

There was a hard click.

It was pitch black. The complete absence of light.

There would be no way anyone would be able to see anything past their nose.

Dash sniffled again, “I’m gonna shut up now.”

Sixty seconds didn’t seem like enough time to prove one’s existence, but Baxter didn’t feel like risking it. Everything seemed heightened in the dark. The water settled in the pipes picked the hell of a time to settle. At the very edge of this oblivion, the refrigerator downstairs gave off a faint buzz. The wind churned outside the window… dead tree branches scraped the shingles of the roof and sides of the house.

Digging his molars deeper into the flesh of his cheek with every faint hint of another presence with him, Dash refrained from moving. Counting his breaths, he stammered out, “Is— Is anyone here with me now?”

He wasn’t sure which would be worse. No proof, or the possibility that he was taunting a spirit in its natural element. He wasn’t sure which would be more favorable.

…

Beep. Beep. Beep-Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep-Bee—

Flush with relief, Dash threw down his headset, “What a rush huh! Sitting in a dark room, Jesus— I am never doing that again! We’re going to take a little break and we’re going to go over the classifications of EVPs or something. Keep it classy Amity Park!”

Oh, thank fuck. Dash’s watch alarm chimed. Pressing all four buttons allowed the face to glow for a few seconds. In this limit, Dash already turned on any available light within reach. Desk lamp, floor lamp, lava lamp. Ceiling light— wait, that needed a new bulb.

Scrambling out of the room, the quarterback tripped over his make-shift friend. He had pushed the door open with so much force it hit the outside wall with a pronounced smack. Dash’s heavy footfalls could be heard padding down the staircase.

…

The squishy vinyl buttons receded into the sound effect machine.

‘Awwww.’

‘Ooooo~!’

Applause.

‘Gone so soon?’

#Danny Phantom #dp #phic #Fic #horror #angst #dash baxter #wes weston #txt

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rohad93 · 3 years

Text

Moonlit Masquerade: Mother of the Bride Pt 2

Luz laid on her back across the bed staring up at the ceiling of their bedroom and kicking her feet back and forth, just as she’d been doing for the last forty-five minutes. She tugged at her dark green blouse.

“Are you ready yet?” she asked finally, turning her head to look at Amity’s back as she stood in front of the mirror carefully applying eyeliner.

“Almost, be patient,” Amity mumbled distractedly and Luz sighed.

“You said that almost an hour ago,” she groaned, dragging her hands down her face. “It’s just dinner with my mom.”

Amity stops what she’s doing and whips around to face her.

“It is not JUST dinner with your mom, Luz, this is... this is dinner with your MOM!” she emphasizes, and Luz blinks at her.

“I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what I just said.” she frowned and Amity groaned, rubbing a temple.

“I know this isn’t a big deal to you, Luz, but it is to me. I’ve never met your mom and we’re getting married in five months. I want her to like me, I need her to like me!” Amity slapped a hand against her chest, and if she looks a little hysterical at the moment, Luz isn’t going to tell her so, but she does sit up and hop up off the bed to wrap her arms around Amity’s waist as she turns back to the mirror, propping her head on her shoulder.

“Amor, relax,” Luz soothed. “Mami will adore you, what could she possibly not love about you?” she asked, giving her a gentle squeeze.

“The whole not human thing might be a reason…,” Amity frowned, pushing a stray strand of long auburn hair behind one of her pointed ears, eyes flickering to look at it. Luz noticed her glance. “I just… can’t have your mom hate me too.” it’s barely a whisper under her breath but she hears and Luz’s heart clenches at the quiet words. God does she hate Odalia Blight.

“Hey, it’s going to be okay! Just because your mom is a pendejo doesn’t mean my mom isn’t going to love you!” She promises, squeezing her. Amity snorts at the word, grinning at her in the mirror. “She already knows you’re a witch, Amity, and I think your ears are cute,” she punctuates the statement by kissing the pointed appendage next to her face. Amity smiles, grabbing the hands wrapped around her waist. She hums as Luz’s kisses don’t stop there and start to trail away from her ear and down her neck and then her teeth are pressing into her skin and she jumps, she can’t suppress the sound that rises in her throat at that, which only encourages Luz. She already knows where this is going and needs to stop it and finish getting ready; needs to.

“Luz…,” she mumbles but doesn’t immediately pull away or tell her to stop.

“Hmm?” Luz hums distractedly.

“I need to finish getting ready, your mom is expecting us in twenty minutes…”

“That’s plenty of time…,” she mumbles

Amity can't help the burst of laughter at that and finally shoved her away, grinning

“No, it is not, and you know it! More importantly, I can not go and have dinner with your mother and look her in the face after having sex with you.”

“I could…,” she grumbles, crossing her arms and plopping back down on the bed. Amity rolled her eyes and turned back to the mirror, fixing her hair Luz had ruffled. Gold eyes narrowed and she leaned forward into the mirror. She could already see the dark spot forming on her neck.

“Luz!” she yelped, turning around to scowl at her. “Really?!” she frowned, gesturing to the spot appearing on her neck.

“Oops… sorry...” She grimaced.

Luz sat quietly on the bed, leaving her now irritated fiancée alone to cover the hickey forming on her neck with makeup.

“I’ll wait for you downstairs,” Luz said, as she hopped off the bed, Amity made a sound of acknowledgment in her throat.

Luz rubbed her hands together nervously as she walked into the kitchen where Lilith was sitting at the table, flipping through a book as Eda tried to coerce some vegetables into a pot of boiling water.

“She’s so nervous…,” she sighed, sitting at the table.

“Understandable, she’s meeting your mother for the first time just before the two of you get married.” Lilith looked up at her.

“Not to mention all the shit that went down with her own mother…,” Eda grunted.

“You mean the other day?” Luz looked over at her.

“I mean her whole life, Kid.” Eda frowned, making Luz sigh and run a hand through her hair.

“She’s been kinda down since she went to Blight Manor, and she still hasn’t heard from her dad, which is not helping,” Luz grumbled.

“You really think taking her to meet your mother is the best course of action?” Lilith asked, concern clear on her face. Luz nodded enthusiastically.

“For sure! I know she’s nervous, but I know Mami’s going to love her, maybe Odalia can’t see how amazing Amity is but I know my mother will!” Luz said confidently.

The sisters grinned at her.

“Here’s hoping it all goes well, Kid.” Eda raised her bottle of apple blood before taking a long drink, making Luz grin.

“Thanks, mom.”

“I’m sure your mother will clearly see what a lovely young woman Amity is,” Lilith agreed.

“Thanks, but, yeah. What’s not to love about Amity?” Luz asked rhetorically, maybe looking stupidly lovestruck as she says it, mostly to herself, but then Eda snorted, drawing her and Lilith’s gaze.

“Something to add, sister?” Lilith cocked a brow at her while Luz gave her a bewildered look.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that you two, you have to admit, there are some things that some people definitely wouldn’t love about her as much as you do, Luz. She does still have some of those… ‘Blight’ tendencies.” Eda waved a hand but Luz glared at her. “I love the kid, You know what I mean!”

“I do know what you mean, yeah, but please don’t say that to her!” Luz said sternly. “I know it and Amity knows it too, and she works hard every day to try and put all that crap her mom shoved down her throat as a kid behind her… it’s just hard, it’s automatic sometimes.” Luz frowned, drumming her fingers on the table.

“You are both right, of course,” Lilith finally said, setting her book aside. “Amity does have a tendency to be arrogant, condescending, and prideful,” she said, looking at Luz, who pursed her lips. “But she makes every effort to squash those tendencies her mother instilled in her, but years upon years of the same rhetoric can not quickly be undone.” She glanced at her sister, who grunted in answer.

“I was just saying, not everyone can see her for how she really is like you can, Luz.” Eda shrugged.

“I know, but I know my mother is gonna love her!” she asserted confidently.

A door upstairs closes and then there are footsteps on the stairs before Amity walks into the kitchen.

“I’m ready to go, Luz.” She looks at her.

“Great.” she smiled, jumping up. “See you guys later!” Luz called as she wrapped her arm around Amity’s and led her out of the house.

“Good luck!” Eda called.

Amity definitely seemed less irritated and just nervous now, smoothing imaginary wrinkles from her knee-length black dress as they walked out of the house and around back to the portal.

“You look wonderful, Amity.” Luz tried to soothe some of her nerves, squeezing her hand. Amity hummed, smiling at her, but Luz could see how nervous she was. “It’s going to be fine, I promise!”

"Right… fine." Amity nodded. "Oh, right…" she suddenly remembered and spun a finger and her ears glowed before appearing as rounded as Luz's.

"How's this?" she asked and Luz made a face. "What, do I not look human?"

"No, no you do… but I don't like it!” she whined. “You're not you!" Luz frowned, but Amity couldn't help but smile at that.

"Well, we don't want any other humans to see me right?"

"I mean, we're really not going very far, we won't even pass any other houses," Luz reasoned.

"Alright, alright." She smiled and undid the illusion. "Better?"

"Much." she nodded, smiling before she opened the door to the portal and gestured for Amity to step through.

This was something else she’d been nervous about, going to the human realm for the first time.

She stepped through and Luz followed. Amity looked around, it didn't look all that different from the Isles, just some woods, though the sounds and smells were different, her nose wrinkled at the strange, dirty smell in the air.

Luz closed the door behind them and took Amity's hand.

"Come on." Luz pulled her along through the wood. When they broke the tree line Amity stopped to stare in open wonder at the paved road and the cars driving by.

"Are those the 'cars' you've told me about?" she asked.

"Yeah! When we have a free day we'll come and I'll show you a bunch of stuff, we'll go to the movies or something fun like that," Luz promised. "For now, better go, don't need too many people staring at you." She pulled her transfixed fiancée along.

"Because of my ears?" Amity frowned, reaching up to touch one of her earrings with her free hand.

"Pfft, no, cuz you're so beautiful, duh." She grinned at her and Amity's cheek pinked. "Like I need to be getting into a fight with some human guy right before we have dinner with my mom…," Luz said making Amity chuckle.

"Of course." She rolled her eyes fondly.

She pulled them along to the house on the corner, just outside the woods.

"You weren't kidding when you said it wasn't far," Amity said, looking at the house.

"Mhmm. Ready?" Luz asked as they stood on the porch. Amity smoothed her hair and dress, much to Luz's silent amusement before finally nodding.

"I'm ready." She nodded.

Luz knocked and a few moments later the door swung open.

"¡Mija, estás aquí!" Camila smiled brightly, wrapping her daughter in a tight hug.

"¡Te dije que lo estaría!" She laughed before extracting herself from her mother's grip to set a hand on the small of Amity's back. Amity tensed, knowing what was coming.

"Amity, this my mother, Camila Noceda. Mami, this is my fiancée, Amity Blight," she introduced her with a bright grin.

Amity swallowed thickly as brown eyes, identical to Luz's, landed on her and she straightened.

Camila quickly glanced over her future daughter-in-law. The first thing she noticed was how tall she was, along with the pointed ears and those piercing gold eyes. Luz hadn’t been exaggerating when she said how beautiful Amity was, but she was shocked further by the words that then came out of her mouth.

"Es un placer conocerla, señora Noceda." Amity greeted, sticking her hand out, hoping she didn't still sound nervous in Spanish. Luz assured her her accent was near flawless these days, but she wasn't sure. They had spent all of yesterday conversing in Spanish so Amity could be sure she wasn’t forgetting anything.

Camila's eyes widened at that before she smiled brightly at her and grabbed her hand.

"It's so good to meet you!" Camila took her hand in both of hers. "You were right, Mija, she is beautiful." She smiled and Luz grinned, while Amity flushed. "Come in, come in." She motioned after releasing her and stepped to the side to allow them in.

Amity glanced around the cozy home as she followed Luz inside. Some of the furnishings were so different than she was accustomed to, while others like the couch and chairs were not. There was a strange, flat black rectangle hanging on the wall. She blinked at her reflection in it. Some kind of portal maybe?

Luz turned to see what she was looking at and grinned.

"That's a television. It's like a crystal ball," Luz explained and Amity hummed.

"Please, have a seat." Camila herded them to the couch and sat across from them in a chair. "They speak Espanol in the 'demon realm'?" Camila asked, looking at Luz.

"Oh, no," she laughed. "They only have English… well, and ancient demon chanting, though I’m not sure that counts…," she hummed, tapping her chin.

"I learned from Luz," Amity said.

"I'm surprised, Luz was never much of a teacher," Camila admitted, looking at her with a smirk. Luz pressed a hand to her chest over her heart and gasped in mock offense.

"Luz was a wonderful teacher," Amity defended and Luz smiled, reaching over to hold her hand between them. This doesn't go unnoticed by Camila.

"So it seems, your accent is impeccable." She smiled. "Luz told me a bit about you when she was here last, but I'm interested to learn more."

"Oh, What would you like to know?" She reached up and brushed some hair behind one of her ears, that right now she felt must be so very attention-grabbing. Was this how Luz always felt at home, glaringly out of place?"

"What do you do for a living?"

"Ah, right now, I spend most of my time acting as an advisor of sorts to the new council, it's really tedious, uninteresting stuff," she said.

"That's not true, what you do is super important, amor. The council is full of idiots who wouldn't have a clue without you and Lilith to tell them what to do. The Isles would be doomed without you." Luz quickly jumps in to defend her current daily work.

"There wouldn't even be a council without you kick-starting and fighting in the rebellion," Amity reminded her

"Luz talked about how there was rebellion, but she never mentioned fighting in it…" Camila turned her sharp gaze to her daughter.

"Oh… well…," Luz trailed off scratching the back of her head. "It wasn't much fighting," she mumbled.

"You lead multiple battles over two years," Amity unhelpfully reminded, unaware of the disapproving look her fiancée's mother is giving her daughter.

"I'm starving! When's dinner, Mami?" Luz quickly tries to change the subject.

"It should be done soon, but I'd like to hear more about these 'battles'," she says looking at Amity, who is only too happy to regale her mother with tales of, unfortunately, some of the rougher fights they'd had in the past, though they were the ones in which Luz had proven herself to be an intrepid and brave leader.

Luz suddenly realized how dangerous they all sound though as Amity tells them with pride to her mother, whose face is a mix of emotions over the course of the tales, which she knew of course, but it sounds that much worse watching her mother listen to the stories.

"That's… a lot to take in," Camila finally says, looking between the two of them, Luz grimaces.

"Every battle we fought was, unfortunately, necessary for the freedoms everyone now enjoys back home. Without Luz, I don't think it would have been possible…," Amity tells her.

Luz is embarrassed, the same way she always gets when people tell stories about her days in the rebellion, but Amity always tells the stories with such evident pride and admiration that it embarrasses her even as it warms her up inside. There are just as many stories of Amity diving headfirst into the middle of raging battles on her staff, drawing spell circles so fast it would make her dizzy watching, but everyone knows them, so Luz rarely gets the opportunity to praise her longtime girlfriend’s own valor. She makes a mental note to tell her mother Amity’s stories of heroism when she’s more comfortable with the idea, which judging by her face at the moment; is not now.

Her mother's expression is unreadable, but before she can say anything the oven timer goes off.

"Oh, the oven, excuse me," Camila says and stands disappearing into the kitchen.

"Please don't tell her any more stories about the rebellion!" Luz hisses to Amity as soon as she's sure her mother is gone.

"What, why?" Amity blinks, wondering if she's done something wrong.

"You think you get all worried when I'm doing something stupid? Now imagine you're my mother," Luz said.

"I would prefer not to…" Amity can't help but smirk, and maybe it's her small way of getting back at Luz for the hickey, and it works, her face turns bright red.

"You are the worst. You know exactly what I meant!" Luz frowns.

"Fine, I just think your mother would be as proud of you as I am." Amity turns her head away and hears Luz sigh.

"I know, Amity, but I've seen her three times in six years, I just don't want to give her any extra reasons yet to worry about me when we're back home."

"Of course, you're right," Amity concedes, looking at her. "You planned to bring her to the Isles though, you don't think some things there won't… freak her out?" she asked.

"We have to ease her into it… I figured I'd bring her to Sunday night dinner next week to meet everyone."

"You think dinner with Eda, Lilith, our friends, and my siblings is easing her into it?" Amity gave her a deadpan look.

"I mean…," Luz started.

"Last week Viney and Gus crashed Puddles through the kitchen window and Eda and Lilith had a glyph fight over dessert… After Willow and Emira had a witch's duel in the front yard to decide who my maid of honor would be…" she crossed her arms.

"Well, now we know it's Willow..,." Luz chuckled, but Amity was still giving her a look. "That is one of the reasons it was so important that I brought you here to have dinner with her alone. You wanted to make a good first impression, and we really didn't need Ed and Em to meet her at the same time… or mom… I still haven't figured out how to tell her about that…" Luz trailed off, looking unsure.

Amity reached over and grabbed her hand.

"I'm sure she'll understand, Luz. Someone had to take care of you, it was only natural that Eda would fill that void in your life, and anyone can tell how much Eda loves you." she tried to ease Luz's worry about introducing her two mothers to each other.

"I know… I just don't want her to think that I replaced her. I always missed her, she just couldn't be there for me the same way mom was…" Luz frowned.

"It'll be okay, querida." Amity squeezed her hand and pressed a kiss to her cheek, which happened to be the same moment Camila returned to tell them dinner was ready and Amity whipped back, face pink as Camila was giving her an amused look.

"Smells great, Mami, what did you make?" Luz asked, standing.

"Chivo liniero." She smiled as Luz grinned and practically ran into the kitchen, Amity followed her, trying not to look Camila in the eye as she passed.

They sat at the small table and Camila set bowels in front of them filled with a thick, dark red stew, rice, and tostones on the side.

Luz was salivating and didn't hesitate to start spooning the stew into her mouth and humming in delight. She wanted to cry, it tasted the same as it did in her memories.

Amity smiled at her fiancée’s palpable joy.

"I don't know if you have anything like this back home, but I hope you enjoy it, Amity," Camila said, smiling at her across the table.

"I'm sure it's delicious," Amity told her politely, and then Luz is holding a tostone in front of her.

"Try this Amity, maybe you'll finally believe me that yours taste just like them." Luz grinned.

"You've made tostones?" Camila asks.

"We don't have plantains on the Isles, but I've made something similar for Luz," she explains.

"Yeah, when we first started dating, they taste just like yours," Luz confirmed, still holding the fried disk out to Amity who rolled her eyes. She was not going to let Luz feed her in front of her mother, but took it from her and took a bite. It really did taste nearly identical to the ones she sometimes made for Luz. Luz grinned and laughingly went on. "Probably why I ended up blurting out that I loved you a month into dating...Ow!" Her laugh was cut short as Amity glared at her and set her heeled foot back on the floor after kicking her fiancée under the table. "Kidding! I was kidding, mi amor!" Luz whined. that smarted. Amity huffed.

Camila chuckled under her breath as she started eating, glancing between the pair. Knowing her daughter, or at least the aspects of her personality that seemed to have carried over into adulthood, she wasn't surprised by the dynamic she seemed to have with her fiancée, though she hadn’t yet seen enough of Amity to make any concrete conclusions about her future daughter-in-law yet.

Amity carefully spooned some of the wonderful smelling food in her mouth, vaguely wondering if she might have any reactions to human food the same way Luz did to certain things on the Isles; she hoped to the Titan that if she did it wouldn't be to whatever this was.

Flavors like she's never known before exploded across her tongue. Luz grinned behind her own spoon, watching the wonder that filled Amity's face as she took her first bite, followed quickly by another. She goes back to her own food happily enjoying the way the heat begins to creep up on her, burning her mouth in that pleasurable way spicy food always has, a good pain. Her mother always made it extra spicy for her.

She pauses and blinks before her eyes go wide and her gaze shoots to Amity, and she can begin to see the exact moment the heat starts to creep up on her very, VERY, spice sensitive fiancée.

Amity is holding her spoon tightly and her cheeks are slightly flushed as she stares down at her food like it had been a trap.

Her mouth Is. On. fire!

Every nerve on her tongue burns and her eyes are starting to water. She knows what’s happening. She’d learned the hard way after a time that Luz had cooked for her that she can nowhere near handle the same level of spice that Luz, and apparently Camila, enjoyed.

But she's now stuck between a rock and a very hot place. She knows that dining etiquette in the human realm is similar enough to the Isles that it would be rude not to eat what’s been served to her, especially by her future mother-in-law, so even though it feels like she’s going to die, she keeps eating; though a little quicker than normal.

Luz watches her with wide eyes and is torn by her incredible love for this woman and her absolute exasperation at her perfectionist need to please, even to her detriment. She bites her lip, considering what she should do. She should make her stop, tell her mother that Amity is very sensitive to spicy foods, but that would just embarrass her and she knows how important this is to Amity. She bounced her foot, thinking quickly.

"Mami, do we have any milk?" she asks suddenly and Camila looks up.

“There’s almond milk In the fridge, yes.”

“Do you want some too, Amity?” she asks, making her look up from her near fever-induced trance, sweat beading up on her forehead, to see the hard, meaningful look Luz is giving her and nods jerkily.

“Yes, please.” She manages to almost sound normal.

Luz hops up and grabs two glasses and quickly pours them before she sets one in front of Amity, who grabs it almost immediately and downs half of it, luckily her mother isn’t looking at the moment.

Luz shakes her head to herself as she watches Amity continue to eat between drinks and when her glass is empty, Luz slyly slides her untouched glass to her and pulls the empty one over to her plate, giving Amity a clearly disapproving look that tells her exactly how she feels about what she’s doing. Amity ignores it. They both know she’s going to pay for it dearly later, not that she isn’t now, but that’s a problem for later.

“My, you must have liked it, I’ve only ever seen Luz eat that fast!” Camila laughed when ten minutes into dinner Amity’s plate lies empty. “Would you like some more?”

“No!” she coughs, reeling it back in and trying to speak when it feels like she could breathe fire better than Calliban. “No, thank you, I couldn’t possibly eat another bite. It was delicious, though, thank you.” She smiles.

“How on earth did you manage to find yourself such a polite young woman?” Camila turns to her daughter with an amused smile.

‘I didn’t find her on Earth,” Luz quips. “And I’m polite!” She argues.

Amity glances around the kitchen as she sips on the glass of milk, trying desperately to wash away the heat still rippling across her tongue and hanging on the wall she spots a framed photo of Luz, grinning cheesily at the camera and covered head to toe in mud, her eyes only just barely visible as she proudly held up some kind of small green creature.

Finished with teasing her daughter, Camila looks to see what has captured Amity’s attention and smiles when she sees the photo, the only one she had left up after Luz had disappeared. It had been too hard to look at all the ones that used to hang in the living room. She really needs to get those out of Luz’s bedroom.

“She had to have three baths after that,” Camila says to her, making Amity look up and she can’t help but grin.

“That sounds about right, she was covered in abomination goo when we met,” she says, glancing at Luz.

“Would you like to see some of her baby photos?”

“No!” Luz jumps in.

“Yes, please.” Amity brightens.

“Luz, why don’t you run upstairs and grab the box sitting on your old bed while I pick this up?”

“Why are they upstairs?” Luz asks, confused, only now noticing that all the photos that once hung in the house are gone, and her mother frowns, hesitating. She has to remind herself that Luz isn’t a child anymore and she needs to be honest about it, about the things that transpired over the last six years she was gone if she wants Luz to do the same. She knows there are things that her daughter isn’t telling her, though she doesn't know just what they are yet.

“I put them all away two years after you disappeared, they were too hard to look at after a while,” she finally says and the mood in the kitchen noticeably drops.

“Oh…,” Luz says quietly and Amity squeezes her leg under the table, still nursing her milk. “Yeah... sure. Come on, Amity. I’ll show you my old room.” Luz stood from the table, Amity following behind her back through the living room and up the stairs. Luz doesn’t say anything as they do.

She stops at a door with a sheet of notebook paper taped to it that has a drawing, obviously done by Luz, of herself, dressed as Azura. She opens it and they step into what was obviously once a teenage girls room. There’s a desk with a book laying open on its surface and a corkboard hanging over it with various notes and drawings tacked to it. A bookshelf sits in the corner full of books and the walls are covered in Azura and anime posters, clothes are strewn across the floor in various places.

Luz’s hand on the knob tightens as she looks around at her old bedroom. The dirty, long unwashed window, letting little light in. This room, unlike the rest of the house, feels like it’s been stuck in a loop in time, the only way she can tell that time has, in fact, passed, is the thick layer of dust that covers everything.

“She never touched anything…,” she finally mumbles quietly.

Hands grip her shoulders gently and Amity is pressing against her back, a reassuring presence that Luz greatly appreciates at this moment. She reached back to lay a hand over one of Amity’s smaller ones on her shoulder and squeezed it, silent thanks that she understands well. Amity doesn’t need to ask if she’s okay, because she knows there is no straightforward answer to that.

Luz sighs quietly through her nose as she looks at all her old things, left behind to rot, untouched, and spots the cardboard box sitting on her bed that obviously doesn’t belong with everything else in the room. She walks over to it and picks it up. She glances at her unmade bed as she does. Sheets still turned back from when she’d hopped out of bed the morning she’d left for ‘summer camp’.

“I forgot to make my bed that morning,” she says aloud, but Amity doesn’t say anything, just watches her quietly. “...I figured I could just do it when I got back…,” she says quietly.

Amity watches silently from the doorway as Luz sets the box on the carpet and starts to carefully make the bed, sending a cloud of dust in the air that creates a little snowstorm as the particles float in the rays of the dim sunlight coming in the window.

When she’s satisfied, she picks the box back up and walks back to the door.

“I’ll make sure to make ours every morning,” Luz says as she stops next to her, the look in her dark eyes is so intense, and the words said with such absolute conviction Amity had to suppress a shiver at the low tone they’re delivered in. The words would sound strange to anyone else, a bizarre declaration, but Amity understands the promise clearly.

“I know you will, Luz,” she answers and Luz nods, satisfied, and walks down the hall. Amity closed the door to the old bedroom behind her before she followed.

“Mami, I got them!” Luz called as they walked into the living room.

Camila comes out of the kitchen, drying her hands on a dishrag, and can see that both girls look strangely intense, but she doesn't mention it as they sit on the couch.

Camila digs through the box and smiles as she pulls out Luz’s baby album. It no longer hurt to look at them as it would have just two weeks ago. The first two years after Luz had vanished had felt like agony every time she passed one of her daughter’s photos on the wall, sometimes causing her to burst into tears. It was just after one such outburst two years in that she had packed them all in a box and left them sitting on Luz’s bed, safe for a future day when it didn’t cause her heart to crack looking at them, but that day had never come; till now.

She flips it open and shows it to Amity, sitting on her right.

There are photos of her just after birth in the hospital followed by just after she’d been brought home.

“This is her first bath.” Camila smiles proudly and Amity coos at the photo while Luz groans into her hands.

“Why?” she hisses, face already turning red.

They spend twenty minutes looking at the album and other pictures in the box Camila had taken off the walls.

Amity is snickering at a picture of Luz as a toddler, grinning brightly at the camera, a large gap in her wide smile and covered in glue, glitter all over her.

“I’m sensing a theme between you and sticky substances,” Amity smirked at her. Luz stuck her tongue out at her. It was while looking at the photo that Camila had a thought she just couldn’t keep to herself.

“Wouldn’t a bebe with your face and Amity’s eyes just be adorable?” Camila looked at them and both their faces erupt in red.

“Mami, we’re not even married yet!” Luz chokes.

“Just a thought, Mija.” Camila smiles to herself, but she can clearly see that despite her bright red face, Amity is imagining the same thing now, and she is. A child with Luz’s darker complexion, fluffy, brown hair, and her own bright gold eyes and ears.

‘Cute’ she thinks.

Luz looks at her and sees the thoughtful look too and turns even redder.

Camila flips through the album, disappointed that half the pages are blank, a strong reminder of the last six years that have been lost and Amity seems to notice as she stops on a page that has Luz from what must be right before they met and the next is glaringly blank.

Amity hesitates a second before she speaks.

“I have some from around this time and after if you’d like to see them?” she asks and Camila looks at her with surprise, the look in her eyes is intense but Amity can’t put a name to it.

“I’d like that, yes.” Camila smiles and Amity nods, lifting a hand, and Camila watches, fascinated as she spins a finger in a large circle and a magenta ring of light blinks into existence and a book falls out of it into Amity’s hands. It's pink with black binding and reads ‘memories’ in neat, looping calligraphy.

“I didn’t know you kept a photo album.” Luz scoots in closer to look over her shoulder at the book.

“Mhmm” Amity nods as she hands it to Camila, who flips it open. The first photos are of them and their friends from Grom. Luz and Amity take turns explaining the scenarios laid out in front of them as they flip through it. Amity, like everything else she does, is a meticulous record keeper. Many of the pivotal moments of their relationship and lives with their friends are taped to the books pages and many not so important little moments, like them with Gus and Willow one Halloween. Gus dressed as a toaster, yet somehow, Luz is still the standout in the picture, dressed as a werewolf while everyone else is dressed like humans. Right below it is a photo of the same scene sometime later. With Luz, hands held up in front of her as a large angry werewolf shouts at her.

“He did not appreciate my costume…,” Luz said.

“I think what he found offense with was when you howled at him,” she clarified, smirking.

“How was I supposed to know that was a werewolf curse?” she asked, raising a hand.

Amity lets Luz tell most of the tales, except the ones she doesn’t know, like ones where Luz is clearly not paying attention to the photos being taken of her, like as she zips along on Eda’s staff and a couple where she is asleep, splayed out on the couch or under a tree, and one where she and Amity are clearly laying in bed, Luz with her mouth open and drooling, arms wrapped around Amity, who is taking the photo from above them, smiling, sickeningly sweet at the camera.

“Do you often take photos of me asleep?” Luz smirks at her and she pinks.

“Not...often…,” she mumbled, and Luz snickers, sitting her chin on her shoulder and giving her a smug, knowing look. “Shut up…,” Amity grumbled.

Camila flips the page and on it is a picture of all of them at graduation, shoved together and showing off their staffs, and next to it is one of the two of them with Eda and Lilith just after, standing in front of the owl house, Eda with her arm draped around Luz and grinning toothily, both holding their owl topped staffs. The Owl Lady had never looked so proud. Next to them are Lilith and Amity, the former with her hand resting on the laters shoulder, also both proudly holding their staffs and smiling at the camera. The low angle of the photo indicates King as the photographer.

“That’s Eda and Lilith.” Amity points out the two sisters.

“Eda is the woman who took care of you, right, Mija?” Camila looks to her daughter, who freezes.

“Yeah,” she says simply. She needs to tell her mother about her co motherhood with Eda, but she has not a clue how that conversation will go, and today was about introducing her mother to Amity, she doesn’t want to taint her perception of the witch should that conversation go poorly, so she holds her tongue; for now. Amity glances at her out of the corner of her eye but says nothing.

“I can make copies of any of these if you’d like.” Amity turns to Camila who smiles.

“I’d like that, thank you,” she says and Amity nods. “Tell me, have you two made any plans for the wedding yet?” she asks, closing the book and handing it back to Amity, who set it on the coffee table.

“Not really, but that's still five months away, and neither of us wanna do anything big, so we don’t need to do that much planning.” Luz shrugged.

“We have picked a date,” Amity tells her.

“Oh?”

“Halloween!” Luz grinned.

“Why does that not surprise me?” Camila looked at her daughter with fond exasperation.

“It's only a coincidence that it's Halloween. We picked it because that’s the date of the next blue moon,” Amity explains.

“Oh, I see. Luz told me about the masquerade party.” Camila smiles at that.

“Yeah! Other than that we have made zero decisions… except that it can’t be costume themed…” Luz pouted and Amity rolled her eyes. “But yea, October thirty-first, Mami, save the date!” She grinned brightly.

“I’ll be there of course.” she nodded. “Are you changing your name, Mija?” she asked curiously.

“Oh, I hadn’t thought about it…,” Luz hummed.

“I have, I just hadn’t had a chance to talk to you about it yet,” Amity piped up, drawing both women’s eyes.

“Yeah? Did you want to hyphenate them or…,” Luz trailed off. Amity shook her head.

“No, actually, if it’s alright with you, I’d like to change mine to Noceda,” she tells her, and Luz’s face morphs into pleasantly surprised shock.

“Of course you can, mi amor!” She grins, throwing an arm around Amity’s waist and squeezing her. “‘Luz Blight’ doesn't really roll off the tongue anyway.” she grinned but then her face took on that look that tells Amity she’s thinking.

“What?” Amity cocks a brow at her.

“I do rather like the sound of ‘Amity Noceda’ though.” She smiles at her in that soft way that makes the tips of Amity’s ears turn pink.

“Stop it,” she whispers.

“I’m not doing anything.” Luz grinned, leaning in close. She knows exactly what she’s doing.

“You know exactly what you’re doing!” she hissed quietly, leaning her head back, away from her encroaching fiancée, face following along with the color of her ears, well aware that Camila is watching them, but that doesn’t stop Luz from darting forward and pecking Amity’s lips. She makes an embarrassed squeak.

Since her pointed ears stick out away from her head, Camila can clearly see them turning red and laughs behind her hand. Luz just grins even as Amity glares at her, though the look is diminished by her red hot face.

Camila believes she’s seen enough to finally make a sound judgment of Amity Blight.

She’s a lovely young woman, who seems to make her daughter incredibly happy and who she’s glad to welcome into the family. It’s astounding to her, how in the span of two weeks she could go from having felt so empty to her heart overflowing with joy.

“It’s funny,” Camila starts, drawing both women’s eyes. “I thought I had lost Luz forever, but then she comes back and brings me a second daughter too,” Camila laughed and Luz smiles at her, the expression threatening to split her face.

Amity has frozen as the words hit her, hearing those words come out of Camila’s mouth makes her brain screech to a halt.

In two hours, she feels more wanted by Luz’s mother than she ever had by her own in twenty-one years of living. On top of her fresh confrontation with her mother a few days ago, it’s too much, it’s hard to breathe, and her hands fist into the fabric of her dress. Emotions rise up in her chest, strong ones, that suddenly threaten to choke her with their intensity.

“I…,” she stalls, and Luz can see what’s happening in her face. They’ve seen each other at their best and absolute, messy worst, and she immediately knows the signs of Amity on the verge of an emotion induced anxiety attack, and she leans in close, hand on her waist squeezing comfortingly.

“The bathroom is down that hall, first door on the left, amor,” Luz tells her quietly as Camila watches, confused by what’s happening. Amity nods a little shakily and stands.

“Excuse me…” she hurries down the hall, mother and daughter watch her go.

“I’m sorry, Mija, I didn’t mean to upset her.” Camila frowns, looking worried, and it is even more confused when Luz smiles brightly at her.

“No, Mami, no! You were perfect. You just overwhelmed her, ” Luz assures. “She’s been terrified all day that you might hate her,” Luz says quietly.

“What!? She’s perfectly lovely!” Camila frowns and Luz smiles a little sadly at her.

“I know she is… it’s just…,” Luz trails off, clenching her fists.

While Amity is in the bathroom trying to pull herself together enough to go back out there and act normal, Luz explains Amity’s rather complicated and painful relationship with her own mother as well as their most recent confrontation.

“The poor girl, that’s terrible.” Camila holds a hand to her mouth, appalled by what her daughter tells her, as Luz knew her mother would be. “How could anyone treat their own daughter that way?”

Luz wishes she knew the answer to that, wishes she could fix all the things that cause Amity pain, like Odalia Blight, but if time and maturity had taught her anything, it was that some things are just terrible, and can’t be fixed, no matter how much you want to, or try. Amity’s relationship with her mother is just one of those things, unfortunately. Something that she had to learn to live with, and it makes Luz all the more grateful for the two mother’s she has, and determined to make sure Amity rarely feels the loss, though she knows she can never take it away completely. Eda had always been good at making Amity feel like another member of their little flock of a family, and her faith that her mother would as well had been rewarded.

“I’m going to go check her,” Luz said, standing from the couch and walking down the hall to the closed bathroom door. She tapped on it quietly

“Hey, can I come in?” she asks quietly. The lock clicks and Luz slips inside.

Amity is standing with both hands on the sink, staring down at it and Luz can see the trembling in her frame. She stands behind her and wraps her arms around her shoulders.

“It’s okay, amor,” she whispers into her ear. “Slow, deep breaths,” she murmurs, feeling Amity’s quaking in her arms as she tries to follow the instruction. The last thing they need is Amity hyperventilating in the bathroom.

It takes a few minutes for Amity to relax, or at least as relaxed as she’s going to get, and goes limp in Luz’s arms.

“I’m making a fool of myself…,” Amity whispers.

“No, you aren’t” Luz quickly assures. “You’re fine. I told you, Mami adores you, you’re great.” Luz carefully avoids the word perfect whenever she references Amity, the woman has no positive connotations for the word.

“Hiding in the bathroom is not ‘great’ Luz!” Amity growls, pressing her palms against her eyes.

“If you can get through my mother's extra spicy Chivo liniero, you can do this,” Luz says. “We’re going to talk about that stunt later, by the way,” Luz jokes, hoping to lighten Amity’s mood. It works, and a small smile pulls at her lips.

“You didn’t tell me it was going to be demon fire in a bowl…,” she snips back playfully.

“Lo siento, mi amor. I forgot all about it,” she mumbled. “But it was tasty demon fire, right?” she grinned, looking at Amity in the mirror.

“Up until I couldn’t taste anything…,” she admitted, making Luz chuckle and brush a stray lock of auburn hair away from her face.

“Are you ready to go back out there?” she asked after a moment.

Amity sighed quietly but nodded. Luz released her and stepped back, letting Amity straighten herself out.

“I’ll go back out,” she hooked a thumb over her shoulder and Amity nodded.

Luz walked back into the living room where her mother was waiting on the couch.

“Is she alright?” Camila frowned.

“She’s fine.” Luz nodded, plopping down on the couch. “I just remembered though, Mami, you should come to dinner at the owl house. We all get together almost every Sunday for dinner, you can meet everyone.”

It was then that Amity cautiously stepped out of the hall and sat next to Luz, who took hold of one of her hands.

“My apologies, Ms. Noceda…,” Amity started, only for Camila to cut her off.

“Nothing to be sorry for, cariño.” Camila smiled and Amity pinked at the word.

“Amity, tell Mami she needs to come to dinner at the house and meet everyone.” Luz bounced excitedly.

“Umm… come prepared for a very… exuberant meal…,” she says finally and Luz snorts.

They leave soon after securing Camila’s agreement to come to dinner the coming Sunday.

“I think that went pretty well,” Luz starts as they walk through the portal and step back into the demon realm.

“It certainly could have gone worse…,” she admits, walking around the front of the house.

“I told you, you were worried for nothing.” Luz smiles at her as she quietly opens the door to the house so as not to wake Hooty.

“Maybe,'' Amity admits, starting for the stairs. “Though now we get to worry about Sunday,” she says. “I’m going to have to call Emira and make the twins promise to be on their best behavior.”

Luz chuckles as she follows her to their room.

“I’m sure they'll be fine.” Luz waved.

“It’s like you’ve never met my siblings…” Amity smirked, glancing at Luz over her shoulder.

The house is quiet and they figure the rest of the house’s residents have gone to bed already, so they make their way quietly to their room to change for bed.

Amity sighs tiredly as she flops back onto the bed.

“My mouth still hurts…,” she grumbled, making Luz snicker as she crawled into bed next to her and wrapped an arm around her waist.

“Chica blanca…,” is the mumbled reply. Amity frowns. She knows the words but doesn’t understand whatever reference Luz is making, but knows by the look on her face she’s making fun of her, she pokes her side sharply, which only makes Luz giggle more.

“Ugh, goodnight.” She spins a finger and the lights go out as she turns onto her side, pointedly facing away from Luz, but that doesn't dissuade her from following to spoon her, and Amity doesn’t protest.

“Good night, mi amor,” Luz mumbled into her neck.

It’s quiet for a few minutes before Luz’s voice again breaks the quiet.

“Amity…?”

“Hmm?” she doesn’t open her eyes. She wouldn’t be able to see her anyway, behind her in the dark.

“Are you happy?”

That does make her eyes open. She can’t distinguish anything from Luz’s voice. She rolls over to face her and from what little light is coming in the window from the moon she can see the shine of it bouncing off Luz’s eyes as she looks at her.

“What do you mean? Like, right now, in general…?” she questions.

She feels more than sees Luz’s shrug.

“I guess in general, yeah, are you happy?” she asks again and Amity stares back at her for a long time, trying to figure out what exactly Luz is asking her, she never asks such a question without purpose.

“Do you think I’m unhappy?” she asks, eyebrows knitting between her forehead as she tries to read Luz’s face, puzzle out what this sudden line of questioning is about.

“I don’t... think, you are, no,” Luz finally answers. “I just… want to make sure. Are you happy with everything? Our lives, getting married… me?” she finally says and Amity’s eyes shoot wide open.

‘What? Why would you ask that?” Amity frowns, reaching out in the dark for Luz’s hand. She finds it and laces their fingers together, she can feel the warm metal of Luz’s ring against her cool hand.

Her eyes have adjusted and she can see Luz’s frown.

“Seeing my old room today… how she never went in there, put all my photos away, it just got me thinking about how good I seem to be at hurting the people I love without meaning to and I… I dunno how to explain it, but you're happy, right?” The question resonates with a desperateness that makes Amity’s chest tighten painfully.

She pulls her hand out of Luz’s to reach up and cup her face in both hands.

“Listen to me, and listen carefully, Luz Noceda,” she says seriously. “I love you, and I’ve never been as happy as I am when I’m with you. Okay?” she asks quietly.

Luz reached up to press her hand over one of Amity’s on her cheek and turned her head just enough to press a kiss to her palm.

“Yeah,” she mumbled against her skin.

“Good,” Amity mumbles and pulls her hands back to wrap around her, tugging her closer. “Now go to sleep, you dork,” she grumbled. Luz smiled and squeezed her tightly.

#moonlit masquerade #lumity #Luz Noceda #Amity Blight #Camila Noceda #Eda Clawthorne #Lilith Clawthorne #fic #gay #the owl house #TOH

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thegoodgayshit · 3 years

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Luz’s mother really doesn’t want to send Luz to camp. She knows once she leaves, there is no going back. But Luz has a knack for getting into trouble, and one day she stumbles into the same type of people her mother would have preferred she avoided. After helping Luz dissolve her high school bully into dust, Eda and Lilith know right away that this kid is just like them - a child of the gods. So Luz hops on a Pegasus and heads to Camp Half-blood, where she embarks on a dangerous quest that makes her both friends and enemies... and she might even save Olympus along the way.

Chapter Twenty Seven: I Decide Now’s a Good Time to Call in Backup

“That’s my sword,” Luz whispered, turning to look at Amity with wide eyes. “That’s my sword and your shield! Why are my sword and your shield outside Belos’ cave?”

“This wasn’t always Belos’ cave,” said a low voice from behind them. Luz jumped, turning to face Nessos, who was watching the entrance with sad, wistful eyes.

“For centuries, this cave was the entrance to Mount Pelion, where the best and the bravest Greek heroes would come to seek out the centaurs for training. But long before that… it was sacred ground. The place that held the wedding of Peleus and his wife Thetis. This mountain is named after him because in a way he almost founded it. All the history of the centaurs and this land leads back to him.”

“And Belos kicked the centaurs out,” Luz said slowly, her eyebrows knitting together.

“It was a valiant fight, we didn’t roll over and cower,” Nessos retorted, and Luz put her hands up, her eyes widening in alarm.

“I didn’t say that!”

“Come now, Nessos,” Pholos murmured, his eyes set on Luz with the same wistfulness. “You know her intentions. Belos took advantage of us.”

“What do you mean?” Amity asked, her mouth set in a frown.

“Demigods have a strength on this mountain unmatched to any other land,” Nessos explained his tail swishing anxiously as he glanced over at Achilles and Theseus. “Centaurs are strong on their own, but compared to a demigod here, we are outmatched. Even on his own, Belos was able to drive us out.”

“So we’re doomed,” Willow mumbled, adjusting the glasses on her face. Luz shook her head, clenching her fists.

“No, we’re not. They might be demigods, but so are we. We’ll be able to push them out and the centaurs can return to the cave.”

“She is right,” Pholos said, nodding approvingly, “but you also have another advantage, one that they will not be expecting.”

He reached down and pointed at Luz’s ring and Amity’s bracelet. “These are the keys to Mount Pelion. They will guide you to complete your quest, and protect you from any enemies, demigod or not.”

Luz looked down, her hand hovering over the ring. “They will?”

Pholos watched Luz for a moment, and it felt like he was reading her whole soul. Eventually, he smiled.

“Even celestial bronze has memories embedded in their core. The blade you have is not cursed, Luz. Sometimes, when we don’t understand something, it is easy to look past a blessing.”

Luz thought on that for a moment, before Gus tapped her shoulder urgently.

“Uh, guys, if we want to get in that cave, we better move.”

He was right, Achilles and Theseus seemed to get over whatever conversation they were having, and instead turned and headed back into the cave, the hilt of their sheathed weapons glinting as the light hit them for the last time.

“Augustus is right,” Nessos said, pushing them forward. “You must go. There is no time left to spare.”

Luz’s friends nodded, beginning to walk out of the forest and towards the cave. Luz hesitated, looking back at Pholos. There was a silent question in her eyes, which the centaur replied too with a simple nod.

Taking a breath, Luz and her friends left the centaurs and headed up the path to the cave, doing their best to walk quietly and not alert the retreating figures of Achilles and Theseus that they were there.

They crept up behind the statues, and Gus leaned forward checking that nobody had seen them. Achilles and Theseus had headed down the cavern, their muffled voices bouncing off the cave walls. Luz wanted to pay attention to what they were saying… it was probably important. But her heart was pounding so loudly she could feel it rising up to her ears, and couldn’t focus on anything but that.

Eventually, Gus must have decided it was clear to move. He nodded, and together they began to sneak inside, careful to stick to the edges of the open door as it headed downhill towards the room.

The cavern was much longer and much darker than it had been in Luz’s dreams. It seemed to sink deeper and deeper, and without much light besides the flicker of torches hanging on the wall, she could barely see two feet in front of her face.

Suddenly, Gus stopped, and Luz had to catch herself so she didn’t slam into him. Amity grabbed her shoulders, and the four of them pressed against a nook on the wall, shielding their bodies. There was a wave of light that passed them, and Luz realized why they stopped.

They had reached some kind of armory. It was a separate tunnel that stretches away from the main cavern, and it was packed with revived demigods.

Theseus and Achilles were there, and though Achilles went without armor, Theseus had put on a bronze chest plate not dissimilar to the ones Luz used at camp. Behind Achilles, Luz recognized Orpheus, who was holding a bow and scowling as he talked to another demigod next to him. Thankfully, his lyre was nowhere to be seen. There was a handful of other demigods Luz had never seen, but considering most of them were wielding a weapon, Luz knew they were in trouble.

Gus was breathing so heavily near Luz’s leg that she was certain he was going to give them away.

“Gus, you need to relax,” Willow whispered, and the son of Athena shook his head.

“Do you know who some of those demigods are? That’s Hector and Actaeon, and… Holy Zeus… is that Meleager? How are we going to outmatch these guys?”

“The centaurs said we’ll have an advantage,” Amity insisted, keeping her voice low. Her body was right behind Luz’s, and her breath was so close to her ear it felt like she was shouting.

“We’re outnumbered twelve to four,” Willow said, and while she wasn’t nearly as panicked as Gus, Luz could tell she didn’t like the odds of the fight. “And these won’t be easy wins. These are demigods who have been around for thousands and thousands of years.”

Doubt swirled in Luz’s belly. She didn’t want to lead her friends into a death trap, but right now she didn’t know what other choices she had. If they went back, surely someone would see them. If they charged, they would be outnumbered in seconds.

Amity seemed decently confident that the centaurs had been right about their weapons. Luz didn’t know how exactly Aletheia would help in a three on one situation, but she didn’t want to rely on it. Luz didn’t know if that was just because she was still reeling from finding out Amity was keeping something from her, but even if that was the case, this was a situation she knew they wouldn’t be able to get out of alone.

They needed backup.

Backup… Luz’s face suddenly split into a grin. Around her neck, the bronze whistle seemed to burn against her skin.

“I have a plan,” she said, and though she couldn’t see them squished into the darkness of this nook, all three of her friends moved, their heads turning towards her. “Get your weapons ready.”

When she told them what her idea was, Willow and Gus didn’t seem too enthusiastic.

“Not that I don’t trust you Luz, but how do we even know this is going to work?” Willow asked, and Luz shrugged her shoulders.

“We don’t, but we’re stuck here either way. We have to try.”

“This is a suicide mission,” Gus mumbled, but nevertheless, his hand hovered over his spear. “Ok, I’m ready.”

“Me too,” Willow said, though she didn’t look happy about it.

Luz turned her head to Amity, who was watching the three of them quietly. “Amity? What do you think?”

Luz couldn’t see her, but she felt her shaky exhale against her face. “I think I’m owed a rematch with Achilles. I’m in, no matter what the plan is.”

That sinking feeling in Luz’s gut returned. Amity was never this reckless, she never liked charging in without a well thought out plan.

Luz decided that Pholos had been right. Amity was definitely keeping something from them.

Pushing away her doubt, Luz did her best to focus on the mission. “Alright, as long as we stick together, everything is going to be fine. Are you guys ready?”

There was the briefest movement, hopefully of a head nod, and Luz pushed herself off the wall and stepped out into the light. She drew her weapon, which shifted into her sword, and there was a startled yelp that came from the revived demigods as Luz and her friends stepped out together, weapons and shields drawn, staring them down.

“Hey everybody,” Luz said, doing her best to sound intimidating. “Do you mind pointing us in the direction of Hestia?”

Theseus and Achilles spared them a look of surprise, before Theseus’s expression turned murderous and Achilles grinned, rubbing his hands together like he had been waiting for a fight.

“Daughter of Hermes, you’ve finally arrived,” Achilles chuckled, drawing a wicked-looking spear from off his back. Around them, the other demigods drew their own blades, hovering behind them and waiting for their orders. “I’ve been waiting to see if you’re a worthy enough opponent to challenge me. I can only spar with Theseus here for so long.”

Amity clutched her sword, stepping forward. “Enough, Achilles. I want a rematch.”

“Very well, daughter of Aphrodite,” Achilles said with a shrug, his huge muscles rippling under the tank top as he did. “I will make sure you don’t get away from me this time. I hope you have a coin for the ferryman.”

Theseus scoffed, drawing his own xiphos. “Blunt as always, aren’t we Achilles?” His gaze flickered back to Luz. “I must admit I’m surprised you’re here. I knew you slew the Minotaur, but I thought my sow might be a more worthy challenge.”

“Enough, Theseus,” Orpheus interrupted, gripping a bow tightly between his fingers. “I want this one. She broke my lyre!”

Theseus sighed, rolling his eyes. “We’re all better off without it, Orpheus. I swear to the Emperor, you only know how to play three good riffs.”

“Take that back!”

Luz lowered her sword, looking to her friends in confusion. Were they just going to bicker this whole time?

“If you don’t mind?” One of the demigods shouted from the back, gesturing to Luz and her friends. “We should deal with them before the Emperor knows they’re here.”

“Gods, you know how to take the fun out of everything,” Achilles retorted, rolling his shoulders. “It’s no wonder I killed you back in Troy.”

“Hector makes a good point,” Theseus shrugged, gesturing to the Luz and her friends. The revived demigods sneered, stepping closer and closer to them. “So, Luz Noceda. Which one of us would you like to be killed by?”

“None of you are killing us today, Theo,” she insisted, and Luz reached under her shirt, pulling out the bronze whistle.

She prayed to every god she could think of. Please let this work. Please.

She pressed it against her lips and blew. It made a shrill keening sound, and around her, everybody winced. The whistle shattered between her hands, the pieces scattering to the mountain floor.

Of course, nothing happened.

All the revived demigods laughed, and Luz felt her heart sink. Next to her, her friends all clutched their weapons, ready for a charge.

“What was that supposed to do? Deafen us?” Theseus said through laughs. He cleared a tear away from his eye, and then lifted his sword to the air. “Enough of this. Kill them!”

There was a roar as the revived demigods charged, and Luz tensed, ready for the swords and spears to inevitably crash into her. She closed her eyes, ready for death, and next to her, her friends all pressed together, weapons pointed.

But she never felt the blades hit her.

There was a booming crash, and Luz and her friends were thrown backward, skidding across the floor. In front of them, the demigods shrieked, and there was another huge boom. The smell of ozone split through the armory, and Luz heard a familiar whoop of delight.

Luz shakily got to her feet and looked, not believing her eyes.

Eda, Lilith, and King were standing there, weapons drawn, and had blasted Theseus back with a bolt of lightning. Around them, the revived demigods watched nervously, gripping their weapons tightly.

Eda turned her head, her gold eyes meeting Luz’s with that signature toothy grin. “Hey, kid! About time you let us have some fun.”

“Eda!” Luz exclaimed, getting to her feet. Next to her, her friends stood up relief splitting over their faces.

“No time for pleasantries! We can talk after,” she said, spinning her spear in her hand. Luz watched as it shifted into a sword.

“I love shadow travel!” King squealed in delight, crouching at Eda’s side. “Luz, you’ve gotta try it with me sometime.”

“I have… so many questions,” Luz mumbled. She turned to her other friends and saw just how relieved they were to have backup. She nodded to them, gripping her own sword.

“You guys ready?”

“Always,” Willow said, as Gus and Amity nodded. Luz didn’t even need to give any kind of speech to get them ready. They were all grinning, looking ready for battle than Luz had ever seen them.

They could do this.

“What are you all waiting for?” Theseus screeched from where he’d been knocked down. He stood up on one knee, pointing to Luz and her friends. “They’re still outnumbered! Get them!”

The demigods seemed to remember that little fact and split into a roar, charging towards them. Luz jumped into action as one charged at her, deflecting their blade and shoving them hard with her shoulder, sending them spinning into Eda, who slashed against their helmet. There were sounds of metal clanging against metal as the armory split into a battlefield.

Luz watched as Willow and Gus deflected swipe after swipe. With one push of his spear, Gus sent a demigod sailing into a weapons rack, hitting the ground with a thud. Lilith and Eda were shoulder to shoulder, deflecting the swings of at least four different demigods, and managing just fine. King ran between their legs, taking huge bites out of whoever was stupid enough to forget he was there. Next to her Amity was charging at Achilles, and met the first blow of his spear with her new shield.

As Luz took on a demigod with her own sword, she kept a watchful eye whenever she got the chance. Amity had been doing fine, but then Achilles grew frustrated and swiped with the back of his hand. Amity yelped as she got smacked, stumbling backward and towards a group of demigods who had been waiting for her. Luz slammed the hilt of her sword down on the demigod she was dueling, leaping towards Amity and deflecting one of the stabs the first demigod made.

“Watch your back!” Luz exclaimed, and Amity spun around, quickly recovering.

“Thanks!” She replied as she swung, pushing one demigod so far back he stumbled into another one.

They were able to deflect a few more swipes, but it was becoming clear that despite their backup, Luz and her friends were clearly outnumbered. Their circle was closing in, and soon, they would be completely outmatched once again. She shared a quick look with Amity and saw that eyes had that same recognition in them. Amity bit her lip and nodded to her, and Luz felt a newfound strength enter her. She would not let Theseus and his bullies hurt her friends.

With a roar, she swung at the next demigod and managed to clip the top of his helmet. He went sailing backward, knocking into the demigod behind him and they both hit a weapons rack, collapsing to the ground. Luz blinked, that should have been near impossible. She hadn’t hit him that hard.

Next to her, Amity pushed against one with her shield, and his feet were actually knocked off the ground. Luz’s eyes widened as Amity turned to look at her, equally shocked.

“What was that?”

“Your sword!” Amity gasped, looking at it.

Luz looked down in awe. Aletheia was glowing a faint bronzy color, and as Luz held it out towards Dikē, the shield also started to hum, glinting in the torchlight of the cave. The longer Luz looked at it, the more strength she felt flow into her body. She… she felt unstoppable. Like the whole mountain could come crashing down and Luz could hold it up with her bare hands. When Luz looked back at Amity she gasped. Her eyes… they weren’t gold anymore. They were that same bronzy glow as the weapons.

“Peleus’ weapons!” Amity exclaimed, looking just as refreshed as Luz was feeling. “Pholos was right!”

But they didn’t have time to sit there and awe over what they’d just discovered. When Luz turned her head, Gus had been knocked into by a demigod, and he barely managed to avoid getting skewered as he rolled. Eda and Lilith were getting backed into a corner, and they would soon be overtaken if they didn’t get help.

Down the end of the mountain path, there was another roar. Footsteps were thundering down the mountain, and Luz knew that the demigod's reinforcements were on the way.

“We need more backup!” Amity yelled, knocking another demigod flat against the ground.

“Where are we going to get more backup!” Luz retorted as the one Achilles was arguing with earlier saw an opening and charged at her. She blocked his first swing, going for the untraditional route of punching him in the throat. “I don’t have any more bronze whistles!”

“I have an idea, but it’s actually crazy! There’s no guarantee it’s going to work!” Amity said, kicking Hector in the side and sending him reeling into the wall of the armory.

“Seems on-brand for us,” Luz said with a shrug, and Amity nodded, flipping her sword around and pointing it towards the ground.

“Cover for me! I only saw dad do this once, and if it works, it’s going to take a lot out of me!”

“On it!” Luz said, already blocking another demigod from getting any closer.

Amity took a deep breath, closing her eyes and raising the hilt of her sword. “Grandfather Ares, I offer you my sword and the blessing of Peleus. Arm me with soldiers made of mountain and stone!”

With a grunt of effort, she pushed down the blade right against the mountain floor. Luz’s jaw dropped. It should have just deflected right off the hard stone, but instead, the xiphos sunk a foot and a half into it, like it was cutting through layers of paper. Amity dropped to one knee, and the mountain began to tremble. Out of the floor began to rise about two dozen of these… creatures. They were dark grey, and about six feet tall.

There were shouts of alarm from Belos’ men as the creatures seemed to solidify and take shape, immediately rallying behind Amity and charging, swiping demigods left and right, and roaring this sound that would have sent any sane person running.

Gus, out of breath, stumbled next to me, followed by Willow as they took a protective stance behind them. Amity exhaled, removing her sword from the ground, and stood. Luz had to catch her on the way up and steady her. The bronzy glow in her eyes was still there, but it occasionally flickered in and out.

“Are you alright?” Luz asked, biting her lip. She had been right, whatever she had done clearly took a lot out of her.

“I’ll be okay,” Amity said, as Gus and Willow watched her in awe.

“Amity, how did you do that?” Gus exclaimed in awe. Now that the creatures were helping, the demigods had more to deal with than usual. Even Eda and Lilith had the pressure taken off, now swinging a lot more artistically, like they were enjoying themselves. “You just summoned Ares’ Abominations!”

“He’s my grandfather,” she said with a shrug. “I thought it might work, so I gave it a try. I guess he likes me.”

“Are you okay to keep fighting?” Luz asked, and Amity nodded, already clutching her sword.

“Definitely.”

There was a sudden deep rumbling from the mountain, and it was so strong it nearly knocked Luz and her friends off their feet. Luz tightened her grip on Amity, and when the tremors subsided, they looked to one another in terror.

“Let’s hope that was from the summoning,” Amity mumbled, and Luz couldn’t help but agree.

The four of them threw themselves back into the fight. Amity with her abominations at her side went straight for Achilles, charging into him with such a fury that Luz wouldn’t wish on her worst enemy. Gus and Willow were battling around her, so she figured for the moment Amity was probably going to be fine.

Luz peered towards Eda and Lilith and saw Eda scrapping with three demigods, including Theseus. She was holding them off, but judging by the clench in her jaw Luz knew she could probably use some help.

She broke into her best battle cry, running towards Theseus and leaping, clinging to his back and making him stumble. He spun in a circle, knocking one of his own demigods over in the process.

“Augh! Get off me!” He roared, and Luz clutched tighter to his back as Eda stabbed. He cried out in pain and collapsed, and Luz rolled off him, hitting him in the head with the hilt of her blade so hard he was knocked unconscious.

“Nice kid!” Eda yelled, and Luz turned towards her and grinned.

“Thanks! It’s my signature move,” she said, waggling her eyebrows.

“Luz, you have to go find Hestia!” Lilith said from next to her, while she stabbed her spear towards a demigod. “That tremor was proof enough, we’re running out of time!”

“We’ll hold the demigods here,” Eda added, smiling reassuringly. The second wave of Belos’ reinforcements had arrived, but they were clashing with abominations the second they got in. Luz realized that now was her chance. She could hurry and run down the rest of the cavern, and there was a decent chance nobody would notice.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“With little Blights abominations on our side? Absolutely,” Eda insisted, gesturing to the rest of the armory, which was currently being torn to bits by the abominations.

King took another bite out of the leg of a demigod. “We will be victorious! But not if this mountain falls on us first.”

Luz hesitated. She didn’t want to leave her friends, but she knew that they were right. If she left, she could find Hestia and end this right now.

Sparing one last glance around the battlefield, she watched as Amity roared, swinging at Achilles and knocking him flat on his back. Willow and Gus took out two more demigods in a synchronized double strike, and next to her, Eda and Lilith were clashing their weapons together, the level of ozone in the room slowly rising.

They would be fine. Luz had a job to do.

So she turned tail and fled, racing down the mountain caverns and towards the caged goddess of the hearth.

#the owl hous #lumity #luz x amity #Percy Jackson AU #shelby speaks

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robbyrobinson · 3 years

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OWL HOUSE X CTHULHU MYTHOS: GODS AWAKEN (XIX)

Odalia walked into Emperor Belos’ throne room and prostrated herself before him and Nyarlathotep. “Lord Nyarlathotep, I have retrieved the book.”

Luz and Amity awoke in the original bodies and sprung back to life. “Uh? What happened?”

Amity groaned and fell backward her head throbbing with pain. “Why is my head spinning?” Her cheeks grew green and bloated out of the instinctive urge of retching whatever sour contents were churning in her stomach.

“So that is apple blood,” Luz spoke to herself, “after this, I’m never going to try that stuff again.”

Amity and Luz stared at each other surprised to find that they were back in their own bodies. They waved their hands in front of their faces and squeezed their arms until they took on a bluish hue. Their probing would only strengthen the notion that they were truly back in their bodies. But one thought came to their minds: if they were borrowing the bodies at the time, then what happened to the original host’s souls?

“Welcome back to the Isles, human.”

Belos had gotten off his throne and his large frame towered over the two. Unlike Odalia’s height at around 6 feet, Belos stood at a startling 8 feet. He eclipsed obviously Kikimora, his most trusted servant and right hand, but he was also an imposing figure when it came to the members of his imperial guards. This only accentuated the perceived majesty and authority he encouraged from his worshippers.

Luz stared at the Emperor with contempt manifesting on her face. “Belos.”

“I see that you are still bitter over our last encounter?” Emperor Belos asked. It was more a rhetorical question, really, but one he made out of amusement.

“Where’s Eda?” Luz asked.

Emperor Belos raised his hand. “Unharmed, I assure you, but we must keep her from interfering with our plans.”

He looked at the murals depicting the wild witches. “As you may have guessed I had...taken care of the wild magic practitioners...one by one.”

Luz internally shivered at the implications of what he was entailing. He raised his staff and carefully traced an invisible line through the savage witches on the murals. “The Day of Unity is now upon us.”

“How dare you send your hideous monsters to attack my home?” Luz demanded. Her fists shook and turned red to match the increasing anger in her face.

Belos chuckled. “It was more of a method of ringing you out; I knew that because of your compassionate heart that you would rather give yourself up than allow more of those rats to die in your stead.”

“Well, you got me now,” Luz stated never taking her eyes off Belos’, “so leave the Earth alone.”

Belos tilted his head. “The Titan proclaims that the Earth must be laid to waste before it returns to its full powers. There is no stopping the inevitable. The Earth will bleed a deep, gushing red, before it crumbles away to its slow, miserable, pitiable demise.”

Luz fought the urge of drawing a glyph to cave Belos’ head in. “Mami..”

Belos’ eyes flickered and glowed. “Oh, your mother? She is here.”

Luz’s eyes shot up. “She is.”

The metallic fingers of his gloves came together to create an echoing snap. Warden Wrath walked into the throne room alongside the Owl Spy. Luz’s eyes widened, her mouth hanging agape. A middle-aged woman with dark brown hair and tan skin was brought in with chains. A metal ring was fixed around her waist, and the heavy metal shackles around her ankles echoed on the floor in miserable tune.

She wore glasses topped with a red frame. From what Luz could see, she was a continually tired woman with heavy bags behind her glasses. Her hair was in a disarray as well as her uniform, one of those outfits you would see in hospital settings. Tears were crudely decorated on the woman’s uniform, particularly towards the bottom where the hem of her shirt was.

“Mom?”

The woman looked up to see Luz running towards her. “Luz!?”

Luz jumped and practically tackled her mother. “Is it really you?”

“It is me,” she stated. She tried to hug her daughter back with her limited capabilities. “I have been so worried about you.”

“I’m sorry, Mom,” Luz said, looking down. “I didn’t actually go to that summer camp that you wanted me to.”

“I am just delighted to see that you’re okay,” she replied, “when those letters stopped coming in, I almost had a mental breakdown.”

Luz felt moisture building in her eyes. She hated that she had to put her mother through that, but she had no other option in order to keep Belos from getting to Earth. She knew that at some point, the letters that she would send her Mom would soon drain up, but she was the optimist believing that she could find a way back home before her mother had the chance to worry.

Amity scanned the woman Luz was hugging. “Who is that, Luz?”

Luz looked back at the young witch her smile shining brighter than before. “This is my Mom, Amity.”

Her mother gave a smile, but it was more forced given the circumstances. Amity’s thoughts spiraled out of control. “My future mother-in-law?” she asked.

“What was that?”

Amity quickly caught herself. “Um, your mother and my mother in the same room.”

Luz’s eyebrow peaked. “Why are you here, Mom?”

Emperor Belos interrupted the reunion disgracefully. “Yes, why don’t you tell my grandchild why you are here, Camila?”

The room grew quiet with not even the sound of a pin dropping on the floor could spur any response. Luz eyed Belos sternly. “Grandchild? What are you getting at?”

“My, Camila, you kept this secret about yourself successfully hidden for years?” Belos asked again.

“Mom, please, tell me what is going on.”

Camila sighed. She exhaled sharply now looking at her feet in deep shame. “Luz, you love the Good Witch Azura books, don’t you?”

Luz nodded. “Me and Amity both; we bonded over them.”

“What if I were to tell you that there is some truth to those books?”

Luz couldn’t understand what her mother was saying at first, but it did slowly start to dawn on her. “Are you saying that you’re Azura?”

Camila snickered a bit and shook her head. “No, no; Azura is a fictional character...but I did use creative liberties when it came with writing the books.”

The thought that the events of the books, regardless of whether they came about as fictious stretches of the actual events, crossed Luz’s mind. “Why did Belos call me his grandchild?”

Camila sighed. “When I was around your age, I found myself in the demon realm much like you – I can’t for the life of me remember how if it was through some door or other means – but I was a foreigner in a world that discriminated against humans.”

Luz listened carefully not noticing that Odalia was singling for her daughter to be taken away.

“One day, Emperor Belos discovered me with some old scraps of metal and trash and decided to adopt me for reasons I did not understand at the time. He told me that humans were unable to practice magic on the Boiling Isles because of them lacking the bile sac necessary for it, so he placed a bit of his evil, dark magic into my body and took me as a protégé.”

“So that was why I was able to see those glyphs?” Luz asked.

“After being trained under him for some time, he told me of the Day of Unity. It was some weird, cultish holiday I had initially taken it. But I soon found out what intentions he had for the Earth, and I fought against him. With his own magic surging through my veins, I easily overpowered the Emperor and...I might have caused him to be in his current unhealthy state of being because I can sense now that Belos is slowly dying.”

Luz saw discarded palisman carcasses around Belos’ throne. “Was that why you wanted me to stop being obsessed with fantasy books and magic?”

Camila nodded her head. “It was a selfish thing for me to do, but I wanted to protect you from the knowledge that such a world existed.” She looked at her feet again likely fearful of meeting her daughter’s eyes. “That was why I was hopeful that the trip would remove that desire so you would never come to this world.”

Luz didn’t know what to say after being given such a bombshell. Her mom knew about the Boiling Isles because she had been there at some point only to somehow escape once things got sour. Now she learned that Belos took her mother in and how she was now his granddaughter. She had his malevolent magic flowing through her body. Her heart was pumping his unholy blood into her veins and through her bloodstream. It made considerable sense because, as was explained to her by Eda years ago, humans could not practice magic.

“Luz?” Camila asked.

Luz was still speechless and incapable of reaction. Belos laughed again and tapped Camila’s forehead with the staff. “I was hoping that I could take your daughter in and have her as a protégé to turn her against you, but that plan went awry.”

He glared at Warden Wrath. “Take her to the execution site.”

Warden Wrath shook his head and grabbed a hold of Camila. Camila’s legs shook but were heavily weighed down by the shackles. “Luz!”

Luz tried to run after Warden Wrath, but Odalia shot a blue stream at Luz; it ripped into the floor dividing it in half. “No wrong step, or I will slice you in two as well.”

“Mom!” Luz shouted. She shot daggers from her eyes at Belos. “Unhand her at once!”

Belos shook his head. “The sins of the past must be made to pay for.” He exited the throne room before turning around once he reached the exit behind the beating heart of the Titan. “I’ll have my master take it from here.”

Nyarlathotep, once more in his Black Pharaoh guise, approached the girl. “Hello once again, Luz.”

“It’s you!” Luz shouted and pointing her finger at accusingly. “Was this all your idea!?”

“I’m not a man who has pre-made plans just hanging there collecting dust,” Nyarlathotep said with a half-serious tone. “Odalia, give her the Necronomicon.”

Odalia’s eyes shot up. “Lord Nyarlathotep, why would-”

“That is an order,” Nyarlathotep replied. His voice went down a couple octaves.

Shaking, Odalia handed the Necronomicon to the human girl and made her leave. Luz had a weird feeling about this. “What game is this?”

“When you are literally older than time itself, it’s always best to play a game to take a load off your mind,” Nyarlathotep answered.

Nyarlathotep snapped his fingers. Above him was a column wherein a trap door opened. From there, she could see a large, glass cage descending. She squinted her eyes to make out the figures. Eda, King, and Lilith were inside. At the side of the cage was Hypnos, once more in his youthful appearance, flowers and all. He held the piece of horn in his hand.

“Eda!” Luz proclaimed.

Eda looked up happy to hear her apprentice’s voice. “Kid, you made it!”

King and Lilith also turned their glances to Luz. King jumped up and down much like how a dog does whenever they are happy to see their owner come back. Lilith smiled as well, but it was a small one. Luz slammed against the cage’s walls. “Youch!” Luz rubbed her injured nose with her hands. “You guys are alive?”

“Nyarlathotep took us as prisoners and had us as bargaining chips for you,” Lilith explained.

“Well, don’t worry, I’ll have you out lickety split!”

“Wait, Luz!” Eda screamed.

Luz smashed her fist on the glass only for it to bounce back. Thinking, Luz looked into the bag to find something she could use to break the cage. She scribbled glyphs on paper and activated them, but it only made the magical glass stronger. Luz turned to her bag again this time drawing out the jar containing the shoggoth. She tossed it at the cage, but, like with the other objects she tried to use, it rebounded and skyrocketed off the glass. It shot across the room and exited out the door when Kikimora opened it.

“Luz, you can’t break the glass; we all tried to break it ourselves, but there’s no use,” Eda said at last.

“There has to be something..” Luz lamented.

“Aye, there is a way, my dear,” Nyarlathotep answered.

“Why should I trust you?” Luz asked in a matter-of-fact way.

“The glass can either be broken two ways; either I can use my powers to free the three captives, or an Elder God can destroy it.”

“Well, I want you to free them!” Luz declared.

Nyarlathotep held his finger up. “Quid pro quo, my dear, quid pro quo.”

“Squid pro what?” Luz reiterated.

“I will free them and you will all go on to live happy lives if you gave me the book.”

Luz held the demonic book between her arms. “But I can’t just give the book over to someone like you.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re evil; I know somehow you were responsible for the attack on the Earth; a lot of people could die if I gave you this book.”

“Are a million lives more important to you than the lives of your mentor; her sister; and your pet?”

“I am not a pet!” King remarked.

Nyarlathotep ignored the demon and kept speaking. “It would be an unfortunate occasion if they were ripped away from you.”

“Nyarlathotep, before you do your business with the three captives, do allow me the opportunity to give this demon his horn back.”

Nyarlathotep looked at the Elder God with suspicion, but flicked his hand. “At least he should be presentable before dying I presume.”

Nyarlathotep snapped his fingers allowing a small hole to form in the wall. Hypnos slipped the horn into the hole and it resealed after he removed his hand. Eda eyed the horn piece with curiosity. “It looks like it’s the size of your horn, King.”

She dropped the horn in King’s lap and he sniffed it. “Feels like it; smells like it to...how did I lose it again?”

He shrugged and dropped it over the crack of his horn. Before he could say anything further, the missing horn piece slipped in like a jigsaw puzzle. A green light glowed around the horn acting as an adhesive glue. In a flash, everything became crystal clear to King as his memories came blasting in at full force. An overtaking sensation. It all came flashing at once: the woman. The large, bat-like monstrosity with the one, three-lobed, bulging eye. The screams. And the smoky vapor – now he could perceive that it materialized together to form the appearance of a man. A tall man wearing a dark cloak. One who was bereft of any strand of hair and his skin darker than the darkest night. The green orb came out from a spell circle the hideous man drew. His mouth was stretched inhumanly widely into a twisted, ghastly grin.

“Well, what do we have here?” he asked.

King sprawled on the floor of the cage sweat beads rolling down his skull head. He retched but nothing came up. Panic was building within him writhing in anguish for release. He looked at Nyarlathotep with complete hatred. “You were the one who killed my Mom, weren’t you?”

Nyarlathotep looked at him with an amused smile. “You have to be more specific than that, child; I may be eternal, but that doesn’t mean I have an internal memory box that catalogues every individual scream.”

Luz gripped the Necronomicon with anger. “So you killed King’s mother and cursed him?” She looked at the despairing demon. “And you decided to take it as a memento to remember your kill?”

Nyarlathotep shrugged. “As I have said, I cannot be held to remember every one of my little endeavors.”

Nyarlathotep snapped his fingers again. This time, the top of the cage opened with a gush of running water dropping down. Eda and the others were not too freaked out in that moment, but they could quickly see that the more water flowing into their cell, it was accumulating quickly and already taking the shape of the cage. They looked at Nyarlathotep who in turn gave them a look of humor. They banged their fists against the cage’s walls, but it only rebounded on them.

“Nyarlathotep! Stop this nonsense!” Luz yelled. “You’ll drown them.”

“I will free them,” Nyarlathotep promised, “but you will have to give me the Necronomicon in return.”

“And how do I know that you won’t go against your promise?” Luz asked reasonably. It made sense for her to doubt the Crawling Chaos’ claims, but in her peripheral vision, she saw that the water was already up Lilith and Eda’s waists. King jumped on top of Eda’s head to keep his body dry, but this had the negative effect of pushing Eda deeper into the rushing water.

“I’m afraid that they don’t have long for this world, Luz.”

Eda and Lilith were up to their necks. “I always thought it would end by some overdose on potion,” Eda lamented.

Concern was in Lilith’s eyes, but she chuckled at the dark joke. “That’s my Edalyn, alright.”

Luz found herself in internal conflict. She truly wanted to save the three roommates she had, but she couldn’t just hand a book of such cosmic power to the bad guy. Nyarlathotep seemed to read her mind when he spoke again.

“I feel that you think that if something were to befall your teacher, you would be lost in the world.”

Luz squinted. “What?”

“If you were to give the book to me, I will make you my personal protégé; you will learn about all the secrets of this world and truly become the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles. Leagues above your mentor, and even Belos himself. You can reign by my side as I destroy this world and remake it befitting to our image. The universe and the gods themselves will look at you in favor and you would never have the need to want again. Is that a deal?”

Luz could admit that Nyarlathotep’s deal did have a kernel of her interest. Knowledge over everything could come in handy. While she did love Eda dearly, Eda was at a loss now because of her magic being at an all-time low. Maybe with Nyarlathotep’s help, she could learn a way of curing Eda of her curse and subsequently return her back to her previous state. As she thought, she took another glance at the cage now taken aback. The three captives were completely submerged in the water and were desperately hitting the walls of the cage in hopes of breaking them. Liquid was filling their lungs, cutting their oxygen supply sharply. They moved their legs back and forth in a fishy motion. Yet for every strike and punch they could muster, the cage’s walls jiggled back from the brunt force.

Luz turned to Nyarlathotep. “No; I refuse.”

Before Nyarlathotep’s eyes, Luz flipped the Necronomicon over revealing several fire glyphs on the back. Nyarlathotep’s eyes bulged from their sockets. “Mortal, please reconsider!”

Luz took another glance at Eda and the others and saw that their movements were screeching to a halt and they sunk towards the ground of the cage. Luz had made her decision. She slammed her hand on the back of the Necronomicon, and it erupted in flames.

“No!” Nyarlathotep screamed.

The flames licked the ancient, crisp pages of the Necronomicon and exploded. A shrill hiss filled the air to indicate that the malevolent spirit lurking in the pages of the banned book was dying. Dark green, eldritch smoke crawled out of the embers of the fire and ascended skyward. Luz heard the pages crackle and pop reminding her of the sweet smell of fresh popcorn like the kind you could get at movie theaters. With one final death throe, the Necronomicon crumbled into a heap of ashes.

Luz looked at Nyarlathotep spitefully. “You have lost, Nyarlathotep.”

Instead of seeing his hurt, irritated face, Nyarlathotep was once more smiling. He chuckled deeply from the darkest, deepest regions of his stomach. He held his hands over the burning heap that was once the Necronomicon and absorbed a black light that suddenly appeared. He grew larger with his arms and legs becoming more muscular and pronounced. His abdomen became gargantuan as well to accentuate his broad shoulders. No more did he resemble a human, even if a crude mockery of one. He was now a hulking monster with rows upon rows of sharp, jagged teeth.

A wave of dark power rocked Emperor Belos’ throne room and empire. It shattered the glass cage containing Eda, Lilith and King, and they were washed out on the floor. Eda coughed up the water in a wheeze. “That was close.”

Before she said anything else, she saw Nyarlathotep tower before them. Alerted, she looked at Luz. “Kid, did you destroy the book or not?”

“Yes, Eda, I did, but...something came up that I did not anticipate.”

The ceiling shook and debris started to sprinkle down. From the point of origin, the dark wave of evil magic wreaked havoc through the Isles due to its intensity. Many of the imperial guards were caught in the wave and effortlessly disintegrated. Buildings and houses crumbled from their destroyed foundations compelling the denizens to evacuate from their houses lest they were the casualties. Emperor Belos hid away alongside Kikimora.

“Sire, what happened!?” Kikimora asked.

“It is nothing to be concerned about, Kiki,” Emperor Belos replied. He eyed his throne room. “So it did work as planned.”

Nyarlathotep cackled his deep, monotonous voice shaking the floor. “It has been a thousand years, but it was completely worth it!”

Luz couldn’t comprehend what had happened. “But..but I destroyed the Necronomicon; you saw it.”

“I had already overseen the notion that you would refuse to rule by my side, but the good thing about it is that even if you accepted, it wouldn’t have mattered. I would still have reclaimed the powers that I lost. Even if you destroyed the book, that would entail that my powers would be returned to me either way.”

Luz looked down. “Then it is truly hopeless.”

Nyarlathotep raised his large scepter. “Before I lay waste to this world, I did promise Boscha that I would humor her little battle with your friend; may as well set the stage for it.”

“I’ll find a way to stop you,” Luz declared. It was a heat of the moment thing, but she truly did mean it.

Nyarlathotep chuckled. “After Boscha wins, I guess I’ll honor my deal with Belos and destroy the Earth for good measure.”

With that, Nyarlathotep transformed into a black wind and swirled out of the throne room cackling his head off.

#cthulhu #cthulhu mythos #mythos #owl house #the owl house #owlhouse #lovecraft #nyarlathotep #luz noceda #emperor belos

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goliath-de-senfina-sango · 4 years

Text

Teller of Tales

The trio head through the portal to explore Danny's brand spanking new Sanctuary and are a little awed by all that he managed to make. They meet a facinating new ghost, who has a deal for them.

ao3

When Danny took Sam and Tucker through the portal and into his Sanctuary, he was glad to see that he wasn’t the only one floored by how much of it there was, or how complex it had turned out. “I don’t think I’ve ever even made a drawing this complicated and detailed before,” he said as they reached the roof of the main portal building and house. It was at the heart of what looked to be a town or maybe even a city, which was surrounded by a dense forest, with a mountain to one side, a massive body of water that Danny would call a lake but that looked so vast an ocean felt more appropriate on the other, and even misty clouds of every kind of color he could see passing by a point of brilliant light. “I’m glad it’s been keeping Walker out as much as it has, and every other ghost too. That means we can explore it!”

“Danny, this place is magnificent!” Tucker wrapped him up in a tight hug and squeezed nearly hard enough to crack his back. “Dude, you made a whole ass town that’s almost as big as Amity Park! I wonder how stocked up this place is. You’ve got copies of our hoverboards here too, so what are we waiting for?”

“I say we take a look at that forest, it’s practically screaming ‘enchanted and full of mystery’, and maybe we can even figure out what all goes on in that head of yours.” Sam poked Danny’s head with a laugh and called up her own backup hoverboard, hopping over the ledge and onto it before Tucker could catch up. Tucker, of course, swerved off to see if he could find anything substantial in the town, which meant splitting up, which had Danny reaching out to grab them both.

“Guys hold up! Are we really gonna go into a freshly made place that I made mostly subconsciously while in ghost form and do it while splitting up? Are we the Scooby gang?”

“Take full offense from this but you’re baby,” Tucker said with a snort. “Your subconscious mind didn’t come up with anything that might hurt us.”

“Maybe not on purpose, but I might’ve made some parts of this place uninhabitable to regular humans, but perfectly safe for a ghost to be floating around in.” After all, a ghostly mind set deeply into a Passion could easily forget things like safety regulations for squishy humans. Young Blood wasn’t even malicious or Obsessive and look at how he’d turned out.

Sam rolled her eyes but circled back around to the boys. “Fine, we can stick together and tour your McMansion together, you lil show off, but if so then how about we take a look at the edges to see what we can learn about how well defended this place is? It’s meant to be your Sanctuary, so you’ve gotta have some way of keeping ghosts out without just shotting at them.”

“We can work our way through the town and out into the forest, guys, you know that right? We’re literally starting from the middle.” Danny sighed, shaking his head. “The defenses are clearly working because nothing’s actually done anything to us yet, they can wait.”

It took a bit of back and forth but eventually, they all decided on a direction to go and headed for the lake instead of the mountain. After all, if the water was safe for humans, they could all go for a swim. The trio set off and found what looked to be empty homes, some buildings that could be shops, a few restaurants that just needed stocking up and customers, and other places that looked all but ready to be populated by people stuck on the ground and people who could fly. There was a warehouse full of Focuses, cameras, and replicas of every robot or project that Danny and Tucker had ever put together before, along with a few that stored Fentonworks non-violent products too. “This place looks like someone’s fantasy dream town where you can sit, relax, chat up a ghost, and then head off into the unknown in your very own - oh wow, Danny is that the Specter Speeder?”

“Well, I may have gone over Mom and Dad’s blueprints a while back for it, but only because I wanted to see if I could develop ya know, a space ship from it.” Danny felt his cheeks burning and gave Tucker’s shoulder a light punch to try and wipe the grin off his face. “Shut up.”

“Actually, the closer we get to the forest, the more ‘port town’ vibes I’m getting,” Sam mused. “Danny, didn’t you say you wanted to be a pirate once when you were a kid?”

“Shut uuup, noo.” Danny pulled his hood over his face, even as he turned invisible. Ok, so maybe it did look like the perfect place for a pirate who hit land on an undiscovered island to have set up their own little town. That proved nothing.

Just as Sam opened her mouth to keep teasing him, Danny popped into visibility and transformed entirely, shooting into the air with plasma gathered in his hands. It felt like the pull of some massive celestial object focused on him and his sanctuary alone, getting closer and closer, and Danny was all but certain he couldn’t do much on his own against it. He reached into his Sanctuary, felt it reach back, and begged it to hide . The partly cloudy sky went dark, the clouds now stretching over the whole expanse of the island, and in the mountain, Danny could feel the hum of railguns warming up and ready to fire like Danny couldn’t on his own.

The clouds were parted by something vast and incomprehensible that sung every song never known by mortal ears, and looking at it was looking upon all that had ever happened throughout the whole of humanity, listening to every story ever told to another person, and Danny nearly unraveled before he could look away. Something like a bell tolled and that massive shape resolved itself into something steadily smaller and simpler, while a voice called out to them - when had Tucker and Sam joined in him in the air? - with a deep baritone voice. “ A̸̢̦̮̥͚h̴͉̟̳͙͈͎̩͡, my sincerest apologies! I hadn’t expecte d any mortals or bridge spirits to be here and so came to investigate this lovely new place in an old er form. Perhaps this is easier on your minds and senses?”

The being settled into the shape of a male presenting person with grey skin, a white shirt, black pants, and a purple trench coat. They were also wearing glasses over eyes that were green at a glance but any lingering eye contact showed every shade of green and violet that could be thought of, and Danny struggled to keep his gaze on the center of the being’s forehead. They smiled with shark-like teeth and held out a hand. Danny, after likely too long, regained enough sense to shake their hand and cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah, this is uh, this is a lot easier. Hi. I’m Danny.”

“Hello Danny, I’m recently going by Ghostwriter! And who might you all be?”

“I’m …. Tucker Foley. Tech master extraordinaire.” Tucker shook off his awe quickly enough and gave the Ghostwriter some finger guns and a grin, shaky as it may have been.

Tucker’s joke seemed to snap Sam out of her own stupor and she shook the ghost’s hand warily. “Sam Manson, curious to meet you.”

“It’s always good to be curious! I came here sensing both a new place to learn about, the gateway to this lovely little planar system, and also I sensed a curious mind like my own seeking new fascinating secrets to uncover. Considering only one of you is capable of creating a Sanctuary, I imagine it’s you, Danny?”

Danny nodded and scratched the back of his neck. “Uh, about you coming here, can I ask uh, what was up with that mind-melting form you were just in?”

“I’ve never properly understood Lovecraftian Horror’s until now,” Sam muttered with a shiver. Tucker elbowed her in the side.

Ghostwriter tapped their chin with a hum and looked around at Danny’s spooktacular bachelor pad and clapped his hands with a grin. “I propose a trade! If I tell you about myself, as the answer to your question is best answered with story, then you all tell me about your selves. Deal?”

The trio looked between each other and nodded, Danny holding out his hand to shake. “Deal. Can we take this to the cafe down there though?” Danny pointed exactly to one of the cafes in his Sanctuary and slowly relaxed his panicked grip on the place. If Ghostwriter wanted trouble he clearly didn’t want any with Danny.

They sat down, Danny found some tea, coffee and all the things required to make hot chocolate inside, and offered everyone. Tucker accepted some iced tea, while Sam and Ghostwriter got coffee, and soon Danny sat down with his own hot chocolate and everyone else’s drinks. They appreciated the drinks and took big sips before the Ghostwriter began to speak.

“Oh, but where to start, where to start? If you have time, I can start even at the very beginning of it all?” The trio looked between each other and shrugged; it was the weekend, they had plenty of time. Ghostwriter seemed delighted by that. “The very beginning it is!” Music began to play, soft and mysterious in their minds.

“Before all that you see around you, before the swirling mists and oceans of darkness, before the very concept of Being, nothing was all that was. No past, present or future, no light or darkness, simply a blank nothingness.” On the table, a portion of the air became… empty, in a way that Danny felt in his soul, and he ached to fill the void. “Now, no one, not even myself or my siblings, knows why what happened happened, but for whatever reason or unreason, something began to Exist. Now, the very first something is what some call ectoplasm, others magic, and countless other names, but my siblings and I simply refer to it as the Realms themself being born.” Green light shone in the center of the void and quickly expanded to fill it up, accompanied by glorious and triumphant music.

“Now, while the Realms were the Something to all the Nothing at its edges, it still had just about nothing in it. So, it got to making things within itself from itself, and after a bit of experimenting with half-formed ideas like any creative soul, the very first Realm - the first universe was created. Inside of this universe, there was a great deal and the forces that be happened to be rather proud of themself but had no one to share their creation with. So, they created a soul, and a vessel to house that soul in so that someone could experience what they had made. There was, however, the issue of longevity, which was solved somewhat easily enough, by moving the soul into yet another vessel.”

The shape of a person appeared, surrounded by others, and a light slid out of one as they fell, before being nudged into the next, back and forth. “Now, what with the flexibility of how the Realms interact with time, the soul of their creation was able to hop from mortal vessel to mortal vessel, back and forth across history. Each time the soul left a body it simply went to the edges of the universe before being guided to its next life. And so it went until all the mortals were gone, but the soul was now so complex from experiencing life as every mortal that it could fit in larger vessels from which to appreciate the world. So, they became each planet in turn, and then each star, and each galaxy and cluster, and black hole, until that universe finally went dark, and the being had been everyone and everything in it across its lifespan.”

The light grew brighter and brighter with each leap it took until it burrowed down deep enough to contain that light, and the images Ghostwriter showed them zoomed out to show a solar system. And from there, the light flowed all around it, even jumping to other systems, until the light was too bright to contain in those planets and so it became all the light there was. Abruptly there wasn’t any light at all. An emptiness that the soul grew and grew to fill.

“And so in the cold, dark, quiet of the seemingly dead universe, the being that experienced Existing in a way the Realms could not did what it hadn’t the chance to between all its various lives with their fresh starts and clean slated beginnings: remembered. They experienced all that they had gone through, the scope of their life unfolding to be felt in its entirety in a way that could only be done when unbound by flesh and stone and plasma confines.”

The darkness shrunk as the grey light grew, and then the darkness was a ball within a green expanse. “And then they Were, and the universe ended with a bang, as they who I call mother and you can refer to as Queen Death, was born into the Realms properly.” The ball cracked and trembled before exploding in all directions, the bits of the cosmic eggshell being tossed to the edges of what they could see on the table. A being outlined in grey that held every color there was within, spun around in excitement, and reached out, taking one of the fractured shells of her egg and molding it like clay into another ball, then doing the same with another.

For a long moment, the trio stared at the little queen Death making universes all around her, Tucker sipping his tea as he did so. While Danny was still processing and Sam struggled to find her words, Tucker set his cup down and cleared his throat. “So, there’s a lot to unpack there, and I presume that you’re one of those souls that finished maturing inside of their universe - what are your pronouns by the way?”

“Ah yes, those, I go by he and him for now.”

Tucker nodded and hummed. “So there’s a Queen of the afterlife then? Queen Death?” Ghostwriter’s face fell from that of an eager storyteller to something sour, bitter, and full of grief.

“Not anymore, sadly. Once Mother had adjusted to Being, she realized that she too could create in this wonderful place from which she came. She crafted for herself a lovely palace made half from concepts rather than stone or metal or wood, though it was made from all that and more too.” Death was shown molding the very mist around her into an intricate and beautiful landscape and building, before stopping and sitting cross-legged in her throne, tapping her chin. “But Death knew something was missing from her experience, something she’d had once before: companionship.”

Death was shown leaving her castle to go and gather the broken bits of her eggshell, and took them into her palace, before splitting one shell chunk in two and twisting the two into eggs. Green light gathered in each of her palms and flowed into the shells. “Mother made my eldest siblings, who would go on to name themselves Entropy and Peace. Unlike with her own experience with being guided into each new life, mother decided her first children would have a less lonely experience.” Blue light flowed from one egg and golden to the other and back, with the guiding hand of Death.

“Peace and Entropy would know each other in a way few still living gods do, for they were each other at times. And when they emerged, they gazed upon Death’s palace and kingdom with wonder, and they were a happy family.” Blue and Gold silhouettes hatched from their eggs, both donning violet. The three laughed and hugged and danced, crafting and playing. “And Death, and the Realms, decided to create again, and this time they would act together. And this time,” Ghostwriter said with a chill in his voice and his drink boiling, “the Realms would act on their fascination with balance.”

A violet light appeared as Death molded an egg all her own, and it pulsed and dripped with what felt to be oddly malicious. Entropy and Peace went about exploring their mother’s world while this happened and even took a few discarded shells to craft a universe of their own. Death and her children soon went about covering the table in art and Realms, along with Realms simply spawning from nowhere. The dark purple egg hatched, and the other universes shook.

“What if I told you that the force that brought Existence into Being made mistakes? What if I told you that gods can die?” Ghostwriter gestured to seven eggs orbiting each other, bands of light flitting between them all. “The third child of Death called himself War, and he was the first to disrupt things and give Peace a job to do.” War walked over and flicked the bands of light between two of the eggs, forcing the soul out into the Infinite Realms early, and it grew into a small green being. Peace flew over, and gently nudged the being back toward its egg, but not before drawing from within a blade and cutting through the tiny being. It returned to a ball shape and flowed back in.

“Ghosts of the dead, as you might call them, are souls set adrift from the path between lives, and Peace made it his job to take them back where they go. Sometimes War did this many times at once, and I, curious, asked Peace to allow a few to stay. After all, they were going to end up here again anyway, weren’t they? And so, we tried that, and due to the boundlessness and chaotic nature of the Realms these ghosts found themselves evolving and mutating over time, some of them fulfilling a passion from their previous life and finding their way back home into the next life, while others stayed here and grew and grew and even figured out a way to reproduce - sexually and not. Those ghosts born in the Realms from the dead we call Deathless because they never died.”

“So you’re the reason we have ghosts and stuff?” Sam frowned at the Ghostwriter and the story unfolding before their eyes froze. “Because you wanted to see what’d happen?”

“The name I first took was Curiosity, my dear, and actually I was the first ghost, made rather curious for a reason. It was something new. If I may?”

“Sorry.” The writer waved it off and the story continued.

“Peace forged a sword within himself that he used to set free souls that had gone too long outside of their shells, their minds dissolving under the pressure of an eternity they weren’t mature enough for yet. Many of the elder Deathless he granted such Peace granting tools, and so when a ghost went mad with age they were cut down and their soul returned to their egg. But if that were the last of War’s troublesome and destructive actions, this tale would have a happier ending.”

The violet War wrapped himself in black and red and forged within himself a ring and from that ring beat drums and played bagpipes and ripped chords that called out to something burning hot inside of Danny that had his chocolate evaporating out of his cup. “A god or a ghost can craft from themselves an artifact of power that embodies their very self, their greatest passion. Peace acted as a knight to Queen Death, while Entropy became the watcher over things, and War… War crafted his own place, a fortress beyond our immediate sight, and started taking ghosts there.”

War took the tiny green ghosts far from the others and brandished his ring at them, and from it a sickly purple light seeped out and infected the ghosts, turning them a toxic looking blend of green and purple. Danny shivered, and Sam set down her coffee, looking pale and furious. “Before we knew what he was doing, we thought of War simply as seeking conflict, as his name implied. But war, oh war is not just violence, it is imperialism, it is slaughter, it is conquest it is a͜ h҉un̵g̸er̶ ̸th҉at ca̴nnot be sat̶ed ųnt͜i̷l ͜all͢ i͏s͝ c̸o̡ns͢umęd ̕an͏d̴ ̕li̷k͝e͞l̢y̕ ev͜en͢ ͟not t҉he̛n.” The sickly purple and red light spread further and further, seeping into the ground and choking the air.

“When the dead forge artifacts that outlast them, they make them from the ectoplasm of the Realms and have them resonate with that ghost’s soul, thus allowing any Dead, Deathless, or even a living mortal with the same soul or at least born of the same soul as the ghost who made it to use it. When one of us does it though, well, we’ve got a universe worth of energy to work with, replenished by the Realms, so we reach inside and forge our relic from our own soul, and a bit of ectoplasm. Queen Death made her crown of Fire as a light to keep back the darkness, and to assist her in managing the ebb and flow of souls across the cosmos.”

The palace courtroom came into view and violet War marched forth toward his mother, his purple and red, and black ring pulsing with the beat of wrath. “As her Majesty Queen Death put to work her latest project of making systems out of Realms that would regulate themselves, her third eldest child marched into her throne room with a ring made from the collective heat and metals of stars within him, his malice, his corruptive hunger that would take and steal and conquer, and he stole from her what was her own, the Crown of Fire that lit the darkness of the Infinite Realms, and with a sword stolen from a Peacemaker he earned his most hatefully spat title, the Filthy Mother Killer.“ The kaleidoscopic crown atop Death’s head turned sickly and purple-green. A sword the color of bone pierced Death’s center and the whole Sanctuary shook with a screech.

“Peace ran to mother's palace to ask what had happened, for all the Realms felt it when Death died, and oh, how realization crashed down upon that which could call itself the Realms themself, and oh how it wept and oh how it raged, as the sword that would cut free the souls lost and tangled in obsession too deeply to pass onto their next lives alone and gave the infant Realms peaceful deaths was used to reach into Peace itself and oh how the Realms wailed with fury as the Fright Knight was forced into being under the service of the Usurper, and struck even his sibling Entropy, now Clockwork, giving them their famed scar.” Gold was encased in bone white armor and it’s violet cloak ignited. They struck blue Entropy and soon the gods all over clashed, and the tabletop was swallowed by a rainbow of violence and dripped with emerald blood.

“And so, the Corrupter of Worlds threw the Realms into the most horrific war, beyond mortal comprehension, as the gods grieved and raged and fought with all they had, but could barely scratch their elder brothers. Until finally, finally, Clockwork sealed Fright Knight away in the nightmares his sword now caused. And finally, Entropy itself rallied their brothers and sisters and we sealed away the vile Mother Killer in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep.” Ghostwriter banished the images, his eyes burning amethyst and crimson and he took deep breaths, while the teens leaned back, wary and filled with their own impotent rage.

When finally he seemed to calm, the Sanctuary not writhing and rumbling with the force of his rage, he did a little gesture and the mist coalesced once more into a little stage. A foundation of stone formed and over it lay an ocean and from within it grew a tree of bark and steel, surrounded by breezes likely large enough to dwarf Jupiter’s red spot, mold growing at the bottom of the tree while a star roared to life above it. “Though War was locked away, the Realms did not know rest. So they set to work putting together their daughter's last project: a planar system. And ages beyond time passed, until one day, every god and spirit woke to the sound of a scream. And that, my dear Bridge Spirit, is where I believe your story begins.”

Danny sat there, turning over the story that he’d just been told in his head, and tried his best to process it. He wasn’t sure how to do that, though, with the enormity of it all. So, Tucker cut in for him, like always, but with a rap. “Yo, Danny Fenton, he was just 14-“

“Ai dios- stop!” Danny snorted a laugh and shoved Tucker’s face, and the trio descended into a fit of giggles. “Alright, my story isn’t as much as yours is, but, well.” And so, taking turns picking up where the others didn’t know, they told their story to the Ghostwriter. They could process the meaning of life later.

#Danny Phantom #Danny Fenton #Tucker Foley #Sam Manson #The Ghostwriter #Clockwork mention #Pariah Dark Mention #Fright Knight mention #Lore #Lore dumping #Rexy Writes #fanfiction #Phanfiction #phanfic #fanfic #fanphiction #fanphic #phanphic #phanphiction

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pastthebutterflies · 3 years

Text

It’s For You (Little Lady)

As it turns out, running away to a magical alternate dimension to avoid her problems ended just as badly as Luz thought it would.

Part two of what’s now my “Camila Comes Through the Door” series! I’m posting this late, so feel free to point out any glaring mistakes. Otherwise enjoy!

Ao3 link in the reblogs!

So, fun fact!

As it turns out, running away to a magical alternate dimension to avoid her problems ended just as badly as Luz thought it would.

In her defense, Luz really hadn’t expected her mom to actually find a way into said dimension (thanks, Owlbert). The plan had always been to stick around until the end of the summer, then head back home acting as if yes mom, camp was very educational and yes mom, she really did feel much more like everyone else now. Then, in theory, continue jumping back and forth with the door to continue her training and see her friends. Without Camila ever finding out about said secret double life.

Needless to say, those plans all went out the window the moment Camila stepped through the portal, right into Eda’s booth, where she had spotted Luz immediately and tried to all but drag her back home.

Fortunately- or unfortunately, depending on who she asked- King had been so surprised by the sudden arrival that he had shot straight from Luz’s arms and into the air, shocking them all enough for Eda to suggest they head back to the Owl House before they drew too much attention to themselves.

Which was what led to Luz hiding in the kitchen with Eda as King and Hooty chattered endlessly to Camila about who knew what and most definitely did not help the situation.

Eda leaned against the counter, staring boredly as her eyes tracked Luz’s movements back and forth across the floor with one hand in her hair while the other gestured wildly in the air.

“-And how did she even get here? Owlbert is so good at staying out of sight, how did he get caught?” She groaned. “And why did he have to find Mom of all people?”

“Kid, he’s an owl. Even your world has those, of course he was out in the open. She said he took her keys, which are shiny, not to mention strange and unusual compared to the ones we use on the Isles, they would have sold like wildfire. Obviously he was going to take them.”

“But why my mom? Of all the people-” she glanced through the door, where Camila is staring slack jawed at King, who was pointing intensely at a drawing in one of his demon books, animatedly speaking over Hooty, who seemed to have made a home around her shoulders. Surprisingly, Camila seemed less concerned with this part, or maybe she was trying to ignore it, the same way she did sometimes when Luz would say something a little too out there. At this point, she really couldn’t tell.

Maybe that was a good thing.

“So you smudged the truth a little bit, we’ve all done it. Heck, I do it all the time,” Eda snorted. “Look, you’ve got two options. Either you can run off again, maybe to one of your friends’ houses for the night and let King and I keep her busy.” She pictured slipping away to Willow’s for the night and letting Eda deal with this in the meantime. A wave of guilt washed over her almost immediately at the thought. Stupid conscience.

“Or,” Eda continued. “You can go out there and talk to her. Lady just found out her daughter lied to her for a month and spent the last twenty four hours thinking you were- poof! Gone. The least you can do is let her know you’re alright.” She pushed off the counter and shrugged, turning toward the door. “But hey, do what you need to. You know I’ll help out either way.”

With that, Eda headed into the living room to slump next to Camila and finally pull King away. She watched Camila’s shoulders relax just a bit at something Eda said. The look makes the lump that had been forming in Luz’s throat for the past hour begin to harden. She had always wanted to tell her mom, eventually. Preferably after she came home, safe and sound, and could prove that no, actually, it wasn’t dangerous at all Mom and that she arguably learned ten times as much on the Boiling Isles than she would have at camp.

Now-

Life was never supposed to go this way.

With a heavy sigh, Luz took a final glance toward the open door- if she ran, she could get to Willow’s by dark- and took the first step into the living room.

“You discover a magic door in the one place that I’ve spent years telling you not to go to, chasing after an owl that stole the book you just threw away, and decided that staying with the strange witch you just met- no offense, ma’am- all because you thought it sounded slightly better than camp? Not to mention giving me a heart attack in the process.”

She was taking this...far better than Luz thought she would. Her mom had never been one prone to yelling. Still, Luz had expected at least a small outburst this time. Yet, Camila had sat patiently through her explanation, waiting until the end to say much of anything. Eda had interjected a few times- the two of them got along surprisingly well, she was noticing- but for the most part, Luz had filled the silence for the past hour, catching Camila up on everything she had missed, or in some cases, adding new context to some of the messages she had sent over the course of the summer.

“Didn’t you kind of do the same thing just now? Same owl, same door…”

Over Camila’s shoulder, King cut a frantic hand over his throat, abort, abort, he tried to say, too little too late. If Luz wanted to back out, she should have done that weeks ago. Now that she was in, she may as well go all the way.

Camila blanched at that, “To find you. You’re the only kid I know that would leap through magic portals at the first opportunity. I should have figured sooner. Those messages were so vague, and the letters-”

Letters?

She could come back to that one later. For now-

“I’d do it again,” she said quietly.

Across from her, Camila stops in her tracks, brows burrowing deep into her eye line. “What?”

Even Eda glanced up at that, unsurprised, while an odd expression played on her face. Both of them remained quiet, waiting for her to continue. King however, took the chance to run across the floor and clamber into her lap. One hand lifted to scratch between his ears as she continued.

“I’d do it again,” she repeated. “Mom, I’m sorry. I know this isn’t what you wanted, but- I can’t be the person you want me to be. Not then, not now. I’m happy here, happier than I ever was at school or camp. I can’t go back to feeling like that all the time, like I don’t belong or knowing that no one understands. I won’t. The people here,” she thinks of Willow and Gus and Amity. King and Eda. “They understand. They all know what it’s like not to fit in. I can’t want to lose that.”

King burrows deeper into her lap, sending a wave of comfort through her skin. He’ll want to talk about it later tonight, before bed, the way they usually do when things go wrong during the day. Assuming she was still here tonight, that is.

Her mom was frowning, then suddenly, she was crossing the space between them and wrapping her arms around Luz, tight as can be and whispering under her breath, “Te quiero,” to Luz or herself, she isn’t sure.

After a moment, she draws back, hands still on Luz’s shoulders, the telltale flood of tears in her eyes. “When I realized you never made it to camp, the only thing I could think of was that I wished I had never let you leave. You were so far away and I couldn’t find you. I would have searched everywhere for you- even another dimension.” She hugs her again, hard. “I can’t lose you, not again.”

Luz’s heart stuttered in her chest, the same way it did every time they had spoken in the past weeks. Only this time, she didn’t hold back. Her arms wrapped tight around her mom’s middle to squeeze as hard as she could muster. Between them, King squeaks indignantly and bolts back toward Eda. Her nose was buried deep into the scrubs Camila must never have changed out of before stumbling upon the door. She smelled like chemicals and antiseptic and home. Her other home, now.

When they finally pulled back, tears are tracking down Camila’s cheeks, mirroring the ones Luz can feel on her own face.

“You’re happy here, aren’t you?” Camila glanced around. She takes in King and Eda, Hooty still twisting nervously in the corner. The odds and ends stacked along the walls. Luz.

She nodded once to herself, seemed to reach a decision. She stood. “Okay.”

“...Okay?”

Camila glanced to Luz, to Eda, then back to Luz. “You can stay,” she said, finally. “For the summer. But it’s back to school in the fall. If Miss Eda is okay with it, that is.”

Eda shrugs, “Meh, kid’s kind of grown on me.”

“And,” Camila added. “I’m staying, too.”

Luz’s feet send her shooting up before she entirely realized what was happening. “You’re what?”

“When I can, of course. I’ll still have work during the day and a house to look after. But I’ll be around, as often as I can.” Camila glanced around again. This time, Luz couldn’t tell if she was judging the place or mentally mapping out where she could fit herself into both the house and the dynamic. When she spoke again, her voice was softer than Luz expected to hear it today. “If this is important to you, I want it to be important to me, too.”

The words alone are enough to send Luz flying if she let them. She hadn’t expected it to go this well, much less be able to stay. And having her around? Able to finally see the things Luz loved, in a setting where her interests were encouraged- the norm, even. The lump from before had finally begun to dissolve, trickling down her throat and rising up again in the form of a happy shout.

She leaned forward to wrap her arms around Camila again, this time dragging Eda forward as well as she muttered confusedly under her breath. At their feet, she felt King’s claws tap against her ankles as he followed suit.

“Thank-you-thank-you-thank-you.”

When they pulled away, Camila turned to her, eyes serious. “From now on, I need you to be honest with me. No matter what, do you understand? No more running off without telling me, no more secret magic shows; honesty from here on out. And I’ll do my best to understand all... this.”

A laugh bubbled up from deep in her stomach, “deal.”

In the end, Camila wound up spending the night and calling in to work the next morning. Luz spent most of the evening and a good portion of the night delving into what she had seen so far on the Isles, including Willow and Gus, the Blights, Hexside. She activated the few spells she knew, as well, sending bursts of light into the air while Eda sits back, demonstrating the way they were typically cast.

It was odd, seeing her mom so relaxed. She had changed from her scrubs to one of Eda’s old shirts that read fabulous and flawless in sprawling pink font across the front and a pair of her old sweats. In the future, they were hoping to have a more long term setup for the times she stayed over. Which made Luz question why she had gotten the upstairs closet the whole time- but she would deal with that later.

Right now, she was willing to keep drawing up her spells and finally getting to show off to someone as amazed as her at the process. There was still more to talk about, like going to Hexside and Eda’s curse. Both of which were likely to cause ripples in the future, but for now, Luz was content to share the world she had fallen in love with, with the only person from home that mattered.

For now, Luz dragged her pencil across the page and let the light rise up between them.

#the owl house #lydsfics #luz noceda #camila noceda #did not expect two crank out 2k words tonight but here we are #I'm having a lot of fun with this though

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